Settling Stones
Children will be introduced to a practice of settling themselves through selecting a stone with their teacher who guides them on how to take care of a special item. This activity is offering you the opportunity to set a daily ritual with your children to help them settle. This ritual can be particularly helpful when…
Read MoreRe-Membering The Branch
This learning experience explores themes of losing something precious to you. It uses the teacher in role convention where the teacher pretends to be a tree who has lost its branch. This learning experience also engages visual arts through crayon rubbings of the branch and leaves. Check out the professional development video (link below) for…
Read MoreThe Long and Short Of It
This lesson sequence uses the visual arts to support students in re-connecting with people in their class and starting to explore emotions post a traumatic/crisis event. The approach outlined also encourages the development of creative dispositional qualities that support positive mental wellbeing. In this unit, students will explore and experiment with using the visual arts…
Read MoreSuperpower Poetry Fun
Seeing ourselves as powerful again after a crisis is an important part of imagining our way out of the trauma of the experience. This poetry unit starts by recognising we all have a ‘why’. Knowing it is key to our wellbeing. This set of writing processes helps students figure out their ‘why’ in a creative,…
Read MoreAlone together
Students return to school after a crisis with different experiences. Dance can help students share their stories while seemingly focusing on something else. This dance work helps students focus on their own time away from school in the crisis and see that others will have experienced similar and different things. This unit of work was…
Read MoreThe Magic Seashell
OVERARCHING VALUES: VALUING PASIFIKA WAYS OF BEING AND KNOWING – WITH AND FOR ALL PEOPLE Experiencing this learning should be savoured by all, so allow good time for each part. Remember that this is about relationships – so really encourage the talanoa. Make alongside the students where you can. In your talk and making, share…
Read MoreMaking a Kahoa Kakala
OVERARCHING VALUES: VALUING PASIFIKA WAYS OF BEING AND KNOWING – WITH AND FOR ALL PEOPLE Experiencing this learning should be savoured by all, so allow good time for each part. Remember that this is about relationships – so really encourage the talanoa. Make alongside the students where you can. In your talk and making, share…
Read MoreRegulating Robot
A drama about social rules, morals and creativity This drama gives students the opportunity to explore the necessity for social regulation, the risks and consequences of both making and breaking rules, and the relationship between rules and regulations on the one hand, and creativity and freedom on the other. It also explores how the impact…
Read MoreTwo Stars and a Wish
This dance work is a way for students to express their thinking about having been in isolation. This is a physical way of thinking about the good and possibly hard things about having been in isolation. While this lesson plan was initially created and used for returning to education post COVID-19 lockdowns, it can be…
Read MoreThe Emperor and the Magic Goose
A drama about loneliness and togetherness This drama takes as its starting point the traditional Red Lantern Festival, held in Auckland since 2000, and cancelled in 2020 because of Coronavirus, both in Auckland and throughout China. The drama uses a traditional Chinese folk tale of the Festival’s origins, to explore: 1. Loneliness, what it makes…
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