Town Basin Walk

Limestone Island

Lunch eating in Pod 2!

Working together!

Bridget was keen to learn how to do backward rolls in the water today, and Charlee was a willing teacher.  Great team work girls! It's great to share our skills!

Rehearsing some of our old songs at Kapa Haka

Apologies for the poor quality, I was trying to use the school ipads which obviously don't record that clearly.  Will have to try again with my phone!

Kapa Haka

Year 1 Maths

Attached is some information from the NZ maths website: https://nzmaths.co.nz/families

This is a fabulous website you can go to if you are wanting some tips on how to support your child at home.

Year 2 Maths

Attached is some information from the NZ maths website: https://nzmaths.co.nz/families

This is a fabulous website you can go to if you are wanting some tips on how to support your child at home.

Library time!

This term has been so busy with swimming that we haven't always made it to the Library on Mondays.  Today we managed to squeeze in a trip to the library and swimming!

The students love reading with the big collection of soft toys we have in there.

If your child didn't have a library bag today, it is possible to change their books during lunchtimes each day as the library is open then also.

Trains, trains, trains!

Arlo is just crazy about trains!  For discovery time he decided he wanted to teach a few lucky children how to make a model train out of wood, washers, straws, cardboard rolls and containers.

They look awesome, Arlo! 

Making bookmarks

Skylar enjoyed taking the teacher's seat today and teaching some kids how to make origami bookmarks.  

These cute little bookmarks sit on the corner of the page to mark your place.

Once they made them they had a great time decorating them using sharpies and felts.

I wonder how many homes are going to get inundated with these now 😊

She also made a video in case you want to try it at home.

Making A Bookmark

Reading Time!

During reading time we work in small ability groups.  We have a range of things that we are focussing on during this first reading of the book.

When they come to an unknown word we say things like:

• Look at the first letter of the word, what sound does that make?  What word might start with that sound?  Sometimes it helps to re-read the first part of the sentence for them so they can think about the answer.
• Read to the end of the sentence (skip the word) and then come back and see if you can work it out.
• Look for something in the word that you know that could help you? eg 'at' in 'cat' or 'the' in 'mother'.

If they make an error we don't jump in straight away.  We give them a short amount of time to see if they notice it and correct it themselves.  (Which is what we want them to do)

If they don't correct it themselves we ask them things like:

• Did that look right?
• You said "the dog walking down the road", did that sound right?  (Often when you repeat what they have read they can hear the error.)
• Did that make sense? (again, repeat what they have said)

This line of questioning gives the students some skills to use when attempting unknown words and to self correct when they make an error which is what all good readers do!

Making a Cat and a Mouse

Some of the children read the book 'Making a Cat and a Mouse' in their reading group.  We decided it would be a great thing to make on Friday during discovery time.

We followed the instructions in the book and the students were so proud of their creations!