SORTING VEGETABLES

 We love integrating our learning. 

Last week we integrated our Inquiry, Maths and Oral Language.

We worked with a buddy to sort vegetables pictures into groups. 

We got not clues how to do this. After sorting, Buddy One went off to view other student's groupings, and ask questions about their groupings. 

Buddy Two stayed and answered questions. We then swapped roles.

We were able to make different groups and some subgroups using names like...

           colours, sizes, shapes, 

                    leafy, non leafy, likes, dislikes

                              

        .    

              .     

 

  After our first way of grouping the pictures, we were challenged to regroup them in a different way.

We then used our SOLO Thinking Rubric to assess ourselves and write a statement about our learning.

AGREE or DISAGREE

We all have an opinion.  

Sometimes we agree. Sometimes we disagree.

Within our writing sessions we have been learning to persuade the reader with our opinion.
During reading some students explored a story about animals being kept in zoos. After reading they had to either agree or disagree with the topic. They recorded their thoughts on a padlet.

IS IT SPRING?

If you have visited this blog before, you will know some students from          Te Ana Ako planted daffodil bulbs at the end of Term 1.

WELL.......... three of the daffodils have grown and flowered! 

We are puzzled why the daffodils are starting to flower, as we know daffodils flower in Spring.  

                          We still have the season of Winter to get through. 

                                 Can anybody please offer an explanation?

Week 3 AFRICAN DRUMMING WORKSHOP

WOW.....today Mokoroa, Kaiwhare and Haumia students all had the chance to experience African Drumming in a workshop with Nathan and Amanda from 
'African Drumming New Zealand'.

 Nathan introduced us to the Djembe drums and then we were taught how to play them using our hands to create a  'base'  and 'tone'  sound.  We worked in pairs sharing one drum to create powerful rhythm in unison.  Seventy five students drumming together sounded fantastic!

 

Week 3... HIP HOP

Thank you Kiwi Sport for giving us the chance to learn 

Hip Hop.  Our dance teacher is Millie; she's great!

We are having some much fun exploring different movements and moves with her and we love the music we move to. This has been our second week. Check the photos below to show some of our creative mirror stances.

               

           

                 

TERM 2

Week 1 and 2 ANZAC Focus

During literacy for the last two weeks we have been spent acknowledging ANZAC Day by reading a variety of stories, listening and watching video clips.  This has helped us become more informed about the horrific experiences New Zealand and Australian solider were exposed to during World War 1.

One of the stories we revisited many times was 
       'The Bantam and the Soldier' 
We used the text and pictures to unpack the story and then learnt how to write a personal response.

For  creative writing, we used a video from the Trenches and wrote a description.  The video introduced us to new vocabulary which helped with our writing.

We also wrote some acrostic poems using words linked with ANZAC Day. With these we enhanced them by adding ANZAC images and colour.
Here are samples of the three types of writing we wrote.
                                                      Written by Daniel 

                                                                                Written by Cyan               

                                                                           Written by Chrystelle

Daffodil Bulb Planting

We decided to use the empty planter boxes on our class deck to plant daffodil bulbs. We filled the containers with soil. Because we hadn't planted bulbs before, we needed to read the instructions how deep to plant them.   

Now we just need to watch them grow and flower in the Spring.

 

 

'TREAD LIGHTLY' - THE DRAIN GAME CARAVAN

Tread Lightly-The Great Drain Caravan came to visit us this week. 

This gave us a chance to learn about water, including wetlands, waste water and the drains within our school environment. Learning about our needs and waste of water was the message.
We were able to learn through different experiences with the Drain Caravan teachers and our parent helpers.

An important message we learnt was anything that goes down the drain goes into the sea!  That's why it is important to remember....... 

"ONLY RAIN GOES DOWN THE DRAIN." 

Waste water from our homes, toilets, washing machines and sinks goes down pipes and eventually gets treated to become clean at the 'Waste Water Treatment Plant'.
We also learnt the WETLANDS are a natural filter to the clean water before it goes into rivers and streams. The plants in the wetlands help clean the water so birds and fish can live and be healthy.

             

Walking around the school also gave Mokoroa students a chance to find and look at the drains within our environment. We used maps to mark where the drains were.  There were heaps!  While we did this, we also picked up some rubbish we found near the drains because we had just learnt only  "ONLY RAIN GOES DOWN THE DRAIN." 

Finally we all made a pledge to help save water and keep drain water clean. 

One pledge was as simple as turning off the tap when cleaning our teeth. OR, if we are using water outside and it's dirty or when we help clean the car make sure we tip the water on the grass and not pour it down the drain. 

We learnt so much.  Thank you DRAIN GAME CARAVAN teachers.