Our Taupō, Our Home

Have you ever asked yourself why you love living in Taupō? Have you thought about what makes your favourite place and why is it special to you and your family?

Room 12 students asked themselves these questions as part of our Inquiry, My Taupō, My Home, My Heroes.

This inquiry is perfect to introduce students to statistical investigations and it provides great motivations for writing about the places we love both at school and in our local area.

Students looked at their immediate environment  - the school. Exploring favourite places in our school and wondered what it was that made it special to us to then write about.

Everyone drew a picture of their favourite place and gave one reason why it was a favourite. Many places were mentioned. Top contenders included the maze, the school gully, the tyres, the field, the junior playground and the classroom.

We wondered which place was the most favourite. Our big question was “What is the most favourite place in our school?” 

By creating a pictograph showing each part of the school we could count how many people liked a particular part of the school.

The outcome was: 

• the gully with 8 people, 
• the blue bars with 5 people, 
• the tyres with 3 people, 
• the maze with 2 people, 
• the field with 1 person and
• lastly, the classroom with 1 person, choosing it as their favourite place to play.

What would your choice be?

________

Keywords: Favourite Places, Wairakei School, pictograph, data, Taupō