Caterpillars and cocoons

There was great excitment in Room 11 last week as we discovered our first coccon made by one of the monarch caterpillars that we are looking after. Keep watching the caterpillars everyday as it looks like 2 more are about to make their cocoons. We have drawn the caterpillars using tuxpaint or kidpix and you can see these, along with our writing about the caterpillars, on our Kidz Stuff blog.

We have also been helpng Tracy try out some of the new Interactive White Board activities she learnt about on conference last weekend. We shared some of these with our friends from Rutherford Street kindy who visited us on Friday morning. Here we are using the board during our maths knowledge starters.

This week is the last week of Term 1 but we will still be hard at work learning the sounds 'ai' as in 'train' and 'j'. On Wednesday we will be making some jelly to help us remember the action for 'j'. This week's tricky words are 'all' and 'do'. How many words can you think of that rhyme with 'all'? On Thursday we are having a special hockey lesson from a visiting coach and don't forget this is the last Walk to School Wednesday of the term.

Before we sign off we all want to say a big "HELLO" to Sam who is on holiday this week; we are all looking forward to hearing about your adventures next term.

Reminders
Monday: Library books due back
There will be no library books issued this week.
Wednesday: Walk To School Wednesday
Thursday 9th April: last day of Term 1
Monday 27th April: first day of Term 2

Life Education

At the beginning of last week we noticed that a strange trailer had appeared on the back field at school. On Tuesday we were a bit nervous, but very excited, when it was time to discover what was inside. We made some new friends when we met Helen and Harrold the giraffe from the Life Education team. They helped us to learn where our heart, lungs and muscles are..........

........and how to keep them healthy and happy by doing regular, fun exercise with our friends.

Well done to everyone who put this new knowledge into practice by walking, scooting, cycling or even running to school on Wednesday. Don't forget there are still 2 more Walk To School Wednesdays left before the end of term.

This week our tricky words are 'so' and 'oh' and the sounds are 'f' and 'b'. In maths we are continuing our numeracy focus in our maths groups. We will also be sharing some of the exciting new maths activities that Tracy learned about at the IWB conference last week. In our inquiry topic we are practicing using good questions to find out about the people who help us in school. On Friday some friends from Rutherford Street Kindy will be visiting us and we will be helping them to draw pictures of the Rainbow Fish.

Reminders
Monday: Library books due back, no library books will be issued in the last week of term

Wednesday: Walk to School

Friday: Rutherford Street Kindy visiting us.

Thursday 9th April: Last day of Term 1

Monday 27th April: Start of Term 2

If you have a 6 week feedback interview bring a pen drive along with you.

Animals, big and small

Last week we found out how worms can help us turn our food scraps and garden waste into fertile compost to use to grow more food! Sarah Langi, Enviroschools facilitator, brought her worm farm in to share the process with us and explain how it all works. Here we having a hands on experience with the worms.

Some other wiggly friends have taken up residence in Room 11 in the form of some very hungry Monarch caterpillars. Come and see them feeding happily on the swan plant branches, safe inside from any damage caused by the Chinese Paper wasp. We learnt alot about the wasp, the swan plant, the caterpillar and the butterfly by searching Google Images in our computer lesson on Friday afternoon.

On Thursday we were looking at much larger animals when we went to the Suter Art Gallery to see at Sally Burton's exhibition 'White Gold". Here we are with our own cow pictures that say something special about each of us. We will be finishing them off this week in class so keep an eye out for them. The Suter gallery is free on a Saturday so if you have not yet seen the exhibition why not go with your child who can tell you all about it!

Check out our Kidz Stuff blog to see the chalk writing we did on Friday, focusing on writing short and tall letters correctly.

This week our letter sounds are 'u' and 'l' and the tricky words are 'her' and 'no'. In maths we will be starting to work in the 10-20 range exploring the teen numbers and numbers that come before and after in this range. On Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon we will be having special lessons in the Life Education Classroom, situated on the back field. This will help us to learn how our bodies work and what we can do to keep ourselves healthy. In our inquiry topic we will be building on last week's brainstorming session about people who help us at school and thinking what responsibilities these people have. In P.E. we will be continuing to develop some of the throwing and catching skills our buddies from Room 5 taught us last week.

Reminders

Monday: Library books due back, School Family Picnic 5.30-7.00

Tuesday and Wednesday: Life Education lessons

Friday: Tracy will be in Napier at an Interactive White Board Conference, Jane will be our teacher.

If you have a 6 week feedback interview bring a pen drive along with you.

Friends from Japan

Last week we made some new friends from Japan. Our friends are students at NMIT and they came to look at what a New Zealand school is like. In our drama lesson we helped them join in with a mirror task and back in the class they showed us some Japanese origami and saw how mazing we are at maths.

This week we will be learning the letter sounds 'g' and 'o' and the tricky words 'her' and 'go'. In maths we will continue to practice counting back from 10 and then 20. Check out our rocket maths display in the classroom. You can see our planet paintings close up on the Room 11 Kidz Stuff blog.

On Tuesday a special visitor will be coming to talk to us about worm farms and how they are good for our environment. On Thursday we are off to the Suter Gallery to look at the exhibition "White Gold" and learn how developing the perfect herd of cows is a bit like learning to work together as a team in the classroom. To find out more about the exhibition go to http://thesuter.org.nz/. Due to the falling temperatures there will be no more swimming lessons for Room 11 and this week we will be working on developing our small ball skills.

Reminders

Monday: Library books due back

Tuesday: Visit from Sarah Langi to talk about worm farms

Thursday: Visit to the "white Gold" exhibition at the Suter Gallery, leaving 9am, helpers needed

No more swimming for Room 11 this term

Helicopters in Flight video

Check out the launch of our helicopters which we made as part of our work on the sound 'h'.

Launch of our new blog site!!

Last week we had a visit from two Room 1 peer mediators who helped Neroli and Tracy to sort out a problem over sharing a bucket in the sandpit. We learnt how the mediators can help us at play times and also got some more ideas about how we can sort out our own problems.

As part of our work on the sound 'h' we made paper helicopters. Launching them was quite tricky at first as the wind blew them in the wrong direction but eventually they flew really well. We have put the video of our helicopters in flight on to to separate blog entry in case it is slow to load. ...hope you are able to view it.

Check out our link in the right hand side bar to our new Room 11 Kidz Stuff blog. This will allow you to view your child's own work, read their comments and add your own comments on their learning. Take a look on the blog at the Elmer pictures which we painted or alternatively see the class display in the school entrance area.

This week we will be looking at the sounds 'm' and 'd' and starting to make a digital movie to accompany the song 'Dragons Under My Bed" by Kath Bee. Our tricky words are 'me' and 'be'. In maths we will continue developing our number knowledge by counting backward from 10 and identifying before and after numbers. We hope to complete our class treaty so that we are all agreed on our rights and responsibilities in Room 11. Swimming should continue this week, weather permitting.

Well done to everyone who walked, scooted or cycled to school this week. Remember we will be collecting data again on Wednesday.

Reminders
Monday: Library books due back
Wednesday: Walk to School Wednesday
Swimming: everyday this week
Friday 13th: School photo day
Thursday 19th: Trip to Suter Art Gallery