Welcome to our blog.

We are a bunch of new entrant learners at Wairakei School, Christchurch, New Zealand. We hope you enjoy looking at what we have been up to.

Room 12's Pirate Blog is embedded into our class space. If you're having trouble reading/scrolling down our pirate blog...you can visit our blog in a new window by clicking on this link: http://piratelearners.blogspot.co.nz/

Monday, March 31, 2014

Making posters on our iPads

A big welcome to Joel who has joined Room 12.  He had a fabulous day making friends and doing his best work.
Kian was a super friend to Joel.

At reading time I gave each child a task.  They needed to use the iPad to make a poster about a letter.  We used the pic collage app (really easy!) to write text, make a background, take and insert photos, and arrange everything so that the poster looked 'nice'.
Sophia making her poster.

Kaci making his poster.
















Here are some finished products!

Maddox - what can you see beginning with a?

Xavier - look at all of these objects beginning with c!

Joel - love the background!

Mio - what starts with s?

Naai - great arrangement!

Nitika - lots of things beginning with m on this poster!

I introduced a couple of new maths games (new to Room 12 that is).

How many bananas to feed the monkey?

Dice bingo!

Write in the missing numbers.







Friday, March 28, 2014

News Circle

First of all, a wee apology, I forgot to send home the Poem Books.  Oops!

At news circle time we are learning to be great communicators by using a loud and clear voice when we are speaking.  We are also learning that great communicators show they listen by sitting without fidgeting with our own news and by looking at the speaker.

We all had news today - absolutely brilliant!


Oliver talked about his very own torch.
He even showed us how he can take the batteries out and put them back in.
Oliver told us that his torch takes size 'double A' batteries.

Kian spoke about his giant photographs.
Here is Mr Bojangles and a crayfish.
Heads up Mum and Dad - Miss O'Neill loves crayfish!  

Makylah showed everyone her favourite blanket.
She said it was very cuddly!

Mio showed us her missing tooth!  Can you see the hole?

Xavier spoke about his trains.
He got them for Christmas from Santa!

Naai talked about his big pirate ship.
He even showed us the 3 pirates that were hiding inside!

Kaci showed us his "Firebird Pontiac".
He talked about how you can see the engine, open the doors and even the boot!

This was Nitika's first time sharing news!
She spoke about her cuddly and soft toy called Rosie.

Sophia shared her wee puppy with us!

On Monday Maddox wrote about his superhero cape, so he brought it along to share for news too!
His very clever Mum made it!

I spoke about one of our school xylophones.
Thank you, Mio, for taking the photo.

Eita just loves his 'Ultra men'.
He especially likes twisting the hips 360 degrees!  

Today we had time to use our Marble Run set.  
There was a lot of collaboration going on here.  Ka pai Room 12!


This morning the wonderful Rooms 3 and 4 hosted assembly!
Thanks guys!

Thursday, March 27, 2014

More Science!

We love the Brainbox kits from Science Alive!

This is an example of a medium size Brainbox Kit.

Everything is colour coded.
All the kids need to do is re-create the picture....or they can make their own circuit!
Easy!



Electronic Fun! on PhotoPeach

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Science with Room 9!

This afternoon we had some visitors from Room 9 join us.  We partnered up and rotated around several activities in the classroom.  Activities included electronics (Brainbox kits), getting a torch to go by putting batteries in correctly, looking at bones with magnifying glasses, looking through electricity books, iPads, and using our snazzy new I SPY bags.  We had lots of fun!

Science with Room 9 on PhotoPeach

This is what our snazzy new I SPY bags look like.  The card displays all of the objects which are hidden inside the bag.  The idea is for children to use their hand-eye coordination and fine/gross motor skills to find each item.  A local lady makes them for $20 each and she can even personalise them for you (I bought one for my nieces and their names are on beads inside too).

Come and have a look at them in class.
 I can give you the details of the lady who makes them if you are interested in getting one/some.
I had totally forgotten I had taken these photos last week!  I just found them on my iPad!  Last Thursday we made patterns with our penguin maths equipment, then described our pattern.

Sophia - who happened to be First Mate that day too....can you tell?

Naai is drawing his pattern for his 'story plan'.

Here is Kian's story.  Didn't he do VERY well with spelling the word 'orange'?
At maths time we have lots of equipment to use.  We are very lucky to have so much of it.  At the moment the different maths groups are working on these learning intentions:

1.  Recognising numerals to 20.
2.  Adding numbers to 10 (by counting all of the objects).
3.  Adding numbers to 10 (by counting on from the biggest number).



Maths! on PhotoPeach

Monday, March 24, 2014

Chocolate Fish!

Three people have a chocolate fish coming their way!  Well done to Oliver's family, Mio's family and to Miss Olliff (Room 1) who answered my question about their favourite book.


If anyone else wants to earn a chocolate fish - this is the last chance!  Simply comment on this post and tell Room 12 what your favourite children's book is (remember to put your name in the comment so we know who you are).

If you are not sure how to make a comment you can find instructions on a tab at the top of our blog.

Sunday, March 23, 2014

Colar Mix app!

Last week we used the ColAR Mix app in class.  This is a snazzy app for apple/android software that makes your colouring in turn into 3-D pictures....that move!

Room 12 were so excited to see their picture come to life - the oral language it motivated was amazing!

It all began with this picture...
To see this page come to life, search 'colAR Mix' in iPad/iPhone/Android app store.
Copyright @ www.colarapp.com
After viewing our pictures through the app...this is what happened.













Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Website Tools

I've found this UK website that has handy tips about literacy and maths at home.  Click on the picture below if you're interested in having a look.


Our class blog also has pages of more website tools you can visit.  Just look above for the tabs...

I'm also really keen to find out who looks at our class blog.  If you have seen this post please leave a comment telling Room 12 your favourite children's book!  I have a chocolate fish for all Room 12 parents (and other family members of course!) who leave a comment!  Yum!

Monday, March 17, 2014

St Patricks Day!

Just for a little fun everyone came to school dressed with a bit of green today.  Room 12 even made some shamrock crowns to wear.
Happy in green.....and it looks like Oliver and I only have eyes for each other!  

Friday, March 14, 2014

Happy Birthday Mr Bojangles!

Today was Mr Bojangles 10th birthday!

Room 12 had balloons, party hats and we also make a blue birthday cake!  What fun!  Room 12 loves to bake...


Mr Bojangles Birthday! on PhotoPeach

Friday is also News day...

Mio shared her book about fish.
The book was written in Japanese, so Room 12 were interested to see what Japanese looked like.

Tahlia shared her monster transformer.
She picked and paid for it herself!

Eita shared his train!  He loves trains.

Makylah shared her rock.  She found it in her garden.

I shared a photo of my parents.

Oliver shared his compass that he got for Christmas.