Our new monkey bars

Monkey bars are amazing! 

"Climbing, swinging and hanging build our upper body strength and core muscles which are essential for developing fine motor skills. Twisting, turning, dangling and swinging develop flexibility and agility in the shoulders, elbows, wrists and fingers. Pushing, pulling, tugging and lifting build strength and an intuitive understanding of simple physics such as weight, pressure and resistance." A Moving Child is a Learning Child. By Gill Connell & Cheryl McCarthy. 

Lab in a Box

Inside the big blue box was a science lab. We went and met the scientists. We made a pH rainbow by testing coke, juice, vinegar, milk and disinfectant. Vinegar was the most acidic and milk was neutral. Then we got to go and find some bugs, pine cones, grass, seeds and leaves. We looked at them under a microscope. The microscope made them look really big. We could see the eggs and patterns on the bugs really well. It was cool seeing the worms wiggling around. Riley's caterpillar was a really interesting creature. We got to take home a speciman tube so we could find things at home. 

Mr Hunter talks about Mt Everest

Mr Hunter came to school to talk to us about climbing Mt Everest in Nepal. He showed us lots of photos about Mt Everest. They live in yellow tents at the camp and use Yaks to carry their gear in big blue drums. Before climbing Mt Everest Mr Hunter had coffee and gingernuts for breakfast! Mr Hunter had to wear LOTS of special gear to climb the mountain. He had on big boots, a hat, a helmet, a jacket, a suit, gloves, a harness, goggles, ropes, an ice axe and crampons on his boots. Some of us were lucky enough to try them on. Mr Hunter had tried to climb Mt Everest 3 times before reaching the top on the 4th time. He taught us to keep trying and not to give up on our dreams. 

Discovery Time

What a great start to Term 3!

Building not only develops children's fine motor skills, hand eye coordination & creativity but it is fantastic for 'building' relationships with children working together to solve problems and reach their goals. 

Large pieces of paper were a great motivation for some children to write stories, draw pictures and practise their letter writing. 

Dental Bus Tiki Tour

Today we visited the Dental Bus at school. Cameron got to sit on the big seat and wear some cool glasses to protect her eyes from the bright light. We counted to ten as the seat went up and we counted to ten when the seat came down. Ben was wearing blue gloves. The Dental Nurse wears gloves so they don't get germs in children's mouths. We could see our faces in the little mirror tool that Helen showed us. If you visit the Dental Bus you get a big sticker. We get to visit the Dental Nurse once a year with our Mums and Dads. 

The Gingerbread Man

Our shared book recently has been ‘The Gingerbread Man’ so we baked our very own Gingerbread Men at school. We learned about measuring, counting, size, decorating and of course tasting! Yummo!

Buddy reading with Room 5

Buddy reading is a great way to celebrate and share our learning. Room 5 have been sharing their individual cultural inquiries with us over the last two weeks. We share our sound craft with them. This week we watched Gabi & Georgia share their highland dancing & inquiry about The History of Highland Dancing and Room 8 shared their Lion masks. 

Super star reading!!!

Mrs Hansen was lucky enough to read with Spider-Man and a Disney Princess today! 

Tumble Time races

Mr Excell and Noah racing on the scooter boards at Tumble Time. A fantastic combination of co-ordination, upper body strength, movement skills and positive social skills.

Tumble Time - Term 2

Another fantastic session at Tumble Time this term. The children explored the many different ways of using the equipment which developed their balance, strength, climbing, rolling and hand - eye co-ordination. As the children became more confident in their ability their exploration changed and they challenged themselves a little more each time. We had also been learning about 'Movement and Position' in Maths and incorporated the language of up, down, over, under and across.
Thank you so much to the Tumble Time team for allowing us to come and share in your amazing community resource!

Autumn Adventure - Tiki Tour

Today we went on a leaf hunt. We were looking for Autumn leaves. We found some leaves on the ground. They were yellow, brown, red and orange. We made a big pile of leaves and threw them up in the air for the wind to blow away. We made leaf angels and became Autumn princesses by decorating our hair. We crunched up the leaves and made a rustling sound too.

ANZAC Reserve Tiki Tour

This week we walked to our local ANZAC memorial rock. We listened to a story about a chicken and the war. We saw the New Zealand flag at the top of the flag pole, did crayon rubbings of the memorial plaque and drew pictures of poppies. We talked about why we celebrate ANZAC day and what it means for our country.

 

Numeracy

The Boiler Room Tiki Tour

We went to the Boiler Room to find out where the smoke came from. Mr Anderson showed us the coal and he was very nice. Coal makes the fire go. It is really black and dusty. Coal comes from under the ground. Some of us got really dirty hands from touching the coal. Pipes are connected to the boiler and go into our classrooms. The water boils and makes our heaters hot to keep us warm in winter.

Southern Stars Tiki Tour

We went to see the younger kids who go to Southern Stars. We read to them nicely and shared our awesome reading. We read to some of the teachers too. Some of us used to go to Southern Stars before we started school so it was really fun and great going back to visit.