"Stepping Out" with Constable Kendrick.

For the last two weeks of term we are learning about Road Safety through the Stepping Out programme.  The aim of the programme is to encourage and assist children to behave in a safe way as pedestrians or passengers in a traffic environment.  Constable Kendrick has come to help us with the kerb drill and is coming back to help us with patrols and wardens and bus safety.

Room 2's New Classroom

Due to our classroom being deemed as unsafe, we have moved into the hall. Room 14 and Room 3 are also in the hall. We have some dividers now and are still hopeful of some carpet. The children have all adapted very well to the changes and look on it as a bit of an adventure!

                     

Team One's Discovery Day on the 31st of August 2012

Last Friday Team One had another Discovery Day. Room 1 had been studying the letter "i" so the activities were dress-ups and musical instruments, yoghurt ice-cream, insects and igloos. Room 14 had been studying the letter "v" so the activities were making a volcano, painting violets, making vultures and playing with vehicles. In Room 2 we had been studying the "gr" blend. The activities were planting seeds to grow, making origami and clothes peg grasshoppers, putting grated cheese on grainy bread and grilling it and playing "Grab the Bean Bag." Room 3 had a pet theme and you could make pet poppoids, pet puppets, dog biscuits, a fish and a kennel for a dog. We all had to try and do two manipulative activities to show at the end.

Our Trip to the S.P.C.A.

On Wednesday the 29th of September Room 2 walked to the S.P.C.A. We went as part of our Inquiry Unit. Jo talked to us about what they do at the S.P.C.A. and then showed us around. They are expecting to get a lot of cats soon but only have two there at the moment plus her cat Fleur who was visiting.
Here are some of the stories we wrote.
"I patted the cat. She is soft. My Mum came there too. We walked there because it was a sunny day. I felt happy because I liked the animals." by Grace
"I went to the S.P.C.A. I liked the S.P.C.a. because they had so many puppies. I like the puppies." by Dion
"We went to the S.P.C.A. We walked all the way there. When we got there it was noisy. There was a cat caled Fleur. Jo said she was just having a visit. She doesn't have a bed. I really enjoyed the dog." by Kayan

Team 1's Cupcake Day for the S.P.C.A.

As part of our Inquiry Unit on Pets and the S.P.C.A. Team 1 had a Cupcake Day for the S.P.C.A. The teachers in Team 1 made cupcakes and the children paid $1 to buy a cupcake. The teachers also made cupcakes for the staff to buy. We will take the money to the S.P.C.A. when we go later in the week.

Joy Watson - Visiting Author.

Last term we did an author study on three authors. One of these authors was Joy Watson. She lives in Havelock North. When we were doing our author study we talked to Joy Watson using a polycom conference. On August the 27th Joy Watson came to visit our school.

She told us about her family. She has nine children altogether - seven daughters, two sons and twenty eight grandchildren.

Joy Watson has had fifteen books published - five of these are about Grandpa. All of these books are still available to buy. Some of her other books that she had with her were,"Just in Case," "Zita the Zebra'" and "Pets." She told us that she writes stories because she likes reading stories. She also talked about having an idea and how it can be true or made up. She read us a Camel story. Matua gave her some flowers and Joshua said thank you and gave her one of Mrs. E's famous cakes. We really enjoyed her visit and wish she could have read a whole story but she had to go onto Team 2.

Our Maths Discovery Day

On Friday the 17th of August Team 1 had a Maths Discovery Day to coincide with New Zealand Maths Week. All of the activities involved Maths in some way. In Room 2 the activities were Guess the number of Beans (the answer was 112 so well done Matua!), triangular puzzles, time activities, tangrams, calculators, cooking, dominoes and maths games. Some of the activities the other three classes had were weighing, estimating, target throwing, Interactive Whiteboard activities, geometrical patterns and symmetry activities. We had to complete an activity in three different classrooms. A big thank you has to go to Mr. Dunn and the Room 15 students who helped us with the activities. It was great to see the big children helping the little children.

Each day of the week we did the daily challenges off the website and on Friday afternoon we went to the Computer Suite to play some of the maths games.

Everyone enjoyed Maths Week and had lots of fun.