Thinking critically in reading (and justifying too!)

Today in reading one of our groups thought about a character who liked to make up stories.  He did lots of imagining and didn't quite tell the truth about what happened.

We had to decide if what he did was right or not and placed ourselves on this continuum.  We also had to justify our thinking (which we all did a fabulous job of!)

(Click the image below to enlarge it and read our thinking)

We decided together that it's great that Eddy made up imaginative stories but he should have told the teacher that they were his ideas from his mind, rather than really what happened.

Break Through!

The construction and building group were really busy this morning!  Have a look at our creations!

Ayami's mat for her birdhouse.

Harrison made two birds!

David's crab.

Kyan's transformer.

Dinesan's flying racing car.

Kaichi and Oscar made a game.

Devynee and Flynn made a tow truck.

Callum's tower.

Kyle and Alvyn made a deep tower.

Aarav and Daniel made a TV.

Brushing our teeth

We have been talking about brushing our teeth with Ginger over the last two weeks, the children have been very helpful to Gingers friend Honey Bear who needed to go visit the dentist.

They have explained to them how to brush their teeth and made posters.

Ginger and Honey Bear

Creating cultural masterpieces!

We both made a Marae!

This is my castle from England!

This is where my family goes to watch shows and eat dinner.

Aftermath of Origami!

This morning we came into the hub to fine many of our learners had taken up our home learning challenge!

Dinesan came in with this awesome piece of writing to encourage everyone to have a go at making origami...

Kaichi came in with a bag of origami that his Grandma in Japan had made.  What a special thing to share with us.  Here he is to tell us more:

"The origami is a beautiful origami.  The origami my grandmother made this and it is beautiful.  The black one is my favourite because it can open."

Did you spot the beautiful flowers that Mrs Elliot sent us?

Cultural Day in LH1

We've had such a great time today in Learning Hub One - it's been Cultural Day!

Here we are in the morning.  We were really proud of ourselves as every single learner was able to talk on the microphone to say where they come from!

We paraded through the school showing off our cultural dress and recorded what we thought of our clothes...

Would you believe that Kyan (who was dressed as a New Zealand farmer) even arranged for some lambs to come and visit us?!  Here we are with Lily and Simba.  We asked lots of really good questions at the end of their visit.  Thank you Kyan and your Mum for organising this amazing surprise!

We sketched picture of each other in our cultural dress and had to pay close attention to the details.

Then in the afternoon, some of our big buddies from Learning Hub Three came to perform some of their Kapa Haka waiatas and hakas.  We were very lucky to get a private performance!

We had a fun day today celebrating all of our different cultures!!

Learners and parents, please share your comments and thoughts either in this box below or by leaving a comment...

Cultural Day in LH1... at AnswerGarden.ch.

Alvyn and Kaichi build sky tower!

Sky tower is cool. We collaborated to make the tower.  The sky tower was wiggly. The sky tower was high. I love sky towers. - Kaichi
We take a photo of it. We also made it out of wood. It gets wiggly when we build it higher and higher. - Alvyn

The Three Little Pigs Song

The three little pigs song.

The Three Little Pigs

Some of the children in hub 1 have been learning about the three little pigs.  We made a book and then they wanted to act the story out.   So here is their video.

Tamaki Kindergarten Visit

A group of hub 1 learners were lucky enough to visit their kindergarten teachers and friends to have lunch together.

We talked to the children about what Stonefields School is all about!

 

The seven learner qualities help us with our learning anytime, anywhere. What are they and what do they mean?



We had a great time at the kindergarten and hope to do it again. A great big thank you to all of the parents and teachers at Tamaki who made this happen.

Independent Superstars!

We have an amazing bunch of learners in Hub One!

"I always give my dad a high five out of the school, then I go to the school and go to the classroom and then I put my bag away myself" - Charlie S.

"I put my bag away all myself and my book bag and my drink bottle" - Jacqueline

It's good to be independent because "you will learn doing things on your own because if your parents go away and they help you, you won't know what to do" - Jahvan

"I feel good because I like it when I'm doing things myself" - Margot

"I will do it myself because if my mum does it, my mum will don't be proud of me.  If mummy's be in the car, she will be proud" - Kaichi

"My mummy doesn't help me put my stuff away.  I do it by myself.  I put my bag away and my drink bottle and my book bag" - Emily S.

"I haven't been at school very long but my mummy and daddy don't pack my stuff away.  I do it myself.  They just drop me off and that's why I do it myself every morning" - Aurelia


Here in LH1 we are independent in the mornings.  We do the following things:

• I put my drink bottle away
• I put my book bag away
• I put my school bag away
• I say goodbye to mummy or daddy (or whomever is dropping me off) and then
• I choose some learning or something to play with until the bell goes.

We talked about being self-aware in the mornings and suggested that our more confident learners might even be inclusive and help the younger learners out in the morning if required.

Can you help us to grow the independence of the Learning Hub One students?

Science: Melting and Setting

We learnt that heating and cooling both chocolate and fat is a reversible change, because they can go from being normal, to runny and back to hard again over and over and still go back to being like they were when they started.

Here we are showing the changes between liquid and solid...

Making play dough

In learning hub 1, Miss Hinge has been working with a group of children to boost their skills in literacy.  As part of widening vocabulary, we made play dough today!

Here is the recipe we used...

Then we watched a video for the method of how to make it...

We had so much fun!



Then we made some words we knew using the playdough



Shayan - I made a shiny super star play dough. Play dough is my best
Ravyn - I like this play dough. I was excited.
Ayami - Play dough is my best and I love it. I love the pink colour. I was excited too
Kaichi - I like the golden sparkles because it's fun to make the play dough
Eugene - I like the red play dough

The Three Little Pigs

In the afternoons some of the learners have been working together to make different types of houses for the three little pigs.  This learning links to oral language and our science concepts.
 

Making Connections in Phonics

We've all been learning lots about letter sounds and how to use this understanding in our writing.  Some of the groups have been robotting to help them break down the sounds in words and some have been looking at words with the same middle and end sounds.  Here are some of the rhyming words we've found.  Can you think of any others?

Break Through today!

Many groups have been putting a lot of time and effort into their Break Through projects this term and many are starting to come to an end.  Here's a bit of a Break Through round-up for you.

Building Group:

They have boats in Lego City and some bridges and houses and buildings.  To make the bridges we had to push the tables a little bit open and we put the bridges in the middle of them.  The bridges are used for the people that go to the boats and the cars.

By Joe

Drama Group:

First showing...

After the first go, we shared some feedback.  We reflected and said that it might be more interesting if the different actors said and did things.  Do you agree?

So the group practiced and reflected some more to give this performance:

We reflected again and gave this feedback.  We liked the way that the actors said and did things when it was their turn and we liked how they spoke clearly.  We think their next steps could be to remember when it's their turn and they might like to practice more to help them remember.  Well done everyone!

Real Life Learning in Action!

You can't hold a Stonefields learner back!

Check out Charlie and Oliver in their kitchens baking up a storm.  They must have ran home and gotten their noses straight into their recipe books.  Well done, boys, you've really shown everyone that learning doesn't just happen between 9 and 3 at school.

How did they taste?  What was the best part about this home learning challenge?  What was tricky?

We can't wait to see what everyone else comes up with!

Enjoy our photos and be sure to check back as more Hub 1 learners get in on the action...




Nathan's made a delicious fudge slice and has even shared the recipe with you all...

250 g plain biscuits
75g butter
1/4 cup of milk
1/2 cup of soft brown sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla essence

1. Crush biscuits in a bowl add vanilla essence
2. Mix sugar, cocoa, milk, butter in a saucepan, once boiling boil for 2 minutes.
3. Add mixture to biscuits
4. Press into a dish
5. Refrigerate and once set ice with chocolate icing