Tuesday, November 28, 2017

Hi Vis Vests

Hi Vis Vests

Our children are looking great in their brand new Hi Vis Vests!!!

(Thank you very much, Envirowaste Westland, for your donation)



Friday, November 10, 2017

Grandparents' Day 2017

Our children had a great day with their grandparents (or family friends) painting rocks and planting trees.
 

Friday, October 27, 2017

Tuesday, October 17, 2017



Kea Class feature in the Enviroschools newsletter

click here to see details.

Saturday, September 23, 2017

Learning with Digital Technologies

Wednesday, September 6, 2017

Pukeko Class Investigate Temperature




WALT (We Are Learning To) compare cups of water that are at different temperatures and to order them from coldest to hottest.
WALT use a thermometer and spot that when things are hot the red liquid rises and when it is cold, the red liquid level goes down!
We used words like Freezing, Chilly, Cold, Warm, Hot, Boiling...

Sunday, August 27, 2017

Teacher Only Day

Dear Parents and Caregivers

This is just a reminder of our Teacher Only Day this Wednesday the 30th of August. The school will be closed for the day, but it will be business as usual on Thursday again. 

The day will be spent on professional development in the area of assessment with staff from other schools within our Westland Community of Learning. 

Kind regards
Casper Kruger

Wednesday, August 16, 2017

Water for Life

Learning about New Zealand's Freshwater Invertebrates.

As part of our Enviro Schools unit of "Water for Life", the Hoiho Room studied some of the freshwater invertebrates they could find in Duck Creek just behind our school.

Thank you for following our learning journey.






Thursday, August 10, 2017

Planting a tree

Earlier this week, the very small Kea Class planted a tree to help us with our recount writing. This is a picture of it all finished and in the ground. If you check out the blogs of the students in the Kea Class later this week, you will be able to read the writing that we produced from it. It was very fun!

Monday, July 31, 2017

Kea Class Crayon Learning

Kea Class learning about how to do different techniques with crayon. We have some funky water art in the pipe line for this term! Stay tuned :)

Thursday, July 27, 2017

Pukeko Class - RESPECT

Pukeko Class have been sharing their ideas about how Respect can be shown at school.

Jordin:  "Me and Reid are helping Zeanna.  She fell over."

Zeanna: "Jordin is helping me.  I fell over.  I listen with my ears."

Reid: "I am helping Jordin to get up.  I picked up a book."

Kiara: "I am helping Vanessa down a tree because it was hard to get down.  I listen to what the teacher says."

Chris: " I am helping Lydia and took her to the office to get an ice pack.  She is my best friend because we both have the same games."


Wednesday, July 26, 2017

Harold the Giraffe needs your help!

harold_the_giraffe.jpg



The Life Education Trust need $120,000 per year to continue to deliver their fabulous programme to the children of the West Coast. 
Harold and Carmen will be visiting our school on 28th and 29th August 2017.


Click here to see what a fantastic job they do!

Saturday, June 17, 2017

Friday, June 16, 2017

Shanty Town

Learning about the Chinese gold miners at Shanty Town. 

             

Saturday, June 10, 2017

Quiz Night Fundraiser


West Coast Cross Country

West Coast Cross Country

Well done to Caleb, Beau, Emily and Isla for doing so well at the West Coast Cross Country event during this week. Congratulations to Caleb with 3rd place for the Year 5 boys race. 

Monday, June 5, 2017

TANGRAMS

Pukeko Class has been learning about Tangrams, so combining Chinese studies with Maths (Geometry - Position & Orientation and Measurement - area). 

A tangram is a traditional Chinese puzzle made of a square divided into seven pieces (one parallelogram, one square and five triangles) that can be arranged to match particular designs.

The seven flat shapes, called tans, are put together to form shapes. The aim of the puzzle is to make a specific shape (given only an outline or silhouette) using all seven pieces, which may not overlap.

It was invented in China during the Song Dynasty, and then carried over to Europe by trading ships about 200 years ago. It became very popular in Europe for a time and then again during World War I.


We made lots of different shapes...Reid S was the first to put the pieces back together to make a square.  Vanessa was the first to make the tree.

We learned to SLIDE, FLIP and ROTATE the pieces to make the outlined shapes on the card.  This week we are going to try to make animals...bears, rabbits, camels, horses, dogs, cats...

Magnetism

Pukeko Class investigating 2 forces, Gravity and Magnetism!!!  We managed to get some paperclips floating in mid air!!!  A bridge of magnets made from a metal ruler managed to overcome gravity!!!  Magic!



Students found that if they put their fingers inbetween the magnets and the paperclips, then the paperclips STILL floated...the magnetic forces passed through their fingers!

Some students found that if they put a magnet UNDER the table and one on TOP of the table, then they could move the top magnet around without touching it!!!  Magnetic forces could pass through the table!

We found that magnets could ATTRACT (or pull) other magnets towards them...or they could pull metal things towards them..but not ANY metal...only the metals that had iron or steel in them.  Mrs Johnstone's metal rings weren't magnetic.

We found that if we turned one of the magnets around, then it could PUSH (or repel) another magnet away!!!

We could move black iron sand with magnets.

We couldn't move brass or copper or gold or silver metals with magnets :(

Magnets are clever!  Cool to play with!

Thursday, June 1, 2017

Enviroschools Action Day

What an awesome opportunity to help revegetate such a special place near Punakaiki. These amazing students helped to plant 520 trees and learnt about wetlands, pounamu, and our native forest. Where will we be able to plant next? 




Fire Brigade Visit

Thank you so much to Tim Burden for your talk to us about how to stay safe in a fire. 



Cross Country

Well done to everyone who took part in the 2017 Cross Country. A special thank you to all the helpers we had for the day. The kids did a fantastic job and used so much perseverance. Bring on next year!