Merry Christmas!

Wishing you all a safe and enjoyable holiday, and a very merry Christmas!

A very special last day.

On Friday we had such a wonderful time together down at Wynyard Quarter. We were so delighted when the sun came out for us, just as we arrived. The girls particularly enjoyed exploring the playground. There was lots of swinging, running, climbing and spinning! 

Eating lunch at Live Fish restaurant was also a highlight. The food was delicious and we had such a beautiful view of the water. Thank you Joanna for organizing this for us.

Here are some photos from our trip:

We would like to wish Daisy, Ria, Sophia and their families all the best as they move into year one next term and look forward to welcoming Luca, Kate, Eloise, Joyce and Karsimar next year.

Oh Christmas Tree!

Christmas is most certainly upon us, and in light of this we have begun to get into the Christmas spirit here in the classroom. We have been singing carols, playing with our wooden nativity scene, reading Christmas stories and working on some special Christmas crafts.

This morning the girls worked to create some decorative trees out of the sticks that they busily collected on Mt St John last Wednesday. They are all looking so beautiful and are hanging on our classroom tree. We will be sending these home with the girls at the end of the week.

Harvesting our produce.

On Thursday the girls harvested the produce from our garden. We picked our beans, peas, lettuces, spring onions and herbs and divided them all up into ten bags. We were so happy that everyone was able to take some home to share with their families. Sophia and her mum Susan told us about how they enjoyed making theirs into a salad to have at their BBQ on the weekend! Yum. 

Our 'from garden to table' inquiry has been a very rich collaborative experience, which has provided us with lots of fun and many opportunities to get our hands mucky! 

 We have all learnt lots about planting and caring for different vegetables and herbs, and most importantly the girls have become passionate young gardeners.

The 'most beautiful wonderful garden'.

Have you noticed the amazing garden mural that has appeared on our wall out in the hallway (near our door to outside). The girls have fondly called it 'the most beautiful wonderful garden.' This is a garden mural filled with all sorts of delightful things. Strawberries, sweetcorn, apple trees and fantastic looking insects are only a few of the different things that fill this space.

The girls have been working so hard on their drawings and paintings, looking carefully at different provocations and really seeing the detail in the different fruit, vegetables and insects which they have been creating. 

Here are some examples of their work: 

Sunflower by Isobella

Sweetcorn by Jenesis

Carrot and strawberries by Ria

Strawberries by Emma

Carrot by Zoe
 

Our garden is looking wonderful!

On Friday we went out to our garden to see how it was growing, as well as to pick some produce to have with our buns and pizzas. We were all very surprised to find that our peas had grown so big! The girls enjoyed counting the pea pods to see how many had grown, as well as gently touching the pea pods to see how they felt. "I can feel the tiny peas inside I think!" shared Emma excitedly. 

Our garden is looking wonderful and we have plenty of lettuces, as well as chives and spring onions so make sure that you help yourselves if you would like some!

"The love of gardening is a seed once sown that never dies." 

- Gertrude Jekyll

Poi making with Whaea Sarah and her students.

This morning we had some visitors come down from the senior school to work alongside us. Whaea Sarah and five of her students came down and helped us to make some poi for our classroom. It was beautiful to observe the way that the girls interacted with the older students. They seemed to really enjoy learning some Maori phrases and singing together with the older girls. When it was time for the big girls to leave we sang the national anthem in Maori together. 

The girls have learnt the lyrics for the national anthem so well, and Whaea Sarah was very impressed!

Learning some new Maori phrases.

Anika getting the hang of using the poi!

Carefully plaiting the poi string.

Isobella gives it a go!

Working together.

Making the poi sure was hard work.

Sophia enjoying exploring how a poi works.

Giving a little performance.

Numbers are all around us!

We had a lot of fun today as we walked back from Mt St John, searching for and naming as many numbers as we could! The girls would enthusiastically approach the letterboxes and tell us what the numbers were. It's wonderful to see that many of the girls are able to recognize numbers in the higher tens and enjoy trying to figure out what the numbers may be if they are unsure. 

You might like to ask your daughter if she recognizes what any of the numbers are in the photos below:

A swing on Mt St John.

We took a rope up Mt St John today, and made a swing on one of our favourite trees. The girls were delighted with the swing and enjoyed playing on it. They took turns at pushing one another and tried hard to swing as fast and as high as possible! We had a very joy filled morning.

Here are some photos of the girls with their swing: