Solar Ovens

It was lots of fun to work with our friends in Mahutonga. We made solar ovens as part of our Inquiry. 

Kei te hiakai ahau!

This term we are learning some new (and very usesful) phrases in Te Reo Maori. You may hear us using them around the table at dinner time. Join in! We'd love to keep practising our Te Reo at home.

Do you like.......

No I do not like........

Yes I do like.......

This week we practised these new phrases during our discovery time. Click the  link to see this video of us at a cafe using our Te Reo.

Tautoru's Christmas Helpers!

One of our morning activity groups is Service. The Service team in Tautoru have been busy writing letters and making posters to kick their sneaky secret Christmas plan into action...

Christmas in a Shoebox!!!

Over the next couple of weeks we are collecting shoe boxes, wrapping paper and any little toys or gifts (for children) under the value of $30. 

Our goal is to pack the shoe boxes with little gifts and then wrap the boxes and donate them to the City Mission. 

The Christmas shoe boxes will be given to children at Christmas who often don't get presents.

If you can help us with any donations, please drop them in to Susie in Tautoru by 30th November.

Check out our posters below for more information.

We would love any help you can give us to help us put together as many Christmas shoe boxes as we can!

Drama to start the day.

We have been having fun on Wednesday and Thursday mornings, playing fruit salad, while acting a part as we move. We also used our imaginations to think of different things a stick from the second little pig's house could be.... a shovel, a fork, a comb, a walking stick, a back scratcher, a wand, etc. In this picture we had to show what our faces would look like when we were given dinner that we didn't like....

And in this picture we have just won a prize! 

We are using our creativity and our bravery to act some of the parts!

Dance Dance Dance!

We have been kickstarting our mornings off in Tautoru with all sorts of activities that get our brains pumping and ready for learning!

 The Dance Crew

On a Monday and Tuesday morning the dance crew have been exploring all sorts of ways to move their bodies in time to music. 

Today the theme was Halloween...we enjoyed making up a short dance to Ghostbusters theme song.

Have a look at our Dance Crew 

We have all had to use many character strengths to participate in dance - collaboration, bravery, perseverance, creativity, love of learning and teamwork! 

We are having so much fun groovin and shakin! It wakes up our brain and gets our endorphins pumping! Endorphins make us feel positive and happy, which is a great way to start the day.

The Power of Water!

This week we began our inquiry into the power of water!

We have spent a bit of time investigating water and recording our wonderings and opinions.

Click the link below to read some of our ideas on all the things that use water or need water to work..Water Uses 

You can add your ideas to this padlet too if you like. 

We also recorded our ideas about where we think water comes from.

Today we formed an opinion in response to this question: Does water ever run out? Once we had decided Yes or No and our reasons why we drew oursleves on a Human Continuum outside with chalk and explained to a buddy WHY we had put ourselves near Yes or No.

This video all about the Water Cycle helped us to understand how water is a renewable resource and that a lot of the water on our planet can be reused again.

Wind Power

Today we started our inquiry into the power of the wind.

Here are some of our first ideas about wind;

Trees sway in wind

The sun pushes the wind

Wind makes windmills turn and that generates energy

Yachts move in the wind

Wind can help birds fly

Paper planes need wind to fly

Wind can go in different directions

Big planes push wind backwards

Wind has energy

Wind can cause trouble

Wind blows things away

We then headed outside to fly our paper planes. We flew them from somewhere high, with different degrees of force, and also into the wind and with the wind.

Some of our initial questions about wind are;

Is wind made out of something? - Can we make wind?

Where does wind come from?

How does wind create energy?

How is wind created?

How fast can wind blow?

Does wind ever stop?

Can you weigh wind?