Swimming in Rongo-mā-tāne

After Show Weekend the school pool was opened for business. Some of the children in Rongo-mā-tāne were super excited because it was their first time in the school pool. 

We've been practising lots of new skills like getting in safely, putting our heads under water, blowing bubbles, and just generally becoming more confident in the water. 

Lately, the weather hasn't been so great, but the children have been so brave getting in and enjoying it anyway. They love to show the teachers all of the different things they can do in the water. 

What's your favourite thing about the school pool?

Exploring the drawing tool in ScratchJR...

Students in Rachel's kaiāwhina group worked with Elizabeth today to explore ScratchJR.  Students learnt about the drawling tool in ScratchJR.  Our challenge was to draw a Minecraft character.  Some of us programmed our Minecraft character to move and some did a 360 turn!  These are some of our characters below...

Itty Bitty Beats and Suzy Cato Show

On Monday, Rāwhiti School were lucky to host a show from Itty Bitty Beats and Suzy Cato. We listened to some old favourites and some new songs too. 

First, they sang the welcome song from the 'You and Me' television programme.

We had the opportunity to 'Sprinkle A Little Sunshine'. 

We got to do some dancing.

Then at the end, they even sang a Christmas song from their new book.

https://www.ittybittybeats.com/

Active Play

When the children get to school in the mornings, there are a range of activities for them to choose from between 8.30 and 9.20 a.m. Some of our choices at the moment are:

... playing on Rapuara (the hill) and the surrounding playground;

... playing in the sandpit;

... the vet clinic in the studio;

... drawing or another art activity.

The Mystery of the Killed Rat

It didn't die from a cat because there wasn't any blood and it wasn't bitten. We made the box to put the rat in there. By Jacob

We think it was poisoned. We didn't touch it because we didn't want to get poisoned. By Beau  

First, I thought it was sleeping because it just lying down. I think I saw it breathe and its belly went up and down. It wasn't bitten, so we knew that it was poisoned. Its tail was as big as the whole school. It had straight lines on its tail and it was gross. We made a coffin out of a cardboard cookie holder and we put in long grass and leaves to make it kind of soft. I don't like rats! They are cheese stealers! By Tobias-John

Choice and Challenge - Boardgames

 On Fridays we have Choice and Challenge in the junior school. Rongo-mā-tāne and Papatūānuku get the morning to do fun activities and work on challenging themselves. 

One of the activities is board games. If they choose this they get to play all sorts of different board games. We have Beetle, Monopoly Junior, Buckaroo, Game of Life Junior, Uno, and Loopin' Louie. It's a great opportunity for everyone to practise our school values of resilience, self-managing, success, and integrity. 

There are always lots of laughs and team work. Sometimes a bit of healthy competition happens and that's ok, we work through it and come out happy in the end. 

"I like boardgames because I get to play games with my friends." - Noah B

"I like boardgames because you can literally play any one you want." - Devin

Maybe on a Friday you could choose boardgames and see how you go. 

The chicks visited Rongo-mā-tāne

On Monday morning the chicks came to the class so that people could hold them. They came from a farm. My family is looking after them and they will go back to the farm when they are a bit older. We had to put newspaper and a tarp on the floor so then they don't poop on the floor! My sister Charlotte stayed and helped. By Ashleigh

When I held the chick I had to put a towel over me. I had to be gentle because they will get scared. I liked holding it because it was cute and soft. By Indi-Lea

I held a chick. I had to hold it with two hands so it wouldn't fly away. You still have to hold it so gentle though and not make it squish. Thank you, Ashleigh and her Mum. By Tegan

Benny's BIG Adventure

Rachel's very good friend who lives up in Pōneke (Wellington) wrote a story about her beagle Benny. Benny was lost in the bush for 9 whole days. He had been on a dog walk with a group when he lost the group and made his was up a huge ravine where his lead got caught under a log and he was stuck.

They contacted the RSPCA and also organised a helicopter with an infrared camera to help search. Finally two of their good friends came across poor Benny who was stuck and hungry. They got him down from the mountain and he made it home where he was safe. 

Some of the children in Rongo-mā-tāne chose to respond to this picture book by drawing a picture and writing a sentence about it. They were amazed to hear that Benny made it home safe as they were very worried about him. 

Here are some of the drawings the children did.

Have you been on an adventure? Maybe it's not quite as scary as Benny's adventure. Tell us about it, we'd love to hear. 

Kelly Sports

Today we had Steve and Nicole from Kelly Sports come and give us a taster of the after school programme they'll be running next term. There were three different activities that we rotated through that used different skills. 

Everyone gave it a go and we all had heaps of fun. The activities included balancing a tennis ball on a tennis racquet, hitting a tennis ball into a hoop using a cricket bat, and running over hurdles and sprinting back to the team. 

I wonder who will go to the after school programme next term when it begins... you can book online at kellysports.co.nz

Hitting tennis balls with a cricket bat.

Hitting tennis balls with a cricket bat.

Practising balancing a tennis ball on a tennis racquet.

Practising balancing a tennis ball on a tennis racquet.

Running over hurdles.

Running over hurdles. 

Running over hurdles. 

Hunting for Bugs

On Fridays, Rongo-mā-tāne and Papatūānuku have Choice and Challenge together. One of the options is 'Bug Hunt'. We collect bugs from the garden to feed our class frogs. We don't take worms out of the garden though because worms improve the soil. We take slugs because they eat the vegetables that we are trying to grow. So, not only are we caring for our frogs but we are caring for the plants in our school garden too. 

We roll back the logs at the sides of the garden because the bugs love to hide under them in the dark. If we are quick enough, sometimes we can catch beetles and millipedes.