“Wow! What a superb kit! This kit was interactive and had the tamariki really involved! I allowed alot of time for pre-loading information with my class, our reading was about navigation and famous navigators Kupe and Tupaia to more modern ones like Jean Batten. This also linked really nicely to our turangawaewae inquiry topic. I aligned my maths to this also through measurement and co-ordinates. I really felt like my tamariki were set!
The kids were so hands on, communicating with each other, enjoyed all the challenges that they tackled along the way. They especially ejoyed discovering the 'clouds' of balloons!
I would recommend this kit highly!”
“We needed 2 days to complete this-allowing for time to trial and then modify the buzz planes, paper planes and co-operative game. Our kids loved everything-learning different coding and building the planes were highlights. The lead up was really interesting and our kids were engaged the entire time. Well worth doing this kit-yet another fun way to learn. Thanks School Kit”
“I really loved this kit and my students were so excited every day that we did the activities. This kit enabled me to generate some great connections to our school values and to reinforce these in a different context and through a different story. The teaching was easy to follow and every task was engaging for the students. They started off in smaller groups and then created larger teams which brought a little competition into the day, plus it reinforced teamwork and communication. I saw students who normally sit back and cruise, take leadership and I saw leaders within the classroom, learning to listen to other people. A great kit and very rewarding. Thank you to the sponsors who helped with this kit and for School Kit in creating the rich learning.”
“A lot of front loading was done which we created a wonderful report with the key tips given. Children thoroughly loved making the planes and mayday tasks! Very competitive and then the Buzz planes were a hit! We had a massive challenge with the telegrams which I kind of accepted any answer they gave! The biggest letdown was the teacher instructions. I could not wrap my head around what to do. I had to research what other schools had done to see how to do it. But overall the children have gained a lot through this kit but could of gain more if I knew how to successfully implement it.”
“Kia ora! We launched our 'Jean Batten' day with our year 3/4 tamariki and they absolutely loved it. It was awesome seeing them get involved in the team challenges and working together to crack the code, all helped by the incredible resources provided. The feedback we received from the kids and their whānau was really positive and many made requests for more days 'like this'. The highlight of the day was one of the kids getting their paper plane to fly through a hoop from 6ft away - this is something he has not stopped reminding us about, it was pretty legendary. Not only did the kids benefit from the integrated learning, but we found it so fun to teach and "doing a Jean Batten"is now a motto we live and learn by. Thank you!”
“We decided to use the Jean Batten Kit for a whole day of learning. We had front loaded our students during guided reading with the Jean Batten story Hine-o-te-rangi. On the day we wrapped up the box for the students and left it in the middle of the class to create suspense. We got the students into groups and we talked about the mission. It was such an incredible day of learning. It was so neat to see the students working together, problem solving, being creative, writing, understanding reading coordinates and being patient! The highlights were watching them trying to cross the posters as a plane and trying to get their paper plane through a hoop suspended from the roof 6 metres from where they were standing. There was no success, until one students rocked up and threw his straight through the middle - the class erupted! Thank you for all the awesome resources and the time it took to create this kit. We used Seesaw to post the learning during the day and the whanau comments were so encouraging. They said their children were buzzing when they came home, they were sharing their learning from the day and that it was the best day yet! STEAM is such a powerful tool. Thanks so much Hannah and Merata.”
