Enterprise - Children's Designs turned into flies.

Enterprising - Dream Big and Make it Happen 

Last week during flytying Mr Bach tied the fly designs of about 16 children in our fly tying class. We had been trying to design a fly that would catch more trout, or catch anglers as a top seller to fly fishermen. In order to design such a fly we looked at what trout eat and the various colours, shapes, movements, sounds and smells that they are attracted to, because trout associate them with prey and food. We have also looked at trout fishing techniques, trout behaviour and likely places in rivers and lakes to catch trout. Mr Bach has tied everybody else's flies at home from the children's designs to the best of his abilities given the details in the designs. This week we are going on a trip to the Utuhina Stream and will have fly fisherman Gary coming to talk to us about his techniques.

Enterprise - Dream Big and Make it Happen.

 Fly Tying - Enterprise

Children from throughout the middle school have been coming to room 6 twice a week this term to learn about fly tying, fly fishing and how to design a customised fly, that will hopefully catch more trout. The children have been looking at what to do if you have a dream to become a better fly tier and fisherman and even make some money out of it. The children are posing with Mr Bach's 16lb (7.25kg) brown trout he caught in 2005 after over 30 years of trying to catch such a huge trout. Mr Bach caught his fish on a standard fly customised to his own design after lots of testing and designing.

Wacky Hair and Sock Day

 Wacky Hair and Sock Day

Wacky Hair and Sock Day was to raise money for the Special Needs Christmas dinner on Friday 30th August. Room six won the the class prize for its overall participation in Wacky Hair and Sock Day  Even Mr. Bach got involved, grudgingly, when swarmed on by teachers and children with hair colouring and pipe cleaners. Some children in room 6 really got into the wacky hair theme with some excellent colours and styles. Look below at all the awesome looks.

Willem












Koby

Tyler

Charis
                                                                            Wylie

Joseph

Tae'o

Alex

Ryan

Mr. B

Patrick

Tom

Enterprise

 Enterprise - Term 3 Concept

In term 3 for our Enterprise Concept we are splitting up into different classes to Dream Big and make it happen - as our key understanding tells us. We are going through the process of pursuing a dream, such as being an artist, musician, chef, author or master flytyer and fisherman. Mr Bach is of course leading the flytying brigade - and has an enthusiastic bunch of 30 boys and 2 girls, looking to design a new customised fly pattern to sell, or just catch more trout. We will be visited by two local fishing experts and go on a trip to a nearby stream.

Willem shows off Mr Bach's special fishing hat, in which he keeps all his old and famous flies. Mr Bach also shared his books, magazines, flies and flytying gear with the children.

 These sorts of images are good to use to talk to children about describing settings (places) in their writing, or orally. Mr Bach took these photos on Saturday morning with the sun coming up through the fog, behind the reserve, at the back of his house.

 When describing settings we are thinking of what the setting looks like, sounds like, smells like and feels like (or makes us feel). Characters can also be described within these scenes -  what are they doing? And there you have the start of a story or narrative. We are focusing on poetic writing this term, which includes poetry and story writing.

Holidays in Northland

 Holidays

Yes, even teachers get to have holidays eventually from school and teaching!! Below are a few shots from Mr Bach's recent trip to Paihia with his family during the July school holidays - fishing from the Paihia wharf of course

 Mr Bach thinking about next term's enterprise plan already?!

Paihia is a beautiful spot. Did you know the name Paihia comes from a mix of Maori and English. The Reverend Thomas arrived in the region and exclaimed that it was Pai (good) here - and with here becoming hia (Maori transliteration) the name Paihia stuck.

Paihia is not even really cold at all in the middle of winter.

 Ignition Day - Enterprise -Term 3 2013 Concept at St Mary's

In the middle block of Tuesday, the first day back at school in term 3, St Mary's had an ignition event for our term 3 concept of Enterprise. The children experienced a variety of activities that challenged their thinking and got them reflecting about what enterprise is, and what it means to be enterprising.

 We started off proceedings in the hall by dividing into our houses and listening to the introductions given on the big screen.

 Mrs Tootill and Mr Bach challenged the children to come up with a unique structure using lego building blocks.

 The children really got into the activity, some building original items and others copying famous constructions from world architecture.

The children earned a letter from each activity and had to put the different letters together at the end from all of the activities to spell 'Enterprise'.

 Book Creator - more sustainability creations

These are some more Book Creator book creations from some room 6 students. Both of these pieces of work show good learning and deep thinking about the issues in sustainability.

 The children have just begun their term 3 concept of Enterprise and some have already begun to design some new creations in Book Creator in order to show their learning as we move through the ideas. 

In this first creation from last term Josh and Edward show some of their learning linked to some very powerful photographs.

Poppy linked the ideas she learned about sustainability very well with individual photographs she took. Nice presentation too.