Making Popcorn

Watch this space for some writing.

Popcorn Art

Room 2's self portraits

Who enjoyed visiting the Papakura Central School Market?

On Friday we had our Craft Market. The weather took a turn for the worst, but we had lots of fun!

What did we enjoy?

We loved being the shop keepers.
We loved doing some shopping.
We loved getting complements for our Grass Monsters.
We loved getting to buy our Grass Monsters.
We loved giving our Grass Monsters a haircut.
We loved playing with our Money trees.

What did we learn?

We learnt how to grow sunflowers, grass and plants. (Even though we only had about 6 grow.)
We learnt how to sell stuff. You need to tell people the best things about them.
We learnt how to plant seeds.
We learnt that sunflowers grow in the sun.
We learnt some Maths - $3 + $3 = $6.
We learnt how to cut grass.
We learnt about seeds.
We learnt how to make money.

What made us happy?

"My sister brought me one."
"I got to buy one."
"I was happy that the seeds grew."
"I was happy that I could cut the grass."
"I was happy that I got to buy stuff."
"I got to buy both my pots."
"I was happy that the grass seeds grew."
"I was happy I got to be the Shop Keeper."
"I was happy that they looked cool."
"I was happy that my friends shared the lollies they brought with me."
"I was happy I got to plant the seeds."

Learning the alphabet

Learning the alphabet is more then just singing the song. Many children can sing the alphabet perfectly, however when asked to find letters they can't. Learning to recognise the letters of the alphabet helps us to read and write. If we can't identify letters and their sounds we will struggle to sound out unknown words.

Many children also can't verbally spell their name. They know what their name looks like and can write it, but don't know what some of the letters are called. It is important when teaching your child how to write their name that you verbally spell it as you write it. Usually the first letters we learn are the ones in our name.
In our class we sing the alphabet daily while looking at the letters. We then go through the alphabet saying the letter, a word and it's sound ('a' is for apple, 'aa' apple). This is a catchy song that gets stuck in children's heads and helps them visually and audibly. When seeing what letters of the alphabet some children know I notice they go back to the song. If shown the letter 'r', some will know it, some will know that 'rainbow' starts with 'r' and others will remember the sound that matches and then they get it.

All the children have their own Yellow Card (we call them our alphabet and word card). They use this card when they are writing. If they are trying to write a difficult word they say it slowly to hear the sounds and then look for the matching letter and sound to write. If someone was trying to write 'love' they would hear the 'l' sound first and then they may remember that leaf has that sound and they will find the picture of a leaf and see the letter 'l'.



Here are some videos of how we use this Yellow card daily in our classroom to help us learn.

Here is a visual youtube clip of the alphabet


Here is the alphabet in New Zealand Sign Language

Ordering numbers

One of the first things we learn to do in Maths is count. The follow up learning to that is identifying numbers, ordering numbers and matching the correct about of objects to a number. Once we are able to do that we can start to learn other key knowledge ideas, such as identifying before and after numbers and reading and understanding Maths equations (3+2=).

A great way to help your child learn their numbers to 10 and then to 20 at home is to have number cards that they can put in order. You can make these cards fun and relate them to you child's interest (write numbers on trains, Ninja Turtles, butterflies). You can use these as flash cards to see what numbers they know and then get them to put them in order, start basic to get them confident with numbers to 5, then to 10, 15 and 20. Encourage children to recheck what they have done by counting as they go along. Once the numbers are in the correct order they can then match objects to each number. For example, 5 bees matches to the number 5. This activity can be done independently as you cook dinner. Children will often find and make up other activities as they play and this is all apart of their learning.

Click here to see some videos of children ordering numbers, recounting as they go along, matching objects and one child even decided she would order the numbers in 2's.

Click here to get the Bear and Honey Pot activity as seen in the videos. There are many other Maths activities on this site.

Ordering numbers and counting as she goes.

Counting the bees in the Honey Pot and matching to numbers.

First attempt at ordering numbers in 2's. Can you see how she is counting in 1's, but knows a number needs to be missed?

Ordering numbers in 2's.