Friday, October 25, 2019

Welcome to Term 4 in whanau Koru.

Welcome back to Term 4, the final term of 2019.

Room 21 has been using our time in Play in many imaginative and creative ways. I took a selection of photos one morning of Play to capture some of the fantastic ways Room 21 are using this learning time.

Learners created a beyblade stadium with blocks in the corridor ourside our classroom, which allowed us to battle our 'beyblades' (spinning devices that had been created from lego).  The learners were investigating different areas in the classroom that would make a suitable stadium so that they could see which of their lego constructions was strongest during the battles.

The learners took the lego beyblades outside and investigated adding playdoh buffers to the stadium to see if they could navigate around these during the spinning battles.  It required that they assess their spinning technique in quite a bit of detail in order to be able to move between the buffers and not just crash into them.

Some learners were interested in making collages from a selection of coloured paper I had set out, creating hills, grass, mountains and the sky in their images.

Lego is a fantastic open-ended play tool that was being used to create extra interest and new areas in our dolls house. Learners had decided that they needed to add new detail to our existing furniture and dolls, which extended the narrative or story they were able to create in this space.

Room 21 enjoy greatly creating all manner of items from various shaped boxes and other upcycled objects that we can use in the classroom. On this morning the learners had decided to paint their space inspired creations to add further depth to their designs.

Using role-play or drama in play is a way that learners can make sense of their world, explore and extend their own learning. A group were using our foam letters to write their names and high-frequency words from our butterfly word cards. 


We used some of the high-frequency words they had made with foam letters to create sentences that the learners wrote on to whiteboards.





Saturday, October 19, 2019

Ngā mihi nui from Whānau Koru
Term 3 
Welcome to all new tamariki and whanau who have joined our Balmoral school community this term. A big welcome back also to Cheryl who is teaching our newest tamariki in the Mototapu Room.

The Milk and Cookies Evening, which took place in August, was a chance for whānau to read favourite stories and discover new ones together. We held this year’s celebration of books and reading in the Library for the first time and the children arrived in their pyjamas to twinkling lights, lots of little nooks to snuggle into with their books and an enticing supply of cookies and milk. Our librarian Liz Hamilton, helped by Nicola Brown, opened the Library to us and organised two wonderful authors, Toby Morris and Melinda Syzmanik who read some of their stories.


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 Learning to see the world

Wandering through classrooms in Whanau Koru you will often see sketching tables and water colour tables set up with particular objects or materials ready for observation and reflection. We want children to be active observers of the world around them, wondering, asking questions, sharing theories that will guide their research and lead to new or deeper learning. Observational drawing is a powerful way we can lead children into exploring science understandings. It allows time to notice detail, the shape and form, structure of things and colour. Children can make observations by comparing and contrasting. They sort, categorise, make generalisations and importantly ask more questions.

• Drawing takes observation beyond simple sensory perception and allows children to organize knowledge and understanding (Fox, 2010)

• Learning to draw with accuracy helps children to filter speculations and false theories out from what was actually observed in the subject or process (Fox & Lee, 2013)

• Children develop new theories as they draw and observe (Ainsworth, Prain, & Tytler, 2011)

• Children retain more of what they learn in an observation when they draw vs. when they do not (Fox & Lee, 2013)

• Teachers may assess what children have learned by what they are paying attention to in their drawings.

The roots have to go, and then the plant grows. the plant needs roots to grow. Hana


That’s a kiwifruit that has black seeds. The [apple] seed looked like a rain drop. Kianca






Detail of a peacock feather






Koru trip to Auckland Museum - 20th May 2021 Koru whānau went to the Auckland Museum - Tāmaki Paenga Hira- on Thursday 20th May to further l...