What shape is this?

We have been exploring different shapes and thier features.  We made a movie about our shapes.  Can you guess which shape we are talking about?  Listen for clues about how many sides and corners they have.

Shape Movie from Amy Polaschek on Vimeo.

Spelling!

Look at all the spelling practice we did this week!  Our words stretched across the room!

Sense Poems

We have been learning about living things and MRS GREN (movement, respiration, sensitivity, growth, reproduction, excretion, nutrition).  To clarify and deepen our thinking about how living things are sensitive, we have been exploring our own senses.  Here are some of the sense poems we wrote about our brainfood.  We had to do lots of thinking about all 5 senses and use interesting words to describe them.  We had to take care to  present our work carefully and neatly.  We hope you enjoy our poems!

We are working on writing more sense poems this week and getting better at including all the senses and using describing words!

Living and Giving!

We have started our Term 3 inquiry, Living and Giving.  We are looking at what is living and what is not living.  What makes something living?  Here is our first thinking.  We wonder how our thinking will change as we learn more about living things?

Things we think are living...

Things we think are not living...

Here is some of our thinking about what makes something living.

A ladybug is living because it sleeps in the day and moves at night.  A cat is living because it grows whiskers and can move.  Ethan

A cat lives somewhere.  It moves.  Fish swim.  Ajay

A sheep can walk and move and sleep.  A butterfly can fly.  Amilea

A flower is alive because it blows in the wind.  A cow is because it can walk.   Hollie

A mum sheep has babies.   Finn

Cultural Detectives!

Check out our cultural detective photos!

Cross Country

We practised over several weeks.  Each time we could run a little bit further!  We learned not to go too fast in the beginning so we could last the whole distance.  On the day we persevered and made it to the end.  Well done everyone!


Try our slideshow creator at Animoto.

Groups we belong to!

Make your own slide show at Animoto.

We bought along to school something that represents a group we belong to.  Can you see people who like horses?  Members of a rugby team?  A hip hop dancer?  We think our class is a great group to belong to too!  Please complete the form below.

Building Strong Foundations

This term we have launched our new inquiry into the range of distinct cultures we have in New Zealand.  We are also learning how to work effectively as part of a group.  We explored what a 'treaty' means by working together to make a newspaper creation.  We each had a 'need' that needed to be met by the group.  "I need to use all 5 of my pipe cleaners" said Amilea.  "Please use all my tape" said Ethan.  We found out a treaty is an agreement where everyones needs have to be met.  Here are our creations.  Can you see the motorbike and the fairy house?  What great teamwork!

Healthy Choices!

Growing from within

We have started our inquiry 'Growing from Within' with a visit to the whare at Andersons Park. Our wonderful student teacher Miss van't Wout did her mihi for us and talked about the harora concept. Our lives are like a house, which needs four strong walls to be healthy. Today we were so excited to open the mystery box that has been waiting in our class, and found our own whare to build! We are looking forward to decorating it to show what each of the four walls means to the kowhai kids. Here we are building it.

Athletics Day

On Monday, Myross Bush School went to Athletics Day at Surrey Park. First we watched the relay races. We said "Go Myross Bush!" and we won some races!
"I liked doing the rings" said Amilea.
"I liked to high jump." said Ethan.
"I liked the high jump because it was good." said Abbey
"I liked rob the nest" said Abigail.
"I liked the high jump. It was great." said Lauryn.
"I loved rob the nest" said Scott.
"I liked rob the nest" said Noah.

Sporting Times!

We have been busy in Kowhai with swimming and athletics. It's been great to practice new skills and reach towards the goals we have set ourselves. How exciting to see so much learning happening, and the pride the children have when they master something new! We are writing stories about Athletics Day- keep an eye on our blog for the story and some action pictures! Look in your childs homefolder for some new spelling homework this week. This activity is great for helping to reach our goals about hearing sounds in words. A little bit each day really helps accelerate progress.

Writing in Kowhai

We are learning to hear the sounds in words and write them- say it, hear it, write it! We are also learning to correctly write some words like am to the they was. We don't always write in our books in kowhai. Here are some other ways we write.

Our Kowhai Tree!

We have been finding out about kowhai trees. We worked together to make our own tree! We know that kowhai means yellow. Did you know that colours have meanings? Yellow means happy and energetic. We think its a great colour for our happy and energetic classroom! We have been learning other maori colour words this week too. Here we are making our tree.

We have been finding out about kowhai trees. "They are green" said Lucy. "The leaves are really really little" said Lauryn."The trees are tall" said Scott. Have you got one in your garden at home? Athletics practice has been helping us develop skills in running, jumping and throwing, and we are looking forward to swimming beginning on Friday.

2012!

Welcome back to 2012! It's great to see our 8 children return rested and rearing to go after the holidays. It has been a busy time settling back into school routines and setting some new learning goals! Our new name is Kowhai - we are looking forward to finding out more about what it means. We welcome Miss Hannah van't Wout (pronounced van-twout) to our class. She completing her teacher training this year and will be a regular part of our class throughout the year. I am looking forward to seeing our families at the 'meet the teacher' evening on Wednesday. It's a great chance to get a sense of what learning in Kowhai is all about, and answer any questions you may have.