2018 Whio Blog

Today we enjoyed Open Door Friday. We danced, created, played and laughed alongside Ti Kouka. The children were showing off their creativity by using straws, pipe cleaners, popsicle sticks and real materials in interesting ways. We also learnt how to use the cool glue gun as another method of sticking things together.  We used white crayon and dye to create some artwork. Some people practised cutting and folding to create these Easter baskets.  Mrs O'Neil gave a tutorial on how to paint a flamingo! We listened carefully to her instructions and we were all so impressed with the result! We also learnt about how to use different brush strokes to create the look of feathers.

The children have been busy this morning making Easter eggs and decorating egg trays with beautiful bright colours. It is nice to see them getting into the Easter spirit of fun!

ACTIV time is play-based learning time where children develop social skills, creativity and imagination. In Whio, our ACTIV time sits alongside reading. Today, the children built a plane which was flying from Perth to Abu Dhabi. There was a pilot, an engineer, passengers and 'a rule maker'. Have a look at the videos of the children explaining their work.

We have been up to lots of fun things so far this week. Here are a few of them... The magnets are always popular! Building huts and 'camper vans' with the construction gear. Voice activated robots! Writing letters to our friends. Sharing the adventures of one of our studio pets- 'Charlie the Chimp' Making creations in the wet room is always fun.  This slide was created on the Huritini hill with benches. It has been a big hit all week!

We are all enjoying the Inquiry maths we are doing. Our brains are growing and we are learning lots of new ways to solve problems and share our thinking. Miss Norman and Juan updating his goals sheet. Our maths games help us with our maths knowledge. We work with a buddy when we do our Inquiry Maths Our 'Number talk' today was on number 9. We know lots of ways to show 9!

We had so much fun in Huritini this morning during Open Door Friday! Some of the adventures we got up to were- Gardening with Susan- we planted purple broad bean seeds Making with the big boxes Jiggly Jellyfish for seaweek Creating human robots Building with the construction stuff Creating awesome marble runs And much, much more!                                                    ! Today while we were exploring and playing these are a few of the skills we were using- Achiever - Managing Self - Taking responsibility for a task - Trying our best - Picking who to work with - Working hard Communicator  - Listening to others ideas - Learning to socialise Thinker  - Showing initiative - Problem-solving - Being curious

Huritini Maths sessions are about students working together to develop problem solving skills. This week for maths, we have been discovering that there are many ways to solve a problem and that numbers can be viewed in a variety of ways. Teachers have been so impressed with the way children are working as a team to test different maths ideas and develop their own and others' theories.