Whaea Jo, Matua Brett and the pupils from the Lockwood learning centre treated the whole school to a hangi lunch. We all sat at tables, with drinks and serviettes, and enjoyed a treat we will never forget. Thank you!
Our own drum -and what fun. Thank you to the amazing performers and R.E.A.P.
Our new 'secret' learning space. Thank you, Mr Burke!
This monarch butterfly couldn't wait for Delaine's swan plants to be put into the ground! We counted 32 eggs on the leaves.
The count down is on. We are having fun learning about life in the past, and how this affects our present lives. Have you registered yet? The planning team have some exciting events organised for all ages.
Welcome Edgecumbe Kindergarten. Look at those attentive children!
Stevie and Mackenzie discovered we had another addition to our Rainbow theme in the jigsaw corner. Well done girls!
Jayda-Leigh holds an 'I Care' surprise. Her Mum sent along a container of delicious cup cakes they made in case anyone missed out on Sports food sales day!
V is for vegetable soup. We washed, scraped, peeled and chopped a range of vegetables from Mr Johnston's garden. It smelt so good as it cooked on a very cold morning. No chopped fingers either!
Jayda-Leigh does amazing dancing with our ribbons.
Men at work! Matua Les giving a little assistance to our keen sewers. They were remarkably independent!
Look at our amazing writers! These 'k's are so perfectly formed it is hard to believe that they are written by pupils in Year One.
We are on the bus beginning our 'Big Day Out'. Look at the excitement, the light rain didn't damper our enthusiasm at all. For some, like Arliyah, this was the first time on a bus too.
Our Centennial. Mrs Carter created three cakes with the help from her team, to begin the magical weekend.
Room 11 experts 'at work'.
C is for cupcakes. Jayden and Samuel have the baking underway. They were delicious!
Our 'own' Whaea Maia. We are delighted that Maia is able to share her last teaching practicum with us before she begins her teaching career in 2015.
R is for robot. Mrs Carter created this wonderful cake for all to enjoy.
Rr is for red day. Doesn't Room 10 look amazing. A special thank you to Mrs Carter, her big helpers, and the wonderful Room 11 artists.
Jj jiggling jelly j. We dissolved 3 packets of jelly and made this delicious jiggling jelly. Yum!
Some are vegetable soup eaters, and some not so keen. It didn't matter, we had fun preparing it and realising that we can grow our own healthy food.
Thinking and learning together. Well done Samuel and Jamie.
John and Kacey focussing on their Math learning in Room 10. They are 'I can do it' pupils!
K Kicking King. Look what our chefs made -they tasted delicious too!
We have arrived. The rain held off, the smiles grew, and the fun began.Thanks Julian's, you treated us to an enjoyable, tasty, learning experience.
Yes, the fun begins. Fireworks and a disco to follow!
We 'think, try, and do our best work'. Always!
This week we have been learning about fractions. You may like to practise finding halves and quarters of objects in the holidays.
Independent learning activities. Not only writing words without help, but able to share them with the class as well! Way to go, Te Toki.
R is for rabbit. Thanks Mr Johnston for being such a supportive husband -at home and at school, even down to creating cakes!
We started with sugar, butter, flour and an egg. We used 4 little bottles of food colouring to create our rainbow cookie dough.
Another Room 11 surprise. Mrs Howson, Jayden's Nana, brought a bag of Yacon 'fruit' for us to try. It originates in South America and is fresh tasting juicy tuber.
We have been making our next Duffy book choices. It was really hard as we loved so many. Now we have to wait a long time for them to arrive, but we will be patient.
Buddy reading -perfection. Thank you Room 6 for helping us in uncountable ways.
Ee is for Eccles cakes. Te Toki and Ukarau were wonderful chefs and completed the many steps involved by themselves. Absolutely delicious!
Jayda - Leigh and Kacey rolling the cookie dough. I was so proud of them as Matua Les was away and we managed all of our Wonderful Wednesday activities by ourselves.
Mmmm, Jayda-Leigh is giving a strawberry the taste test. There were so many that we didn't know just which ones to pick (and eat) first. We did try to put most in our punnets though. Thank you to the fantastic families who were able to accompany us.
Our Athletics included some games our Great Grandparents may have played. Great sack racing!
Arliyah and Stevie made delicious Anzac biscuits for our 'a' Wonderful Wednesday. Thank you.
Today was 'Wheels day'. What an exciting experience at the end of Term 3. Ask you child how they enjoyed it?
Three of our future leaders! Room 6 pupils, Kerry, Te Aniwa and Brandon, present our Duffy assembly.
Food for adults too. Delicious red velvet cake, Mrs Carter.
We did it! We mixed primary colours to make our rainbow cake. Doesn't it look delicious?
J is for jet plane. We got better and better at throwing them. Jayden put all his strength into throwing his!
Jamie and Jock are amongst a whole class of clever children who enjoy doing meaningful independent Maths activities. Here they are matching patterns on pattern boards.
We so look forward to our Tuesdays and Thursdays. Eyes are on the door as we anticipate our Buddies arrival.
Look at Stevie's clever use of colour, design and sewing. We certainly had a Wonderful Wednesday!
Brain Gym with rhythm. We had fun dancing with our coloured banners.
Jamie and Samuel showing that they can order the months of the year accurately. Great independent learning boys.
Matua Les being the 'boss'. Roll time, and saying those 'good mornings' in many different languages.
More amazing 'word' writers! The children are now such responsible learners as they carry out meaningful independent learning activities.
Pop, pop, popcorn, popping in the pot..... The popcorn was a good as these smiles!
Look at the words we can make and read all by ourselves. Jamie and Samuel deserve to feel proud of their Reading progress.
Buddy reading in Room 11. Thank you Room 6 for being our buddies and being special friends and teachers. You can see how focussed the pupils are.
Ukarau is constructing his frog. It was a big job and the evidence of their success in hanging in our window. Well done -lots of thinking and managing self.
Ff biscuits. Our two chefs John and Mackenzie did an amazing job and we had some to eat and some to share. Thanks to Mrs Carter for being a supportive kitchen supervisor too.
Term 2, Weeks 3 and 4
Thank you for supporting learning by sending healthy 'brain food'. Some pupils are even making their own sandwiches -with supervision!
Jock is ordering numbers to 10 -and justifiably proud!
Twit, twoo, from a class of enthusiastic owls on Wednesday. We will remember that owl begins with 'o'.
Our boys are proudly raising their fists to show their placement in our cross country race. All the pupils showed stamina and perseverance. We learnt about ordinal numbers too.
Yy is for yacht and yo-yo biscuits. Our twin hulled yachts sailed very well in our water tray -sorry boys it was a bit cold for the swimming pool! The yo-yo biscuits were delicious. Well done chefs.
Great chefs and delicious golden biscuits. We had lots of treats -building gliders and watching a You Tube video showing a solo flight using wonderful photography. Watch out families -you have buddy aviators coming up. They even gave up part of their lunch break to watch the landing!
The Duffy Show. Room 11 were captivated -some pupils laughed so much that at one point the staff were concerned that someone was crying!
The message stressed that no matter what you do, being a reader will ensure your success.
The Duffy team. We were so lucky to have the opportunity to watch a live show with such fun, skilled performers.
Thank you Mr Burke for fixing and painting our two tanks. Jock had lots of fun trying them out in the sand pit.
Noodles, noodles, I love noodles
Piles and piles of oodle noodles
Slurp them, burp them, eat them hot
I love noodles in the pot!
We shared holiday adventures. Mr and Mrs Johnston brought some sand back from New Plymouth and we discovered that our class magnet could pick it up. It looked like hair!
It was Easter time during the school holidays. I hope everyone had fun sharing the egg treats in our beautifully created baskets.
Ii is for Hokey Pokey icecream. Or -it was Hokey Pokey icecream. Delicious!
We made our own icecreams to remember the letter Ii too. We used cylindrical cones and lots of dacron stuffing. The extra fun part was decorating the top.
One of our many Whaea Stacie experiences. Mackenzie is sharing her huge feijoas.
Our Duffy books have just arrived. What a treat to read, keep and treasure.
Weeks 8, 9 and 10, Term 1.
Ss is for sausage rolls and smiling chefs! We discovered that if we cut our 4 strips into 5 pieces there would be enough for our class and our visitors.
They were delicious! Some pupils also chose to have sauce, and discovered it was another word beginning with 's'.
Ss is for spiralling snakes. We had lots of fun with them.
Can you spot the chrysalis hanging on the spout of the watering can? We have been brainstorming about what might happen next and looking forward to seeing it on Monday.
Welcome to Aleeya. You did a wonderful job of drawing and cutting out your hand shape on your first visit. We look forward to you starting school.
H is for hands. We had talking hands, clapping hands, high five hands ...... Well done Room 11.
H is for honey biscuits. Our two chefs, Delaine and Te Toki were amazing. They even creamed the butter themselves -I put the electric beater away as it wasn't needed. And, the biscuits were delicious.
Mm is for monkey mask. I wonder if you recognise who this artist is?
M is also for milo and marshmallows -yum!
Week 5/6, Term 1
Thank you Mrs Reid for helping us while Mackenzie visits on Wednesday mornings. You did a wonderful job helping us with our dinosaur finger puppets.
Just look at this concentration! Mokai is cutting rectangle shapes out of cookie dough. He is a perfectionist -a great learning attribute.
A is for apple. Look at our skilled artists. The children observed apples, coloured and stuffed paper ones, then ate apple muffins they had made. I was just disappointed everyone wanted to take theirs home and I couldn't put any on the wall!
Meet one of our special Reading buddies from Room 6. Jamie just loves Tuesdays and Thursdays because he knows he can spend some fun sharing time with Hika.
Week 4, Term 1
Look at this amazing tractor. Oliver's family bought it in Zimbabwe. It was made by hand from recycled materials. We all had a turn at steering it around our class.
Jock is showing us how to keep cool and ready for learning. He loves drinking water -especially important in this hot weather.
C is for cat masks. Look at the fun we were able to have experimenting in the water.
C is also for cornflake cookies. Our two chefs are busy rolling the cookie dough into balls and placing them on the tray. They were delicious.
Week 3, Term 1.
Delaine is sharing one of our Room 11 expectations showing responsibility. He is carrying scissors safely.
We learn to achieve our dreams. Room 11 aim high, and we will have wonderful pilots, firemen, concert pianists and astronauts in the future.
We are an 'I Care' class -and part of an 'I Care' school. We practise this in our thinking, learning and behaviour.
We use quiet voices inside to help us to think and learn. You can find more of our class expectations and celebrations in our 'Room 11 Expectation Booklet' which all pupils will bring home. Just ask if you would like to borrow it at any time.
Week 2, Term 1. Wonderful Wednesday experiences.
X is for 'x' biscuits. Our two chefs are busy cutting making 'x' shapes.
Wonderful Wednesday also means that we can choose from lots of fun activities.
The wait was worthwhile. Xx biscuits -here we come.
Where is all our water going? Lets explore.
Week 1, Term 1, 2014
We explored our school. First we went to the library. We were amazed at how many books we could read!
Our next stop was the Staffroom. This is where Teachers have meetings and can have a drink of water or a cup of coffee. If we need help, we can always find someone there.
Mrs Thompson met us at the Office. She loves seeing you when you take the Orange attendance book in the morning.
We knocked on the door of Mr Brebner's office. He enjoys having visitors and sharing his 'I Care' ideas and fun toys.
November, 2013
We go to the multi-purpose room for our Values programme on Fridays. Mrs Smith and Mrs Davies add to our learning about being 'I Care' to each other. Last week we shared the Christmas story.
Kacey is one of our newer pupils. She has ordered patterns from 0 to 6 and shared her learning.
Look at these amazing students solving Math problems. They were able to make patterns, numerals and their Maori names, and all by themselves!
Oops! We all knew what was going to happen when the Jack in the box opened -but somehow, like rereading an exciting book, we still enjoy it.
October, 2013
Brain gym. Each day we participate in activities which help us to develop our co-ordination skills and assist our learning. Look at the children's focus!
'Being Firewise'. We are really enjoying discussing the best ways to keep safe, and practising our 'Get down, get low, get out -fast' if their is a fire excercises.
Nikau and Ben. Reading buddies and friends, sharing a love of reading.
Jj is for jelly and jet planes. We opened the packets and dissolved the jelly crystals. (For the older children, this was a good way to review our learning about mixing and melting in Term 2)
Ww is for Weetbix. Crisp, crunchy and delicious, sweetened by banana slices from our wonderful 'Fruit in Schools' daily tray full of fresh fruit for each class.
Ww is for whale. We love whale stories and crafts.
Whales are enormous, almost beyond our imagination, but with Internet images we see that they are real.
Healthy food and fitness make learning easier.
Llakiesha, Zoe and Oliver have chosen to practise during 'Wonderful Wednesday' choosing time.
Our Room 6 buddies become our very special friends. There is always an excited sound when we add Buddy reading to our visual timetable in the morning.
Max started the term by sharing his number writing skills. Learning is fun!
'V' is for vegetables. Our two chefs, Tayen and Rhys, are busy preparing the vegetables for our soup.
Can you see the carrots, potato, pumpkin, asparagus, capsicum, onion and garlic? The smell was making us all feel hungry.
Yes, it tasted as good as it looked. Niki and I had hoped for a little left over for our lunch, but every last drop was eaten. Way to go, Room 11. You enjoy eating healthy food.
September, 2013
Look at Lovinia -all prepared for a day in town.
The 'dum, dum' song. If you are keen to find out more, be warned -it is addictive!
Imaginative play in the sand pit. The children tried very hard to get out at tidy up time, but it isn't easy when you are at the South Pole!
We can make lots of words with the magnetic letters. Well done Tahana and Hayley Rae!
We had our annual visit from Eli Sharplin the artist. We wait with excited anticipation.
Edgecumbe artists under way. Look at the focus Zoe and Samuel share.
Fred shows his skills. As teachers we are always delighted to discover new strengths our pupils have.
Zoe shares her 3D drawing of letter boxes. Luckily no one saw the Teachers' attempts -way to go Zoe!
Our Duffy Show. What an afternoon, wonderful performers and fun book experiences. We were superb!
Do you recognise our actor? It was like watching a show on Television!
When things got a little scary -Niki was always on hand for Max.
Our class award winners collected the Duffy books for us. Luckily they were strong as there were two each.
Look at this amazing list Makszi and his Mum made of words beginning with 'p'. We chose pizza to make.
Te Mauri and Tahana were our chefs this week. They are just starting to roll the pizza dough before adding the toppings.
Llakiesha and Hayley- Rae are enjoying their slice. We all decided that Niki and our chefs were expert pizza makers.
Welcome to Whaea Hine. She is already making valuable contributions to our learning and we love her gentle approach.
August, 2013
Te Aniwa from Room 6 is helping her little buddy Zoe fold her milk carton. We really appreciate our buddies, they add a new dimension to our learning.
Our 'f' biscuits. They were as delicious as they looked. Thank you to Niki and our two cooks.
F is for fitness. We take turns at being the 'boss' and leading learning experiences.
Today we wrote our stories on whiteboards. Our goal was to quickly and independently write two related sentences. Didn't Makszi do well!
We may not have many girls in our class at present, but look at their amazing smiles and clever patterns.
Discovery time. Think, try, do your best work. (And, if you are not sure -ask your friend a question.) Great learning strategies.
Look at Te Hau Paeroa's jigsaw skills. He grouped matching colours and pictures, made the border and then -success!
Our Room 11 learners. Totally focussed and ready to go and apply their new knowledge.
We found lots of things beginning with 'g'. Can you name some?
We coloured our sand green and added salt and glitter. We had a dinosaur mountain.
Our visitors are doing a great job of colouring their Gruffalo masks.
Mr Johnston created this Gruffalo cake for us to eat. It certainly looks scary!
Look at this wonderful 'g' is for garden cake that Mrs Carter made for us. It was amazing.
Look at Te Hau Paeroa. He made a very smiley Gruffalo!
We had visitors from Room 7. Kobe, Tye and Haley shared their tie dying. We watched as they took the rubber bands off and showed their designs. Well done!
Look at me. Look at me. I am a Gruffalo. Are you frightened?
Niki is mixing our cream yoghurt with yellow colouring. We watched it change -and got our prediction correct. Y is for yoghurt.
Te Mauri and Stevie are having fun sailing their yachts. Welcome Stevie, we are looking forward to you starting school soon.
Can you see what the children are painting? Be prepared for the 'Gruffalo' mural.
Kingston is showing how he can order numbers in sequence to 20.
Well done!
Our 99 year old party. July, 2013
We heard about a party. We made special party hats. Now, what next?
There were balloons everywhere. We listened for our names to come and get one. It was exciting and scary.
The cake! Look at all of the 99 candles! I wonder what a hundred will look like next year?
Te Mauri and Matua Brett were especially chosen to blow out the candles because they are our newest pupil and our newest teacher.
Kingston and all his friends said that the cake was delicious.
July, 2013
Look at our block construction. Some toys never lose their appeal when combined with imaginative children.
Oliver joined us on a school visit this morning. He had fun exploring our class -and likes ice cream!
Yum, said Max I like ice cream too.
Welcome to Samuel. He starts school early in Term 3. He will join his sisters Amanda and Angelina.
Having fun. Shall we mix this in the water? I wonder what will happen?
June, 2013
Get well soon, Max. We miss you at school. Love from Mrs Johnston, Niki, Matua Paora and all your friends in Room 11.
Niki just couldn't resist taking a photo of Gregory from Room 9. He looked so dashing in his suit for photo day!
We mixed the jelly in the morning and were able to try it before we went home. It had set and was delicious.
Here are Hayley-Rae and Brock dissolving the jelly crystals in hot water. The mixture became clear.
Thank goodness it's Brain Break. We had been smelling these duck biscuits as they cooked! Yum!
Dd is for duck. You did a great job Zoe and Kingston!
We coloured an apple shape and then sewed around it. Then we painted them with dye. Amazing!
Look at our two chefs Zoe and Llakiesha. They made delicious apple muffins to remember 'a'.
This is our custard story. Many children can read it by themselves in their Homethink books. Well done!
Mmm, what does this mixture taste like? Te Hau Paeroa thought it tasted like the sea.
Taking risks to try a new taste. I was impressed!
May, 2013
C is for cat. Isaac has made a wonderful cat puppet.
Kingston and Isaac had lots of 'cat talks' together.
Cr is for crumpet. They were delicious on a very cold morning. Great idea Whaea Gaylene!
Our two Room 11 cross country winners. Te Hau Paeroa was first and Isaac was third. Well done!
Look at these lovely reading buddies. We enjoy joining our friends in Room 6 on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
We had great fun creating marble art pictures as part of our gift to our special Mums. We hope you enjoyed it.
Welcome to Whaea Gaylene. She is already making huge contributions to our learning -and has a big smile!
Rr is for rock cakes. The cooks for the day did a great job and they tasted delicious.
This week we begin a new Science unit on Mixtures. Mikayla Mullins from Room 8 gave us an amazing introduction by sharing the casein she made at home with milk and vinegar.
Kingston and Jerome share their learning about recording Math stories in equation form.
March/April 2013
Exploring our new sandpit toys. Roll on Term 2.
Pete the Cat. Did we enjoy our activities? Goodness yes! There is some wonderful art in progress too.
Our new Duffy books. A quick sharing time before they went into our book bags to go and be treasured.
Uu is for Upppy Umbrella. Our two chefs for the week were Zoe and Max. The biscuits tasted as good as they looked!
Llakiesha likes the smell of cinnamon. We put spices in to make the Easter buns tasty.
We mixed the flour, yeast and water. Now the exciting part begins.
We put the mix by the window to rise. Now we have 26 buns.The next step is to mix flour, butter, baking powder and water to make the crosses. We used a plastic bag.
Twenty six buns and twenty six crosses. They looked and tasted wonderful. Great job Room 11.
J is for jelly. Slimey, sparkling green jiggling jelly!
The photo tells it all!
We were pretty exhausted by the time we walked back. But our 'we can do anything' spirits helped us. Thank you to all our wonderful parent helpers.
Introducing members of our Edgecumbe school team. Mr Brebner, our Principal.
V is for volcano. We had fun learning about volcanos and making 'pretend' lava with baking soda and vinegar.
On Friday afternoons Rooms 8, 9 and 11 meet together to share and celebrate our learning. We also choose children to talk during 'magic moments', building oral language and listening skills.
Ask your child about the 'Birds Got Talent' show. What a talented family team, joined here by a couple of our fantastic pupils.
'Talking Box' time. We are learning about taking turns, listening to others, and describing objects. I keep hearing amazing descriptive words, well done Room 11.
We are so lucky to have our own pool, enabling us to practise our swimming skills every day. Come and celebrate our growth with us next Friday afternoon, 8th March.
We had fun on wheels day. Max is doing doing a great job on the obstacle course.
Zoe and Rhys are ready to set off. Earlier we had learnt about how our helmets protect our brains when we ride our bikes. You may like to ask Kingston about what happened to his egg!
Yes, the tyres are okay. Our budding mechanics know how to check the air and tread in their tyres.
February 2013
Brock is busy drawing a happy face on his kite.
Kite begins with 'k'.
Isaac is running really fast to get his kite into the sky. Well done.
Zoe is totally focussed on matching letters with their sounds. She is using our new Reading Eggs programme. You will find your pupils sign in names and passwords in the front of the their Homethink books.
Te Hau Paeroa's family turned our spare bananas into this delicious cake for us to share. Thank you!