Sunday 28 February 2016

Fairy House Fun

On Friday we went down to Alicetown Park to make fairy houses. We gathered twigs, sticks and leaves...all important tools for fairy house making! I was impressed with how well the children worked together to build their fairy houses and how creative they were! 

 

 



Sunday 21 February 2016

Week 4

What a stunning weekend, and it looks like we are set for another fabulous week. 

Many thanks to those parents who offered their support on the walk on Friday, and for being so flexible when we had to cancel.  We are hoping to find some time this Friday to make the fairy houses within the school grounds or at the Alicetown playground, but we will let you know closer to the time. 

You will have read in the school newsletter that there is the opportunity for us to get together and discuss your child's learning on Wed 2nd and Thurs 3rd March.  Information on how to book these online is in last weeks newsletter, or you can let the office know of your preference for times.  Any troubles with this please let us know. 

We spent lots of time last week investigating the life cycle of a caterpillar and we used the story 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' in a number of reading, writing, art and movement activities.  Our monarch caterpillars Fred and Bertha were looking very large and healthy when we left school on Friday - hopefully we will return tomorrow to find them where we left them!  We were also very interested in cicadas and we discovered that the cicada nymph lives underground for many years before changing into an adult cicada. The children enjoyed hunting for cicada shells around the school. 

Our reading groups are now established and we will continue to send a reader home each night (Monday-Thursday).  Each Monday your child will also have their spelling words - please tick these each time they practise these and get them right - and we will celebrate this when we read with them each day.  Thankyou! 

Thanks heaps for all your comments and likes on Seesaw, the kids LOVE it!  

The children may have talked about 'the nest' or our 'Kowhanga'.  This is the name we have given the two classes combined.  

Over the next couple of weeks we will be focusing on establishing maths groups.  Our main focus at the moment is on addition to 10 and 20 and cementing an understanding of place value, and for some children we will begin to look at subtraction.  A big part of this maths programme is using equipment and playing games, and working in small groups with one of us.  

Our sports focus is on developing fundamental movement skills with some catching/receiving of large balls.  This is all through fun games and activities. 

Have a great week! 

Friday 19 February 2016

Week 3

What a busy week we have had in our Kowhanga! 

F is for fruit kebabs - we chose the fruit for our frruit kebab, cut them and then ate our creations .... yum! 



 

 

This week we have been looking at the story 'The Hungry Caterpillar". Here we are busy working on our caterpillar collage.


We learnt a new game that included skills such as balance, thinking, teamwork and strategy. It was great fun to play!


The early morning weather on Friday meant there was no trip to Jubilee Park to build our fairy houses but the sun came out and we went on a cicada hunt instead. We found one on the playground. 


We also found some cicada skins on our hunt!

Tuesday 9 February 2016

Junior School Water Play - Friday Week 2

Your child will be coming home with a notice today about Junior School Water Play on this Friday from 9.40 to 10.15am. There will be a sprinkler to run under and a waterslide to play on. If your child wants to participate in the waterplay they will need to bring either their togs and towel or a change of clothes.

Fingers crossed the sun sticks around :)


Thursday 4 February 2016

Friday Fun :)

 We had a lot of fun today in Room 4. Our day started with discovery time with the junior syndicate where we enjoyed some water play, made our own jam sandwhiches which we enjoyed under the shade of the trees,  played with lots of different sports equipment and nailed some blocks together with a hammer. After morning tea we painted some pictures of our homes! Phew what a busy day, there were some tired wee bodies on the mat after lunch :)