What's the time?

 Our math focus for this week is time. Reading an analogue clock is such an important skill and our tamariki have been working hard to read times to the hour, quarter and minute. 

First we discussed how time was read before clocks existed. Students knew much more about sun dials than we thought they would! We talked about all the examples of time we see around us and also the uses for time. The most relatable was knowing when the 40 minutes for morning tea and lunch begins! 

We are learning the important difference between an hour and minute hand, what they show and why they are constantly moving. Fractions come into play with learning about half past, quarter past and quarter to, as well as our skip counting in 5's to understand those minutes!

Check out some of these photos from our learning so far, and please ask me to tell you the time at home - it requires practice! 

Junior Athletics 2023

 

This week Autahi and Tautoru got outdoors to get into some Athletics. Alongside some supportive seniors, we raced over hurdles, balanced items on spoons, threw bean bags into buckets and leaped in the long jump. 

The positivity was flowing as cheers of 'You can do it' rang out as the competitors gave it their all. The goals for the day were to try your best and have fun.

The New Zealand Curriculum outlines some key learning experiences

• Develop a wide range of movement skills, using a variety of equipment and play environments.
• Participate in a range of games and activities and identify the factors that make participation safe and enjoyable.

We take part in regular P.E. sessions and learn about ways to move your body as wells as learning new games that encourage participation. We also learn to give things a go and support each other to try our best.

Check out the different activities here:

The bean bag toss had different levels of challenge to stretch everyones skills.

Leaping through the air on the long jump!

A careful balancing act.

These sprints were neck and neck!

Finally we finished it all with an obstacle course around Big Kids Playground. It is so nice to get out and about in our space and move and play.

Autahi and Tautoru trip to Taputeranga Marine Reserve

In both Autahi and Tautoru, we have recently been using Atua as the foundation for our Inquiry. Exploring the realms of different atua has given us rich opportunities to learn about the natural world around us. 

This week, our visit to Taputeranga Marine Reserve was full of great learning about Tangaroa and the children of Tangaroa, the creatures that inhabit our ocean habitats. The Marine Education Centre at Taputeranga is devoted to the sea life of our local coastline so we were learning about creatures that we can find around Worser Bay, too.

Here is a selection of photos from our trip to give a flavour of what we saw. Doctor Victor encouraged us to be explorers, find out new things, and ask lots of questions - and we did!

Visiting the Bait House

Here, we had the chance to get hands-on with some sea stars, anemones, kina, crabs and other creatures.

Doctor Victor showed us how to use our hands like scoops to very gently pick up the animals so that we could take a closer look at them without harming them.

A cushion star and a big sea star.

This beauty is a snake star. We had to be extra-careful when picking it up to make sure we were supporting its body and legs from underneath.

Rockpooling

We also had to chance to explore the rock pools beside the Bait House. Look what we found!

How cute is this little crab?

And how lucky are we to get to spend time learning together and having fun in this beautiful spot?

Ākau Tangi Sports Day

Autahi and Tautoru had a great morning together on Tuesday at Ākau Tangi practising some new (and some familiar) skills as part of our physical education curriculum. 

We participated in futsal (indoor football), floorball (indoor hockey) and gymnastics. 

We are lucky to have such an excellent facility and instructors available to us. 

Here are some photo highlights...