Parerā

As part of our Inquiry this term, we are learning about the life cycle of the Oak tree. Our school has many large Oak trees on its grounds and Cara told us that they are very old. We wondered how old they might be ... some children thought they could be 150 years old and some children thought they could be 1 million years old! I wonder how we could find out? Here are some photos of our class making observational drawings of our largest Oak tree by the junior playground. You can also see close-ups of our drawings. We added acorns and fallen autumn leaves to our drawings as well.

We learned lots of amazing facts about ladybirds when we were learning about the letter 'l' last week. Did you know that ladybirds have a pair of transparent wings underneath their red wing covers? The ladybird has to move the wing covers aside before it can fly. We also learned that if a ladybird feels threatened by a predator it will lay on its back with its legs curled up and pretend to be dead. It can also emit a foul-smelling liquid to keep predators away - just like a skunk! Some of the children had a go at drawing and painting ladybirds using watercolour paints. Monty also painted an aphid, which is the ladybird's main source of food.

It was so much fun being back at school today, catching up with our friends and teachers and getting to know our new friends. We were formally welcomed at a Mihi Whakatau this morning and then we carried on with our classroom programme, enjoying phonics, reading, maths and handwriting. At the end of the day we shared what we did in the holidays at news time and our newest friends completed their self-portraits. What a wonderful first day!

Today we welcomed Gurnoor, Oscar, Shay and their families to Parerā 5, taking our number of children to ten. It's great to have you join our team children!

Well done Parerā 5 tamariki for completing an amazing first term school at school. You are all super stars and I am very proud of everything you have achieved at school in such a short time. What great role models you will be for our new children starting in term 2. Have a safe and relaxing holiday break and take good care of your families, just like you take good care of me. I'll miss you! Ka kite ano.

On the last day of term one, the whole school took part in our annual Easter hunt. We worked with our big buddies from Pouakai. They were amazing at helping us find the clues and solve the puzzle. We ran all over the school looking for the clues! Finally, when we had found all the clues and coloured our pictures, we were allowed to find our own Easter baskets back in our classroom. The Easter bunny had left two eggs in them for each of us! Delicious!!! What a great way to round off an amazing first term. Happy Easter everyone!