Healthy Kai

This term we have been looking at food. We have been sorting foods into different groups and talking about healthy food choices.

Counting in 2s, 5s and 10s

Counting in 2s, 5s and 10s

Pangarau. Maths

We have been learning about the number eight this week. We have been learning through talking, sharing and making with playdough.

Nau mai, haere mai Reed!

Welcome to our new friend Reed. Reed is so brave, he had a go at cross country practice! We can't wait for our new friend to start school!

Lucy

Lucy and Eli made wings at lunchtime today. I liked how they discussed each of their designs

Max's favourite place!

Max loves the tyres. He loves to watch everyone from up high

Thank you Annaliese

Today I made real pasta! Annaliese and her Mum let me borrow their pasta maker. As part of our healthy Kai unit we may have to make some pasta in class

Literacy rotations

Last week I went to Cobden school to observe some of their fantastic ideas for teaching reading and writing.

I came back inspired from my trip and decided that our class could give it a go.   The tamariki have been learning a lot of independent literacy based activities. This allows me to pluck out groups for guided reading and writing.  The children are happy, engaged and working independently and I am able to work with my reading and writing groups.

Every time we read a new story the tamariki get to paint a picture about it - later on in the week they write a story about their painting.

We practice handwriting on our white boards - we are getting really good at this!

We choose our favourite book and do a book review. Our emergent writers and readers copy pictures and words for their book. Our tuakana record the title, illustration  and author.  Then they write whether or not they enjoyed their book.

The children are engaged through out their twenty minute activity.

I am able to work on quality reading and writing

Mahitahi in action!

Working together is fantastic!

Ka pai Eli!

Congratulations to our friend Eli - this week he achieved 100 nights of reading. Eli chose a Spaghetti bolognese party! Here we are making our healthy spaghetti bolognese and fresh fruit salad. 

Thank you Whaea Sam and Whaea Angela for your awhi in the kitchen!

Te Ngahuru Autumn

Our writing experience this week was "Walking in the autumn leaves".  The leaves were gliding, falling, and crunching under our feet.

Hareruia

Te wahanga tuatahi on PhotoPeach

Te wahanga tuatahi on PhotoPeach

I have moved a few things!

Kia ora whanau, I have just moved a few things on our blog.
Our mihi will be under Te Reo page tab.
Our songs are on the Waiata page tab.
I have also created a new Maori readers tab - for our digital books.
I hope this is easier to access and does not overload your computers

 Nga mihi mahana

 Whaea Carly

Izahn

Our friend Casey the Caterpillar

We have been working really hard with our tuhituhi pu  (handwriting).  I have introduced the Casey the caterpillar programme to our tamariki. Everyday we practice on our whiteboards and twice a week we practice in our books. Here are some of the shapes we use to form our letters correctly. We always start from the top of our letter and we focus on lower case letters first.

 open mouth

 tall stick

 tunnel

 short stick

 open mouth very big

 cricket leg

 possum tail

 hanging stick

 ladybird spot

 Sammy snake

 before our programme

 first day after our programme

 before our programme

first day after our programme

I am really excited to see the gains our tamariki make

Purple Cake Day 2012

Whaea Carly baked 44 cupcakes - they looked ugly but they tasted delicious!

she  also made 5 litres of purple jelly!

Te kura o Whakatu celebrating  Purple cake day

Ka pai tamariki ma!    I love the effort everyone made to wear purple!

I am glad you enjoyed your purple jelly and purple cup cakes!

Having fun!

Lucy loves to swim - here she is enjoying being underwater!

Izahn brought in his moustache!  He looks fantastic!

Whiteboards

This term we have new whiteboards. They are fantastic - we use them everyday as part of our reading, writing and handwriting programmes.   We are also using our new whiteboards in order to use less paper!