Special Visitors From Japan

We were really lucky to host students from a school in Japan this term.  We were looking forward to watching a performance from the students but had no idea that they had some fantastic workshops up their sleeves!!!  Check out what we got up to below!

Traditional Game
We played a traditional Japanese game which involved singing a song and then playing a game of Paper Scissors Rock. The winner then got to choose a player to come over to their team.  The winners were the team with the most members.

Sumo

We competed in our very own Sumo competition.  The winner got to wear a really cool sumo wig!

Origami

The students taught us how to make paper planes.

Drawing Traditional Symbols

We learnt how to draw some traditional Japanese symbols as well as the Japanese flag. We took our time and were very happy with the results!

Week 4 Term 3 2016

Last week was a busy week in Learning Common 1.  Below is a snapshot of what we got up to.......

Literacy
We have been busy continuing to extend our recount writing.  Some of us are still working on some of the superficial elements of our writing - leaving spaces, forming our letters correctly.  And some of us are using different tools to support and extend our writing - word cards, dictionaries, using a coloured pencil to recraft/edit, online games like 'Punctuation Splat.' We are trying to remember to add all the detail we need for a recount - When?  Who? Where? What?  We are also using traffic light words to show the passing of time - First Next Finally.  We know that adding meat to the bones is important so that we can paint a picture of our experience for the audience.

We have also been extending our descriptive writing.  We love describing a friend in LC1 and then playing Guess Who?  This week we have been describing images from the Olympic Games.

In Reading, some of us are practising using our robot voice to read and spell voice.  This week we pulled out our friend Metal Mike who loves gobbling up words that have been read with a robot voice.

For those of us who are reading longer words, we have been practising 'chunking' them.  For example, la-zy, ma-gic, farm-er.  We used an online game to explore this before recording words in our book.

Maths

We have been exploring doubles this week.  Some of us have been working on doubles to 10.  We have used dice and spinners to generate a number.  Some of us are working on numbers to 20 and beyond!  

Fractions has also been an area of investigation for some of us this week.  After two initial workshops, we have been working on follow-up activities independently.

This week some of us showed an interest in measuring things.  After a quick discussion about standard and non standard units of measurement, we grabbed a ruler and set about measuring anything and everything.  We will continue to investigate Measurement in responsive workshops this week.

Art

We have been practising our sketching techniques before drawing what we can see for Close Observational Drawing.  We are trying to be patient with our work so that we can take our time and add detail.

Mini Olympics

On Thursday we turned our normal circuit session into a mini Olympic Games. We all chose a country and thought about the qualities of an Olympic athlete. We tried our best, encouraged and supported our team and had a thoroughly good time!!  At the end of each circuit, a gold medal, made by Mason and Diego, was awarded to the winning team.

South Korea

Poland

Great Britain

China

Australia

United States of America

Project Groups

It has been a busy week for the Music Project Group and the Identity Project Group this week.  Both groups made a visit to the secondary school to tap into experts and find out the answers to some of our questions.  Have a look at what we got up to.

Identity Group
This week we have been thinking about what it means to belong to our school. What do we do at school that helps to develop a sense of belonging?  Does wearing a school uniform encourage a sense of belonging or should we get to choose what we wear every day?  Do we know all the adults in our school?  How often do we come together?

Wearing a school uniform makes you feel like you belong to the school.  Diego

It makes people know where you are from.  Janneke

School uniform makes you safe.  Isla H

I like wearing my own clothes and choosing.  Leander

School uniform makes us feel like we are in one big group.  Isla H

We met with the School Council and found out what their job is.  We think we might like to have a school council at our school too.

It also made us think about what the role of an Ambassador would be in LC1 and gave us some good ideas.  We would like a badge too!

We then met with a Learning Hub.  A hub is like a form room made up of students from all year groups.  They told us why meeting with students of all ages is helpful.

Share their experiences with the younger students.

Make connections with students across the school.

Helps you not to be scared.

We thought about why meeting together as a whole school might be good.

Being in a hub with children from all over the school would make me feel like we were all in one class.  Janneke

We don’t know the names of the teachers in the other commons. Identity Group

We are one school but we don’t know each other and we don’t meet together. Isla

Music Group

Today we went to meet with the acapella group. We found out what an acapella group actually is!!!! We enjoyed sitting and listening to them practise before they performed a song for us. We were very impressed and thought they all had excellent voices. We found out that an acapella group is made up of a lead (who sings all the words), a tenor, a baritone and a bass. We listened to tracks that helped the singers to learn their part. We even got to look at the music that they were following. They have promised to come and perform the new song they are learning to us when they have finished.

Week 2 Term 3 2016

Well, PINs got off to a flying start this week.  Check out the workshops that were on offer below.........

Dancing and Singing with Ani and Olivia

Making maracas with Isabel for our Music Project Group 

(with Kerry in the background exploring how music makes us feel)

Creating a zoo with Isaac

Minecraft with Joshua and Dylan

Painting flowers with Rashelle

Ballet with Maia and Bella

Abstract Art with Trudy

Sea creatures with Alfie and Daniel

Sport with LC3

 

End of Term 2 Celebration

Well, Term 2 seemed to fly!  It certainly was a great term!  So much fantastic learning and progress to be celebrated.  And what better way to celebrate than our traditional Pyjama and Movie Day.  Check out some photos below!.......

Descriptive Writing

We have been exploring descriptive writing over the past few weeks in LC1.  We realised that most good stories have a goodie and a baddie so we chose Cinderella and The Big Bad Wolf to describe.  Please let us know what you think of our writing. :-)

Cinderella is as beautiful as a flower and she is as lovely as the sun. She is as gorgeous as a butterfly.  Ani

Cinderella is as lovely as the sky.  She is kind and thoughtful.  Her eyes are blue. Cinderella's hair is beautiful and it is blonde.  She is stunning.  She puts people before herself.  Cinderella has a blue dress, a red headband and she has white skin.  She has dark slippers.  Chelsy

The Big Bad Wolf has sharp claws and sharp teeth.  He is selfish and he is a bully.  He is scary and he is wicked.  The Big Bad Wolf is as ferocious as a great white shark.  You better hope you don't come across him in a dark forest!  Alfie

The Big Bad Wolf is mean.  His teeth are as sharp as fangs.  His fur is grey.  He is as tricky as a robot.  He has pointy ears.  Theo

Cinderella has blonde hair that is as bright as the sun.  Her eyes are as blue as the sea. She is thoughtful of others.  She is very patient.  She takes care of people.  Cinderella is wonderful and amazing. She has a sparkling dress that sways in the wind.  Janneke

The Big Bad Wolf is as mean as a bully.  He has sharp teeth and he is fat.  The Big Bad Wolf is as scary as a thief.  Mason

Cinderella is as beautiful as the sun.  She has blonde hair.  Cinderella is as kind as a teacher.  Her eyes are as beautiful as flowers in the garden.  She wears a beautiful, blue dress.  Olivia

The Big Bad Wolf is a beast of the forest.  He is as bad as a robber.  The Big Bad Wolf is as cross as Kerry's mad pants!  Daniel

Cinderella is as lovely as the sun on a summer's day.  She is kind and thoughtful.  Her eyes are as blue as the sea.  Cinderella's hair is a beautiful blonde colour.  It is shiny and golden.  She is stunning.  Cinderella puts people before herself.  She has a light blue headband on that matches her beautiful ballgown.  Isabel