Monday 29th February morning discovery time...

Have you ever wondered what your children are up to during this time?  Well have a look at these videos.  They show children from all of the Junior school working and co-operating together. Play time helps children to become independent and self directed in their learning.  This 'play time' is all about the children and their interests.   Look at all of the learning and fun that is happening!

This week's play quote: "We are never more fully alive, more completely ourselves, or more deeply engrossed in anything, than when we are at play."  Charles E. Schaefer.

Swimming time in the afternoon...

Every afternoon in Piwakawaka we have our daily swim....as the weeks have passed by we have all become very confident in the water which is great to see.  We are lucky to have our pool at Oropi  School.  Look at what we get up too!

House of science...

Today we also explored our science box from the 'House of Science'.  We investigated magnets and how they work.  We discovered that we are 'scientists' and that magnets attract metal objects.  They got stuck to paper clips, other magnets, pins and iron shavings.  They did not attract materials such as Plasticine, rubber bands or stones.

Check out the photos below...

Dress up time...

Today Mrs Wheeldon got dressed up with the children and together they did a little role-play about going to the shops....this then got the children's creative juices flowing and now we are going to do some of our own 'plays' over the next few days.  We may do' Goldilocks and the three bears' or we might make up our own story!

Being an Author...

Yesterday photos of the children's creations were taken and today we talked to the children about them and wrote down their ideas and stories.  We talked about how they are authors too!

Discovery play time today...

This is just a selection of some of our creations that we have made today.  Every day after 'discovery' we have a sharing time where the children can show and talk about what they have made.  This is very important as it helps the children to build their confidence and language skills.  The children look forward to this time of the day.

We have taken photos of these creations and will be asking the children to write about them tomorrow.  They are learning about being 'authors'.

Our learning today...Monday the 22nd of February 2016...

Today we were very excited  as Mrs Wheeldon brought in some wooden cable reels for our outside play, check out the below  video to see how much fun we had with them.  Once again we had to use team work and communication skills to play co-operatively with these.

Welcome to Week four, Term one. This week our play quote is...

Quote of the week: " You can discover more about a person  in an hour of play than in a year of conversation "  Plato.

On Friday of last week we had lots of mud play as most of you probably know from the dirty clothes in your children's bags.  Remember a change of clothes or two is very important!

Look at the fun we had today...once again this type of play makes your children happy, interested and engaged.  They are playing co-operatively, working as a team and are developing their communication and problem solving skills!

Pond dipping...

Every Thursday we will be taking groups of children to the pond.  We did some pond dipping today.  We went to a local pond near our school.  When we got there we scooped up some water and then looked at what we had caught.  The children learnt about leeches, pond skaters and water boatmen.  When our tadpoles turn into frogs we will be setting them free in this pond.  The children had really seemed to enjoy themselves.  We were also lucky to have Petra, Chloe's mum helping us.  Thanks very much for your help today Petra!

Look what happened today...

When we arrived at school today there was a lot of excitement as our first chrysalis had hatched and the caterpillar that we were observing yesterday had changed into a chrysalis too!  The children spent the whole day watching the butterfly dry it's wings!

Magic in the classroom...

The children were very excited about the changes happening on the science table today....the chrysalis has turned black and we can see the wings....the other caterpillars are also beginning to change, so lots of conversations were had today about what is happening and why!

Our new display...

We have been so busy today in Piwakawaka.  We made a display based on the big book that we read at afternoon story time.  It was about a garden and the caterpillars living in it.  We are still observing our own caterpillars.  They have grown so much and we have a chrysalis too!

To consolidate this story and our learning about the Butterfly life cycle, we made a collage display.  It shows a garden, flowers, grass, caterpillars and a chrysalis or two!  Please come in and have a look.  The children have been amazing artists!

Yesterday I mentioned how we were creating our own fossils, well look at the following results.  Lots of discussions have occurred about what fossils are and how they are made and found!

Don't forget our welcome meeting this Thursday at 5.30 pm in Kiwi Room!

Jellyfish in Piwakawaka!

Today we made our balloon jellyfish to add to our underwater display.  The children seem to be really enjoying this interest.  Some children have also been particularly interested in fossils and have been bringing in bones!  We have been using the clay and some of our toys to make our own fossils.  We are waiting to see what will happen when the clay hardens..... watch this space!

Welcome to week three... this week's play quote...

Welcome to week three in Piwakawaka!

This week we will continue to learn about Sea life, remember to come in and see our display!  Tomorrow we will be making balloon Jelly fish!

This week's play quote:

"Someday you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again" - C.S. Lewis

This week on Thursday we have our welcome meeting and parent information meeting at 5.30pm in Kiwi Room.  Please come along and hear what we have to share about Innovative Learning Spaces, team teaching, homework and most importantly learning through play and why we do it!

Hope to see you there!

The day of the dragon dance...

Today we finished decorating our Chinese dragon and then headed out to the courts to try it out.  Some of us were the dragon, and we took turns at playing the musical instruments to make our Chinese sounding music.

The children are very interested in the real life crabs that we have in our classroom at the moment.  We have also been reading the book and watching the DVD of the Ocean Explorer series.  Each day we learn about a new sea creature.  This afternoon to consolidate our interest in the ocean we painted our own sea life.  We are slowly turning Piwakawaka into an underwater world.

Chinese New Year and our other interests at the moment...

Today in Piwakawaka we watched a youtube clip of a Chinese dragon dance.  We also made our own 'dancing dragons'.  Whilst we made them we talked about Chinese New Year and what it means and how people celebrate it.  Some of the children were very interested in the dragon  dance and so we decided to make our own large dragon puppet that we could dance with.  We used sticks, a sheet and a dragon mask.  Tomorrow we are going to have a go at doing the dance and listening to some Chinese music.  Come and check out our dragons the next time you are in Piwakawaka.

Other interests in our class at the moment include fossils and sea life.  We will have more visitors to the classroom tomorrow....we will be observing some crabs that I found tonight at Tye Park in Welcome Bay.

Following the children's interests is a big part of our play based learning.  Children will learn more when interested.  We want children to observe and learn about the world around them.  We encourage curiosity and questioning especially!

Meet Frosty and Patch!

Frosty and Patch are Piwakawaka's resident Guinea Pigs, they have spent their summer holidays chilling out in Mrs Weston's back garden and are keen to meet you all over the next few weeks!

Please feel free to bring in your vege scraps, especially carrots, celery, kumara and dandelion leaves.

Resourcing our 'making shed'

We would kindly appreciate any donations that parents/whanau and caregivers may have for us.  We are always looking for nails, wood and recycling such as junk boxes, fabric, bottle tops etc

We depend on these donations to keep our shed resourced so that your children can continue to be creative in their own individual way. Brenda is our wonderful teacher in the 'shed' and outdoor area.  She is always looking for parent help so please feel free to come in and chat if you would like to help.

The purpose of play...

Learning through play and play based learning are a big part of our philosophy here at Oropi school.  Please feel free to come into Piwakawaka and explore the playroom.

As your children are starting their school journey we will be recording learning stories which highlight the fun and learning that they will experience in Piwakawaka this year.



Each week look for our weekly "quote" on the importance of play.


"Whoever wants to understand much must play much" - Gottfried Benn

Caterpillars

Also in Piwakawaka at the moment are Monarch butterfly caterpillars from Mrs Weston's garden.

Tadpoles have arrived!!!

This term we are thinking about the life cycle of the
butterfly and frog.  When you come in on Tuesday check out the new tadpoles that we have in our classroom.  It has taken a while to track these down. These little fellas came all the way from Waihi.

Welcome!

We have had a fantastic first three days in Piwakawaka getting to know each other. It is fantastic to see new friendships forming already.  We are loving the swimming pool and it is great to see how confident the children are in the school pool!