On Wednesday we had some experts from Peacehaven come to visit us to talk about the games that they played and the activities that they enjoyed when they were younger.  This helped us with our inquiry about play.

 We welcomed our visitors with a song.

In groups we heard about the games and asked our experts questions.

The Muddy Fun Run

On Thursday we had our Muddy Fun Run.  This was a sponsored event run by the friends of the school.  It was a fun way to learn about showing grit.  It made us feel happy because we got to do something that got our heart rate up while slipping and sliding our way through the mud.

Way to go Scott.  You are running with such determination. 

 We love the mud.

 Riley and Joseph enjoying a hot milo after the fun run.

Ricky with his milo

We were lucky enough to have Ali McKenzie, from the Southland Campus of the Dunedin College of Education, come and teach us some new physical education games on Tuesday. We bounced balls and played aliens. We worked hard to keep the balls under control so that they didn't roll away from us.

We all had so much fun playing our games on Friday. Thank you for letting the children bring them along to school so that they could share them with their friends. We continue with our healthy play this week. The children are learning to use poi and have had fun making up new moves and learning a new game called poi toa where the children throw a poi in a group of three and the person in the middle tries to catch the poi. We are continuing to learn about time. We are reviewing the months of the year and learning to tell time to quarter past and quarter to the hour. We look forward to seeing you at the Parent Community Workshop on Tuesday at 7.30.

The Bragg family were lucky enough to see the kakapo when they were at the DOC house in Invercargill. The first photo shows Abigail, Isaiah and Oliver dressed ready to see the chicks. They had to put on protective clothing to keep the chicks safe and healthy. Thanks for sharing your exciting visit with us Abigail.

George, Alex and Ben are learning how to play poi toa. They are practising their fair play skills.

WE had fun today playing our games with our friends. We had to tell them the rules and play fair by making sure that everyone got a turn. We loved having games at school!

Today we were reading about midget car racing and what safety gear was needed. Caleb showed us his safety goggles which he wears while riding his motor cross bike. We all tried them on.

This week we are learning about how to play fair.  On Friday the children have been asked to bring along a game that they enjoy. This will give the children a fun and purposeful way to practise the fair play strategies that they are learning about.  In PE we are playing games that will help us to increase our fitness ready for the cross country.  We are continuing to learn about time and have been discussing how long a minute is and exploring what can be done in under a minute.  It is great to see the progress that the children are making as they work on Maths-Whizz.

We have been having fun learning to play the stick game.
Here is Ajay and Scott working together to learn the some moves.

Cooper and Alex are trying some new moves too!

Welcome to week two!
This week we are busy learning how to be encouraging and supportive while we play. We are having fun learning titi torea or Maori stick games. You will find a link to this on our class blog. Also new to the blog this week is a clip on how to tell the time to the hour and half hour using an analogue clock. You will find both of these links under the School Room heading on the side. We will continue to cover different aspects of time over the next few weeks so any discussion about when and what time things happen in your house helps to make this learning more relevant for the children. In maths this week we are continuing to work on fractions. We are learning how to find fractions of sets and shapes and we know that everything has to be fair and even.

Term 2

Hi everyone,
Welcome back to term 2.  It is lovely to see the children refreshed and keen to learn.  This term our inquiry's  big idea is, 'When we play we are healthy and well'.  We will look at how our choices impact on us and others and learn about how play helps us to be well.  Today we played a ball game and reflected on how it made us felt.  Also we reflected on what went well and what didn't go so well.  Over the next couple of days we will look at why things go well and why things don't go so well when we are playing.  Also we are learning the months of the year.  It would be helpful if you talk about these with your child.
Here we are playing our ball game.

 We are throwing a ball to the opposite person in our circle.  Then they throw it to one of the people opposite them. We keep doing this until everyone has had a turn. We keep repeating this throwing pattern.  More balls are added into the circle.