The New Motorway by Liam P and Liam K

Spring, by Ryan Eddy

Spring

In the spring I can hear the wind blowing.  I can see the flowers growing in spring.  The colours of the flowers remind me of the colours of the rainbow.  I can also feel the warmth and then I know that summer is coming.  I can smell the smells of blossoms, it smells so good.  

Some things I like to do in spring are go to the beach and  I might even go on the trampoline and look at the shapes of the clouds. The days are getting longer and the nights are getting shorter.  The spring is also fun because the flowers on the trees fall on people's roof tops.  

By Ryan E

Swan Plants at PPS

Butterfly Community Project

On Friday we had a visit from Maria Romero from The Butterfly Musketeers. She is involved with Monarch Butterfly education in Christchurch. She came and shared some packets of Swan Plant seeds and Acelplcia seeds with us which we are going to look after for her and help to grow. She helped us to set up seedling trays and planted the seeds with a group of children. 

We are now going to take care of these seeds/seedlings in our classroom in the sunshine by watering them regularly.  Some of these plants will then be planted in our own school butterfly garden, with the majority of the plants being transplanted to the butterfly garden in the Rawhiti Domain in New Brighton. The swan plants seedlings will take approximately 4 months to grow into a big healthy plant ready for next January when its peak Monarch season. Watch this space to see how we go with our very special job to help our butterfly community. 

 

Book Character Day

What an amazing day we have had today!  Everyone really got into the spirit of the day and we saw some fantastic costumes.  Here are a few photos from the day.

Some highlights from Term 2

We have such an exciting term learning all about space.  We had a visit from Science Alive and our learning has carried on for may weeks.  

Earlier in the term we got to try some different fruits which were new for some of us and then we wrote all about the experience. 

This movie shows some of our favourite bits from the term.

ANZAC Day

This week we have been reading the story "Dawn Parade" by Philippa Weary.  It tells the story of why we remember our WW1 soldiers on this day and what happens at ANZAC day ceremonies. 









Today at school we had
a special ANZAC day
service.  We made our
own poppies and then 
turned them into a big
wreath to place at our
memorial.  

New Zealand Sea Life Videos - Adarsh and Akavius

This term Piwakawaka have been learning all about the ocean and beach habitats after our trip to Sumner Beach.  The children who read with Mrs Harris have been doing their own independent research about different sea creatures.  They have then taken their new learning and put it into a Book Creator.  

They have also been learning to "App Smash" which means combining two or more apps together.  We have used Book Creator, Poplet, Tellagami and Google to put our books together.  We hope you enjoy them.

NZ Sea Life Videos - Shivesh and Tristan

NZ Sea Life Videos - Ryan L and Samantha

NZ Sea Life Videos - Olivia, Rory and Ryan E

NZ Sea Life Videos - Lucy and Meeka

NZ Sea Life Videos - Liam K and Liam P

NZ Sea Life Videos - Keira and Kiahla

NZ Sea Life Videos - Charlotte and Hunter

NZ Sea Life Videos - Bella and Charli

Marrow Noodles

Last week Lucy brought in two marrows that her family had grown in their garden.  Mrs Tudor had a great idea to turn them into noodles just like her family likes to eat.  She brought her Julienne Peeler to school and showed us how she makes them and then we cooked them up so we could all try them for ourselves.  Everyone thought they were delicious!  

Tasting Crayfish

Two weeks ago, on Monday, we got to have a live crayfish visit our classroom then on the Wednesday we actually got to eat it!  We were very excited to try something new.  Richard made a video of him cooking it too so we could watch the whole process.  Most of us were brave enough to try it and really liked it.  Some of us even went back for thirds and fourths!  We discovered that the legs had the sweetest meat in them but that there was a special trick to getting the meat out. The Thousand Island Dressing was especially delicious.

We hope you enjoy reading Lucy's recount about the crayfish and looking at some of our photos. 

Congratulations!!!

Nikara, Paige, Nidhi and Jakiah have all finished learning the alphabet letter names and sounds.  Well done to these children!!!

The Bike Crash! Written by Ryan L

The Bike Crash

By Ryan L

I was biking on the road when my shoe lace got stuck in my pedals and I'd just got passed the school.  I fell on the footpath.  Imagine if I fell the opposite way, I could have cracked my head open!  I still had a bruise on my back.  I went too close to the gutter.  I tried to turn but... I skidded on the gutter!  That dam back wheel!  My Dad got the shoe lace off.  It was a hard job.  He had to take the show off and then he got it.

Congratulations!

Well done to Emma, Ben and Alanah for learning all the alphabet letters and sounds!

Starfish Writing

We have been learning about the sea.  We looked at a starfish and wrote about what we noticed.

Maths time today

We were super busy at maths today working on different problems.  Some of us were:

• looking at all the ways we could make the number 37
• adding on from the biggest number
• skip counting

Folk dancing evening.

Check out Piwakawaka performing Seven Jumps.  We skipped around in small circles and balanced on one leg.  Sometimes we were a bit wobbly!  We got to wear our favourite clothes.  At the end of the show we got our parents to join in, even though they were a bit nervous.

Written by the children in Piwakawaka.

Trip to Sumner Beach by Meeka

Big Day Out, by Kiahla

Kiahla has published her piece of writing about our trip to the beach on Book Creator.  She has done a wonderful job!

Trip to Sumner Beach

We had such a fantastic day exploring and learning about the shoreline at Sumner Beach last week. Many wonderful parents gave up their day to come and support us, thank you to you all.  We found out about the 3 different habitats and who and what lives there:

• The ocean
• The sandy beach
• The sand dunes

The treasure hunt was a highlight for us as we searched for natural things like shells, driftwood and seaweed and man made things like rubbish that shouldn't be there.  We even used the natural items to make "No Littering" signs for other beach goers.

In the afternoon, we walked down to Scarborough Park and had lunch, a play in the playground and a swim in the pool.  Such a gorgeous day filled with learning and fun!

Whanau Time

Here we are all dressed in our Whanau t-shirts ready to go to our first Whanau session for the year.  Our whanau groups are...

Kauri - green

Totora - yellow

Matai - blue

Kahikatea - orange

Rimu - red

Our first Library visit

Today was our very first visit to our new Library. With our refurbishment, we haven't had a Library for a very long time so it was pretty exciting to be back getting books out.  Our Library day is Wednesday.  

 

Welcome to 2017

Welcome to our fresh new class of 2017.  We are the Piwakawaka Pod.  Our bird (the Fantail) is energetic, curious, friendly, social and adaptable, just like all of the wonderful learners in our classroom.  We are excited about the year ahead.