Term 2 Week 5 - Notes and Reminders

• The children enjoyed the Science Alive session on Structures last week and our thanks go to the parents who helped out.
• Keep up practising the basic facts ‘bricks’. Class teachers will test children that feel that they are ready to move onto the next brick on a Friday. Quick recall of basic facts really does make a difference. We often find that children are able to use effective strategies to solve maths problems, but make simple errors because of their lack of basic fact knowledge.
• Over the next few weeks teachers will be carrying out reading assessments with the children and you may find that your child brings home a reading book that they have not read in class.
• Quite a few children would benefit from a reminder to remember to bring home their winter coat at the end of the school day!

Junk People...

Our Term 2 theme "Construction" is well underway and we are enjoying learning about the amazing "architecture" within our own world and beyond.  We are keen to explore the ways we can use everyday materials to build both simple and more complex structures, to learn techniques used to join and fix materials and to test our thinking, ideas and team work in technology based "structural challenges".  

We also plan to create 'tin people' as part of our hub art over the next week. From the pictures attached you can see how everyday items make effective pieces of art! We would love each child brings in a clean tin, with the label "soaked" off, as well as a variety of 'bits and pieces' that can be used to plan and create a tin person.  Good items would include nuts and bolts, buttons, milk lids, nails, wishing stones etc - you can be creative as you like!  We plan to start these on FRIDAY next week so would appreciate your child bring their items in by WEDNESDAY MAY 31 in a named bag that can be kept in their locker.  We look forward to seeing our children's creative ideas!  

Science Alive Buildings and Structures in K17!

Yesterday Science Alive worked with our class and taught us about Buildings and Structures. We discussed different structures and learnt that shapes such as the triangle can strengthen a building. We learnt the importance of a strong, solid foundation at the base. We used K'nex to build our own structures. Each group had their own challenge such as a castle, zipline, bridge or tower. We were allowed to put our own finishing touch to the final structure at the end. Thanks to all our fantastic helpers. We hope you enjoyed the day too.

Science Alive

Kahikatea enjoyed our session with Science Alive, igniting our Inquiry on Buildings and Structures. We learnt about how triangles and arches are strong structural shapes and that buildings and structures are created for different purposes. We were then challenged to create a specific structure out of K'NEX that had to be strong and stable.

Well done to Oscar what a great example of the beginning of your Recount writing from your wonderful weekend.

Early on a frosty Saturday morning I jumped out of bed as a shiver of coldness shot down my spine. It was time to go and try to whip the Burnside Rugby team, so I scoffed my breakfast and got dressed before you could say 'rugby rocks'!

A little while later I slouched down onto the couch to watch my favourite episode of Odd squad. When suddenly I heard Guthrie screaming at me. "What are you watching Oscar,". 
I told him I was watching Odd Squad, then he flopped down onto the couch beside me. 

He asked  me if I wanted to change the channel and put on one of his programmes, but I disagreed.

Week 4

This week we have Science Alive coming to visit us here at school. They will be teaching us about Buildings and Structures as part of the ignition for our inquiry topic for this term. Each homebase has a two hour session. 
Thank you to those parents who have volunteered to help us out. the children will require support to help design and build their structures. We sill share some photos of what is created later in the week. 

Tuesday 23rd: Kahikatea 16 and 17 have the first session from 9:30-11:30 am
                         Kahikatea 15 and 18 have the second session at 1:00-3:00pm



Also another friendly reminder can you please double check with your child they have all the necessary stationary requirements for school: e.g. pencils, pens, rulers, white board markers they are such consumable classroom items. We are also getting near the half way mark for the year when some new school books are required. Thanks for supporting us with this is just makes our life so much easier in the classroom.

Buildings and Structures

Kahikatea 15 and 16 initiated our inquiry topic by brainstorming all the things that we already knew about buildings and stuctures. Then we recorded our ideas on mini hexagons. After that we had to make connections between our ideas and group them together, explaining why we thought they belonged in a particular group. We found that some of our groups could then be connected together. Finally we presented our findings.

Cross Country Photos

It was such a great Cross Country event yesterday, and even greater to see all our children pushing themselves to do their best!  Check out the Year 3 and 4 runners - a well done to all our racers - we were so proud of you all!