Tag: Vaea

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!

Letter Yy

Last week Kopa Wha were learning about the Letter Yy.

Part of our learning was focused on how the letter y makes different sounds depending on its position in a word. For example, y sounds like a consonant at the beginning of words, but can make a long e sound at the end, as in happy, silly, and baby. Our reader Baby Hippo helped reinforce this learning.

To finish the week, we made our own yoghurt and had a chance to taste the delicious yoghurt we created.

We hope you enjoy the photos of us making our yummy yoghurt.

 

School Production

What a fantastic time we had preparing for our School Production!

This journey has been a wonderful success for all our tamariki. I am especially proud of our Whare Manaaki students who showed such bravery performing on stage for all three shows.

It was an absolute delight to see your smiling faces and genuine enjoyment!

Letter Jj

This week Kopa Wha has been learning about the letter Jj as well as -dge and -ge at the end of words, which has the same sound as  /j/.

We made Peach Jelly Cups as well as making jam sandwiches.  We found letter Jj’s as well as read a recipe and created the procedure of making a jam sandwich.

Great mahi, Kopa Wha!

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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!

 

Baby Shark Show

For the last couple of weeks we have been working on the Letter Ss.

We have been singing a favourite song called Baby Shark, which all the tamariki enjoy.

During our weekly sessions with Fiona, we have been perfecting the art of Google Vids. It has proven to be a hit in Kopa Wha, as once the record button has been pushed, the teleprompter begins, and the students can sing the words displayed on the television.  (Click on Slide 6)

What a lot of fun we had creating this music video for you.  It really was a team effort.  I am so proud of all of our tamariki for giving this a go!

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?

What makes you frustrated?

This week Kopa Wha has been working on the Letter Ff.

We have been looking at the emotion of frustration and what that may look like.  This emotion appears often throughout our day at school in numerous settings.  Our tamariki have been looking at a variety of short clips of others feeling frustrated when playing with a variety of toys.  An example of this is when we build a tower and it repeatedly falls down.

We have extended this emotion to relate to the environment as well.  I shared how I become frustrated seeing rubbish when out in our beautiful environment.  We incorporated our Community Outing to visit Ngamotu Beach where we put on gloves and collected rubbish from the beach.  We collected a bin full of rubbish and also while we were there collected seaweed, driftwood and sand.  Once we returned to school we created some artworks with our seaside findings.  These are displayed outside Kopa Wha.

Our tamariki have also enjoyed reading about the ‘Rainbow Fish’.  They created some beautiful collaged rainbow fishes which you can see displayed in Kopa Wha.

 

 

 

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.