Term Four

What a fantastic trip we had to Marshall's Animal Farm. All the children got to feed the very large and hungry lamb with a bottle of milk. They also had a bag of corn each to feed the animals as we wandered through the park. Some of the highlights were cuddling the guinea pigs, having the larger animals feed from our hands (even though it was scary and dirty!) and playing on the flying fox. At the end we also had time to walk in the bush to the little waterfall. This experience created a lot of opportunity for oral discussions and some lovely descriptive writing.

Continuing on with the animal theme, we have been reading and viewing the story about a lion cub bought in “Harrods of London”  in the early 1970’s.

Ace and John bought Christian and kept him in their shop basement until he grew too big. This story is about letting the lion free in the African wild.

Our writing experience leading from this is to debate “having a lion as a pet is good thing”.

All children had a real Kiwi Experience on Calf Club Day, some great and some very unexpected. Some of the highlights were the bouncy castle, throwing sponges at Mrs Campbell (and missing), patting some of the very cute animals, and winning lots of prizes. Some of the not so great things were, Eunvin getting covered in wet grass on the magic carpet and Woobin getting a little too close to the smelly dead possums. There was so much great language generated around this day. Well done to everyone.

Check out the student's Ag Day inspired writing! We welcome you to pop in to our ESOL Room to read these stories for yourselves, and to see lots of our Ag Day photos.

Wow! I can't believe we are in Term 4 already. Let's hope this rain stops and the sun begins to shine! It is so great to see the students back from their holiday. Sounds like Gloria had a great time back home in Korea. Ha Nee loved going to Rotorua - especially catching a large fish! We would love to see a photo of this. Soobin and Woobin went to a beach one fine day but didn't brave the waters! (too cold - perhaps when the weather is a little warmer). They also visited the new Greerton library. The boys did lots of reading over the holidays which is so great. Good on you boys! We are very happy to welcome Eunvin to our school. She is settling in well to Room 8 and her classmates love having her as a member of their classroom.

Students have been very busy in their classrooms preparing for Ag Day. We look forward to an exciting day on Saturday. Parents and caregivers - this is going to be an extremely exciting event! There will be so many animals to see.

Mrs Campbell has been busy assessing some students. We are looking forward to a term of action packed learning. Mrs Campbell and I have organised an excursion for the children which will take place in Week 3 of this term. We will be going to Marshalls Animal Farm. A letter will be given to you next week at our Pastoral Care morning tea on Tuesday. We really look forward to seeing you all then.

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Term Three

Another fabulous week of learning through reading, writing, discussion and making things. We have made Stick Insects from natural materials, and learned all about their enemies and how they stay safe through camouflage. Da Hui has seen a real stick insect in the bush and was a little bit frightened. Rafael wrote a gorgeous story about his whole family of stick insects who eat leaves. There has also been lots of fun reading and learning through games where we have made up the rules. The children are really fitting in so well at school and making excellent progress it is fabulous to see. 

Over the last few weeks, we have worked on alphabet sounds and blends for our younger students and played games of "name that sound" We have also looked at a few basic words to learn and use them in our reading. We have read the book "I like reading" which looks at all the exciting learning opportunities we have at school. Following on from this, we read about "Off to school" and learning about the things we need to bring to school. In conjunction, we have also been repeating greetings and basic questions.

The older children have been concentrating on reading to the end of the sentence to for meaning and comprehension, ie can I work out what the difficult words are by understanding the rest of the sentence. They have learned the past tense of the more difficult English words and using them in a cloze activity. The third group of children were very interested in the bees we see around the school. One of our books showed us how to feed the bees with sugar syrup when there are not many flowers out on bloom. We discussed nectar as their food and we tasted the honey that they make in their hive. We also learnt that bees will only sting you if they are being hurt.

I am so proud of our three students who gathered up the courage to stand in front of their classes and speak in English. I know it was a very nervous time but you ALL did exceptionally well.

International day was held on Tuesday. Each class was a different country and did many related activities. The children made flags, hats, masks, practiced dances and tasted different foods. They then presented their country to the rest of the school. It was an amazing day. A great big thank you to our international parents who helped their children with costumes, food and assisted in the classroom.

The last couple of weeks have been very busy. The older children have been preparing speeches to present in front of their classes. This is a huge step for all of them. We wish them all the best for next week.

We read a book called 'Making a Bird' and we spent a lot of time looking at different birds. Lots of discussion around what different New Zealand birds look like and sound like. Mrs Campbell has a Kea and a Kiwi that make the real sounds! We had a great time making birds from different coloured paper, feathers and sparkles. Children also used punches to make heart  and feather shapes. We had a lot of discussion while we were making the birds. We then wrote stories about our birds. The stories written about their birds are lovely. It has been a fun week where we have learned lots of English and how to ask for help.

What a fun time we all had getting to know one other while making pom pom Kiwi's! Paul managed to get really tangled up in his wool which made everyone laugh!

Our ESOL students met some baby chickens today! Mrs Billington let the students have a hold - they were so tiny! These chicks have been sold to students and their families for them to raise. This was part of 'Ag Day'.

We welcome three new families to Tauriko School this term. We are so thrilled to have you join us here at Tauriko. We hope that your time here with us is a positive experience. We are here to look after you. Welcome to Soobin, Woobin, Dahui, Paul, Michael and Raphael. Welcome back to Gloria and Ha nee. We hope that you had a lovely holiday! We have some exciting things happening in the ESOL room this term.

Orientation and induction - welcome!

Raphael seeing a photo of his class and teacher for the first time!

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The end of Term 2!

It has been cold and wet... this is the perfect weather for Soup! We have been reading books about soup and bread! 'Magpies Baking Day' and 'Giant Soup'. We decided to make our own soup - and what better soup to make than New Zealand's favourite Kumara! Students researched and chose a recipe that they thought they would like. We looked at the ingredients list and the method, and started our preparations. Students hadn't seen kumara before - and they were amazed that there were 3 different varieties available. Cutting the onions made Ha Nee 'cry' and the lemons made Gloria 'cry'! We had quite a few laughs. We made the soup and even made fresh bread using Mrs Campbells bread maker. Students invited some kiwi friends to share their soup and bread with them. What a lovely way to share our learning with our peers. 

We then followed up during class, recounting our experience. We wrote a procedural text in relation to this experience. 

The last few weeks...
With a change in weather lately, we have been reading and talking about the different types of weather we have. From storms and a wild windy Wellington to snow and hot sunny days. It was a great chance to find out what the weather is like in Korea and our favourite time of the year.

This week we started the week getting our hands dirty by making a mud pie. We kindly shared this creation with Mrs Billington and are making a class book. You may like to follow the instructions to make one just like ours!

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The last few weeks of Term Two

With a change in weather lately, we have been reading and talking about the different types of weather we have. From storms and a wild windy Wellington to snow and hot sunny days. It was a great chance to find out what the weather is like in Korea and our favourite time of the year.

This week we started the week getting our hands dirty by making a mud pie. We kindly shared this creation with Mrs Billington and are making a class book. You may like to follow the instructions to make one just like ours!

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What's been happening in ESOL classes in Weeks 3 and 4?

Well the weather has turned WET! Rain rain and more rain! This didn't stop students from participating in the Cross Country though. What a great time they had. Well Done Ha Nee and Gloria! 

Ha Nee and Gloria went on a bumpy bus ride to Waipuna Park for the school cross country race. The weather was cold but it only rained once. After the rain there was a beautiful rainbow. Everyone dressed up in their house colours and they were chanting very loudly. Ha Nee likes running because she says she is a good runner. Gloria enjoyed walking most of the way around the course. Well Done to both our girls.

Students also had a great time at the International Students Sports Day at the ASB Arena. Students participated in many different sports games and events. This was a fun day, and great chance for our students to meet other international students studying at other schools throughout Tauranga, and make new friends.There was a bouncy slide as part of the relays, a parachute to keep the balls in the air and to hide under. There were throwing games, musical chairs and running races. It was so much fun and the girls got to meet up with family and friends .

During ESOL we played 'games' based around books. LOTS of oral language was had. We also found books based on these games, which was a great link to our learning. Students have really enjoyed reading books from the Greedy Cat series. Some of the books have been quite challenging! Students have been focusing on rhyming words, labelling items, and have written their own stories based on their own likes and dislikes. Students are now completing their own 'Greedy Cat' and will label all of the food their cat ate.

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