Term 2 Week 5

Thank you to all the Parents and Grandparents who came to celebrate our learning with us. The children were very proud of their achievements and really enjoyed sharing what they get up to during the day at school.

In writing this week we are focusing on:
* leaving spaces between our words
* s-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g out our words and writing down the sounds we can hear
* making sure our short letters are short and our tall letters are tall

This week in maths we will be continuing to work on our number knowledge and practicing writing numbers correctly. We will also be talking about the concepts of 'heavier than' and 'lighter than'

Inquiry - Our alkaline/acid experiment with the cabbage water went well. We loved sharing this with you and used up the last of it today making lots of different shades of pink and blue. Our clay volcanoes are finally dry so this week we will be painting them before using them to test fizzing and foaming reactions.

Reminders:
 * With the changeable weather we are experiencing at the moment we seem to be accumulating jumpers and raincoats. Please make sure these items are clearly named so we can reunite them with their owners.
* Poem books - Please help your child remember to pack their poem book to return to school each Monday
* Library books - Our library day is Thursday. Please ensure your child brings their book back each week so they are able to choose a new one to bring home.

Term 2 Week 4

For the first half of this week we will be busy preparing for our celebration of learning. We are looking forward to sharing some of the things we do at school and our current learning goals. Please remember school finishes at 12.30pm tomorrow.

Inquiry
On Friday we found out what happens when we make butter without salt. It didn't become slime or poisonous like we thought it might, it just tasted different. Most of us liked the butter without salt the best. This week we are making volcanoes and finding out how popcorn pops.

We have also been finding out about states of matter and can tell you all about solids, liquids and gases

Here is the butter we made. It turned out really well and our arm muscles got a good workout with all the shaking.

Term 2 Week 3

Inquiry

We had great fun last week with our inquiry launch and really enjoyed the opportunity to work with the other teachers in our team.

We watched Coke and Mentos react to make a spectacular geyser

Miss Bell showed us how to make delicious butter

 Mrs Gilmour made gooey slime

 Mrs Stilwell showed us what happens when you heat up crayons

 Mr Collins made some cool fizzing and foaming potions

 Ms Grech helped us make some crazy oobleck

Now that the "Tuning In" faze of our inquiry is finished we are moving into "Finding Out." We have decided that the experiment most of us would like to know more about first is Making Butter.

We have listed some questions and wonderings we have and will begin investigating the answers this week.

Some of our questions are:

Why did we add salt?

What is the runny stuff left over?

How is icecream made?

Can we make butter with milk?

Learning Celebrations

The children are continuing to prepare for our celebration of learning day/evening next week. Remember to follow the link from last week's blog to book a time.

Term 2 Week 2

Launching our Inquiry
This week we are having lots of mad science fun as we launch our inquiry into change. We will have the opportunity to work with other teachers in our team as we complete experiments and record our wonderings about physical changes.

Whanau and Friends - Do you have any expertise in the science field that you could share with us as part of this inquiry?

Learning Celebration - Wednesday 24 May
Over the next few weeks we will be preparing for or Learning Celebration. The children are looking forward to sharing their learning goals with you and showing you what they get up to in class.
Please remember to visit www.schoolinterviews.co.nz and use the code: k23pp
As your child will need your undivided attention please make alternative arrangements for preschoolers. Barbara Taylor (DP) will be available in the library to look after siblings if required.

Bucket Filling
Last week we learned all about bucket filling. Ask us what this means and how we can be bucket fillers.

Term 2 Week 1

Welcome back everyone, I hope you all had a lovely restful break.

We will be working more closely with T2 this term. We have started running 'Investigation Time' in the morning where children will have the opportunity to explore their own interests and wonderings as well as time to practice core literacy and numeracy objectives. 

For P.E this term we will be practicing large ball skills as well as continuing with our weekly bike sessions.

Inquiry - This term we will become scientists and explore the concept of change. 



Maths - Measurement (Capacity and Volume)

Word Work - this term we will be starting a new programme called Sounds Like Fun to learn more about letters and sounds.