On Wednesday the Year 5 & 6 classes spent their day outside completing different activities. Room 3 is our buddy class, so we joined them on Wednesday afternoon for a buddy art session.
First of all we started by getting together with a member of Room 3 who helped lead the students around the Year 3 and Senior playgrounds - a real treat!
Then they worked together to find different textures in the playground and made crayon rubbings on paper using hot and cold colours.
The next task was to then draw an outline picture that made them think of summer and then colour it in by filling in the different parts of their drawings with some of the different textures they found earlier.
All the children were soon busy discovering the different textures in the playground, from tyres, concrete, wood and trees to the playground matting lots of interesting designs were being found.
At the end of a our session, all the children stood in a circle and showed off their beautiful pictures.
We are looking forward to more sessions with our buddy class next term.
Week 9 (and 10) - Domino Run
Our maths problem solving challenge this week was to work in teams to create a domino run. We started by watching a World Record 250,000 domino run. Then we discussed what we would need to do to create our own domino runs. We talked about how far apart we should place the dominoes so they would knock the next one over, whether we should place them on the side on standing tall, and the patterns we could make with our runs.
Then the students chose buddies to work with and set about designing and creating their domino creations.
The activity was a lesson in teamwork, persistence and resilience as much as maths and problem solving.
At the end of our session we watched as each group set off their run and decided we had so much fun we would try again with different designs and ideas in Week 10.
Below are some photos and videos of our creations from both weeks.
Week 8 - Firewise Firemen Visit
As part of our Firewise programme we had two firefighters from east Coast Bays Station visit us at school. They talked to us about the gear they wear.
They showed us their breathing apparatus and we also got to go on the fire truck and look at the equipment they use for different situations.
Week 5 - Cultural Dancing and Lei making with the Mamas and Aunties
This morning all the Year 2's went to the hall and we met Mamma Mary and the other Mamma's and Aunties from Corban's Estate.
We learnt how to say "hello" in Fijian, Hawai'ian, Tahitian, Tongan and Samoan.
Next, we went to Room 7 and we made lei's out of string, straws and plastic flowers.
After we had morning tea, we went to the hall and we had a clapping competition between the girls and boys, and the girls won.
Then our intrepid parent helpers were taught how to play the log drums and skin drums. They then helped us to take turns and keep a rhythm.
Finally, we all got together and the boys lined up on one side on the hall opposite all the girls on the other side. The girls were taught a dance and a song. The boys were taught their moves to the same song. Then with the parent's help we all performed together.
The Mamma's told us how to say "thank you" in all the different languages, as they don't like to say goodbye.
"My favourite part was when we did the dance." - Sienna
"I enjoyed being with my mum and doing the dance." - Tillie
"My favourite part was making the leis in Room 7." - Kobe
"My favourite thing was dancing." - Sofiya
"My favourite part was when we were learning all the different languages." - Brooklyn
"My favourite part was all of it!" - Che
Week 3 - A Snake Cake
This week as part of our shared reading with Room 7, we read a story called "The Snake Cake". The story is about a Queen who is bored with receiving the same cakes every year for her birthday and so she challenges the villagers to make something new.
The children in the village make a snake cake by sticking biscuits together with jam and then putting icing on top.
As an end of week treat, before lunch on Friday, we made our own snake cake.
We watched as the snake grew and curled as enough biscuits were added for the whole class. Then we mixed up the icing sugar with water and green food dye and poured it over the top. Finally, to match the snake cake from the book, we put some pink icing blobs on top and used lollies for eyes.
Our snake cake was ready! With perfect timing the bell for lunch went and all the students were able to take their lunchboxes and a biscuit from our snake cake outside to eat.
Week 3 - Rangitoto Assembly
This week we were proud to host the whole school assembly sharing some of our learning from our Inquiry into Arts around the World. Rooms 7 and 8 shared their African and Dutch art, whilst we and Room 23 shared songs we had been learning.
The children all sang our Aboriginal lullaby - "Inanay Capuana" really well, and ka pai to Alex, Tillie and Brooklyn who shared with everyone what we had learnt about Australia.
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| All ready to start. |
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| Alex, Brooklyn and Tillie share our learning. |
I was very proud of everyone.
Congratulations to Remy and Claudio who received certificates from Mrs Sandifer for reading.
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| Claudio and Remy receive certificates. |
Week 3 - The Ned Show
We were thrilled to have The Ned Show come visit Torbay School this week. We were introduced to Ned whose name stands for Never give up, Encourage others and Do your best.
We were entertained by fun yo-yo and magic tricks as well as learning the message about being kind towards and encouraging others.
There are now lots of yo-yos being whirled, and walked all around school!
Week 2 - Assembly Practice
Our Inquiry this term is "Arts Around the World" and each Year 2 class will be learning stories, songs or dances and completing art projects from New Zealand, Australia, Africa and the Netherlands across the term.
Our class has started learning about Australian art, songs and stories. We have discussed what we know about Australia and spoken about the Aborigine people and the "Dreamtime". So far we have listened to the legends of Tiddalick the Frog, How the Birds got their Colours and How Kangaroos got their Tails. Next week we will be starting an Aboriginal dot art project.
We will be singing one of the songs we have listened to in Assembly next week - a lullaby called "Inanay". We have been busy practicing in class using shakers and sticks as accompaniments.
We are looking forward to sharing our song with the school. Assembly starts at 2pm, we hope you can join us!
Week 2 - Problem Solving
Every Friday our maths lesson is devoted to problem solving, with the children working in pairs or groups to find different ways of solving a problem. So far we have worked out what animals might have gone into Noah's Ark by counting legs, drawn as many different triangles as we could on a dotty grid, made towers using different combinations of blocks and paired socks in as many mismatched ways we could find.
This week we used unifix blocks to try and make a chair, and then a table.
First the children had to work out how to design their chair, and then how to put the blocks together so parts would stick to each other.
They were all really engaged in the task, working hard to build their chairs.
Soon we had success, and by the end of the session we had several chairs and tables to show off and share. The students showed great resilience during the activity as the creations were easily broken as they tried to add blocks to create their chairs. All the children were very proud of their efforts and success.
Week 2 - Patterns and shapes
We have been having fun with patterns and shapes this week in our maths time. Several groups have had a chance to try our new geo-board activities - making pictures of items such as a birthday cake, a boat, a carrot and a mountain using the geo-boards and elastic bands. This is a great activity as not only does it help us to count (which pegs the bands need to go on) and think about shapes, it is also a good fine motor activity.
One group was also charged with making repeating sequential patterns using the unifix cubes. Just a few minutes later a cube snake was winding its way along the floor and heading out the door! It was fantastic to see the students collaborating to make one big creation in such a friendly manner. All were excited to see how long they could make the "snake" and helped each other to put their individual parts together.
This term we will continue to complete activities involving shapes and patterns as well as focusing on measuring time.
Week 2 - The Break-In
Arriving at school on Monday we were in for a shock when we discovered that a lock on one of the windows had been broken and, at some point over the weekend, a thief had stolen some items from our classroom.
During our reading time, Mr Eades arrived with two police officers to have a look at "the crime scene". The policewoman came into our classroom and dusted for fingerprints around the window. It was very exciting to see real police work in action and we discussed how our fingerprints are all different and how the police can use finger prints to catch people who have committed crimes.
In the afternoon we used our writing time to write a recount of the robbery and the police coming to our room, and we printed our own fingerprints in our writing books.
Week 1 - Our new projector!
We are very grateful to have been given a new projector for use in the classroom. It makes being able to see learning on the computer much easier. We have watched stories, listen to songs, and played maths games on our big screen with everyone being able to see.
We also enjoy being able to do Go Noodle without anyone else's heads in the way.
Welcome Kate!
A warm welcome to Kate Wang who is joining us for the first four weeks of term from China. We look forward to getting to know you and hope you enjoy your time at Torbay School.
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