For those who missed it / anyone who would like to watch again!

This afternoon we went to Princes Court Rest Home and sung 4 songs for the residents. They sung You are my Sunshine back to us. We then took our writing and pictures from this week to share with the residents. The children showed some great confidence in talking with the residence and trying something new!

Like I mentioned in the previous post, today was an exciting day. This afternoon we continued with our kitchen chemistry.

We read the story Pancakes, Pancakes! by Eric Carle. In the story the boy Jack wanted to have a big pancake for his breakfast, but first had to help his mum get all the ingredients. In the story Jack had to harvest grain for flour, collect eggs from the chicken coop, help milk a cow, churn the butter and make a fire to cook the pancakes on. As we read the story we talked about the differences and and where we got the ingredients from that we used today.

Then we made our own batter, but changed the way we cooked it. We ended up making pancakes and waffles. We were on the look out to see what was different and what was the same.

Today was a very exciting day - a lot has happened so I am going to write 2 posts!
During writing time we had a visitor come to room 1! It was Mrs Coe's 3 month old kitten.
Below are some pictures as well as the stories that the children wrote today, about meeting Possum!

Possum walked around the circle, purring and sniffing the children to say hello. She was very curious. She showed off playing with one of here toys and Mrs Coe made sure everyone had a chance to pat her. 
Then she had a break (in the break-out room) and room 1 used there senses to talk about what she looked like, felt like and sounded like.
They then used their ideas for their writing. Below are their sentences:
Stephan - Possum the kitten is soft.
Faith - Possum the kitten was fluffy and she purred.
Lochie - Possum the kitten was fluffy and furry.
Callan - Possum the kitten was soft and warm and she was looking around the room.
Eden - Possum the kitten is cute.
Heitor - I touched Possum and she was fluffy and cute.
Damon - Possum the kitten was fluffy and it was fun.
Arrie - I want to sleep with Possum the kitten.
Daniel - Possum the kitten is really soft.
Noah - Possum the kitten has soft fur and she is super cute.
Limba - Possum was fluffy, furry and soft.
Boetie - Possum the cat licked me.
Vienna - Possum the kitten was soft and we got to pat her. She purred lots.
Archie - Possum the kitten was soft and she played with her toy mouse.
Gabriella - Possum the kitten felt soft and furry.

Good work Limba! ​For working hard to learn his letter sounds and sight words!

Welcome to ACS Archie!! We hope you had a great first day on your birthday!

Using 1c coins to purchase items  from a 'shop'. Using Numcion shape patterns to help us.

Today we looked at how to say some different greetings in NZ Sign Language and also ask 'How are you?' This is something we have also started to learn in Māori.

How are you?

I am good.

This week is New Zealand Sign Language Week. Today in class we talked about how how if someone is Deaf and someone cannot hear - this is how they talk to other people. Also that it is another language that is special to New Zealand and is different to other countries sign language. We learnt how to say; "Kia Ora, nice to meet you."

Kia Ora, Nice to meet you!

We also watched and copied New Zealand's National Anthem in Sign Language!

During reading time, groups also read along to some of the 'Ready to Read' books that have apps on the class iPad. Stories that we know like, Bubbles, Dad's Snore, I'm the King of the Mountain, and T-shirts also have an option to watch them read in NZ Sign Language. The children enjoyed getting to see this today while listening to their stories. These and other stories are available from the Ministry of Education as free apps if you'd like to have a look / read along at home (they do take up a bit of memory though!).