Wednesday, August 31, 2016

CHOCOLATE'S CHAIR

Yesterday we made chair for chocolate even though he was a bear he still wanted to sit on a chair like a Candylander.  Soon it was time to act.  Me and Monty and Kale and Reuben and Nate.  We made a hammock and Miya and Cate and Blake made an origami couch.   "Time to judge!"  the teacher said.   The winner is Miya "good game."

By Jackson

A visit from Crunchie!

We were lucky to have a GIANT rabbit visit us. Crunchie is Mia's very friendly and hungry rabbit! He came on Cure Kids Red Mufti day to share the fun!
Thank you for sharing Mia!











Tuesday, August 30, 2016

MAKING A CHAIR FOR CHOCOLATE




Chocolate is one of Mrs Ruawai's homeroom's teddy bears.  Chocolate is the littlest teddy friend we have in Piako Rua.

Chocolate told the teachers he was tired of sitting on the floor when all the Candylanders got to sit on chairs.  He said he wanted his own chair to sit on.  The teachers said that he'd be too little to sit on our chairs and he'd probably fall off.  Chocolate suggested someone could make him a new chair and the teachers knew exactly who to ask ... US!

Since we are all about becoming better learners at School, Chocolate set us up with some Success Criteria.  Our chair had to be made from paper and sellotape.  It had to look like a chair and be strong enough to hold Chocolate's weight.  Sounds tough ... but not for great problem-solvers like us!

We WONDERED how we would make the paper strong enough to hold Chocolate.  So we watched two videos about how to make paper stronger:





Armed with this knowledge, we set to work designing Chocolate a chair.

First we brainstormed what we were going to do and then we drew our plan.  After that we gathered the materials we needed and began making our design.  Along the way we had to talk about what we were doing and what improvements we could make.  We had to negotiate with our group and work together to achieve our goal of making a chair that met the success criteria.










Thank you Mrs Lunn for doing a workshop on folding the paper to add strength for those who needed it!


Myia taught origami!



















When we had finished our chair, we gave Chocolate a turn sitting in it to see if it held his weight.  Then we REFLECTED on our chair - Did it look like or design?  Could we make it better?  Did it meet all the success criteria?











 We were able to share our chairs with the rest of Piako Rua.  Everyone's chair was assessed against Chocolate's success criteria.  Many of us were successful.  A few of us had to work on making legs for our chairs.
We have very creative thinkers in Piako Rua.  Some children made extra features for Chocolate's chair like a few that transformed into beds!  Very handy after a long day at school.
After morning tea, we wrote letters to Chocolate explaining all the great chairs we had made for him. Chocolate will be delighted! The letters, which are transactional writing genre, were impressive! Great job kids!!







TECH TUESDAY - BUILDING CHOCOLATE A CHAIR

Sunday, August 28, 2016

OUR FIRST TOP TEN

MATHS TOP TEN

Mrs Lunn has introduced a new activity as part of our Maths Knowledge session.  When we first come into Wonderland, we have to quickly get ready for Top Ten.  This is where we are asked 10 quick maths questions based on the different areas of Mathematical knowledge we should have acquired over the year so far.  Mrs Lunn asked us if we would like her to put the past week's Top Ten on the blog so we could practice at home.  We said yes!  So each week Mrs Lunn will put the Top Ten up on the blog for us.

Wednesday, August 24, 2016

Reading practice

WOW! We are so impressed with your children's reading development! There are so many children who have now moved from 'learning to read' to 'Reading to learn'.

This is just a reminder that it is just as important for your child to be read to and with, to ensure their continued reading development and in particular how good readers read. Now that the children are reading independently sometimes we will not have reading on an individual basis everyday for instructional reading as these other important reading behaviours are being reinforced and consolidated through buddy reading, reading instructions in authentic situations. Therefore, your child may not have a new reading book from school each and every day.
We completely agree that the children need to read in some shape or form every day, and so encourage you to read a chapter or picture book from home together. Maybe you could go to the library and read together, or read a chapter book to them. This helps with reading stamina and memory (which I know lots of you do already).

A suggestion would be to read the school newsletter together and discuss the goings on at school every other Thursday or read the blog. You could even practise writing by commenting on blog posts too.  There are Literacy links and songs on the blog too.  A lot of valuable reading learning that is real life and authentic can come from this.

Mostly though, enjoy your relaxed reading time with each other.
This is a link I found that could be interesting for you to read.
http://www.education.vic.gov.au/documents/about/research/readtoyoungchild.pdf
Reading needs to be enjoyable and not a chore!

Tuesday, August 23, 2016

WE LOVE MATHS!!

Before school some of us like to practise our learning on the whiteboard tables. Today, Riley and Nate were working on their Maths. Nate was practising skip counting in 2s and he got ALL his numbers around the right way!! Riley is learning to use the tidy numbers strategy and after all his practice this morning he is now able to use this strategy on his own! Way to go Riley!! 

These boys are proof that hard work pays off ;-)


NUMBER BONDS!

This week in Maths the Workshop D kids have been learning our number bonds to ten. Once we know these number bonds we can use them to help us to solve more tricky equations. We love writing our number bonds on the whiteboards! 






READ RAPUNZEL

Check out the following link for the traditional fairy tale of Rapunzel...

http://www.dltk-teach.com/rhymes/rapunzle/story.htm

Or watch it online ...


RAPUNZEL, RAPUNZEL ... LET DOWN YOUR HAIR

Today was a super exciting Tech-Tuesday.  Rapunzel wrote to ask asking for our help!  Even though she has been rescued from her tower, she still wants to be able to go up there because it has a wonderful view of all of Storybook Land.  Rapunzel asked us to think of a CREATIVE way to help her go up and down the tower.  She certainly asked the right people.  Creative thinking is what we do best!  We worked together to brainstorm our ideas and then we settled on a solution.  We planned our design and gathered the materials we needed.  Then we started to make our solution.  We had to practice taking turns, working cooperatively and being EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATORS.  Our teachers thought we did a splendid job.  This afternoon we each wrote a letter to Rapunzel to tell her all about our ideas.






TODAY'S TECH TUESDAY CHALLENGE

Monday, August 22, 2016

ADOPT A TURBO

Today Heiden Bedwell-Curtis came to Riverdale School.  He is the Manawatu Turbo player we adopted.  Some of us got to met Heiden and we even played a game of indoor soccer with him.