Learning about halves

Read below to find out what we have been up to.

Learning about halves

We have been learning about halves. We have cut paper in half in different ways, created a paper man by folding a piece of paper in half and cutting out a shape, designed painted butterflies with each half having the same colours, and discovered how to half-fill a glass with water!

Check out these pictures of us experimenting with the water.

Chilly Dip

Our school's 'Ladbrooks Leaders' decided (in their supreme wisdom) to have a mid-winter dip into the school swimming pool.

This was certainly an 'interesting' idea and it quickly got worse when it was decided that funds raised would go towards the construction of the junior school sandpit.

Of course, a junior school teacher would by crazy not to support such a worthy cause...

So...

... in we went.

Bravely leading the way for Weka were JASMINE and BROOKE. Amazing work, guys! We are so proud of you.

Mrs Wilson leaped in (very briefly)....

... and actually 9 degrees isn't that bad, actually - especially when it is for less than one second.

Chinese chopsticks

Veronica Martin came into Weka last week and showed us some photos from her time in China. She showed us photos of some very unusual foods that people eat there sometimes, like seahorses, frogs and insects.

We were also given some chopsticks to decorate.

Check out the pictures of us making our beautiful chopsticks!

New culvert under construction

The awesome team from Burnside Contractors have started work on our culvert. Once it is completed and the fences have been changed, we will have a lovely new play space. We went to investigate how the big yellow digger moved the concrete pieces into position. It was interesting.

Learning Talk...

Our class had a great discussion the other day.

We had talked about why the dragon is an important symbol to the Chinese people earlier in the week. We also explored why it would feature in Chinese celebrations. We examined the key features of the masks so we could make our masks look like the ones used in Chinese festivals. Have a look at the clever things we said...

Why is the dragon symbol important to the Chinese people?

Sam: It’s good luck.

Brooke: Dragon festivals!

Ella: The farmers thought if they danced with a dragon, the rain would fall on their plants.

Hanna: So it would make them grow!

Sam: They could be food plants so they could have food.

So we knew that the reason Chinese people consider the dragon lucky was from ancient times when it was connected to a successful harvest.

We wondered...

What did the farmers believe would happen if they didn’t do the dragon dance?

Hanna: No food maybe because it wouldn’t rain on the plants.

Brooke: It wouldn’t rain.

Sam: If they had no food they would be hungry ‘cos they would have nothing to eat.

Tom: The plants wouldn’t grow because their paddocks would be all dry.

We also talked about the fact that the dragon symbol now meant good luck generally, not just in farming communities. We remembered that during celebrations and festivals, the dragon symbol is used, too.

We started to think about the masks we want to create...

What are the key features of a dragon mask? What makes them all the same?

Jonty: Bright colours.

Joe: Big eyes.

Sophie: They all had horns.

Hanna: Spikes or fluff or fur.

Jasmine: Teeth!

Tom: They mostly had smiles.

Sam: They were scary.

We all went away and planned a mask making sure we had used all these things.

We had a terrific talk! It was great that Mrs Wilson had her computer out and that she is a fast typer to get our ideas recorded!

Go us!

Stay tuned for more updates on our dragon masks...

We really are super at handwriting...

In handwriting (or printing), we learn how to write our letters in the correct way. This helps us to write words and sentences quickly and easily as we grow.

Learning the correct shape of our letters is important and it takes a lot of concentration. We are ABLE to concentrate and focus on our letters.

Check out the proof!

Newsworthy...

As always, news time has some surprises.

A special book... (Check out the subject matter! Tricky stuff!)

A Santa...

A Chinese plate...

WOW wee...

You won't believe it!

Yes - it's amazing! In Weka we have another awesome learner that has joined our team.

He is an expert at colouring in and he really tries his best ALL THE TIME!

It's so great having him in Weka!

Welcome!

Watch out for dragons!

Be afraid...

Be VERY afraid!

There are dragons and you have to watch out. They can appear ANYWHERE!

Look at this poor school principal! He was scared out of his BOOTS!

You should see us go...

Each day, we join with students from other classes in some exercises with a distinctly chinese flavour.

We stand in lines and are very quiet. We all move in the same way.

It's fun!

Look at us doing our exercises this morning...

News - Week 5

This student wrote all the numbers up to five in Chinese.

We only learned them yesterday!

A 'world ball' (or globe!) was shared. The clever student pointed out China on the globe, too.

Wow!

News - Week 5

A 'whoopie' cushion brought lots of laughs with it today!

A story about a model Hurricane aircraft was shared...

A special panda was a welcome visitor in Weka...

A lucky (and very loved) police bear came too.

News days are ALWAYS exciting in Weka!

At the moment, we are learning to be great speakers by...

• using a clear speaking voice
• speaking slowly
• speaking in sentences

You can see we have some great things to talk about!

Do you want to know how to read with expression?

Watch this video!

This student shows an awesome example of how to...

...read with expression using most punctuation.

Check it out!