Parachute fun at PMP

This week at our Perceptual Motor Programme we have been learning new skills at bowling, it's thrilling to knock down skittles and get a strike.  Whaea Kate has also set up a parachute area and been guiding us to use it to bounce bean bags from one half of the circle to the other... although sometimes they go flying over our heads much to our delight!

Yesterday we all baked a chocolate cake for a very special little lady who is kind, helpful, clever and turned six today, a lovely display of Arohanui from all your friends and Teachers in Room 4!

While we ate our slice we all said something nice to 'fill her bucket' like Harold taught us early on in this term.  The idea is that everyone has a bucket inside that nobody sees and when we do or say beautiful things to each other we are 'filling' that invisible bucket.  The birthday girl certainly enjoyed this and courteously thanked everyone and told me she was going home today to tell Mum all about her wonderful day!

iPad workshop with Innes

Yesterday Room 4 had a facilitator from Masterton called Innes who demonstrated how to use the Math application on our iPads to learn more about geometry.  We all mastered making squares and then squares with two triangles on a geoboard with digital rubber bands, then Innes showed us how to fill in with colours.

 Working with a learning buddy we had turns on this application and then used the camera to photograph each other to use ourselves as puppets within the application called Puppet Pals so we can create stories with our own images.

Celebrating success on the iPad!

Thank you Innes for sharing your expert knowledge, we look forward to returning the koha and sharing with you what we create with these applications you have recommended to the Kaiako of Broadlands School.

Large Vehicle Safety Visit from ACC

Last Monday we had a visit from representatives of the local forestry industry and a spokesperson for the Accident Compensation Corporation.  He talked about the blind spots that large vehicles have and how much slower they are to stop than a car, for an example if one hit the brakes outside our school if we were not crossing safely it would take the length of a Rugby field to stop... that is twice the distance as car would take to stop for us!  

To view the full presentation play the you tube below...

A large logging truck and bus were parked on the school field for us to investigate and help us to understand the areas where drivers of these vehicles can not see.  We really enjoyed this visit and were given green bands to remind us to be road smart and safe on our country roads around Reporoa.

"We loved the cool rainbow seats in the bus!"

Congratulations to our Room 4 resident artists below who won the Junior Prize in the Colouring Competition judged by our visitors to the school.   

Ka Rawe!

Learning about one another...

Panui to parents

Mihimihi

Kia Ora Koutou,

Thanks very much to all those families who have helped their child fill out their mihimihi, we are practicing everyone's first three lines in their mihimihi in front of the whole class;

Greetings / Tena Koutou Katoa

My name is /  Ko             taku ingoa... and 

I am five years old/ E rima oku tau 

Once they have this mastered we will extend their mihimihi further.

Alphabet Knowledge/Spelling/Reading

Every week we have a letter of the week, we have begun with the most frequently used letters in writing and using the 'Jolly Phonics' songs we sing and say the letter name and its sound or sounds.

To hear our Phonics songs view the You Tube below.

Assembly Item

LOVING this waiata/song below by Will I Am from the Black Eyed Peas and the muppets of Sesame Street, it's message to children about being special, magical, thoughtful, friendly and getting stronger everyday resonates well with our whole school Term One inquiry on Identity=Who We Are.

Once we have learnt the song well we are going to perform this at our whole school assembly on a Friday, each child will have a part to play, take a peek....

We look forward to inviting whaanau/family and friends to see this and sharing on our blog later on in the term.

Our Class Treaty

We developed our Class Treaty based on common aspirations of many of the students.  

We all discussed doing our very best for learning and for each other in our wonderful room.  We added ideas like "Be smart, awesome, kind and to read all our words.. even if we get them wrong, we won't give up." 

Enthusiastically we signed our first names with our favourite coloured felt and agreed verbally to also honour our Treaty promises to each other.

Ms van der Spuy and Whaea Janine also happily signed the Treaty.  

The visitors from Reporoa Kindergarten transitioning to Room 4 will hear our Treaty explained by a buddy on Wednesday morning and have the opportunity to sign too.

When working together on these shared aspirations we earn pom poms, which are filling up a large glass jar above the teaching station on the mat.  When the jar is full, we will have a class treat. 

 Do you have an idea for our class treat?... We are so awesome that it is nearly full already!!!

I is for iceblocks!

Last week we made our own fresh fruit iceblocks after a short hui with me over what we should make that begins with our letter of the week 'i'.  

WOW it was hard to wait a whole day to sample them, some children thought I was joking when I said the iceblocks would be ready in one sleep!

We used this experience to apply our knowledge of number and catergorise the flavour charts, Orange was the most favourite flavour followed by Strawberry then Vanilla.  Each student managed their own mixture in the blender and carefully poured it into the moulds.

What a lovely treat on a hot Autumn day and we savoured our iceblocks which became slushes in cups.

Assembly Awards

Each Friday we gather as a whole school and celebrate the achievements of students.

Congratulations for super fast swimming strokes in our recent swimming sports...

For participation in Iron Kidz Splash and Dash event in Taupo...

Virtues awards we earnt this week include those for Excellence in maths and Courage at the Triathlon, Enthusiasm and Love demonstrated while working with others in Room 4.

Swimming Sports