Reflection

Writing Analysis

Kia ora fabulous Kowhai tamariki and whanau,

As you are all aware, Kowhai have had a very busy first term. I apologise about our lack of blogging, and I assure you this will be updated weekly throughout term two. Here are some experiences we would like to share with you from term one and once again I apologise; this time for the lack of photos, this can only get better as the year goes on.

Beach day

At the end of week three the WHOLE school went to Coopers Beach to spend the day in the sun and sand. We were old enough this year to walk down with the seniors, it was a long hard walk but we finally made it!! We had a great day building sand castles, jumping waves, doing back flips and surfing the waves on our boogie boards.

Camp

From the 13^th – 15^th March Kowhai class went to Aroha Island for camp. We all participated in a range of camping activities like, setting up and packing up our tents and camping area. We were all involved in a range of group games and large group problem solving activities. We went kayaking, kiwi walking, fishing, swimming and scavenger hunting. The fantastic people from Aroha Island welcomed us with a very hospitable powhiri and offered their expertise by educating us in a range of areas; kiwi awareness and safety, a bee workshop, flax weaving and pest trapping.

We all had a great time on camp however it wouldn’t have gone so smoothly without the help from our wonderful parents who provided transport, cooked our meals and helped with all of our activities. Thank you all very much.

Ambulance and doctor visit

In week 8 we had some very special visitors to the junior syndicate.

Three helpful St. Johns ambulance officers brought the local ambulances (one was brand new), to our school and let us walk through and investigate how they are equipped to help sick or hurt people in our community. They told us when and why we should call and ambulance and the information we needed on the phone. We were allowed to try on the jackets and helmets that the officers wear and test the softness of the stretchers. We listened to each other’s heart beats and watched the lights flash in the ambulances.

We were lucky enough to have a doctor come into to school during the same week. Dr. Frank answered all of our questions about our bones and was very impressed with what we had already learnt. He showed us his doctor’s jacket and his bag that had medicine and lots of equipment to help sick people.

Thank you to the lovely people who were involved in making these visits possible.

Art

We have completed a lot of art work this term. We made paintings of our favourite things on camp, and self-portraits. Please come in and take a look at our fabulous art work that is hanging in our class.

Celebration assembly

We have had three celebration assemblies this year.

First we showed the rest of the school how brilliant we were at remembering the names of HEAPS of bones in our bodies. We also shared a life size cut out of a child and explained how what happens to our bones as we grow. It was a lot of fun and now we are all fountains of knowledge about how our bones work.

Next we shared our experiences from camp; we showed off our art work and made at shout out to all our favourite moments.

Finally, we had been focusing on telling the time. In class we made our own clocks and a book to help us remember how a clock works. We shared these with the rest of the school and everyone was very impressed with our efforts.

It is great to see parents at our celebration assemblies. These happen every third week on Friday afternoon. Information is in the news letters. It would be great to see you all at our next one.

Testing

We have all had our reading; writing and maths tested in term one. Reports are due out in week three on term two. Miss V is very impressed.

Baking

On the last day of term we baked chocolate chip cookies in the oven in Kowhai class. We followed the recipe perfectly and our cookies were delicious! The cookies were very easy to make and every one played a part in making these, so parents; expect freshly baked cookies these holidays because we are now experts in the kitchen. (The recipe is in our bags).

A note from Miss V

Your tamariki have achieved a great deal this term and I am especially proud of each and every one of them. Our classroom door is always open and I encourage you to come in at any time to have a look and a catch up.
Thanks again,
Anna van der Voort.