Elective Connection Challenge

Room 7 and Senior Teamconnection challenge : 

Room 7 and Senior Teamconnection challenge making connections for real-life learning contexts both in the classroom, and beyond the four walls of the classroom

Electives : 

Electives Each Friday we offer children a ‘choice’ in what they want to learn. At the start of each term children make a list of suggestions for workshops then we try and organise workshops and presenters to meet their preferences. This term they had options of: 1. Cooking ‘Top chef’ (parent run elective) 2. Fly fishing creating flies with Hunting & Fishing guide 3. Environmental lawyers- (parent run, by an environmental lawyer) 4. Japanese and German languages- (both parent run electives) 5. Sports leadership 6. Masks and weaving 7. Photography- some of the workshops taken by Kimberley Cheyne, a professional photographer

3 Steps : 

3 Steps 1. Identify a problem: we looked at threats to cetaceans, especially Hector’s dolphin (and waste) 2. Investigate it: we found out about Hector’s dolphin and threats from fishing 3. Take appropriate action: we wrote letters to the Prime Minister and the Minister of Fisheries Environmental Lawyers

Action! : 

Action! In our letters we identified the problem said why it is important 3. applauded what has been done 4. clearly identified what should be done and explained why it should be done

Slide 5: 

Hon Phil Heatley Minister of Fisheries 18th June 2010 Dear Mr Heatley Hello my name is Annabel and I want to talk to you about the Hector’s dolphins. There are only 8000 of them left in the world and it is decreasing. You might be thinking why am I reading this rubbish but this is seriously important. Imagine if you were the dolphin and your species were extinct how would you feel? So come on and help the community save these loving and adorable creatures. Did you now that Hector’s dolphins are endemic which is very special to us. These dolphins are so gentle and kind and if you are that kind of person you probably woudn’t help thinking of them all the time and you would do something about it. But if you were selfish and didn’t care about any of this you woudn’t do anything about it so please help me save these creatures. Sometimes Hector’s dolphins have been seen washed up on the shore with net marks on them you don’t want to see 8000 of them washed up on the shore do you! So what I am trying to say is that you should ban the set nets all over the Hector’s dolphin’s area. So thank you for listening to my letter and for doing as much as you can. Yours sincerely Annabel

Slide 6: 

Hon Phil Heatley Minister of Fisheries 18th June 2010 Dear Mr Heatley Hello my name is Larissa and I would like to talk to you about Hector's dolphins. There are only 8000 Hector’s dolphins left in the world and it is decreasing. A Hector’s dolphin can fit inside a bathtub they have no hind limbs and a blow hole to breath. You might be thinking well I can't be bothered listening to all this and save these dolphins. Well If you're thinking that let me tell you why and how we can save this beautiful species of dolphin before you decide to stop listening. We should save this beautiful species of dolphin because it is special to New Zealand and these dolphins are a living thing just like you and me. The Hector’s dolphin lives in the South island in the west coast and around Christchurch. They have only one baby every two or three years so even If you only catch one Hector’s dolphin that is wiping out a whole generation. The Hector’s dolphin only lives in New Zealand which means they are endemic so if we accidentally get rid of them we are wiping out an animal the same as a kiwi. …

Slide 7: 

Imagine if you were the dolphin and your species was about to be extinct how would you feel? But before I tell you how to help the dolphins even more I want to say well done for banning the nets that we have so far because every little bit helps. Now Let me tell you how to help the dolphins increase in population. Well it's as easy as this: stop using nets that catch dolphins. Because by catching the Hector’s dolphins we are wiping out a very special animal to New Zealand. So now that I am concluding if you only go away with one thing I want it to be that you love dolphins and that you want to help to increase the population by caring enough to stop people using nets that catch dolphins. Thank you for listening. Yours sincerely Larissa

Slide 8: 

Rt Hon John Key Prime Minister 18th June 2010 Dear Prime Minister My name is Max and I am writing to you to talk about the poor ways that the human race treats the beautiful race of dolphin known as Hector’s dolphin. Now we all know that numbers of the graceful Hector’s are down to the small quantity of 8000. And only one of the millions of reasons that the Hector’s dolphin is close to extinction is due to the many set nets all over New Zealand and I want to make a difference. Now I appreciate what you have done to prevent many deaths but I believe that to stop thousands of deaths you should put a ban on set nets around the whole coast of New Zealand. One of the ways to help is build more marine reserves. If you say you have no more money, that all the money has grown legs and run away well I’ll tell you where it ran to: that stadium! Yours sincerely Max

Environmental lawyers : 

9 Environmental lawyers research skills persuasive writing seeing other’s perspectives collaborating with each other and sharing research and useful sites 9 I learned so much about researching and endangered animals. It was really fun writing to the Prime Minister, I hope he replies soon!

Fly FishingGrant Ashton- Hunting & Fishing : 

Fly FishingGrant Ashton- Hunting & Fishing We looked at the flies and insets that live in streams. Then we learned how to use all the tools and materials so we could make ‘flies’ that fish might like to eat. Some of them looked like a mouse, or a bumblebee.

fly fishing : 

fly fishing

Slide 12: 

It was so cool having Grant teach us about how to make flies. I might take it up as a hobby and my Dad said he’ll take me fishing now.

Slide 13: 

Learning a second Language Japanese with Mr Miyahara German with Mrs Matehaere

Slide 14: 

Photography parts of a camera downloading and folder organisation framing lighting special fx and photoediting themes and events around our school

Slide 15: 

Parts of a camera and how they work

Slide 16: 

Today we are going to show you all the different parts of a camera, how they work and what are the best techniques to use them

Slide 17: 

Lens Shutter Front of the camera Flash

Slide 18: 

Shutter button On/off Zoom Top Special effects wheel

Slide 19: 

Memory card and batteries Bottom of the camera

Slide 20: 

Its great having specialists come in and teach you things because they can answer even the most far out question I like learning things from different people because they teach you in different ways to your teacher There’s no way we could have done that without ******. It was absolutely awesome! The cooking was fun and I leant heaps about cooking, but we also learnt a lot about sharing and helping each other. I like how we earned some money for our ‘compassion project’ so someone else got the benefit of it too. Electives Connection Comments