SkoolStars

It's been a while since we've added to our blog, but just to keep you up to date we should tell you what we are doing for Skoolstars.

We have been learning the song, "Let's twist again." We have split into three groups to come up with a dance for part of our song. Each group has looked at some examples of people dancing to this piece of music and then come up with their own moves that express their group.

Each group is also working out what they will wear as part of the performance as well. Each group wants to look like they're a team and are able to express themselves together.

We will record our performance on Friday morning. So I bet our rehearsals will become intense.

Building Our Emotional Vocabulary

We used a thesaurus to find out different words to describe how we might feel sometimes. We found there are a lot of different ways to feel rather than just happy sad, and angry.

Sad Broken hearted Depressed Unhappy Gloomy Upset regretful distressing downcast weak scared distraught careworn disappointed hopeless boring down heartrending

Angry mad livid snappy stressed put-out fuming cross furious psycho annoyed displeased wild loony annoyed

Happy Joyful Delighted glad gleeful radiant thrilled cheery jolly bright and breezy high spirits excited pleased light hearted proud good humoured blissful cheerful delighted lucky amazed overjoyed merry excellent

My Precious

This afternoon we shared things that were special to us. We did a great job explaining what the things were that we brought and why they were special to us. The things we have and value express something about us. Some of us brought our pets, a lot of us brought our favourite soft toy, some of us brought mementos or souvenirs that remind us of good times or people that are special to us and some of us brought things they had worked really hard to achieve. It was really interesting to see what everyone brought.

Our Focus Question

How can I express my thoughts, feelings and ideas?

The focus question is what guides the path our inquiry takes.

Curriculum Objectives

The following are objectives taken from the New Zealand Curriculum. The children will have opportunities to work towards these during our "Express Yourself" inquiry unit.

The Arts
• Dance 2CI - students will share dance through informal presentation and describe how dance expresses ideas and feelings and identify the use of the elements of dance.
• Drama 2C1 - students will share drama through informal presentation and respond to elements of drama in their and others work.
• Visual Art 2DI - students will investigate and develop visual ideas in response to a variety of motivations and observations.
• Music 2UC - students will identify music as part of everyday life and recognise that it serves a variety of purposes

Health
Students will:
• identify and demonstrate ways of maintaining and enhancing relationships between individuals and within groups. - Relationships
• express their ideas needs wants and feelings appropriately and listen sensitively to other people and affirm them. - Interpersonal skills

Express Yourself - Starts Week 6 of Term 3

Our next inquiry theme is all about the arts and how people might choose to express themselves or their emotions.

What do we want our children to achieve?
To understand and communicate thoughts, emotions and feelings with others using a variety of methods, e.g. music, dance, drama, visual art.

How will this learning affect the child today and everyday?
They will learn appropriate ways to express themselves and to read the emotions of others.

What problems might they solve using this new knowledge?
Interpersonal skills – children may solve disputes in a variety of settings if they are able to understand and empathise with how someone else is feeling.

What can they create based on this learning?
Dramas, dance, visual arts, music, peace and harmony.