Goal Ball

As part of our learning about the Paralympics, on Friday, we had so much fun learning Goal Ball with Hamish and Kerry from BLENZ. Goal Ball is a paralympic sport for athletes who are sight impaired.

Hamish is a paralympic athlete and plays Goal Ball for the Hawke's Bay Titans. The Hawke's Bay Titans were the winners in the Elite competition in 2015. Hamish shared his expertise with us so that we could learn about the game of Goal Ball and what it would be like to be sight impaired. We learnt that athletes who play and compete in goal ball need to be very fit as its a game of speed, agility and strength. Hamish can get the ball rolling at a rocketing speed of 80km per hour!

The object of Goal ball is to roll the ball into the opponents goal while the other team players try to block the ball with their bodies. Players wear protective gear - imagine getting hit in the stomach with a ball rolling at 80km per hour. Bells inside the ball help the players figure out what direction the ball is coming from because being sight impaired means they cannot see the ball. So, the when the game is being played complete silence is needed. Goal ball athletes have super strong hearing.

Click here to watch a video about Goal Ball

Goal ball on PhotoPeach

Braille

A group of children have been researching about the Paralympics. The Paralympic medals have braille on them. We felt the alphabet in braille.









We were really lucky because Mrs Albertini brought in a braille machine for us to use to create braille to use in our projects. Thanks so much :)

Collaboration Muscle

We are getting ready for our Paralympic event. 

We argued with manners to choose the country we wanted to represent and then worked collaboratively to create a flag and banner for our country. 

We are thinking about showing the Paralympic values: determination, inspiration, courage and equality.  

To help us learn about the values of the Paralympics and what they look like in action we have been using our noticing muscles to spot learners in Totara Whanau who display one or more of these values. Children have been creating certificates to present to each other. 

The first four recipients are .....

Pacifica

For many weeks, a group of learners from Nga Rakau Nui have been learning the sasa. A sasa is group dance that is performed by boys and girls. Dancers sit for most of the time and hand movements are used to communicate everyday activities. Timing is very important as everyone does the same move at the same time and parts of the dance are very fast! Everyone in the group showed perseverance and determination to be the best sasa dancers they could be.

Last week, the group performed in front of the school to share their learning and expertise under the guidance of the wonderful tutor, Louisa. 

Thank you Louisa for sharing your culture with us and teaching us new skills. We had so much fun learning how to communicate a story of our everyday activities through sasa dance movements.