Welcome to Jarang, Yeon Seo, Da Song, Geon Ung, Chaewon, Ha Nee,
Chan Ung, Haeun, Ye Seo, Min Joon and Arang! What a pleasure it is to
have you at Tauriko School, starting the school year with us. We welcome
you into our classrooms and hope that your experience here is positive
and memorable. I am your English (ELIP) teacher - Miss Laura Fleming.
Welcome too to your wonderful parents and caregivers - your Mums and Dads who are here in New Zealand with you.
Your classroom teachers are excited to get to know you, as are the students in your classroom.
As
someone who doesn't speak Korean, I can only imagine how overwhelming
and confusing it must be to be to hear English spoken at such a fast
pace - all the time! We are here to support you, and to help you
understand. We want you to have a great time at our school, learning
alongside your peers in the classroom, and improving your English. You
will be based in your classroom for all lessons, however each day you
will attend an ELIP (English Language Intensive) class with a small
group (2-3 other Korean students) so that we can help to clarify things
you are unsure of, and so we can spend time extending your English
vocabulary - and confidence, even further. Our lessons will primarily be
based on language experiences - we will be DOING things (creating,
baking, making, planting, exploring!) while learning.
Mossops Honey Center
We walked across the road from school to visit Mossops Honey Center. Here, we learnt all about bees and why they are so important. Some interesting facts that we learnt and talked about further back in our ELIP lesson:
- Bees have four wings
- Bees go to flowers to get the 'sweet nectar' from the flowers to make honey
- The bee makes the honey by flapping their wings very hard to turn the wet honey solid
- The queen bee lays an egg every minute! 20 days later it becomes a bee
- When you see a bee, it is the very last thing they do before the day. After you see a bee pollinate a flower, it dies. A bee lives for 35-45 days
- When a bee arrives back to the hive it does a 'waggle dance' to tell the bees which way to go to find the nectar
- The queen bee will live for 3-5 years
Students made statements after this trip, saying "Bees are very precious, we need them to make our food (our fruit and vegetables)". That is correct! Without bees, it is said that humans would only live for 2 years.
We learnt so much about the bees! It was a lot of information to take on board!
Back at school - Honey Center follow up
When we got back to school, we talked about the things that we had learnt. We wrote down interesting facts, and adjectives to describe our time at the Honey Center. We also talked about why bees are so important. We discussed the importance of plants to help bees survive. We learnt that bees like bright colours such as blue and purple. They love lavender and rosemary bushes. A few of us went for a walk around the school to find a lavender bush - we found some by the school pool.
Today as part of our lesson, we planted 'Forget-me-not' flowers. Each student was given a planting pot, seed raising mix and some seeds ... the seeds were absolutely tiny! We planted the seeds carefully, and watered them. Students created labels for their plants and decided on a 'Kiwi friend' to gift their plant to when they return to Korea. The idea is that these flowers will grow into a plant, cared for by both the international students and their Kiwi friend - the plant will be great for bees, and will also be a way for each person to 'Forget-me-not' when the students return to Korea.
The 'Forget-me'not' seeds were so tiny!
We drew the steps we took during planting, and wrote a caption to explain each picture
Capturing 'the moment' ...
Sometimes our lessons take a little detour, as students discover or come across new things that fascinate them. Will call this 'being in the moment' and realise that these opportunities make for the best learning experiences. Students were in awe of the tomatoes in the staffroom - so many of them! I explained they were grown in Arang's teacher's garden - and there were too many for her to eat, so she is sharing them. The students loved hearing this. They also were able to make connections between their learning at the Honey Center, and the tomatoes - one of the students explained that the bees 'made' the tomatoes possible. This is indeed true! Students were then invited to eat a tomato... we used words to describe the taste. Students were exposed to many new words - adjectives to add to their expanding vocabulary. Students then wanted to know what the 'green plant' was. I invited students to smell this. Mint! Students asked if this was like 'mint tea'. I said absolutely! As it is SO HOT at the moment (a term I have now learnt in Korean and use all the time!) I suggested we make 'cold tea'. We used icy cold water and picked fresh mint leaves ... what a refreshing drink we had! The students really enjoyed this 'in the moment' experience.
Checking out the home grown tomatoes
Enjoying iced mint tea
Trip to Mount Maunganui
On Thursday 11th February, Jarang, Yeon Seo, Da Song, Geon Ung, Min Joon and Arang went on a trip to Mount Maunganui. The other students were off at Year 3/4 camp (at Mount Maunganui too!) having a great time. It was so nice to have your Mums and Dads come along on this trip with us. I really enjoyed getting to know them. What lovely parents you all have - and how lucky you all are that they are giving you such a wonderful, enriching experience coming to school in New Zealand.
We met at Mount Maunganui Surf Life Saving Club at 9.30am (except Yeon Seo's Mum - her car broke down which was very unfortunate! We are so pleased that she could join us - just in time to enjoy a refreshing Hokey Pokey icecream!) We walked around the base of Mount Maunganui. This was lots of fun (but very tiring for Arang) and very hot for all of us! We kept our eyes and ears open and spotted: Pohutukawa trees, ferns, flax bushes, sheep, boats and islands. We looked hard to find Tui birds and 'silver fern' and also sea lions ... but we weren't so lucky to find these today. At the end of our walk we were hot - and the icecream was calling us! We headed straight to the icecream shop. Students chose their flavour and asked politely for this at the counter. Parents were eager to have a hokey pokey ice cream too. We all enjoyed a delicious, refreshing ice cream. This certainly helped to cool us down!
We then headed to the beach. Of course our shoes and socks were quickly removed and we raced down to the waters edge. We stood back from the waves and waited for the water to reach our toes... students loved this. Smiles and laughter all around!
We then raced back to collect our sticks (which we had been on a hunt for earlier) and Miss Fleming taught the students how to play 'beach flags'. This game was a great hit, and students really got involved - and competitive!
Students then wanted to build a sandcastle. I decided a competition was in order ... girls VS boys! The winning team is still to be decided!
Finally ... icecream time
Waiting for the water to come
On your marks ... get set ... go!
Who is going to win ...?
Geon Ung is the winner today! Broken arm and all! Go Geon Ung! Next time Jarang!
Making Icecream
Today in our ELIP class we thought about a special Kiwi friend who is important to us. We talked about why this person is important to us. Students will invite their special Kiwi friend to the farewell morning tea on Friday. We then made icecream! We used milk, salt and ice... and then had to shake the bag like crazy! Our hands got so cold! The result - delicious icecream! At our next lesson we will draw pictures and write steps explaining how to make icecream. This is called 'procedural writing'.
Kiwi Baking! Making treats for the Farewell Morning Tea
Today, students attended ELIP classes in small groups. Two groups made 'Lolly Cake' (a Kiwi favourite - combining biscuits, 'eskimo' lollies, butter and sweetended condensed milk - then rolling in coconut!) and another group made 'Hokey Pokey'. All three groups tried the Hokey Pokey before lunch time. We had such a great morning measuring, cutting, mixing, melting ... we followed a method and talked about each step along the way. Some students drew step-by-step pictorial instructions. Students are looking forward to the farewell morning tea this Friday. They can't wait to try all these sweet treats properly, and enjoy such a special occasion with their 'special' buddy and parents/caregivers. We made sure hands were washed properly before baking, and lots of times during baking too!
Making Lolly Cake
Making Hokey Pokey
Preparing for the Farewell and Celebration morning tea ...
I can't believe that we are nearly at the end of our time together! Tomorrow your parents/caregivers will come to school to celebrate your time as a student at Tauriko School. You have also invited your 'Special Friend' - I know that this invitation means so much to them. They feel so happy that they have made YOU happy. I hope that you remain friends with your buddy when you return to Korea. It would be lovely to write to or email each other. Yeon Seo and Ye Seo will be continuing on at Tauriko until the end of Term One, and Ha Nee will remain a student at the school for the rest of the school year. So tomorrow, we don't farewell these three students - but we celebrate your time with us so far. We hope that the rest of your time here at our school is positive. Geon Ung and Chan Ung will continue on with us for an extra week, so will be with us next week. You have all achieved so much and should be so proud of yourselves. You have all made the most of this amazing opportunity and embraced 'Kiwi culture' and education - thirsty for knowledge and keen to learn! We hope that you return to our school in the future.
Today, students practised very hard on their speeches that they will present tomorrow in front of their peers and parents. Haeun worked SO hard on perfecting the pronunciation of words, pace, tone and expression - we were all SO impressed! You didn't stop Haeun - for the entire ELIP session you were 100 percent committed to getting your speech perfect. You should be very proud of yourself.
Students also started to get organised for the morning tea - their role is to host the morning tea. This means providing the food (which we have made together), and today it was all about signage! Students drafted their signs during the lesson and will have these completed ready for our big day tomorrow. Students also were super excited to see that their 'Forget-me-not' plants have started to sprout! What perfect timing. Soon these will be flowers! These plants will be gifted to your special friend tomorrow. Your friend will care for your plant and water it, and watch it flower. They might send you photos! Eventually, this plant will be transferred to the school garden - and attract the bees!
Haeun working so hard on her speech!
All students were so excited to see their plant beginning to grow!
The Farewell and Celebration Morning Tea
It was so lovely to have your Mums and Dads at the farewell/celebration morning tea. What a special occasion this was. Your New Zealand buddies also were thrilled to be a part of this special occasion. You all did so well presenting your speeches - all that hard work paid off! Your parents (and I!) were so proud of you. I know that your buddies really appreciated their 'Forget-me-not' plants too. What a lovely gift. We will really miss you here at Tauriko school, and hope that you return again one day.
It was lovely to see you all be presented with your leaving certificates. You should all be so proud of all that you have achieved during your time here.
Enjoying morning tea with your special New Zealand buddies (and Mums and Dads!)
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