Thursday 14th April...

We had a great morning this morning for our last day of Term One.  We sailed our creations in the pool.  We had lots of different race categories for our boats from propeller boats to sail boats and even some remote control boats turned up too! Some of the children made boats this morning and others had made some at home!  There was also 'the walking the plank' challenge which got harder when we introduced a second skinnier plank....only two fell in!!!!!

We also made pirate hats and flags to decorate some of our boats.  There were prizes for the winners of each boat race and we also gave out prizes for most creative/innovative boats.

We hope everyone has a restful holiday and it has been a long but awesome term here at Oropi school!

See you in two weeks!!!

Wednesday 13th April...

Today we were very busy with the bee bots.  They are a resource from 'The house of science'.  The below clip shows the children using them. This involved team work too.  This is a great activity for introducing the children to technology as they have to 'program' the robots and it also helps them to learn directions and language such as: up, down, forward, backwards, left and right etc

Check out our finished display of our 'Meanies' as mentioned on yesterday's blog.  It is our big book focus this week and last.  The children drew and decorated their own Meanies.  Each one has a speech bubble coming from them explaining what they do!!!  

             

Monday 11th April 2016/ Week 11...

This Thursday we are having a boat making/pirate day but anything will go as long as it floats.  Remember to bring toggs/wetsuits or a change of clothes as your children will get wet whilst sailing their creations.

To extend their big interest in boats and things that float we made our own 'pirate plank' and some children have been walking it across the pool.  Check out the video...

We have also been doing some art and writing based on our big book focus...we have one of these every week.  At the moment it is "Meanies"...check out tomorrow's photos of this.  We have painted our own 'Meanies' each one has a speech bubble telling us why they are a 'Meanie'.

Thursday 7th of April....Our learning today:

These video clips show just how busy we are during our play discovery time.

They show some of the big interests at the moment.  First shows a group of boys manipulating an electric spinner/robot.  Yesterday they had worked hard at putting it together following the picture instructions.  Today was the reward of their hard efforts as they were able to finally get it to work.  Check out the peer tutoring/learning and how they watch and learn from each other.  There is also a lot of other skills that can be seen in action here such as language, problem solving, turn taking and patience/perseverance.

The next video clip shows the big interest in floating/sinking and boats that we have going at the moment.  Yesterday we made sail boats.  Today Mrs Wheeldon introduced the idea of a propeller and wow look at what the children did with this!  We also got Daniel the Care taker to put a plank across the pool today for those who wanted to 'walk the plank' like a pirate....mmmmm next week we might make some pirate ships!!!!!!

Lastly we are forever reminding and encouraging the children that they are "scientists" amongst other things.  Here you can see an experiment to make 'lava' for a volcano in the sandpit!

                                        

Piwakawaka Learning @ Oropi School: Wednesday 6th of April.... Maths learning...

This is what we did with the maths activities today based around our focus on sequencing/patterning/sorting and matching.  Watch this space tomorrow for the video of our daily maths problem.
 Today we asked the children about all the different ways that they know to make 6 because we were talking about today's date the 6th of April....

This is what we found out (we were using a set of magnets on the white board):

                         0 + 6 = 6
                         1 + 5 = 6
                         2 + 4 = 6
                         3 + 3 = 6
                         4 + 2 = 6
                         5 + 1 = 6                                                                                                  

Other children counted 1-6...some also counted in 2's:     2, 4, 6.

Our 'urge' in sinking and floating is continuing.  Today the children made boats with sails and we also attached string to them so that we could pull them back to shore(forces).

Tuesday 5th of April.... Maths learning...

We like to'write' using a variety of media here in Piwakawaka.  We often use our special window pens and write on the windows.  This is fun and helps to inspire our 'writing'...activities like these help to build our confidence as writers and strengthen our pincer grips.

Now that swimming has finished in the afternoons we are focusing more on our Maths program.  At the moment we are focusing on sorting, matching, set making and pattern making.  The below photos show some of the activities that we are using for  sequential patterning and set making.  We use a variety of objects including natural resources.

During our maths time we start by singing number songs and then we have a whole class 'problem' to solve.  We do this in pairs and through talking and collaborating with each other.....watch this space as i will record one of our problem solving sessions for you to see in action, tomorrow!

Monday the 4th of April Week 10:

Today's play quote...

"Play is our brain's favourite way of learning"  Diane Ackerman.

Thank you for all of our junk modelling and recycling...keep it coming please!

Remember Parent/Teacher interviews are this Wednesday and Thursday.

Friday 1st of April 2016

When children play we look at something in their learning called 'urges' these are schemas/behaviours that they can't help but explore or act out physically .  They therefore need opportunities to explore these urges.

Strong 'urges' that we can see in Piwakawaka at the moment are:

 Enveloping- wrapping things in paper/ making area

Enclosure - Building small and large huts/ bush and gully area

Trajectory - Throwing/ paper planes

Transformation - Turning something into something else/ junk modelling/carpentry/floating and sinking.

Today(Friday) the children were very focused on boat making and then we explored the concept of floating/sinking and what materials are waterproof. This also brought in the concept of weight.

Check out the below photos....we also have a sharing time after our discovery play so we can share our learning.  Big discussions were had about materials and which float and the weight of these materials. Some of our boats sank to the bottom of the pool so we learnt that paper and card is not ideal in boat making.

The children's inventions were amazing.  Some had even added balloons to their boats so that they could blow them up and propel them forward......mmmmmm  maybe we will extend this interest in balloon powered boats and experiment with other balloon inventions.  We will explore Forces!!!!!