We are learning about the letter x. X is for eXercise.

X is for eXercise.

Ruma G knows it is good to exercise to keep healthy and make our brains work better.

We created exercise cards which show different exercise activities we like to try.

Have a go.

We are learning about the letter w. W is for wiggly worms.

W is for wiggly worms.

We headed down to the garden to feed the worms in the worm farm.
Worms like eating fruit and vegetables.
The worm farm was smelly but there were hundreds of worms wriggling around.

We are learning about the letter v. V is for violets.

V is for violets.

Mrs S brought us some violet plants from her garden. We have planted them under the old Rhododendron.We will watch them grow.

We are learning about the letter u. U is for uni cubes.

U is for uni cubes.

We estimated how many uni cubes were in the container.We then counted them by making groups of ten.Can you solve how many cubes there are?

We are learning about the letter t. T is for Tangaroa's Gift.

T is for Tangaroa's Gift



We read the story of how Tangaroa, the god of the sea, gave paua amazing colours.


                   

We created Eric Carle artworks to show the creatures from this story.  We mixed colours to create the coloured paper.
We cut out different shapes to create the sea creatures.

We are learning about the letter s. S is for the Seven Stars.

S is for the Seven Stars of Matariki.


We read the legend of the Seven Fishes. 
It is one story explaining how the Matariki Stars came to be in the sky.

At kura time every child decorated a diamond.
These shapes were combined to make stars - 
whetū.

We are learning about the letter r. R is for rainbows.

R is for rainbows.

Kaitlyn spied a yellow flash of light at the end of the rainbow.

It was a pot of gold.

We made rainbows with classroom materials.

We are learning about the letter q. Q is for quiz.

Q is for quiz.

We have a quiz each week which is based around the letter we are focusing on. This is an A - Z quiz some of the learners in Ruma G completed.

We are learning about the letter p. P is for painting paua.

P is for painting paua.

We learnt to mix the primary colour to make greens, purples, pinks and blues just like the paua shell.

We are learning about the letter o. O is for an Octopus

O is for an Octopus

We created funky octopus with paper and wrote two word poems to describe them.

Orange octopus

Long tentacles

Circle suckers

Legs swaying

Oval head

Kaitlyn

We are learning about the letter n. N is for night time.

N is for night time.

We are learning to write explanations.

We read stories about the night and discussed what happens at night.

We acted out how night and day occur  so we could explain why we have night and day.

Read Pippa's  ideas and explanation.

At night the flowers close up.  Black cats come out at night. People go to sleep.  I am not tired at night. You can play a fantastic game of Spotlight.

Night time is when people go to sleep. Night is the time when people don't stay up.
We get night time because the sun is staying still. The earth is spinning in circles and the earth is going around the sun at the same time.

We are learning about the letter m. M is for mushrooms.

M is for mushrooms

Recently Moana was the location for a Fungal Foray. People from all over New Zealand and the world were collecting mushrooms and other fungi from around the West Coast and identifying them.  We were invited to visit and this inspired lots of searching and learning.  We thought of questions to ask the experts, found a number of different types in the school grounds, tried to identify the fungi we found, created colourful mushroom artworks and learnt lots of new facts - there are even mushrooms in Africa!

We are learning about the letter l. L is for leaves.

L is for leaves.

A sign of autumn time is the changing leaves.

Ruma G headed out into the playground to collect leaves.

We discussed why the leaves were changing colours.

We collected leaves to press and draw.

We created a two (and sometimes three) word poem to describe the leaves we had found.

We are learning about the letter k. K is for keas.

K is for Keas

We wrote two word poems to describe keas.

We are learning about the letter j. What can jump?

WHAT CAN JUMP?

We created a book called "What can jump?"
We used adjectives to describe the creatures.
Here are some of the pages we created.

Do you know which animal can not jump?

We are learning about the letter i. Investigating Ice

Investigating Ice

We experimented with ice.
We covered one ice cube with salt.
We left another ice cube untouched.
We observed what happened.

Do you know what happened?

We are learning about the letter h. H is for Hundreds and Thousands

Hundreds and Thousands for Fairy Bread

The focus genre in our writing programme in the first term was writing procedures- instructions.
Ruma G made fairy bread. They created a visual plan to follow. After making and eating the delicious treat the instructions were written.

Here are Brianna’s instructions.

How to make fairy bread.

You need sprinkles, bread, butter, a knife, a plate.

1.Wash your hands.
2. Put the bread on the plate.
3. Put the butter on the knife.
4. Spread the butter on the bread.
5. Spread the sprinkles on the bread.
6. Cut the bread into pieces.

We are learning about the letter g. G is for Get wise.

GETWISE

Captain Cash visited our school.  She helped us learn to Getwise about cash.

She taught us....

• about the different money
• how we can earn money
• the difference between wants and needs
• how to ...Save ...Spend...and Share.

Look at our Getwise pose!

We are learning about the letter f. F is for folding fox faces.

Folding fox faces

We are learning to read and follow instructions.
We created these fabulous fox faces.

We are learning about the letter e. E is for eggs

What is in the egg?

We described what could be in an egg.

Read and guess.

What was Pippa describing?

  It was a crocodile.

What was Aroha describing?

It was a snake!

We are learning about the letter d. D is for dinosaurs

We created these dinosaurs from a lower case letter d!

Can you spot which ones are back to front?

 

We are learning about the letter c. C is for a curly cucumber

C is for a curly cucumber

Paige brought a curly cucumber to show and talk about at sharing time.

We wrote a description.

Paige brought a curly cucumber to school for sharing.

It look like a bumpy, green water slide going up then down.

The cucumber felt slimy.

The crunchy cucumber tasted juciy and delicious.

We are learning about the letter b. B for being a Bucket Filler

B for being a Bucket Filler

We read the story of how to be a bucket filler.

We are learning about the letter a. A is for our apple tree.

A is for our apple tree.

Ruma G headed down to see how many apples were on the tree this year.