Pouakai
Kia ora! My name is Jasmine Webster and I am the Kaiako in the wonderful Pouakai classroom. Our class consists of 22 incredible Year 4 and 5 tamariki. We are extremely lucky to be supported by two superb Teacher Aides, Whaea Vickie and Mrs Heine.
Structured Literacy
At Midhirst school, we embrace a Structured Literacy approach to explicitly teach akonga in reading, writing, handwriting, and spelling. Structured Literacy involves clear, methodical, and step-by-step literacy instruction at various levels, including phonemes, letter-sound associations, syllable patterns, morphemes, vocabulary, sentence structure, paragraph structure, and text structure.
In Pouakai classroom tamariki will experience structured literacy through learning specific rules to apply to both reading and spelling from Liz Kane's 'The Code', explicit teaching of morphology and syllabication. Akonga explore a range of different texts such as novels, decodable text, classic colour wheel readers and picture books in reading to, shared and guided reading sessions.
Pr1me Math
At Midhirst School, our primary approach to mathematical teaching and learning revolves around the Prime Math programme. This program is founded on well-defined, structured progressions that guide students from year 1 to 8, drawing inspiration from successful methods employed by leading countries in international studies.
In Pouakai akomanga, our lessons are structured based on the Pr1me Math programme. Tamariki attend lessons and workshops depending on their learning needs. When not working with a kaiako in math time, akonga are applying their knowledge to open ended rich math tasks, recalling basic fact knowledge or working on independent Pr1me tasks.
Term 3 Korowai - Hauora/Wellbeing
This Term we are focusing on Hauora and using the model Te Whare Tapa Whā to reinforce our learning around this. Te Whare Tapa Whā was developed by Mason Durie in 1984. The model describes health and wellbeing as a wharenui/meeting house with four walls. These walls represent taha wairua/spiritual wellbeing, taha hinengaro/mental and emotional wellbeing, taha tinana/physical wellbeing and taha whānau/family and social wellbeing. Our connection with the whenua/land forms the foundation. When all these things are in balance, we thrive. When one or more of these is out of balance our wellbeing is impacted.
In Pouakai classroom we are delving into each area (or wall) of wellbeing to explore the ways that we can support ourselves to thrive, learn and grow as individuals and as community. Kaiako's will support students with a range of different activation activities and discussions to enhance this journey.
