Tag: Andrew

Welcome back!

Welcome to 2025!

I am super excited to be back in Ruma Wha this year.  I am so fortunate to be working alongside a very experienced and lovely colleague, Shelley Cook.  Shelley is our new Lead Teacher for the Whare Manaaki.  She is also the teacher in Ruma Rima. Please feel free to come in and say hello to both Shelley and I anytime.

This week all tamariki have been re establishing routines and settling back into school life.  The highlight of each day has definitely been swimming.  It has been delightful to watch and hear the squeals of delight during our swimming time.  It has also been pleasing to see how confident our students are becoming in the water.  This is such an important part of the curriculum for all our tamariki in our kura.  I am looking forward to extending our children’s abilities so that ultimately, they are safe in any body of water.

Please mark in your calendar the 12th February as the whole school (including Whare Manaaki) are attending the Aquatic Centre from 9.30 am.  We would love for you to join us and partake in the fun with your tamariki in the pools.  See you there!

                            

 

Whanau Picnic

What a wonderful afternoon we had at the Whanau Picnic on Wednesday afternoon.

The sun was shining, families were eating kai and playing games together.  The afternoon concluded with parents versus teachers and students’ relay running race.  Well done parents, you were super fast!

Here are a few moments we were able to capture to share with you.

 

 

 

 

Keeping Ourselves Safe

Over the last few weeks, we have been looking at how we Keep Ourselves Safe.

We have been working on recognising and writing our full name as well as where we live.  All the tamariki enjoyed seeing their house on Google Maps and the majority of the class could point to which house was theirs.  Ka pai Ruma Wha!

Naming the different parts of the body was also an area we worked on.  This was consolidated with body part songs.

We had a visit from our Community Police Officers Brent and Gary.  They brought in hats and vests for the children to put on.  They all enjoyed this experience.

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Happy Halloween

For the last two weeks we have been looking at Halloween.

We have had a lot of fun creating, singing, counting, reading, and sharing our wonderful work with Room 3.  We have even worked hard with our fine motor skills to thread wool through holes.  This involved a lot of patience, persistence and precision on behalf of all our tamariki.  I commend you all for demonstrating these skills.

To conclude the week we invited Room 3 to join us for a Halloween song or two and share our display of work.  Thank you so much for joining us Room 3, we always enjoy your company.

                                                                                                     

                                                                     

 

Amazing apples

Our Letter of the Week for Week 1 was the letter Aa.  The story of the week was “Ten Apples Up On Top” which proved to be a popular story especially when the song was played alongside the story.  You can check this song out with your tamariki by clicking on this link: Ten Apples Up On Top

We also had a little bit of fun and tried to place apples on our heads just like in the story.  We only managed to balance the maximum of three apples before they would all fall down.

We also completed fine motor apple activities and counted the pom pom apples which the children placed on different trees.  Great mahi Ruma Wha!

                                                                     

Super Supermarkets

Last week we were focusing on different supermarket logo’s and what healthy food can be bought at the supermarket.

We had a lot of fun matching the logo’s to the shopping bag and placing the food in the corresponding bag.

We also made a fruit kebab each with healthy fruit which the children enjoyed devouring after they had constructed it.  The children utilised the voice activated button to say which piece of fruit they would like to cut and place onto their kebab.  This was great communication by all of Ruma Wha!

Fast Food Logo’s

Our Inquiry for Week 3 and 4 was  about different Fast Food Logo’s our tamariki knew.

We balanced out our discussion of Fast Food with foods that are healthy/everyday foods compared to the treat/sometimes foods of Fast Food Restaurants.  The children were looking at their own lunch boxes and we were discussing everyday and sometime foods with them.

                                                                 

The children have been engaging in creating pizza patterns which links directly to our maths unit this term.  We also made a delicious pizza and shared it with our friends in the class.  All the children took part in adding different ingredients to the pizza.

As part of our learning we also practiced lots of different songs.  One song in particular definitely caught everyone’s attention.  It has been such a hit in Room 4 that we got Room 3 to come and join in the actions with us so that together R3 and 4 could perform it at assembly on Monday.

Click here for a link to this song.