Our First Day Back!

Our morning started by opening a surprise package that had arrived in the classroom. 

Was it a kitten? something to eat? or a birthday present for someone's birthday? 

What fun we had opening it and discovering all the treasures inside. The letter attached to the box, suggested that our special fairy friends from Mt St John may have left the box for us!

Our 'old' girls, as they refer to themselves as, have confidently taken the 'new' girls under their wing. Each girl took their buddy by the hand and off we went for a walk to visit the chapel. 

As tomorrow is chapel, it helps to go and visit first.

It's lovely for the girls to wander and explore, touching the beautiful treasures, trying out the microphone and sitting at the organ. 

We were very lucky to bump into Reverend Moss on the way back to class and she invited us into her office to look around. 

Madame Alpe came for French and the girls really enjoyed their time with her! The 'old' girls had remembered lots of words and phrases and the new girls were very interested in every thing she was showing them.

As I sit here writing up this blog message, I can hear the girls involved in lovely play 

and conversations. This time for the girls to get to know each other and to settle 

into school life is so important.

 

We are having such a lovely first day of term together!

Saving the bees drop by drop!

To end our inquiry 'saving the bees' we made 'Natures Own clothes washing liquid'.

The girls learnt what ingredients they needed and have a good idea of the process                                  they used for making it.

One of the most enjoyable parts of it was playing with it before they bottled it.

We'll make some more next term just for playing with!

It has been an enjoyable experience incorporating maths and literacy and requiring team work and persistence to reach the end result.

Of course the idea of selling the washing liquid to mum and dad and making money                              for an ice cream, really appealed.

We had the bestest day!

One of the girls told her mum as she arrived 'we had the bestest day!' 

The excitement of today being 'ice cream' day made for a wonderful last day of term. We began by working out the money and sharing it out so everyone had four dollars. 

Off we walked to the dairy and the lovely man patiently helped the girls work out how much they owed for their ice creams and how much change they would get. He also gave them a lollipop which seemed to good to be true to the girls.

We sat and ate the icecreams on the footpath as we knew they would melt before we got back.

As you may have noticed, quite a bit got dribbled onto their clothes.

Yes, we had a fabulous last day together.

How's the fish going Mrs Bayes?

The girls are very interested in knowing what is happening to the fish that we buried 

last week. Today we dug it up to take a look. We were surprised to 

find that it still looked the same. Some girls thought it would have turned golden and others thought 

it might be just dirt.

We all thought it would smell but it didn't.

Next term we'll take another look!

Fascinating!

A Zoo in Parnell! Who would have guessed?

Téas Fairy God Mother, Ange, warmly welcomed us into her home. Ange is also the Fairy God Mother to goldfish, a reptile named Tony, seven Turtles and believe it or not, two little piglets.

They children's interest was captured with all there was to see and hear about.

We were lucky enough to watch the piglets having a bath.

 

Sadly, Ange had found one of her fish had died overnight. She had left the hose running in the pond and the water had got too cold. Ange included us in a little ceremony to farewell the fish; lighting candles and singing a farewell song. 

We brought the fish back to school and buried it in the garden.

The girls collected flowers and once again sang to it as we covered it over.

There were many questions...

Where does the fish go?

Will he go to heaven or stay in the ground?

When I spoke of the fishes body staying in the ground and his spirit going to heaven

there were more questions...

Where is his spirit?

Do we have a spirit?

Is it in our heart?

Why can't we see a spirit?

 

What a wonderful day. Thanks Ange for letting us come to visit.

Visiting the Eco Store

Sara and Melissa talked to us about bees and how we must look after our world so that bees will not be harmed. A focus on the talk was how we need to use less chemicals in our cleaning products and also in the things that we use to clean our bodies.
We purchased some hand and dish washing liquid as well as
crayons made out of wax.

Each girl was given a little gift bag and they were delighted with it's contents!

Thanks Sara, Melissa and everyone at Eco Store.

Nothing Without Joy!

Yesterday when we discussed our visit to the Garden Centre and Cornwall Park, I asked the girls

'What were some of the things that you enjoyed the most on our outing?'

I was expecting conversations about all that we had seen and experienced together.

At the Garden Centre we saw beautiful flowers, interesting sculptures, plants,

colourful umbrellas, the garden furniture that the girls enjoyed trying out; and at Cornwall Park there was the lambs and chickens, the babies out for a walk with their mums, 

the view from Maungakiekie, rolling down the bank, running through the trees

and the rows and rows of different types of Daffodils ...

And what did they ALL say?

Trying to get the Monster off the roof of the van as we went over the bumps!

The laughter and joy was wonderful.

As each bump was coming up I would call out...

Are you Ready?

And they would answer loudly...

Yes we are! 

We loved it when Tess, was calling out the question and the answer perfectly. 

She is catching on to so many words so quickly.

So, as Carla Rinaldi says

'Nothing Without Joy',

and that's certainly what we all experienced on Monday.