Continents & Habitats Learning Story

Learner: Brooklyn, Markus and Alex     Date: July 2015

Learning Area: Science                           Learning Coach: DWilkes

Learning Observed

The learners are beginning learning in the area of animal habitats, adaptations and survival needs in preparation for our trip to the zoo.  During the session the learners began to build their scientific language and develop their ability to communicate in science.  In matching the animals to different continents Markus & Alex began to recognise that living things are suited to their particular habitat, Brooklyn really enjoyed this activity.  They can recognise that all living things have certain requirements so they can stay alive.  While learning the continent song, they actively participated and could sign and say the names of all of the continents.  They could also identify them on a world map.  Brooklyn, Alex and Markus can define what the word habitat means and they can state which continent certain animals are found eg. panda in Asia, giraffe in Africa

Evidence of learning

Key Competencies/Vision Principles

The three of them were enthusiastically engaged in all aspects of the lesson participating and contributing while demonstrating strong collaboration with each other. They asked each other for help and didn’t hesitate to check for understanding with other learners or the learning coaches. During the matching activity I observed some good questioning and problem solving strategies. While some of the animals were matched incorrectly to the continents, they persevered to get it correct showing a strong desire to develop their capability in this area. They are able to make connections between what a habitat is to an animal and what a habitat is to humans drawing on new learning and prior knowledge.

Next Learning Steps

more practice matching animals to different continents review saying the names of the continents - use the continent song here reading about animals at home, visiting the zoo website or playing these games http://switchzoo.com/games/habitatgame.htm http://www.abpischools.org.uk/activescience/module2/home.html http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ey/science/animal_h/index.htm http://interactivesites.weebly.com/habitats.html

Learner:  Markus Pakii-Williams   Learning Coach: Margaret Patrick   Date:23.07.2015

Learning Area: Collaboration  Narrative Story

Learning Observed

Markus was a member of a group of 4 learners who were engaged in an activity where they had to reach consensus about placing statements about “promises” into categories under the title of agree, strongly agree, disagree and strongly disagree. An example of some of the promise statements were “ I promise to clean my teeth every night” or “I promise I will grow taller than my dad” or “I promise I will try had to learn” and “ I promise  to keep any promise”. This was a challenging activity as in the first round the learners were not allowed to sign/talk but shuffle the statements into the categories until they were all happy with the outcome. The second round the learners were able to sign/talk and had to justify why they moved and why they thought statements belonged or didn’t belong in the specified category selected. Markus was quick to learn the signs for the 4 different categories. He was able to explain why he thought statements should be moved and why. When his group compared their results with another group they realised they had several statements that they all felt the same way about but there were a few which were quite different. He was able to listen/attend to their explanations and was accepting of people’s different opinions.

Evidence of learning

Key Competencies/Vision Principles

Markus is displaying an increasing level of participation  and was relating well with the other learners. He was contributing his ideas and showing he made connections with the other learners by showing respect for their different opinions. He was fully focused throughout the activity.

Next Learning Steps

use these skills in decision making situations during learning blocks, iBreaks and at  home. grow in confidence sharing his viewpoint knowing everyone’s ideas  are valuable when solving problems.

Henry, Markus & Taivero get their groove on - Learning Story - August 2015

Learners:  Markus, Henry & Taivero                                          Learning Coach: D Wilkes

Learning Area: KCs and Literacy                                                Date: Aug 5

Learning Observed

Henry, Markus & Taivero collaborated together to provide a wonderful and inspirational dance component to the ‘Leadership Experience’ as a long awaited follow up to the NYLD that all the Year 6s attended in Term 2.  The boys co-constructed and collaboratively choreographed (the music can be found in the Leadership Experience presentation) a fun, spunky and energetic movement marvel.  They sparked the curiosity of the crowd with the ‘how did they do that?!.  The learners loved watching them move and flip and jump and dance and most walked away thinking about how they could dance like them.  All lot of iBreak practices and preparation was evident in the quality of the dance.

Evidence of learning

Key Competencies/Vision Principles

While the boys collaborated they made direct and indirect connections to their experience at NYLD.  The related to others, managed themselves responsibly and participated enthusiastically on the day.  They were enthusiastic and responded to changes with resilience.  The preparation was great.  They made us curious and they inspired us while warming up the crowd for Phoenix!

Next Learning Steps

learn some editing so you can pull out the snippets of video that you really want to capture and then put into iMovie write a blog post about the afternoon including your reflections share your learning with family at home