Mrs Brewin on Mt St John.

When the girls heard that Mrs Brewin was coming up to Mt St John with us they wanted to tell her all about our walk. This is the conversation that we had. We sent it to Mrs Brewin by email.

"She needs to bring her gumboots" Isobella said. "Please wear shoes that you don't like so if you get them dirty you won't mind."

Jenesis said "don't wear your black high heels cause you might step in the mud and get cow poo all over them."

Sophia said "I think you should bring a jumper as it might be a bit cold."

"Be careful of the cows and don't go behind them cause they might kick you with their back feet."

"Mrs Brewin we don't know if Tahi will be up there but we think that he might go early and we won't see him. We want you to meet Tahi 'cause he is our favorite dog and we love him. Don is Tahi's owner. Sometimes Tahi jumps into the trough and stands in the water. When he gets out he shakes his body and we don't stand too close cause we don't want to get wet."

Anika said, "Don't step in the water mud 'cause you will get dirty. You might fall down and get mud in your eyes."

"I have something to say about Ti tiko puke – that's Mt St John – Mrs Brewin, be careful you might sink in the mud."

"There is a sign and it tells you that you are allowed to look at the birds, you can walk your dog but you can't have your dog on a lead, you can't bike up there."

"You can also look at the view. You can have one or two biscuits but you have to wipe your hands first and drink your water."

"You can climb trees!"

We leave at 9.00am!

Mrs Brewin on Mt St John with us.

Estimation.

Needing a giant for our ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ story gave us an opportunity to introduce estimation. I asked the girls ‘can you estimate how tall the giant needs to be to fit in the castle?’

Their replies centred around how ‘huge’ and ‘enormous’ giants were. ‘Bigger than a house’, ‘as tall as the clouds’ and ‘much bigger than you Mrs Bayes’.

I showed them a picture of a giant and Jack and we talked about proportion and estimation (explaining that it’s a guess). I asked them ‘If Jack is this big, how big would you estimate the giant needs to be?’

I introduced the measuring tape and asked how many centimetres the giant would need to be to fit in the castle on the wall. Using their hands they showed how tall he would be. We then measured 

their estimations;

Emma     20 centimetres            Daisy        34 centimetres
Lutia        30 centimetres             Jenesis    62 centimetres
Sophie    42 centimetres

I then climbed up with the measuring tape to measure the castle and the girls were asked to collectively agree on what height the giant should be. The consensus was 20 centimetres!

These are the giants that Lutie, Sophie, Jenesis and Daisy drew exactly 20 centimetres tall. They had to think about the proportion of body parts to make the giant look ‘just right’. Emma drew the giant for our story and it is on the wall.

Sophie

Lutie

Jenesis

Daisy

Tree paintings.

Anika, Ria, Zoe, Sophia and Isobella all worked very hard on these paintings of our tree with the missing branch. They are really proud of their pictures. Can you spot the branches that have been cut away in their paintings? 

Artist: Anika

Artist: Isobella

Artist: Ria

Artist: Sophia

Artist: Zoe

A gift for the tree.

When we returned to school this term, we were all very devastated to find that the trees in our garden had been pruned over the holidays, and that during this process our favourite branch and hand made swing had been removed.

We decided that rather than telling the girls about what had happened, we would wait for them to discover the branch was missing for themselves. Sure enough, the first thing that several of the girls noticed when we opened the door to our garden, was the missing swing and branches.

Zoe, Isobella and Sophia were the first to discover the missing swing and seemed to be deeply effected by what they saw. Zoe took on the role of bringing the information to the girls who were still inside the classroom.

The word quickly spread to all of the girls and it became very evident from listening to their conversations, that they were carrying a real sense of loss. What was also very prevalent was the sense of empathy the girls seemed to feel for the tree.

A few days after the girls discovery of the missing swing, a small group of children entered into a very special conversation:

“You know it made me so sad about the branch being cut off.” - Isobella
“I couldn’t believe it!” - Sophia

“What did you like so much about the tree/swing?” - Mrs Smith
“It gave us lots of fun.” - Sophia
“It was SO special.” - Isobella

“I know...we will make a gift for the tree.” - Isobella

“I think maybe we could make painted stones. I saw those in Rarotonga once. We can put them all around the bottom of the tree. Just here.” (pointing to the base of the tree) - Isobella

“...and the tree will be beautiful again.” - Isobella

“Do you not think the tree is beautiful anymore, now that the branch has been cut Isobella?”
- Mrs Smith

“It’s a little ugly now. You know, if you cut all of a trees branches off then its not even a tree anymore.” (Looks sad) - Isobella

“Well what does it become?” - Mrs Smith

“...it’s just a stump.” - Isobella

And so, Isobella, Sophia, Anika, Ria and Zoe have begun the very special journey of creating a gift for our tree.

From Garden to Table.

Lately, during our baking experiences the girls have been invited to pick and taste some of the produce from our garden. The girls decided that it would be a good idea to put some chives, spring onions and silver beet on top of our pizzas, and to pick some fresh lettuce for our buns. The girls have been enjoying exploring the herbs and vegetables with their different senses. Smelling and tasting the herbs, and feeling the different textures as they pick them and hold them in their hands. When it comes time to prepare the pizzas, the girls work very carefully to evenly disperse the chives, spinach and onions and to make sure they look “lovely and delicious!”

Each week the pizza’s have ended up tasting very delicious, and utilizing some of our very own produce to enhance our weekly baking experience has been very exciting for the girls. It is a wonderful way to reinforce the idea that we can put effort into caring for and nurturing plants, and in turn we can enjoy the results of this.

Fresh herbs to taste.

Preparing the 'love heart' shaped pizza's.

Isobella and Ria explore the different scents of the herbs.

Ria carefully breaking the silver beet into little pieces.

Measuring Our Plants.

Sophie, Lutie, Anika, Daisy and Jenesis worked very hard today to measure the height of the vegetables and to record their measurements on their clip boards. They helped to sound out the names of the vegetables as I wrote them down. They then carefully copied them from the whiteboard onto their clipboards.

The care and attention they took to write down the numbers and letters correctly was commendable. 

We had a conversation about millimetres and then introduced the term centimetres and the symbol ‘cm’. I explained that as centimetres was such a long word, ‘cm’ was a short way to write it.

The baking team picked some of our chives, silver beet and spring onions to put on the pizzas today. They were delicious!  

Fun in the pool!

 Thursday afternoon is always eagerly anticipated in the Foundation Class, as swimming is very much a highlight of the girls week. We are so lucky to have such a great swimming facility available to us, and it is always a pleasure to observe the girls as they develop in confidence and skill over time in the pool. 

We've taken some photos so that you can see just how well the girls are all doing:

Sophia and Ria practicing their kicking.

Anika loving the water.

Jenesis enjoying the water too!

Sophie holding her breath under water.

Sophia working with the flutter board.

Lutie is a great swimmer!

Here she is practicing her free-style.

Daisy doing a great starfish!

Zoe practicing kicking with the flutter board.

Isobella can do a great starfish too!