Our Learning Journey

This is our new classroom display. (Thank you Aleisha for your help.)

We are learning about our school values -

• Be Heard
• Aim High
• Honour Our Heritage
• Care
• Be Yourself
• Give It A Go.

Through the middle of our school values picture flows a river. The river starts at Te Puna - the spring. Children move through our school and develop skills and values which will assist them as the navigate down the river and out into the wider world. The different colours in the river represent the Key Competencies in our NZ curriculum.

• Thinking
• Relating To Others
• Using Language, Symbols and Texts
• Managing Self
• Participating and Contributing

(The twinkly lights are purely for decoration - couldn't resist them in the shop.)

In future posts I will indicate how our activities reflect our values and the Key Competencies.

Sapphire Springs

What a fantastic day we had at Sapphire Springs. The weather was perfect and the children were on their best behaviour. It was awesome to watch the children grow in confidence in the deeper water. I was so encouraged to hear that many children were going to see if they could visit with their families.

Music with Mr E

Today we had our first lesson with Mr E.
This term we are looking at the Beatles.
Here we are practicing 3 notes on the marimba and keyboards. They accompany Twist and Shout.

Powerful Learners

We discussed what makes a powerful learner today.
Here are our thoughts

• they think
• ask questions for more information
• do research - ask questions, read, google, youtube
• persevere
• give it a go
• focus - listen
• move from distraction
• practice

Maths using darts

We made darts, had fun throwing them and then tried to measure how far they flew.

We didn't have any rulers so had to work out how we could measure the distance. We tried foot length and then pacing.

However we realised we couldn't compare the measurements between people as we each have different sized feet - they are not a standard measure.

Certificates

These wonderful children earned Good Attitude certificates for being helpful, polite and always willing to do the right thing.

Go For It

We have started our weekly Go For It sessions. We will be focussing on learning large ball skills this term. We looked at passing today. It is important to Step, Push and then Point.

Becoming a Focussed Learner

We are investigating what will make us powerful focussed learners. Today in groups we talked about what distracts us from our learning. Here we are talking about barriers to our learning.

One of the things we talked about was being too tired at school. Having a regular bedtime is important. Often children need some downtime away from TV's and devices before they go to sleep too.
We visited the library today and the children were excited to be able to take the books home to read in bed or have them read to them.

Find a Friend

We are still getting to know each other. Today we played a game of Bingo. We had to find people who matched some of the sayings on our form and place their name in the box beside the statement. If you found five people in a row you called BINGO.
Some of the statements were things like - I hate mushrooms, I am the youngest, I like to wear pink, I have lived in the same house my whole life, I am the youngest, I have been n a plane etc.

Cocoa Visited a Very Excited Class

Cocoa the School Cat visited our classroom for the whole day today. In all the time I've known her she has never been in the classroom for this long in one sitting. She must have sensed a calm quiet group of children.  If you look closely you will see her sitting on her stool under the painting table.

Ashlee worked with great focus all day. Wonderful. 

2018 - off to a great start

Today we learned a little about each other.

We threw a ball of string to each person and they spoke a little about their holiday, hobbies, likes, family etc. We then passed the ball of string to the next person. 

It was great to see our class all connected to each other.

Makaea had an awesome start to the year - being super efficient with his work and keen to give of his best. He earned the privilege of wearing a class band today.