We have gone to the Dogs

Mask Parade 2015

This week we have been getting into creating our Truffula Trees for the Mask parade which Nayland Primary will be marching in. The parade is held on Friday 16 October (the first week back of term 4). Below are some images of the students creating. Mrs Gulbransen even popped in to add some artistic flair.

PawPrints

On Tuesday afternoon room 14 was fortunate to have the paw prints team spend an hour and a half with our class. They spent the time introducing the students to 5 dogs. The students were taught about behaviour around dogs and dog grooming. It was a fantastic opportunity for the students to be up close with dogs and to build an understanding of dog behaviour. 

Suter Gallery Trip

Please get the permission slips and money back in for the Suter Gallery Trip. We must have permission slips in by the end of the week. Children who bring their library cards will be able to get books out from the Elma Turner Library in town. Books from the town library can be returned to the Stoke Library.

Calendar Art

Don't miss out not he opportunity to purchase your child's Art in calendar/diary form with our calendar art on sale now. Orders need to be in by the end of this week.

Science Fair and Calendar Art

As the term starts to wind up we have a number of exciting things happening.

Science Fair:

This will be held on Tuesday 8 September in the Multi Purpose space between 5pm and 7pm. Our class is presenting on balloon experiments between 5-15 and 5-30. there will be the opportunity to see work being done throughout the school as we celebrate science. if you wish to come along do so between 5-5-30 to catch some of what we have been doing in room 14.

Calendar Art:

On Monday the students will be coming home with an order form for calendar art. The art the students have created can be viewed in the classroom. Below are a couple of examples of their work. Each creation is made up of a collage of your child's own art as they have experimented with different techniques throughout the term. We have then chopped that art up for them to collage the art piece now created.

Class Trip:

In the last week of term we will be heading by bus into the Suter Art Gallery in town and the Nelson Public Library. The trip is an opportunity for the students to experience further art teaching and to visit the library where they can (if they bring a library card) get books out. Library cards for the Stoke library are valid at the town library. The cost of the trip is $4-00 and a permission slip will be coming home with the students on Monday.

Maths:

For the past few weeks we have been working on the students skills at making 10 and then 20. We are now moving to doubling and halving numbers from 1-20. Work at home could include getting your child to know their doubles and halves e.g. What is double 3? What is half 16 ... Students who are able to quickly recall these basic facts will find it easier as we use these strategies to solve more complicated maths equations. 

Science

This term we have started our with a focus on science. Students are learning to question like
scientists. Part of the understanding with science is that science is all around us and that we can all ask scientific questions in everyday life. Alongside this students have been learning the scientific method consisting of

Question - Ask a question
Research - Find out what you can
Hypothesis - What do you think you can prove
Experiment - Carry out testing
Analysis - Record your results
Report - What you have found out.

To kick of the topic we were fortunate to have Mr McLellan (Head of science at Nayland College) present to us about science.

In class we have been conducting our own experiment on growing alfalfa sprouts. We asked the question "Under what conditions would the alfalfa grow best." We have 4 test samples. One that has received light and water, one with light and no water, one with water and no light and one with no water and no light.
Our hypothesis is that the alfalfa will grow best with light and water.

                                  After 5 days this is our plants with light and water.

                 After 5 days this is the plant with water but no light

The test samples with no light have not grown at all.

Mask Parade

At the beginning of term 4 is the Nelson Mask Parade. Every 3 years Nayland Primary participates in the parade as part of its Art focus.  This year the theme is the wonderful wold of books. As a school we will be presenting the Lorax as the theme for our masks. The Awa syndicate will be the Truffula Trees.

In weeks 7-10 we will be creating our masks.  This is a great opportunity for parents to be involved. Watch this space....

Dreams

This term we have been reading the BFG. A story of a Big Friendly Giant and a little girl Sophie.  The BFG is a dream collector and he keeps the dreams in jars on his shelf. Each dream is different. This week we have been making our own dream jars and the students will be using these as inspiration for their writing. Our writing focus has recently been on using the 5 senses to help us write descriptive stories. Below are some photos of the students as they create their dream jars.
 Later in the week they will be writing the detail of the dream.

Creative Spaces/ Maths

Creative Spaces

On Tuesday afternoon this week we will be walking with room 15 to visit a couple of local parks in the area.  As part of our creative spaces unit we have been looking at what is play. This week we will look at what makes a play space? Why do we have play spaces near houses? If you would like to join us on our walk we would love to have parents walking.  We plan to leave school at 1.30 and be back for the end of the day.

Maths - Notebooks

The students will be coming home with a maths notebook this week.  The purpose of the notebook is to identify some of the concepts your child is working on in their maths group at school. If you are able to spend a few minutes each day going through concepts such as skip counting in 2's, 5's and 10's up to 100.  Knowing the number before and after any number up to 100 it will greatly assist your child as they work to cement some of these concepts.

Oral Language

Oral Language

The ability to orally express ideas, thoughts, feelings has been shown to be vitally important in education. For this reason in room 14 we have an oral language focus each term.  Last term the focus was on presenting and listening skills. The students chose from a list of possible topics and presented each week.
This term the students are each being given  a country to find out some information on and then present that information to the rest of the class. To date we have had fantastic presentations on Vietnam, India, Thailand, Egypt and China. As well as learning skills around speaking to others, the students are learning valuable skills around finding information about the world they live in.  A big thank you to the parents who are supporting their children learning in this important way. Below are a couple of photos from the presentations.

Discovery Time

Each week we collaborate with the other classes in the Awa syndicate for a discovery time. This time is where the students get to explore learning they are interested in with a focus around one of the key competencies.  This term the focus is on managing ourselves. our focus this week was on perseverance, sticking with a task even when it is hard. Below are a few photos from this weeks discovery time