Elmer the Elephant

This week our book is "Elmer the Elephant" by David McKee. We have enjoyed reading the book, talking about what makes us all unique, and doing some work with elephant pictures.  Today for our outing we went on an elephant hunt, and guess what - we found one! We ended up at the Elephant Park on Blackett St in Rangiora where we found a pink elephant, just the right size for us to climb on.  We also had a fantastic time exploring all the other awesome play equipment at the park. What a beautiful day for an adventure....

Fine Motor Skills

All the room 11 students have been working hard on their fine motor skills this week. We use a wide range of fun and engaging activities to give everyone a lot of practice using their hands and fingers, building muscle strength, and practicing skills needed for things like writing, tying shoe laces, opening packets, using zips and buttons and so much more!

Threading beads requires intense concentration!

Wind up toys are lots of fun, but super tricky!

Practising using scissors to make snips and cuts across the paper, following along the lines

Weeks 2&3

Room 11 students have been very busy in class lately. We have been working hard on our play/social skills, cooperation skills, problem solving, imagination, and trying new things. Check out these photos of the students cooperating and having lots of fun!

Great work team!

Welcome to Term 3

Our term has got off to a busy start. We have welcomed a new Teacher Assistant to our class, Gina, as Lisa has moved to Room 6.  Gina has been working at Allenvale for about 4 years now and is excited to be with us!  We have also welcomed a student teacher, Kate, who will be with us for the next 5 weeks and who I am sure will have a lot to both learn from us and teach us during her time in Room 11.

This term our topic is 'Books Galore', and we will be studying one book in depth each week.  We have kicked off the term with "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?" by Bill Martin Jr. For our outing we intended to go to the Animal Farm Park at Spencer Park, but when we got there (and had put on our gumboots in preparation for the mud) we found the gate padlocked! I guess it was too muddy for us to visit :-(

Instead we walked over to Brooklands Lagoon, climbed up the viewing platform and looked out at the view. We saw lots of birds, heard lots of squawking, and enjoyed the beautiful sunshine.

Westburn Bike Park

It's been two weeks since our last post - apologies! The class has been inundated with illness lately - I can't remember the last time we had all students and staff at school!
On Tuesday we had four of our six students, and two of our three staff. We took advantage of the weather (it wasn't raining!), loaded some bikes and scooters into the back of the van, and went to the Bike Park on Westburn Tce. We had the place to ourselves and had a wonderful time biking around the mini roads, round the roundabout, across the bridge, and past all the different signs.

After everyone had biked round for a while our legs needed a break so we checked out the playground. Aiyden and Tyler loved the swings, while Bailey Rose enjoyed the slide and William checked out the merry-go-round. It was such a fun outing!

Lyttleton

This week on our outing we drove to Lyttleton as part of our transport topic . We drove through the tunnel. There were lots of lights and big trucks in the tunnel  Lisa tooted the horn!

Once we were through the tunnel we were in Lyttleton! 

We saw lots of boats - big ones, small ones, some with sails, some with smoke coming out of the chimneys.

Some were even out of the water!

We saw some for sale and wondered if Mr Daniel would buy one for our class...

Our school values

At Allenvale our school values are Belonging, Independence, Generosity and Success, and we look at ways to celebrate these in everything the students do.  Yesterday after cooking Kereama showed us that he could be independent, generous and successful in helping to do our dishes after our cooking session. By helping with jobs like this he is also showing a sense of Belonging by caring for our classroom environment. Four values all in one activity!

Thanks for your help Kereama - if mum sees this post she might get you to help at home too!!