Bears@taddy

 We’ve had a wonderful afternoon! The infants have really impressed me by the way they’ve demonstrated many of our school values during our session. I loved how they worked together, coaching one another and giving feedback whilst whittling their sticks. Whittling is a tricky skill but the way they listened and reacted to feedback meant that everyone successfully managed to take off the bark from the stick and create a pointy end for the marshmallow to stab onto. Once we had all whittled a stick, we had a fire and sat around the fire circle and enjoyed hot chocolate and toasted marshmallows together. 

 We were really pleased this morning to welcome some tourists to the Kapiti plans. They wanted to be shown around the area so the children took turns to be the guide, describing the surrounding and explaining their knowledge of the Kapiti plains to the tourists.  Once the children had shown the tourists around they created maps of the Kapiti plains for the visitors to use during their visit. We looked carefully at the area and placed key points of interest on the map then labelled them using our phonics knowledge. It was lovely to see the children working together, sharing their knowledge and giving feedback to one another about what they liked and what they could do next time in order to improve. After feedback, William wrote ‘pig’ again, ensuring he wrote left to right, not right to left.   

 On Monday a little bird interrupted our lesson, it was holding a note around his neck, which said.... The children read the instruction and looked under the mat to find parcel wrapped up, which happened to be our new book for this topic ‘Bringing the rain to Kapiti plain’.  After reading the story we used the magnetic letters to word-build things that a bird does, focusing on the digraph ‘ck’. Later in the week, we arrived in the class to find a bow and arrow, which is key in the story, as the main character, Ki-pat shoots down the rain cloud to end the draught. The Bears learnt the words to this section of the story and used instruments for sound effects. We then made a musical score together and performed what we’d learnt in front of the Tigers.  As part of the provisions in our class the children have been working hard in the role play area, assisting customers in the tourist information office by giving advise on transport, things to do in the area, making bookings a...

 This week the Bears have been working really hard to write their own version of the story ‘Where the wild things are’.  The children used their imaginations to change the key elements of the story and acted it out as a group.  They were so excited to get started writing their very own book. They thought and discussed their version of the story then started to record it in their very own story book. It was lovely to see children starting to use their phonics, sounding out and blending words together before writing them down. The bears also designed their own front cover for their book, trying to give clues about what their story is all about.  After the Bears had finished their books they shared them with each other before heading off to the Tiger class where the Tigers listened to them telling their stories. I am so impressed with how hard the children have worked on their books and the way they have used their incredible imaginations to create such innovative stori...