Helping circle

We have been trialling using a helping circle at a different time in writing. We do our planning picture  and then have a helping circle. Then we can share our ideas with a buddy, help each other with some of the sounds we need for the words we want to write and also think about the goal we want to focus on when we are writing. It is helping us to feel better about our writing.

Inquiry about our "Joints in our Body".

Today we investigated to find out "What is the point of a joint"?

We made joints out of straws, sticks, ping pong balls, playdough, wool, ice block sticks and rubber bands. We identified where the joints are in our body and we looked around the school for other mechanisms that have joint like actions.

Did you know, the door has three joint like mechanisms....the handle, the hinge and the door stopper.

Did you know an ipad, chrome book and laptop have joint like mechanisms?

Did you know the toilet has a joint like mechanism on the seat and lid?

Buddy reading.

We have done a great job with buddy reading and reading to ourselves since we got back to school this term. All that holiday reading has paid off. 

Great attitude everyone! And thanks parents for all the support with keeping the reading going.

News from Singapore

The Body

As part of our inquiry into the power of our body the students have been learning about our major organs.



We have watched videos, read some books, and have identified other places or people we can ask for more information.



There is a lot of excitement around the inquiry and we are looking forward to a term of action!



Scott's base group have started to created models of the body using a variety of objects to represent the heart, stomach and other organs.



More to come.

We got a bit muddy....Soil Experiment!

On Monday we did two soil experiment with Wanwan's reading groups.
We did it to find out whether our soil is healthy for planting.

In the first experiment we found our soil has a pretty good pH level.

We dug some soil out and mix with a little water and baking soda - this is to find out whether the soil is acidic or not. If the mixture fizzes it is acidic.
We mixed the other one with vinegar; if it fizzes then it is alkaline.
If there isn't any fizz well it's balanced!

Experiment 2 we wanted to find out what kind of soil we have.

We dug out some soil and rolled them up (like play dough) we tried to bend the soil into a doughnut shape.
It the "dough" fell apart that means there are too much sand in the soil. That's not great for the nutrient when it comes to growing plants.
It the "dough" is to sticky like a clay, that's not great for growing plants either. We want a loamy dough!
Do you know why?






Both experiment above were from the book Play in the Garden by Sarah O'Neil.

Arts Celebration

Wow. What a wonderful way to celebrate the end of a term and all our talented Tautoru artists! 

 

   

Our Arts Celebration held on Tuesday and Wednesday nights was a great success. Tautoru was filled with  all sorts of beautiful artworks - dioramas, masks, weaving, lanterns and many other collaborative art projects.

Everyone was impressed with the hard work and effort that all of the children put in toward creating their piece of art. The weather was perfect, the music just wonderful and with all of the sculptures and artworks outside and around the school, it truly was a magical two nights.

Thank you to all of the families and friends that came to our Arts Celebration. We loved seeing you admire our work and that you took the time to visit all the spaces around the school. 

A BIG thank you to all of the wonderful parents who helped us get ready for the celebration. We couldn't have done it without you!