Wednesday 18 December 2013

Happy Holidays

 



Wishing you all a happy and safe holiday.

Thank you so much for all the lovely cards and gifts it is really appreciated.


All the Hub 1 Teachers 

xxx

Monday 16 December 2013

Getting ready for 2014

Hi everyone,

This morning our learners buddied up with the learners from our new hubs and spend time with their groups for next year.  They had a great time and our current year 1 learners enjoyed meeting the soon to be year 3 students.

Next year the year 1 (and new year 0) students will be in hub 5 and 6.  Initially these hubs will operate together as one (with five teachers) so in a very similar manner to how we've run the hub this year.  As we currently operate, guardian groups will function mostly in an admin sense, and learning needs will be met by any of the teachers in the space, as these needs change.

Our current year 1s (soon to be year 2s) have been split between two hubs (hub 1 and 2) and will join the other older students in these spaces.  We spent a great deal of time organising the new hub groups and ensured that each learner will have at least one good friend (and of course the opportunity to make many more!)

One of the great advantages of operating as we do, is the fact that the learners moving through to year 2 only have to be split into two groups (and the soon-to-be year 1s are able to stay together entirely).  We haven't been able to keep everyone together for obvious reasons but this will be a great chance for all of our learners to form new friendships whilst building on existing ones.

The furniture for each hub will move across with the learners, so those younger students going to hubs 5 and 6 will use the furniture currently in hub 1 and the year 2/3 learners will use the furniture currently used in hub 2 (plus some brand new gear!)  Our younger learners are excited to move into the new hubs and the year 2 learners will benefit from being spread into two spaces with lots of room to move.  The hub names are only named as they are for logistical purposes - the numbers bear no relevance to the learning that will happen in the hubs.

As with this year, your learner will have been placed in a hub with a letter eg. 5a, 2c etc.  These letters relate to the guardian group that your child has been placed in (again, largely administrative).  The letters themselves again have no relevance to the level of learning.

Hopefully this answers some of the questions that might be popping up for you.

Should you wish to ask anything, please swing by to see us, leave a comment on this post, or post on the parent forum.

Here's to a fabulous few school days left in 2013!

Thanks very much,
LH1 teachers

Thursday 12 December 2013

Tech Group Videos: Now Showing!

In the afternoons some of our students have been learning how to do a range of different things to eventually put together a movie.

They learnt how to:

Operate a camera and take clear photos
Find music on YouTube
Write and perform their own original song
Write a script to go along with their movie and
Combine everything together in iMovie (either on an iPad or computer)

Aren't they amazing learners and collaborators!!



Tuesday 10 December 2013

Thinking critically in reading (and justifying too!)

Today in reading one of our groups thought about a character who liked to make up stories.  He did lots of imagining and didn't quite tell the truth about what happened.


We had to decide if what he did was right or not and placed ourselves on this continuum.  We also had to justify our thinking (which we all did a fabulous job of!)


(Click the image below to enlarge it and read our thinking)


We decided together that it's great that Eddy made up imaginative stories but he should have told the teacher that they were his ideas from his mind, rather than really what happened.

Writing and performing our own songs!

In the afternoons, some of us have been learning to put together a movie.  We've taken photos on the cameras, have looked on youtube to find music, have planned what we want to say about a particular topic and have also created and performed our own songs.

We wanted to share our original songs with you as a little taster of our movies that will be released before the school holidays!

We hope you like them.  Would you like to try and leave a comment on the songs?  If you hover over the music, it will let you do that.





Monday 9 December 2013

Break through: Angela and Elina were finding out about dresses!

With the help of Sarah P from hub 3 look what creation Angela and Elina came up with!!

You all did a wonderful job in creating these different outfits!!!

Thanks Sarah, we couldn't have done it without you!

What do you think of this as an accessory?

Break through: Cooking group!!! Photography by Lily Dawson

Hannah, why are you cutting up the strawberries? You are being very careful.
Cymorah, can you tell us what is in the bowl. What will you do next?

How much mixture are you putting in Emily?

What are you all doing with the mixture!!!!

Where is your cake,  what are you making?

Why are you making sure the lid is on Leon?

Josh, that smoothie is very purple, what did you put in it?

Are you ready to taste it Reilly?

What are you all rolling in your hands?

Why are you pushing them down with a fork Eugene?

Icing time! What colours and decorations are you using?

Sit back, relax and enjoy your blueberry smoothie!

Well done every one, your banana cake looks great!!

Wow you guys made a lot of vanilla biscuits! You have decorated them so well.

Those strawberry muffins look awesome! Did they taste good too?


Break through: We would like to find out about....

Boston, you are finding out about birds. What bird have you made, it its small, lives in a tree and is colourful?
Kush you have made an amazing pyramid. You had to be determined when creating it, well done!!

I wonder...



I wonder...

Charlie H.

  • "What the white thing is... is it the clouds that they just came out of or is it the smoke coming out the back?
  • "Is it just the clouds or is it the world we can see?  Or is it both?"
  • "Are the people wearing safety clothes or just normal clothes?"
  • "Does it have a little see-through roof or is it just their head poking out in the fresh air?"


Micah

  • "Why do airplanes have wings?"
  • "Why do they have the little thing that points out like a little spinner (needle)?"
  • "Do they have things like when they're driving a car (steering wheel)?"
  • "If they have boosters to go fast?"


Thomas

  • "Why they have a little wing on the back?"
  • "Why they they go so high?"
  • "If they have a parachute if they bump and fall out?"

Thursday 5 December 2013

Break Through: Movie Making!





What fun things do you like to do when it is wet lunchtime?

"Pretend to make movies" - Hailey

"Draw!" - Kate

"Design  huts" - Charlie S.

"Make a picture" - Bella E.

Our Poem about the Environment

Wednesday 4 December 2013

Songs for the Learning Achievement Celebration

Dona Nobis
Can you remember which is our part?





Love is Easy






Hall of Fame
(remember to sing the different words... press play on the song and then scroll down to find our words)





How to make a Go Animate movie!

In the last few days, some of us have been helping to make Go Animate movies.  

If you'd like to try to do this at home, you might like to watch these instructions with Mum or Dad (or your adult) and have a go!

Share your links below or email them to Miss Holland (sarah@fabfaces.co.nz)


Our Movie Preview!

Hello,

We are going to teach you about the four vision principles but this is only a preview.  Have you ever seen a preview at the movies?  This is ours!

Keeping looking at the blog to see our movies and books about the vision principles.

Coming soon to a screen near you!

From everyone in the Vision Principle group.

Preview of the Vision Principles by sarahholland on GoAnimate


*Written and produced by the Vision Principle writing group.  Typed with Miss Holland's help

Mufti today and on Friday!

Today most of us have come in dressed up in blue and green to raise money for a potting shed so we can keep growing beautiful plants for our school.


If you'd like to be involved, there is another mufti day on Friday to raise money for the people affected by the typhoon in the Philippines.  What a fun way to raise money for people who desperately need it.

Wednesday 27 November 2013

FInding List words

What word are you looking for Hannah?

Kaelen and Clayton, you are collaborating really well on the i-pad!

You are being very determined, well done Alexi and Alvyn!

Awesome independent learning Harrison and Brodie, Did it get tricky?

Thursday 21 November 2013

Mystery Mail!

Look what's going in the mail...

Can you guess who it's going to?


Monarch Butterflies in LH1!

Today we were very excited to see Hannah and her mum has some chrysalises for us to look after in the hub.  Aren't we lucky!!




Can you see the gold detail on the chrysalises?  

What is inside them?  

What were they before they made their chrysalises?  

What will they become once they hatch out?

Why are some of the chrysalises darker than others?



Here's Hannah to tell us more:




Hannah's mum left us with some instructions to help us look after them well...


We need to spray the chrysalises with a little water each day.  

We wonder why that is?

We need to let the butterfly dry their wings for about 4 hours before taking them outside to fly away. 

We wonder why that is?

We can't let the butterflies out in the rain.

We wonder why that is?




Wednesday 20 November 2013

'Being a good friend' with Harold

What did you do today with Harold and Ben?

What did you learn about?









During discover time today some of our learners decided to put on a puppet show for you all:

"Welcome to the show of friends.  Today we did a movie about friends" - Krishna and Oscar F

Our next steps in Probability!

Today after our probability learning we reflected on what our next steps might be...

"My next step is to choose different colours and not choose all colours for the answer" - Lily R.

"To make them harder because Lily R kept getting them right" - Bella

"About closing my eyes and picking a lollypop stock" - Mikayla

"Learning about what likely and unlikely means" - Dan

"How to use other probability words like 'more likely'" - Jahvan

"To think about what I need to do with the probability words" - Mina

Tuesday 19 November 2013

Harold!

We have been so enthused by Harold and what he has taught us, that we shared what we learnt during discovery.  
Some of us even made Harold!









Harold the Giraffe came to visit us today!

Today Harold the Giraffe came to visit us.  Here are some of us enjoying our time with Harold, learning about being healthy and independent.

We had so much fun and can't wait to see him again tomorrow!









What did you think of our visit with Harold today?  You might like to use these sentence starters to help you talk to your mum and dad about it!



Here are our pictures and reflections from this afternoon...

Probability in maths


In maths, we've been learning about probability.  Did you enjoy watching the video Zulfi, Hunter and Josh made?  They were talking about probability words like

certain
more likely
possible
maybe
less likely
impossible
never



What do you think about these questions?






You might even like to practice your probability learning at home:

Year 1, more or less likely
Year 2, more, less and equally likely
Year 2, certain, probable, unlikely and impossible



You might even take 10 items at home (like forks and spoons) and ask mum or dad if it's more likely or less likely to have a spoon... you could even try to trick them by asking what the chances of you having a fork would be!