Phonics

We are learning to write and read 3 and 4 letter words independently.  We can robot the word so we hear the sounds.  In this activity we used cards which had pictures and squares, to help us with the number of sounds we needed to write.

Pukeko clocks

In Term 3 Room 3 studied native birds. We learnt lots about the Pukeko and decided to make our own clock.

First we practiced drawing Pukeko birds in lots of different ways. We painted our bird and the background onto an old record.  Mrs Scott cut out the birds and glued them onto the record. 

We added the clock hands and some batteries.   

Check out the awesome clocks!

Beebots

Believe it or not this is Maths! Here we are learning the beginning stages of programming or algebra. We have to think about going forwards, backwards and sideways. It is quite tricky, as we need to count ahead how many moves we want our robot to take and in what direction. Then we have to programme that in. It was challenging and a lot of fun!

Making music

During Music time we are learning to use various instruments. We have been trying to listen carefully and copy simple patterns and keep the beat. It is a lot of fun when we play together. We pretend we are on orchestra.

Sticky reading

Making our basic sight words with play doh is sticky business! Besides learning to read and make the words independently, there are other benefits to this activity. Pulling and rolling the play doh into shapes is great for our fine motor control. We also have to think about where to start shaping our letters and which direction they face on the plate. Then we get to ask our friends if they can recognise and read our words. Reading can be so much fun!

Patterns, patterns everywhere

This term we are learning about the concept of patterns - this is a very important part of mathematics. We have introduced the basic ideas of a pattern. These are that patterns involve something that repeats, like ‘clap, shout, clap, shout…’ or ‘red, blue, yellow, red, blue, yellow…’ Now because patterns repeat there must be a rule that describes the repetition. We have been trying to work out the rules.

As children move through school, they will meet number patterns like 5, 8,11, 14, 17… and will be able to predict the next term by knowing the relationship between the numbers. This is the beginning of algebra and coding!

In this photo your child is learning to create, describe and continue their own pattern using materials in the classroom.

Clowns

As part of our art this term we learnt how to draw different lines.  We used these lines to add flowers, bow ties, collars and hats to make us look like clowns.   We learnt how to use a paint brush to blend the water soluble pastels to give a paint effect.