Term 2 Week 4

Here are some photos and stories from the Mad Hatter's Parade

Today I went to the Mad Hatter's Parade. I felt happy because my Mum came to the parade. I liked my hat because it has butterflies and it is blue                                                                Priya


On Friday it was the School Parade. My teacher had a funny hat. It was a girl's hair. It made me laugh. My hat had pink sparkles and yellow too! It had pink feathers. It had a pattern in too.           Lara

I had a Mad Hatter's Tea Party at school. We had to walk around. I thought that my hat was really pretty because it had butterflies and feathers on it. I loved it because it was fun.           Bianca

Today I went to the The Mad Hatter's Parade. My hat had a butterfly on it. I loved going down the stairs.                                                                                                                            Charlotte   

Today I went to the Mad Hatter's day. I love my hat because it is cool. I love the Mad Hatter's day because I liked walking around because that is fun. My hat has different colours  and it has feathers. I like it because it is pretty.                                                                                                     Zoe

Today I went to the Mad Hatter's parade. Today I felt happy. Today I liked the parade. My hat was red.  I saw my sister at the parade. My Mum didn't come. When I came up the school I saw my sister's friends hats. I liked my sisters hat. My sisters hat had fireworks. We worked at my Grandma's house

I went to the Mad Hatter's tea party. My hat had a mango on my head. My friend's hat had a pink ribbon on her hat. I loved the parade. At the end we had morning tea. My favourite hat had sparkles and it was funny,                                                                                                             Harriet

Today at school there was a parade. It was called Mad Hatter's Parade. My hat was called 'The Love Hat.' It was exciting when I found out. It was fun.                                                          Brooke

Today we went to the hat parade it was fun. My hat was colourful. It was made out of feathers. At school I thought is was fun because I saw my Mum.                                                Demira

Today I went to the Mad Hatter's Parade. My hat is a sparkly hat. I liked all the hats!   Ava

I liked my hat and I wore my hat on the school lawn. I am happy because I walked on the school lawn. I loved the tea parade. My hat had green spots and it had pink material. It had some butterflies with glitter.                                                                                                                             Alice

I went to the Mad Hatter's Parade because I liked it. My hat is sparkly and it has feathers. I liked walking around the school.                                                                                           Victoria

Today it was fun at the Mad Hatter's Parade. All of the hats were pretty and the colours on the peoples hat and my hat were pretty too.  It was fun.                                                                             Louise

I loved the parade. I liked the Mad Hatter's Tea Party. My hat is special because it has feathers. I felt nervous when I was walking.                                                                                               Annabelle

On my hat I had lots of stuff!                        Natalie

On Friday we had a hat parade. My hat had a horn and pink thing. It had two ears. I felt happy because when I walked around I felt good. My facourite hat was Louise's hat because it had beads and some feathers.                                                                                                                              Sivakami

Today I went to the Mad Hatter's Parade. My Mum came as well. I feel happy today because I saw the hats. My hat had sparkles and feathers. I like Bianca's hat because she had feathers.               Elena

Today I went to the Mad Hatter's party. It was fun because my Mum came. The colour of the hat was pink and the shape of it was a circle. It has love hearts and sparkles. I stuck these on it.          Ella

Sunday Term 2 Week 4

Happy Mothers' Day to all the 1FR mothers!

Last week we had a busy week at school.

Wetas
As part of our inquiry into living things and what they need to be healthy and grow. Mrs Mason brought us 2 wetas. We discussed their needs and brainstormed all we knew about them including how they are unique to New Zealand. The girls then helped prepare our 'Weta Hotel' with soil, leaf matter, food and water. We know they are nocturnal so it is quite difficult to see them during the day. Mrs Mason made them a special home inside a log and with a small hole so that they are quite safe from predators.

Mad Hatters Parade 
Thank you to all the parents for remembering to make and bring hats along for the Mad Hatters Parade. The hats were amazing. They were all different and we had lots of fun parading around. Thanks to Jane (Priya's nanny) for giving me several hats to wear! I hope to add some photos and stories tomorrow to the blog for you to enjoy.

This week at school:

Reading Homework
This week I will be listening to all the students read individually which means not all the groups will bring new books home every night. They will choose a book from their browsing box which they may have had before. I will then be able to ensure they are on the correct reading level as from next week. Thank you for your understanding with this.

Parent Help
The girls have been busy researching their animal of choice and planning a zoo enclosure that will meet their needs. They will be endeavoring to make these over the next few Wednesday afternoons. If you would like to help some small groups by supervising painting, using the glue gun etc I would love to see you at 1.40. Please let me know if you would like to help. If your daughter has any craft or nature materials that she would like to use when constructing her enclosure please feel free to send them in with her. 

Harvest Festival

On Thursday it is Harvest Festival. Your daughter is asked to bring in a decorated box (shoebox size) or basket filled with non perishable food to school by Thursday. It is best to choose practical everyday items such as pasta, milo, baked beans, weetbix etc rather than anything too fancy. During the service your daughter will be carrying the box so it is best not to make it too heavy. Below is an example. 

Term 2 Week 3

Week 3 - This Week at school

Whilst we were at the zoo last week we took photos of the different animals and their enclosures so that we could make our own animal enclosures at school. The girls chose an animal that they were keen to find out more about and organised themselves into small groups. They searched through library books and we looked on the Auckland Zoo website and drew pictures of the food, shelter, water source and activities for stimulation that they will need to include into their enclosure.   Our next step will be to draw the floor plan for our enclosure and then decide what materials we will need to make these.  We will keep you updated on our progress!

News - If your daughter is stuck for ideas for news it would be a great idea if they could find a picture and an interesting fact about their chosen animal. Mrs Mason our science teacher is discussing living and non living things and discovering what creatures need in order to live and grow. That also gives a wide scope for something to share and talk about.

Wednesday - There has been a change to our timetable. We are now going to the library on Wednesday period 4 rather than period 6 on Friday.

Friday - Mad Hatters Teas Party: Bring your fantastic hats along to school so we can all parade around like Mad Hatters together!!

Request - I am wondering if anyone has any clean plastic see through lids at home (similar to that of a chinese takeaway lid) if they could bring them in. If I can collect 18 we will use them for display in our animal inquiry. As much as I love chinese food I am not sure I can achieve this on my own!

Term 2 Week 2

We had a wonderful trip to the zoo on Wednesday. The first hour we spent exploring the animals in the zoo. Next we had an interesting visit to the zoo classroom where we learnt that animals needed water, food, shelter and activities to keep them stimulated. After a 'short' picnic lunch in the glorious sunshine we   were able to continue looking at animals in their own enclosures and checked to see if we could find any evidence of the four necessities! Some of our highlights were:

• The tiger coming up close to the glass
• Exploring the meerkat tunnels
• Feeding the giraffes - watching and feeling the blue/black tongue curl around to take the veggies
• Watching the hippos munch and crunch on the cabbages and making waves in the water
• Seeing how clever the seals were doing their tricks so that the zoo keeper could check them and receiving fish in return
• Listening to the gibbons hoot and and to watch their necks balloon out

Some of us had to be risk takers!

The noisy 'hooter' although the girls squealing
 nearly matched him!

Here is a sample of our thank you letters to the parent and teachers who accompanied us to the zoo.