Reading

In Reading Mrs King's class have been busy delving into the world of Mr Stink. This book has developed a lot of conversation about the meaning of new words and the comparison of words that are used in England and what their equivalent would be in New Zealand such as tramp, pound, chamber pot. Students have been showing a lot of excitement around chapter chat and are keen to get to it and grow their knowledge and understanding of the text they are reading.

Miss Doig's and Mrs Griffths reading class have been working well to independently take themselves to and from activities when they are not in a guided reading session. Activities include handwriting on whiteboards, blend worksheets, listening activities on Epic, and reading independently. Students are continuing to show they are capable of managing themselves to complete their work independently.

Writing

This week's experiment was “Colour Changing Flowers”. The students were given a daffodil in a cup of water. They then added drops of food colouring to the cup. In time, the daffodil began to absorb the coloured water as it became thirsty. As the food colouring moved up the daffodil it began to change colour. We found that the blue food colouring worked the best as it was easy to see as it changed around the tips and made stripes in each petal of the daffodil. During our planning sessions students were able to share what happened, bringing in WOW words to build up a bank that they could use in their stories. It is great to see the students thinking about the process of what happened, how they can add this into their story and capture the readers attention. We are continuing to work on using full stops and capital letters in the correct place.

Maths

Maths Week was extended due to Covid. This gave us another week of tricky equations and real life problem solving. The students have enjoyed working in booklets to solve a mixture of equations and then share their thinking with their peers.

Maori

This week we have been listening to and developing the confidence to have a go at the school Karakia for the beginning and end of the day. It has been so impressive to see the students stepping up to take on the lead role for our kai karakia. The students do not need prompting anymore; they are able to take the lead, stand and say the karakia. We are really lucky to have the support of Whaea T each week to share her knowledge and enthusiasm Te Reo Maori. She is able to relate to the students with learning the language and makes each session interactive and supportive.

Physical Education

Due to Level 2 we will not be having the competitive race this year however this has not stopped the students from setting themselves personal goals in their fitness. The students are continuing to push themselves to run for longer periods of time, pace themselves and complete more laps of our run each day. With a focus on being active we have been developing our skipping skills. We have been developing the skills to continually jump forward over the skipping rope while stationary and moving forward. It is great to see the students persevering and encouraging each other!

Integrated Topic

This week we have flipped our inquiry to begin to look at moving into our new learning space. As the redevelopment gets closer to finishing we are now going to plan what we would like to take with us, where we would like our furniture to be and what furniture we would like to purchase. For a smooth transition it is important for students to have a voice and ownership in this process.