ARTISTS IN THE MAKING!

On Friday we were busy making self portraits.  Here is a couple of photos of us drawing ourselves in pencil first and then going over the pencil with our sharpies.  

We talked a lot about proportion.   We needed to fill the whole page and make sure our facial features were the right size.

We'll finish the portraits next week and Mrs Lunn will post some photos online for you to see.

DUATHLON!

Congratulations to all the children who participated in our DUATHLON!  You were amazing!   I was so proud of you all. I'm sure your Mums and Dads were too!

CONGRATULATIONS ETHAN!

Look at the lovely smile on this clever cookie!  Today Ethan was awarded a Principal's Award for fantastic progress with his reading.   Well done Ethan, we are so proud of you!

BEFORE SCHOOL FUN!

Today Mrs Lunn and Miss Crowther put out the dolls' house and the rocket ship for us to play with in the morning.  We had a blast!

COMPETENT KIDS!

We have been learning about the Riverdale School beliefs.  They are called Nga Matapono.  We believe we need to be Self Managers,  Competent,  Creative and Effective Communicators in order to become successful inquirying learners.

Yesterday we practised being Competent.   Some kids are good at dressing up and putting on a show,  some are amazing tower builders, some kids are artists and Dawson thinks he is a Competent Cowboy!

WHAT A SCORCHER!

It was a REALLY hot day today!   We were so glad we had swimming.  It was just what we needed to cool off. The teachers didn't seem to mind getting splashed today either!

OUR FRIDAY VISITORS!

Big kids Dylan and Max brought T.C's dog Clicquot over to meet us.   We were amazed at the tricks he could do!  What a clever dog!   Matthew suggested we write about Clicquot on Monday. What a great idea Matty; we might just do that; -)

DRESSING UP!

Today in Piako Time, some of us decided to dress up.   We had an absolute blast as you can probably tell from our happy faces in these photos!

JERMAINE AND DAWSON!

Dawson is our class teddy bear. We love him.  Each day Dawson chooses who he wants to go home with for the night.  He whispers in Mrs Lunn's ear, a few clues as to who he has chosen.   We have to guess.

Yesterday Dawson chose Jermaine!  Jermaine was so excited he started jumping around the room! Look at this lovely photo of a very happy Jermaine!

BLINDFOLDED WALK!

Yesterday we played a trust game.  We had to blindfold our learning partner and help guide then around the classroom so that they didn't bump into anything. 

We had to be really specific and give clear instructions to be successful.

OUR CLASS TREATY!

On the 6th of February, New Zealand celebrates Watangi Day.  It is a special day remembered by all New Zealanders as the day the Maori and European people decided they could live together peacefully in our beautiful country. 

We had our own signing of the treaty.   We made up some rules that we will obey in our classroom and we each signed the treaty with our very own fingerprint.   We even made multiple copies of the treaty,  just like they did all those years ago.  

Our class treaty looks like a fern frond... because we are Piako which means learning seeds.

THE THREE LEGGED RACE!

Today we had to work with our learning partner to compete in a three legged race.   We had to tie our legs together and work as a team to win the race.   Here is a cute photo of Zia and Naomi after their race.

FRIENDS IN KNOTS!

In today's team building game,  we stood in a circle and put our hands in the middle. We had to hold someone else's hand and then untangle ourselves without letting go.  It was pretty tricky!

We found out that when one person was the leader and helped us by giving us directions, we were able to work as a team to get ourselves free.  

Check out our happy faces in these photos. We had lots of fun!

WORD TOWER FUN!

Today Julia,  Macy, Zia and Jessica made this huge word tower at reading time.  Great team work girls!

BUDDY BALLOON WALK!

We are learning how to work as a team.   Today we had a challenge to walk in a line with balloons but... we weren't allowed to hold the balloons with our hands.  

We found out it worked best when we walked really slowly and used little steps.   We had to watch where we were going so we didn't crash into things! We had to work as a team!

We had a blast!  Learning is so much fun!

OUR FABULOUS FIRST DAY!

We had a great first day today!

We played a game called Hop in the Rabbit Hole.   We balanced a hula hoop on top of four cones. Our team had to hop in without the hoop falling off. It was harder than you think!

We learnt it was best to go in one at a time and that we needed to step in carefully!   We leant to take turns and to be patient today!  Go us!!!