Each week we focus on a letter to learn, read and write about. We do this through phonics, singing, reading stories, handwriting, alphabet activities, letter writing, play dough, Language Experience, make and do and lots of other things.
This week for Language Experience we are making something beginning with Xx. Can you think of something that begins with Xx?
This week we are learning about the letter Xx. We will learn its name, its sound, how to write and recognise it and about some things that begin with this letter.
The teachers love planning exciting learning experiences to help us learn our letters.
At the moment we LOVE alphabet songs so Miss Collins has posted a couple of videos/songs about the letter Xx that we might like.
How many Xx words can you see and hear in these You Tube Clips Room One?
For the past two weeks, we have been learning about 2D shapes. We have been learning their names and what makes them special like the number of sides or faces. Our learning has been done in different ways like creative activities (check out our dinosaurs), through learning outside and hands on practical activities.
Here are some videos to help us with our learning.
Each week we focus on a letter to learn, read and write about. We do this through phonics, singing, reading stories, handwriting, alphabet activities, letter writing, play dough, Language Experience, make and do and lots of other things.
This week for Language Experience we are making something beginning with Yy.
This week we are learning about the letter Yy. We will learn its name, its sound, how to write and recognise it and about some things that begin with this letter.
The teachers love planning exciting learning experiences to help us learn our letters.
At the moment we LOVE alphabet songs so Miss Collins has posted a couple of videos/songs about the letter Yy that we might like.
How many Yy words can you see and hear in these You Tube Clips Room One?
This term we have started a new programme at Reading Time called Action Stations. This involves the children working through different stations of reading activities independently. The teachers still take reading groups like normal. These are set up before school so parents can explore the activities with their children. We are enjoying the new activities and having the choice of what activities we do first. We have special rules and things to focus on. At the end of each session we take time to reflect on our learning.
Billie on Reading Eggs at the iPad Station
Rocko, Ngatea and Mitchell at the Letter Hunt Station
Ocean at the Mini Rainbows Station
Amazon at the Writing Postcards Station
Choosing our station and moving our name.
Choosing our station and moving our name in the Learning Centre.
The Activboard Station
Telesia at the Listening Post Station listening to reading books.
The 'Magic Water' Station! Here we practise writing sight words, spelling words and letters.
The Post Box Station is where we write something to a friend. This week we wrote compliments.
Nikora reading The New Cat at the Listening Post Station.
Each week we focus on a letter to learn, read and write about. We do this through phonics, singing, reading stories, handwriting, alphabet activities, letter writing, play dough, Language Experience, make and do and lots of other things.
This week for Language Experience we are making something beginning with Vv.
Watch the video below to guess what we are making that begins with the letter Vv.
This week we are learning about the letter Vv. We will learn its name, its sound, how to write and recognise it and about some things that begin with this letter.
The teachers love planning exciting learning experiences to help us learn our letters.
At the moment we LOVE alphabet songs so Miss Collins has posted a couple of videos/songs about the letter Vv that we might like.
How many Vv words can you see and hear in these You Tube Clips Room One?
Today we learnt how to tint blue with black to make a Matariki night sky. First we painted a line of blue and then we gradually added a little black to the blue so that we ended up with black at the other side of the page.
It was a little tricky and harder than what we thought. We had to persist at what we were doing and sometimes we had to fix up our mistakes. It was fun trying something new and taking risks with our learning. Something we noticed was that the black paint made the blue paint go a little greenish.
We enjoyed learning to tint a colour.
The next step is for us to add some stars to the night sky and a city scape.
Watch this space for these Matariki inspired artworks!
This week Room One and Two are focusing on learning about Matariki with our tamariki. We will be reading and writing about Matariki, planting some kai and creating some Matariki inspired art works.
Here are some videos to help learn more about a Matariki so we can 'Be A Learner'
Here is some information about Matariki...
Matariki is the Māori name for the constellation of stars that are often known in other cultures
as the Pleiades or the Seven Sisters.
Matariki may be translated as mata riki – tiny eyes, or as
mata Ariki – eyes of God. These eyes are thought to watch over the land and it’s people.
Matariki, this small but distinctive star cluster, is visible from Aotearoa (New Zealand)
dropping below the horizon in April and reappearing in June.
The rise of the star cluster in
June heralds the beginning of the New Year according to the Māori lunar calendar, and
indicates a change in season, into the colder winter months. It is a time for seasonal
celebration.
There are many Māori beliefs regarding Matariki in relation to its cultural significance.
Some
iwi believe Matariki is a mother surrounded by her six daughters. Matariki was used as a
navigational star.
It was also thought to herald what the new year might have in store, as its
physical appearance when it arose was thought to signify whether or not the following year
would be prosperous.
Traditionally by the time of the ascension of Matariki, food crops had been harvested and the
storehouses would be well stocked. Hākari or feasts were common. Other food gathering
activities would cease.
Communities would be able to participate in celebrations with a focus
on activities related to learning and the arts, with weaving, singing and performing, wānanga
and the learning of whakapapa being some examples.
Nowadays Matariki has become a time
to celebrate the revitalisation and resurgence of Te Reo Māori and other traditional Māori
knowledge.
Matariki was also an important time to mourn and remember those who had passed away.
The yearly reappearance of Matariki signifies a time to prepare, to share ideas, to remember
the past and celebrate the future.
Matariki can be a time of change, and growth. During
Matariki we acknowledge what we have and what we have to give. Matariki celebrates the
diversity of life. It's a celebration of culture, language, spirit and people, of our past, present
and looking to the future.
What begins with Ff? Fabulous Finger Fairy Bread does!
This week as part of Language Experience Room One and two made Fairy Bread Fingers. For many of us it was our first time making Fairy Bread. We discovered it was crunchy, easy to make and a nice treat. While we waited to cut out our fingers and spread the margarine we illustrated the instructions on how to make Fairy Bread and illustrated the instructions. We all enjoyed it and we have written stories about making Fairy Bread which are on our classroom wall. Come and visit Room One to read our super stories!
Cody with his Fairy Bread
Lupe with her instructions
Micheal and Mualijcia working on their instructions
Lorenzo and Izzan spreading the margarine on their Fairy Bread
Miss Philp helping Izzan spread his bread
Izzan with his finished Fairy Bread
Mrs Tizzard helping Micheal make his Fairy Bread Fingers with a hand shaped cookie cutter
Each week we focus on a letter to learn, read and write about. We do this through phonics, singing, reading stories, handwriting, alphabet activities, letter writing, playdough, Language Experience, make and do and lots of other things.
This week we are learning about the letter Oo. We will learn its name, its sound, how to write and recognise it and about some things that begin with this letter.
The teachers love planning exciting learning experiences to help us learn our letters. Oo is tricky as it is a vowel and has short and long sounds.
Room One what can you think of that begins with Oo?
Each week we focus on a letter to learn, read and write about. We do this through phonics, singing, reading stories, alphabet activities, letter writing, playdough, Language Experience, make and do and lots of other things.
This week we are learning about the letter Gg. We will learn its name, its sound, how to write and recognise it and about some things that begin with this letter.
The teachers love planning exciting learning experiences to help us learn our letters. Gg is tricky as it has two sounds.
Room One what can you think of that begins with Gg?
On Tuesday we did our first Science experiment with Room Two. First Miss Collins told us that we were going to move paint on a page but we weren't sure how. We thought we could move it around using a our fingers or a spoon. Then Miss Collins told us we were going to be given a straw. Next we formed a question, which was "How can we use a straw to move paint around a piece of paper?"
After that we formed a hypothesis which is when you predict what you think will happen.
We thought...
- The paint might go all over us.
- The paint might splash off the page
- Paint could end up in our mouth.
After that Miss Collins and Miss Philp explained what we were going to do and recorded it on our experiment chart. We wrote it down because that is what 'real' scientists do.
We carried out the experiment and we found out that we could move the paint around the page by blowing down the straw. The paint was quite thick and hard to move around. Room One then tried the experiment again with dye which was thinner and it moved around the page more easily. The dye spread like fireworks.
The air forced the paint and dye to move around the page.
This week for Language Experience we made disguises to dress up in because dress up and disguise begin with Dd.
Miss Collins' friend Mrs Bargh gave her some disguises to use in Room One. Miss Collins thought that they would be fun to try on. Mrs Tizzard, Miss Philp and Miss Collins thought that we would also enjoy making our own disguises and we did.
We are using the writing that we have done this week about our disguises to put in our Learning Journals so we can share them with out whanau.
Last Monday as part of Language Experience we put sponge capsules into warm water and observed the capsule dissolve and turn into a sponge. First we made a prediction about what might be inside the capsule and then we put it in the water and corrected our predictions. Some of us were correct but it turns out the packet wasn't correct for most of the shapes and we got a mixture.
We were learning about the letters Cc and Kk and that is why we did capsule experiments.
Here is a photo of the capsules. Miss Collins got them from the $2 Shop at Riccarton.
During the week we wrote about our Language Experience.
We are learning to write the sounds that we can hear. Here are our stories...
One of our favourite things at school is Make and Do. Make and Do is something that we usually do on a Wednesday. Each week Miss Collins writes Room One a set of instructions on how to make something. Usually it is something to do with the alphabet letter that we are learning that week. We read through the instructions together and Miss Collins puts pictures to help us.
We follow the instructions to make something. When we are following the instructions we are also practising skills we need for school and life like cutting out tricky shapes, following instructions and making sure that we can comprehend or understand what we have read. So far we have made snakes, alligators, turtles, pigs, nests and cute cats. We look forward to each weeks Make and Do. Afterwards the children take them home as they want to show their families how clever they are and how their cutting skills are improving!
Today Room One and Two had a treasure hunt as part of Language Experience. First we made pirate hats and either made eye patches or borrowed the teachers. We were a fearsome bunch of pirates with a scary arrrrrrrrr.
As we went around, we wondered what the treasure was. Mrs Tizzard thought maybe it was jewels and Miss Collins thought she like the sound of that. It was a windy day to be a pirate!
Then we had to follow clues around the school. Eventually we found our treasure and it was hidden in the school garden! It was gold chocolate money! This week we will write about our treasure hunting. Watch this space for our stories!
Getting ready to go treasure hunting and practising our best arrrrrrrrrrr.
Today
Room 1 and Room 2 made a seed caterpillar using an egg crate and mustard seeds.
We
were using the seeds to help us with our learning of the letter S that is our
phonics focus for the week.
We glued eyes on to the crate and then filled
it with potting earth.
It
was fun sprinkling the mustard seeds into the caterpillar. We then sprayed our
seeds with some water and then put them in a safe place in Room 3 so they can
germinate.
We must remember to spray our
caterpillars to keep
them
moist so they grow.
This is what we hope our seed caterpillar will look like.
