Wow Words!

If you are looking for this weeks WOW  words click on the tab above. You will see  a page with all of this terms words so you can keep practising!

Responsibility.

Our REACH  value focus for the next week is RESPONSIBILITY.  

We can show responsibility in lots of ways including for our environment, our belongings and our learning. 

Some of the ways we can show responsibility at school are:

Listening when others are talking.

Helping to keep our classroom tidy.

Hanging my bag up and keeping my things in it, not on the floor.

Putting my name on my work.

Finishing my work. 

Doing my Must Dos at Literacy time.

Thinking about my learning and what will help me achieve my learning goals.

Bringing my library folder back on a Monday.

Bringing my poetry folder on a Friday.

Bringing my reading folder every day.

On Tuesday, Lesley Ottey shared lots of wonderful ways we can take RESPONSIBILITY for looking after our environment.  We can help reduce, reuse and recycle! 

At Discovery Time today our focus was on showing RESPONSIBILITY in our learning by:

*making choices about what we do.

*listening to others when they are talking .

*being patient and taking time with our ideas to ensure that we get quality work.

Matthew and Joe were keen to find new ways to share their ideas about hunting so we explored how we could use PicCollage on the iPad to find pictures and write about their favourite topic!

 Fynn was eager to keep working on his illustration for his story writing about polar bears this week!

Discovering how we can use air to move these cool rockets was also a popular choice.  

 Our creative Bellbirds loved this idea and quickly suggested that we could also find some fairy pictures on the internet and make fairies that could fly too, so that is what we did! 

 This group were certainly focussed and showing responsibility as they took their time and worked together to create their ideas. 

 Frozen Blow Painting!

Our big question!

Oh no! Mrs T dropped our big inquiry question on the floor and it got all muddled up!

Luckily we are problem solvers in the Bellbirds and we all helped her to put the words back in order!

We had to think carefully about which words would make sense together.  

Mrs T was so pleased we could get it all back in order for our Inquiry display on the back wall.

Great team work! 

We were so proud of our work Maisie suggested we share this with you on the blog!

How does survival take place in a cold environment?

We will be thinking about this big question very carefully over the next couple of weeks before our trip to the Antarctic Centre!

Thank you Mr Mullan for working with the Bellbirds for Maths over the last 2 weeks.  

The Squares maths group have really enjoyed having you teach them about subtraction!

Who is this Mrs T?

Hello to the Whanau of the Bellbirds,

I thought it might be a good idea to introduce myself as I will be spending a lot of time  with the Bellbirds Tamariki in the next few months.
I have been a teacher since 1990 (eek a while ago!) During this time I have worked with all age levels, but predominately in the junior school.
I started teaching at Pleasant Point, South Canterbury and have since been in many other schools around NZ, as my life journey included getting married, having 4 daughters (one of whom is living in England) and moving house a lot.

We settled in Christchurch and I have spent the last 7 years working in North Canterbury schools, including Ashley (yes I've been here before!) Most recently I have been at Clarkville teaching in a collaborative team and facilitating a  drama/dance  programme (passions of mine)

I'm excited to be back here at Ashley and to be playing a part in this exciting time as the Bellbirds Tamariki start at school to continue their learning/life journey.

I look forward to meeting and getting to know more of you over the coming weeks. Please don't hesitate to have a conversation with me about your children and their learning or their little moments,
or if you prefer the weather or how well the ABs played! (Please note: Richie always plays well)

Ka Kite
Kerri Taylor  (Mrs T)

"The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled" so said Plutarch ( and me) :)

Friday Discoveries!

Please note that the Weekly Words for Mrs O and Mrs T's groups are now at the top of our blog. These will change weekly.

Today we explored ice and floating. We made lots of careful observations.

The ice felt very very cold, hard, wet and slippery!

It gave us goosebumps and made us shiver!

We came up with lots of great similes...

As cold as....

Jack Frost

a frosty morning

the  freezer

snow

a snowy mountain

fresh water 

ice cream.

Fynn thought the ice was "as cold as Antarctica!"

We noticed how the ice had lots of cracks through it and got smaller!  

We know that it melts when it gets warm and changes into water.

 We discovered that ice floats!  We noticed more of the ice was under the water than above!

We decided to explore what other objects float and sink too.

Thank you Lochie, Susan, Zoe and Mrs Tipping  for making fresh play-dough for us to use! 

We tried very hard today to take time on our ideas to make sure that we achieved quality work that we were proud of! We know that it takes time!

 Bentley worked hard on his cute penguin today!Welcome to school Bentley!

Terrific pirate hats and boats!

Thank you Olivia for sharing and organising this popular princess idea today.  

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Today we were encouraged to work with someone we don't usually work with at Discovery Time and to think about how  we could  help each other. 

 This was lots of fun and some new friendships were started as we learnt cool things about each other that we didn't know before!

Lots of cooperation and helping each other at the junk table!

Discovering which objects were magnetic and which were not was very popular  today!  Some children discovered that they could even move objects with the magnet when the magnet was hidden under the table.   It looked like magic!

Phoenix, Alexa ,Peyton, Maybelle , Luci and Sarah showed great patience and perseverance to keep working on an idea until it was finished today!  They are very proud of what they made!

Fynn, Zoe and Maisie worked so well together when using the drawing instructions to make their own pictures. Fynn was so proud of his quality drawing that he had it laminated so he could keep it forever!

We wish you a happy and safe holidays with your families.  

We look forward to hearing all about your adventures!

Sophia's Rabbits visit today.

Today we had two cute visitors.

Spot and Honey Heart!

Sophia has six baby rabbits at home. 

Today two came for a quick visit.

Some of us chose to hold them.

"They were a little bit scared and worried," said Olivia.