Term Three in Room 15

Open Afternoon

 

On Wednesday 2nd September the children in room 15 invited their parents to an open afternoon.

 

Jane and the children demonstrated how to use the Wooden Hierarchy material. The parents watched with pride as the children easily counted and compared numbers from 1 to 1,000,000.  They compared how the sun was 1,000,000 times bigger than the earth.

 

The Wooden Hierarchical Material is used to enlarge the children's concept of number. The children have a clear visual impression of the relationship of the hierarchies and the families of numbers from one to one million. The material summarises what the children already know and give possibilities for further exploration of the millions.

The children then presented their favourite piece of equipment to their parents. Jane has been making fantastic scrapbook records of what each child has been doing in class. It was a lovely chance for the children to share work with their parents and talk about the Montessori materials they love using. In the future, Jane hopes that the children will be responsible for their own scrapbooks.  Thank you Jane, for the wonderful glimpse into the children's work.

           

Class Painting

 

Watch this spot!! The children are painting a mural which will adorn the outside of Room 15. Petra's mum Carlie, is currently studying art.  Under her careful supervision and guidance, the masterpiece is evolving - stay tuned to see the final result.

 

My Special Place
Our artwork for the term was inspired by Jane's visit to Te Papa.
She bought the colouring book by Herve Tullet, and we explored many different types of line using examples from the book.
We wrote stories called My Special Place, based on an exhibition at Te Papa.
We thought about the physical environment as well as activities that we enjoyed with family and friends at our own special place.
Mt Tamahunga is a place that is special to our school and our community. We observed the line that Mt Tamahunga makes against the sky. Using our knowledge of line, we patterned the mountain using black vivid pens.
The resulting Artwork is so successful that we are using the images as the basis for a large picture outside our classroom. We enjoyed working with Petra's mum, Carlie Blanchette-Burton on the project.

Japanese

 

The children are very fortunate to have Lynn Williams visiting and teaching them Japanese once a week. They are enjoying learning the names of things such as butterflies, boats, houses etc.  This is expected to be ongoing.  The children are loving learning another language.

The Needs of a Plant by Room 15

This term the focus has been botany.

 

We got 5 saucers and made 5 labels for the saucers:

- No heat

- No water

- No light

- No soil

- Heat, water light and soil

 

We predicted what would happen to the cress seeds in the different conditions.

We put the no heat seeds in the fridge.

We put the no water seeds on the windowsill.

We put the no light seeds in the cupboard.

We put cotton wool in the no soil saucer.

The 5th saucer had heat, water, light and soil (everything)

We checked the cress every day and watered the cress when necessary.

We recorded the results after one week.

 

The no light cress was tall and yellow.

The no heat cress had not sprouted.

The no soil cress had sprouted.

The no water cress had not sprouted.

The cress with heat, water, light and soil was healthy, tall and green.

 

We know that a plant needs light, heat, water and soil to grow best.

 

School Cross Country

 

Monday 24 August saw the children brave the weather to have the school Cross Country. Madeleine (3rd), Petra (5th) and Mackenzie (10th) all came in the top 10 in the Year 2 Girls race which means they qualify for Interschool Cross Country - well done Room 15!

 

 

Broccoflower

On Friday we picked some broccoflower from our garden.
We watched it grow and after it had grown, we had it raw with hummus on it. It was so yummy!
Then we had it cooked with grated cheese on it.
I liked the cooked broccoflower the best. 
                                                         By Rosie McArthur Adams

 

Room 15's Assembly

On Friday 8th August, rooms 15 and 7 combined to entertain the school for assembly. They performed some songs and showed their amazing artwork.

 

A video of the assembly is available here.