Some students are learning to count a set of objects by counting from one. To do this they need to understand that each object has a single count which their activity of 'count your chickens' assists with. Ultimately they will be able to solve addition problems by physically representing each quantity (set) in a problem, then combining the sets and finally counting the combined set from one.
Other students are learning to appreciate the total count of a set and use this to solve addition whilst working towards the 'counting-on' stage. The purpose of their activity was to help them learn groupings with five, withing ten and with ten.
Room 4 learnt to compare and contrast the way customs and traditions are expressed in their family and others. They looked at what other celebrations they have in their family and how they celebrate these occasions.
They picked a celebration and drew a picture of their favourite part of this celebration and recorded their ideas.
Room 4 had their buddy class helping them to participate in today's KidsedchatNZ session. Here are some of their responses on the questions about 'Sport and Learning'.
Q1. Who are some of your favourite sports teams/ people? why do you like them?
Q2. Who do you think helped them become the great players/teams they are today.
Q3. What role does a coach play in a team?
Q4. What roles do the players have in a team?
Q5. What would happen if the team and coach didn't work together?
Q6. How does sport at school help you with your learning in other subjects?
Q7. Thinking about yourself at school, who are the key people in your learning team?
Q8. What role does your teacher/other staff play in your learning?
Q9. Do mums and dads play a role in your education? If so, how?
Q10. What role do you play in your learning and what can you do next to help you improve?
The junior and senior students are learning to practice kotahitanga by supporting one another in their reading. They make use of De Bono's Yellow and Blue thinking hats to discuss the good points as well as any further thinking.
Today we had our junior swimming sports day. We participated in lots of activities like doggy paddle, kicking with the flutter board, running race, tug boat and start float.
Thank you to all the parents for supporting us and to the senior students for helping us!
This term we are concentrating on Drama as part of 'The Arts' curriculum. We are very lucky to have the talented Whaea Jude who can teach us all about drama.
She used the story 'We're going on a bear hunt' to build the drama experience for students and discussed the Big Question 'Are people always as they seem?'
A letter from Mama bear arrived addressed to Room 4 asking for their help. Students discussed what the problem of the bear is. Their thoughts: He is lonely and wants a friend to play with.
Students shared their thoughts about bears. …. external appearance outside and inner feelings and attitudes towards the character inside.
Whaea Jude read the story ‘We’re going on a bear hunt’ using different tones, pitch, volume, and expression of body and voice. Together they've discussed what some of the voices might be like. As a group they decided what their characters voice will be like and chanted it together.
The students use techniques of movement and voice to explore the roles in the story.
Using some of our school Virtues students learnt about forming relationships, ways of maintaining and enhancing relationships between individuals and groups and that there is more to a person than what there seems.
I've asked the students to write a story about what they did/learnt. Here are some thoughts:
Towards the end of our school assembly Whaea Jude taught us a South African Children song called 'Izika Zumba' - which is a traditional Zulu song.
The students enjoyed learning it and were able to sing it not only in accompanied canon, but also in a 'round' which is also a type of canon, however in a round each voice (when finishes) starts at the beginning so that the song can go round and round.
Luckily we stopped [just] before the bell rang...!
In our Go4it sessions, students have been working on balance when landing. The instructor sets up circuits with different balancing, hopping, weaving between cones, jumping and landing stations.
In another activity the students had three different throwing objects and had to try to throw them into a hoop. They had to guess how far and hard to throw so the objects could get in the hoop.
The students in Room 4 were learning how to compare and order different sized containers by their volume or the amount of salt they could hold.
We used Goldilocks and the Three Bears as our context and they had so much fun finding a large container for Daddy bear, medium size container for Mummy bear and small container for Baby bear.
We also had another activity set up with cubes. Students had to choose two containers and work out which one held the most cubes, therefore having the biggest capacity.
