Algebra in Team Tekau

Check out the cool maths learning that was happening in Team Tekau today.  (Sorry about some of the quiet voices!)  All children talking about their maths learning!

PTA Chocolate Fundraiser - HOME TODAY!!

Hi everyone, our annual PTA Chocolate Selling Fundraiser starts today!  The eldest/only child in every class has been issued with a box of chocolates to sell @ $1 each.  In the excitement of issuing the boxes of chocolates, the VERY efficient teacher in Rm 10 forgot to collect the Black Box from the office, which contained the letter explaining all about this fundraiser.  Please see the picture below and check your child's bag tomorrow!  Many thanks, and happy selling!

FUN IN THE LEAVES & CREATIVE WRITING!

This week we decided to go and have some fun in the playground, throwing some of the MANY autumn leaves that have fallen!  We had a great time, throwing the leaves up high and watching them come raining back down over us.

In our writing over the next couple of days, we talked about the leaves, how they looked, moved, smelt and felt.  We then worked to create a sentence (or two) to describe what we'd done.  Then today, we published our sentences putting them on a background of leaf rubbings.  We are proud of the results and we think it makes our cloak bay look amazing.

REMINDER - MUFTI TOMORROW - FRIDAY 13 MAY

Just a reminder that tomorrow we have mufti day at school, as a fundraiser to support an ex-Mahora pupil Aimee Fisher, who is going to be representing NZ at the Rio Olympics, as part of the K4 team.
Students who wear mufti are asked to pay $2.  Go Team NZ!!!

Finding the perimeter

In Maths, we are learning all about measurement.  At the moment we are learning about the perimeter of shapes.  We know that the perimeter of a shape is the shortest distance around the outside of a shape.  Today in class we used linking cubes to help us measure the perimeter of different shapes around the classroom.  We worked with a buddy, measuring carefully and then recording our ideas down in our books.  Lots of great co-operative learning and working together happening today in Team Tekau!  Ka pai.

Story time with Mr Pearse

We've been working hard on our writing this week in Team Tekau.  We've been using story stones to help us be creative with our writing ideas.  We decided to challenge Miss Smith to write a story using one of our stones, which she did.  She then challenged us to find another teacher to continue on the story, so we chose Mr Pearse and gave him a different story stone to continue on the story with.  He did a great job with his writing, and we loved it when he came into our class to share what he'd written with us.  He told us that he needed to wear a creative wig while he was reading a creative story.  We'll let you be the judge of whether it was a good idea or not!!!  Click on the link to watch the video of Mr Pearse reading his story to us.

Bring on Term 2!

Term 2 has begun with a bang in Team Tekau!  This term we are working on creative writing, adding detail where possible to make our writing more interesting for the reader.  Mrs Haronga bought in her story stones to use as writing/oral language prompts.  We talked about how the stones might be used to help us in our writing, and why we might choose different ones.  There was lots of talk about what stones people liked or wanted to use, in fact there was a real buzz going on!  Bring on the amazing writing Team Tekau!

Using our whiteboard tables!

Today Cheyden was making great use of our whiteboard tables to help him during our Daily 5 lesson today.  He was sounding out his high frequency words and working on matching the letter sounds and names.  Ka pai Cheyden!

Today we say goodbye!

Today we say goodbye to our lovely CT Miss Ferris.  She has been with us for the last 5 weeks, and we have learnt heaps from her, and we may have even taught her a few things too!  Here are just some of the things that we've been working on with her over the last few weeks.

We created some lovely Samoan art works based on tapa cloth design.  Miss Ferris and Mrs Haronga then glued them onto a table and covered it with cover seal so that we will be able to work at our cool 'up-cycled' table.

Miss Ferris was teaching us how to include detail in our writing.  We had to taste something that she brought in and then describe it without actually saying what it was.  Here are some of our clues about the first thing we tasted....

It smells refreshing (Jayden)

It smells like a mixture of sweet and sour (Isla)

It feels slimy (Zephaniah)

It feels squishy (Ephrame)

It felt sour going down my throat (Blair)

It made my face feel weird (Kupa'a)

It tasted fresh (Mahstang)

It tasted disgusting (Olly)

It tasted sour (Tanishka)

I saw little seeds (Dawn)

It is the same colour as our school uniform (Sofia/Raymond)

I saw Sofia's scrunched up face (Hannah)

WHAT AM I??????

I am a LEMON!

It was hard to not use words that would give away too many clues too quickly!

We've also been working hard on our Maths, learning about fractions.  One activity we completed with Miss Ferris was sorting and matching fractions that had been written as words, as numbers, as part of a whole and as part of a group.

There have been lots of other fun things we've done with Miss Ferris and things we've learnt from her.  These are just a few examples.  We wish her all the best for a successful teaching career.  

Haere ra Miss Ferris