Term 3 Week 8

Room 14 students enjoyed investigating a variety of equipment during our swimming session on Rāhina.

With the sun shining bright in the sky the students were able to have some investigation time outside. On Rāhina, a few students decided they would like to use the loose parts (tyres, planks of wood) to create an obstacle course. It was great to see this inspired other students to join in with the making and testing of the creations. It was also wonderful to see the course being adapted multiple times when the students saw a need to change an element of the course. The students showed great respect of each others ideas and worked well as a team.

The students found more creative ways to combine loose parts and marbles on Rātū. They created their very own giant marble runs using plumbing pipes. The students were problem solvers by adding boxes to the ends of the tubes so that the marbles didn't end up everywhere in the outside space. Towards the end of the session a few students started experimenting with ways to make the marble runs longer by joining the tubes.

This weeks main focus has been around 'Te wiki o te reo Māori. Here are a few videos from kapahaka on Rātū.

On Rāapa afternoon the students made taonga and gifted them to each other.

Also on Rāapa for writing, a group of children wrote about how they like their ice cream. They all did a great job of talking about what flavours they like to eat 'and' what they like to put on top of their ice creams. 'And' has been the word of the week and we have been trying to use it in our sentences to add more ideas.

We had a treat after writing time. Tania made us all a special ice cream. YUM!

On Rāpare we continued our tennis lessons. This week the main focus was around racquet control and footwork.

Volcano science experiment. The students looked at the chemical reaction between baking soda and vinegar. The students added some food colouring into the vinegar and poured it carefully on top of the baking soda. The reaction caused a volcanic eruption. Inquisitive scientists in action!

On Rāpare afternoon we looked at primary colours. The students made hand prints using two primary colours and then rubbed their hands together to make a secondary colour. It was great to see the students reactions as the colours mixed. It also reinforced our learning of the colour names in te reo Māori.

On Rāmere morning it was great to have Mr D come and join us for some te reo kori waiata.

As part of our Māori language week focus, the students created their own tiki. This was the symbol for 'Te wiki o te reo Māori 2018'. Each student was given half of a tiki and followed a guided drawing process to complete the picture. The students added colour to the koru tongue using pastels and then used dye on the rest of the design. We have some future graphic designers in Room 14.