What a week!

Book Week & Hockey

We have had a busy week in Ruma Piwakawaka!

We enjoyed having our grandparents and whanau come and read to us

earlier in the week.

Then we had a special visit from a local author and illustrator, 

Paul Martin, who wrote the comic book 

The adventures of Kory 'Flight of the Kiwi'.

 He spoke to us about how he had the ideas for the story, and how long it took to draw the pictures.

We thought we would try and do some drawings of Kory.

On Friday, we celebrated the end of book week with a 'dress up as a book character' day.

We had to reuse, and recycle to make home made character outfits.

Look how amazing we all are!!

Hairy Maclary and Cat in the Hat were voted best dressed girl and boy.

We had our second session in hockey this week too.

We loved playing a little game where you had to get the hockey ball into your team's goal. It was fun!!!

Book Week

Grandparents and Whanau Open Morning

Today we celebrated our love of books and reading with our Grandparents and families.

We have an exciting 'book week' planned, with different activities each day.

It was wonderful to see so many grandparents and family members join us

to share stories, make bookmarks, play games and ask the 

children in Ruma Piwakawaka about our learning.

Here are some pictures of our morning:

Noah said –"I liked my grandparents reading to me."

 Harry said – "I liked having a shared morning tea."

Aston said  "I liked my mum reading my favourite books to me."

Zach said "I liked my parents looking at my writing."

Tui said "I liked my mummy because she helped me do my writing."

Charlotte said "When Alanna and I and my grandma played with the playdough it was fun."

Alanna said "I liked reading to my parents."

Our grandparents and families even came to PMP with us to check out what we do.

Then we had a shared morning tea together!

Thanks for coming everyone.

Hockey Skills

Hockey with Ruma Piwakawaka

This week we had Stuart from Team Energize come and give us some tips on

 how to play hockey.

We each had our own hockey stick.

First we had to learn how to correctly hold the hockey stick.

Next we had a go at dribbling the ball.

Then we had to guide our hockey ball through a minefield of cones,

without touching them.

We had to keep control of the ball.

If our ball hit a mine (cone) we had to do star jumps.

Well done for having a go Ruma Piwakawaka!

If you go down to the woods today...

Teddy Bears Picnic

This week in Ruma Piwakawaka we had a 'Teddy Bear' theme 

inspired by the wonderful book

 'The best-loved bear' written by Diana Noonan.

The children brought their favourite 'teddy bear' from home.

First they had to orally share with the class

-where did it come from?

-who gave it to them?

-what does it look like?

-what is special about it?

Then we did some writing about our 'teddy bear'.

Keep a look out in Ruma Piwakawaka for our fabulous 

published writing, soon to be finished.

The children really enjoyed having their special 'teddy bear' to share their learning with them this week.

We ended our week on Friday with a teddy bears picnic.

What a fun week we had!!

Mystery Item

Technology - What is the mystery item?

Today our classmate Mia brought in our first mystery item to share, 

as part of our oral language this term. 

We are looking at mystery items found around the home that use technology.

We had a good look at it, and we all touched it.

We talked about what it felt like and looked like physically.

Then we talked about what function it might have.

What do you think it might be used for?

Here is what we thought...

Candle Burning Experiment

Science - Candle burning

How does a candle burn?

We have been learning how a candle needs fuel and oxygen from the air for it to keep burning. We did some experiments this week to find out how a candle needs air to burn.

We took 4 different sized jars and talked about what would happen if we put the jar over a lit candle.

We all had different ideas about what would happen:

Mia said "The glass might catch on fire".

"It might melt the glass" said Riley.

Tui said "The candle will go out".

Charlotte thought the candle would stay alight.

Harry said "It will stay alight for a little bit, and then go out"

Harry was right! The candle stayed alight for a few seconds then went out.

We timed how long it took for the candle to go out, using a stopwatch.

We estimated how long it would take for each of the glass jars, and then we timed it. 

We thought that the bigger the jar, the more air in it, so the longer the candle would burn.

Then we asked the question "Where is the air?"

Do you think we could blow air at this glass jar and blow out the candle behind it?

Most children said "No way!" So we all had a go at trying to blow out the candle.

We did it!

0. What happened was that the air separated when it hit the sides of the jar and flowed around its curves to come together again and form a stream that hit the candle. Sure, you couldn’t see it, but it happened!