News Day - Yay!

Room 12 were very excited to have news circle time today.  We had 5 people share news.  Here they are!

Makylah shared news about her leap pad.  She likes drawing on it.

Mio shared news about the Japanese Dolls Festival on March 3.
On this day they put dolls of princesses and princes on display and pray that all girls will grow healthy and strong.

Sophia shared news about her doll that she got from her grandmother for Christmas.

Oliver shared news about his I Spy Pirate book.  He also got it for a Christmas present!

Xavier shared news about his Hulk toy.  It was one of the presents from Santa!

One of our reading groups had a practice at re-reading their reading books into our Oral Language Phones.  These special phones make our voices seem louder.  Lots of fun!

During the week we have been practicing to write 2 sentence stories - this means there are 2 full stops!  The words we have been focussing on are: I, am, and like.  We made little books to take home.  We are so proud of them!  On Friday afternoon we shared our little books with our Room 5 buddies.

Xavier is sharing his "I am' book with Robert.

Kian is reading his 'I am' book to his buddy, Tawhiri.

Makylah is reading her 'I am' book to her buddy, Caitlyn.

Naai's buddy was away, so he shared his book with Timothy.

Oliver proudly shared his book with Stefan.

Sophia loved sharing her little book with Piper.

Haley loved Mio's little book!

Eita read his little book to Indiana.

 Relationships at school are really important.  

At school these relationships help keep us happy and safe.  

I just HAD TO SHARE this photo of Kian and his buddy Tawhiri - it made my heart melt!

CUTE!

Introducing Miss Gray

I finally remembered to take a photo of our lovely Miss Gray!  As you know Miss Gray teaches Room 12 every Wednesday - we are so lucky to have her!

We loved bringing our teddy bears to school!

Miss Gray is in charge of teaching the following:

• Maths strands, such as, geometry, measurement and statistics.  At the moment Room 12 is learning how to tell the time (especially o'clock times and half-past times).
• Jolly Phonics and Letter Aerobics (I teach the Yolanda Soryl Phonics programme - so Room 12 get the most of both worlds!).
• Dance/Drama (Miss Gray uses the DanceWrite programme).
• Library time (all children can issue 2 books a week).
• Miss Gray also continues the normal reading and writing programme.

A busy lady!  Therefore, very busy kids!

An aside....have any of you noticed that Room 12 have reading 5 times a week?  

Therefore, on Fridays the children will be coming home with a reading book AND their poem.

What a fun Teddy Bears Picnic we had today!  Thank you to the families who came along and enjoyed a picnic with us.  The sun came out too....we just needed that wind to calm down.

Teddy Bears Picnic 2014 on PhotoPeach

Identifying the letters of the alphabet!

We all know that most kids can sing the ABC song easily.  The test is can they recognise a t when they see one, or an s when they see one?

Some helpful activities to help your child know their letters is to:

• play FIND THE (find the h on that page, find the v on that page etc)
• what comes next?  (what comes after s in the alphabet, what comes after d in the alphabet?)
• What else? (That word begins with c, what else can you think of begins with that letter?)
• Cut out letters from magazines
• Make letters with pipe-cleaners or playdough
• Instead of saying the letter name, play find the letter that makes this sound (focus on sounds)

Of course, once your child knows theirs letters you can adapt the above activities for sight words, such as, the, like, went, on, and, look, to etc.

Sophia and Kian finding the correct letters to make the alphabet.

Eita and Mio finding the correct letters to make the alphabet.

Don't forget out TEDDY BEARS PICNIC this Wednesday at noon.  Kids to bring their teddy bears.  We will be walking to Edgar Macintosh Park at noon.  Parents and other family members are welcome!

Thank you to those who have paid their curriculum activity fee of $25.  Please pay it asap (or part of it).  Our first event is this Thursday afternoon (this costs $4).  We have the NZ Playhouse coming to perform the show Rap-Unzel - this is the Rapunzel story with a twist!  Otakaro also have Science Alive coming on March 11 (this costs $7).

Super-duper Writing AND Discovery Time!

At writing time we have been working on using our word cards to help us with our writing.  These cards have some sight words on one side (the words we use often - like, going, to, went etc) and letters on the other.  Room 12 have been awesome at locating the words they need for their writing.  Tino pai!

Yesterday and Today we wrote stories about a place our Mum or Dad went (some were pretend places).

I showed Room 12 a picture of my Dad for our motivation to write.  He is holding my youngest niece, Quinn.

At the beginning of each writing session I model story-writing to Room 12.   Maddox even noticed when I 'forgot' to leave a finger space between some words.

I was VERY PROUD of Naai.  This is Naai's very first story written independently.  He is great at finding words on his word chart, and is beginning to record sounds in tricky words (p and k in 'picking' AND b and s in berries').
Ka pai,  Naai!

Sophia made me proud too!
Sophia is beginning to re-read her stories to make sure it sounds right.
Tumeke, Sophia!

Today I showed Room 12 a picture of my Mum for our motivation to write.
Room 12 said 'your Mum's got short hair!'

Here's today's modelled writing.
This time Xavier noticed that I 'forgot' to leave a finger space.
Mio was able to tell me how to write the CH sound in beach.

Sophia wrote a funny story today!

Mio is a wonderful learner!  She wrote this story independently.
Pretty awesome for someone who is learning to speak English, don't you think?
Absolutely Brilliant!

Xavier is becoming very confident at writing time.  He is quick at finding the words he needs on his word card.

 Take a look at Room 12 working hard at writing time.
Using our word cards on PhotoPeach

On Friday's we alway have News Circle.  Today Oliver brought some interesting news to share.  He brought a newspaper article about how some animals can dance and keep a beat to music!  Wow!

This afternoon Otakaro had their very first Discovery Time for the year.  Discovery in Room 12 involved BUBBLES!  There was bubble wrap to dance on, bubble wands to make and bubbles to blow.  Fun!
Bubbles! on PhotoPeach

During the day we had a visit from a lovely lady called Charlie.  Charlie is one of the tutors who is teaching Mandarin or Spanish after school.  All children have taken home some information if you are keen for your child to attend the language classes.

Charlie also surprised us with her dog, Oliver!  He was hiding inside her bag!

Charlie adopted Oliver from South Korea.

Oliver was quite chuffed to meet a dog with the same name!  Xavier said his dog, Kyba, is much bigger than Oliver.

Hot, hot and hot!

Phew!  It has been a hot day today.

This afternoon we resorted to using our large numeral cards as fans!  Brilliant idea!  They helped keep us cool.

It sounds like the weather is going to be just as hot for the rest of the week.  Parents please do not send your child to school with singlets etc on.  It is best for them to wear shorts and t-shirt.  A drink bottle of water is handy too.

Rooms 3 and 4

Rooms 3 and 4 are a satellite classroom from Ferndale School.  The children in these classrooms are in wheelchairs.  We try to do as much as we can with these children (you would've noticed them at assembly).

Here are some of our children taking Rooms 3 and 4 for a walk.

Makylah is taking her sister, Chantelle, for a walk.

We all did some fabulous maths this morning too!

Naai and Makylah ordering numerals to 20.

How important do you think reading each day is?  I believe it is vital.  All children should have regular opportunities to be read to, and to be reading themselves.  Here's a table you might find interesting...

Are you reading everyday?

Happy Valentines Day!

Happy Valentines Day everybody!

This morning Room 12 hosted our first assembly for the year.  Room 12 were ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT!  I was very proud of them!

Here is Room 12 sitting with their Room 5 buddies - ready to host assembly!

We shared three videos in assembly - we had so much fun making them!  Here they are:


We've recently found out that Wairakei School haven't been pronouncing Otakaro correctly (Otakaro is the name of the junior team).  So Room 12 made a video to teach people how to say...


And we finished our assembly with...


And the day got even more exciting!!!

Today we made a valentines day cake!  We all helped to mix the butter, sugar and eggs.  We then added flour, cocoa, baking powder and milk....can you guess what kind of cake we made?

Miss O'Neill has a snazzy little oven we can use in the classroom.  We could smell the lovely cake cooking while we did our writing!

When the cake cooled down we put pink icing on the cake and heart sprinkles.

We all had a piece, and there was lots of pieces left so we delivered them to all the other teachers at Wairakei School.  WE CARE!


Valentines Day Cake on PhotoPeach

Here are some CAKE stories from writing time today.  Our WALT (we are learning to) is to leave finger spaces between words.

Xavier wrote: We made a cake.  I like cake.
He wrote two sentences today!  Didn't he do well with spelling cake too?

Oliver wrote: I like cake.  It is yummy.
Great finger spaces, Oliver!

Maddox wrote: We made a cake.  It is bubbling.  I like it.
I'm really impressed with Maddox's attitude towards his writing....he really knows how to persevere.

First day of music today

This afternoon Room 12 had their first music session with the lovely Mrs Frost.  They had lots of fun and can't wait to go next week.

Mrs Frost tells me that Room 12 has lots of children with a good sense of rhythm!

Singing BINGO

Keeping the beat...

We also met our buddies from Room 5 this afternoon.  Our buddies will sit with us in Assembly tomorrow to help us.  What a fabulous idea!

Our Buddies from Room 5 on PhotoPeach

Fabulous writing!

Room 12 did some fabulous writing today!

First of all we brainstormed all of the things we could get 'in'....then we wrote about it!  We had fun!
'in' on PhotoPeach

Here is Oliver's writing.
He is very good at finding words on his word chart.....plus he can listen to the first sound in tricky words too.

Some of you might have noticed that Room 12 is hosting our very first assembly this Friday - what a treat!  We've been practicing already and we're excited about it.  Parents and family are welcome to come along and watch!

Assemblies are in the school hall on alternate Fridays at 9 - 9.30am.

What fun!

Today we decorated the front of our Poem Books with pirate stickers.  Then we talked about how important it is to look after our books, especially as we are bringing home our Poem Books today!  Children need to bring their Poem Books back to school on Monday - they know where to put them.

We also made our very own LIKE books!  We are very clever in Room 12.  Just before lunch we walked to the Cool Dot's room to share our clever books with them.  We are bringing them home today too so that we can read them to our family and friends.

It's been a busy day today as we've also been learning how to introduce ourselves in Te Reo Maori.  Have a listen!

Here is Xavier:


Here is Mio:


Here is Naai:


Here is Makylah:


Here is Tahlia:


Here is Maddox:


And lastly, here is Sophia:

Handwriting

We had our first handwriting lesson today.  We practiced writing the letter 't' and keeping it nice and tall.  Have a look at our hard-workers!

Maddox and Xavier

Mio and Oliver

Sophia and Tahlia

Eita and Naai

Makylah and Mio

First day at school 2014

What a great day!

Room 12 are gorgeous, hard-working and kind.  We've had a busy day today....here are some pics from playtime, lunch and art.

First day of the year on PhotoPeach

Reminder - all children need a wide-brimmed sunhat at school - no caps please.  Room 12 keep their hats in their desks during the day, and it is best for them to stay at school (otherwise they may be left at home by mistake the following day.  No hat - no play).

Hi from Mr Bojangles

Here is Mr Bojangles with a message for Room 12.

Each day Room 12 pick a 'wish' for the day.  These wishes might be anything from 'listening to the teacher', 'always do your best work', 'say kid things to others' etc.  At the end of the day Mr Bojangles whispers to the teacher who he thought completed the wish the best that day.  That child gets to take Mr Bojangles home for the night!  There's a diary in Mr Bojangles bag to be filled out.

I wonder who will get Mr Bojangles today?