Run Jump Throw

Today the Junior School had their Run Jump Throw afternoon. We have been practising for weeks now, and today our parents were invited along to watch.

Maths Today: Area

Today we were looking at filling in an area with shapes. Often when children draw pictures, they do lines for arms, legs and sun rays. Children are aware of lines but are not always aware of the area between lines. In this activity, internal areas can be filled with different shapes a little like a geometric jigsaw puzzle. As long as all the white area is covered inside the shape, there is no one correct way to be successful. We really enjoyed this challenge today. Area on PhotoPeach

Pet Day

What a wonderful morning we had for our Pet Day today! Beautiful warm weather with no wind. Very different to the thunder storms and downpours we had this afternoon. Just as well the pets had gone home by then.
We had lots of animals including cats, dogs, horses, pigs, calves, lambs, rabbits, rats, guinea pigs, hens and ducks, fish, as well as soft toys.

Pet Day on PhotoPeach

Our New Principal Arrives in Style!

Last Monday our new principal arrived for her first day at our school. She came in her racing car. It was very noisy. Then we had a powhiri for her. First she sat with her old school and then some people from our school took her to sit on our side. We sang our school song. 

Welcome Mrs Prendergast. We hope you like our school.

Room 2 and 7 had Choice and Challenge on the own today!

The three other Junior classes went on their trip to the fire station and police station today so we had our own Choice and Challenge. Look at the great choices we made today. Today was Polly's first day at school. 

Maths Week

It was the last day of Maths Week today and Graham came to show us some cool things to do using Maths. There were lots of problem solving activities, counting activities, weighing and measuring activities. We liked it very much. Thank you Graham.

Our Trip to the Fire Station

Today we went to visit the fire station at Lincoln. We went in a bus and had our lunch at the rugby grounds. There was a play park there to play on. Then we walked to the fire station and saw the fire engines and had a turn of the hoses. The water can go a very long way.

The fire truck has some big cutters and tools in it.
They are very heavy!

The fire hose was hard to hold.
We turned it on and off.

The water went a long way.

We got in the fire truck to have a look at where the firemen sit.

We are learning our addresses and phone numbers.
We know that the number to ring in an
emergency is 111. 

When the water was going it's fastest it went 25 metres.
That is a long way.

New Entrant Party

Today we had a party to welcome the children who are going to come to our school soon. We played games and then we had some party food. Then we had time to play outside and look after our new friends. We had a story about little dinosaurs on their first day at school and e the new children were given a goodie bag to take home. It was fun.

People Who Help Us

We had a visit from a policeman who told us about some of the things a policeman has to do, and about how they train police dogs. Police men can help us when there is an emergency and they can keep us safe after dangerous things like storms, floods and crashes and help to protect us from bad people . We got to look in his car and he put the flashing lights on. When he put the siren on I got a terrible fright!

Choice and Challenge

Today was Daffodil Day and we had a Mufti Day. We dressed up in yellow or flower colours instead of our school uniforms. We did Choice and Challenge and our group chose to learn to play the ukelele. We were so good we put on a concert. Next time we will try to record our playing so you can hear us too.

Looking at Patterns Everywhere

Looking at Patterns Everywhere on PhotoPeach

Fire Wise

Today five fire fighters came to visit us at school. They told us about the danger of fires and how fire fighters can help us. We learnt that when the room gets filled with smoke it gets very dark. The smoke is bad for us because we can't breath. You have to "get down, get low and get out". If the door feels hot you have to get out a window and go to the safe meeting place outside, where your family will be waiting. The fire fighters will come with their special clothes and breathing gear and put out the fire. 

They said it was important to have smoke alarms in your house and you should check them regularly to make sure the battery is not flat. The one they brought with them today had a flat battery!

We went out on the grass to practice crawling under the smoke with our noses to the grass. They said we had to get green noses!

Working with our Buddies.

   Every New Entrant that comes to our school is buddied up with a senior pupil, and time is set aside each week for them to work together reading, playing games, doing similar interests and offering support in the playground. Part of the senior school requirements is a Pathways document which explains the leadership role that the students have taken during the year in caring for the needs of younger learners. This has advantages for both age groups, and works amazingly well. 

Thank you Buddies! And thank you Simon for organising it all.

Book Week

Friday was the final day of Book Week. We could come to school dressed as our favourite book character. We had Bottomly Potts from Lynley Dodd's book Hairy Macleary. We had princesses and the beautiful butterfly from The Very Hungry Catterpillar. We had Spiderman and Batman, cats and dogs and we even had a pre-entry visitor who came dressed up in her new school uniform. Paddington Bear was our teacher for the day.

Ambulance Visit.

When the St John's ambulance came into our school playground we thought someone was very sick. We thought someone had broken their arm. But they hadn't. The St John medics came to teach us about people who help us. They have a very big first aid bag and we got to look in it and try some things out. We got to look in the ambulance too.