We have made amazing progress with our efforts to be more environmentally friendly this year. Check out some of the cool things that our tamariki have been involved with.

Term 4 - Weeks 3 & 4

Maiyah from Pukeko class is always showing our school values in our community. As part of her giving she donated food to the homeless at one of the Rams basketball games. Maiyah donated the most food out of anyone and as a reward for her amazing efforts Pukeko class got a visit from Marques Whippy, Canterbury Rams Captain. We had a great afternoon learning some skills take a look at what we did! Thanks Maiyah for being such an amazing giver and thanks Marques for teaching us!

MJ has been loving watching the news lately. He keeps himself up to date with all the latest information and makes sure he watches the latest weather forecast too. He loves sharing everything he learns with us as our own personal News presenter. Take a look for yourself and see how awesome News Presenter MJ is!

Last week was Duffy book week! We had amazing author and illustrator Scott Tulloch join us for a pretty great time. He read us a story, showed us books he'd written and illustrated, and inspired us that it's never too late to follow your dreams. Then finally of course he drew an amazing portrait of Miss Waho, can't you tell! Everyone in the whole school got two books each, we are so lucky and we love our Duffy books sooooo much. Thanks Warehouse Logistics Team and Duffy! Scott's wonderful picture of Miss Waho Weka class and their books Pukeko class and their books Kiwi class and their books Kea class and their books

Kiwi Class read the story 'The Three Cattle Dogs Gruff' by Chris Gurney. It is a New Zealand version of 'The Three Billy Goats Gruff'. Just like the cattle dogs in the story, we all thought about ways that we could trick the taniwha so that we could cross the bridge without being eaten. Here are some of our wonderful ideas. 

Each week we study a new letter and we try to base our writing experience around this. It can consist of cooking, reading a book, science experiments or a craft activity. This week our letter was Rr and we got to use our new kitchen space to create our goodies. What could we be making? Check out our photos and video at the end to find out.

We have been working on our large ball skills this term. We began with passing, bouncing and throwing with our hands, then we have moved into passing and kicking with our feet. Today we ended our lesson with a Big Kick Competition. Well done Connor A for an amazing kick for the win!  We also had lots of fun on Wednesday doing relays with balancing activities. We balanced ribbons on our heads and even did egg and spoon races. We have really been enjoying being able to be outside learning in this lovely weather. 

Today we had fun in the sun while some of our hub was away at the snow.  We split into four teams and had lots of different relays. The children loved participating in a range of different relays using different pieces of equipment. It was great to see them displaying our values especially Choosing the Right Attitude and Play! Bring on Summer!

Last Friday we had a great space day where we became astronauts, baked earth cookies, made comets and we made cool solar system scratch art. We have learned so much about space now ask us to find out!

Last week our letter of the week was v. We had a blast making volcanoes with paint and watching the volcanoes erupt in the sandpit. Then we wrote about the amazing volcanoes for writing. Have a look at the slide below to see our eruptions.

All term Boston, Olivia K, Marshall, MJ, Ethen, Deegan, Ky-Mani, Kaizah-Rae, Micah and Ezra have been working on their reading and writing every afternoon. Everyday we learn a new letter and read a new story. We also learn a new word and write a whole sentence! They have worked amazingly hard, take a look at this video to see some of their work.  

We were all so excited to have our very first assembly in our new hub, on this slide you can see some great pictures and our amazing award winners!

We have been learning and writing about the Moon in Kiwi Class. Here are our stories that we have written. Please excuse some of our facts, we are still learning!

This week all the children in the hub started their Big Ball Skills unit. Here is some photo's of Weka Class.. They are all showing great skills!

We are loving learning about Space this term. Here are a few catchy songs with Space facts that the tamariki will enjoy.

We have been practising using our exciting Action Stations for the past two weeks. Here are our instructions for how our Action Stations work and the things that we need to remember each day. We hope that you enjoy learning about what we do.

This week we have been talking about what we like the best in our new hub. We have shared our ideas in small groups and we are using the Tellagami app to share our thoughts and ideas.  Our sentence starter was "What I like in the new hub..." The students have enjoyed creating their piece of writing using this app, it has allowed the students to all be successful and be able to share their ideas.  By Kirihama By James By AJ By Mikayla

In the Junior Hub we've been using many different apps. We used book creator to make a book during reading time. Two groups were working on sounding out the words we get stuck on. Every time we come to a word we don't know we just have to get our mouths ready to say the first sound. The other group was hunting for high frequency words and this time it was the word 'the'.

Listen to our reading group talk about their story

This year we are doing phonics in our homerooms. Kiwi class looks at two letters and their matching sounds every week. Weka and Pukeko classes work together on one letter of the week. Each week we have a letter of the week wall where we display all the things we can find that begin with our letter of the week. Last week our letter was H and we had some fun having Harlin Haines wearing a hat on our h wall. Too cute not to share! This week our letter is J so get your thinking caps on Weka and Pukeko classes, what words do you know that start with J?

Last Friday the Duffy Theatre Show came to school. The Duffy programme brings books into schools and we are lucky to be a part of it. Their show this year was all about Duffy and Global girl on their mission to save the planet from global warming. Duffy had to help Global girl see her Dyslexia as a super power and not a super problem. It was a fun and interactive show with lots of singing and science experiments.

This term our School Inquiry topic is We are NZ - Our Place in the world. In the Junior Hub we are looking at the different cultures that make up our classroom. We have so many different interesting cultures in our classroom it will be great to learn about them all! We are also looking at what makes us New Zealanders and what Kiwiana means. We started with a fun gumboot throw on Friday! Take a look at these amazing throws!

Last week we looked at measurement for maths. We had a lot of fun measuring things not by using rulers, but instead using our bodies and other things like blocks. We had lots of fun measuring trees with our arms, everyday classroom items using block, and measuring the court with some BIG ginormous steps and some very teeny tiny steps too!

The whole Junior Hub has been brightening up the Hub these past few weeks with their amazing artwork. It looks so amazing hanging in our hub. They all worked so hard to create it and they can't wait to share it with you all so come in and have a look!

Weka and Pukeko students continued to work hard this week and blew Miss Corry and Miss Harris away with some amazing portraits. They were given a picture of half their face and a pencil and the rest was up to them. Look at the amazing work they created!

The youngest members of the Junior Hub have certainly been working hard since school has started. They have all created some wonderful colourful pieces of art for our class and it all looks wonderful. Here are just two of the activities we have been working on. If your child is in Weka (Miss Corry's homeroom) or Pukeko (Miss Harris' homeroom) make sure you come and have a look! My first day Here are my hands with ten fingers in all.  My first mark to hang on the wall. As years go on I will remember to say. "My hands and I had a good first day!"

We have been learning how to introduce ourselves using NZ Sign Language. Check out these awesome tamariki who were confident enough to show their new skills to the camera.