Hello everyone!

During writing, we have been learning to use drama to enhance our writing skills.  Last week we were learning about the 'Freeze Frame' approach - on Wednesday Mr Hopkins and some of his students popped over to help us learn more ... 

We used the story of the 3 little pigs and then all took the role of the wolf .............. 

This week we are going to be working with Room 1 and learning more about drama and 'Freeze Frame' to further enhance our writing skills.

As part of our Olympics unit, we have been learning to write news reports.

Each morning, we have a class discussion about what has been going on in the Olympics - who has won medals for New Zealand, what particular events have had something unexpected happening, etc. From here, the children have been learning to introduce themselves as a news reader and report some news about the Olympics.  On Thursday the children wrote a news report with a buddy ... here they are!!

I think you'll agree that your children have done a great job!

Well what a wonderful 2 weeks we have had during our Maori unit!  The children have all been learning many different aspects of Maori culture - language in Room 1, art in Room 12, weaving in Room 11 and rakau in Room 2.  We finished off this unit today with a hangi meal at lunchtime - Tandia and Reuben seemed to really enjoy their hangi meal :)

I was really impressed with the children's ability and timing when using the rakau.  Here they are ...

       

This week we begin an Olympics unit.  We will be following what is going on in Rio in class so if your child has any information/findings about these Olympics, please encourage them to bring it along so they can share it with the rest of us.

I hope you all have had wonderful weekend and I'll see you all on Monday.

Hello there everyone,

I hope you are all keeping warm!!!  The children are all very excited about the prospect of snow at the end of the week .... it will be very interesting to see if the weather forecast is accurate!

This year, children are all developing fantastic self-management skills - during Maths and Reading they are able to choose from a variety of learning activities when they are not with me or doing a set activity I have given them to reinforce their learning.  The room just buzzes as they are learning!  Today was a wonderful example of this ... here are some photos showing what the children were doing during their self-directed learning in Reading ....

I will see you all in the morning :)

DESCRIPTIVE WRITING

Hello everyone,

At the moment in writing, we have been learning to write descriptions.  We have been learning what 'adjectives' are and have been using them in our work.  As part of this, yesterday we went for a walk outside to play in the leaves.  We threw leaves (the highlight being throwing them at me of course), smelt them, rolled in them .... you name it, we did it!  The children had an absolute blast and I was just so thankful that Conor's mum was with us and was able to take some photos as I had left my phone in the classroom.  Have a look at all the fun the children had!!!

Just a reminder about the disco - it's on this Friday from 5.30-7.00.  The children are all very excited!!  See you tomorrow :)

Hello there everyone!

We had an amazing visit to the Christchurch Art Gallery on Tuesday!  We concentrated our visit on 3 particular artists - Lonnie Hutchison (a Christchurch artist), Gordon Walters and Reuben Patterson.  For the rest of the term, we will be looking at their work and creating some work of our own.  I have been so impressed by your childrens' enthusiasm for our topic so far and I can't wait to see what work they produce over the rest of the term.

Here are some photos from our visit ...

If you ever have a bit of a spare time over the weekend, I would THOROUGHLY recommend a visit to the Art Gallery - it is an amazing place to visit :)

Hello everyone,

Things have been really busy in Room 2 over the past wee while with lots of wonderful learning going on!

As part of our school-wide "Making Music" unit, we have been learning about and using different musical instruments.  The children have had 2 lessons learning how to play 'Mary had a little lamb' on the glockenspiels and I just HAD to take a clip of it to share with you as they are picking it up so quickly!  Mrs Campbell, Mr Hopkins and Mrs Cummings happened to pop in one afternoon and saw them playing and were amazed!  Here they are .................

I hope you are all very impressed as I certainly am!  I can't believe how quickly they have picked it up after only 2 lessons!!!

Yesterday during reading time, one of our reading groups read a story called "Hedgehog Fun".  Mrs Hine happened to be our parent help so she helped them make some 'hedgehogs' to share with everyone.  They looked delicious!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and I'll see you on Monday.