Portrait Art

When you next visit our class, do pop around the corner and view  the awesome portraits which we drew at an Art lesson with Jane Lloyd. She carefully plans the lesson so that we can all follow her instructions and produce a fantastic piece of artwork. The photos will give you some idea of how she manages to teach two classes of  approximately 50 children.

A visitor from England

Daisy was very excited when her cousin, Misty, flew in from London for a family visit. Daisy was so delighted, that she brought Misty along to spend a day at school with us. Misty came to school for the whole week! We really enjoyed having Misty to visit. She fitted into our class so well and did all her work so well. This included going for swimming lessons with us. This was really brave of Misty because she said that she hadn't been to a swimming pool for about 2 years. If you live in England, swimming lessons are not a priority as they are in N.Z. We know that we need to know how to swim well because  we often go to the beach or a pool, or out on the boat.


We learnt that school is different for Misty back in England. She goes to primary school where everyone must wear a uniform. The boys wear long black trousers! Both girls and boys wear a white shirt with a knotted tie - all day long! When we eat our lunch at school, Misty eats a cooked dinner at school - in the hall. People work at the school to  prepare, cook and serve a hot meal to children. Misty's favourite meal is macroni cheese, followed by custard and fruit.


We hope that Daisy and Misty had a lovely holiday together in N.Z. Perhaps, one day Daisy will visit Misty and spend time at her school.

Knock,Knock. Who's there?

We all love showing off our pets. There was an air of excitement today  as the children arranged themselves in a circle, in preparation for viewing Caitlin's pet guinea pigs. These little creatures were truly delightful! They all came from the same litter so they were brothers. I was amazed to see that they were all the same beautiful colour. These guinea pigs were so posh - they were shampooed and groomed last night! Although we did not take them out of their pet carrier, everyone was able to look closely at them. We looked carefully at their features and compared them to the little kittens who visited our classroom last week. After they were returned home, we read two non-fiction books to give us some facts.

 Here are some of the  interesting facts which the children wrote....................

:

Guinea pigs have little ears which flop over.

Guinea pigs have their eyes on the side of their head.

Guinea pigs eat and eat  - lots of vegetables.

Guinea pigs have no tails.

Guinea pigs live in a hutch.

Guinea pig babies drink milk from their mother.

Guinea pigs have bright, beady eyes.

                                                           Guinea pigs can have  pink, brown or black eyes.

Such a lot of news to catch up on! 
We have been having an awesome time with so many activities. Activities means getting outside and doing challenging things like walking, walking, walking and swimming, swimming, swimming and of course reading, reading, reading. Where to begin?
Currently we are enjoying our swimming sessions with Ally Todd and her team of 
fantastic coaches! The refurbished pool is bright, colourful and certainly motivational. It is a wonderful learning environment. Our class swim three times each week at a regular time. Every child is making incredible progress! It is wonderful to watch the development of skills, whether it be water confidence, floating confidently or learning to breathe and stroke. Two of the children helped me take some photos last week so that we can share our swimming experiences with you. Look at the fun the children are having in the pool!

Goldfish

Yesterday after school, we had a special delivery! My little friends, Jessica and Heather are moving away from Whitby. They have generously given their goldfish to our class. The tank was prepared during the weekend, the plants were secured and then the fish slid into the water. They began swimming around to explore their new home. There is a pearly white fish (renamed Jessica) and a jet black fish (renamed HeatherI).I know that their fishy antics will be a constant source of enjoyment to the children. We will now begin learning about goldfish.

About Us

The children in our 2011  class came from three different classes from the previous year. This means that we all have the opportunity to make lots of new friends. Many of the activities we do in the classroom are directed at helping the children learn to recognise faces and names.


This year is designed to encourage the children to become independent and take responsibility for their learning.


During the week, classes get together for an activity with their Buddy class. Our Big Buddy class is Mr. Thompson's Year 5 and 6 class. Each child has a Big Buddy allocated to her/him for the year. The children become friends both inside the classroom and outside the classroom.
Sometimes we plan activities in which the older children are able to help the younger children, e.g. they listen while their Little Buddy practises their reading. Sometimes the activity is having fun,  e.g. running obstacle races together.The children in our school are responsible for tidying up the school environment once a term.  We are encouraging our children to keep the playground and gardens tidy and attractive.This is a Buddy class activity. The childre get a real buzz out of making a difference to the appearance of our school.

Butterflies

Our class have had a special project since we began the school year. We established a Caterpillar  Creche in our classroom in an effort to save some of the many Monarch caterpillars who had no food to eat on the swan plants at school. We successfully raised and released 17 Monarch butterflies! Dispite the fact that marrow is not the preferred food, the caterpillars did eat, they did grow and they did spin a chrysalis. The children were able to watch the hatching process with the aid of a digital microscope. The image was magnified and shown on a T.V. screen which we had in the classroom. We had the awesome experience of watching the butterfly emerge, dry and straighten its crumpled wings. We experienced real joy when  we released ithe butterfly into the sunshine.

  

Goal Setting

Thank you for the tremendous response  in setting goals for your children. This experience  confirms to the children that their parents value their children's ideas and are there to facilitate their learning at school. These goals will be reviewed later during the year, as a follow-up to school reports, when we meet again to discuss your child's progress.

EOTC Week

This week we spent our afternoons learning how to keep ourselves safe in a variety of situations. On Monday our class revised how we can be sunsmart. We learnt that it is important to take care of our skin.  Can you sing Three Blind Mice? Then ask  your child to teach you a cool new song, "We wear our Hats". A big thank you to Sol's dad (Our local SunSmart man) who provided us with some fantastic children resources.

On Tuesday the weather was not kind to us however we had fun with other classes in the hall making shelters for Mrs Birnie's Bugsy.

On Wednesday Mrs Nicholson (our school librarian) taught us how to keep ourselves safe and what to do if we hurt our selves.  We learnt how to clean up a cut in our arm without spreading germs.  Then we came back to class and practised how to do this on each other.  We were pretty careful!

Today we cooked our lunch on a BBQ.  We learnt how to be safe around a BBQ and what do if we got burnt.  We cooked a sausage for Mr Kell and Mr D.  This afternoon we did some role playing to practise what you need to do if your clothes catch fire and what to do in a house fire.

It has been a very exciting week.  A big huge thank you to all our parent helpers.