Thursday 27 October 2016

Term 4 So Far...

With a new teacher and lots of new children Room 8 has been very busy already this term! We are lucky to have Mrs Somervell join us as well as Fern, Natalia, Willow, Ava, Alyssa, Kayden, Trevahn and Leo. You have all made a super start to school.

Our topic this term is 'Responsibility'. In Room 8 we have been thinking about ways to keep safe. We know that in order to be safe in a boat you MUST wear a life jacket. The children have enjoyed making their own boat, including designing and making a Nayland sail for the boat. Lots of awesome negotiating and team work is going on here.

All ready to set off on a fishing adventure.
Can you see our awesome sail?
Catching some fish.
The Toy Shop has been a great addition to our classroom. The children are loving being shopkeepers and customers, buying toys to play with in the class. Here Paige is serving Keira. Keira needs to tell Paige what she wants to buy and Paige writes it down on the clipboard.
Amazing writing
We also love playing games together. The children know how to take turns and show good sportsmanship, if when they aren't winning. One of our favourites is the memory game, which Sangi is a real expert at.


For the first time in awhile we got our Beebot (a programmable robot) out. The built a maze together and then had to programme the Beebot to move in the right direction through the maze. It took a long time and lots of attempts but we got there in the end.





Saturday 27 August 2016

Term 3 - Week 5

Our class is growing once again, over the last few weeks we have welcomed Joplin, Jake, Sienna, Paige and Joseph so Room 8 really is a busy place to be.

We have been finishing up our unit on movement but everyone still loves towers. This time Rylan set himself he challenge of building a tower higher than Mr Ward. He hasn't quite managed it yet but did manage to make one taller than he is. Do you have any advice for Rylan?

The tyres on our outside area have also been a big hit. The children have been rolling, stacking and building all sorts of things with them. This has been a great opportunity for the children to work together for a shared goal.





Ever Wednesday Britt from Nelson Girls spends the day with us. Last week some lucky children got to go with her to decorate some biscuits. They certainly looked delicious.



We have also been 'Buddy Reading' with Room 5 every Tuesday. During this time the children read a story to their buddy from their browsing box and then to to listen to their buddy read a story. This is a great opportunity to gain confidence and build relationships with others.


Have a relaxing weekend everyone.

Sunday 31 July 2016

Term 3 - Week 1

This week we welcomed 7 new students, there seems to be lots of children turning 5! Api, Tama, Ben, Amelia, Knut, Eleanor and Hadrian have all made an excellent start in Room 8. Next week we have even more new students joining us.

We have all had a great time learning about movement over the last few days. The children have been busy building towers, creating marble and ball runs, transporting stones and many other things. There is so much learning we can have through play. Here are some photos of our investigations:
Working together to build a tower. The children thought hard about how they could make it steady.
The children wanted to move the stones around and decided the water tray would be a great way to do this.
The wheel barrow also came in handy.
Looking carefully to see what happened to the ball.

What a masterpiece!
Inside the class there was more building, here the children are making their own marble run.
Koby set himself the challenge of building a tower higher than 1 metre. It took many attempts and much perseverance but he finally got there.
The beginning of a new term means it is our turn for 'No Child Left Inside' again. On Monday we sent some time with the quoits practising throwing. It was very tricky to get to over the stick or in the hoop but a few children managed it.



On Friday we attempted to hold the Great Dart Throwing Extravaganza, unfortunately the wind got the better of us. Perhaps we will hold a rematch next week.

See you all on Monday.


Sunday 3 July 2016

Term 2 - Week 9

On Monday we had a visit from the New Zealand Playhouse who put on a play for us called 'The Fairest of Them All'. In the show Snow White gets sent back to the forest by the Magic Mirror and needs the help of the Seven Dwarfs once again. The children loved the performance and there were many laughs. Here are some pictures from the performance:







Week 9 really was the week for visitors! We also had Jerri who used to work at Nayland Primary sometimes came to Room 8. Jerri is an author who has written a book called Kate and Caboodle. It is a fabulous story and the children loved the opportunity to listen to a story being read by its author.

The children may have talked to you about our new handwriting programme called 'Casey Caterpillar'. The photo below shows children practising some of the shapes needed to form letters correctly. More information will be coming home about this soon so keep an eye out.


We were also lucky enough to get some new sports equipment. After waiting a few days for some sunshine it was finally nice enough to go out and practise with them. Everyone listened carefully and threw the ball to their partner.


Friday 24 June 2016

Term 2 - Week 7 and 8

Last week we began our unit on sustainability. Sarah from the Enviro Centre came and talked to us about the things we could do to reduce the amount of landfill. She brought lots of rubbish with her and we looked carefully at each piece to decide if we could reuse or recycle it. Recycling is great for the environment!
After the visit from Sarah we decided to look at what things we could reuse in the classroom. We emptied out the paper recycling box and looked carefully at everything in it. We decided that we could use all the paper that had only been written on one side again and took it out. Here is the sorting in progress:
After sorting the paper we were still left with a lot. We have been busy recycling the scrap paper into new paper and hopefully everybody will have a piece each to do something special with, Recycling paper is hard work!
Mixing the paper into pulp.
Flipping the paper onto the drying card.
Sponging out the excess water.
The children have been using our Numicon equipment to learn some amazing new maths skills. Coby spent a long time finding different ways to make 10 and Ellebethel ordered the numbers all the was up to 10. Ka pai tō mahi!


Our tinkering area has been a big hit the last couple of weeks. So far we have taken apart some speakers, a phone and an old toaster. It has been very interesting to see what the inside of all these things looked like. Do you have any old (and broken) electronic equipment that we could take apart? If so please bring it into school.





Ka kite everyone.

Sunday 12 June 2016

Weeks 5 and 6

What a great 2 weeks we have had in Room 8, more new faces have joined us and there has been a real buzz in the classroom. We have been busy with 2 trips out of school, the cross country and a visit to kindy. We were fortunate to have a lovely day for the cross country and all the children gave it their best. I have lots of photos of children racing but here are just a few of them:



At kindy there were lots of new things to explore and old friends to visit. We taught the kindy children our good morning song and they showed us their play of 'The Seven Fish of Matariki'. Here is some of the children performing the song and a few action shots:



Last week we had a 'Power Free Day'. Lots of children brought torches to school and we spent some of the morning designing and building huts. There were lots of changes throughout the process but everyone was happy with the final product. Here are some of the budding architects:
Week 7 already next week, the term really is racing by!