End of an era

School's out for summer!

Last day of school for Ms Jones forever.

Farewell to everyone. 

Kia ora koutou,

Well, we have reached the end of 2021. What a momentous year.

I am leaving school and leaving teaching tomorrow, after 22 years at Hamilton East School. I'm heading off into the wide blue yonder in my Princess Minor caravan, to travel the wilds of the South Island and to finish the book I've been writing for several years now.

It's been a bonus to have been able to finish my teaching career with such a lovely class of children. Thank you for all your support and kindness this year.

Here are some photos of the last few weeks with Room 5 and Room 6, based in the library.

Haere Rā

Olive

I learned to topiary heads. Here is Oscar and Elmo, who live in the garden outside the library.

We made wrapping paper in the hall.

Here are our beautiful pots we made the paper to wrap.

Presents wrapped.

In the library, doing phonics practice.

Decorated pots.

In the garden

We planted our kumara: "Grow, kumara, grow!"

Back at School again!

 Kia ora!

It is wonderful to be in level 2 and have everyone back at school.

Our students have come back motivated and eager to engage with their learning, as well as spending time with their friends.

Big changes for both Room 5 and 6 with out classrooms being refurbished.

We are in the library, with Mrs M from Room 6 and Madeleine being our lovely assistant.

This is what Room 5 looks like now. ...

Here are some photos of us in our new setup in the library:

Lachlan brought his weta house today. We found a spot to put it up on Te Ara ō te Ngāhere:

Down on Putikitiki we saw the new amphitheatre that has been built to be an outdoor classroom.

Week 5

 Kia ora tatau,

Well, that was a surprise hearing we are moving to level 2 tonight at midnight!

If you haven't done the slides on Seesaw, today is your chance to finish those ones you left.

Otherwise, here are some ideas for home learning today:

Spring arrangement

Check out the creations by the sculptor Andy Goldsworthy:

Andy Goldsworthy

Now go outside and find a variety of shapes and colours and forms and create your own Andy Goldsworthy masterpiece.

Writing

Write a story about the best and the worst of being at home for all these weeks of Lockdown.

Check you have:

At least three sentences.

Start with a capital letter.

Put full stops in.

Add some exciting words to describe the best and worst things.

Reading

Read from Sunshine online, or the books you have at home, and write a book review. 

How many stars rating would you give it? (5 is the top, 1 is the least).

Draw the best part of the story.

From garden to plate

Today we went to the garden to plant some vegetable seedlings.

here are some pics of us at work.

Before we started preparing the garden bed behind us.

Veggie seedlings grown by Mrs M and Room 6.

 

Lettuce, coloured corn, peas and sunflowers all planted and ready to grow!

This is an interesting garden. A couple of years ago we filled this concrete tub with paper plates and utensils that came from our food festival. We put some earth on top and left it to compost.
Now look! Amazing big leafy vegetables!

Here is is from another angle.

And here is the crew with Whaia Monika

Veggie seedlings in foreground. Weeding behind.

We picked some vegetables and took them back to make a salad for lunch.

Mmm. Delicious!