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Friday, April 15, 2016

If We Had Lived In Jesus' Time

This term in Room Two we have been learning about Jesus. We have talked about how some of the things in his life would have been similar to ours - and how others would have been different. When we learnt that Jesus didn't have electricity we were amazed that Jesus wouldn't have had a TV or a microwave or anything like that.

We have talked about food that Jesus might have eaten. We know he wouldn't have had lollies and fizzy drinks like we can have for treats. We also talked about how he didn't have a freezer so he couldn't have had ice-cream either.

Today, Miss McKenna brought in some food that would have been similar, or the same, as what Jesus could have eaten. When Miss McKenna uncovered the food we turned to our neighbour and told them what we could see.


We weren't sure of the names of the food so Miss McKenna told us what everything was. There were dates, grapes, olives, cheese, bread, honey, hummus and figs. The bread was a bit different to bread Jesus would have had because Miss McKenna had brought along rewana bread (which is a type of Maori bread made from potatoes). Miss McKenna explained this to us. 


We picked one thing we wanted to try first and put our hand up when we had decided. Most of us wanted to have rewana bread with honey and some of us wanted some grapes. They were yummy! We enjoyed eating them and then tried some other things.


Miss McKenna asked if anyone was going to be brave enough to try the figs and dates. So about half of us did. We didn't really like the figs but some of us, like Deevon below, enjoyed the dates.


Have you tried a new food lately? It can be fun to try new things! 

Monday, April 11, 2016

Swimming Diaries: Days 6 and 7

Today is our last day of swimming. Most of the children have greatly enjoyed their time in the water and we were really lucky, with our small class, to have such great instructor:child ratios.


This meant that we got lots of opportunities to practise our developing skills each day.

We practised our starfish/floating on our backs. (We do this while our group counts to ten!)



We practised kicking on our backs: 


We practised blowing bubbles as we play with the colourful balls:


Swimming has been so much fun!


Did you know Auckland Council has a 'Kids Go Free' policy whereby all children 16 years old and under get free entry into Auckland Council pools all the time? Make the most of this and take your children swimming this holidays - it will help them continue to grow their confidence and develop their skills if you play with them in the water - the more, the better!




Thursday, April 7, 2016

Swimming Diaries: Days 4 and 5

Room Two is continuing to have so much fun swimming at New Windsor School's pool. We are really developing our confidence in the water and learning good techniques for swimming.


Rosina, Ashleigh, Joseph and Ceazah-Blue are learning to point their toes when they kick. They practiced this both in the water and by sitting on the side of the pool to kick - so the instructor could really help them focus on their toes.


The three instructors use the coolest swimming aids with us. You can see Joseph in the photos above using a foam frog to learn the proper body position for swimming and practising kicking. The novelty is really keeping us engaged!


We haven't had any parents come and watch our swimming yet. We'd love to have you along and there's lots of space on the bus! So you could either meet us at the pool at 11:30am or meet us at school at 11:10am (the end of morning tea time) and come with us on the bus. Just show up - there's plenty of room!

Monday, April 4, 2016

Congratulations to...all of us!

Last week at our morning assembly Mrs Ashe stepped forward to award her certificates and gave one to...Room Two! Can you see Ashleigh holding it? She went up with Miss McKenna to accept the award. Mrs Ashe was impressed by our class blog and gave us the certificate for sharing our learning. She even gave us a special treat too (Tevita is holding them in the picture below) - yum. Thanks Mrs Ashe!


We hope you are enjoying reading about our learning in our blog. Please do leave us comments and Miss McKenna will read them with us. Have a great day!

Swimming Diaries: Day Two

Last Friday was our second day of swimming - and it was just as fun as the first! As we had been sorted into groups last week, we hopped straight into the pool with our instructors after Room Four got out.


Some of us slid in from the side. Ceazah-Blue's group is learning to use the ladder on the side of the pool. This is a new experience for some of us and we need to remember to go down the ladder backwards like Ceazah-Blue is here. Well done for getting into the pool safely Ceazah-Blue.





In our groups we did some of the same activities as we did on Thursday and we did some new activities too. We practiced floating on our fronts...


...and on our backs,


We got to play with colourful balls and blow bubbles to make them move across the water.


 We swam with the noodles and kick-boards again.


We used kick-boards to help us learn to float.


But best of all - we went for rides on the foam mats to help us learn to kick better; what fun!

I hope everyone's remembered their togs for swimming today! I know they can be hard to dry each night ready for swimming the next day. Remind your child to hang them up as soon as they get home so they dry in time - and if they're a little damp in the morning that's okay; we're going to get wet again anyway!

Sunday, April 3, 2016

Congratulations Aden and Deevon!

Congratulations to Aden and Deevon who received Room Two's certificates this week. Aden receives his for the effort he put into learning his passage for our Stations of the Cross liturgy last week. Like all the readers, Aden tried his best and did a great job. What Aden did especially well was working on using a loud, clear voice. Ka pai Aden - you did a great job presenting your station to the school with Miss Cahill.


Deevon receives his certificate for the way he is beginning to talk about how he is solving problems in maths. Lots of our maths work is based on problem-solving and the children in Room Two are learning to think about word problems, try ways of solving them and then talk about how they got their answers. Talking about our learning is really important and it's great to see Deevon begin to talk about his work in maths. Mahi pai Deevon!

Friday, April 1, 2016

Bluey the Budgie

Yesterday Mrs Stoddard told us she had brought something beginning with 'b' to show us. We thought of a few things beginning with 'b' but thought it was probably a bird because Miss McKenna had told us we were going to be learning about birds for the rest of the term.


We were correct! Mrs Stoddard had brought her father's budgie 'Bluey' to visit our class. It was so exciting! Mrs Stoddard told us a little about Bluey and gave us some time to look at him. We asked lots of questions about what was in his cage.


"What's this?" asked Trelia, pointing to a piece of hard chalk on the side of the cage. Mrs Stoddard told us what it was and that it was there for Bluey to rub his beak against to keep it sharp. "What's that thing beside the bird?" asked Ashleigh. "A mirror so he can look at himself", said Mrs Stoddard.

Mrs Stoddard told us that Bluey is different to us. When we look in the mirror we know what we see is just our reflection and not another person, but Bluey thinks it's another bird! This means that he won't get lonely and that's why the mirror is in his cage.

Valentino asked "What's that colourful thing?". Mrs Stoddard said it's a toy so that Bluey doesn't get bored. Wow! He has toys just like us! "What's that?" asked Aden pointing to a container of seeds. Mrs Stoddard said it's food for him to eat. "What's that?" Joseph asked pointing to a long piece of a plant hanging from the top of his cage. "More seeds for him to eat", said Mrs Stoddard. "What's that one?" asked Rosina, pointing to something colourful. "Another toy", said Mrs Stoddard.



We were so excited about Bluey's visit and enjoyed spending time looking at him so much. After Mrs Stoddard left Bluey stayed the night in our class and we drew pictures of him. We talked about what we could see before we drew him. We saw feathers, a long tail, a beak, eyelashes and wings. We noticed that he was blue and white, and had little bits of black on him. We concentrated hard and drew him.

Thank you Mrs Stoddard for bringing Bluey in to visit!