Category: Ako | Learn

Animal Classification – Birds

For the past two weeks our Inquiry has been on Animal Classification and more specifically on birds.

We have been linking our Letter of the Week, poem, writing, reading, maths and Big Book to this Inquiry Topic as well which our tamariki have enjoyed.

Below you can see some cute little owls we created which linked to our poem called ‘5 Little Owls’.

            

 

We also created two birds each for the rhyme “Two Little Dickie Birds.”  We had a lot of fun singing the rhyme and playing with the birds we had created.  We hope you enjoy the little video.

Finally, seeing our letter of the week was the Letter N we created a noodle nest after investigating a real nest and watching how birds create nests in our Google Slide.  The children soaked the noodles in some warm water and then began creating a nest.  This was a lovely sensory activity which the children all enjoyed.

The Magnificent Letter Mm

This week Room 4 has been focusing on the magnificent letter Mm.  Our Inquiry for the first two weeks of the term is Birds so we have been looking at the Magpie.

Our Big Book for the week was called ‘Mrs McFee’ and this was about a pesky magpie stealing Mrs McFee’s hats.  You can hear the story if you click on the Alphabet slide below.

Letter Mm

Our tamariki created some beautiful magpies during the week.  They worked on ripping up paper to collage their magpie which is a fantastic fine motor activity that strengthens the children’s fingers. Helen also focused part of her speech therapy session on our tamariki asking for black or white feathers to stick onto the magpie.  Great mahi Room 4.

   

 

The Incredible Letter Ii

This week we have been learning about the letter Ii and the two different sounds the Letter Ii makes.

Seeing our Inquiry focus for the last two weeks of this term has been food we linked the Letter Ii into ice cream.  We had fun making playdough icecreams, and completing some craft ice creams for our Mathematics. At the end of the week, we made some yummy vanilla ice cream which the children enjoyed eating.

Click on this link to see our Letter Ii Google Slide

 

Magnificent Movies

Our Inquiry for the last two weeks has been on different movies which our tamariki enjoy.  We linked our Letter of the Week to the letter Ll which ties in beautifully with the Lego Movie in Week 7.

We had a lot of fun building towers, snakes and even Mario with Lego.  We also created the letter L with lego as well as using lego to make a print with paint.

Check out our Letter Ll Google Slide.

 

In Week 8 we continued with our Inquiry into different movies.  We worked on answering ‘who’ questions and matching a movie to a particular class member in Room 4.  We also looked into the movie ‘Inside Out’ and discussed different emotions and what they look like.  We then created some beautiful masks relating to the different emotions.

Our Letter of the Week for Week 8 was Tt.  We were learning about what the letter Tt sounds like.  We then had a lot of fun creating a Teddy Bear from toast. We learned about how bread was made and then the steps of turning bread into toast.  Once the class had created their Teddy Bear they all enjoyed eating it.

Here is the link to the letter Tt Google Slide

      

 

Lizard Loses His Tail

Crimson and Zinzan have been working on the reader ‘Lizard Loses His Tail’ last week.  They watched a couple of video’s to extend their knowledge of lizards losing their tails.  Then they both created a lizard of their own with playdough and took a photo of their creations to share with you.  Great mahi Crimson and Zinzan.

Check out their Learn, Create, Share reading task here.

                                                                                                                                            

 

Crimson and Zinzan’s pandas

Last week Crimson and Zinzan were working on the reading book “Baby Panda.”

Part of extending and broadening their knowledge of pandas involved watching different video clips about pandas’ habitats and the food they eat.

Crimson and Zinzan then watched a video clip of how to draw a panda.  The steps were broken down and they were able to pause the video to complete the simple steps at their own pace.  What amazing focus both the boys had while drawing their panda.  A great achievement and what gorgeous looking pandas you both drew!

Click on this link to take you to the task on the class site

     

Animals

Our Inquiry for the last couple of weeks has been about Animals.  We have been learning to (WALT)  classify animals into five different categories.

We have also been completing different animal craft activities relating to our letter of the week.

Check out some of our learning on the class site as well (link is below).  The children are familiar with the different google slides and have really enjoyed the learning songs to reinforce the five classification groups of animals.

Reading Group 1 – Vann, Vaea, Henry, Bella, Diego

Reading Group 2 – Crimson and Zinzan

Enjoy!!!

   

 

 

 

I Like Toys

Our focus for the last two weeks has been on Toys I Like.  This has been an extremely motivating topic as we have had different toys to investigate and play with.  This has been an enjoyable and fun part of our day.

We were also fortunate enough to have the Life Education Bus come to Marfell Community School during the last couple of weeks.  The educators linked into our Inquiry about Toys and encouraged what we are practising in the classroom with sharing, waiting, and taking turns.  These skills are so important for our tamariki to continue to practise in their everyday life and what better way to learn these skills than through play.

Later in the week we had a lot of fun watching and learning about the game of skittles.  We had several games of skittles and even created our own using recycled plastic bottles.  We stuck on our own numbers so we could recognise which skittle was knocked over.  Great mahi Ruma Wha!

         

Gg is for Giraffe

Our letter of the week for Week 4 was Gg for giraffe.  We linked and revisited our work with Harold the Giraffe by creating a cute craft giraffe with the letter G.

We hope that you can revisit our alphabet google slide on our class site with your tamariki as well as enjoy the photographs captured during our craft activity.