Chalk drawing and music

Today we wrote messages around the school.  Did you see them?


Chalk drawing around the school on PhotoPeach

Room 12 had a great time learning about Hoe Down music with Mrs Frost.  Did you know the term Hoe Down comes from when the workers finished their work and put down their hoes - time to celebrate!

Can you spot the lager phones?

Can you spot the stamping pipes?

Team Time and Similes!

As most of you know, on Monday afternoons Otakaro have Team Time.  All of the Otakaro children have been put into 4 mixed groups and they rotate around the 4 different teachers twice a term.  Each teacher takes a different focus:

Mrs Pringle - Visual Art

Mrs Nancekivell - Dance/Drama

Miss Harris - Te Reo and Tikanga Maori

Miss O'Neill - Sporty Fun

As it was VERY cold yesterday afternoon I decided to run some inside games from 100 years ago (which fits in with our Life Without Electric Energy theme this term).  My team rotated around the following games:

• Hopscotch
• Naughts and Crosses (or in our case, it was bananas and apples!)
• Marbles
• Spinning tops
• Tiddlywinks

Team Time 26.5.14 on PhotoPeach

Today at writing time we talked about 'similes' (comparing something using the word 'as') so we wrote similes this morning about how COLD it was.

Sophia's nose was as cold as strawberry ice cream!

Adela's fingers were as cold as ice cream.

Oliver's fingers were as cold as a fridge.

Kaci's car was as cold as a frozen lake.

Xavier woke up this morning and found his hands were as cold as ice cream.

One of the maths groups used the iPads this morning to recognise patterns to 10, then 20.  The children had to compete with their partner to find the pattern first!

Snow!

Today just before writing time we noticed it was snowing outside!

Looking out the window at the snow!

Room 12 are very excited!

 Here are some super duper stories about what Room 12 might do if the snow settles.

Adela will do a snow angel.

Oliver made a pretty accurate observation!

Sophia is going to make a snow bunny!

Nitika did this all by herself!

Xavier knows that snow mouse car will melt in the sun.

Kian is becoming a brilliant wee writer!

Kaci took Mr Bojangles home for the weekend.  Look at his fabulous writing in Mr Bojangles diary!

Maddox is practicing to do 5+ problems.

Discovery Time

Kids love Discovery Time!

Today we had train sets, lego, barbie dolls, water play, city building, construction, painting, tracing/drawing/chalk drawing and puppet theatre.  What a choice!  We do Discovery Time at 2pm EVERY Friday now....if any parent/aunt/uncle/grandparent/friend of the family wants to come along and help out - just let us know!  All help is greatly appreciated.

Discovery Time 23.5.14 on PhotoPeach

After each writing time we always share our fabulous writing.  Usually we read it out to the class, but today we got into little groups and read our stories to them instead.  Room 12 are amazing writers.  All of them are using their word cards to help them find words to write, and for finding the sounds that they can hear in tricky words.  I felt a bit redundant at writing time today and not many of them wanted my help!

Every now and again we complete an activity on paper about one of our basic sight words we are learning to read.  Yesterday's word was 'going'.  I thought Eita and Kaci did a fabulous job with their activity!

Leaf Fight and Telligami stories

After Kapa Haka today Room 12 had a leaf fight over at the hills - what fun we had!


Leaf Fight! on PhotoPeach

Here is Makylah's story about our leaf fight:

We had a leaf fight with Kaci and Eita too.  We went up at the mountains.  I threw leaves at Miss O'Neill.
Ka pai, Makylah!!!

Last week we wrote fabulous stories about tigers.  Today we used the Telligami App on the iPads to make special avatars say our story.  It was so much fun to choose what our avatar would look like, and record our stories.  Here they are:

Maddox:


Eita:


Makylah wrote so much she had to speak fast to squeeze her story into 30 seconds of recording:


Sophia:


Kian:


Naai:


Kaci:


Mio:

Nitika:


Oliver:


Xavier:


Adela's telligami will be put on tomorrow....we made one, but I must have forgotten to email it to myself...oops!  We'll make it again tomorrow.

Out of the mouths of 5 year olds....

I absolutely love teaching!

Especially new entrants!  They come to school with an awesome attitude, they really want to do well, and they say and do the FUNNIEST things which make me laugh out loud.

This morning I was looking through the handwriting books to see what Room 12 had done on Tuesday (while I was away sick) and I found this.

Anyone want to know about 'slow motion kissing'?

I laughed so loud that Mrs Pringle heard me from next door.  Well done, Adela!

No such thing as electricity!

Last term we looked at electrical energy and what it is used for.  This term we are looking how people did things without electricity.  Say what?

To coincide with forming the letter 'b' at handwriting time on Friday we made some butter...without using electricity.  It was so much fun!  After that we used the butter to make some 'fairy biscuits'.  Yum!


Making butter on PhotoPeach

During the week we also talked about the things children did 100 years ago to amuse themselves.  Room 12 were a bit shocked to discover that children couldn't watch television, play on an iPad, or use a remote control car!  They were also a little surprised to find that most kids could sew their own clothes, or sew their own repairs 100 years ago.  So we had a go at some sewing.  Room 12 persevered...and look!  What a great job!

The finished product

Tomorrow we are going to learn how to play hopscotch...

Cuddly Toy Day!

We should have cuddly toy day more often!  It was amazing to see how focussed and happy everyone was!

We love our cuddly toys!

Kaci wrote about his cuddly monkey!  What a fabulous job he did...what do you think?

Maddox wrote about his cuddly blanket that he got as a baby.

We've been learning about the concept of HALF for maths this week.  Did you know that everyone in Room 12 can cut a shape in half?

Kaci is colouring in half of the triangle.

Adela can colour a half too.

Mio can fill in the missing half.

Nitika can fill in the missing half too.

Happy Mother's Day!

Today Room 12 made a cute movie to say "We love you, Mum!".  The children love hearing their own voice...

I hope you have a lovely day and do something special.

Cuddly Toy Day

First day back after the holidays...

Can I just say Room 12 are the best?  Everyone gets on with each other really well, they're so helpful and kind.....and they always do their best work!  I am so lucky to have such a brilliant class.

A big welcome to Adela who turned 5 in the holidays.  She stayed for the whole day today and already seems really comfortable at school.

Over the next two weeks we are learning about fractions (mainly halves and quarters) so we had a little introduction this morning.  They all had a go at activities like pizza cutting, paper folding and cutting, and various fraction puzzles.
Fractions! on PhotoPeach
This afternoon we tried a new idea called 'Cafe Writing' (not entirely sure where the name came from) where there are large pieces of paper around the classroom for children to write/draw/practice on.  It is a super activity to practice pencil grip, hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills....plus they had fun!  We're allowed to have fun at school right?

Cafe Writing on PhotoPeach