Matariki Friday...

Today we celebrated Matariki. We sang Tirama tirama nga whetu...twinkle twinkle little star. We made lanterns and scraffito art showing Matariki.
We also shook hands and promised to be friends forever!  Matariki is a good time for that....a time for new beginnings!

Champion runners!

Here is Tori. She won the Interschool Cross Country race for 5 year old girls. She is showing us her hand with a great big 1 on it! Well done Tori!

And here is Korbin who came 3rd out of all the 5 year old boys and first for Te Waotu School. Well done Korbin!

"No David!"

We often read the "David" books by David Shannon. They are hilarious, about a naughty boy called David. There is not much text but is has great opportunities for many discussions on the mat. I always ask the children if they liked the book  or page - "to put a finger on your nose or a hand on your head if you disliked it". That already provides great opportunity for discussions. Also, they takes turns to tell the story by just looking at the page.  Often children remember things from home and  their own stories are being told too. These books are so well liked, even after 50 times they are still popular! "Can we do David please!!"
Anyway, the best thing of all is that we are discussing key competencies all the time: eg managing self, relating to others, participating etc. which is so important for transition.

Printing the letter s...

Learning to print the letter s ...

Matariki

We are learning about Matariki, the 7 stars that appear at this time of the year.  They signal the start of the Maori New Year. We are making kites and have been producing some excellent writing. Here is Max's story...

Busy days..

Our work showing how animals stay warm ...

And some of the independent group work that is happening spontaneously in class. Children are very busy making road and space maps in class when work is finished.  Excellent manners are being used and great cooperative skills too!