February

Antarctica has absorbed us these past few weeks in Kānuka! What a fascinating and critical part of the world we have right on our doorstep! The wonderful House of Science resource has taken us through experiments from seeing how baleen whales eat compared to toothed whales, and we've discovered first hand how blubber can help keep us warm from freezing temperatures. Having Zoe's grandad, Colin, in to talk about his many years of experience in Antarctica was inspiring and drew some wonderful deep questioning from the children. 

We are so grateful also to Nicky, John and Pauline for inviting us to see them extracting honey ... and for the delicious samples we got to try! Beyond being fascinating and tasty, it inspired a whole week of writing and lots of rich conversation!

Before getting stuck into our Prime Maths maths programme, we have been busying ourselves with strengthening our basic facts knowledge. The children gain 'Bricks' for each block of knowledge they conquer and we have, as a class, been building a fabulous brick wall to celebrate these achievements.

March

On Wednesday the year 1-6s went to World Maths Day at Duvauchelle School. First we went to a small classroom with Mrs Richardson. We did lots of maths games. 

After this it was morning tea and play time. After we had finished eating everyone went to the playground. Literally everything was made out of tyres or very very strong rope. Some things were made out of wood. 

After the bell had rung the year 1-3s went into a library and played ‘Greedy Pig’. So you have a board and you need a whiteboard marker and a large dice. So someone rolls the dice and if it gets a one all your numbers on your first line get rubbed out. But if you sit down you get to keep your scores and stay down until the next round.

After that it was switch-over and we went into another teacher's classroom and made fortune tellers (chatterboxes). 

After this it was lunchtime and we played on the playground. Then Little River had to go back to school. 

By Margot 

April

It has been a busy past month in Kānuka!

• We have been learning to speak māori with Ms Warren on Tuesdays, learning to ask "How are you?" and "What are you doing?" - Isobella

• We have been learning about our feelings, how to identify them and get out of them if they are wobbly or angry or low. - Margot

• We've been practicing our Bricks for learning times table and pluses and take-aways and building a brick wall that shows how good we are at maths - Matthew

• We've been doing paragraphs in writing. We use them when we move on in time or a new idea or new setting. - Sarai

• In description writing we wrote about a house and we used describing words and the senses - Isobel

• We're excited to go to the Antarctic Centre and we've been learning about penguins, the difference with the Arctic, how cold it is and preparing for it. - Julie

• We've done poetry, art, science, maths, reading and writing to learn about Antarctica - Oliver M

May

In our learning around Pink Shirt Day, we have been deep diving into anti-bullying and inclusion in Kānuka. This led us through the story of Wolfgang the Wolf's wonderful coat as well as a number of quotes explaining the concept of inclusion. We did some fun collaborative art and penned our own quotes to show what we had learned. A couple can be seen below...

Science has collided with art this month as we learn flowers and the real reason behind why they are so beautiful. Our art focus looking at creating secondary and tertiary colours from primary colours is building into the creation of some bold and brilliant flowers ... that are also anatomically correct!