A very special morning tea!

Today we had the pleasure of joining Ms McRae for morning tea, up in the dining room at Old School House. This was a very special occasion indeed!

Here are some images which tell the story of our visit with Ms McRae:

When we arrived there was a beautiful table which had been set up for us, filled with delicious treats!

We each had a seat to sit on. Anika presented Ms McRae with a white rose and McKenna gave her the card that we had made. 

We listened carefully as Ms McRae read to us.

She shared some James K Baxter poems with us, from one of our books.

Next it was time to have a little drink of juice...

...and some delicious biscuits too!

Kaitlyn was very pleased that we were offered 'Hundreds & Thousands' biscuits.

After we had finished eating, Ms McRae invited us to visit her office. She showed us her secret door, her friend the pukeko and even her favourite pen, which was sparkly and had a special jewel on it!

We checked out the view from Ms McRae's office and then it was time to return to our classroom.

We had such a nice time and look forward to visiting Ms McRae again.

Numbers in our community.

Recently we have been discussing the idea of 'addresses.' 

In the words of Paige, "we have addresses so that people know where to find you...so that they know where you live, and if they want to send you some mail they write your number on the envelope." 

At home this week we each recorded our own street address (including the suburb which we live in) and our phone number. We have been sharing and discussing these during morning meetings. 

On Monday of this week, we explored the surrounding streets of our school in search of letter box numbers. We took clipboards and pencils so that we could record the numbers which we found. It was lovely to hear from Kaitlyn's Dad Michael today about how Kaitlyn had spotted a 7 and a 1 on a letter box this morning on the way to school. Michael asked, "and what number does that make?"and Kaitlyn responded, "It's seventy one!" Michael was impressed with Kaitlyn's knowledge of this number in the 'higher tens' and we were once again reminded of the way in which children absorb information and make meaningful connections with their learning when they are deeply engaged.

The girls seemed to really enjoy being out and about, exploring numbers in a new and exciting way. 

'I am who we are'

During a conversation that we had with the girls at the end of last term about our homes, who we live with and where we live, we noticed that the girls found our questions challenging. Questions such as 'where abouts do you live?' 'What is your address and your phone number?' and 'can you tell us about what your house looks like?' resulted in vague answers and at times, it seemed as if the girls hadn't thought much about these ideas.

At the time, we talked about these conversations and reflected on something that we had found very powerful about choosing inquiry topics, at a seminar we had attended; that when children have an emotional attachment to what is being explored and when they are learning about things that are relevant to their lives, they will be far more engaged and the inquiry will have a powerful impact.

Out of the children's conversations and our teacher reflection, has come the beginnings of our term inquiry, 'I Am Who We Are'. We have borrowed the title from a quote by Loris Malaguzzi (who is known as the founding protagonist of the pedagogy of Reggio Emila.) We feel this heading encapsulates the notion of ourselves as individuals, as well as the connections we have with others. It is others who help shape the person we are and we are reminded of the John Donne quote, 'No man is an island'. 

We have many ideas about what we may do during the term, but we will use the interests of the children to decide which possible directions we may head in.

Watch this space!

Our mountain.

Some of the girls have been working on drawings of Mt St John, for our book. There has been some rich and fascinating dialogue from the girls, all about what happens when we visit our mountain. The experiences we have, the people that we encounter, the animals, the sights and smells...

It has been wonderful to listen to the girls as they share their knowledge and talk about the experiences which they have had on Mt St John.

Below are some of the girls drawings, as well as some of their dialogue:

Artist: Zoe (Mt St John)

"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

Artist: Alice (Our picnic on Mt St John)

"We have a picnic together." - Vanessa

"You only have two biscuits...We sit on the blue mat, only bottoms though. Not gumboots, they go on the grass." - Alice

 Artist: Paige

"You are not allowed to touch the sheep or the cows." - Chloé

"...Because they might run you over." - Paige

"They might poo on you." - Chloé

Artist: Chloé

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

 Artist: Vanessa (Gumboots)

"Wear your gumboots, not your school shoes because your socks will get muddy and wet, and they might even get biddy bids on them!" - Chloé

"We see lots of cow poo too. Try not to stand in it!" - Kaitlyn 

"When you go down a steep hill, go down on your bottom." - Chloé

"You zigzag like the cows. You go down their tracks." - Paige

 

Artist: Anika (Wind blowing my hair)

"And you have to hold onto your hat." - Chloé

"...And your hair blows all around!" - Anika

Recently the girls were invited to draw pictures of our Junior School Principal, Mrs Brewin. The idea of who Mrs Brewin is, as well as her role within our school is something which the girls have placed a lot of emphasis on, during their discussions about important information for incoming students to know about our school.

You can read the girls dialogue and also view their drawings of Mrs Brewin on our documentation board in the classroom.

The girls are really excited about the idea of working to create a book for incoming students which tells the story of 'their' classroom, in their own words and complimented with their own drawings.

Artist: Vanessa

Introducing our new girls to Mt St John.

Today we embarked on our first journey of the term, up Mt St John. It was such a beautiful day, and we were very eager to re-connect with our mountain as well as to share it with our new friends.

Prior to walking up the mountain, we shared some of our wonderings that we had about the mountain. Some of the girls wonderings were as follows:

"I wonder if we will see Autumn leaves?" - Alice

 "I wonder if the leaves have changed to the colour red?" - Emily

"I wonder if we will see any rainbow coloured birds?" - Zara

"I wonder if we will see any sheep?" - Chloé

"Or...if the cows are back on the mountain again!" - Emma

"I wonder if there will be any water up in the pond?" - Anika

"I wonder if we will see Tahi the dog up there?" - Paige

Here are some images which tell the story of our trip up Mt St John:

 Kaitlyn's dad Mike joined us for our walk today. Zoe told him that she wished he had three hands so that she could hold his hand too.

It was beautiful and sunny, but at times it was windy too. McKenna had to hold on tightly to her hat.

Anika explored the long, long grass.

 Some of us took it slowly and carefully...

...and others ran down, as we got closer to the bottom of the hill.

 Today was a particularly special visit to Mt St John as we met some girls from St Cuthbert's at the top. Mrs Bayes has a good friend who teaches at this school, called Mrs Waller. We all had a picnic together.

We enjoyed playing 'The Three Little Pigs'. Mrs Bayes was the wolf. She sure does a good job at pretending to be the wolf! We all giggled when she burnt her bottom on the fire that the pigs had made.

 We climbed trees...

...and Chloé found a huge big branch.

McKenna found a beautiful buttercup and shared this with her friends.

Once again we had a joyful and interesting time on Mt St John. We look forward to going again next Wednesday! 

"Must we always teach our children with books? Let them look at the mountains and the stars up above. Let them look at the beauty of the waters and the trees and flowers on earth. They will then begin to think, and to think is the beginning of a real education."

- David Polis

Zebra's in the Foundation Class.

This week several of the girls expressed an interest in the zebra's in our construction area. Chloé had a wonderful suggestion which was to find some books in our school library about zebra's, so that we could "read about them...and maybe even draw some too." When we visited the library on Monday after this discussion, the girls searched high and low for books with images of zebra's in them. We found so many!

We set up a provocation about zebra's and in response to this the girls have been producing some inspiring work.

Artist: Kaitlyn McCarthy

Author and illustrator: Emily You