Spring Has Sprung

I can hardly believe it is the 1st September. We wrote stories about spring this morning and spent last week learning about spring for Discovery. Last Friday (29th August) was Daffodil Day in New Zealand and is a fund-raising and awareness day for the Cancer Society. So some of our Discovery activities were about daffodils and Daffodil Day.

The children painted watercolour pictures of a jug of daffodils.

 And we made our own daffodil badges with yellow and orange cupcake cases.

I like how one of my children described it this morning - "the daffodils are waking up."

Ice Block Stick Butterflies

 A mother (and fellow teacher) of one of my lovely children came in to our class today to make these cute ice-block stick caterpillars. 

They are hiding a special surprise - a beautiful butterfly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

She also brought in her youngest child for us to play with!

Spring into Spring

Although today was not exactly warm Spring weather we had a great time learning about Spring and some of the amazing things that happen in the springtime.

   Birds lay eggs. We used clay to make these nests and eggs.

Then chicks are born. These masks are from Sparklebox.

 

 Daffodils bloom, mini-cupcake cases are perfect for the middle of the flower.

 Other types of flowers start to grow, so we labeled the different parts of a flower.

 I also cut some flowers from my garden for the children to paint. I love the colourful rainbow behind these flowers.

 

We also made easy pinecone bird feeders with margarine and birdseed. Baby birds are hungry in the springtime, so these bird feeders will keep them well feed!

Easter Discovery

 This card says it all ... Happy Easter!

We had lots of fun today exploring different Easter activities....

 

 .... We were busy making bunny ears ....

 .... Then ordering eggs from largest to smallest ....

 .... and dyeing hard boiled eggs ....

 .... Then making a recycled Easter basket for our egg ....

 .... After that we cut and coloured our own Easter rabbits, I love how this bunny is holding a basket full of chocolate eggs.

We made pretend spring gardens with playdough and fake flowers, because one tradition of Easter is to celebrate new life and growth, and flowers grow in Spring ....

 .... Then we went outside to have 'egg' and spoon races over an obstacle course.

But a favourite activity was filling chocolate molds with chocolate ....

 .... and eating them.

Have a happy Easter.

Spring Discovery 2012

Spring has sprung. Luckily today was a beautiful Spring day to discover about Spring.

This is the start of a collage spring sign. Soon to be covered with daffodils made from yellow and orange cupcake cases.

Our Mountaineers enjoyed using lots of fake flowers to make a Spring play-dough garden.

 This season spinner was tricky to make , but a lot of fun to use. The children discovered how we can look at the leaves on trees to figure out what season it is. It took some children a long time to colour, glue, and cut this spinner and I was impressed with the perseverance displayed by our 5 and 6 year old's in order to complete the task.

Tying tissue paper blossoms on these previously bare branches was a simple independent activity that encouraged the children to use their fine motor skills. We used twisty ties to attach the blossoms, but you could also use pipe-cleaners.

ANZAC Day

Together with our senior school buddies we made these gorgeous red poppies. 

Click here and here if you would like instructions about how to make this poppy flower craft.

The red poppy has become a symbol of war remembrance the world over. People in many countries wear the poppy to remember those who died in war or who still serve. In many countries, the poppy is worn around Armistice Day (11 November), but in New Zealand it is most commonly seen around Anzac Day, 25 April.

 http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/war/anzac-day/poppies

The whole school made poppies and they were made into a wreath to lay at the base of our flagpole in a special ceremony.

We have 'Buddy Time' every Monday morning, normally we read and play literacy games together. It was fantastic to see my gorgeous class working so hard with their older buddy for this special occasion.

Green Fingers

During our Mountaineers Discovery session we have been busy planting seeds and seedlings in the garden. We are very lucky to have an amazing vegetable garden here at Totara Park School. Hopefully, one day we will be able to eat and sell our delicious vegetables.

These will one day (fingers crossed) grow in to yummy red onions.

We used gentle hands to plant our vegetables.

Check out our lovely neat rows of red onion, beetroot, and carrots.

We made little tags for our vegetables by cutting down ice-cream containers, I wrote on the name of the vegetable and drew a picture of it for non-readers.