Our trip to Hukanui Marae was exciting.
We went on the bus. We had to wait quietly to go onto the marae. The kuia called us on with a karanga. We sat on the mats and listened to Koro.
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| The Office and Sickbay |
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| The Library |
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| Our Swimming Pool |
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| The Hall |
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| The Redwood Tree - Stand Tall, Reach High Tū Tangata Tū Māia! |
Kia Ora, ngā mihi nui ki a koutou
No Matamata ahau
Ko John tāku papa
Ko Carol tāku mama
Ko Hendry tāku tane
Ko Thomas tāku tama
Ko Emily tāku tāmahine
E noho ana au ki Kirikiriroa.
My name is Rhonda Follows. The children can call me Rhonda or Whaea Rhonda.
Kia Ora Whanau
We have had a great start to Term 4. All learners are engaged, and happy to be back at school.
This term is very busy, with the main focus of a trip to the zoo in Week 6. We have started to talk about wild animals and their habitats, thinking about how animals move, and if they have fur, skin, paws, claws, etc. The zoo trip and associated learning is always a fun and engaging topic for the class.
Week 1 has been a chance to talk about what we did in the holidays, and to play.
Hairdressers (or barbers) has been the ongoing game this week, which also included taking phone calls and making appointments. Literacy and numeracy are woven into play, as well as developing social skills such as turn-taking. Language is being developed, and children are making sense of something that happens in their world via play.
After the play, we talked about who can really cut our hair, the hairdresser, barber, or Mum or Dad. Important to know the difference between play and reality!
We finished the week with a focus on learning new skills with pallet painting. This is a process where the brush has to be dipped in water and then applied to the block of paint, the cleaned before choosing another colour. A very calming and soothing activity.
Children could choose what they wanted to paint, but rainbows seemed to be the interest!
This week we were lucky enough to have the Rock Kit from the House of Science.
We started by looking closely at rocks/stones with a partner - what could we see?
There were many types of rocks, so we saw lots of colors and shapes.
Then we went on a rock hunt of our own. We know that vulcanologists look at rocks, but we also learned that geologists study rocks too.
When we had found our rocks we washed them and looked at them closely with magnifying glasses.
In the Rock Kit were samples of fossils. We spent time looking closely at these fossils (5 - 10 million years old!!), talking about how fossils had formed, and what was in them.
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We have been exploring ideas about the coming of winter, leaves falling off trees, and how this happens. Our poem this week was about winter...
