BIRTHDAY BOYS

Birthday season continues in Piako Rua this week - Happy Birthday to William and Beau!

TODAY'S MATHS

We love Maths!  Here are a few photos of what we got up to today. 

Samuel and Gerodie were having a great time playing a game that was teaching them numbers to 1000, when Ruth and Cookie from LC 14 came through.  They asked if they could join in.  It was great fun ... even if Ruth did win by heaps!!!

BROKEN ARMS

Braxton is our latest friend to be sporting a cast for a broken arm. 
He and Coltyn formed a new friendship today bonding over their plaster casts. 
Too cute 😃

PIAKO RUA REMINDERS

Hi everyone

Just a couple of reminders for the children that we would appreciate you supporting us with.

• Bikes and scooters need to be parked over by the turf where the big kids park theirs as Rachel our Caretaker, uses the space by our classroom as part of her work space for building and painting bits and pieces.
• We are trying to encourage the children to have a piece of fruit or a veggie for healthy snack.  We would prefer that children do not have yoghurt as we have children allergic to dairy and would rather not risk their food coming into contact with dairy products.  We also worry about yoghurt being out of the fridge for so long before healthy snack time.
• Please can you ensure that your child's lunch box is named.  We often have a selection of lunch boxes at the end of the day that no one seems to own 😜
• Spelling homework is coming home this week.  There is a notice in your child's book that explains how this works.  We have sent home simple lists as we really would like the children to get into the habit of doing their spelling homework rather than stressing the children with hard words as we try to get this system up and running.  Testing is done on Friday.  Please make sure that your child forms their letters correctly.  A handwriting guide will be sent home to help them with this.

As always, any questions, please feel free to pop in or send us an email.

Warmest regards

Jo, Sarah and Sharon

SWIMMING FUN IN PIAKO RUA

Our teachers are soooooo impressed with how well we are doing with our swimming.  We are well on the way to becoming competent swimmers

Playing Ring-a-ring a Rosie... just for fun 😋

Check out these videos!

Deakin is so amazing at swimming - we think he must be part fish!

MATHEMATICS

 

 We have a great time at Maths this week.  We rotate around the different spaces so we see all the teachers.  We learn Number Knowledge with Mrs Lunn in the Rainbow Room, Strategy with Mrs Ruawai in Wonderland and in the Jungle we do Maths Problem Solving with Ms Udy.






Here are a few photos of us busy in the Rainbow Room.  We are focusing on Numeral Identification for the next couple of weeks. 

FRIDAY'S ART OPT-IN

We love the different opt ins on offer on Fridays.  This week Mrs Lunn took the kids who wanted to learn how to use vivid and dye to draw a pirate ship.  The kids listened carefully to the instructions and each created nothing short of a masterpiece!




 

RIVERDALE AT TWILIGHT!

Last night was a special event at Riverdale School!

We had a community event where all our families came along to have a picnic and have some fun!

There was a book fair, face painting, henna, rippa rugby, a sausage sizzle, a police car, a fire engine, a stock car and even Mr Pike the Magician!!!

 We had a great night being together as a School Community.

 Check out this photos that Belinda took from up in the fire engine!!!  

AMAZING

TIGER COMES TO VISIT

Oliver's Mum brought in Tiger, Oliver's little kitten.  Tiger is three months old and is super cute.  The children were all very good at keeping nice and quiet so that Tiger wouldn't be scared, especially when we did the Pou Mihi.

Thanks for bring Tiger in Kathryn!

SECRET CODE WORDS

In Mrs Lunn's Reading group, the kids had a new reading activity.  It is called Secret Sight Words.  The children need to look at the pictures on the card and say the first sound.  They then find the magnetic letter of that sound and make the code word. 

Lucas and Cruz had a great time doing this activity today.  There were having so much fun that Indi and Alyssa thought they would have a turn!

Clever cookies!

ASSEMBLY FUN

At Friday's School Assembly the new teachers to the school were 'initiated!'

Ms Udy - you were a good sport!

Three of our classmates were awarded Principal's Awards this week.  Congratulations to Braxton, Mason and Jacob N. 

SMART MOVES IN THE HALL

On a rainy Friday morning, we went to Smart Moves in the Hall.  We worked on crossing the midline, by doing things like bunny hops from side to side.  Activities also focus on developing our coordination and gross motor skills.  We have a bit of fun too!

SCIENCE OPT-IN: BALLOON ROCKETS

Some of the children opted in to a workshop to make balloon rockets.  The kids were presented with the materials needed and they had to try and figure out how to make the rocket.  The first challenged they faced was which way to have the opening of the balloon, as you can see here... 😂

We eventually got the balloon working!

Then we worked in small teams to make our own balloon rockets.  It took a lot of concentration and teamwork.

 

Once we were all organised we tested our rockets!

 We had a few races too...

Sophia explains what we got up to today...

And if you are wondering about the science behind Balloon Rockets, this video explains it really well.