We gathered in the classroom this morning very excited about our trip to Long Bay. The weather gods were on our side with no rain, a gentle breeze, a glimpse of sunshine every now and then and just the right temperature.
Soon we were heading for the buses that would take us all down to Long Bay Regional Park. After our morning tea we started our adventure with a scavenger hunt. Our mission was to find 12 different things in the park from ducks and pukekos to showers and jandals. A great effort by the children, and parent helpers alike, had us exploring all around and busily checking things off our lists.
Next it was down to the beach for the Sandcastle building competition. We had a quick peek at Room 23's efforts and decided we could do better! With bragging rights up for grabs for the tallest sandcastle, prettiest sandcastle, and the sandcastle that took the most effort to make, the children set to work creating sand masterpieces. What a fabulous job they did - from amazing feats of sandcastle engineering, to entire walled villages, several versions of Rangitoto island and even a couple of bees - the smooth sandy beach was transformed into an amazing sculpture garden.
I empathized with Simon Cowell as I tried to decide who won as it was such a difficult decision, but Brooklyn's beautifully symmetrical castle design, Bree and Emerson's group of village creators, and Rose and Tillie's group of intricate and structural prowess came out on top.
Then it was lunchtime followed by our session with the Auckland Council educators. Tory led our group and we used our senses to listen, smell, touch and see really cool items on the beach from feathers to shells, fish eggs to seaweed. Then it was off to the rock pools to see what creatures we could find. There were lots of excited shouts about crabs and shrimp, and even rumours of a baby stingray, which alas, turned out to be what looked like a leaf!
We had a great day and I would like to thank Shannon, Mary, Steve and Michael for being such great helpers today, we really do appreciate having parent help to make these outings possible.
We've already started writing about our favourite part of today and these will be going up on our writing wall soon.
Our fabulous day at Long Bay! on PhotoPeach
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Monday 20th March
Today, to inspire our writing, we conducted an experiment about how clouds make rain. We made clouds out of shaving foam, and then gently dripped coloured water onto the foam to show how clouds gather water. Eventually the "rain" started to fall from our "cloud" as the "cloud" got too heavy to hold the water.
The children had lots of fun watching the rain and having a go themselves. We discussed experiments and how sometimes they don't work, and we talked about the water cycle. We will spend some time this week writing a recount of our experiment focusing on who, what and where.
Here are some photos of our rain experiment in action.
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| Blue rain eventually falls from the cloud after the cloud gets too heavy. *************************************************************************************************************************************** |
Thursday 9th March
Collaboration
On Thursday we continued discovering about our Learner Powers and we looked at Collaboration. The children were split into groups and had to work together to complete a number of tasks.
The first activity was to create a collaborative drawing. They each had to take it in turns to add one thing to the drawing, for example, starting with a pair of eyes, then adding a body, etc. This activity generated some very interesting artwork!
The second activity was a puzzle. Each group was given a picture from the book "Hairy Maclary" which had been cut up, and the words that matched the picture. They had to put the picture back together and put the words in the right order.
The final activity was a balloon challenge. In their groups they had to stand in a circle holding hands. They weren't allowed to let go of each other's hands, and they weren't allowed to use their feet and they had to try and keep the balloon in the air.
The children discovered that collaborating isn't always easy, and that it involves compromising and sharing ideas and responsibility. Their drawings and puzzles can be found on our Inquiry wall in class.
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Mon / Tues 27th/28th February - Butterfly Bonanza!
Wow! It's been a very exciting couple of days in our classroom with 7 butterflies hatching out of their chrysalises.
We were lucky enough to be able to watch the seventh butterfly hatch this morning just after our brain food snack. We gathered round closely to watch as first its legs and antennae come out and then its body and wings. It was a bit dramatic when the butterfly then fell onto the table but we were able to rescue it and put it back on the plant so that it could fill its wings and survive.
By lunchtime we had 3 or 4 butterflies flying round the room - one even came over to see our butterfly writing plan and word bank we were creating on the whiteboard.
We have now set those butterflies free, but still have 3 or 4 more chrysalises that we hope will hatch over the coming days.
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Friday 24th February - Plan Do Share
This year the Year 0 and 1's are beginning to spend some time following the Walker Play-based Learning model which is known at Torbay as Wa Kitea. We are lucky enough in Year 2 to be able to spend some time in Room 10 during the week which has been set up for this programme.
On Friday we had a practise in class so all the children knew what was expected of them when we go to Room 10. They are given the option of a number of activities. They then have to choose a group leader and a sharer. The group leader helps to organise the activity and ensures everyone is being listened to and are working well together. As a group they plan their activity on a special form. Then they make or 'do' their activity before finally, the sharer shares with the whole class on behalf of the group.
The children worked really well together on Friday, with a range of mobilo vehicles being built, some cards being made, playdough creations created and a cool dragon picture being made.
Plan,Do, Share Time on PhotoPeach
We are still practising our listening when others are sharing but we look forward to going to Room 10 and enjoying the activities there.
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Friday 17th / Monday 20th February
On Friday we decided we needed to instigate "Operation Caterpillar Rehome"! Our caterpillars had eaten through 7 Swan plants and were still hungry. So we made the decision to move around 15 caterpillars to the Swan plants that live behind Room 19.
After the 3pm bell had rung, and while we were working out how to move them, we were very lucky to be able to watch one of the caterpillars change into a chrysalis. Then, with the help of Sienna's Mum Debbie, who was a lot less squeamish about picking up wriggly caterpillars than I was, we were able to transfer them to nice new juicy homes with lots of leaves. That left us just a few caterpillars on the remaining leaves in our room as well as our numerous chrysalises.
On Monday morning when I arrived in the classroom, I discovered that one of our butterflies had hatched - then came the task of trying to find it! It was soon spotted by the window, and as the children arrived for the day they were very excited to spot the empty chrysalis and then find the butterfly ready to fly away. Just before the bell went, we opened the window and watched our first butterfly (Jeremy) fly up into the sky.
Thank you Debbie, and also to Brooklyn's Mum Shannon who donated some Swan plants to the class when our first couple were fast disappearing.
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Tuesday 14th February
This term Mrs Craig is coming to each Year 2 classroom to teach some STEAM activities. STEAM stands for Science, technology, engineering, Arts and Mathematics. On Tuesday she told the children about three bears who needed to cross the river. The children were then given the task of designing and building the bridge for the bears to cross. They were given plastic cups, paper and sellotape to complete the challenge.
They were given the option of working in groups, pairs or by themselves and were soon busy building and testing to see if their bridges would hold the bear's weight.
The Three Bears Challenge on PhotoPeach
There was some great thinking, problem solving and teamwork happening during this activity. Ka pai everyone.
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Friday 10th / Monday 13th February
The Very Hungry Caterpillars!
We are all very much enjoying having Swan plants in our classroom and watching our caterpillars grow. We started with one reasonably large caterpillar and several eggs on the first day of term and within a week the caterpillar (Jeremy) had made his chrysalis. Since then we have been watching our teeny tiny caterpillars hatch and then grow, and grow and grow and grow! On Friday we counted 23 caterpillars, then we recounted and counted 25, then we recounted and got 24 - it turns out that caterpillars move quite a lot and are tricky to count. They also eat quite a lot, especially when there are 20-something of them! So on Friday I got two more Swan plants and put them next to the original one so the caterpillars could keep munching.
This morning when we arrived at school, everyone was really surprised by just how little of the new plants were left un-munched, and just how big the caterpillars had grown in just a couple of days. So this evening I have added another Swan plant to our growing caterpillar area. Soon, I think, we will have more shiny green and gold chrysalis hanging from the branches, and we are all eagerly awaiting the emergence of our first butterfly.
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Friday 10th February
On Friday we started our Art project for the term. We are going to be creating a self portrait using block printing. 
We started by using a vivid to draw the outline of our faces, hair and shoulders on a black and white photo of ourselves.
We will go on to trace over this outline and then transfer the picture on to polystyrene blocks to paint and then print out our images. We will also spend time drawing the different features of our faces.
The children were really engaged in this activity, seeing how they looked as an outline by turning the page over and looking at where the vivid had come through the paper.
Some decided to include other features in the photo such as the Torbay logo on their shirts.
I have discovered we have some very talented artists in our class and I look forward to seeing all the finished pieces of work.
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Thursday 9th February
Today all the Year 0-4 classes were lucky to have a half hour taster session with the coaches from Kelly Sports. We went out for our turn after morning tea with Room 7, 9 and Rooms 13 & 14. We were split into four groups and went off to an activity station with a coach. The four stations were rugby, cricket, soccer and hurdles. Everyone had a great time trying out the different sports, and I was able to see that we have some very talented sports people in our class. Here's a slideshow of the fun we had.
Kelly Sports Taster Session on PhotoPeach
This was a great introductory session for students who hadn't played one of these sports. They learnt about team work, how to hold a bat, and throw and catch.
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Wednesday 8th February
Today, after finishing our handwriting, some of the children were given the option to play with the cubes. It wasn't long before we suddenly had a cube snake making its way across the classroom floor. Soon more children joined in, and their excitement and sense of achievement was building as more and more cubes were added. They used up all the cubes in our box! We thought you'd like to see:
The activity demonstrated the children's great teamwork and thinking skills as well as helping with fine motor ability linking all the cubes together.
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Swimming
Over the last two days all the Year 2's have had a session in the school pool. They were assessed by teachers so we can work with groups of children with similar skills. From week two onwards children will do a rotation of swimming, fine motor skills, gross motor skills (sports skills) and health - completing two of these activities every session.
As well as being assessed the children were given some free time to have fun and cool down. Here are some photos of everyone enjoying the pool!
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| The girls are hanging out poolside. |
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| The boys enjoying free time. |
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| We love swimming! |
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| Enjoying cooling off. |
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First Day Fun!
Wow! What a fun day we had today learning names (me!) and finding out about each other. We worked on our class treaty which will be up in the classroom soon, started painting our rocks, played games, listened to stories, walked around the school, went to assembly and did lots of colouring in!
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| Reading time after morning tea. |
Mrs Hills came and took a class photo:
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| Room 22 and Fluffy |
We are looking forward to the rest of the week, settling into routines, finding out more about our new class friends and what we did in the holidays, and starting our learning journey.
A little bit about our class:
25 students - 10 boys, 15 girls including 1 international student who joins us for Term 1.
Straight Year 2 class.
Must have been a great first day, Bree told me just after leaving class 'best teacher ever!!"
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