Meaurement.

The kids in Kiwi have been learning about measurement.  They have been using some fantastic language to order and compare objects by length, weight and volume. Here you can see two boys very carefully (using a non-standard measurement tool)  measure the length of a taped line.

And here you can see some of the language that the kids are learning about measurement when comparing themselves. 

  

Its been an EGGciting week in Kiwi

On Monday 10 fertilised eggs arrived with their incubator and brooding box.   The kids in Kiwi were pretty excited about what was about to happen and had soooo many wonderings about our new additions.
Word soon got around the school that the Kiwi classes had something exciting going on and each morning we were greeted by children (and parents) from all over the school coming to check on our eggs and chicks progress.
Hayley and Mrs Cullen won our in house guess of how many would hatch on what day (6 on Wednesday)
Its so great to see our Kiwi Kiddies be the experts and be able to answer the questions from the older kids!  During week 9 we will be continuing our inquiry into chickens and be looking at the life cycle as well as researching some of the wonderings that the kids have about our chicks.

Below are some videos we have collected so far.
A day in the life of the Chick in the incubator (if you watch closely there is a chick hatching towards the end of this clip)

For those classes that missed a hatching, here is a clip.

Kiwi will have plenty of opportunities to interact with the chicks during week 9, and other classes are invited to book in with Ms Grant if they want to visit and interact with them too.

We've got Kiwi eggs

Today our surprise for the Kiwi kids (& Ms. Gooch) arrived... 10 wee chicken eggs are sitting in an incubator waiting to hatch in K3.
-It was very cute to find a bunch of kids doing their SSR to the eggs this morning (they are obviously taking their jobs as midwives seriously!) 

By Friday they should have all hatched into chicks and during week 9 a lot of our patterns inquiry will be around the life cycle of chickens.
Please pop in and say hello to our 10 newest Kiwis and don't forget to email us any conversations you have with your kids about the eggs and chicks.
Next week we will be able to handle the chicks, so if you're free for a half hour or more to help out with this please let your classroom teacher know (or see me, Gina.)

From the Kiwi Teachers.

P.S. I saw one of the eggs wobbling in the incubator when I was leaving this evening....

Teacher only day and Queens birthday Monday

Just a reminder that this Friday (29th May 2015) is a Teachers Only Day and that Monday the 1st June is Queens Birthday (a Public Holiday)
Kind regards, 
The Kiwi Teachers.

What is a QR code?

You may have noticed in Kiwi that there are some funny codes around that look like an array of black and white squares... 


They are called QR codes (or Quick Response Codes) These little boxes can be read by any device that has downloaded a QR code reader app...  (there are many available and mostly free!)  
A QR Code when scanned by the app will take you directly to the website link.   They are an easy way for people to get to websites etc without having to remember long urls.   
I hope this helps those that had asked about them. 
If you have any problems, feel free to ask any of the Kiwi teachers to help you out. 
From Gina. 

Knowledge-athon.

I hope you are all collecting lots of sponsors for our Patterns Knowledge-athon?  

We are hoping to raise $20,000 to help towards rebuilding a new school hall so I would like to set a challenge to all of the Kiwi kiddies to get at at least 5 sponsors each.  

You can access the Knowledge-athon website here http://knowledge.willowbank.school.nz 
And there are great prizes up for grabs too!  

Its been great to see all of our little learners coming to school so enthusiastic and eager to show what they have been doing at home around patterns.

Here is a fabulous video sent into us by Zach's parents to show his understanding of a pattern (Set A#3) for some inspiration!  
We would love to hear your positive comments about Zach's pattern below.  
From the Team Kiwi Teachers. 

Welcome to Kiwi 2015.

What a fantastic week we had in Kiwi last week.  Week one is always tiring on the kids and none more so than the little ones that are just starting school.  

We will be continuing to get to know the children working in Kiwi over the next few weeks as well as you the parents.  On Tuesday evening there is a Keeping Ourselves Safe information evening at school, followed by meet the teacher.  We look forward to seeing you all there. 

If you haven't already, please head over to the school webpage and sign up for the fortnightly newsletter to be emailed to you.  There is also a Willowbank Facebook page you can follow to keep up to date with what is going on at school.  

Regards, 

Gina and Renee.