Skipping: Skip Rope for Heart

Ricky showing his awesome skipping skills.

Brooke and Olivia waiting to jump.

This term the children have been exploring their skills in skipping. The children have been learning to skip in a variety of ways and have started exploring the long rope. Some children have shown their excellent skills at skipping and I caught some on camera.

These children slightly struggled.

Enda and Luc showing the girls how to skip.

Mister A

Freaky Friday

The children looked absolutely funny in their Freaky Friday outfits. For some reason all the children asked if I was Elvis Presley, not sure why. The children wore wigs, pyjamas,masks and much more.
The children enjoyed themselves, but were worried when doing fitness that their costume was not appropriate. The funniest part was every time Ellie was skipping her slippers would fly off her feet.

Church Strand: What is a Messiah?

What is a 'Messiah'?

Today the children in Room 8 explored the word 'Messiah'. We looked at the word leadership and explored a leader who shaped changed in his country, Nelson Mandela.

The activity was started by segregating the class according to what they were wearing. The children moved and took their seats, forming two groups. One group had 20 children and the other group had 6 children. I then told the large group that a new rule had been made, that they were not able to sit at their seats or table. The children thought this was unfair as they were the larger group.

As a class we then looked at the life of Nelson Mandela and the children saw what we were doing in class and thepoint of the exercise. The children looked at a picture of the shantytowns in Soweto and displayed shocked and sad faces. We looked at his leadership and what he wanted for his people, and then Room 8 applied this to Jesus.

- What did the people want the Messiah to be? What kind of person did God send them?

The fighter and soldier the people expected to set them free was not the person God had sent. The children said God sent Jesus who was - peaceful, forgiving, kind, caring and not a fighter.

The children defined a 'Messiah' as a leader who would set his people free.

Animal Inquiry

This week the children in Room 8 have been absorbing information about animals. We firstly looked at the polar bear and were amazed at how is is the largest land meat eater and largest bear in the world.
We viewed some YouTube clips of some interesting characters jumping into the zoo enclosures to have a closer look at these amazing creatures. The purpose of the clips were to show the children that the animals are not dangerous, but humans put themselves into dangerous situations.
In Room 8, we also learnt that Americans fly to Canada and pay up to $37,000 US Dollars to hunt a polar bear. These Trophy Hunters are not allowed to hunt polar bears in Alaska (a US State) and therefore cross the border. The clip we watched was asking for the protection of the polar bear. I think it would be a great idea for these creatures to be proteccted as numbers are continuing to deccrease.
The children also learnt about mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fish and birds.

Post a comment about your favourite animal.

OLA Hotshots vs The world

Animal Inquiry

Kia Ora Parents,

This week the children will begin absorbing information about animals for their 5 week inquiry. The children have been learning to write information reports in literacy, as well as classifying information. This will assist them in their inquiry.
The children are keen to start exploring and many have talked about animals that they would like to learn about. Also in our absorbing the children are looking forward to their visit to Willowbank.

Mister A