WHANAU REWARDS AFTERNOON

On the last Friday of term the senior students organised heaps of activities as a reward for all the hard work the children had done over the term.
One of the activities was chalk drawing on the back court.

Here are a couple of Pukeko team creations with their fabulous artists.

Lulu and Alice with their colourful rainbow

Charlotte, Hannah and Maisy lying between their life-sized self portraits

Three self portraits form another angle

200 NIGHTS OF READING!

William has managed to get to 200 nights or reading this year recorded in his reading log!
Wow, what a reading star you are, William!

William holding up his reading log with the 200 nights of reading certificate.

MORE PHYSICAL PROBLEM SOLVING - THE BLINDFOLD SCULPTOR

On Fridays some of us are soling physical problems or doing creative things with our bodies. One of the activities we had to do was creative, fun and tricky!

We were in teams of three. One of us, the sculptor, had to wear a blindfold.  One of us was the artist and one of us was the model.
First, the artist had to place him or herself in a pose of their own  choice. It had to be ab;e to be held still for a whole.
Then the blindfold sculptor had to feel the pose that the artist was holding and move the model's body into the right positions to have an identical pose.

It was very tricky, as the sculptor has to 'see' with their hands to work out what the artist's pose was and where they should move what on the model's body.
Some artists chose quite tricky poses for the blind sculptor to have to follow.

The three people in the group each had a go at doing each role.

Here are some photos from the fun afternoon:

FRIDAY PHYSICAL PROBLEM-SOLVING

On Fridays, the Pukeko team are taking part in a range of activities that require problem-solving.

Some of us opted into problem-solving games, some of us are solving community problems and some of us are solving physical problems.

One of our activities was to work in groups to create an obstacle course that would challenge others. It needed to be hard enough to provide challenge but easy enough so that everyone could complete it, with support if needed.

We had great fun planning our own courses and having a go on other peoples'. Here are some photos of us setting up our courses and trying them out:

Bird feeder construction underway!

We have started our bird feeder construction today - I was SO impressed how LC1 organised their own gear, shared materials, helped each other and then cleared up brilliantly afterwards.  Good job team! Once finished, we will see if our designs meet our aim of attracting more native birds to the school.  Here are some photos of our partly completed designs.

Visual Arts project tomorrow

Hi there parents of Rimu - just to let you know that we'll be moving our bird drawing project on to the next stage, where we will be making dough tiles of our bird images.
I will be getting all the ingredients for the dough, but your kids have bought home in their diaries a list of equipment that would be useful.  If you can send along any of the items tomorrow or next Thursday it will be great. No problems if not - we'll have enough to share around.  Thanks for your help, Anna Jenkins

small mixing bowl
board for rolling out dough
small rolling pin
dough modelling tools
ice cream box with lid

New Zealand's Special Places

This term we've been researching in small groups and reporting back to the learning community, as part of our inquiry into our environment.
First we researched different habitats, like rivers, forests, high country and wetlands using the Kiwi Conservation Club website. We were looking at the unique features of each habitat and what types of plants and animals survive there.
Then we researched the different parks and reserves around New Zealand using the Department of Conservation website. We each chose our own DOC place from their interactive map and are reporting back on what kind of habitat is in each place; as well as what kind of activities people can do there. DOC has so much information about our environment, how we can look after it and how we can enjoy using it as well!
We have made our own interactive map of New Zealand's Special Places - and we have made short video reports using interesting information we found. We hope you enjoy exploring our map!
We are adding more videos as we get our final edits saved - so check back for updates.

Looking at Light

Mr Kremers brought in some interesting stuff...

This piece of metal is from a television...

Our reflections look strange!

Another interesting view!

This Fresnel lens is from a video game.

We took in outside...

And it focused the sunlight to a point.

When the light came through the lens and reflected off the metal sheet...

It was powerful enough to set a stick on fire!

The power of the sun!

Mr Kremers also brought in these big lenses.

Many of them are from telescopes.

We look funny through these as well!

This is a magnifying lens beamed through the television.

We looked closely at skin...

And hair...

We all look pretty weird this close up!

Thanks Mr Kremers!