Spanish Lessons: We have been learning days of the week and months of the year

Muchas Gracias to Maria! She taught us days of the week and months of the year in Spanish. Learn some of the Spanish Songs.

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

This is a new song that we have been learning:

Connections with Asia

A Note from Nicola...

In August, I will be travelling to Singapore with 11 other educators across New Zealand. I have been connecting with teachers from Bukit Timah Primary School and our students have been starting to learn about Singapore. This week in Tautoru, we have started to write letters to the school and I will bring these over as part of a gift.

By the time our youngest students are in the workplace, the number of middle class in Asia will have increased to over 3 billion… 60% of the world’s middle class will be in Asia by 2030. Three of the four top economies in the world will be in Asia… 1 - China, 2 – USA, 3 – India, 4 – Japan.

New Zealand’s economy is increasingly reliant on our export markets in Asia. China is our biggest export market through our Free Trade Agreement (FTA) signed in 2008. We also have FTAs with Korea and ASEAN countries with negotiations underway with India.

In New Zealand itself our demographics are changing. In the last 20 years our Asian population has grown from 3% to 12% and predicted to be 21% by 2038.

An audio visual from Asia New Zealand Foundation helps to explain the Asian Century and what it means for our students – Equipping your child to thrive in the Asian Century

To better prepare our children for their future we are currently exploring how we can develop students’ knowledge, skill and understanding of Asia and Asian cultures. 

Our students have generated some questions for Bukit Timah Primary School:

What kind of food do you eat?

Do you celebrate Christmas?

What do you celebrate?

Do you get awards for your good behaviour or your learning?

How many classes do you have? How many students do you have in each class?  

Where do you learn?

What do you learn?

Do you have a uniform?

What time do you start school?

What time do you end school?

What do you guys do for lunch? Where do you eat your lunch?

How many teachers do you have? Who are your teachers?

What languages do you speak?

Do you have technology? If so, what do you use?

What materials do you use for learning?

Why are some of your building shaped like flowers?

What kind of plants do you have?

What furniture do you have in your class? Do you have desks?

What games do you play?

What do you have in your view?

What type of playground do you have?

How big is your school? How many children are there at your school?

Do you go on field trips?

Do you have menus for lunch?

We have permission from Bukit Timah School to post this clip. 

Assembly: 1st July 2016

Thank you to our wonderful presenters!

What a fantastic assembly. See some of the highlights below...

Well done to everyone who received a principal award for connecting with others!

Experimenting with sound

In Tautoru, we have been experimenting with different sounds. We have been using chairs as drums and experimenting with  different instruments...

We have also been experimenting with different rhythms.

Standard unit for weight

In Maths this week we have been learning about the standard units we use to measure weight. We learnt about Kilograms and Grams. When we weigh ourselves we use Kilograms (KG's). Some of the things we figured out were...
- People weigh more if they have shoes on
- People might be heavier if they are taller
- People might be lighter if they are shorter
- People gain and lose weight which makes them lighter and heavier
- People might weigh more or less depending on the time of day and how much they have eaten or drunk.
- Of course, Chrissy weighed the most out of all of us!!
Watch our video to see some of our learning that took place this week. Enjoy!

Where the wild things are...music

We created music based on the where the wild things are book...take a look at our video!

Salsa Dancing

Today we learnt a little about the history of salsa and some did some salsa dancing. This was a lot of fun!

We are learning dance and music skills in our lead up to the music festival. Our Inquiry is about "Sound".

Yoga to wake our brains up!

Yoga to start the day!

Weight

In Maths we have been exploring weight and learning about non-standard units. We have had a lot of fun trying to balance the scales and seeing which objects are heavier and lighter.

Thank you Stephanie for talking to us about your journey

You can read more on the Mahutonga blog: http://matarikiwbs.blogspot.co.nz/2016/06/wig-wednesday.html

Te Papa Trip

We had a wonderful time visiting Te Papa yesterday to learn more about Matariki. Thank you to all of our parent support! 

Rakau

This is the Year Three students making musical patterns with the Rakau sticks.

Rakau sticks

We have had a great morning working with students from Autahi. It has been a fantastic opportunity to share ideas and work on creating musical patterns with rakau sticks.

Dance

 

Today while the Year threes were at Te Papa the Year ones and twos were in mixed groups with some children from Autahi. We did some art about a Maori legend, danced to lots of different music and tried to follow a beat with the rakau sticks. We had fun!

Wig Wednesday

Today was "Wig Wednesday". 

We had some very interesting head wear! Thanks to all the people who made a donation to Child Cancer.

Tai Chi

Today we did some Tai Chi to wake our brains up. We are experimenting with different types of music and movement.

Capacity

In Maths, we have been learning about capacity and how we measure it using non-standard and standard units. We have been looking at the size of different containers, recording whether something is full, half full or empty. We have also been thinking about if a container looks smaller or bigger does this make a difference? Should we always be accurate when we measure? What happens when we aren't accurate...will this affect our results? Take a look at our video to see some of the highlights of this unit! We had heaps of fun and there is still some more learning to do around capacity. Maybe you could help at home when you are cooking or baking...

Music: Shared Writing

We are listening to music...

We have been learning about sound as part of our Inquiry... Today we listened to a range of different types of music.

This is a piece of shared writing by Nic's literacy group:

Music

Music reminds me of

Shooting stars in the night sky

A golden violin on a summer’s night

The moon singing in the dark sky

The funky DJ mixing disco sounds

A 90’s movie with a car chase

Music reminds me of

A giant tornado speeding through town

People running along like a herd of elephants

A volcano erupting with hot lava

Owls hooting through the night

The opening of a Brazilian carnival

Cannon bolts falling to the ground

Music makes me feel

Surprised like bangs of fireworks

Bright like Christmas lights

Excited like a university graduate

Strong like a super hero flying

Sad like a lost battle

Sleepy like I have walked for a thousand days.

Music is spectacular!

Our Sound Inquiry

We are beginning to investigate sound as part of our Inquiry about "Change". Today we begun to investigate musical instruments and materials used to create different sounds. 

Kite Art

After we flew our kites on the beach we created some kite art and wrote poems about our experience...

Did you ever by Edward

Did you ever go kite flying at Worser Bay Beach

People screaming

Kites crash landing

People running

Kites swooping

People tugging

Kites pulling

People shouting

Kites falling

People chatting

Kites flying

Celebrating Matariki

We had a great time celebrating Matariki by flying our kites on the beach with our families.