Te Puna o ngā Korimako 2025

Plus Eastyn who is visting whanau on the South Island. I will update the photo when she returns.    Te Puna o ngā Korimako Welcome to 2025.  My name is Whaea Kim. I am the class kaiako and Whaea Jude is our kaiawhina. We have had a fabulous 4 days getting to know each other so far.  Whaea Jude Thank you to those who have sent along the stationery. Every day the children ask to do some work in their books so this is appreciated. We will swim every day at 12.20pm while it is so hot so please send togs and a towel. My email address is kim@waitaraeast.co.nz Our class celebrations and sharing of our learning will be shared in this blog and communications about upcoming school events will be done on Hero and the school Facebook page. Please let me know if you need support accessing Hero or call in at the office for Maggie or Jane to help you. Again, welcome and I look very forward to getting to know you and your child as the year progresses.  Whaea Kim  

Our kaupapa this term has been around Te Moana and in particular sustainability of sea creatures. We have looked at the quota system, legal size limits and what impact marine reserves have on fish and other sea creatures. A number of the class have a lot of prior knowledge about collecting kaimoana and have been able to contribute to these discussions.   We have enjoyed creating art pieces with what we have been learning. Come and see our ocean wall complete with jellyfish school as inspired by I am Jellyfish, our vocab book of the week. 

  We celebrated 100 days at school last Friday with looking at what 100 looks like...including using an app to make us look old which we all had a good laugh at. We have been back into all our learning which I can't wait to share on Tuesday at the 3 way conferences. We have been enjoying watching some of the Olympics on TV. Yesterday we had a French cafe for morning tea and tried baguette, croissants and camerbert cheese. We tried to take some photos with the TV to make it look like we are in Paris.

  Every Tuesday this term Korimako have gone out to visit the beautiful ginko tree out by the courts. There is a mataī tree in there too and a smaller kawakawa and they all stand alongside a number of tōtara and   pōhutukawa. Each week we notice what has been happening to the leaves. We look at the coverage and what colours we see both on the tree and on the ground. We head under the tree and pick up the fallen leaves. We look for their colours, shapes and sizes. Then, those who want to, throw them as high as they can. Why? It is fun but we can also feel the leaves, feel their weight and see them up close and really get to know them. Each week we have done this. 10 weeks in total. We have noticed that over time the leaves on the tree and the ground have changed colour. After lots of golds, oranges and browns week after week this week we have mainly all shades of brown. The fallen leaves ( leaf litter) are decomposing. They are sludgy, soggy and heavy. They are returning to t...

  This week's book was Marmaduke duck and the marmalade jam. What a tongue twister it was!! We got out the toaster and taste tested some marmalade. Surprisingly lots of children liked it... But not as much as the boysenberry ... Not poisonberry as some people thought!

  Our special book this week was The Gruffalo. The vocabulary we focused on were Knobbly means having lumps on the surface. As in, the Gruffalo ‘has knobbly knees’. Feast means a large and special meal. As in, “come for a feast in my logpile house”. Bursting means to suddenly express feelings or emotion. Like, “alright” said the Gruffalo bursting with laughter. Rumble means to make a long, low, rolling sound. Like, “now my tummy’s beginning to rumble”. Today we made some Grufflo Crumble which is a feature in the book. It turned out delicious considering it had teeth, toenails, prickles and eyes in it We all enjoying them sitting in the sun.