Bully-Free Week

This week Ti Kouka have been celebrating Bullying-Free NZ Week 2019.  The theme for the week was ‘Whakanuia Tōu Āhua Ake! Celebrating Being Us!’ We have been learning about how to be a good friend and ways to show kindness.  

The tamariki were encouraged to choose an act of kindness from the Kindness Matter Bingo.

We watched 'Oat the Goat' - a digital animated story book designed to help 4-7 year olds learn about the power of kindness through a positive interactive experience.

It was fantastic to see many children supporting Pink Shirt Day today - they looked so good in pink!  

We are looking forward to the El Gregoe show on Monday and our Life Education lessons which will continue our learning about being bully-free, kindness and empathy.

Birds, Bugs and Trees at Halswell Quarry by Niamh and Macca

Tikouka went to the Halswell Quarry to learn about bugs, birds and trees. We learnt how to make noises like a fantail (cheep cheep cheep), bellbird (blink, blonk, blink, blonk)and a silver eye (kee, kee). 

Georgina showed us how birds help to grow new plants and trees. 

We then went on a bug hunt. We found slaters, centipedes, worms, spiders, beetles, grubs and two baby snails.

 We looked through magnifying glasses to see the bugs in detail.

 We also found some fungi!

 We found lots of bugs under the logs. Macca's dad helped lift the logs.

 We learned that the bugs help to decompose dead plants.

 We put blindfolds on and tried to guess the tree. We used describing words to help us -bumpy, flat, hard, smooth, bendy, scrunchy, prickly, soft.

 Lastly, we played a game to find out what would happen to the bugs and the birds if we chopped down the trees. 

 We decided we can help the birds and the bugs by planting another tree if we chop one down.

 We need lots of trees. The trees help us to breathe.

After lunch, we loved running up and down the hill.

The life cycle of a butterfly

    Three caterpillars arrived in Ti Kouka for us to watch this week. We also looked at  Youtube clips on how a caterpillar turns into a chrysalis. We are waiting to see what happens to our caterpillars.

We acted out the life cycle of a butterfly then some of us wrote about it using the words, first, next, then and finally.

We were trying really hard to put a full stop at the end of each idea.

Bugs - Wonderings

To start our topic about insects we got the children thinking...

 How did the egg get there? What is going to happen to the egg?

They had to decide whether these statements were True or False.

We got them to use their observation muscles and try and work out what these photos were.

Can you spot the difference?

We have also been reading different books and learning all about bugs and insects.

We wrote some wonderful questions about what we want to know about bugs.

Shapes

This week in Ti Kouka we have been exploring shapes. 

We went out into our playground and explored what shapes we could see. 

We played with our shapes and sorted them in different ways. 

We used the book creator app on the iPads to create books about the shapes. 

To make our book we had to be great Interactors and use our co-operation muscle. We tried to take turns.

Visit from Ruud - A Real Entomologist!!!

Today we were super lucky, Edouard's Papa came to talk to us about insects.  He is a real expert and told us all about how insects help us.  Dorothy, the giant weta came with Ruud.  Dorothy is very friendly and nearly got lost in Mrs O'Neill's hair!!!!