Jorja's Descriptive Writing

Jorja's next step for writing is to include more descriptive details. We have been experimenting with using a writing tool where we use our five senses. We ask ourselves....What does it look like? What does it feel like? What does it sound like? What does it smell like? What does it feel like?

Well done Jorja - what an Awesome Learner you are! You work hard and listen to suggestions to improve your writing! 

More new students....

Basic Facts Champions

Here are the Basic Facts champions for Tupu-a-rangi Room 12. Sean and Manaaki have both worked very hard to achieve 100/100 on the weekly basic facts test. In addition to learning the facts they have also learned the skills of testing - where it is a good idea to read over your answers to ensure they are correct, and to make sure they write clearly enough that anyone marking the test can read it. Awesome Learners!

When a student reaches 100/100 we celebrate as a class. I have learnt that Sean likes Cookies and cream ice-cream, while Manaaki likes Jelly tip!

Awesome learners in Room 12

I initially wanted to upload Samuel's writing to the blog - because he independently edited his work and prepared it for display in our published writing book. Work, might I add that is of high quality.  Samuel was a bit shy about doing this. Sean, who happened to be standing beside him at the time, said "that's good quality. He is really creative!" Wow - what wonderful boys - great models of Awesome Learners in our class. Hard working and positive attitudes! Tu meke!

A new student for Room 12.....

 "A new kid in room 12, he needs to go to the doctor" says Cruize.

A relaxed time at the end of term, can mean a valuable chance for exploration of the different capabilities of the technology, that we have available to us in our classroom.

"The dog ate my homework!"

I always thought this was a tall tale - until.......
I had taken the Homework books home to mark over the weekend - and my puppy Ellie had found them stacked ready to come back to school and thought she would have a nibble! Apparently Cruize makes really delicious homework!
I brought Ellie (and Luke her dog friend) to school to apologise to Cruize for eating his homework!
Room 12 enjoyed meeting the dogs and walking them around the school.

Asthma Show

Asthma Show

Asthma Show

Asthma show

We were lucky enough to have the Asthma Foundation visit us on Friday. They shared with us what Asthma is, what the biggest triggers of Asthma are, and what we can do to help.

Pollen, virus', smoke, animal hair, dust mites, and cold air are the biggest triigers for an Asthma attack.https://www.asthmafoundation.org.nz

Maths Learning in Room 12

We are very excited in Room 12. This week Whaea Alice made sure we got our Interactive Whiteboard up and running. Already we are using it for our maths learning. Here is Kotuku using his knowledge of doubling facts to quickly solve problems of near doubles. What an Awesome Learner!

Nga mihi ki a Whaea Alice! Thanks from all of us for your help!

Revolution visit

On Friday a group named REVOLUTION visited Otaki School to share their anti-bullying message. They shared their message through dance and song, and even some of our kaiako joined in with a kanikani! Tu meke!

Rippa Rugby

Cam visited our school again to teach us some Rippa Rugby skills.

Weekend Sport

Sport is an important part of many of our students lives - here is Manaaki and Stefan playing football last weekend. (Stefan the goalie in the orange shirt and Manaaki in the bottom photo in the white shirt) Both boys had stand out games, and made a valuable contribution to their teams.

Apples again!

Last week one of the Room 12 reading groups read "Apples Again" - this was a journal article about how apples are picked, packed and sold in New Zealand. The narrator spoke of how often he ate apples, apple pie, and apple crumble - alot of children didn't know what apple crumble was! So we made some to eat on Friday.....

This morning I mentioned my son wanted to have feijoa crumble in the weekend.....Jahrei said "Whaea Nicky I've never had feijoa crumble!"         Here we go again......!!!!!

Totally Responsible

This term our PB4L (positive behaviour for learning) focus is 'Totally Responsible.' Dakotah is totally responsible for her school work. We went out for fitness yesterday before Dakotah was able to finish illustrating her work. Before school started today, Dakotah asked if she might finish her work. Wow! What an awesome attitude you have Dakotah! Tu meke! 

Tree of life

As Term 1 drew to a close Room 12 undertook a collaborative art piece to brighten our classroom. Each student chose a piece of the tree to colour and now after piecing it together, I am proud to present the finished artwork. Tino ātaahua!

Climbing trees at Otaki School

 I was on duty at lunchtime and came across these four fantastic students! We are very lucky at Otaki School to have a section of the playground that is filled with native trees. All of our tamariki enjoy discovering and playing in this area - creating forts, climbing trees and other creative play.

Athletics Day 2016

We had a fantastic day together as a senior school last week with Athletics being held at the Domain. It was really wonderful to see all our students give each event their best shot. Thanks also to the parents that came to support the children. They really value this support and remember you being there for years to come.

Frogs....

We are learning to edit our work. We publish our writing in a way that is enjoyable for others to read.

Awesome learners

Awesome learners are able to be focused, work independently, and use 'tools' to support their learning in the classroom.  Manaaki, Lakaia, and Elijah are Awesome Learners - what great role  models for Room 12 you are!  Ka pai koutou!

Literacy Legends

I interupted these two legends as they wrote as many words that they could remember outside Room 12 today - well done Samuel and Kotuku! What a looooooong line of words! Ka nui te pai tō mahi!

Frogs Frogs Frogs

We continue to learn abut frogs in Room 12. One of the questions we asked was 'what colours are frogs?' After investigating we have found that frogs come in a wide variety of colours.
Here a just a few of the gorgeous frogs the students in Room 12 created.....

Star Learners Week 7

Well done Jordie and Stefan - awesome learners in Room 12. These two work extra hard and really persevere in all areas of learning. Ka pai korua!

Writing in Room 12

Each week the students in Room 12 work to make a 'published' piece of writing. All the students are in the process of refining their editing skills. Usually these are place in a clearfile in the library - but I felt the following pieces of writing had been presented with such care - and so I am sharing them with you also! Well done Kotuku! Well done Cyrus! Beautifully presented work!

Parent Teacher Hui

Just a reminder that this will be tomorrow night - if you haven't already - please contact the office to arrange a time (3648704). I look forward to seeing you all tomorrow.
Nga mihi
Whaea Nicky

Term One Topic - Frogs

We have started our topic work for the second part of Term 1 in Room 12. We are learning about frogs. We know from our initial investigations that fully grown frogs are a wide variety of colours. Today we investigated the life cycle of frogs. We have been expanding our vocabulary and in the coming days we will be writing about frogs and their life cycle.

Gala Extravaganza!

Nga mihi. As you will all know by now, Otaki School is holding the bi-annual Gala on March 19th from 10am. Thank you to all whanau for your support of our school so far, and the items you have donated to the school. This week items are toys - students - ask your parents first!

Star Learner

In Room 12 we celebrate students that move forward in their learning, and those that are self motivated to do so. Samuel has really challenged himself in a number of areas this week, in writing, asking for extra Mathletics tasks, and most notably with his swimming. He has made an enormous amount of progress and can now float on his front and back. He is also known to help Whaea Ramila in the Maara Kai from time to time.

Well done Samuel! Ka nui the pai to mahi!

Stars of the week

We are lucky to have Jorja and Orlando in Room 12. They are always helpful, and don't need to be asked to do things - they find what needs to be done! Totally responsible. Thanks Jorja! Thanks Orlando! It's great to have you in Room 12!