Christmas Time!

Well the last couple of weeks have been a blur, so much going on!  The fun day yesterday at Newtown Park was awesome, lots of athletics - long jump, sprints, vortex, quiots, sack races and free play!

Today after our day of fun we were all a little tired, it was wet outside so we focused on a bit of "Christmas Cheer!"  We started the day with waiata - Christmas themed, thanked the lovely Jo for her help every Thursday morning for the year, had our last gym session, read books, wrote letters to Santa, made Christmas cards and made a Rudolph crown...

Fire inspired posters!

Over the past few weeks we have had a lot of fun "Getting Firewise" as part of our inquiry into "Keeping Ourselves Safe."  Here we are showing off our certificates.... we were very proud of ourselves!

This later inspired our Fire Art Poster - 

1. We carefully cut out our fire.

2. Taped cellophane to our fire.

3. Cut out and glued our words.

4. Poster done...

 

Making Yummy Popcorn!

In Pohutukawa we are learning about what Procedural Writing is and when it is used.
We had a really fun writing session by making popcorn, eating popcorn and then writing about how to make popcorn!

We learnt that a procedure has a heading and there are steps to tell us what to do.  The steps are written as short bossy sentences using words like first, next, then.

Here are some photos of our fun learning, oh and the popcorn tasted delicious (Louis)!.

Oscar helping Kate read the instructions

Harrison helping Kate put the popping corn into the machine

Connor waiting for the popcorn to come out!

Watching the popping corn pop!

Look at all the popcorn!

Sofia, Jasmin and Eden enjoying the popcorn!

Nellie, Sasha and Harrison enjoying the popcorn!

Making Toast!

We made toast earlier in the week.  We worked out what we needed and discussed how we made it.  We were learning... how to follow instructions and later during writing we wrote these instructions in our own words.

Instructions

 Waiting

 Putting spread on

Eating it!

Diwali celebrations in Pohutukawa

"Diwali is a celebration for the return of Prince Rama to his kingdom.  After he was exiled into the jungle for 14 years when he returned.  The kingdom was lit up to welcome him..."  By Matthew.

Pohutukawa students were very lucky to have three very kind Mums visit earlier in the week - Taruna (Tavish), Deepa (Saanvi) and Mona (Alicia).

An example of an offering.

We are learning about Diwali - the poster shows the five days of Diwali.

Traditional Diwali treats.

This tastes pretty good!

Creating our own Rangoli...

Eating together.

Proud students!

Wicked witch and firefighters visiting Pohutukawa!

On Halloween the wicked witch from Mount Victoria knocked on our door with her broomstick.  Knock. Knock. Knock.
She looked spooky.  She looked wrinkly.  She had a bandana on her head to cover her snake hair.
The witch was limping and crooked with a hunch back.  Her face was really old and ugly.
In her hand she was holding a plate of ....... ogre fingers!  AAAHHHHHH!!

Mums and dads and grandpas and grannies.....look out, she might come and visit you and give you ogre fingers!

Then..... more visitors from Mount Victoria Fire Station.  The FireFighters told us all about their special jobs and how we can be safe when there is a FIRE.  

                                                Firefighter Pati showing us a smoke alarm

                          We are watching a video of a fire started by a candle too close to the curtain.

We are pointing to the smoke alarms in the hall with our hand and foot!

Geometry

We know the names of a number of different shapes.  Today we looked at what made a shape that particular shape, we looked at triangles, squares, rectangles and so on.  Then we got creative and made pictures, patterns and shapes from shapes.

Getting Firewise!

We are "Getting Firewise" this term as part of our inquiry into "Keeping Ourselves Safe." We are learning how to be safe around fire which keeps us warm, helps us cook food and we use for light.  We know only adults should use matches and lighters, as these things are not toys.

We have found the fire alarms, the fire hose and the fire extinguishers in our class.  We are checking what we have at home too.

Today we practiced - What to do in a fire?  Many ideas were discussed...

"GET DOWN, GET LOW and GET OUTSIDE."

Buddy Reading!

Following on from last term, we continued our buddy work with Karaka.  We did PE last week and this week was reading time.

We read many books from our book box, our buddies listened and asked questions about the book we were reading...  We sat at tables, on the floor and moved around the Pohutukawa space. 

We love to share our learning with Karaka.

Gymnastics!

Today we had our first gymnastics session.  We had a really really good time!  Our teachers are Abe and Mark.  They taught us how to do these positions- pike, straddle and tuck.  On the ginormous air mat we had to run, bounce, do star jumps and monkey crawl - it was heaps of fun!!

Here are some photos of us in action...

Last Day Of Term Three

Nice to end the term with a sing a long Assembly.  Great to hear all the different songs from the various classes at Clyde Quay School.  Thanks for sharing!  We sang an old favourite of ours "Waiti Waita".

Today in class we enjoyed a low key day.  We read "The Rainbow Fish" by Marcus Pfister, which inspired some art and craft.  We glued, glittered, coloured and decorated our very own Rainbow Fish.  We spoke about the story and the importance of sharing, relating the story to our "Bucket Filling" and Waka Huia box.

We hope you shared your artwork with your whanau.  We saw detailed scales, beautiful colours and loads of sparkles.  All and all, creating some fabulous looking fish.

Happy holidays...

Patterns .x.x.x.x.

In Maths we are now looking at Algebra, specifically patterns.
We are learning to create repeating patterns.  Today Anita's group experimented with blocks...

Clyde Quay Enviroschool Update!

Well done to the Clyde Quay Green Team!  As of today Clyde Quay is a Bronze Enviroschool...

What does that mean?  

Check out their blog for details:

http://greenteamcqs.blogspot.co.nz/p/the-bronze-reflection-2016.html

Very exciting :)

Taonga Display

As we get ready for our special afternoon next week, we are currently working on setting up our Taonga display.

• First we shared our Taonga at Panui time, speaking about our treasure in small groups as others asked questions.

• Next we did observational drawings of our Taonga using photographs or the original piece.  We used pencil for the outline then used Indian ink to finish.  We were careful to show details with small detailed strokes.

• Finally we did our writing to support our Taonga.  Asking questions like: What it is?  Why it's special?  How long we have had it for?

Buddy Reading

This week for buddy work with Karaka, we all enjoyed reading in the sun.  Many picture books were shared.  Thanks once again...

Buddy reading with Karaka = the thumbs up!

Letters to Karaka buddies

Following on from our buddy work with Karaka, we decided to write letters to our buddies showing our thanks and appreciation.  Here are some of the letters we sent:

Dear Charlotte,
Thank you for being my buddy and for helping me to get the ball through the cones.
Love from Jasper

Dear Karaka buddies,
I loved the game that we used our feet to kick to our buddies.
To Tra My I loved playing the games.
Love from Qingwen

Dear Karaka buddies,
I like kicking the ball between the two cones and I like dribbling the ball around the cones.
Love from Max

Dear Karaka buddies,
I hope you will teach us again because we did lots of fun things.  The best thing was doing volleys.
From Leia

Dear Karaka buddies,
I love buddy PE because we didn't do just one thing.
Love from Nellie

Buddy work with Karaka

On Tuesday afternoon we always learn new skills in Physical Education with Harakeke.

This week however was a little different, we instead worked with Karaka buddies.

In small groups, the Karaka children taught, Harakeke and Pohutukawa children a new game, skill or activity specifically relating to PE.

Loads of activity - cones, balls and fun!

Careful instruction and learning.

Learning from one another.

The Karaka buddies were great role models sharing their knowledge, offering loads of encouragement, trying new things and having fun!  Thanks Karaka, Pohutukawa had a ball.

Back at class we all gave the thumbs up when reflecting.  Can't wait for the next buddy time!