Ho! Ho! ho! Merry Christmas

The children are loving all the christmas crafts and letter activities. 

How to make a purerehua

These super duper learners have spent 2 afternoons learning how to make a purerehua, which is a Maori musical instrument that sounds like the wind. They have now made a lesson to teach others how to make one. I really like how they each have roles and worked well as a team to teach others. Tu meke learning and teaching.

 

Myles's Popcorn Story

We waited and    and   waited  patiently.  Pop ! Pop !  Pop !   My  heart was beating.  They exploded             like  a   volcano.  It  was bursting everywhere.  My tummy started to rumble.

By Myles Nichol      

WOW! What a day!!!!!

 Smiling faces everywhere from all children, instructors and parents.

It was so nice to see all the families having such a great day together.

All children were well behaved and enjoyed their lessons.

The weather was beautiful and snow was amazing.

Look forward to seeing more action next Thursday.

 Having fun with our instructor.

Monty and Louie proud  of their efforts.

Capital letters

 Cody has been matching lower and upper case letters.

 These children have been writing their friends names with capital letters on the balloons.

Remember to send along healthy fruit snacks for our 'Brain Breaks'

Amazing Winter Stories.

WINTER

The snow danced to the ground. 

 I got white snow on me. 

 It was freezing and it was cold. 

 The snow shines in the sun.

Myles Nichol

SNOW

It is like a blanket when it covers the mountains.

I like the soft snow.

It is like silk.

The snow floated onto the ground.

Lili Kaler

SNOW

It is like a blanket covering the mountains.

The snow is glittering in the sun.

I was freezing.

Olive Seddon

SNOW

The mountain is covered with snow like a blanket. 

 When the sun came out it glistened.  It felt cold.

  I like the snow.  It is cold,  like an ice block.

Jazmine Allison

Shape

Pod 2 are learning all about 2D and 3D shapes.  We are learning to sort shapes, describe them and find out how many sides and corners they have.  One way to help us to do this is to make shapes, this can be with clay, rods, straws, geoboards and rubber bands, drawing them etc.  Here are some examples of some of our independent work last week.

 Monty and Myles comparing their triangles on the geoboards.

 Olive and Caitlin drawing shapes in their investigation books.

 Hunter and Jorja making shapes on the geoboards.

 Here is Sebbie's cylinder he created using 2d shapes - great thinking!

Kahlarni and Fletcher with some of the shapes they made using rods, they made a number of hexagons using 6 rods.

Wanaka A and P Show

We had a blast strolling around the A&P Show.  We looked at the art, animals, cakes and rides.  The best part for most children was the bus ride down.

THE JUICE FACTORY

Listen to what the boys have to say about their juice factory - what a fun way to learn all about capacity!

Measuring the Kakano way ...

For week 1 and 2 we have been learning all about measurement. It has been exciting to see how the children have been practising their learning independently through our learning spaces. Here are 3 examples of different ways to find out about longer, shorter, taller and even some ways to measure this.
A group of boys including Myles, Monty, Jack and Jah joined the construction straws together to see how long they could make it. What a big challenge, nearly the length of Pod 2!



  Blaise and Ania Kanu working together to find out how to measure a row of beads. Blaise was able to read the numbers on the measuring tape and make sure she had started at the baseline,great investigating.
Amelia, Arliya and Sophie measured all of the teddies to see which one was the tallest and which one was the shortest. Very proudly they asked to go on the blog to share their learning. What was the next challenge? To build a house using the construction straws that was the right size for the toys ...

Farmyard

Our farmyard helps us to sort and group different things in different ways, such as cows in one paddock and horses in another. Perhaps the small animals in one paddock and large animals in a different one. It's great to help learn about counting, sorting, grouping and talking about what we have done using math language.

The farmyard is also fantastic for storytelling, sequencing (especially if there is a problem) and developing language.

Keep up the great learning Myles.