FRACTIONS

Yesterday we started learning about Fractions.  Fractions are a part of a whole.  We watched this song on YouTube:

Then we had a go at some different activities to learn more about fractions.

Mrs Ruawai showed us ONE WHOLE mandarin.  She peeled the mandarin and we counted how many segments were in the mandarin.  There were 10.  Then she broke the mandarin in HALF.  There were 5 pieces in each half.  Mrs Ruawai gave one of our friends a piece of the mandarin.  She gave them ONE piece out of TEN altogether.  This is called ONE TENTH!

We practised folding different sized squares in half.  We learnt that fractions are equal sized pieces.  If you fold the paper in half you are more likely to be accurate when you try cutting it.   There were a few different ways to do this you know!

We drew around shapes and cut them out.  Then we folded them and cut them in half.

We played a matching game - matching the fractions to the right picture.

You could help us at home by talking about fractions with us.  We would love to eat HALF and apple or a QUARTER of an orange.

MATHS KNOWLEDGE THIS WEEK - FORWARD SEQUENCES

For Maths over the next two weeks we are focusing on Forward Sequences.  This involves saying the number AFTER a number and being able to order numbers from smallest to largest.  Some of us a learning to skip count in 5s and 10s to 100 as well.

You might have seen the tote trays under our Maths wall.  Each workshop has a corresponding tote tray.  When we go to the Rainbow Room for Maths, we take our the tote tray for the workshop we are in and do the different activities in it. Mrs Lunn works with us to play the games and also teaches us at the whiteboard table.

Miss Smith has been working with some of our Maths groups too.

 Emma and Brooklyn worked with Mrs Lunn learning how to order numbers to 50.

Here they are working very hard to order some numbers...

You can help us at home by getting us to say the number after, any number you tell us.  

You could write some numbers down on pieces of paper for us and we could put them in order for you.

We can also practise skip counting in 2s, 5s and 10s.  

This is a link to the Caterpillar Counting game, which can also be found under the Maths Games tab on our blog.

TE WHIRINGAWHA

Today was a pretty special day in Piako Rua.  The teachers and Pa Jack talked to us about Te Whiringawha.  On a Marae, there are four different roles that people play.  
They are:

Ariki

• Leader

Tohunga

• Expert
• Treasure

Mangotoa

• Defender
• Protector

and finally...

Aronui

• Administrator
• Carer

The teachers explained that we are made of parts of each of these.  Some of us have more Aronui for

example, than others.  When we grow, we might change but in the meantime we had to have a think about what colours we thought we are now.

We each were given a stylised picture of a person that we had to colour in.  We needed to think about how much of each colour we think we are.  The teachers were amazed with how well we knew ourselves.

Here are a few examples of our work... 

You might like to talk to us about this at home.  

You will be pleasantly surprised with how well we can articulate what we talked about today.

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