Celebrations!

As you know, our inquiry unit this term is all about celebrations. It’s fun looking in to the different ways we celebrate birthdays, Christmas and Easter, as well as, learning about some of the celebrations that people from other cultures celebrate. Diwali was one of the celebrations we looked in to, and it’s especially relevant as not only do we have a large Indian community here in Wellington who put on the Diwali Festival at the TSB centre every year, but Saisha and her family celebrate Diwali. So we have a little expert who shared with us some of the things that they do. We learnt about divas, rangoli patterns, and explored henna patterns. We also read the big book ‘Diwali’.

Rangoli patterns are so striking with their bright colours and use of patterning we decided that we would do our calendar art with a rangoli pattern. So we explored how to use water colour paints: How much water do we need to activate the paint? We learnt that a wee bit of water can make the colour intense and vibrant, or how adding lots can make it pale and light. What is the correct way to use a paint brush? Does it matter if we use a thick paint brush, or is it better to use a thinner one? All of the children in Room 1B should be able to answer these questions now. We are still exploring though, as painting is tricky business! I was so impressed with how well our pictures came out. Each picture was different, but equally as stunning as the next.

Our calendars have been ordered and are in the process of being printed. Hopefully we will receive them soon! Thank you for ordering them! I know you will be happy with the product you receive.

Jenna J

A Splashing Load of Fun at Ally Todd

We had so much fun learning to swim at Ally Todd! We got our confidence up in the water and almost all of Room 1B can put our heads under the water now! Some of us can float on our tummies and backs, and a couple of us can swim “free style”.

The feedback from our instructors is to keep going to the pool to make sure we are really confident and able to put our heads under.

We looked mega cute all geared up with our togs on, swimming caps on and googles at the ready. By the end of it all Miss Hannah had putting swimming caps on down to one smooth motion. She was pretty chuffed! Some of us splashed her while we were swimming by accident. It was funny, but she looked pretty silly. We think she should bring her togs next time!

Check us out on our last swimming lesson!

 

Swimming at Ally Todd

Term 4 started off with a splash for Room 1A with our swimming lessons at Ally Todd pool. Mrs Pupuke was amazed by the fantastic progress we made in a short amount of time but is looking forward to not getting splashed by those strong kicking feet!

Happy Diwali!

During Weeks 4 and 5 we are learning all about Diwali. Room 1A has been fascinated to discover everything that is involved in celebrating Diwali. We have enjoyed listening to the exciting tale of Rama and Sita, colouring rangoli patterns, watching videos of the thousands of twinkling 'Diya' that light up the streets during Diwali and modelling some traditional silk sari. We made rangoli pattern biscuits on Friday and some brave students even sampled some samosa and bhaji which are traditional Indian snacks.  This week we will be comparing Diwali to celebrations that we take part in and making some Diwali related crafts.

Let's Celebrate!

Room 1A's Inquiry focus for Term 4 is 'Celebrations'. We are going to be learning about celebrations around the world and comparing and contrasting these celebrations with the ones we take part in in New Zealand. Karyn (Our wonderful teacher aide) brought in some carp flags that she used as part of Children's Day celebrations when she was living in Japan. We learnt you fly one carp for each family member and that the different colours and sizes represent different members of the family. It took three of us to hold up the black kite which represents the father! We are looking forward to celebrating Diwali soon and have been busy making rangoli patterns to decorate our classroom.

A Whole Term of WONDERFUL!

This is my first post and WOW haven't we done a lot over the past term! We started the term with a hiss and a roar; we had lots of fun exploring drama, the elements and dramatic play. So much fun that we performed in front of the whole school! I was so proud of the children who performed. It was a big ask to perform in front of 300+ students, and their teachers, and parents. They were amazing! They projected their voices, performed to the audience, and stayed in character. Clearly a class of budding actors!

Throughout the term we have been reading, writing, and rocking maths. We have groups that are based on children's needs and abilities, and when they aren't working with me they are having fun exploring the other elements of numeracy and literacy. During this time rotations are set up and one of our favourite rotations is play dough! At this station we explore letter and number formation, 1 to 1 matching, and making interesting shapes and models. The learning involved is more than just exploring literacy and numeracy elements as we are also working on our fine motor skills. Rolling play dough in to balls and snakes helps us to develop our muscles in our fingers, hands, and arms. This helps us in all aspects of life, but it is especially helpful to strengthen our pen and pencil grip.This could be a fun activity to do at home too. Making play dough is super easy and a great way to explore measurement.

We wrapped up the term with more exploration of The Arts. We choreographed a routine for the school production. Ryker suggested the music - "Shake It Off" by Taylor Swift, which was a hit across the school. Every time we put it on students, teachers and parents couldn't help but boogie to it too! We had to make our head piece, a Fairy Basslet fish, which we painted bright colours and covered in glitter paint. We did 3 shows and each and every time Room 1B performed their best! I was blown away by how brave they were, their ability to remember our dance under pressure and their mad dancing skills! We are seriously a classroom of performers! It was lovely to see parents and whanau who had come to watch and then to see your proud faces afterwards.

As you know, Room 1B has grown, in fact we have tripled in size! We started Term 3 with 5 children and finished with 15. We are spending time learning how school works: setting up routines and expectations, learning about what it means to be a good classmate and friend, as well as doing our reading, writing, and maths. It's very busy, but lots of fun!

As always, you are welcome to come in and see me if you have any questions. Please check out our classroom and our work; we love showing you our learning.

Jenna, aka Miss Hannah :)
jennah@paremata.school.nz

P.S. Check out some “highlights” photos of our term. Aren’t we adorable?!



P.P.S. Check out Emily showing off her poster to advertise for the School Gala. She won best picture across all of the junior entries! Well done, Emily!

Friendly Me

Room 1A are currently learning about friendship and co-operation. We know that these two things make Room 1A a happy and safe place to learn and grow. We have been practicing these skills in lots of different ways and today we played 'Chain Races' in PE. We had to work together to make sure that everybody in our team could keep up and no-one was left behind. The lesson we learnt was that it wasn't necessarily the teams with the fastest runners that won, it was the teams who stayed together and helped each other out.

Room 1A's Wonderful Winter Writing

We are working on descriptive writing this term and this week our challenge was to use our senses to describe Winter. Mrs Pupuke was amazed by the wonderful language we used to describe how Winter looks, smells, tastes, sounds and feels :)


Winter - by Isaac
Winter looks like snow on the ground.
Winter feels like frozen fingers.
Winter smells like hot chicken that is in the oven.
Winter tastes like frozen ice.
Winter sounds like rain making a booming sound.


Winter - by Fynn
Winter looks like snow on a big hill.
Winter feels like snow falling down on you.
Winter smells like hot fire in the fire place.
Winter tastes like warm cookies.
Winter sounds like crackling ice.

Winter - by Jordy
Winter looks like frozen trees are still.
Winter feels like frozen hands are cold.
Winter smells like nothing because people have a cold.
Winter tastes like  snow and ice that is cold.
Winter sounds like  wind and fire crackling.

Winter - by Emily
Winter looks like  icicles hanging from branches.
Winter feels like cold fingers and cold toes.
Winter smells like hot soup.
Winter tastes like hot beef.
Winter sounds like rain falling on the roof.

Delicious Dirt Desserts!

Delicious Dirt Desserts! on PhotoPeach

We have been working hard on our learning all term and achieving some fantastic things. After putting in all this effort we decided it was time to have some fun! On the last day of term we made some minibeast themed desserts. They may look disgusting but they taste deeeeeeeeeelicious!

Here is a link to the recipe we used for those brave souls who want to try it at home (We used instant pudding instead of the jelly mix.)
http://www.ohnuts.com/blog/dirt-pudding-cups-with-gummy-worms-recipe/

Room 4 makes Weta Motels

">Room 4 make Weta Motels on PhotoPeach

Room 4 make Weta Motels on PhotoPeach

Room 1A to the Rescue!

Room 1A are not just fantastic learners, we are super-heroes as well! Watch us help George rescue his bananas from an evil monkey......

Stormy Fun

 The weather hasn't been so great over the last few weeks but on Friday we decided to make storms fun! We used water, shaving cream and food colouring to make 'Storms in a Cup'. We loved squirting the thick, puffy shaving foam and watching the food colouring swirl through the water. Today we wrote some instructions so you can try this at home too!

How to make a 'Storm in a Cup' by Room 1A

Ingredients:
Water
Shaving Foam
Food Colouring

1. First fill half a cup with water.
2. Next squirt in some shaving foam.
3. After that put a table spoon of blue food colouring on top of the shaving foam.
4. Last watch the food colouring drip through the foam and swirl around in the water like a storm.

A Very Hungry Caterpillar...

Room 1A will be learning all about Minibeasts during Term 2.
Before we start a topic it's always good to talk about what we already know and it turns out we are EXPERTS on caterpillars. Last term we were lucky enough to be given two Swan Plants and some VERY hungry caterpillars. We have enjoyed watching them crunch and munch through the plants, make their own chrysalis and finally turn into beautiful butterflies, We are looking forward to learning more about other minibeasts this term and sharing our knowledge with the other classes in the Junior Syndicate.

Making Shape Pictures

Making Shape Pictures on PhotoPeach

Reading and learning about flags.

Reading and learning about flags on PhotoPeach

Discovery in Room 4

Room 4 Discovery on PhotoPeach