Mandarin using 'magic' ink paper and water to write our characters!

We just didn't want to stop - how did learning a new language become so fun and interactive?!!

Mandarin Greetings and Paper cutting

Miss Han has been sharing Chinese culture with us as well as teaching us how to say our name in Mandarin and Greetings for different times of the day.

We need to practice before we have our lesson again next week. If you are stuck then ask a friend in our class who can speak Mandarin to help you with your pronunciation.

Te Tahawai Marae

Adam introduces himself using the Korero rakau

Daisy introduces herself and says where she was born.

Making kowhaiwhai patterns with templates.

Even the parent supporters introduced themselves. Ka pai Whanau!

Inside the Wharenui there were lots of stories behind the carvings, tukutuku panels and kowhaiwhai patterns. We all learned something new today. 

Why do we read books? What skills do we use to find information? How does reading entertain us?

The Fantails are learning about how to form an open or closed question. They talked about what they thought each type was first and then read their books. Following that they formed questions of their own. Here they are talking to each other about which are closed and which are open and WHY they think this.

Alistair was a great Pirate Chief in a play. How do you think he did with trying to use expression and read at a good pace for the audience?

The Tuataras group performed a play. The whole class has been self assessing and peer assessing their Fluency skills. Here this group perform a play with expression, a clear voice and using a suitable pace for the audience. The rest of the class gave feedback and feedforward. 

These points are useful to talk about at home when you listen to someone reading. We have used this rubric to self assess and peer assess already. Now we know what we are working on.

Tinker time - woohoo - collaborative and creative learning!

Edisons - read a simple code and create a journey. Lots of experimentation here, Mrs Trembath gave no instructions. We had children teach their skills to the next little group.

Patience and creativity here. And on such a hot afternoon a little mindfulness too. 

Beading requires careful planning and patterning.

This group started to add lego pieces to their edisons and add some of their own personality!

House groups - welcome to Olivia and Maia - can you see which house they are in?

Here are our house groups: 

From time to time we do House events for sports and we collect house points for our Houses. We also have Year 6 leaders who are in charge of our Houses. It is always lots of fun doing house activities!
Our Houses are
Hoiho - Yellow
Tui - Blue
Kea - Green
Takahe - Red
All of the teachers and staff are in houses too. We like to dress up in our house colours and can get quite competitive! Mrs Trembath is in Hoiho!

Tui

Kea

Takahe

Hoiho