L is for Learning!

We are now 7 weeks into the term and the children in Room 6 are becoming more comfortable with our new play based learning sessions.  We start the day Monday through Thursday with Investigations.

Today we spent some time looking a bit deeper into our Inquiry question of

How do our brains  think and learn while we are playing?

The children were able to give the following examples of the learning they have been doing -

By trying new things    

Learning by doing things  

By keeping on trying and having a CAN-DO attitude 

    By practicing things we have been learning (like doubles) when we do counting   

  Working out stuff by using your iniativie    

By learning from each other

We followed this by writing about how we are learning at investigation time -

I like to make swords with wood.  I am learning by building.    Mike

At investigation time I played in the family corner.  At the family corner I used it for a cafe.  We we were playing cafe's I was the waiting person.      Olivia

At investigation time I did a dance floor with Charlotte and we used lots of blocks and colour.  We were working together.  We weren't finished it because someone broke it.  We will go to it the next time.  It was fun.          Isabella

I like the building area.  I build stuff like robots with wood and blocks and hammers and it was very noisy.     Luka

I like to investigate the home corner.  I am making a cookie.  It's making my brain bigger. (with my learning)      Leila

I am learning to make a robot and you need some boxes to make the robot.  I put the boxes together, it was a little bit hard to put the boxes together because I had to glue them.  I followed my plan.

Ruby

I like to investigate duplo building a tower.  I am learning to be a builder.    Kastle

I go to the home corner and you can learn how to cook and write and go on the telephone and take in and out from the oven and use money.    Sophie

In investigation time I went to the construction area because I wanted to and I built a home.     Bella

I love to make food at investigation time.  I love making things I am learning how to do maths.   Joshua

I like doing writing at the writing table because it is good.  We write at the writing table.  I look on the classroom walls to find words.     Deandra

At investigation time I made a dance floor with Isabella.  We are still working on it by using a can do attitude.     Charlotte

At investigation time I played cafe's and it was fun.  I kept at it and I was with Olivia.  I was learning to share and work together.    Millie

I go to the writing table at investigation time and I look at the word wall when I write beause if you write you will get smarter.     Anya

I like the writing area because I can write words and I learn some pictures and I find words on the window or the wall.     Sija

I was at the tinkering table learning to build.    Shreyan

S is for Spider.

This week we have been doing lots of work around our poem ...The Incy Wincy Spider.  During Literacy times we read a lots of different spider stories.  We liked the Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle. This inspired some great art on our walls and some fun very busy stories!

We finished out the week with a spider themed Discovery Time...we were focusing on being creative and solving problems ourselves.

We had some fun sensory activities looking for the spiders in the rice.

We have read lots of great books about spiders this week.

We got creative with lots of different making bits and pieces.

Playdough spiders are fun!!!  We know there are two parts to the body and eight legs.

S is for Seasons

As part of our Inquiry Unit on change we have been doing lots of talking about how time passes. We have been looking at the things that take a short time and things that take a long time, the days of the week, months of the year, and of course how people change as the years go by.

The children in Room 6 and Room 7 enjoyed a big book about Grumpy Bear this week.  Grumpy Bear went to sleep for a long time and that lead into some learning about the seasons.

While Miss Gargan and Mrs O'Leary were teaching reading the children worked in table groups to create these great seasons posters.

B is for Box!

This week we have been having lots of fun during our shared reading time.  We have been reading the book    It's Not a Box.

We have had so much fun as we have been learning and creating through play.

First we played and talked about boxes...

Then we created...

Then we did some writing...

And now we have a great wall display...

Well done Room 6 - so much fun!

P is for Poem

Room 6 did some lovely art with Mrs Goodin this week - it went with their poem of the week and also relates to one of the animals that features in our production.

They shared this art at our school assembly today.  Well done Room 6!

C is for Cow

Loving the cows the kids drew today.  They are looking amazing on our wall.  Love the stories that the kids wrote about their farm trip too!

J is for Jan

Welcome back to the first week of term.  Hard to believe we are in the last term for the year!

This week we wrote stories about our wonderful librarian Jan.  They will be entered in a competition at the Children's Bookshop.

All the students thought hard about the great things Jan does to make our Library so awesome.  It is one of our favourite places to go.  They also worked hard to publish their stories.  Well done Room 6.

S is for Stuck!

I love this book by Oliver Jeffers, it makes me laugh!!  Listen to him read it...so funny!

We had lots of fun with this book today in Room 6.  I read about half of the book to the children and then stopped and asked what they would do if they were Floyd, and how they would get everything out of the tree.  There were some good ideas...

If I was Floyd I would throw another whale at the bottom of the tree because it could work.  If the tree would bend I would grab it.  But if it wouldn't work I would throw a brick.

Then we created the coolest art work with all the bits stuck in the tree....love them!

E is for Elephant

We had a great poem this week - it was about the elephants trunk.  It inspired some cute art, which the children in Room 6 proudly showed at the Kiwi/Tui Assembly this week.  It looks super cute on our classroom walls now, come check it out!

They did a great job of reading the poem with interesting voices....it is in their poem books, so make sure they read them to you over the weekend.

W is for Wonkey Donkey

Craig Smith did a great job with the kids from Kiwi Syndicate this afternoon, he entertained us all with his wonderful books - he writes in songs, and we enjoyed his show.

Craig shared his new book Square Eyes with us - if you are not familiar with his work check out his website here Craig Smith

D is for Dress Up

The children in Room 6 love the dress-ups.  They had fun dressing up today and then writing about the experience..

I dressed up like a policeman.  Miss Gargan took a picture of me.  I was a little bit scary.  Hannah was a witch.     Izak

I dressed up in the New Zealand hat and....there was a long thing.   Luca

I dressed up as a dinosaur a Mum helped me put on the dinosaur dress.  Chhung Li

I am a witch I am mean.  There is a princess and I am going to eat her.  I don't like princesses!  I felt like a real witch.  My cape was silky.  My witch hat had a spike on the top.   Hannah

I dressed up like Batman and I felt brilliant.   Miles

I dressed up as a witch.  The cape was purple and my witch hat was pointy.  I looked pretty.   Addison

I dressed up like a star man.  Miss Gargan took a photo.  It was red and white with stars and a little bit of red.  I t was brilliant and fantastic.  Harley

I dressed up as an octopus.  His name is Henry.  It was fantastic.  Harper

I dressed up like a fireman in a top.  I put on pants.  I thought it was funny.  Cooper

I dressed up to look like a witch and I had a pointy hat.  Madison

I am batman.  I would fly to Italy to see Luca's family and all the other families in Italy.  Nicholas

I put on the New Zealand hat.  I loved it.  It was brilliant.   Kayden

V is for visitors

Today we had a day full of visitors in Room 6!

Jack from Room 15 came and shared his invention, made from recycled materials.  He did some pretty clever things using plastic cups and a paper towel roll......perfect timing Jack that fits so well with our topic at the moment!

Next we did some buddy writing with the children from Room 7.  We had to find out 3 things about our buddy and then write about them.  We found out some really interesting things.

AND then Mrs Arlidge came in as part of the Read Aloud programme and read some really cool animal stories to us.  Thanks Mrs Arlidge.

Never a dull moment in Room 6!!

B is for busy.

We were busy in Room 6 today!  It is the start of Book Week at Redwood School and our theme this year is Let Books Open Doors For You.

We have started the week with a visit from a local author and illustrator Ruth Paul.  We love her books and she gave a great presentation.  It was very inspiring.

We also had our class and individual photos taken in the school hall.  The photographers do a great job, and it is quite fascinating how they put the class photo together.

We also worked on decorating our door, we did reading groups, and had a special visit from Mrs Hughes who came in and read to us.

Wow and this is only Monday!!

A is for Assembly

This week Room 6, along with our buddy class hosted the whole school assembly.  It was a big responsibility and all the children did a great job.  I was very proud of their behaviour.  Hannah and Nelsson were very brave speaking and announcing each item.  

Room 6 shared their poem of the week and some art we did that went with it.

F is for fun that is funny!

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!  This week has been a load of fun.  We celebrated Dr. Seuss's birthday with the rest of the school in our pajama's on Monday!  It was an awesome day.  How lucky are we that our principal came and read to us - she was in her pajama's too!

Our focus for the week has been the Cat in the Hat - one of the books that Theodor Seuss Geisel wrote for children using only 223 easy to read words.  
We did all sorts of fun things with this book - in maths we worked on our repeating patterns making stripes for the Cats Hat!  

We enjoyed these cute little cupcakes Miss Gargan had heaps of fun making!  You've gotta have cake for a birthday!

I love the art and stories that the children produced - so cute and clever!

We finished the week off with some Dr Seuss activities in our Discovery Time, we had activities from One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, The Lorax, The Foot Book, Cat in the Hat, Horton Hears a Who and Bartholmew and the Oobleck - so much fun!

Fantastic first week!

Room 6 had a fantastic first week at school.  We were busy getting to know each other and starting to establish some of our classroom routines.

We enjoyed reading some of the Greedy Cat books together.  This motivated us to write stories about Greedy Cat and create some wonderful art.

We had a very important job on Friday of hosting the first Kiwi and Tui Assembly for the year.  The children did a great job presenting the assembly and shared their Greedy Cat work.

Well done Room 6.