Week 1 Term 4

Manuka have been bringing home some maths flash cards each day. Please keep these in their home folders as they work with a buddy each day at school on these to help achieve their goals. Once they have become very fast at instantly recalling their cards they will be replaced with a new set of knowledge goals. This is to replace the basic facts that were pasted in the homework books last term. Thanks for your support with helping them to work on these. Certificates: Charlotte and Corban for showing great integrity skills - always doing the right thing at the right time, and Tayla and Rani for having such a great start to their school days. Kapai! Kia Ora to Hamish McKenzie who joined us this week in Manuka - welcome to our happy team. 

Aimee wrote this fantastic story last week - we love her interesting words that make her story so exciting to read.

One time we played Ratatouille. I had lots of fun! We were having a long time on the play station then my sister or mum said the chips are here. We went down the stairs. Thump, thump, thump, thump! We got some chips - crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch. We went back up the steps - thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump! We went back and played Ratatouille for a long time again. Then my mum said "Tea time!" We went down the stairs again. We had tea. We put our pyjamas on. Mum quietly tiptoed in Jacinta's room and got my mattress. I tried to find my favourite Lion in Jacinta's room. We went to bed.

Here we all are on the way to assembly last Friday - holding hands and taking shelter from a flash hail storm!

Now I am 5!

Manuka children made this electronic book to help new children who turn 5 with getting ready for school each morning. It has been selected by our cluster of schools to be considered for the  MADE awards (Movie and Digital Excellence).

Looking after living things...

Here is how we remember all the characteristics of a living thing.
We have been looking at how we can make a difference to the habitats of living things. A habitat is where a living thing choses to live. Can you add your ideas of some habitats that we can make a difference to?

What habitats should we try harder to protect?... at AnswerGarden.ch.
">What habitats should we try harder to protect?... at AnswerGarden.ch.

Kapahaka Kids!

Manuka were so proud to send 5 of us off to the Polyfest. Seren, Makayla, Niall, Robson and Caleb. They were all so excited and had practiced so hard to do their best. Big thanks to Mrs Carr and Mrs Kahukura for their time and passion to get them there. And thanks to Niall's Mum for sending us the photos.

Keeping Healthy at Myross Bush School

We performed a 'Wiggles' song called 'Wash your hands' to the rest of the school to promote healthy learning environments. We have been hearing about all the sickness at schools around Southland and want to make sure we stay healthy after our holiday break.

handwashing from jan forde on Vimeo.

Term 3 inquiry - Living and Giving!

We are excited to launch into a new inquiry about caring for our environment and how we can make a difference with the actions we take. First we need to understand what is living and not-living and we will explore habitats once we understand this. Here are our first thoughts on what is living....watch this space to see how our thinking develops over the course of our inquiry. We have some interesting discoveries to make and discussions to have!

Cross Country

We had the most amazing day in the sun as we ran 500 metres in our first cross country race. I am so proud of the effort everyone put in and the kindness the Manuka team showed others who need encouragement. We all finished and all feel very proud of ourselves - we are especially proud of two of our team who won the overall trophy for 5 year old boys - Robson, and the overall trophy for 5 year old girls - Makayla. Well done - a huge effort!

Try our video maker at Animoto.

Manuka Moments

Make your own photo slideshow at Animoto.

Groups We Belong To....

Make your own slideshow with music at Animoto.

Building Strong Foundations

This term we are launching into our inquiry about our range of distinct cultures that have developed over time in NZ that influence our way of life, alongside a focus on how our effort impacts on a groups success. We began by getting a taste of Maori culture through poi, rakau, waiata and maori myths and artifacts. We were also set a challenge that we found easier to complete when we combined resources and ideas and worked as a team.

Healthy Hoolie

We can make good choices...

We have been 'finding out' about making good choices towards living a healthy lifestyle as part of our inquiry 'Growing from within'. It has been very interesting finding out what we should eat lots of and not so much of, that 5 year olds should have 11-12 hours sleep each night, and many other ways to care for our bodies. We have come up with some examples of good choices together and will next be 'sorting out' what we know by working out what we do well already and what goals we could set for ourselves.

Niall is lucky enough to know Craig Smith AKA 'The Wonky Donkey' author. He came and shared his songs and books and then told us that to achieve your big goals you need lots of practice setting and meeting little goals. Great advice to us as we try to achieve the mammoth job of becoming great readers and writers and number problem solvers. We break these 'big goals' into little bite size goals and feel great about chipping away and achieving these.

Little FIsh!

Here are our swimming goals. We are already making great progress towards meeting them. Just goes to show how lots of practice and hard work everyday gets us closer to achieving the things we want to. If you could leave us a comment to give us some encouragement to keep on trying we will try even harder to reach our goals!

I am responsible for my own actions!

Manuka children have been exploring the Myross Bush Learner Profile code. We have 5 slogans to help us be the best that we can be in everything we do at school and home. Our value is 'self improvement' - check out what we talking about to make this happen....

• I work and play with everyone
• I can do the right thing even when no one is looking
• I look after my things and other peoples things in our classroom and our school
• I think about my learning and get the work done
• I join in and share my ideas
  

A spider teaches us goal setting!

Room 6 - Manuka - have spent the first week getting to know each other and the routines in our classroom. We are using the nursery rhyme 'Incy Wincy Spider' to learn about perseverance and that when it gets hard along the way, it's good to keep trying towards reaching our goals. We look forward to sharing those goals with you next week at goal setting interviews. We are enjoying new faces most days with school visits and new children starting.

2012 - Manuka - Room 6!

Welcome to Manuka - Room 6 2012! We have started the year with a riddle - inspired by a story we read today about a girl called Olwyn who had lots of pockets. She left some clues in the book about what was in her last pocket. The clues are:

1. Something that was too precious to cut

2. Something that was good to look at

3. Something that she could use anywhere

4. Something that didn’t make a sound

5. Something that could bring things to life

6. Something that was more fun than any game

7. Something that made her lose all track of time

8. Something that held someone else’s ideas

9. Sometimes it made her laugh and sometimes it made her cry

10. Sometimes it was coloured and sometimes it was black and white

11. Sometimes it told a story, and sometimes told her how to do something

12. It was always a good friend….

If you guessed it was a BOOK you were right. The children are invited to bring their favourite book to school over the next few weeks to share with the class - a great way to encourage the love of reading as we begin our learning journey together.

Mrs Forde