Taniwha in Waikato te awa!

 We have been learning about Waikato te awa and reading about taniwha this week. Many children are familiar with Waikato te awa and they talked about going for a walk or a bike ride on the river trail. 

We learnt that Waikato te awa is the longest awa in North Island. 
When we read the book about taniwha and the treasures that the taniwha has shared with the boy in the story. 

We looked at different designs of taniwha, and there were some interesting patterns on each taniwha. Some had koru patterns, zigzags, and in different colours. Many children loved my rainbow taniwha book. 

So here are the taniwha pictures that children have drawn. 

We are going to put all the taniwha in our waikato te awa next week. What an awesome job everyone did! 

Exploring magnets and playing outside!

I ordered the magnetic science box from House of Science for this week as I have seen children really interested in magnets in the classroom. It is so useful to use this box as it comes with various magnetic activities that children can explore and investigate. 

We explored our classroom and outside to see what is attracted to magnets. Some children mentioned that metal is attracted to magnets. We also talked about what is not magnetic. 

 We also hypothesised how many paperclips can hang onto different sizes of U-shaped magnets in a line. Some thought the bigger the magnets are, the more paperclips will be attracted to. 

This was a really interesting activity where children go to find out on their own. 

As the weather has been wonderful, we have been moving our bodies outside. We can always take learning outside. Here are some photos of children reading and publishing. 

 

Creating our portraits

 Every year, I try to create something different for portraits, and this year I tried using Indian ink and chalk pastels. I really loved the focus that the children showed during the painting and colouring with the pastels. 

When the children used chalk pastels, they also experimented with the use of their fingers to colour. They rubbed the colours in with their fingers, and it was so wonderful to watch them express themselves in their own ways. Some used all of the fingers and the palm of their hands, and others used just one or two fingers to colour. 

Here are the completed portraits. What amazing and beautiful portraits they are! 

Nau mai, Haere mai! Week 1, Term 1 2021

 Welcome to Room 2! We have had a fantastic week of getting to know each other, learning about our school and classroom.  Our Room 2 children are really engaged in play to explore their interests and passions. 

We did a cutting activity to make some snowflakes, this involved following instructions and using scissors to cut shapes. These look so wonderful on our windows. 

I am excited about getting to know each of you guys and learn through play together!