The Nature Trail

The Nature Trail has been part of Hamilton East School for many years.  Children and volunteers are currently working on the trail cutting back vegetation from the track.
Room 6 walked down the nature trail to Putikitiki, looking at all the beautiful native trees we have on the school grounds.

Plants and Insects

Now that we have finished our unit on zoo animals and habitats, I am introducing the children to growing and insects.
We are taking a close look at sunflowers.  We went to the butterfly garden and found an early blooming sunflower.  I found a flower that was starting to wilt.  We all held the sunflower, and looked where the seeds grow.  
Back in our room we looked further at some images of sunflowers, especially the patterns that can be made by the seeds in the middle of the flower.    
We then drew a flower with sharpie and crayon.
Great work tamariki ma!

To help children understand how flowers die off and drop their seeds to make new plants am reading this beautiful book by Eric Carle.  The children are familiar with Eric Carle's books.

Sounds Like, Looks Like, Feels Like - Zoo Animals

The children were introduced to descriptive language using the framework of sounds like, looks like, feels like.  Here are some samples of the excellent work they did.

Putikitiki Time

We were able to get down to Putikitiki this week.  It was a lovely warm sunny afternoon and we had fun with our buddies.  We ran, jumped, rolled, swung, did cartwheels, and slid.  All these big body movements help get us ready for formal learning.

Butterfly Garden

We have been talking about how to look after our monarch caterpillars, and their chrysalis.  The children are very interested in the process of metamorphosis.

Publishing from Zoo Trip

The children did some beautiful publishing from the zoo trip.  They really are gaining some very good skills in drawing.

Kowhai Zoo Trip

What a great day it was, a beautiful sunny day.  We saw all the animals we had been talking about.  

                                          Spider Monkey

                                         Ring tailed Lemur

                                               Meerkat

                                   Chimpanzees

                                             Cheetah

                                          Giraffes

                                         White Rhinos