Treaty of Waitangi Centre of Interest
In preparation for the significance of our New Zealand holiday on the 6^th February, the children had been working on aspects of our Nation’s foundation document signed in 1840. Many of the children had some idea of this Treaty, in fact seven pupils had visited, some time in a previous holiday, the grounds and house in Waitangi, north of Auckland, where the signing took place.
We focused as a class on what the pupils knew of the Treaty, who would have attended this event on February 6, 1840, what the three Articles comprised of, and what rules could we devise in our current world.
Here are some events that occurred during the study.

A bubble map was demonstrated on the white board to indicate planning steps for a story on the Treaty of Waitangi. The children had already brainstormed in groups as to what they knew so were able to contribute ideas when elaborating information on the teachers bubble map.
The ideas noted by the teacher in the bubbles included ‘February 6^th 1840,’ ‘In front of the house in Waitangi,’ ‘Maori chiefs signed’…….. Children were now equipped with ideas to do their own bubble plan, then write a story.
However, several children, having studiously worked for a good thirty minutes, announced they had finished. Observing their work I announced I had not given clear enough instructions.
Written inside their bubbles, were not planning ideas, but completed, well written, punctuated sentences declaring the knowledge they had gained.
One bubble read, “The Treaty of Waitangi was signed outside on the grounds overlooking a harbour in Northland attended by many Maori chiefs.”
Great sentence.  I didn’t have the heart to tell them they now had to write the story into sentences. They already had!

On the second day of our study on the Treaty of Waitangi we were interpreting a picture depicting a variety of people. They were samples of people that were in attendance at the signing on February 6 1840. One pupil said there was a leader from the Navy (probably Captain William Hobson). Another pupil suggested that one man, with a white collar around his neck told stories from the bible (probably a missionary). There also appeared to be a blacksmith and a farmer, as well as a local Maori chief and a support warrior from his tribe.
One pupil suggested one of the people in the picture was Leonard Mitchell . When asked where this name came from the reply was, “From the caption of a picture showing the signing of the Treaty as a wall display at the back of the classroom.”
I had never heard of him.
When referring to this picture Leonard Mitchell was an artist who had drawn, using his imagination, what he thought the scene looked like when the signing of the Treaty took place. He is a 20^th Century New Zealand artist recognized for his skillfully designed etchings and wasn’t even born when the actual signing of the Treaty took place.

Another task, later in the week, was to create a modern Treaty of Waitangi using a nation-wide theme and to include three Articles as in the 1840 format. In our classroom discussion I had encouraged national issues to address including computer security, road safety and government regulations.
This hopefully broadened the children’s perspective on life in a wider community.
After partner sharing, the children began writing their modern Treaty of Waitangi, in the form of three Articles.
These were some of their samples:
 * Listen to mum and dad.
 * Keep the bedroom clean.
 * Turn off the computer at night.
 * Be kind to those in the community.

Given permission by Pearl, I have posted her story on her understanding of the Treaty of Waitangi, and to indicate the knowledge she had gained.

          The treaty of Waitangi

In North Auckland, Waitangi, years ago in 1840, February the 6th, there were Maori chiefs, settlers, farmers, miners and British. The Maori chiefs and British signed a piece of paper for an agreement of peace in their country. They signed the piece of paper to make a promise for bringing peace and no fighting.

There were three rules that they all agreed on. All of the people and the Maori and the British went under a tree and everyone all signed the agreement on the paper and they made peace. Before they signed the paper there was heaps of fighting and no peace until now. Now all of the Maori chiefs and British’s are happy that they agreed to give peace and care forever. Everyone all celebrated for the agreement on the piece of paper.

First Day Monday 3 February 2014
All this happened on the first day of school. The blackboard was cluttered with work, student computer files were cleaned up and empty, walls displayed learning instructions and the teacher’s desk was overflowing with documented new ideas to try during the course of the day.

Home reading books were available in separate boxes for the reading groups. My instructions were to get a book from the appropriate box and read it before storing it into their book bag.
I can distinctly remember saying, “Don’t forget to open the book and begin by reading the first page.”
The classroom was silent, many had completed their book, and some had even moved on to the next reading activity.
But one little girl was still on the front page of her home reading book.
As I approached she gently asked, “Can we turn to the second page now?”

I sat in the comfortable, padded teacher chair to begin teacher reading. From 11am to 11.10am the teacher is timetabled to read a story to the class while the children sit on the mat and eat their play lunch.
I had warned the children that the seat was so comfortable that I could fall asleep while sitting in the chair in an instant.
I began reading, and within ten seconds I had pretended to nod off, head drooping forward and book falling to my lap.
Not expecting this, the children had remained silent, watching and waiting.
Bless them.
They had allowed their teacher some much sought after repose.

The spelling exercise for the day, while working with partners, was to substitute initial consonant letters from a chosen word. The word ‘big’ was to have its initial consonant changed by providing three new words. So some examples could be ‘jig’ and ‘fig’.
After another teacher explanation, a female pupil, who had asked what needed to be done to complete this exercise, responded with enthusiasm.
“Thank you. Pig,” was an appropriate word she derived from ‘big’ after thanking me.
“Thanks, but I prefer to be called Mr Chittenden,” I replied resulting in a querulous look from our student.

Borrowing pencils. Many of the class were without pens or pencils on the first day. When doing written work we decided to ask those who had a supply of writing utensils to share them; red pens, blue pens, felt tips, crayons. The mathematics activity timetabled for the day was a Knowledge Test Stage 4. It was the most colourful maths assessments I have ever had the pleasure of marking.

As part of our Behaviour Plan, the class had discussed some suitable rules to use for a safe environment, consequences if the rules are not adhered to, and rewards based on a point system.
The children elected to play dodge ball as their first reward when they had gathered the appropriate number of points.
The total number of points they needed to gain was 16.
By the end of the day the class had gathered 8 points. One student noted we had 50% of our points already.
Maths should be easy in this context.

It was a great first day in Room 5.

Introductory Letter

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

I hope you have all had a wonderful holiday break  and were able to enjoy some family time.  This is a letter to welcome you and your child to Room 5, to preview some upcoming events and inform you of activities taking place in Room 5. 

Our school theme for Term 1 is  COOL LITERACY LEARNING.

We will be discussing what makes our up our language with origins of letters and words, alphabets, different languages and fun with words– all building the children’s vocabulary.
 Themes and Topics

The topics for Term 1 will be a short study on the Treaty of Waitangi for children to build an awareness of this document and the significance of the holiday. There will be a health unit on Cool Schools, focusing on individuality, working co-operatively and processes of mediation. In addition there will be a community study in which man utilizes the land, preparation for our camps on 1-3 April and ANZAC studies to complete the term. Our sport focus will be swimming, cricket and competing in triathlons. Notices will come out later on specific events.

Habits of Mind

Our classes will be focusing on Finding Humour, Listening with Empathy and Applying Past Knowledge. Humour will be developed during vocabulary building activities, and there will be an emphasis on listening to others effectively. Children will also use past knowledge when involved in E-learning, mathematics problem solving and formatting different writing genre.

Homework

Þ Reading

Þ Children will bring home a reading book each night. Please record books read in the reading log along with a supportive comment.  

* Basic Facts

* Children will be working on building their basic facts knowledge on a weekly basis.  There will be regular encouragement to learn mathematics rules at home.

à Spelling

à Spelling will be taken home daily with individual lists written in their note books. Please find some time to work with your child to practice their words.  Children should be able to read and write each word. 

In week one we will be discussing our classroom environment and how we can work and play safely by developing some simple rules and positive consequences.  These Behaviour Plan ideas will be collated and sent home in the following week so you can see the expectations the class have developed.

Please feel free to pop in at your earliest convenience to discuss any further aspects of your child’s learning. There will be further details of programmes as the year unfolds.

Kind Regards

Tony Chittenden