Welcome to Room 14

TERM THREE

Planting Purei at Epping Wetlands

A special thank you to Belinda at Community Waitakare. At the start of week seven we went for a lovely walk down to Epping Wetlands. We had the opportunity to see the local weta and eels first hand. Belinda has set up some small tunnels with peanut butter to attract nocturnal animals and the students enjoyed looking at the small footprints and guessing which animals came to eat the peanut butter during the night (echidnas have the cutest footprints). We then went for a walk to the nearby bridge to see the estuary firsthand before helping plant some Purei. What a wonderful learning experience and it was nice to give something back to the local community. 

Trolling Around in Room 14! 

This term our school wide topic is 'Windows.' In room 14 we are learning about Fairytales and this week we started the week by reading The Three Billy Goat Gruff. They looked into the home of the troll who lives under the bridge and below are some photos of the students working with a partner to draw and describe the troll. They brainstormed and came up with some fantastic adjectives to describe him! Tomorrow the students will work in groups of four and share their ideas before writing their poems. We will publish these soon.  

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Troll Art 

The students greatly enjoyed drawing their troll using their knowledge of shapes. They then coloured in their trolls using oil pastels and used water paint colours to finish their art piece. They have all turned out so differently which is just wonderful. 

Learning Mandarin sure is FUN!

Xu Lao Shi is a wonderful Mandarin teacher. Every Thursday after lunch she teaches us Mandarin in Room 14. We play fun language games and today we worked so carefully to cut out our panda. We learned that the panda is native to China and is considered a national treasure. We are so proud of our work!

Promoting Naked Lunches

Look at all these beautiful 'naked lunches.' No rappers, no packets, no plastic yogurt containers. What a great way to look after our environment! 

TERM TWO

We Finished Term 2 with our Room 14 Matariki Celebration

We want to say a special thank you to Kylie, Tane's mum, Pauline and Xavier for helping us make our star biscuits and hot chocolate so that we could celebrate Matariki. We also enjoyed making some beautiful Matariki stars using cardboard and some bright coloured yarn. Please come and visit our class to check them out! 

 Shape Sorting Time 

The focus for our maths strand this term was on Geometry. The students found shapes in their environment. They learned to name 2D shapes and had lots of practice sorting shapes in different ways (e.g. colour, number of sides and corners or vertices, thickness). Toward the end we also worked with a small group to answer open ended word problems. This was a real challenge!

Skeletons Skeletons Everywhere!!!

In the past few weeks we have been learning about our skeletal system.  We read a funny story called Skeletons and the Pet Shop. Made our own skeletons which was quite the challenge, to make our proportions are right, included and labelled all the major bones. We wrote about the important role that different bones have in our body. So interesting!

Where Does Our Food Go?

In the past few weeks we have been learning about our digestive system. First we learned about the different parts of our mouth. We then created a digestive neck tie and shared with our partner what happens as the food moves through our digestive system. We also did a science experiment where we pushed some food down a tube (our oesophagus) into a plastic bag (our stomach) where we squished the food together with the stomach acid. We then pushed the food through a stocking (the intestines) to see how the nutrients goes into our blood. Unfortunately, the photos of this experiment didn't turn out.... but please do ask your child about this experiment. We finished this part of our Topic by writing some cool stories in which we pretended to be a piece of banana that was eaten by one of our whanau members.. so much fun. The students were so proud to share their stories with their whanau during our Three Way Conferences. 

We Love Going To Music Each Wednesday!!

Each week on Wednesday the students in Room 14 go to Music after lunch. In week 6 they were learning how to play the xylophone. They learned about the sounds the different keys make. It was great to see how carefully the students listened to Mrs Templeton and followed her instructions. Well done Room 14!

The Bouncy Egg! Having Fun in Science. 

One of our students kindly bought in his tooth, roots and all, after visiting the dentist and the students in room 14 were amazed. We have since learned to name the parts of a tooth and the names of the different teeth. We now know lot of interesting facts about teeth and just last week we conduced an experiment.

In the experiment we placed an egg in water, vinegar, milk and coke. We left the eggs overnight and then observed what happened. The students suggested that the egg which was placed in water looked cleaner and smelled nice. We have learned about the importance of eating and drinking dairy products and the students said that the egg that was placed in the milk looked stronger and heavier. They observed that the egg placed in coke had started to change colour, becoming a darker brown. The students were shocked to see that the shell of the egg which had been placed in vinegar had disappeared, one student said, "I hope this is not how they make bouncy balls." :)

This led to a very important discussion about why and how we should take care of our teeth. 

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TERM 1

​Our Topic for term one is WRITE ON. As part of our topic this term we will be engaging in three mini units: Playgrounds, Supermarkets and the Beach. The students will engage in a wide range of hands on activities and we have some exciting school trips planned for this term to help build students vocabulary. Students will learn how to use these WOW words in correct and increasingly complex sentences in their writing. 

Rock Pools, Sandcastles and So Much More

Between week seven and ten Miss Flynn, a beginning teacher from Massey University, joiner our class. Toward the end of her practicum Miss Flynn bought in some beautiful shells for the students to look at. The students also had the opportunity to see a squid and fish first hand. This hands on activity resulted in some wonderful writing and helped prepare the students for their end of term trip to Takapuna Beach. At the beach students visited the nearby rock pools, made some beautiful sandcastles and got to play in the new playground. It was an amazing day! Thank you so much to Miss Flynn... we miss you very much. We also want to thank the families that joined us for this trip. 

Taking a Closer Look at our Local Supermarket

Our trip to Pak'n Save. In week 6 the students and wonderful parent helpers in Room 14 walked to Pak'n Save on Lincoln Road. We visited each
​department and also had the opportunity to go behind the scenes which was so exciting! The manager at Pak'n Save kindly gave each student a crunchy apple from the chiller and cinnamon donut during our visit to the bakery.  

Power Up, with Kid Power! How to Stay Safe and Get Help. 

Frith from Kid Power came to visit. She taught us all about our superpowers. We learned to use our different powers including our "fence power," "gate power," and "rubbish bin power." Thank you Frith for teaching us how to stay safe both inside and outside of school. 

We Have Some Wonderful Doctors in Room 14

 We are so incredibly lucky in Room 14. This week we got to visit Harold in the Health van. We learned such important information. Our class doctors showed us where the heart, lungs, stomach and intestines are located. We had to carefully decide which food and drinks are healthy and unhealthy. To have the energy we need to study and concentrate in class we need to eat healthy food and drink plenty of water. We also loved singing Harold's song! Thank you Harold and Murial!

Washing Our Hands is so Important!

Toward the start of this term the health nurse kindly came to visit our class to teach us about the importance of washing our hands. We learned that we need to wash our hands for 20 seconds - that's a really long time!! Following her visit we did an experiment. The students placed oil and cinnamon on their hands. The first group only washed their hands with water and found look what happened! The cinnamon didn't come off. The second group then washed their hands with soap and their hands were squeaky clean. This is a great start to our Supermarket mini unit.  

Gravity is Pulling Down All Around Us

In our mini unit about playgrounds we learned about the force of gravity and for our whole school assembly we sang our gravity song. We also learned that as we decreased the angle of the incline plane (e.g. slide in the playground, cardboard in our experiment) the marble moved more slowly. During class we had a competition. The aim of the competition was for the marble to role down the cardboard and to the end of the line. This was quite a challenge as students moved the cardboard up and down to find the right angle. 

Welcome to Room 14

2016

Term 4

We in Room 14 are pretty super!  We think we are super because we are doing 'Nude Lunches'.  Bringing a 'Nude Lunch' means that food items are not wrapped in plastic or any kind of packaging that would then just go straight into the bin and end up at the tip.  We are reducing waste instead!  See, told you we are super!

Term 3

We are fundraising for our rock climbing trip in the last week of term.  Thank you to all the wonderful people out there who have sold and bought tickets over the last month.  Stay tuned for photos of the children trying new things and challenging themselelves at rock climbing.

One of our fundraisers was a PJ day with popcorn, movie, ice block and other 'goodies'.

This term we wrote stories about being an olympic champion.

If I was an olympic champion I would be a bymnast because they have sparkley suits and pretty suits.  They are also good at their sport.  There is different kinds of countries going tothe olympcs and to get medals you have to be good at your sport.  They do back flips and they train to get better and thats how you get medals.  By Zoe

If I were an olympic hampion, I would be a pole jumper because you can rund an fly in the air and there's this pole that you have to to over.  ALso you land on this blacket thing-a-ma-jiggy but if you don't make it over, you don't get a medal but you'll have fun and get tired like a deadf ish.  By Kenneth


If I was an olympic champion, I would b a gymnast because I used to do it when I was little.  I like the costumes and I like the beam and the rings, the flips and the uneven bars and I will perform in a stadium.  At the end I will win a gold medal.  By Sophie

If I was an olympc chmpion, I would be a diver, and I would do somersaulting in the air.  We have to jump from the diving board an we wear swimming togs.  By Jessica

I I was an olympic champion, I would be a weightlifter because I like their t-shirt.  I like lifting.  Me and my uncle always train all the time.  I kniow it is hard to hold for a long time.  By Jackson

If I was an olympic champion, I would play basketball.  I would throw the ball into the hoop.  If I throw the ball into thehoop, I would get some points for my team and I would wear a basketball t-shirt with a number on it.  By Ahum

Earlier this term started with a trip to Waitakere Hospital to perform waiata.  We had made our own pupu and headbands.

The children were all so well behaved and performed beautifully.

June

We have updated our Vincent Van Gogh "Starry Starry Night" paintings.  Below is the process we went through to create our masterpieces.

May

 GeTopic - This term we are learning about day (ra) and night (po).  We are learning to describe / show what happens to create day and nights.  We will compare them using diagrams.  We have some questions we want answered;

• What makes summer?
• What is snow and how is it made?
• What is the Moon made out of?
• How fast does the Earth spin?
• What makes winter?
• What does the Moon look like?
• How does the Earth spin?
• What makes day and night?
• What is Pluto made out of?
• What is Saturn made from?

Art - We will also be looking at the painting style of Vincent Van Gogh.  He painted a night scene called "Starry Starry Night".  We will try and produce art work in his style.

Physical Education - We are learning to control a soccer ball.  George is helping us.  He is a lot of fun and we are realy enjoying his lessons.  We play "Traffic light", "What's the time Mr Wolf" and "Shark Attack".  We will also be learning the skills needed to pass to another player.

Last week, we had a "FUNKY FEET" day.  Can you guess who owns these feet?

Term One

April

The portfolios are going home today for you to view some of your child's progress.  Please return them next week.

Below, is some information about Reading, Writing and Maths in year 2 and ideas to help with their learning at home.  I hope it helps.

After 2 years of school

Year 2 reading
In your child's second year at school they'll learn to read longer texts that might include diagrams with labels, some new words and descriptive language.

To work out words they don't know they will use what they know about letters and other words in the writing.  The stories they read will have a variety of sentence structures.  Your child will be taught punctuation with a focus on how it guides the way we use expression, and how it can alter meaning.  Your child will be bringing home both fiction and non-fiction books.

If your child is meeting the Reading Standard after two years at school they'll be able to:

• read books at turquoise level on the colour wheel
• be able to tell things about the story that are hidden or suggested in the text
• read sentences without big pauses
• use punctuation to show meaning and add interest
• notice when they make important mistakes and make an attempt to fix them
• read silently to themselves
• tell if a story is real or made up, remember important parts of a story and be able to find parts that answer questions

Year 2 writing
In Year 2 your child will write simple stories and texts they can use at school and at home.  This might include simple instructions, explanations of what happens and the way it happens, simple descriptions of people, or descriptions of things they have done and seen, know about or have made up.  They will learn about punctuation and how to use connecting words (eg "like", "and") to join sentences together.

If your child is meeting the Writing Standard after 2 years at school they'll be able to:

• write texts with a variety of uses such as stories, instructions, lists
• use punctuation - full stops, question marks and capital letters most of the time
• spell many words correctly, and try writing new words using what they know about other similar words
• write several sentences that have different beginnings
• use connecting words correctly
• make an attempt at using a variety of adjectives, nouns, and verbs.

Year 2 maths
In Year 2 your child will learn to solve problems using numbers, algebra (symbols), geometry (shapes) measurement and statistics. They will be counting forwards and backwards in their heads starting from the biggest number, rather than from 1.  They may use their fingers to keep track of numbers.  Your child will learn to skip count (eg 5, 10, 15, 20) and to work with basic fractions.  During your child's second year at school, most of mathematics teaching time (60-80 percent) will focus on number learning.

If your child is meeting the Mathematics Standard after two years at school they'll be able to:

• solve problems using numbers up to 100
• skip count in 2s, 5s, and 10s, forwards and backwards
• find 1/2 and 1/4 of simple shapes and sets of objects
• sort objects into common groups and describe what they have done
• ask and answer questions and write up what they know
• give and follow directions
• measure objects using their hands, feet or a pencil.

These are only some of the skills your child needs to meet the standards.  For more information fo to the New Zelaand Curriculum website.

March

Kia ora whanau!

Last week, Ngatahi went to the beach.  It was a great day and fun was had by all.  Thank you to all the parents and Nana's who helped out on the day. Without your support, we coud not go oun outings like that.

We were learning to enjoy and appreciate nature and develop bonds with each other in a different setting.  All the children were extremely well behaved and we are very proud of them all.

Here are some snippets of the day...

Ka kite ano, Whaea Tracey

Room 14 is full of lovely hardworking children.

Room 14 is fun, it ROCKS.  It has cool toys and a cool teacher.

​We have made a treaty for our class.  We decided on how we would like our class to be and signed it.  It is a promise.

We are catching our negative thoughts with our negative thought catchers.  We made them with pipe cleaners, beads and feathers.  They are hanging up in our room.

We have made a bar graph about our favourite pets too.

We are learning about BOOKS this term.  This is what we thought about some of the books we have read.

I like Fafallina and Marcel because they grew and they forgot each other.  Then they remembered each other.  Neveah

I like Crazy Charlie because he had big teeth.  Neo

I like Crazy Charlie because he ate stuff!  Aaron

I like Crazy Charlie, he lost his teeth because he ate everything.  Andre

I like Crazy Charlie because he is a wild animal and he lives in the water and he's scary.  Rheek

I like this book because when the people come he is scared and in the end, he scared the people.  Saniya

We are learning to be confident and safe in the water.