P2 Superstars 1

I love it when Students share their achievements with me from outside of school.

On Tuesday Lilly and Mikaela shared their winning ribbons from their horse riding event over Anzac weekend.  Well done, girls!

You can find out more information on their event on their own blogs.

I felt so honoured today to be able to hold in my hand, 3 war medals that Hayden's great grandfather received in World War 1.  Thank you for sharing these with me Hayden. How special it must be to look after these for your family.  My grandfather had medals too, but he gave them away to a young boy none of us knew and so I have never been able to see them.  I think you are so lucky.

For more information on what these medals were for, see Hayden's blog.

Communication and Listening Skills

Our Positive Behaviour for Learning (PB4L) focus this term in P2 is Communication and Listening Skills.

Yesterday we discovered the difference between talking to a focused listener and talking to someone who isn't interested at all!  There was a huge difference for the speaker as they felt valued and respected by their friend when the friend was listening but felt very frustrated and hurt when their friend didn't listen.  The listener when focused, was able to retell the speakers information in detail, and even asked additional questions, but when not focused was barely able to say what the other person was talking about.  This was a great lesson and hopefully P2 students will start using these skills at home and school more often :)

As part of our values we have also discussed the importance of thinking before we speak.  Our aim in P2 is to make people feel good by the things we have to say to them, and not to upset people by saying things that really shouldn't be said at all.

Paper Airplanes

Our first scientific investigation is to find the best paper airplane design for distance.  In groups of 4 or 5, students are making 5 different airplane designs and are going to test them following our investigation format.  We will be learning how to write an investigation, record results, present our results on a graph and how to conclude our findings.

Lest we forget.

Our class sat in silence as I played the last post today.  They have sat in this silence many times over the last week as we have listened to soldiers share their stories, listened to poems about Anzac Day and learnt more and more about what our soldiers faced on that horrible day in 1915 at Gallipoli.

 The students wrote their own poems and soldiers letters today.  These pieces of work, were more than just words, most of the students showed a real understanding for what happened on that day and during many days of the world wars.  P2 is a class with a big heart.

Every student in our school has made a poppy for the wall in the hall. They look really effective.

End of Term 1.

Well P2, what a busy term we have had!  I am very proud of you all.  The effort you have put into your work, the respect you have shown each other and the way you have all really grown as individuals.  Well done everyone.

The end of the term was extremely busy, we had Norm Hewitt visit our school to talk to us about his work with the SPCA and also the importance of family and looking after every member of our family and helping them to feel loved and safe.  He was such an inspiring and entertaining speaker and I know we all learnt a lot from his visit.

We have so many keen leaders in our class and this was shown when 5 people got up to speak in front of the class to be voted for our class councillors.  Congratulations to Koyuki and Alex V who were voted as our two councillors for 2015.  It was an extremely close vote so I have given leadership roles to our other three candidates also.  Joel is the student in charge of Class Dojo, Mikaela is the student in charge of house points and Keaton is our P2 Tech Wizard.

Congratulations to you all.

One of my favourite moments from Term 1 was when our entire learning centre stood up without being instructed and performed the Haka for the teachers of Puarenga at the end of term.  You have no idea how much that meant to us.  The enjoyment you have for learning and the aroha you have for the Puarenga whanau was evident in the passion and strength of your haka.  Ka pai!

 I am looking forward to another exciting and fun filled term in Term 2.  Our focus is the Science Fair, where every student will be presenting a scientific investigation. 

Well done to all those who got involved in new and exciting activities in Term 1.  Make sure you keep your eyes and ears peeled for all the exciting opportunities in Term 2.  Getting involved is what Intermediate School is all about!