Autumn inspiration.

During our first few days back at school it was clear to see that the girls were particularly taken by the presence of Autumn leaves all around us. The girls discussed the different coloured leaves they had been finding at home, as well as the leaves which they had seen here at school. Kaitlyn even collected some stunning yellow leaves from home, which she brought in to share with us.

In light of this, we set up some Autumn provocations around the classroom. Here are some examples of the work the girls have been doing in response to these provocations:

Kaitlyn found an image of the leaves she had collected in one of our books.

She also drew a picture of one of her leaves.

Emily worked to sketch several different Autumn leaves. She offered, "If you look really, really close, then you can see lots of lines all over the leaves. I'm drawing these too."

Vanessa, Sophie, Alice and Paige, all worked on stunning paintings of Autumn trees. 

Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.

- Albert Camus

Sharing insights.

Welcome back! 

We would like to say a big welcome back to you all and also a special welcome to our new additions to the class, McKenna, Anika, Vanessa and their families. We have had such a nice first week, where the girls have all settled in really well. It's hard to believe that McKenna, Anika and Vanessa have only just joined us, it feels as though they've been here for much longer!

During our first few morning meetings the old girls were invited to share some things with the new girls, that they thought would be particularly important for them to know. The dialogue which came from this provocation was so interesting and powerful that we are looking at the possibility of creating a book with the girls, which we can offer to incoming students to read with their parents, before they start in the Foundation Class.

Here is some of the important information that the girls shared with their new friends:

We go up Mt St John on Wednesday and when we go up there we wear gumboots. - Emily

Up Mt St John we have a picnic morning tea and Mrs Smith and Mrs Bayes pour us the yummiest drinks. We’re even allowed to drink fairy sparkle, lemonade and raspberry up there! But, it’s just about the imagination you know. - Zoe

Yeah, it’s probably just water. - Zara

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You have to go to the toilet sometimes. It’s just through the sliding door and around a bit. Make sure you go when you need so you don’t do wees in your nickers. - Paige

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You’re not allowed to talk about birthdays. Well, we just try not to talk about birthdays...like who’s going or not. - Zoe

Yes, that’s just to make sure that no one gets upset. - Sophie

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We have a paper recycling bin, just for paper. After it goes in that bin then it goes and gets made into different stuff. - Paige

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We have our own water glasses and you know it’s yours because your name is underneath it. We have to make sure that we drink lots of water. - Emma

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And...we have a worm bin! It’s for all of our fruit scraps. - Alice

But not for oranges! Nooooo oranges. - (Everyone offers this at the same time)

That’s because the worms are allergic to them. - Zoe

We will continue to share the girls dialogue with you, as well as the work which they have been doing in relation to these discussions. 

Natural names.

Yesterday our new girls worked to create 'natural names.' The girls searched through our garden to find lots of beautiful natural resources that we could use. We also had some lovely things in our classroom to use too! When the girls returned to the classroom they worked to glue these carefully on to their cardboard, forming the letters of their names.

1, 2, 3, 4...

We are getting so good at counting! 

Today we worked with the beautiful tiny paua shells to practice our counting. We also had a lot of fun adding groups of shells together and finding out what the total amount of shells was. Here are some images of us busy at work:

"We cannot hope that many children will learn mathematics unless we find a way to share our enjoyment and show them its beauty as well as its utility."

- Mary Beth Ruskai

Young illustrators.

Take a look at the interesting illustrations that the girls have done for their 'The Brave Mermaid and the Brave Whale' books. The girls put such care into their drawings, and are very proud of their work. 

Artist: Alejandra

Artist: Sara

Artist: Zoe

Artist: Vanessa

Artist: Georgia

Artist: Vanesssa

Artist: Emma

Artist: Zara

The production.

Here are some images from Friday's presentation of the girls story: 

 There was delicious popcorn!

Sara explained that we had worked really hard on this project.

Emma introduced the story by saying, "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the show!"

We handed the popcorn out to our friends.

We also shared our illustrations from our books.

Our parents seemed to really enjoy the story. They gave us a big clap at the end. Mrs Brewin, Mrs Thompson and Mr Edwards came to watch as well.

Thank you Mr Edwards for taking these photos for us!

The Brave Mermaid and the Brave Whale.

Over the past few weeks Georgia, Alejandra, Vanessa, Emma, Sara and Zara have been working together to create a digital shadow puppet story. This has been a fascinating journey for us all and resulted in the girls sharing this with the rest of the class, as well as our families, in an afternoon presentation.

To begin with, the girls decided on characters for their story and established a story line. This required lots of discussion and negotiation, but the girls quickly established a shared vision for their story.

 Following on from this the girls designed and created shadow puppets, performed and recorded the story and finally, recorded their voices through use of our Garageband program.  The girls seemed to really enjoy the recording process, capturing their own voices and playing them back to the group.

Next, the girls wrote the names of all of the people that were invited to our presentation onto invitations and delivered these.

Finally, we turned the story into a hard copy book. The girls worked busily to illustrate the book, drawing beautiful pictures for each page.

Overall, this has been an incredibly rich and rewarding learning journey, which we celebrated the conclusion of, in the form of an afternoon presentation. This was a very joyful occasion.

 

Here are some images of the girls and the characters which they played in the show: