Tag: Diego

Airport Visits

For the last couple of weeks Kopa Wha have visited the New Plymouth Airport.

The first week we visited, it was very quiet due to an aeroplane recently leaving.  This was a nice introduction to a new environment for some of our tamariki.

Today when we visited the airport it was bustling with people.  Our tamariki watched a plane take off as well as two planes arriving.

One of our students was fortunate enough to go and sit on an empty Air New Zealand plane.  What a magical morning we had!

A huge thank you to Aaron, the New Plymouth Manager, for making this amazing trip such a success!

Old MacDonald

Welcome to Term 4!

The Big Book of the week, ‘Old MacDonald’, has been an absolute hit.  We have enjoyed singing the song, making hand rhymes as well as creating some sheep for our puppet show which you can view on slide number eight below.  We also listened to different animal sounds, named them on our talking devices, and recreated these sounds.  What a lot of fun mahi we completed this week!

 

Fabulous Fulton Swim School

Whare Manaaki is so very fortunate to begin attending Fulton Swim School again every Wednesday morning.

Swimming has many benefits for our tamariki from improving motor skills to creating a variety of opportunities for our students to interact socially, reduce anxiety as well as provide sensory regulation.

 

 

 

Specialists at Autism Connex

Every Wednesday we are so very fortunate to have our Occupational Therapist and Physiotherapist join Whare Manaaki to work alongside our tamariki.

Our students all visit Autism Connex where they work on a variety of gross motor movements on the amazing apparatus available.  Each student works on a variety of different goals while in this relaxing and engaging space.

There are a variety of swings available and they are always utilised well.

Which activity do you think you would enjoy the most?

Exciting Bugs!

This week we have been looking at when we feel excited. Kopa Four thought going on a bug hunt as well as creating ladybirds was exciting. All our tamariki found the snails of particular interest and using the magnifying glass to look even closer at the snails was even more exciting. Great mahi Kopa 4. I loved watching you all being so curious in our garden.

Surprise, Surprise!

In Kopa Wha we have been focusing on the letter Ss.  We have been integrating this letter with different emotions.

An important part of our daily teaching is recognising how we are feeling.  We have been introducing ‘The Zones of Regulation’ to help all our tamariki recognise the different ways we feel.  These are represented by colours.  We will be continuing to work on this next term.

This week we have been learning about the emotion of surprise.  Our tamariki have practiced showing the emotion on their faces throughout the week.  We concluded the week by creating a surprised emoji face.

We hope you enjoy the photos.

Have a fabulous holiday everyone and I look forward to seeing you all again next term.

 

 

Fine motor fun!

Fine motor activities are a huge part of our day to day programme in Ruma Wha.  The benefits of working on a variety of fine motor activities is extensive from strengthening their muscles in their hands and fingers to the development of hand-eye co ordination.

Our wonderful Occupational Therapist, Paula Matheson visits Whare Manaaki on a weekly basis to work alongside our tamariki and kaiako (teachers).  We hope you enjoy the montage of photos showing a variety of fine motor activities.

If you would like to find out more about fine motor skills please look at the Specialist Site below.  It has some tips and tricks and different ideas for you try at home with your tamariki.

Awesome Autism Connex

 

Beautiful butterfiies!

This week we have been looking at the lifecycle of a caterpillar.

The children enjoyed exploring various texts about caterpillars and butterflies, both looking at the pictures and reading the stories together. They also participated in a range of dances, all of which they eagerly joined in with.

We then created some beautiful symmetrical butterflies with paint.  The children loved opening the page to see their butterfly emerge.

Ka pai Ruma Wha!

 

Great Giraffes

This week Ruma Wha has been working on the Letter G and the Gl blend.

Our book of the week was Giraffes Can’t Dance.  We learned about giraffes, danced and clapped to different giraffe songs and then created a handprint giraffe for each of our wonderful tamariki.  The children all enjoyed having their whole arm painted yellow, and many chuckled as the paintbrush tickled their arms.

We hope you enjoy the photos and enjoy sharing the Google Slides together.