room 2's blog

Well, it’s hard to believe that we are now half way through Term 4 and there are only  29 more sleeps before Santa comes.  There are also, only 2 more weeks before our Grandparent’s Concert and we have all been practising very hard to learn our songs.  Thank you to all the parents who have been sending in photos of the children’s grandparents, either via email or in photo form.  Very soon, we will be putting all the photos together in preparation for our concert so, if you have not sent us one, we would appreciate it if we could have them over the next two weeks.

Last week, for homework, the children were asked to read our combined Rooms 1 & 2 blog and write a comment.  Thank you to all the parents who guided their child through the log in process and helped them write in a comment.  We have had a lot of fun reading the many comments and we have all enjoyed seeing our contributions on the blog.

This term, in Maths we have been continuing our learning to solve addition and subtraction problems, discovering number patterns, writing numerals correctly ….

We have also been learning about ½’s and ¼’s.  This has involved not only dividing objects into halves and quarters but also dividing a group of objects in half or into quarters (eg a set of 6 toy cars divided into 2 sets of 3, or 8 toy cars divided into 4 equal sets of 2).  The children may like to practice this at home using everyday situations to reinforce the idea.

Every Wednesday we are continuing to buddy up with the children from Room 9 to learn more about computer skills.  We have been finding out some fun sites we can use to play maths and alphabet games.  Also, we have been using the laptops to research different aspects of our term’s topic – ‘Grandparent’s and what life was like in their day’.  It has been fun discovering the types of music, movies, fashion etc popular in our Grandparent’s day.

For this weeks homework, we are suggesting that the children might like to pick one or two of the sites listed below and learn to play some of the games suitable for their level.  They have already visited these sites during our Wednesday afternoon computer time with Room 9.

www.funbrain.com

www.knowledgeadventure.com

www.visualfractions.com

www.ixl.com/math/grade/kindergarten/

www.coolmaths.co

On Monday, we had a visit from a very special guest.  Ronald Mac Donald came to school and entertained the junior syndicate.  He taught us about how to be safe when walking on the footpath and the rules needed when crossing the road.  We learnt a poem and a song to remind us how to cross the road :  Click goes the seat belt  and Stop, Look and listen.

He was very funny especially when he couldn’t find his sock.  We all helped him find his red and white striped sock which was stuck to his back.  Ronald said we can keep his sock and there will be lots of fun, interesting stories written about the missing sock during Story Writing this week. 

On Wednesday, Emma’s granddad came to school to talk to us about what it was like when he was growing up.  We were able to ask him lots of questions and find out so much more about how different life was in his day.  We are very grateful to Emma’s grandad for sharing his experiences with us.

The fourth term is upon us already and what an exciting term it is going to be. A special welcome back to Mrs Moses, who is thoroughly enjoying being back with the children in Rm 1. The children had a wonderful time at our annual Run, Jump and Throw Festival at Newtown Park and took part in so many varied activities.   The stories they wrote about their experiences, were very entertaining. 

 The fact that we had to go to swimming straight after this event, meant that the children were very exhausted, but a great day was had by all.   Here are a few of their comments. 

We went to Run, Jump and Throw.  I really liked running.  I did good and beat everyone.  It was fun. 
(Eddie)

At Run, Jump and Throw, I liked running because I am really fast.  We went to the pool for lessons. 
(Sam)

On Tueday I went on the bus to the park for Sports Day. We went swimming at the pool.  I liked the pigs game.
(Maximus). 

On Tuesday we went on a bus.  We went to Newtown Park.  First we had to put the balls in the buckets.  Then we had to do a sack race.  Next we had to run around and around.
(Chloe)

Grandparent’s Concert  

We are now well underway with our rehersals for this wonderful event and the children are working really well on learning the words to the songs.   We are again very lucky to have Nanny Ora with us to help with the Maori versions of our songs.

We already have several photographs of the children’s grandparents so please, if you haven’t already sent a photo along, please email one, or send a picture along with your child.  Remember to put the Grandparent’s name on the back. Teachers will keep you well informed nearer the time on the format of our Grandparent’s Day.  We have been hosting this bi-annually for the last ten years and it is always such an enjoyable occasion.

We have also started our French and Musical Instruments lessons with Rachel but will tell you more about this next time.

Once again we would like to say a great big thank you to eveyone for donating a gold coin on Daffodil Day.  In recognition of this special occasion the children drew still life pictures of a vase of daffodils.  They enjoyed sharing their completed works in assembly.

Visit to Woolworths:

As part of our inquiry unit ‘Ever Wondered Why?’, the Junior Syndicate were very fortunate to visit the bakery at one of our local Supermarkets. 

Whilst there, the children were shown the process involved in bread making and were able to find the answers to some of the questions that they had set at the beginning of the unit.  For example, ‘How does bread rise?’, ‘What is bread made of?’ etc.

For obvious safety reasons the children had to wear mesh baker’s hats, which they found very exciting! A highlight of the trip was being able to sample a fresh bread roll, straight from the oven.

School Disco:

What a wonderful ending to Week 8!  The children obviously had an amazing time at the School Disco and they danced the night away to DJ Mo. This was the first disco for a number of the Junior children and it was lovely to see the interaction between them and the fun they had with their friends.  Maybe they could show you some of their dance moves at home!

Loud T shirt Day   Last Friday was a very colourful event, with children and staff wearing their most colourful clothes.  This was in response to a request to help support the Southern Cochlear Implant  Programme. The children from Rm 1 were delighted to be able to design and decorate their own cardboard t -shirts and show them in assembly.

It’s been a great term.  We hope you enjoyed the experience of the portfolio conferences. 

We are really sad to be saying farewell to Leah Hambleton who has done an excellent job teaching in Room 1. 

Have a great holiday. See you back for Term 4.

To celebrate Maori Language Week, all the children had a great deal of fun making their own Mihi.  Over a period of a few weeks the children have continued to practise

their Mihi and are now confident in introducing themselves in Te Reo to their peers.  In our ongoing use of  Te Reo, the children continue to learn Maori colours, days of the week, numbers and greetings.  We are also very fortunate to have Nanny Ora who visits us every week to share her expertise in this area.

The school has been fully involved with ICT learning this year and we are thrilled to have the children from the Senior classes working alongside the children in Room 1.  Each week the children are buddied up with a senior student and they are given the opportunity to publish their stories and to participate in online maths and reading activities.  This has also been beneficial in enabling the children to relate to different age groups across the school. 

After a very refreshing break, the children have quickly settled back into their routines and are thoroughly enjoying the challenges that school life offers. 

We were thrilled to be involved in the opening of the new hall/admin block and thoroughly enjoyed our first P.E. lesson in the spacious hall.

Our Topic for this term is titled ‘Ever Wondered Why?’  This involves the children being engaged in finding the answers to science based questions.  We began with a wondering wall, where each child shared a question about what they wanted to find out.  As you can see from this picture, the children gained so much pleasure from taking part in numerous experiments.

So far for inquiry learning, we have been doing experiments with water and ice.  We saw that liquid water changes into a solid (ice) when it is cooled down and that it can be changed back into liquid by heating it.  This got us wondering “what is the quickest way to melt ice?’ We talked about the things we do to heat ourselves up, then we heated pieces of ice using some of our ideas – a hairdryer, hot water and our hands.  We found out that ice melts the quickets in hot water and the slowest, when wrapped in a blanket.

Hello and welcome to Room 1.   We have all been extremely busy this term preparing our portfolios and we were delighted to share these with you on our Conference Day. 

 This term we have been studying Samoa and how life in New Zeaand is different to theirs. 

During the course of the study, we have learnt about Samoan customs, clothing, schooling, games, food and many other aspects of Samoan life.  The children are all fully involved and we have had lots of fun looking at the world map and discovering where Samoa is and mapping the different places where we were all born. 

A number of children have brought along a variety of items relating to Samoa. Ben bought two coconuts to share with the class and we were all given an opportunity to taste the flesh and drink the milk.  Beth brought along a wooden weapon and Coco wore a traditional Samoan flower in her hair.  In our art work, we have designed our own Saipo patterns and are learning how to weave baskets (using paper). 

At the end of this study, Rooms 1,3 and 4 are going to have a Celebration Day.  We will be joining up together and sharing what we have learnt about our chosen country.  Room 3 is learning about South Africa and Room 4 is studying Japan.

This week the children are very excited about the arrival of the Life Education caravan and most of all meeting Harold.  Each child has his/her own booklet relating the the topic : Relating to others.  We are sure you will hear of their experiences whilst visiting the caravan.

We hope you have enjoyed reading the first of many of our blogs to come.  Please share this with your child and we would love you to add your comments to our blog page.