Bees

The children wrote their information about bees on pages and saved their work.

Aarman and Finn

Connor, Justin and Emily Y

Jordan L and Emily S

Lucas, Matthew and Ryan

Jordan L and Roy

Connor, Sam and Xavier

Images sourced from: 

http://www.sigfriedtrent.com/2011/10/thoughts-on-bees-and-pesticides/
http://www.public-domain-image.com/animals/insects/bee/slides/pollinating-bees.html

Mathematics

The children have been working on a variety of strategies to support their mathematics.
Here are a few examples.

Sam

Aneri

Rohan

Aarman

Justin

Nicole

Judy

Comprehension

We have been focusing on comprehension.  
After reading a specific book we look at a variety of strategies to support our understanding of the story.
Here are some charts that we have designed together.

The Three Bears
The children focus on key words and make suggestions to form connections and justify their reasons for choosing these words.

The Boo-Dee-Roo

By Ron Bacon

The children focus on characters, actions, settings and main ideas of the story.  After discusion they design their key ideas related to the text.

The Gardener's maze

By Dot Meharry

The children designed a time line outlinng the main points of the story from beginning to end.

Pukeko Morning

By Joy Cowley

The children designed a before and after chart.  They recorded the information they knew about the pukeko and then we recorded the information they gained after reading the story.  

The children wrote on the chart: "Room 4 know that reading is important because you learn so much information from books."

Where the Wild Things Are

By Maurice Sendak

The children designed a plot profile, showing the key stages in the story and the excitement level in graph form.

Dragon Trouble

By Sue Cason

The children listened to a story and drew pictures about the story.  They shared their thoughts with the class.

Sunset Art

Room 4 looked closely at images of sunsets and buildings.  We discussed their colours and shapes.  Then the children designed a variety of different shaped buildings on black paper.  They selected the colours they wanted for their own sunset and scraped paint along the cardboard to make an interesting texture.  After that they decided on a name for their painting.
Here are some of the paintings.

Writing in Room 4

Here is a video showing the writing process in Room 4. 

 During the week the children write on a particular topic and during this time they have a conference with the teacher to focus on specific strategies and discuss their individual goals.

They also publish their own writing.

The children decide on their own topic and have the opportunity to write independently.

They also work with the Learning Assistant and focus on specific skills.

Some writing from the children in Room 4

RockUp

What a fantastic day we had on Thursday 11 April.  The children participated in a variety of challenging activities.  They were: rock climbing, giant earth ball, ski board challenge and the volcano adventure.  This was a great opportunity for the children to work as a team and challenge themselves. 
At the end of the day all the children felt extremely proud of themselves.  They certainly worked very hard and had an adventurous day.

 Meet as a Group

Rock Climbing

Volcano Adventure

Giant Earth Ball

Ski Board Challenge

What fun we all had today.