Back to school!

Hooray! We can all go back to school on Monday and see everyone there.

When you come to school, Mum or Dad or Aunty or Nanna or Koro or whoever drops you off, will drop you by the crossing. Then Pippa, or Whaea Sheryl, or Ms Bobsien, or Mrs McKenzie or Ms O'Neil will take you across the road and into the school. Then, you can walk to our classroom. I will be waiting in the classroom to see you! I'm looking forward to seeing you, I have missed you all!

Here is a video of what it will be like when you come to school:


IMG_3292 from Ham East on Vimeo.

Designs with loose parts

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• Look at this beautiful art made from stones and shells. Can you find something that you can make a design with? You need to use lots of the same thing. Maybe you could use stones, leaves, lego pieces, nails or buttons, or...?

Letter Writing

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• This week let's try letter writing. Each day you can write a letter to someone you know. Tell them one thing you have been doing during the lockdown. You can then send it by post or give it to them when you can. Perhaps you can draw a picture to go inside. You will need some paper, a pen or pencil, and a ruler or something to draw lines with. I'd love to see the letters you write!
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Feelings and mindfulness

• Life has been quite different with everyone staying home, and some people have found it strange or worrying, peaceful or boring, fun or lonely, or... I'm sure you have had lots of different feelings. Soon we'll able to go back to school, and you might be feeling excited about that. Or you might be a bit nervous or anxious. We've all been spending much more time with our families, and some of us might be worried about missing our families when we are at school. Whatever you're feeling, that's OK. Yesterday we watched Jamie from Cosmic Kids Yoga on a video. Here she is with another video about how to deal with feelings. Even if you're feeling completely OK at the moment, everyone has times when they feel worried, angry, scared or anxious, so this is really useful. In the video, she talks about you being a pond, and your feelings being the fish in the pond. After you have watched the video, maybe you would like to draw a picture of your fish in your pond. Are they happy fish, worried fish, scared fish, excited fish or...?
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Making a Diagram

• Take a picture
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• from a book of an animal that you know a lot about Label the important body parts.
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• Record what your animal is and share all of the important parts. "This is a _____. It has a ____, ______, ______."

Get moving with yoga!

• Have you tried Cosmic Kids' Yoga before? I like these videos because you get to act out a story as well as learn how to do yoga. This one is called "Squish the Fish." Follow along and do all the movements just like she does in the video!
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Writing time: 'ing'

Learning all about our friend ’ing’...

•  Did you know that some words can be changed from one word to another by using ‘ing’? For example: 'look' can become 'looking', 'go' can become 'going'... If a word has an 'e' on the end, what happens is we ‘drop’ the ‘e’ and put ‘ing’ instead... ‘have’ can become ‘having’. ‘Take’ can become ‘taking’. Can you make a list of words that can have ‘ing’ added? Here is a starting list: walk bike sleep smile

Draw your own "I Spy" picture

• This activity is from Cathy in the school library: The 'I Spy' books are very popular in our library. Watch the video to see how they are made. Challenge: Can you draw an 'I Spy' picture? Find different objects around your home to add to your picture.
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Art: Leaf Rubbings

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• I have seen so many wonderful leaves floating around while I have been out walking around my neighbourhood! If you collect some interesting shaped leaves, and use a piece of paper and some colouring pencils or crayons, you can make leaf rubbings. Cover the leaf with paper and use the side of the crayon or pencil to shade on the paper over the leaf. If you press hard enough, you will be able to see the shape of the leaf and the veins in the leaf. Remember to hold your paper really still, so that the leaf rubbing works! If you make a few leaf rubbings, you could cut them out and make a picture with them, or put them in a circle to make a wreath! I'd love to see your artwork! 

Race to Count!!!

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• Have a race at home- go! How many windows? How many doors? How many plates? How many pillows? How many lights? - Who WON?
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One Call Away

Hamilton East School staff have created this version of One Call Away together. Edited by Yoshie.

One call away Final from Ham East on Vimeo.

Bugs, bugs, bugs

Look at this bug study that Moss has done!
He went to the garden to find a creature to study, then he drew a picture of it. After that, he researched a few facts about ants on the computer with his family and wrote about it.

I can see that he looked really carefully at the ant. He has noticed details about its body shape, legs and antennae.

Today's challenge is to go on a bug hunt.

Go outside and have a think where you might find a bug.

What kind of bug do you think you might find - a spider, a cricket, a praying mantis?

When you have found a bug, look at it carefully.

How many legs does it have?

What colour is it?

How many eyes does it have?

What do you think it eats?

Draw your best picture of it, showing all the details that you can see. Write about, or record yourself telling me all about your bug. Make sure you put your bug back where you found it, so that it can find its home again!

I can't wait to see your bugs, I'm going to try and find one too!

Flynn's boat

Have a look at what Flynn has been doing at home! He made a plan to build a boat...

He even remembered to put in his measurements so that he knew what size to make it.

Then, he built his boat:

Here is the boat with its pirate crew and sails...




Then, Flynn wrote about his boat...


Well done Flynn, your boat is amazing! I wonder if anyone else from Room 14 would like to share their creations?

Self Portrait Collage

Find some things from around your house or garden to make a picture of your face. I wonder what you will use? Send me a picture of your creation!

Writing time: Climbing a tree

Have you ever climbed a tree? Maybe you could find one that is good to climb, and get an adult to take a photo of you in the tree.

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  Today we are going to write a story about climbing a tree. You will need a pen or pencil, some paper and a ruler, or something straight to draw lines to write on.
• Here are some story starters: I can climb… I like climbing… I was high… The alphabet cards are there to help you. When you have finished your writing, take a photo of your story and send it to me. I'm looking forward to hearing your story!

Word Power Challenge

Today for writing, you will need a pencil, paper and the alphabet card. See if someone can set a timer for you for 10 minutes.

•  Then, see how many words you can write in 10 minutes. They can be any words, and names are OK too. Don't forget to write down all the really easy words (like 'a', 'I' and 'the'), because they all count! Don't copy the words from anywhere, you need to think of them yourself! Another way to get your word score higher is to think of word families like 'at' (mat, fat,...). You can use the alphabet card to help you with the sounds. You get a point for every word you write correctly. Next time we do this challenge, we will see if you can beat your record. Send me a picture, I’d love to see your work!
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Boxes, boxes, boxes!

We seem to collect boxes in our home, I wonder if you do too? Here's a video with some ideas about using boxes:

What could you make out of boxes? Maybe a shop for your family to shop at? Or a robot with arms and legs? What else could you make? You may even have an enormous box somewhere that you could use and make a… (Surprise me!) Send me a picture..

Everything is different at the moment, but we can find learning opportunities everywhere!

Andie's Science Experiment

• Here's a science experiment that Andie did at her house. You can watch her doing it on her video. Maybe you would like to try doing it at your house.
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• • In the video, Andie saw that the balloon got bigger (inflated) when the bottle was in the hot water, and got smaller (deflated) when the bottle was in the cold water. She was making an observation, noticing the changes. This is what scientists do.
    You can also think like a scientist - they watch (observe) and come up with ideas or explanations for what is happening, based on what they can see. These are called 'hypotheses.' Can you tell us why you think the balloon got bigger in the hot water and smaller in the cold water? If you do this, you will be making a hypothesis, just like a scientist!