Counting and proportion Christmas decorations

Today we created some beautiful wreaths. We practiced our counting while we waited for the hot glue to dry. We had to consider what decorations would look good on our wreaths and where to put them.

Good cat or bad cat mystery.

We had a mystery to solve in Rūma Piwakawaka on Thursday. Whaea Maria's cat had been catching skinks and bringing them into the garage. Whaea Maria had collected and frozen the skinks so we could study them.

There are 2 types of skinks in New Zealand which look almost exactly the same but one in native to Aotearoa (good) and one that is a pest called a Rainbow Skink which came from Australia (bad). Leo said "The native has 2 scales in the head."

We got out our magnifying glasses to see if the cat was killing good or bad skinks.

Whaea Michelle also showed us that some skinks had short tails and some long tails and some no tails. Whaea Michelle taught us that skinks loose there tails so they can escape cats trying to eat them.

We also looked at the skinks under the microscope and took photos. Quinn said "There is no scales on the tail. Oh that rhymes!" Their feet are a bit like our hands

Some of the tamariki were brave and touched the skinks. "It feels like a soft blanket." said Talisa, Jessie said "It felt weird!" Vann said "It felt scaly." Maddy agreed and said "It felt a bit like a snake because the scales look similar."

Unfortunately we think from our investigation that Missy is a bad cat as she has been catching native skinks.

Fractions tea party

 We have been learning about fractions. We are learning what is a half and a quarter of a whole like our playdough cake and cups of tea.

 We have also been learning what a quarter and a half of of number of objects is like our wooden biscuits.

We had a nice tea party with lovely manners.

Drama - Hairy Maclary Scattercat by Lynley Dodd

 Mrs Bowes and Whaea Michelle helped us create props to retell the story of Hairy Maclary Scattercat. We practiced 3 times before we recorded it.

Balloon Cars

We have been learning to follow a set of instructions and experimenting with different tyres for our cars to see what works best. 

We raced our cars to try which one was best. 

We learnt that: 

• Heavy tyres like golf balls are slow
• Big lid tyres went faster than little lid tires
• Wonky tyres go slower

Pet tadpoles in Rūma Piwakawaka

We have been learning about living things and what we need to do to care for them.

Our tadpoles need special care and the right food. We have been looking after them by feeding them lettuce and not touching the tank.

Update 11 November

One of our tadpoles has 4 legs and can climb!

Piwakawaka Mystery Box

 

Furry visitors to school

We have been really lucky in Rūma Piwakawaka to have had 2 visits in the last few weeks by live animals.

Jaspers Mum and Dad brought in his rabbit family. The Dad rabbit and his 3 babies.

"I held the caramel one." – Nevaeh

"I really really like the bunnies" - Talisa

"Rabbits like to eat carrots and grass sometimes." – Leo

"They love dock leaves." – Jasper

"So cute and fluffy." - Maddy

"There was a cute brown bunny." – Vann

"They were fizzily and cute." - Zayne

"The bunnies are super soft." - Quinn

"I really liked the Dad his eyes were sunset colours - red!" – Ariya

"I got to hold them for a little bit. They were soft."  Jessica H

"I’d like a rabbit." – Kane

Dance, dance, dance

 We have been learning a new dance called Learning is Fun by Dance Curriculum. 

We all found it a bit hard to start with as some of the moves are a bit tricky and fast. Now it is one of our favourite songs to sing and dance too. Quinn said " I was a bit nervous at first but now I'm not." Everyone joins in and participates to progress!

Team Work - The Giant Jam Sandwich

Our book this week was The Giant Jam Sandwich by John Vernon Lord with Verses by Janet Burroway.

It is an interesting story about a Itching Down a town that has 4 million wasps come to town. The towns people work together to get rid of the wasps by making a giant jam sandwich to trap them in. We recreated some of the scenes in class on Friday. We had to remember what was happening in the picture and then we used things we had and worked as a team to recreate the scenes. 

Here is some of the story...

The wasps were a nuisance - that means they were annoying. Nuisance was our word of the week.

The people made a big loaf of bread.

They hitched it up with a bit of a fuss, to tractors cars and the village bus.

The loaf was left to cool and then... the people watched while 4 strong penguin,

took great big scissors and cut right through. 

Everybody clapped and they cut slice two.

A digger drove up and dumped out the butter and they spread it out with a flap and a flutter.

Truck and tractor, slap and slam, they did the same with the strawberry jam.

Suddenly the sky was humming, all 4 million wasps were coming!

They smelt that jam they dived and struck, and they ate so much that they all got stuck.

The other slice came down KERSPLAT! on top of the wasps and that was that!

Being Kind

Source: https://www.kapiticoast.govt.nz/libraries/maori/te-reo/whakatauki/

We have been learning about different ways we can be kind. 

We have read the book Kind by Alison Green and Axel Scheffler 

and we got lots of good ideas from that. 

"You could take them around the school if they are new." Emma

Jessie said "You could let someone who is sad at the back of the line go to the front." 

"If they have no one to play with you could play with them." Jessica HF

Zayne said "Including people for what you are doing."

"Show them where the toilets are." Leo

"Can you please move? Using our manners." Shem

On Friday we had a quick game (before we got too wet!) where we had to be kind to each other and use nice words to get the hoop quickly from the back of the line to the front.

Safe and Not Safe with Catherine from St Johns

On Mane (Monday) we learnt about what is safe and unsafe around our homes with Catherine from St Johns. We talked about activities we do and how we can do them safely and then we talked about food and drink we might find around our home. 

Catherine let us each pull something out of her bag and decide if it was safe or not safe.

Catherine said that if we aren't sure if something is safe it is not safe and we need to check with an adult.

Matariki

 We have been learning about Matariki and its significance to us in Aotearoa New Zealand. We have been listening to and learning about the different stories about Matariki and how the stars are used and valued in different ways.

We shared the book 'Flit the Fantail and the Matariki Map' by Kat Quin. Flit the piwakawaka, with her friend Keri the Kiwi, used the Matariki whetū (stars) to guide them home when they were lost.

Flit pecked holes in a kawakawa leaf as a map to find their way using the Matariki whetū to guide them home.

We pecked holes in a kawakawa leaf and looked at the Matariki stars through our 'map'.