Today was the day of the School Triathlon. Our kids did SOOOOOOO well. Watch this space for examples of writing that the children do on their Triathlon experience.
Sorry no other photos as I was too busy helping the kids transition with the bikes! We had a parent kindly take photos and movies so when we get these we will share them with you.
We had a visitor (Tracy) come to our school to share with us the importance of folding our milk cartons properly so they can be sent off to be recycled into some really cool things, including; books, roof tiles, desk tops ...
We then wrote stories about this. Here is one Dakota has put into an explain everything presentation for you. Also here are some photos of us practicing our folding in the afternoon.
Today we had a visitor in our school who enjoyed seeing how we learn and interact with each other. She was interested in how we link our inquiry into all aspects of our learning and how we work with each other. Nice meeting you Sherry!
In maths we have been focusing on place value, and learning about how we read/say/make numbers that have tens and ones. Here you can see a group of children working together to solve some problems on our teaching station. They have been also learning how to complete similar activities on the iPads and will be able to share that on our blog shortly.
Today Daniel and his mum came in with a special 'what is it?' question. We all discussed we thought it might be and why we thought it might be that. We even got to touch it. In the end Daniel told us it was a broadbill fish (AKA Swordfish).
We then choose to change our writing focus for the day so that we could write about such a magic experience. Thank you Daniel and your family!
Visible learning is happening in our classroom already but we are all just a little excited about getting our board going again. The children have really been missing being able to look up and see what we are up to next.
Its not until you don't have something sometimes, that you really work out how much you use it.
SADLY ...
We have been unable to mount the projector as we were sent the wrong parts so fingers crossed we get it up and going shortly.
I have to say SORRY to all the parents of children in the Jets and Bicycles who have been bombarded with children bring crickets to and from school. This has also becoming a class wide experience as more children get recruited to find crickets in the playground.
Last week the children had a book about crickets, and I encouraged them to make a cricket house, and research crickets. They loved making these and taking them home, with crickets inside. This kind of learning has continued at school I promise you, with children overturning rocks and chasing crickets all around the playground. They have also looked up books in the library and enjoyed re-reading the cricket book we had used in class.
This has been a fantastic learning context for the children so please bear with it and remember to ask them questions about what they are learning. If you have time you could also look up information about crickets together. Feel free to email me information and photos of your experiences together!
kariene@ohaeawaiprimary.co.nz
Wednesday, 1 March 2017
We had a great day with Tracey learning how to be safe in the water with a life jacket. We learnt how 'tight is right!' To have our jacket snug and tight to help keep us safe. We also learnt how to huddle together and kick in a line.
We can't wait until tomorrow when Beth comes in to follow on with our water safety learning.
Today our chocks returned from their amazing holiday at the Munfords. A group of us got to take the chocks around and release them back in their house. Here is a video that Te-Marama took of us. She did an amazing job. Well done Te Marama.
Wow! What a fantastic Day we have had today in Team Maunga. We all worked hard to create our literacy and numeracy place mats, and some of us even got to dye them this afternoon. Also this afternoon Mrs G took a small group outside to create a hut that we will now be able to get Matua Ken to help us finish off. Here are a few movie clips that the students created of themselves making this hut.
Today we looked at the letter C. They have been set a challenge to create something that starts with the letter C. This might be a picture of a cat, or a catapult made of toothpicks, or anything else they wish to create. The children can either bring it to school, email, or draw pictures of what they have created. We will share these at news time.
Please remember that on the stationary list that went home this afternoon you only need the items at the top of the list. The items in the bottom box are only if you need to replace these items from last year. However each student will need a portfolio. You can either choose to take out what was in your child's portfolio last year and return this one, or you could purchase a new one.
We are still waiting for the swimming pool to be ready and will let you know when daily swimming will start. We will also confirm your child’s library days when groups are finalised. Spelling this year looks to be really exciting. We are moving away from our previous lists to align with the essential words lists. All children will be tested over the next few days and following this we will send home the appropriate list in your child’s learning journal. We are looking for spelling testers. If you are available to do this please let either Mrs G or Mrs S know.
Here is the Advent Calendar that Room 5 & 6 made. The idea came from Mrs G's class from last year. It relates to the 'Fill a Bucket' book series that compliment our school values. Please share and discuss this at home. Feel free to send us photos of your children doing things on the calendar.
This week we have been learning how to write reports. Mrs Gardiner was back in class today so the Centipede and Snails reading groups were introduced to their independent reading projects for this week and next.
Today we had were lucky to have Mr Bell come into our classroom to help us learn about the iMac. Jake and Ella were learning how to transfer images and videos from the iPad onto the iMac. Well done you two, and thankyou Mr Bell.
Along side this we also had a group of children learning how to use a tool called Thinglink. This can be use both on Computer as well as on iPad. We were using iPads today. Here are some links to ones children created today. Please bear in mind that this was a first attempt.
Miss Penney helped us make a movie to share our fire safety learning.
We learnt if there is a fire we need to ...
"Get down! Get low! Get out fast!" Have you made an escaped plan for at home?
We also learnt that matches are tools not toys. We know to give them to an adult if we find them on the ground.
Here is our movie.
Last term we had a visit from Ann-Marie from Civil Defence at FNDC. We learnt all about how to look and listen for natural warning signs for a tsunami and how to keep safe. We all designed a storyboard of our learning and created a class storyboard for a movie. Arbey, Mason D, and Cruz filmed our storyboard, and Jake and Sydney-Rose edited and put together the final product.
We won first equal in the movie competition!
Today Room 5 & 6 had great fun trialing out Mrs G's Breakout kits. They were super excited because they had seen and heard about the big kids doing 'Breakouts', so today was their chance to give it a go!
This breakout was focused on our current and recent Maths learning. The video link below shows the kids working together, and how this empowered them to use the skills they have learnt in class to solve problems.
Well done Room 5 & 6
Wednesday, 7 September 2016
On Monday we visited Mrs Graham's blog at Tautoro School http://mrsgrahamr2.blogspot.co.nz/
We learnt the song Ra Whanau from their blog. It helped that the lyrics were there too.
Today was Kaira's birthday. Her mum made a marvellous birthday cake for us to share. We sang our new song to Kaira. Whaea Taka played the guitar and taught us a new way to cheer at the end.
Some of our reading groups have been working with a buddy to create an independent Reading Projected based around their interest in the Olympic Games. Students got to choose a buddy to work with for this project, and then worked through a framework that would support them to create this as it is their first project of this type.
Students had guided reading sessions with me (reading texts about the Olympics), were able to access pre-selected online learning sites that would support them in answering these questions as well as utilizing the library resources on their 'book club' day. On Thursday afternoon they went to show their presentations to children in the senior room who offered them feedback and support to improve these presentation further. Students then shared these with our class. Here are a few that we wanted to share with you.
Last Friday we had a whole school Olympic afternoon. Room 7 and 9 organised all kinds of fun Olympic games we could choose to do. One of my favourites was the equestrian event. We used hockey sticks for horses and had to race down the track! Team Maunga will be putting together a movie to share all the activities with you. Keep an eye on our blog for it.
At the end of the day we had our school Olympic ceremony. Three kids from Team Maunga won sportsmanship prizes, Tanner, Teziah, and Ngarino. They showed all our school values we are so proud of them!
We also had medal winners for overall points.
Joel (Room 4) won Bronze, Cody (Room 6) won Silver, and Pauline (Room 5) won GOLD!
Team Maunga really enjoyed the day and can't wait for you to see our photos.
This week in Talk to learn Ngarino and Teziah have been learning communication skills around the topic of shopping. As a treat they got to put these skills into practice by walking down to our local Dairy and buying an Ice Cream. They had to use sign language, and their core board to communicate with each other, their Teacher Aids, Me AND the shopkeepers. Here is a video we have create together to help them relive and build on their learning in the future. A great REWINDABLE learning example for these children.
Here is a quick video star that a student created at the end of term 3. I only just discovered it on the iPad so enjoy viewing our collaborative classrooms from a students point of view, and what their self selected mixed ability level groups look like. As a teacher it was very interesting to see what students see, and how the class interact with learning tasks, each other and me.
Each day this week we have been working on little maths problems as part of Maths week in our school. On Friday the question meant that we had to research who had won the Gold medal in the Olympics (the first one) and what was the time that it was won in. This worked well with our weekly maths rotation as on Fridays we have our Fun Facts Fridays (3 minute basic facts challenge), and then work in groups to complete problems. Here are some photos that were taken of us working together this week.
Enjoy.
Monday, 8 August 2016
Well done Cody, Jake, and Ariana for moving to stage 4 basic facts. They all got 100% in under 3 minutes. They are now working on their green stage 4 basic facts rocket.
Friday, 5 August 2016
At the end of last term Ohaeawai staff all had another secret staff member for random acts of kindness week. We had a room full of angels helping deliver secret goodies and special surprises around the school.
Mrs G helped us sing along with Garage band to Reach for the Stars by S Club 7. We put the photos with our singing to show you some of our Team Maunga Angels. You will also see photos of how we reach for the stars with our learning.
Last term Mrs Ritchie came in to show us how to make animations on Explain Everything. Here are some animations by Piata, Marco, Jake, Mollie and Kristy that they made to go with their narrative writing.
Today Mrs Ritchie came back to help us. We are working on animations to show what to do in an earthquake. When we are finished we will post them here. We are getting better at grouping objects!
