Throughout terms 3 and 4 the students in Te Rōpū Kura Pounamu, Te Rōpū Whakaute and Te Rōpū Wawata have been learning about fire safety. To finish our awesome unit in the last week of term we had some firefighters from the Wigram Fire Station come and visit us. They talked to us about their job, smoke alarms and tested our fire safety knowledge before seeing how we could get down, get low and get out if the building safely if there was a fire at school. Then we got to have a look around the truck and we all got to spray the hose! In the photos below you can also see 'Fireman Sam', Miss Corry dressed up as a firefighter! It was a great morning and we hope they can come back again next year!              Checking out the fire Truck! Fireman Sam!                                 Thanks for coming to visit!

We have put up our Christmas tree. Do you like our Christmas tree? We decorated it as a team and think it looks amazing. Have you put up your Christmas tree - we would love to see a photo if you have.

Celebrating Diwali Last week, the people of India celebrated 'Diwali'. Diwali is the 'festival of lights'. Indian people celebrate the festival with sweets and special foods, as well as traditional music and dance.  We were lucky to share the celebration with Harsirat from Wawata class last week. She performed an Indian dance for us, which we enjoyed very much. Some of us tried to copy the movements from watching her dancing. Her performance was even more special as she learned the dance moves by watching Youtube clips and created her own dance.  We could clearly see she worked very hard matching her moves to the rhythm.  Thank you, Harsirat!

We got the idea for a massage circle from a book. The book is called At the End of the Day. We love doing a massage circle because it makes us feel calm and warm. We think everyone should try it:)

This week Te Rōpū Kura Pounamu, Te Rōpū Whakaute and Te Rōpū Wawata have become scientists exploring the important natural resources that we use on Earth. First we looked at rocks and came up with some awesome words to describe how the rocks felt like, smelt like, and looked like. Then we started investigating the different soil that we can find around the school. We used magnifying glasses to investigate. Check out the amazing scientists below!

Today we had a really special visitor., his name is Cooper. He looks really cute as you can tell by the photo. We would all love to have Cooper as a pet.  Mrs Ryan hopes he comes back soon:)

The students are enjoying using our new building table during play based learning time. There has been lots of sawing and hammering happening here as the students practise using the tools and materials that we have. It takes a lot of effort to saw through the wood so we all have to use lots of patience and concentration. Thanks Mark for getting the table ready for us, we are sure getting great use out of it! Here are a few photos of some students trying out the saws, you can sure see the concentration from Ashlyn, Dylan and Isabella as they work to cut through the wood!

This is our art which we have finished. It needed a bit more sparkle so we added glitter which we think looks like a starry night.  When we look at our art we feel happy and proud. We worked so hard and Mrs Ryan is super proud of us!

This week in Kura Pounamu we have been learning about Friendships.  We read the book about Rainbow Fish and created our own Rainbow Fish artwork. We also wrote stories about how we are good friends. Check out some of these below... " I am a good friend because I play nicely" By Angelo " I can be a friend by helping when someone is hurt. I am a good friend" By Dylan " I am a good friend because I share the toys" By Seulata

This week was pretty cold but we still had some brave explorers at PBL time. They went outside and found that the rain had meant that water was inside the tyres by the bike track. Then in the frosty weather the water froze and formed these amazing big pieces of ice. They tried different ways to get it out so that they could have the biggest pieces. Then they worked together to make an ice picture on the footpath! Check it out below!

James Rizzi was an American pop artist famous for his vibrant art. His art made us feel very happy. We made a city and made it look colourful. We think you should have a look at his art and tell us how it makes you feel. We will put a photo up of our art when it is finished. Watch this space!

What an amazing hub I belong to! The last Saturday of the school holidays I turned 30. When I got to school on Monday morning I found that my classroom had been decorated by some amazing teaching colleagues and they had made a birthday cake and had planned party games for all the students in the hub. What an incredible day we had together celebrating my birthday. We had a party in the afternoon where we had delicious party food and we played party games. It was amazing to see so many of the students had not played pass the parcel before. Over the first week back, we played a range of party games so the students would be able to play these at their own birthday parties in the future. We had so much fun!!!                                                                                                                       

This term Te Ara Whakatau have been beginning to learn about different fairytales. We have started by learning about Goldilocks and the Three Bears. The students have been blowing us away with how they can retell the story to others. Here is a video of Luka sharing the story to his class, he cut out all the pictures himself and glued them to make his own story page! Fantastic retelling Luka!

During the last two weeks of term we were learning about Matariki. Te Rōpū Kura Pounamu, Te Rōpū Whakaute, and Te Rōpū Wawata learnt about many different versions of the stories on how Matariki began. We sang songs and also learnt about how people celebrate Matariki. We ended the term by making our very own Matariki kites. We had to draw the seven stars on them and then fold them carefully to make the kites. Then we got to fly them, it was loads of fun!

Te Rōpū Kura Pounamu, Te Rōpū Whakaute and Te Rōpū Wawata have been learning about Maui and the Sun over the last few weeks. This has been lots of fun and we have learned so much. This week we decided to write about the story for our writing time as well. I was so impressed to see the students in Whakaute planning and writing their stories. Two of our writing groups worked together to plan and write their stories on big pieces of paper in pairs or threes. I was blown away by the writing that Blessinglonise, Milla and Isabellah did together. Below you can see how well they worked together using the word card to write their sentences. Ka pai girls this was amazing collaboration!

We made an advertisement persuading people to buy a jersey from us. We voted for the best advertisement and Kylah, Olivia and Caitlyn-Lee were the winners. Here is their video. Will this make you buy their jersey?

Last week I printed some pictures of interesting sand sculptures to inspire the students in the sandpit. They looked at these photos and really went crazy with some amazing sand sculptures. We had some amazing artists in the sandpit! Now these photos below can be used to inspire future sandpit projects. We hope you enjoy and take inspiration from our amazing sculptures!                                                 

In Social Science, we have been learning about Change. We learnt to understand why the past is important to people. Last Thursday, we had a trip to the Ferrymead Heritage Park where we spent the day in the 1950s, near 70 years ago. When we got there we changed into olden day clothes. The girls loved their dresses especially the bonnets. We sat in the old classroom where all the children sat in a row, boys and girls on each side. The teacher, Mr Brown used blackboard with white chalk to write. He also had a whip and stick. We were so pleased when he said he wouldn't use those on us. We also got to bake cookies and learnt to set the dining table, table manners and also some of the kitchen things people used to use. They also had toys the children used to play and we got to play with them, too. Lastly, we watched a movie called The gang (The little rascals) in black and white. It was a busy day but we had great fun! Mr Brown checked and stamp our work.

This afternoon we worked in our orchard. We picked a lot of feijoas and some of us are looking forward to eating them. Did you know you shouldn't pick feijoas off the tree? When the feijoas are ripe they fall to the ground and then you know they are ready to eat. We pulled out some stakes  which supported the trees but are no longer needed.  We also picked up the cuttings from the fruit trees which have been pruned. We have quite a bit more work to do yet and will keep you updated.