Wickedly awesome Wednesday!

Wow what a Wednesday – we had fun!

This week we changed our exploring/play day to Wednesday as Mrs Fulford did some exploring and learning of her own on Tuesday. She was off to visit other schools who have implemented play based learning. Mrs Fulford came back with two important things...

1. that what we are doing is awesome and that we are one the right track.

2.  tons of ideas to inspire our own play/exploring time.

Bivouac - This week Mrs Fulford brought in a couple of tents and some equipment to make bivouacs. A bivouac shelter is a variety of improvised camp sites or shelters that is usually of a temporary nature. These can use elements of nature like sticks or trees or use canvas and man made products. Here is what Mrs Fulford showed us before our session. 

  

After a great discussion about sharing and working together, we set off. Some of us created a bivouac with the help of Colin from Room 11 and some of us were happy to play in the tents and pretend we were camping. The children who created the bivouac used a tarpaulin, boxes, heavy containers and string. We designed it in a great spot…under the oak tree. We used it’s lower branches to hold up the front of the bivouac. In our discussion at the end we thought next time chairs might be helpful and also facing the door out of the wind (Wednesday was very windy)

Here are the photos from our bivouac creating…

  

Here are the photos from our camping experiences…

Racing cars – The cars are still a big hit. However this week the boys decided to see which car could fly the furthest from the slide on the playground. The boys trialed pushing the cars from different places at the top of the slide and the strength at which they pushed them.  Mrs Fulford noticed how much learning was going on. The boys were learning about angles and force, as well as inquiring, communicating, reflecting, collaborating and thinking! Wow!

Creating - As always the art table was a very popular spot on Wednesday. There were children creating all sort of things. Charlie made a cross for Makaira and an awesome picture, Joseph drew a very scary picture of Muto (an alien beast) and Shanayah made a very creative looking container.

Here are the photos of the beautiful creations.

Pretend play - this week was a tad bit wild and windy outside so some of the girls made the most of the quiet space and played with the dolls house and equipment. Mrs Fulford noticed how focused they were and how they included new children into their make believe world. It was really interesting listening to the story about their make believe world evolve and change as they shared their ideas about what was happening. 

Risky business - Mele spent some time on the playground today practising and developing her swinging and hanging skills. She was taking risks and learning her limits. Well done! She was very proud that she manage to hang upside for a full minute!

Term 1 week 9 2019

What a crazy week!

Between sickness and other stuff happening Room 24 has had a great but super busy week. This week Mrs Fulford is going on a trip to visit other schools that run play based learning environments. She is going so she can get great ideas to use in our class. This week Mrs MacJames is running our exploring day. YAY!

Therefore instead of our usual exploring day photos and stories, here are some from our week instead. 

Maths - this week the dragons were showing us what super learners do...practise! Here are some photos of Joseph and Leeroy practising their numbers to 100.

Fun Thursday - On Thursday afternoon half of our class have sistema so the extra of us have a little bit of exploring time under the oak tree. Here are photos from this week. 

Tekau wrote messages of love for 

the people of Christchurch.

 Some of the boys used the blocks to create ships. One of them was even the titanic trying to escape from the giant iceberg.

Some of the children used the whiteboards to tell stories to one another. Charlie was telling a story he learnt in Sunday School. Joseph was a Pirate Captain and lucky Mrs Fulford was one of his crew mates. Hayleigh drew pictures and wrote letters.

Cricket - On Thursday we had cricket with Papatoetoe Cricket Club. Coach Luke let us play a game of non-stop cricket. Here is a video of it...

Duffy Kid- At Friday’s assembly Makaira received the Room 24 Duffy book for the week. He has been focussed and making heaps of effort in maths.               

What a super learner!

Tremendous Tuesday!

Tuesday was a bit wet this week but that did not stop the fun in Room 24! In between the rain showers we managed to get out onto the playground for some fun. Thank goodness we are so close to the oak tree as this was a nice dry spot to play while it drizzled around us. This week we had lots of different inspirations and creative ideas. Here are our learning stories...

Aroha for Christchurch – This week we have been talking about how we can spread love after the tragic events in Christchurch. Some of the children create different creations and letters to show their love to the people of Christchurch. Zhane made a cross with love written on it and Lila created a beautiful picture.

Treasure hunt - Mrs Fulford inspired lots of play today with a treasure hunt. She showed the children in the morning a pirate treasure map she created and by the afternoon they were off. Alyssia and Agnes were the first of many treasure hunters to create their own maps and lead others on the pirate adventure. Alyssia made some actual treasure and hid that for Mercy and Seiaemoe to find. Seiaemoe found actual treasure (a 20 cent piece) while digging for Alyssia treasure. Mrs Fulford noticed how much maths the children were doing without realising ... directions (left, right, under, in, over, above, below) measurement and scale. This is going to become our focus in maths this week. Imagine all the treasure maps we can make.

Kite flying - While at the craft table Sarah was inspired to make a kite. Mrs Fulford found her testing it's ability to fly outside. Sarah had the most wonderful smile and her sheer delight was a pleasure to watch. Here is a video so you can see for yourself. 

Town design - What started as car play with some of the boys quickly became a town. The boys had a massive piece of card from last week. They were designing their homes on it using felts and crayon when Mrs Fulford suggested using blocks. Then they were off... we had homes, police stations and huge intricate stories about what was happening in the different places and who was there. 

Water play - this week the water play moved away from floating and sinking. We still had some boats but while playing Syriah and Leeroy made a discovery. When they tested their boats using coloured paper they found that the coloured leaked and changed the water colour in the container. So they added more paper and experimented with what colours created what others colours and what paper worked the best. 

 

Dragons - At the moment we are reading 'How to train your dragon'. We are up to the part were there is an enormous dragon sleeping on the hooligans beach. This inspired Leeroy to create his own dragon. It is a two-headed dragon which is as big as our building and likes eating people. 

Other exploring...