New Zealand Education: Year 6

Figure 1.--.

Have a look here at the activities at sdome representative New Zealand Year 6 classes. Some of the descriptions are in the children's own words.

Paengaroa School (State Elementary School)

Room 10 is a class of 27 (12 boys and 15 girls) Year 6 students, most of whom are 10 years old. Along with the Year 6 children in Room 9, we are the senior pupils at our school so we often have duties to help the school run smoothly. Recently we have been studying flight and aviation. We have investigated the shape of aircraft wings and have made and tested some wing shapes. We also made and tested some gliders made from a drinking straw, stiff paper and a paper clip. Probably the most exciting things we made were our hot air balloons. They were made out of tissue paper, thin wire and aluminium foil. We used cotton buds soaked in Meths to power them. Most of them caught fire and burnt up before they had the chance to fly. One, however, rose above the height of the buildings and drifted across the field. It went for about 100 metres!

The trip we are most looking forward to is our ski trip in September. We will stay for two nights at Mt Ruapehu and will have a day of instruction and skiing at Whakapapa Ski Field. Most of us have never skied before so we are looking forward to it. We will also visit the Waiuoru Army Museum as part of a study on Gallipoli. Gallipoli is a place in Turkey where many soldiers lost their lives during World War 1. We would love to hear from a school in Turkey, so that we could discuss the event with them.

Next term we will also be studying the Millennium. Our class will focus on buildings and how they have changed in the last 100 years. Other classes will be looking at transport, communications and clothing. The new millennium is a big deal in New Zealand because we are one of the closest countries to the international dateline which means we will be first to see the new millennium.

Rafael House (Private Rudolf Steiner School)

Class 5 children are now standing firmly in this world and are ready to start looking out at other cultures. Last year the children explored their own personal family’s history. Where were their parents born, their grandparents? What experiences could these people tell them about times gone? We then learnt about the history of the Hutt Valley, our immediate local area. Now having established ourselves in time, in our own families and the place where we live we are ready to look at the ancient civilisations of mankind. The first term was spent experiencing the stories, the culture and flavour of ancient India. The past and the present of India came to life as we heard the ancient myths about the gods; Indra the god of thunder vanquishing the dragon; Shiva, his wife Parvati and their delightful son Ganesh; Vishnu and his time spent on earth as Roma. The list could go on and many more stories could have been enjoyed by the term was coming to an end and other cultures such as Persia, Babylon, Egypt and Greece were yet to be experienced before the year end. The inspiring story of the compassionate Budda rounded off our Indian stories and then we brought the term to a close by fully experiencing the "flavour" of India. We had shared the experiences of a class family who had recently visited India. How different this country was to our own. We saw how some things in India had remained unchanged from the distant past and yet now 20 century technology was vying with old tradition. Clothes were brought for us to dress up in and a day was spent cooking an Indian meal. At lunch time, while dressed in saris and other brightly coloured Indian clothes, a delicious and different meal was shared.

Avril Nicoll, Class 5 Teacher, Raphael House Newsletter, May 8 1998

Southwell School (Private Preparatory School )

Year 6 has 23 boys who are 10 and 11 year olds. Three boys are boarders. Mr. Marama is our teacher. On Fridays the boys "buddy read" to help the Year 2 boys. Mrs. S. Dyck is the teacher of Year 2. One popular project during the yedar was working on a group newspaper. The boys also created a theatre stage for Technology. One annual event the boys look forward to is Camp Week. They went camping at the start of the year at Sport 'n Spa in Rotorua. One of the parents helped with the orienteering activities. Not all of us were that confident when it came to the horse riding session. Art is one of the most popular activities. he schools art teacher, Mrs. Knighton showed the boys how to create clay masterpieces.

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