Week 4 Term 2 2008

We have had a very busy week at school this week with a lot of exciting events. On Tuesday we were invited into Room 6 to listen to Jamie’s grandad. Jamie’s grandad is a doctor. He showed us a lot of interesting equipment and a skeleton. We were fascinated.

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On Wednesday we were expecting the firemen from Birkenhead fire station to visit when we heard a fire engine race down the road – off to a quick emergency in Devonport. They returned a short time later entered our drop off zone when they were off again – this time to a transformer fire in Northcote. There were a lot of disappointed five year olds, which resulted in a great discussion about priorities for the fire fighters. Thursday’s visit was kept a bit of a surprise and when we spotted the fire engine from our classroom there were great jumps for joy and screams of delight as the photo below shows.



The visit from the fire fighters was so informative and we were able to find out answers to our questions. The fire fighters put on their boots before getting into the fire engine where they put on their jackets and helmets. The fire engine does hold water in a water tank holding 1300 litres. When they get to a fire they can use it if they need to. It lasts about 6 minutes. Before they leave after the fire they fill up the tank again as they are not allowed to travel the streets with an empty tank.

We also asked about the position of the ladder on the fire engines because we’d seen ladders on the side of fire engines in books. They told us that in New Zealand the ladders are always on the top of the fire engine although the ladders on the new fire engines will be on the back. Ladders are on the side of fire engines in America and England.

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We got to look through the fire engine and sit in front of the fan they use to clear smoke. The fan was put on to great squeals of delight as our hair went everywhere. Sitting back in front of the fire engine the fire fighters instructed us to move they had been called to go to a fire. We moved immediately and watched as they raced out of our school grounds.



We are busy painting fire engines and will write about their visit next week. Look out for them on next weeks blog entry.

Week 3 Term 2 2008

This week we have written captions for the photos we each took last week. These are on display in our room.
Below are a few examples of our work.



Mrs Woodcock helps us in the library. She collects the books. She puts the books on the shelf. She scans the books. She helps us. She gets the books that we need. Every week she has a new book for us. We like going to the library.
By Josie




Anne makes the lunches. We take our box to Anne on Thursday’s and Friday’s. She smiles at us.
By Georgia



Miss Cousins helps us. Miss Cousins is the room 2. She helps us. She is kind.
By Ben

We have talked about our school community and discussed why people do different jobs within it. Here are some of our thoughts –
Charlotte said “we all do different jobs to make our school a great school” Grace said “ if we all help the big jobs get done quicker” Several of us thought that it helped to make our school run smoothly.



We were sitting in class this week when a fire engine raced down the road with its siren blazing. We were drawn to the window and watched it. This led us to start investigating how firemen help us. We have read a number of books and have shared our knowledge of firemen and what to do in a fire. Also on Wednesday the ambulance drove into our school grounds as two children had fallen off the playground equipment and needed to be taken to the hospital to check their arms. Our investigation on how people in our wider community help us has begun!


On Friday we planted the hibiscus plants we bought to attract butterflies into our school grounds. Jinx's the friendly neighbourhood cat joined in as Mr Parkinson our caretaker planted the hibiscus.

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Week 2 Term 2 2008

We have finished off our inquiry on ‘discovering our backyard’ by writing a personal recount about planting our planter box. Three of our personal recounts were shared in this week’s newsletter.



We planted some plants. I looked at the flowers. The flowers looked pretty. We put the box with the flowers in by the post. Then we watered the plants. Then I showed the flowers to Mum.
By Grace



I went to plant the flowers. I put the soil in. I put the flower in the box in the middle. We watered the flowers. The box looks stunning. We hope the butterflies land on the flowers.
By Georgia




I went outside to plant the flowers. I put the dirt in the box. I put it by the post.
By Ben


This week we have started this terms topic of ‘discovering people who help us in our community’. Through this topic we are going to explore the following questions – What is a community? Why do people belong to a community?

We started by looking at our school community. We listed all the people who help us within our school. Next we took our class camera and went in search of the people we listed. Each of us in turn took a photo of the people we found – it was great fun. Next week we will write captions to go with our photos and will display them in our classroom.

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Week 1 Term 2 2008

This week we were delighted to look at an email sent by ‘the butterfly lady’ with photos attached of a butterfly being tagged. We have also looked at comments left on our blog – it’s so exciting to be left messages.

We recapped our learning from last term and made a shopping list of all the things we needed to buy at the garden centre. Every class sent a representative to the garden centre. We were all keen to go so after a discussion it was decided to pull a name out of a box of all the names in our class. Using this approach Kaiyu became our representative.

On Wednesday afternoon with our shopping list in hand Kaiyu went to the garden centre. At the garden centre the group spoke with Astrid – an expert on gardening. She provided the children with a pamphlet which explained which plants to plant to attract butterflies. Interestingly the pamphlet referred to the monarch butterfly site we had already looked at as a class. Astrid showed the children which flowers from the list that were available for planting and the children helped to load up the trolley with kale, verbena, and dianthus.


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Back at school – On Thursday Kaiyu and the other representatives talked about their experiences before we planted up our planter boxes. We all helped to fill the box with soil and to water the plants. It was a great afternoon. Mrs Heasman came out to see us and was very pleased. It was a great afternoon and at the end when we looked at our planter box and we felt very proud of our efforts. One of the children in the Totara Team walked by and said we’d made our school look beautiful. It was a fantastic way to conclude a wonderful inquiry on discovering our backyard.

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We have also displayed the butterfly art we finished at the end of last term. We have also begun working on kidpix again, this time to show the life cycle of a butterfly. We will post these when they are finished.


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Week 11 Term 1 2008

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This week we have been busy investigating the cost of planting some flowers in a planter box. We emailed our Principal Mrs Heasman to seek permission. She sent us back an email to let us know we could plant some flowers and had some questions she wanted us to answer. We sent another email answering all her questions and to let her know that we are very excited about planting flowers in our school grounds. It will be a great way to start the term after the holidays.





We were very excited to get a message on our blog from ‘the butterfly lady’ and have sent her an email attaching photos of some of our work and have asked her if she has ever tagged a monarch butterfly.

We have also written some facts about butterflies and moths and the differences between them as well as something we knew that was the same about them. These facts are to go with the wonderful moths and butterflies we drew on the computer using kidpix. This work is on display in our classroom.

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