Last Few Days of the School Year

 On Tuesday of Week 9 we began our end of term celebrations by watching the Kiwi Flier movie and having our Popcorn Shop day. We all had 3 Kowhai popcorn tokens to use, but it was still tricky deciding which popcorn to choose form all the delicious treats.

 

 On Wednesday we had a fun packed afternoon at the Nelson Library with Room 12a. We listened to Viv reading some funny stories, learned some new songs, had chance to get some books out for the holidays and also enjoyed some festive art and craft. Make sure you keep using the library regularly during the holidays to keep those Room 11 super reading skills fresh.

 

 When we got back from the library I had the most wonderful surprise when I was presented with an enormous gift hamper full of special treats and lovely messages. I can not thank you enough for this very special gift. I feel very lucky to have worked with all our Room 11 families during 2012 and remember Room 10 door will always open for anyone to pop in and let me know how they are getting on.

 

On Thursday afternoon we had a swimming session together which helped us to cool off before Will's dad came to read us a very tricky tongue twister story....a fabulous way to end our parent reading sessions this year.

Monday was our Big Day Out at Founders Park. I was busy at school moving classrooms but thoroughly enjoyed looking at all the photos that were taken during the day. Here are a few of my favourites. 

Finally I would like to wish each and everyone of you a safe and happy holiday, and a special time with family and friends over the festive season. Have a well deserved rest and I will look out for you all on Wednesday 30th January 2013.

Tracy  (and Jasper)

Week 8 Term 4

On Wednesday we had our first swim of the summer. Even though there was a lot of shivering going on we are all very keen to swim again in week 9 and wanted to stay in for longer. This is how we ended our swimming session. Thanks Maree for making the video.

 We had more parents come in to read this week, including our first dad! Thank you Charlie for choosing such a lovely Kiwi Christmas story for your dad to share.

Can you spot which Room 11 friend got a good work certificate in Kowhai assembly this week?

Our visiting children are learning all the Room 11 routines ready for starting school next year. here they are practicing their Brain Gym.

We had a monkey theme going on when they visited this Friday with a monkey story, a monkey some and monkey art. The  finished monkeys looked marvellous.

We ended the week celebrating Jaz's 6th birthday with a very yummy banana cake, Thanks for that Nikki.

WHAT ARE WE LEARNING IN WEEK 9 TERM 4

Tricky Word: who

Grammar:compound words

Writing: narratives and recounts

Maths: 3D shape

Inquiry: The Pop Corn Shop

Art: :Christmas Cards

P.E. Throwing

ICT:Christmas fun

Maori:  colours

REMINDERS

Buy get your copy of the Central Food Cook Book now!!!!

Please return any library books as soon as possible

Tuesday Kiwi Flyer and Popcorn afternoon

Wednesday 12th December Tracy out of the classroom until lunch time, Dean is teaching us.
Wednesday 12th December 1.30-3.00 Nelson Library Trip, helpers needed. 
Thursday 12th December swimming day..bring togs and towel.
Friday 14th visit to the Christmas tree exhibition with our buddy class helpers welcome

Monday 17th December Kowhai Big Day out at Founders Park, $3.00 per child

Term 4 ends 18th December 12.00 noon

Week 7 Term 4

Thank you to all the parents who came in and shared a story with us at the end of school this week. Great choices and our very first Christmas story of the year! There are still places left on the sign up list outside the classroom so don't miss out.

In our Popcorn Shop Inquiry topic we sampled 5 different flavours of popcorn. Tracy did not tell us what each one was we just had to decide in our inquiry groups if we liked it, hated it or somewhere in between. We then repeated this survey again with our buddy class later in the week. Our favourite flavours were "marshmallow and chocolate" and "cinnamon and sugar". Next week will be designing a logo for our packaging.

On Thursday we were entertained by the Nelson Intermediate Roadshow. We a wealth of talent from Kapa Haka, to students who could play the ukulele behind their heads. It was an inspiration to us all especially our own Room 11 budding ukulele players.

In maths this week we started our topic on 2D shapes, learning the names and properties of circles, triangles, rectangles, squares and hexagons. Keep a look out for these shapes around your home.

 

On Friday we shared dragon making with our visiting friends. I was very impressed with the enterprising ideas for adding legs, wings and spikes with the left over paper rather than throwing it away. Well done! Our poem was also about a dragon and you can hear it on this clip.

                                                                                                          

WHAT ARE WE LEARNING IN WEEK 7 TERM 4

Tricky Word: who

Grammar:opposites

Writing: narratives and recounts

Maths: numeracy,number ID to 100 and 2D shape

Inquiry: The Pop Corn Shop

Art: :Christmas Cards

P.E. Throwing

ICT:Scootpad

Maori:  colours

REMINDERS

Buy get your copy of the Central Food Cook Book now!!!!

Friday: Library Day, library books must be returned on or before Friday each week. No more library book will be issued this term
Wednesday 12th December 1.30-3.00 Nelson Library Trip, helpers needed. 
Friday 14th Buddy lunch in the Cathedral gardens and a visit to the Christmas tree exhibition. 

Monday 17th December Kowhai Big Day out at Founders Park, $3.00 per child

Term 4 ends 18th December 12.00 noon

Week 6 Term 4

This week we had loads of fun with Dean when we spent 2 days learning about bugs and creepy crawlies. Here we are going on a bug hunt.

On Wednesday in our ICT session we learned some more about the Indian festival of Diwali by using the interactive games linked through our blog.

On Friday we very bravely ventured out for our first Jump Jam session with the rest of the school. Most of us were very energetic, whilst a few were just taking it all in. We are going to have another go on Tuesday and help all our friends to join in.

When our visiting friends came on Friday morning we read the story of the Gruffalo and made masks that looked just like Inky mouse. Our poem and song this week were also about mice, which we happen to think are rather nice. Have a listen......

Whilst looking for resources to support letter formation and handwriting I found this page on Pinterest. Those of you with iPads or iPods may want to investigate some of these apps, Just click on the photo for the link.

Finally a reminder about the Nelson and Stoke libraries summer reading challenge called Dog Days. This is always a popular program and a great way to keep children reading over the summer. There are plenty of incentives to encourage them to read. Enrolments open at the Elma Turner Library from Sunday 9th December 1 – 4 pm and in Stoke from 10am on Monday 10th December. Here is the link if you are interested   http://www.nelsoncitycouncil.co.nz/dog-days-summer-reading-challenge/

WHAT ARE WE LEARNING IN WEEK 7 TERM 4

Tricky Word: came

Grammar:irregular past tense verbs

Writing: narratives and recounts

Maths: numeracy,number ID to 100 and 2D shape

Inquiry: The Pop Corn Shop/

Art: : Eye of God Christmas decorations

P.E. Throwing

ICT:Scootpad

Maori:  colours

REMINDERS

Buy get your copy of the Central Food Cook Book now!!!!

Friday: Library Day, library books must be returned on or before Friday each week.
Wednesday 12th December 1.30-3.00 Nelson Library Trip, helpers needed.

Monday 17th December Kowhai Big Day out at Founders Park, $3.00 per child

Term 4 ends 18th December 12.00 noon

Week 5 Term 4

In our Popcorn Shop inquiry topic we thought about what makes popping corn pop. We weighed out 50g of popping corn and it exactly filled one of Jasper's food scoops. Then we cooked it in the microwave and after it had popped it filled up 10 of Jasper's food scoops. We think it would have made even more but the microwave was quite old and burnt a hole in the bottom of the microwave proof container!!!!!
Here are 2 You Tube clips to help you learn what makes the pop in popcorn,
 

Tuesday was the start of Diwali, the Indian Festival of Light. We made clay divas to put night lights into. We will be painting these in Week 6 when they have dried out enough. Jasmin brought in 2 bags full of Indian clothes and the girls had great fun dressing up. Tracy brought in her Sari and Rohitash's mum helped her to put it on. Rohitash's mum and dad  also brought in some traditional Diwali sweet food for us...full of almonds and lovely flavourings. There is a new tab at the top of this blog which links to a variety of online Diwali activities.

 

Fireworks are a big part of Diwali and this week we hung our acrostic firework poems and pictures up in the classroom. Pop in and have a look at the clever picture frames we made.

             Fizzer’s everywhere

             Interesting fireworks

             Red roaring rockets

             Exploding whizzer’s

             Wonderful races

             Oh they’re so beautiful

             Rainbow racing

             Keep away

             Shooting scary sparklers

                     Thomas
 
This week was our last Grass Hopper Tennis session. We had a quick warm up game and then moved on to practising a serve and having a mini game across the nets. There is a notice outside the classroom for those families interested in doing more tennis lessons with Andre.

Fridays are getting quite busy now with all our visiting children. This week we read the story of Rabbit and Rooster's Ride by Jill Eggleton and made our own kangaroos, complete with pouches to pop Rabbit and Rooster into.

WHAT ARE WE LEARNING IN WEEK 6 TERM 4?

Tricky words:does

Grammar:

Writing: narratives and recounts

Maths: numeracy, odd and even numbers

Inquiry: The Pop Corn Shop/

Art: : Painting and decorating our Indian divas

P.E. Throwing

ICT: Diwali online activities

Maori:  colours

REMINDERS

Buy get your copy of the Central Food Cook Book now!!!!

Friday: Library Day, library books must be returned on or before Friday each week.
Monday 19th November paid NZEI meeting in the afternoon, please collect your child at 12.30 if possible. 
Wednesday 12th December 1.30-3.00 Nelson Library Trip, helpers needed.

Monday 17th December Kowhai Big Day out at Founders Park, $3.00 per child

Term 4 ends 18th December 12.00 noon

Week 4 Term 4

This week seems to have flown past, it is hard to believe that next week will already see us at the mid point of this final term. We had a lot of fun on Monday putting together our class adjective snake and making a voice recording to go with it. Plenty of enthusiastic participants and some great adjective ideas...well done tamariki. Take a look at the final result below.

We learnt lots of new facts about fish with Dean on Wednesday as well as practising our Tuxpaint skills during our computer lesson.

On Thursday we had our 3rd Grasshopper tennis lesson and it was clear to see the improvement in everyone from the first lesson a few weeks ago. We practised overarm throws to assist in a fast serve and general control of the ball on the racket.

Room 11 Grass Hopper Tennis November 2012 on PhotoPeach

In the afternoon we continued to build on the weaving skills we learn in week 3, this time using a variety of different fabrics. We plan to incorporate this weaving as part of a fabulous looking fish.

 On Friday we were invited to the official opening of the senior sandpit. We listened to lots of people thanking everyone who helped make the sandpit happen and watched the ribbon being cut.

The best bit was when we got to have a special play in the sandpit!

Wishing you all a safe and happy week.
Tracy

WHAT ARE WE LEARNING IN WEEK 5 TERM 4?

Tricky words: goes

Grammar: verbs past tense 'ed' endings

Writing: narratives

Maths: numeracy, basic facts to 10

Inquiry: The Pop Corn Shop/ Diwali Celebrations

Art: : Fabric and Fibre: Fabric Weaving

P.E. Tennis and Throwing

ICT: Scootpad and Animation

Maori:  colours

REMINDERS

Buy get your copy of the Central Food Cook Book now!!!!

Friday: Library Day, library books must be returned on or before Friday each week.
Monday 19th November paid NZEI meeting 1.30-3pm, please collect your child at lunch time if possible.

Monday 17th December Kowhai Big Day out at Founders Park, $2.50 per child

Term 4 ends 18th December 12.00 noon

Week 3 Term 4

This week in our ICT slot Tania helped us to learn how to use the macro mode on the digital camera to take close up shots. Sarah took this photo of a butterfly wing from one of our class puzzles.

 

Will took this close up of a flower in the school garden

We have had lots of fun in maths. We made our own resource to help us count backwards after listening to the counting song  "5 Little Speckled Frogs".

Another one of our activities in maths this was to make pictures using blocks that matched photos on a set of cards.

On Thursday we had a go at simple paper weaving, thank you to all the parents who helped us out with this. Everyone had a great "I can " attitude and the results are great.

We wanted to share with you how we do our massage circle, it is one of our favourite things to do at the end of the day. First of all we draw the sun on each others backs.

Next we rub our hands around to make the clouds.

After this we use our finger tips to make gentle rain drops that get heavier and heavier.

After the storm we have a special hug, we do this 5 times.

Finally we relax back on the person behind us.

As usual we had our good work assembly on Friday, who can you spot from Room 11?

I was pleased to hear that some parents took advantage of the parents ipad workshop last week. Here is something else you may be interested in. A series of Movement and Learning Workshops open to parents, coaches and teachers. These fundamental skills are a vital part of your child's development so why not pop along to 1 or all of these Monday evening workshops.

 

WHAT ARE WE LEARNING IN WEEK 4 TERM 4?

Tricky words: because

Grammar: verbs past tense 'ed' endings

Writing: narratives

Maths: numeracy, basic facts to 10

Inquiry: The Pop Corn Shop

Art: : Fabric and Fibre: Fabric Weaving

P.E. Tennis and Throwing

ICT: Scootpad and Animation

Maori:  colours

REMINDERS

Buy get your copy of the Central Food Cook Book now!!!!

Friday: Library Day, library books must be returned on or before Friday each week.

Monday 17th December Kowhai Big Day out at Founders Park, $2.50 per child

Term 4 ends 18th December 12.00 noon