Explore Learning

MONSTER EXPLORE!

One of our favourite stories is "I need my Monster" by Amanda Noll. So this week in Explore we focused on Monsters! We worked hard on showing our creativity by trying to create new and exciting monsters! We also worked hard on including others into our games and our work. Check out some of our awesome work!


Shyloh, Sophia and Maddy decided to create a small group to make their monster bookmarks!


Braxton, Christopher and Jed made a house for their monster to live making sure they had everything the monster needed!


Lloyd and Bower create a monster out of Mobilo that could change into different things!


Trying to get the ball into the monsters mouth to feed it!


Playing the roll a monster game to create a new and exciting monster!


Connor's monster trap that he hid so that the monster wouldn't see it!

WATER EXPLORE!

Its has been so hot lately we were very excited for Water Explore this week! We got to try different ideas to see how quickly we could melt ice, make bubble and ice art , build walls to stop a flood, try and filter out the dirt from water, make boats as well as experiment with a range of different measuring devices!


Busy building walls to keep the house from being flooded.


Working hard to filter out the dirt!


Maelee decided putting ice in water would make it melt quicker!


Blowing coloured bubbles to make bubble art!


Painting with ice cubes!


Jacob S put a few different containers together so that the water would go from one into the next! Very Clever!

IMAGINATION EXPLORE!
For the last two weeks in Explore we have been learning to use our imagination! We reaad a story all about 'imaginitis' and have all caught it ourselves! We know that using our imagination means we can never be bored because we know how to use our minds to PRETEND that something is happening.
We have been working very hard on having new and creative ideas, working well with other people and thinking of ways that we can solve problems ourselves.
We love using our imagination!!

David imagined that he was a weightlifter!

Jamie made a camera with a tripod and became a camera man for a movie

Lauren built this stunning house with lots of cool features!

 These guys all worked together to make a movie theatre! They even acted out a movie for their audience :)

 Braxton pretended to be a teacher!

 These guys worked well together with Te Takaro to build this masterpiece!

 Alyssa and Vanessa had fun working together with the blocks

 Geordie LOVES using the Te Takaro equipment and got creative building new and exciting things with it each day!

William made an awesome 3D house using the stick and balls

 Coltyn made a pick axe to help him in the snow

 Rudra and Jacob had great fun building together




 Amon and Olly became detectives and created a mystery for the teachers to hide so they could solve it. Here they are showing us their spy computers that they made!
Zac decided that the floor was lava! He had to pretend that he couldn't step on it so found ways to move around the ground without walking on it

 Geordie decided to make a pick axe too!


Jack and Oliver W worked together to make this house for them and their monkey friends!







COUNTRIES EXPLORE!
We are loving learning about all the different countries in the world this week. We have been learning the difference between a country and a city and we have learned that Palmerston North is a part of New Zealand. We have had some help from EXPERTS who have visited other countries or can speak a different language.
Check out some pictures of our awesome work!

 Alec worked very hard to build the Great Wall of China!

Van built the Great Wall of China using lego. He even made sure he had little houses along the wall!

Riley did a great job colouring this South African flag!

 Zac W, Dom and Kazma used their problem solving skills to work together and figure out these tricky origami instructions.

 Izac, Finn, Guy, Junior and Jed used ALL the blocks to make this very long 'Great Wall of China'! Great teamwork guys!

 Olly taught us all some Spanish... We learned how to count and say colours in Spanish with this fun song he introduced to us!

 ...He even took a group activity where he was the teacher. This fun game he created at home taught us new words in Spanish! We LOVE it, thanks Olly!!! :D

Alec got very creative and decided to draw the NZ flag himself! He knew where to put all the stars and where to put them on the flag. Way to go Alec!


Jacob S, Kosmo, Oliver S, Jed and Kaito worked hard to make their very own 'Great Wall of China'. It looks fantastic guys, well done!!





BUGS EXPLORE

This week we have learned lots about bugs! We learned that insects have 6 legs and 3 body parts -a head, a thorax, and an abdomen (tummy).  Lots of us were surprised to learn that spiders AREN'T insects because they have 8 legs!
We have been working hard on helping others this week, you can see how well we did in some of the pictures below :)

 Bower, Kyan and Jorja were searching for bugs in the ball box!

 Liam, Maddy, Mason L and Amelia used paper to create their own bugs!

Quinn helped Kade to find the last bug to complete his scavenger hunt!

Elliot and Jacob worked together to find the worm for the hunt!

 Tyler, Zach, Izac and Jayden did a great job sorting all the bugs from the other animals

Oliver W and Quinn created a cool hotel for their bugs

 Oliver H coloured this fantastic spider!

 Lyrenzo and Alec create and awesome bug house!

Zach S, Izac, Jacob S, Kosmo and Jorja worked together to create this amazing home for bugs!

Jacob created an insect with mobilo. He even counted to make sure it had 6 legs and 3 body parts!







SPRING EXPLORE!

We have been learning all about spring this week. We know that in Spring baby animals are born and lots of leaves and flowers grow back on the trees. We have also learned about what the weather is like in spring and why we see so many rainbows in the sky when it is spring.
This week we have been working really hard to look after the equipment and tidy up. Miss Crowther thinks we are doing a great job and getting so good at this now :)


These boys are matching the baby animals with it's Mum

 Penelope practised her colouring, cutting and gluing skills to make this beautiful butterfly!

 Sophia worked with the big girls to create this beautiful springtime scene! She put in a tree and lots of animals because that's what she sees lots of in Spring!

April coloured, cut and glue this gorgeous butterfly herself!

 Kosmo, Yuta, and Tyler worked together to build a farm to hold all the new baby animals

 Sophia and Penny enjoyed reading Spring books with the big kids

 Some of us even got to go on a spring scavenger hunt!!

 Now that it's spring and the sun is out we could enjoy it with the parachute!

Zach got very creative with his farm!

Lauren could tell us all about why butterflies have antenna!

Lots of us had fun making long hungry caterpillars!

 Katie and Junior thought hard about their chicken life cycle!


We had lots of fun putting flowers on the cherry blossom trees!

 Jorja, Kento and Finn made a farm to match their plan!!

Mason and Christopher could name all the different baby animals and did a great job matching them with their Mums!





JOBS/CAREERS EXPLORE

This week we are learning all about the different jobs/careers we can have when we are older. We get to pretend we really are doctors, nurses, builders, teachers, astronauts, soccer teachers and more! We are practising using the language of our chosen profession and are working hard to negotiate with our friends and take turns in different roles.


Lots of us want to be 'the teacher' so we had to negotiate to find a solution that we were all happy with!



 



These boys had lots of fun building their designs using our Te Takaro equipment! 

 Riley, Jayden and Zach took turns at being the doctor and bandaging up their patients!


Connor wants to be a policeman when he is older so he made a uniform with a bulletproof vest and flash police badge!





CONSTRUCTION EXPLORE

What a lot we have learned about consturction this week.  One of the most important things we discussed was that when people build they always have plans to help them.  We tried hard to draw our own plans and then follow them.  We had to think carefully about what we wanted to make and what equipment we would need to make it.  We enjoyed watching a video about a construction site too.


We worked hard to share the equipment by asking others if we could join them or borrow something.  We had to collaborate with each other by sharing our ideas and then compromising so we were all happy.  We also learned that if things don't quite go right we should perservere and not give up!




Check out all these amazing building projects we had on the go in Piako Tahi!  I love how the children used their plans to help build and how they worked together to achieve their goals.




Wow!  Check out all the creative things we have built with Te Takaro!  We made hotels, planes, slides and trains that run on a train track!



 Check out this amazing team who worked hard together to create a giant bus that they could all ride in.  They even used 'scafolding' as they built so they could get up higher to finish the top!


Look at all the amazing bottle creations we have made by either following the instructions given to us or making our own instructions and following them!



So many fabulous lego creations, some were made from our own plans and so we used the plans provided.  Check out how clever Kade was at building the Santa stocking!

 Dominc has buit a trailer that attaches to the back of the construction vehicles and Conrad and Junior worked together to build a tower protected by lasers!

 Wow Kazma, your truck can drive with a load on the back and then you can lift the load off the back just like on a real truck!  What a creative idea!







FARM ANIMALS EXPLORE

We have been learning all about the farm this week.  We were so lucky that Ms Palmer the Farmer brought in her calf-a-teria for us to try out as well as some activities about farm animals and some hay for us to do our art pictures with.  We also came up with a whole lot of questions that we wanted to know about the farm and then ask Ms Palmer to answer them for us.

 Our chickens in their nests!!

Farm animals made with mobilo!


Trying out the calf-a-teria that Ms Palmer brought in for us!

Making farm paddocks with sticks and bluetac, Guy even had a calf-a-teria on his farm that the animals could drink from!  What a clever idea :)

These clever cookies made farms for their animals to live in using the blocks!

 Farm animal puppets!  You have done a great job making these Lauren!

 A mobilo cow made by Rudra and a special machine that rescues
animals if they get stuck made by Dominc







WHEELS EXPLORE!

This week we have enjoyed everything WHEELS!  We have done lots of talking about how wheels work and what they are used for.  We know that most vehicles have wheels but they can also be on things like wheelbarrows, trollys, golf trundlers and wheelchairs...
This week we have also worked on improving our communication skills by explaining what we have been working on clearly and with lots of detail.

 Which car goes the fastest?  We have been testing how fast the cars are on the racing track!



 Check out all these extremely creative vehicles we have designed using a variety of different wheels.


A wide variety of roads we have created to drive our vehicles on

 Designing machines that use wheels on the ipads

 An amazing train that was designed by Elliot and Harlem for transporting cars



 Heaps of fun on the track with our wheels!


Hunter and Guy using the wooden reels as wheelchairs!





TEDDY BEAR EXPLORE!

What fun we have had treating our Teddy Bears to an exciting week with us in Piako Tahi!  We were trying to give our Teddy Bears a great experience and to do this we had to be super imaginative and creative!  So many children moved their CREATIVITY pins because their ideas were so fabulous!
The Teddy Bears got to... have their photos taken by us using the camera on the ipads, have picnics, play in the huts we made them, have clothes designed and made for them, drive in the vehicles we made them and much more!  We were also trying to work with some different children that we wouldn't normal work with to help us learn the skills of cooperation, compromise, sharing and turn taking.  Have a look at what our Teddy Bears got up to below...

How clever are we at taking photos of what our teddy bears got up to?


Having a teddy bear's picnic... YUMMY!!!





 Check out all these amazing outfits we designed and then made for our teddy bears!!



Making chairs and a train for our teddy bears with the mobilo


Counting and sorting teddy bears

 What a fabulous house for all our teddy bear friends!





WINTER EXPLORE!

Brrrrr!!  It sure has been cold and wet over Winter, what a good chance to learn about all things to do with Winter while we can.  We had so many fun activities to do, such as:  making an igloo from milk bottles (thanks to all the families that provided the milk bottles), playing with 'snow', trying to get the 'treasure' out of ice, decorating winter hats with cotton balls, using our fingers and cotton buds to paint winter pictures, decorating and making snowflakes plus much more!!!
We were also working on Establishing Relationships, especially when helping our new 
Rocket Room friends get used to school!!

 Playing with the 'snow', we made it with baking soda and water.

 Lots of great thinking involved in trying to get the ice to melt without smashing it!

 Check out our amazing igloo, a lot of children have contributed to putting this together!  Just a few more layers to go!


Well done April and Mason, your first week and you are really enjoying making snowflakes with iceblock sticks and glitter!


 Some fabulous winter hats with nice warm pompoms on the top!

 Using our fingers and cotton buds to put white paint on our snow pictures!

 Check out these creative little snowmen made by Katie and Maddy.  You shared these really confidently with the rest of the class too girls!






CIRCUS EXPLORE!

The circus came to town!
This week for Explore we were looking at the circus! We worked on a range of different circus activities such as juggling and creating our own circus act. We were working
 on being responsible while using the equipment as well as working on our creativity to make something new for the circus. Check out some of our awesome work!


Tyler and Layla working on their new act!


Hunter and Finn practicing their dangerous stunt!


Maddy working on her acrobatic skills!


Oliver S and Holly P practicing their juggling act together


Lloyd teaching Amelia how to do a roll off the chairs!

MATARIKI EXPLORE!

This week in Explore we have been celebrating Matariki! We began by learning about the seven stars and then were able to engage in a range of activities. We could create stars for our Piako Tahi sky, making a pakau (kite), practice and perform with rakau and many others. We were focusing on completing our work to the best of our ability rather than just rushing through it. Check us out!


Liam and Alec practicing rakau!


Maddy's pakau!


Kazma showing some of his awesome whai skills!


Zac W, Maddy and Katie working hard on weaving!


Working hard on designing stars for our night sky!


Piako Tahi Matariki sky!


Our Korowai we made and gave to Riverdale Kindy!

IMAGINATION EXPLORE!!

This week in Explore we are having so much fun using our imagination! We have all caught 'imaginitis' ;) We have been working on thinking creatively and using our imagination to create new and fun ideas. While we are using our imagination we have also been working on how we handle conflict. Instead of getting angry or storming off we are working on ways we can deal with situations that we don't like. We have been having SO MUCH fun!!! We even get to be the first class in the school to use our new free play shed called 'Te Takaro'!  Check out some of our photos below:

Elliot  and Katie love using our puppets to chat to each other!

Kento, Kaito, Oliver S and Harlem are hard at work with equipment from the Te Takaro Shed

Jack, Finn, Max, and Quinn having dicussions with our lego men

Hunter, Zac W and Lloyd made this super cool bridge!

Riley's bridge was pretty cool too and saved her from falling in the imaginary water!

These guys had lots of awesome discussion about what they could make!

Quinn decided he would try rolling INSIDE the tyre! What a cool idea! Turns out it wasn't the most comfortable game though ;)






AUTUMN EXPLORE!!!

We are having lots of fun learning all about autumn this week! We have been learning about the 4 different seasons, what the parts of a tree/leaf are called, what plants need to live, and doing lots of artwork using autumn colours! We have been trying hard to help and support other people as we work!

 Tyler built this awesome tree using mobilo. He even added yellow fruit!

 Jacob is an expert at smudging his autumn coloured pastels!

 Kazma, Xavier, Lakhdeep and Holly loved designing their own tree to represent the 4 seasons!

 Katie is an expert at pastel smudging and even taught others how to do it nicely too!

 Max, Elliot and Harlem built tall trees using mobilo

 Izac had great fun jumping into our pile of leaves!

 Lloyd loved making a 'leaf angel' with his body

 Kosmo was great at using autumn colours to design a leaf!

 Charlie built a beautiful tree that even had a hole in the trunk for birds to sit in!

Liam and Nevaeh worked together to make a beautiful big tree using blocks and leaves.






EASTER EXPLORE!!!

We have had fun doing a whole lot of Easter craft this week!  We have been learning about persevering even if something is tricky.  Using colouring and cutting skills to create our BEST work not our FAST work.

 A fabulous collage Easter egg by Zac

 Lots of fabulous Easter egg colouring


 Making Easter baskets






PET EXPLORE!!!

This week we have learnt all about pets!  We had Mr Pike's rats come and visit us, they were called Cloud and Ezio and we learned all about what they eat, drink and like to do.  We made pets with the mobilo, we created dog kennels with the rod and ball sets, we used blocks to make houses for different types of pets, we matched up pets and their homes and EVEN had a grooming salon for brushing and cleaning our pets!

A dog with his dog food and bowl made by Oliver.



Lots of clever kids making animals with the shapes!

Neveah grooming a rabbit in the 'Pet Salon'

Our visitors Ezio and Cloud the rats!  Thanks for bringing them in Mr Pike!




A rat made by Zach and a dog made by Tyler.
Jacob taking his 'dog' (Hunter) for a walk with a lead and a dog bone.


A fabulous rabbit hutch made by Holly!


All our dog kennels made from the rod and ball sets!







PIRATE EXPLORE!!!

Aaar Me Hearties!!!  We have had great fun being pirates this week...  We have made pirate masks, pirate hats, pirate maps and pirate treasure chests!  We have sailed on pirate ships using upside down tables and chalk drawings.  We used the ipads to make our own pirates that we designed and made planks with the blocks so we could make people 'walk the plank'.  Oliver H thought we needed some telescopes so we made them with old Gladwrap rolls.  What a busy week!!!

 A treasure chest made by Charlie

Pirate ships made with chalk and upside down tables

'Make a pirate' activities on the ipads

Making masks

 Fai'ana's great pirate mask and pirate map!

Neva and Elliot in their pirate hats searching for treasure!








VEHICLE EXPLORE!!!

What a fun week we had with all kinds of vehicles!!  We raced our cars on the track to find out which was fastest, we made roads and tracks to drive our cars on, we had a construction site with diggers and dump trucks and much more!!!

 Making a vehicle with the rod and ball sets

 Car racing on the track!


Making roads and tunnels with the paper roads!

 Nevaeh made a vehicle for Toby to drive in!

 Shyloh made a unicycle!

 Charlie invented a car that you can sit and eat cake in, that's my kind of car!

 Parker and Cruz created a huge parking building for cars!




WATER EXPLORE!!!

Here are the clips we watched to help us learn more about water...

The Water Song

Billy Blue Hair - The Water Cycle



MORE...   WATER EXPLORE!!

Over the last few days we have learned so much about WATER.  We have learned about melting and freezing, about the water cycle and something very clever called EVAPORATION which is when heat (usually the sun) turns water into vapour and it rises into the sky.  Check out how busy we have been!!!


 Jorja and Nevaeh busy building and testing their boats!


 More boat building and testing from Tyler and Maddy.  Tyler discovered that if he added more noodles on the base of his boat it made it more stable in the water.


Floating Lego boats


Lots of boat testing by Kazma and Kosmo.  Kosmo used a second 
noodle on a stick to push his boat along!


 One of the quickest ways Oliver learned to melt an ice cube is by warming it in his hand!


Hunter's fabulous boat even came with an anchor, great thinking Hunter!


Quinn was watching this puddle we made to see if it would evaporate and the water would become smaller than the circle...  It did eventually!


What a beautiful sunny day to get outside and experiment with water!


 Look at this awesome teamwork!  Fai'ana and Amelia trying to 
make the biggest bubble mountain they can!






WATER EXPLORE!!!

We have started learning all about water this week!!  There are lots of Science, Technology and Art activities for us to experiment with and extend our learning about what we already know about water.
We are also focusing on including others in our activities and coping when our testing doesn't go quite the way we want it to!



 Experimenting with Floating and Sinking



Painting with ice cubes made with dye and water, lots of great observations
 about how the ice cubes were melting!!


Making sails for our boats so we can blow them across the 'pond'


Lego boat building



Blowing big bubbles!!!



Jacob made a boat that held ALL these teddy bears!!!


Ice Cube Art!


Kaito invited Christopher to join him blowing a HUGE bubble mountain!!





Superhero Explore:

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No it's Piako Tahi! This week our focus has been on Superheroes! We have been trying our best to be a super friend as we continue focusing on Key Competency of Relating to others. 

Check out some of our awesome super friends!

Super Amon


The Flash


Our superheroes had to train by getting through Spiderman's web!







Dinosaur Explore:

This week in Explore our topic is Dinosaurs! Our Key Competency this week is Relating to Others. We discussed a number of ways in which we could do this, such as including others in our games, sharing the dinosaurs and helping them out if they are struggling to complete and activity. 

Here are some of our awesome habitats we made to keep the predators out!








Music Explore:

Each week in Explore we get to investigate a topic through a range of activities prepared by one of the teachers. We get to choose which activities we do each day and often are allowed to put are own spin upon them. While these activities help us learn about different topics they also provide us a chance to work on specific key competencies to help improve ourselves as Self Managers.
Check out how awesome we are in our first week of Explore, Music!









No comments:

Post a Comment