We began some Art Work on Friday based upon some animals we saw at the Zoo. There are two parts to our art work and it isn't finished yet! The finished design will be shown at the last assembly on the 19th of November. These are the children designing their backgrounds - we learnt about blending to create a sunset or a blue sky and dotting to create a grass effect. They turned out fabulously!
What a fantastic day had by all! We were split up most of the day, each group were free to explore after our class session so I wasn't able to photograph every body but I tried. Thank you to the parent helpers - we couldn't have had such a successful day without you :)
Wow!! What a fantastic effort everyone put into their Rugby World Cup homework! I am so very impressed with the projects that were brought to school to share with the Middle Syndicate! A lot of hard work and effort has gone into these and the children were very proud of their work - thank you to the parents who also put in hard work and effort. Some of these projects have had hours and hours of time put into them and it really paid off. Great work Room 5!
Cruz and Aaliyah wanted me to take a picture of their successful letters made out of play dough. Great activity to work on the kids fine motor skills and develop increased knowledge about forming letters.
This week, this group began to learn a new strategy to use when solving equations. It's all about rounding to the nearest 10 to break the numbers down and create an easier way to solve larger numbers (when we get to larger numbers). I call it the "jelly bean" strategy, as you make a jelly bean in the equation as shown in the pictures below.
Every Friday we go to Room 7 and they help us to read. They also read to us, to show us what good readers look and sound like. Buddy reading is important because it not only helps the younger students, it puts the older students in a role of responsibility and allows them to be the experts. This helps them to build confidence and it helps the younger students as some ideas may be put in a way that is easier to understand - "kid speak". Take a look at how awesome both classes are together.
Room 5 welcomed some new members this week - 8 teeny tiny tadpoles. We haven't named them as we can't tell them apart but it will be great for the children to observe the various changes they go through for our Animal topic. At the end of term they are free to a good home, or they will be joining their siblings in my Dads pond. The children were very interested in them and we even found a book that can be displayed to give visitors information on the changes they go through. Come in and visit them any time!
Wow! What a fantastic start to Term 4. We welcomed 13 children from Room's 1 and 2 and they have settled in brilliantly. Welcome to: Kitty, Dilan, Charlie, Zara, Sophie, Michael, Sol, Harry, Cairo, Bowie, Molly, Lebron, and Maddie.
To start the term, we had a music lesson. The children learnt about the notes C and G and began to learn a song on the xylophone. They had a fantastic time as pictured below and I took a short video to demonstrate their growing skills :)
We have also spent time going over the rules and routines of the classroom. This includes learning task board activities and independent activities. A lot of time is spent at the beginning of the term to scaffold and guide the children into completing activities independently and acquiring the ability to work well with a group. Below are some pictures of Room 5 teaching and learning various task board activities. These are what the children will be doing while groups are with me, along with different follow up activities.
Our topic this term is Animals - I am looking at getting some tadpoles for the class this weekend so the children can observe and study their change throughout the next month. If anyone has any spare oxygen weed I would love to borrow some - it is for a great cause!
The first couple of weeks we will also be focusing on the Rugby World Cup - hopefully we will have a positive ending to share :)
These are a collection of videos taken throughout the year so far. These videos cannot be seen by any member of the public - only people who have the links below can see them. Enjoy :)
This was taken on February the 26th, 2015. This reading group has come so far since this was taken, and completed many more plays. They now use expression and can act out their individual parts - it is nice to see where they started and how much their knowledge grows throughout the year. Great play guys :)
Elgregoe the Magician also visited us in early March, 2015. He was very impressive and the children were talking about his performance for weeks afterward. Here is a short video of some of his magic show. Miss Bliss's favourite was the baby parrot - so cute!
We began Go Noodle in May. This is one of the first times we tried it - look at the concentration on the children's little faces! Each morning we attempt a new dance routine with music and try to copy what is shown on screen. This is great for the children's gross motor skills and the ability to mirror an image. As part of Go Noodle, we have a classroom monster who grows as we grow. Every 10 dances he evolves into something better than he was before - the children love him! At the moment, we have worked so hard that our monster was given a wee pet! As this was an early video, it is great to see now how easy and in sync the children are in the present day. We may even show one of our great dance routines for assembly ;)
This is an example of one of the many music lessons we have every fortnight.
The class was given a Friday afternooon task of forming groups and coming up with a performance for the class. These girls showed great team work and performed so well. Take a look!
ASB Get Wise recently visited us to teach the children about the value of money and saving. Take a look at some of the great activities the "ASB Superhero" did with the kids.
On Friday, we were lucky enough to have ASB come in to talk to th children about the importance of saving money and th difference between needs and wants. He posed as a superhero and gave the children super money saving powers! Was a great lesson indeed.
We had move and improve every Friday for most of term 3. The children absoultely loved it!! They got to learn gymnastic type skills which largely helped with their gross motor skills.
Wheels day was yet again a huge success! Check out how much fun we had.
My teacher voice looks to be on as I tell Emir to be careful, but also shows the set up of wheels day - they were able to go around the decks and behind the hall. Lots of fun all round and I'm sure we will continue these wonderful days as we lead into Spring.
We were lucky enough to get a visit from Auckland transport to teach us about the history of bikes. We saw the very first bike ever made right up to today's current bike. The children were very interested in why the front wheel was so large in early bikes and were very impressed that the way to get off was to flip over the front handle bars!! Do not try at home!!
We worked on Spring poems to celebrate the coming of Spring. Writing is a big process and we often take a full week from draft to publishing. Take a look at our Spring Poem writing process.
First we went outside to experience what spring was all about. We saw tiny leaves forming on trees, new flowers growing, the sun was shining and birds singing. The children could definitely seethe difference from Winter.
Next it was back to class to do our picture plans. Picture plans are very important for early writers as it helps to keep the idea they want to write about in their heads and is a form to refer back to when thinking about their writing.
After the picture plan the children write their draft, edit their work and go onto publishing. We usually spend Friday ,pruning publishing our writing from the week. Look at our little authors hard at work on their publishing.
You can check out our awesome spring Poems in Room 5 now!!
We got some fantastic new maths games/activities for the children to do independently while I am working with a group. Check out how engaged Room 5 are in their mathematical learning :)
We learnt a great new strategy involving rounding to the nearest 10. The children had lots of fun using the whiteboard table and making a "jellybean" in their equations.
The PTA kindly funraised for us and we welcomed some new keyboards for our iPads. The kids loved the extra device available to publish their writing on.
The children also enjoyed some soccer in the sun. Excited for Spring :)
