Click here for copious camp photos! What an amazing time! Thank you again to everyone who made it out.

Slippery Slime!

Did you know slime is a polymer? We learned all about the molecules in solids, liquids and gases, but polymer molecules all string together like a chain. That's what makes slime able to stretch and stick together and have properties of both solids and liquids. We want to thank Angie for coming in - we had such a blast and it was such a fun way to celebrate all of our science learning.

Cross-country at Peria

I couldn't have been more proud of our Active Ferns yesterday! We had a great day sliding, running, and playing at Peria School. It was incredible to watch them give it their all and support each other.

Book Week & "How to get kids to look away from their screens and take pleasure in books"

Happy book week everyone! We are lucky in Active Ferns to have such passionate readers! Want some ideas on how you can nurture a love of books with your child? Look no further than this great article: click HERE.

Here is a short video of us seeing how many physical changes we could make to paper. We then made chemical changes with baking soda and vinegar. Ask your Active Fern what they would have to do to paper in order for it to go through a CHEMICAL change.

Eating Healthy

We have been learning about healthy foods with Whaea Gina from Project Energise. We learned about the four main food groups and how much we should have from each. We also learned about sneaky sugar that is in so many of our drinks, as well as the best breakfasts for our body (HINT: ones that are low in sugar and high in fibre to keep us full!)! Please peruse the pictures to learn a little and have your child explain what we discussed in class.

Today we tried to determine whether different types of chocolate melt at different temperatures. We used dark chocolate, milk chocolate, and white chocolate. We predicted how long it would take each one to melt and at which temperature we thought it would happen. Our results were all over the place but Active Ferns students discussed the reasons some of our experiments didn't work and what could cause the different chocolates to melt at different temperatures. Samuel hypothesized that it might have to do with the cocoa content and other contents of the chocolate. Most of our chocolate melted between 27-35° C.

Try discuss different temperatures with your child at home to connect to our learning!

Today we explored 3 different states of matter: solids, liquids and gases. Did you know water can be all three? We made a prediction about how long the ice would take to melt (scientists call this a hypothesis) and then we tested it out. It took longer than we thought! We then added alka-seltzer to the water and watched as our bag grew with carbon dioxide! I wonder which particles are closer together: solids, liquids or gases?

Today we were so fortunate because we got to start our ukelele lessons with Matua Tups. Your Active Fern student can now play the chords C and A minor. It was so much fun, we can't wait until next week!

We had Constable Rob visit our class this week. He taught us about how important it is to know your full name, address and a parent's cellphone number in case you ever get lost. Here is the video he showed us about staying safe and the importance of telling someone you trust when something isn't right.

We had such an exciting day today! Thank you to all the parents and whanau who brought in scrumptious food and who came in to make our day more merry. Our book truly came alive when the students of Active Ferns came in as their favourite characters. It was also astonishing to eat real pop biscuits and wishing cake! I hope all your wishes come true!

Photo credit: Tracey

Active Ferns' Enchanted Wood Poem

Our class has been having adventures each day.

“But I’ve seen you at school! How!?” you say?

Well! When you have a nook and storybook,

Worlds come alive if you’d just take a look.

In our book is a Faraway Tree

that takes us to places you wouldn’t believe.

In the Faraway Tree we’ve made many friends.

Like Moonface, whose kindness never ends.

There’s Silky too, who Fern and Amber like a lot!

Because she’s a fairy who makes biscuits that POP!

Angry Pixie is there and he doesn’t like spying,

Luca and Porsha will tell you. We’re not lying!

Mr Whatzisname doesn’t remember his name.

“Maybe it’s John, Fred or Larry!” Brendon exclaims!

In the tree, Mackenzie looks out for Dame Washalots water,

“If you’re not quick, you’ll be soaked like an otter!”

Saucepan Man may need looking after.

He can’t hear a thing, filling Bella with laughter.

The tree takes us beyond the land we know

into terrible lands like that of Ice and Snow.

There’s a snowman there who is always in a snit,

but Jordan and Brock can take care of it!

We can escape across the sky and sea,

To a house where we find Thomas and Katie.

Where are we? Why it’s the house of the 3 little bears!

Zephyr best be careful not to break their chairs!

There are horrid lands like the one with Red Goblins.

Jasper and Cooper can solve this problem.

“Send them down the slippery slip! Off they go!

They’re doomed to work for the wizard you know.”

“I’d like to go down the slippery slip” Te Ahere sighs.

“Let’s do it then!” Samuel yells in surprise.

Chelsea reminds us,”Not all lands are scary,

some of them are pleasant and merry.”

The Land of Take-What-You-Want makes you a winner.

Taniora, Kuirau and Lucas each take a spinner.

“I’d like rainbow ombre pants” Ava beckons.

POOF! They appear in seconds.

“Ding-dong. Ding-dong” Silky’s clock frets.

The Land of Birthdays! How could we forget?

A land where you can have your favourite tea!

Joevarn would like pizza and toffee shock please!

Josie gets wishing cake because her birthday’s in May.

She wishes and wishes to read all day.

Frances plays dress up and gets real fairy wings.

She flies all around and what joy it brings!

Our book is incredible, as you can see.

In it, you learn and you feel and you be.

If you’re ever bored just remember: there’s always a land

where the brownies are ready with a helping hand.

A land full of magic folk and trees,

that whisper ‘wisha-wisha-wisha” in the breeze.

Last week we were exploring movement and direction concepts in the context of programming a robot to move. Active Ferns developed sets of instructions using the commands: right, left, forward, backwards.

The ability to be able to give clear instructions is important skill needed today. By building and programming our robot 'Alfred' Active Ferns learn in a practical way. Finding mistakes, identifying the cause and fixing them is a feature of this work. This also allows skills to be developed that will be useful as students work with computers.

Thanks to Fern, Chelsea, and Ava for being leaders and teaching the game to their peers!

It's been incredible watching butterflies emerge from chrysalises in our classroom this week. We have learned so much simply by observing. We were surprised by how crumpled their wings were to begin with, how long it took their wing to get strong and for them to fly off, and we were quite taken aback by all the liquid the butterfly dripped upon coming out.

We were lucky enough to have master baker Ange Phillipps help our class make scrumptious scones! Everyone got to measure out their own ingredients and choose the goodies that would go in. Then they got to watch the magic happen in the oven. We've been reading a story called Matariki Breakfast where a family shows aroha to one another by telling stories and sharing food, of course! Below you will find Ange's recipe so you can have your very own Matariki breakfast with your whānau.

Lemonade Scones

4 x cups of self raising flour

300ml cream

300ml lemonade

Bake in a 200 degree oven for 10 - 14 mins or until the bottoms are brown.

Reading with a buddy is a great way to practice new reading skills and familiarise yourself with a book! It encourages giving a helping hand and getting support when you need. it. Bravo to these incredible readers!

We had a great time learning all about the dunes from Northern Regional Council and all of the community volunteers. We weeded, picked up rubbish, discussed pests, and brainstormed ways we could help.

After learning all about 2-dimensional shapes we explored how they can be put together to make 3-dimensional shapes! We practiced saying some impressive solid shape names such as rectangular prism, square pyramid, cylinder, cone, and sphere. We used new words like corner, side, edge, face, and base to describe the features of these shapes.

In preparation for our trip to Taipa Active Ferns did some research on plants that grow in the dunes, why we need sand dunes, and how we can help the dunes. We had a lot of expert discussion. We can't wait to learn more!

There was dancing, magic, not to mention the crazy cars and characters at school today! It was so nice to see everyone have so much fun!

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade! We put our instructional writing into practice by following our own steps to create a delicious drink.

I can't think of a more exciting way to practice positive relationships and cooperation!

Here are some snaps from a very successful parent night! The students shared so much learning and it was so great to connect with so many families.

Active Ferns students are hard at work brainstorming rhyming words for their poetry! The Kauri reading group also brainstormed some of the features of poetry and did an awesome job.

Thank you to Tanya and Mr A. and all of the students, parents who came out tonight! Below is the small presentation from this evening and a link to a Growth Mindset video we watched in class to give you a taste. It was a pleasure to see everyone and I look forward to staying in touch!

We are learning about whanaungatanga and the principles of co-operation

while working on our ball skills with Whaea Gina!

Active Ferns had an awesome morning discussing probability. To cement our knowledge we played "The Cube Challenge" in pairs and trios, and figured out if the game's odds were fair, unfair, or in our favour.

Try out our new vocabulary at home: certain, likely, unlikely, and impossible.

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