Farewell Harakeke 2010

The year has come to a close.

It has been a fantastic year!!!

Harakeke is an awesome class and I have thoroughly enjoyed teaching each child.

I am always amazed and impressed at the learning that takes place during the first year of school. There is so much more to learn than just the academic side.....children also have to adjust to school routines, rules, and social interaction with others....and the list goes on.

I thank all the parents and family of Harakeke children for helping them on this journey. I have enjoyed getting to know you as well. School is all about our partnership as we all want the best for all of these children.

I wish each child the best for their future endeavours...and hope that they will come and visit me lots next year and the years to come.

Thank you all

Kathryn Smith

Another 6 year old!!

It is the second to last day of school for the year and it is James's birthday.

I hope he comes to school today so we can take his photo.

We all hope you have a very happy birthday James!!

Swimming Again!!

Wow!! We are back in the pool...and it is fantastic!!

The pool temperature is about 22 degrees each day.

We are practicing going on top of the water, going under the water, and having loads of fun to build our water confidence.

End of Year Swimming 2010 on PhotoPeach

The End of Year Junior Trip

This year the children went to Waihi, Waikino and Omokoroa. We caught the train from Waikino back into Waihi which was a fabulous trip. We played in playgrounds at Waihi and at Omokoroa Beach. We also paddled in the sea at Omokoroa. It was a fabulous day. Here is what the children said about the trip:

On Tuesday we went to the park. The park was fun. I liked the pirate ship at the park because I could climb up the ladder. The ladder went up really high. I could see the Mount.

By Kanye.

Yesterday I went to the park and we went on the train. We went to the beach. I liked the train because you can stand up when it was going.

By Abigail.

Yesterday the junior school went on the trip. On the way I felt a little bit sick. Then I went on my seat and cuddled my bag and almost fell asleep.

By Maia.

Yesterday I went on the train from Waikino to Waihi. I liked it because it was cool. I was standing outside on the train. I saw a toy on the bridge. It looked funny. The children laughed at the toy.

By Laura.

Yesterday the junior school went on the trip. We went on the bus. We played in the playground at Waihi. It was great.

By Xavier.

Yesterday the junior school went on the trip and first we went to Waihi Park and then we went to Waikino and we went on the train and after that we went to Omokoroa to the park and then we went back to school. I liked the park because we got to play with Kiwi Can.

By O’sharn.

Yesterday I liked the slide. I went on a trip to the park.

By Rhys.

Yesterday we went on the trip and we started with going to Waihi park to play. Next we went to the train and then we went back to Waihi. Then we went to Omokoroa Beach and we had our lunch and played and played and played and played with the dog that O’sharn’s mum had found and then we went back to school. It was a long time on the bus back to school. We went on and on and on and on. I said to mum “why is it taking us so long?” She said “we came a long way so we have to go a long way back”. “Oh, ok” I said. “I will just have to wait so can we please play I spy with my little eye?”. “Yes sweetheart”. “I spy with my little eye something beginning with b”.

by Jenna

Yesterday, Tuesday the 7th of December the whole junior school and some parents went on the bus to Waihi Park and played on the playground. I was excited when we got to the playground but sleepy when we left.

By Jessica.

Yesterday we went to the park at Waihi and we had fun. I liked the slide because it was long.

By Lennia.

On Tuesday the junior school went to the beach. Chase and I found a crab at the beach. It was chasing us so we stepped on it.

By James.

Yesterday I went int he aeroplane and it was fun. It was at the Waihi park.

By Dillon.

On Tuesday the junior school went to the beach. I picked up a crab and I got a bucket and I picked up a crab.

By Akuhata.

Yesterday I went to the park. It was cool and we played int he playground. There was a beach and we played in the water.

By Rubee.

Yesterday the bus took us to Waihi Park. The bus took us to the train and it was amazing and it was cool. There was an outside carriage on the train.

By Brayden.

Yesterday I went on the bus to Omokoroa Park. There was a beach. I liked the beach at Omokoroa Park. I saw some cras and we liked looking at them with each other. It was cool at the beach.

By Chase.

End of year junior trip on PhotoPeach

Akuhata Turns 6

Over the weekend Aku turned 6. We will celebrate his birthday on Monday. I hope he had a great day!!!

Junior and Middle School Athletics Day

On the 19th November the Junior and Middle School had our annual athletics day. The children have been out practising for this event for several weeks.

The children were divided up into their year groups:

+ New Entrants

+Year 1 boys and Year 1 girls

+Year 2 boys and Year 2 girls

+Year 3 boys and Year 3 girls

The children rotated around different activities. It was mainly about fun and participation, although there were certificates for sprinting, throwing, high jump and long jump.

The activities were:

+High jump

+Long jump

+Throwing

+Sprinting

+Novelty races

+Games

+Parachute games

The children had a lot of fun on that day. We have some awesome and talented sports boys and girls.

Here are a few photos of mainly our class participating....

Visiting Maungaarangi Kindy

We are so lucky to have a new kindy at the bottom of our field. Each Wednesday one Junior class goes down for a visit. We went down today. The best things about visiting the kindy are:

*climbing the trees

*playing in the sandpit

*using the woodwork bench

Today the kindy children had been to the beach. They found a dead octopus. It was stinky!!

We had a good look at it.

Jenna Turns 6!!

Our first birthday in our Year 1 class. Several children wrote stories today about Jenna's Birthday. We decorated the whiteboard before she came to school. Some children drew pictures for her. We were so lucky because Jenna's mum made some cupcakes for all of us!!

I'm sure Jenna had a lovely day.....she had a lovely smile all day..... and she was the Star of the Day.

We hope you had a very happy birthday Jenna!!

Guy Fawkes

After Guy Fawkes weekend, we wrote stories about the fireworks and made some pictures showing the fireworks.

I am watching the fireworks and it was cool. The flames coming out of the fireworks are cool. by Chase.

The fireworks are blowing up. The are stomping. by Brayden.

The fireworks are gorgeous. They pop and make colours. I like the colours they make and they boom in the sky. BOOM! POP! by Jenna

The fireworks are cool. They are sparkly. by Akuhata.

I am watching fireworks. They are like fire. by Dante.

I’m watching the fireworks and they look like a love heart and they are beautiful. by O’sharn.

I’m watching the fireworks. It is cool. I like it because they are spinning. by Jasmine

The fireworks are colourful, cool and fun. by Abigail.

I love the fireworks because they are cool. I like it when they fall down to me. by Rubee.

I like fireworks because it is cool. They spin around. by Rhys.

The fireworks look like spiderman and I like them. by Xavier.

The fireworks are so cool. I like it when it flashes because it is fun. by Kanye.

The fireworks are really cool and my brother likes it. I like the colours in the fireworks. by Lennia.

I am lighting the fireworks and it went very high. by Dillon.

Yesterday we had fireworks. It was fun because they went up into the sky. by James.

My Dad is lighting a firework and the TNT has bombed inside and I was having a sparkler. by Maia.

Fireworks are sparkly. They are nice. by Jessica.

I went to the fireworks and it was fun. The fireworks went up high. by Laura.

My dad is lighting some fireworks and they go high. by Nicholas.

The fireworks look like fire. I can see them in the sky. by Mervyn.

A Show From Otumoetai Intermediate

On Monday we were lucky enough to have the Performing Arts Academy from Otumoetai Intermediate School come to perform for us.

They had a band, singers, dancers, and drama students. It was awesome!! Here are some photos.

Brayden's story 2/11/10

Dante's Story 2/11/10

Kanye's Story 2/11/10

Nicholas's Story 2/11/10

Jessica's Story 2/11/10

Dillon's Story 28/10/2010

Laura's Story 27/10/2010

Mervyn's Story 28/10/2010

Rubee's Story 20/10/2010

Abigail's Story 20/10/2010

Lennia's Story 20/10/2010

Sun Safety

Today for writing all the children wrote about having to wear their hats at school. Here is what they said:

I am wearing a hat and I am outside. by Nicholas.

I am wearing a hat. by Dillon.

I have a hat because I will get sunburnt. by Kanye.

You have to wear a hat so you can be safe. by Lennia.

I am wearing a hat because it is sunny. by Rhys.

I am wearing a hat because it is sunny. by Jessica.

This is my hat. I wear my hat because it is sunny. by Jasmine.

I am wearing my hat because it is sunny. by Laura.

I am wearing my hat on my head today. I always wear my hat. by Abigail.

This is my hat. I am wearing my hat outside because it is sunny and I will get sunburnt and I need sun screen to protect my skin from the sun because it is sunny and hot and thats why you need a hat outside. by Maia.

I am wearing a hat because it is sunny. by Rubee.

I am wearing my hat at school because I don't want sunburn. by James.

I have a hat on my head and it was a sunny day. by Chase.

I am wearing a hat in the sun. by Mervyn.

I am wearing my hat because I don't want to get sunburnt. by Akuhata.

I am wearing a hat because you will bet sunburnt. by Xavier.

I am wearing a hat because it keeps us safe so we don't get sunburnt from the sun and it keeps us really safe and it keeps us not sunburnt and really really safe from the sun. The hat is keeping us safe, really safe. by O'sharn.

This is my hat. I have to wear my hat at playtime. The other terms we don't have too. My hat is very special to me. I have lots of hats at home but I just love my school hat and my Mum does too. I do not want to get sun burnt because if you do not wear your hat you just maybe will get sunburnt. Oh but don't worry, maybe your Mum will tell you. We will have fun. by Jenna.

I am wearing my hat because it is sunny. by Brayden.

I am wearing a hat because we never get sunburnt. by Dante.

Term 4

Here is a photo of us on the playground.

Rhys's Story 19/10/2010

Chase's Story 18/10/2010

Akuhata's Story 18/10/2010

O'sharn's Story 19/10/2010

Jasmine's Story 19/10/2010

Jenna's story 18/10/10

James story 13/10/2010

Maia's Story 12/10/10

Term 3 Overview

Sorry folks....this post has been a long time coming!!!

This term the main focuses were the mathathon in the first few weeks of school, and then the school production in Week 8.

Our motto here at Welcome Bay School is "Every Child, Every Opportunity". Therefore, all of our children had the opportunity to be involved in our school production. It was titled "Yesterday Tomorrow" and focussed on Environmental Pollution - starting with how our environment used to look, to how it is being polluted, and then to what are we going to do about it. Each class was given a part of the production to portray....it was AWESOME!!!

For our part, Harakeke was showing the estuary how it used to be. The boys were pukekos and the girls were crabs. Jenna sang a song solo on the microphone and the other girls did actions to the song, while the boys all stomped around like pukekos. See the photos above.

Life Education and Harold the Giraffe

In Week 8 and 9 Life Education, Harold and Lea came to our school. We went in the mobile classroom 2 times.

We talked about and learnt:

• Parts of our body such as the brain, bones, blood, stomach, intestines, heart and lungs
• About being nice to each other and looking after each other
• Keeping our hands and feet to ourselves

We learnt some songs - Twinkle, twinkle, I'm a star and All together.

We were able to give Harold a pat at the end.

Book Week Term 2 2010

During Week 8 we had Book Week. Some children brought their favourite book to school. The children were asked why those particular books were their favourites.

On the Friday, the children were able to dress up like their favourite book character. We had pirates, fairies, ladybirds.....it was amazing.

We also had Claire come to visit us from the Tauranga Public Library. She read us some amazing stories...we really liked the pop-up books, and the moving books. Thanks Claire.

Wheels Day Term 2 Reward

On Tuesday we had wheels afternoon for our reward day. The children were allowed to bring bikes, skateboards, roller blades, cars.....anything with wheels!!

There were activities set up in the hall to do with wheels - colouring, construction, building, roads/cars, dress ups and pushchairs/prams....

It was a great afternoon. To finish off, the children all got to eat a packet of wheelies!!! Lucky them.

How do things Change?.....Making Ice Cream

On Friday, all of the junior classes made ice cream. Harakeke made berry ice cream. This term we have been looking at how things change. Last week we made popcorn and we discovered that the corn needed HEAT to change into popcorn. This week after mixing the ingredients, we discovered that it needed COLD to change into ice cream. We got to taste some of the ice cream. It was yummy!!! We tasted banana and banana chocolate chip. On Monday we will try the berry and some kiwi fruit ice cream.

Here is the recipe:

1 cup of condensed milk

1 cup of cream

1 cup of mashed/cut up fruit

Mix it all together.

Put it in the freezer.

After 2 hours, remove from the freezer and mix again.

Put it back in the freezer.

Our School Cross Country

On Monday 30th May, our whole school walked up to Waipuna Park so we could compete in our school cross country. It was a lovely sunny day - it was postponed from the previous Thursday because of unsettled weather. When we arrived we had morning tea, and then we walked the course. Our race was the first one....all the children did really well!!!! There were some big hills to run up and down.

Autumn Leaves

A few weeks ago, the leaves were falling off the trees - Autumn was in full swing!!

Harakeke went outside and had a play in the leaves. We made a big mountain of leaves and also threw them about.

Each child then said something about their "Autumn" experience.

Check out the movie.

Westpac Air Ambulance

Wacky Hair Day!!!!

Mufti-Day!!!

Welcome Bay School was raising money for the Westpac Air Ambulance Service. The children (and the teachers) got to come to school with Wacky Hair and in Mufti.

Three Tauranga schools were going to be chosen for a helicopter landing....and guess what!!!??? One of the school's was ours. It was FANTASTIC!!!

Using ICT in Maths

We used the programme kidpix, and have created pictures showing reflection. We had to make a line down the "middle" of our page, find an appropriate animated picture, drag it onto our page, repeat this and then "flip"it to show a reflection of the first picture.

Didn't we do well!!

Geometry Art

Our first maths topic this term is geometry.

Below we have made a slideshow of our reflection pictures we created out of black and white shapes.

Term 2

Welcome to Term 2.

We welcome some new faces this term....along with our children from term 1. Our class is filling up!!

This term we look forward to:

• PMP
• Cross country
• Lots of writing
• Lots of reading
• Lots of maths
• Lots of art
• Lots of singing
• LOTS OF FUN!!!