TERM 1 2026 - Treasure

 We have been exploring the various meaning of treasure this term - what it means to treasure something, what we see as treasure, what others see as treasure.

DEFINITION
something that is very special, important, or valuable 
taonga 

BIG IDEAS
Different things are important to different people
Treasure is not always something tangible (it's not always something you can touch)
What we value depends on circumstances

MEMORIES - we looked at how our brains work and how we remember things. We tested ourselves with some memory tests, and discussed ways that can help us remember things (chunking, mnemonics, finding patterns, repetition, picturing things etc)

We read a delightful picture book 'Wilfred Gordon Mcdonald Partridge' by Mem Fox, which helped us to think of many different memories and opened up some amazing discussions. We thought about how we remember treasured times, places, people, pets. 

GOLD - We acted out the story of King Midas and the Golden touch, and then

thought about the message behind the story. More great discussions on what children find important in life. We also looked at he process of mining or panning for gold and locations of NZ goldrushes in the past and current gold exploration in NZ. 

THE OCEAN - for sea week we looked at what is important about the ocean, and how we are connected to it. We looked at NZ's EEZ (exclusive economic zone) and how big it is (15 times more sea than land in NZ). We looked at many interesting things about the ocean - including the Kermadec Trench - the second deepest trench in the ocean, which runs between NZ and Tonga. We looked at how people who treasure the ocean are making a difference - using our local 'Protect Whangaparaoa Rockpools' campaign as an example and looking at the new rules brought in after that campaign. Some write letters to the Prime Minister, some created slides about their learning, some explored ocean creatures on the Young Ocean Explorers website. 

ANCIENT EGYPT - we got on a plane and went to Egypt (virtually via google maps!) to visit a pyramid. We looked at what the ancient Egyptians had discovered and invented and improved - such as farming techniques, the calendar, maths skills, writing, building etc. Older children had a challenge to solve a hieroglyphic clue to find the treasure, by completing research, maths and a mapping task about ancient Egypt. Younger children measured out the size of the great pyramid (the base is bigger than out entire school!), and had fun measuring in cubits and writing their name in hieroglyphics.