Letter to students

Dear Tautoru,

We are writing to you to let you know a little about ourselves and to find out about you.  We would like you to answer the questions within the letter after discussing them with mum and dad or anybody else that you have at home.

We are looking forward to new things in Tautoru. Our new inquiry is about change. Change is always exciting and sometimes a little scary but we are going to make sure that change is good and even sometimes fun!

Nicola is into running, tramping, gymming, travelling and getting outside. Scott likes making music or noise, collecting toys and records and spending time with family.  Chrissy enjoys Maths, shopping and travelling. She likes to keep fit by trying new things like Barre, Zumba and dancing in the dark! Shona likes running, walking, swimming in the sea, fishing, tramping, reading, cooking and spending time with family.

What do you like? What do you like to learn about?

Please tell us something that you are excited about this year.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Yours Sincerely,

Nicola, Scott, Shona and Chrissy

Some of us will be responding to this letter next week. Please discuss at home. We are interested in what our students like, what they enjoy learning, what they find challenging and what excites them.

The Magic Box

Some of us have been reading, "The Magic Box" poem by Kit Wright. We put our own ideas into our very own magic box. Watch the movie to see what our first ideas are...

Fading like ghosts and as fast as a comet !

The Earth and Wind reading groups have been learning about similes.

We have used fireworks as inspiration and have produced some amazing examples.

More animals in danger

Animals in Danger

Scott's reading group have started a mini inquiry into endangered or extinct animals.

They have researched information and presented their finding as a poster

Singular and Plural

We are learning about singular and plural nouns this week. Singular is one thing and plural is more than one. For example, toys is plural and pencil is singular. Most plural words end in an s.

The White Tail Spider

This is a book about The White Tail Spider. After we read the book, we did a KWL chart. K stands for what we know, W stands for what we want to find out and L stands for what we learned. We knew that they bite their prey, we found out that white tail spiders are 12-15mm long, and we have learned that they go hunting for other spiders.

Reading Wall

Here is our reading wall...come and check it out in Tautoru...

Animals in Danger

During reading today we were reading about Animals in Danger. We found out about rare or extinct animals and what has been the cause and effect of this. The buffalo has almost became extinct because of hunters. The dinosaur became extinct either from an asteroid hitting earth or an eruption.

We've been working on word families and building our bank of words. This is the -an word family word power.

Reading to Someone

I like reading to a buddy during Daily 5. Today I was reading a book called Food Patterns. When I read to a buddy I have to use a readers voice. It needs to be clear and I need to use a characters voice when I am reading the character's part in the book.

Word Families

During Daily 5 I have been practising my an word family. I know that clan, pan, Dan, man, Stan, ran, fan, van, tan, are all part of the an word family.

Reading: What do you think?

We have put the questions about reading on the padlets below. Double click on the padlet to add your ideas. We are looking forward to hearing what you have to say about reading...

Created with Padlet

Created with Padlet

Created with Padlet

Created with Padlet

Created with Padlet

Created with Padlet

Share a favourite quote from a character in a book you loved reading about.

Created with Padlet

Created with Padlet

Reading to Myself

I like reading to myself during Daily 5. Today I was reading a book called "The Gardener and the Scarecrow". When I come to a tricky word in the book I use stretchy snake to help me. So if you don't know a word, then you use your finger to cover part of it and you say "I know that word" then you say the bit you can see and then the other part. Then you put the word together.

Where's My Teddy?

We are practising reading with expression and using characters voices.

Click here to view this lesson

Create and share amazing video tutorials with the free Educreations iPad app:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/educreations-interactive-whiteboard/id478617061?ls=1&mt=8

Sent from my iPad

Ken Nesbitt Poems

This term in the Wind reading group, we are reading Ken Nesbitt poems.
Please listen to these recordings.

Click here to view this lesson about My Mouse Is Misbehaving. Read by Molly, Orla, Alba Vienna and Pippa

Create and share amazing video tutorials with the free Educreations iPad app:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/educreations-interactive-whiteboard/id478617061?ls=1&mt=8

Sent from my iPad

Where's My Teddy

We are focusing on reading with expression and using characters voices. Please listen to this recording of Jez Alborough's Where's My Teddy?, read by Liam, Nela, Gina and Jupiter.

Click here to view this lesson about Where's My Teddy.

Create and share amazing video tutorials with the free Educreations iPad app:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/educreations-interactive-whiteboard/id478617061?ls=1&mt=8

Sent from my iPad

Daily 5

Today in Daily 5 we are painting boxes with white paint. We are going to use the boxes to make houses and shops to create our street and some of the places in our community.

I am building a retirement home for old people because it is part of our community. I used different types of material, colourful lego pieces, and the roof is made from a hot coloured red.

Reading at home!

Sustainability

We have enrolled in the sustainability unit of the What's For Lunch programme.  Every week we will be learning about a different resource and how we can be sustainable with this resource.  We will be doing science experiments around each resource and have follow up readings.  This week the resource is water.  One of the coolest things we learned is that some of the water we have today was around when the dinosaurs were around!