Thursday 28 February 2019

Fabulous Frogs

Room 16 and Room 9 have invited us to share in the wonder and joy of observing their tadpoles! On Wednesday afternoons we will visit Room 16 to view the changes in the tadpoles as they transform into froglets and then into frogs. We will also pop into Room 9 on Fridays to see the changes taking place there. Thank you, Mrs Wallis and Miss Jackson, for sharing your frog journey with us!

Monday 25 February 2019

Kiwiball with Marco

We thoroughly enjoyed another wonderful opportunity to learn some basic skills in baseball from Marco who comes from the Auckland Baseball Association. Last year he taught us the basics of the game and today we had another opportunity to bat and to field. He was impressed at how much we have learned so far!


Hooray! We have a Monarch Butterfly!

This morning our chrysalis cracked open before school and the most beautiful butterfly greeted us as we arrived! It was fluttering its wings, getting them strong and dry enough to fly. We placed it gently back on its swan plant and soon it flew off in search of some sustaining nectar. Hopefully it will lay some eggs on a plant nearby so that we can once again observe this fascinating life cycle!


Saturday 23 February 2019

Mindfulness - feeling happy

We discussed two kinds of happiness - the happiness that gives us peace inside our bodies and in our minds and the happiness that we recognise as treat happiness. We all recognised the difference between these and realised that the stuff of treat happiness is not quite as special and treasured as the peace inside happiness that comes with being with family, friends, people and in nature.

Here we are sharing our ideas -


Our Buddy Class - Room 25

Hooray! We met our buddy class today. They are a Year 5 class and Miss Kluit is their teacher. Sometimes Mrs Rhodes teaches in Room 5 as well. Today we were paired up with a special "Tuakana" who will be there to partner up with us each time we get together on Fridays. We introduced ourselves to each other and then we did some reading together.

Here are our special Buddy Readers -
Room 25
Kayla is with Anya and Amy
Anas is with Anam
Tia is with Germian
Lucas is with Lucas and Kobe-Lewis
Grace is with Amber and Valerie
Eugene is with Mel
Indi is with Jasneet
Nicole is with Raeya
Zoe is with Mia
Victoria is with Haeni, Bella is with Roxana and Sary
Harvey is with Chenti
Divit is with Hamaz (away at present) Vincent will be with Yash
Agam is with Jai
Kaio is with Sophia
Iris is with Taylor and Tiffany
Katherine is with Mia and Renee
Yiran is with her sister, Yilin!
Ceeza is with Bosco and Jacob
Mason is with Dean

Texture Rubbings

We have been spending time in the Hive looking at the trees, particularly Necci, the lovely nectarine tree that stands alongside our classroom in the Hive area. Necci yielded fruit for the first time this year so we picked two of her bounty and enjoyed tasting slices of the sweet, juicy fruit.


That visit gave us an idea as we felt the texture of Necci's trunk. A few days later we decided to do some texture rubbings which would also include the bark of trees. We were astounded at how textured the environment is and noticed that there are many patterns around us. Using a thick wax crayon, we went out and did these rubbings.

Our Flower Garden Art, Butterfly Crafts and Stories

We used black paper and pastels to create these gorgeous flowers. They are bursting with nectar and bright coloured petals and are just perfect for attracting butterflies to our make believe garden. If you look carefully there is a pretty, symmetrical butterfly in our art work. These were made using folded card on which we put blobs of paint. Once dried the butterflies were cut out revealing their dazzling wings.


We also made butterflies out of paper and card and they are happily looking down on us from the back wall.


Some of the children enjoyed describing what their butterfly looked like. Here are some of their stories.

My Colourful Butterfly

I love my butterfly and I feel like my heart is going to burst out with love.
It also has pretty wings. When butterflies fly they make wind and I feel it. Then I feel happy. I love their colours when I see them. They look lovely and they have the best shapes. I like their patterns too.

By Katherine

My Colourful Butterfly


I love my butterfly because it is blue, and it loves flying. It loves flowers.

By Lucas


My Colourful Butterfly


My butterfly is cute, and it has flowers and colourful shapes. The colours are yellow, blue and pink. The antennae is green. It has one diamond shape on each wing.   

By Grace