Week 6

Hi everyone week 6 over and a full class all week Yay! maybe we've got rid of those bugs at last.
A huge thanks to everyone for a prompt return of all the folders this week too...100% return incredible.
As a work in progress the folders are incomplete, but still nice for you to see and discuss with your child.Remember their story boards on the back class wall are also always there to view.
Reading.
Many of the children are now becoming independent readers as they move through the levels. Some of you will have seen that I have occasionally enclosed work to be completed for homework. This is generally not because your child is behind, but a chance for you to see the work being covered at school...and the children do like the challenge of these activities which we cover the following day as a group.
Many are now ready to read mini chapter books from the Library so another opportunity to use our public library.We still have weekend poems to read but some groups have a book also which they can read if they wish . These books are at their level and "extra" ones. I still see weekends as family time so it's a voluntary activity.
We had our Fire Drill this week at school. So no doubt you have heard some of the discussion at home. Just to put you in the picture I have encouraged them all to come home and ask what the family escape plan is? They have made some really enlightened comments about the whole safety thing...and Josh's comment "stay calm" I thought was priceless!
We are all looking forward to our class trip to the Museum on Monday. I'm sure I'll have some more photos and plenty of related writing from the experience to share.

So watch this space...Nadine

Week 4

A week where we were lucky enough to get some new wet weather toys for our class. A huge thanks to the OSSG who have given this money to the classes for these activities. Here we are using them already this week because of the Winter weather!

Destiny making patterns with our new pegboards.

Georgia and Julia creating critters!

Liam working with the Bucking Bronco....very tricky!

Here are the games Mrs McLaughlin got for us with the money from the OSSG. A huge thanks to you, it really does make a wet lunchtime easier to handle! 

Week 3

Week 3 has been one of focusing on Science, with all the year 1 classes interchanging for different strands of the science curriculum. I took a mini-unit on Magnets in room 9 with the class really getting to grips through hands on activities about the idea of Magnets and their "magical" powers.
Shadows, growing seeds and chemical change was also covered in other rooms.
Its a fun way to open your childs mind to questions and ideas about the world around them.One morning (after a particularly blustery night) someone asked how you measured wind? So we trotted off down to Jackson Park with a balloon each. Soon they were measuring just how strong the wind was with their Balloons. Noah came up with the statement "we can't see the wind to measure it....But we can see what it does to other things so we can measure that!" Science Inquiry in a nutshell.
 Our class conclusion the wind was faster than we could run that day as we couldn't keep up and catch our balloons when we let them go.
When working with Magnets Liam noted that the North Pole was special because of the Magnetic North Pole not because Santa lived there. Who are we to argue with such logic? and no doubt they will all remember that.
Below are some snippets of work covered in the unit with room 9.

A group work out magnets worked through layers of plastic and card.

Using magnets the group find out what objects are magnetic.

Using the compass and new knowledge about the magnetic Pole they found out which way was North!

Not all magnets looked the same and not all things are magnetic!

Creating pictures with iron sand. They found out magnets even work through card!

We used the compass on our map to work out which way was North . Using the Magnetic North pole to guide us.
This really fascinated them as they recognised the compass and North arrow from our Pirate study earlier in the year.

Liam found out the North and South Pole don't like each other and repel each other ( they don't play well together was Emmas comment)

Discovering not all metals are magnetic.

Racing paperclip cars through the card with Magnets.

Working out which way was North.

A great week as you can see despite the cooler weather and ongoing sickness that has hit the class again.

It is well and truly winter and because of that some days children end up inside all day even through the breaks. We also have an urgent need for tissues. At least half the class have colds and many are sneezing over others so if you can help with a box I would really appreciate it. We went through 6 full boxes last week!

The trip to Tihi Reserve was postponed till later in the term, not cancelled and our scheduled Museum trip is going ahead as planned on Monday 31st August. Your child will bring a note home about this.

If you can help that would be great. We will be going along with room 7.Our Topic is looking at the mountain thermal wonderland we live in. Quite timely when you see the thermal blowout this weekend in central Rotorua.

Personal AFL folders will come home shortly for you to see a sample of your childs work and progress so far this year. So look out for these. Can I please ask for these be returned promptly once seen. I have only just got back the last 3, this week from last term. It is so easy for them to go missing with all your childs work in them and near impossible to replace. 

Many thanks Nadine