Thank you!

Well, this is the last post on "Mrs Nichol's Acorns" blog for sharing Room 26's learning journey in 2014.  I have thoroughly enjoyed teaching each and every one of the amazing children that I have been blessed to have in my classroom this year.  I know they will all go on to do amazing things!  Parents, thank you for sharing your children with me 5 days a week.  It's made coming to work a real pleasure!  I look forward to seeing 'my kids' around school next year and in the years to come and maybe we will learn together again in the future in Year 5!

A little side note of something exciting that happened on the last day of school.  We received a letter from Prime Minister John Key in response to the letters some of the children had written him back during our Famous New Zealanders week, which also happened to be election week!  The letter was written specifically in response to what the children had said - a very cool way to end our year!

Teddy Bear Day

On the second last day of school we got to bring our teddy bears to school!  We had fun doing fitness with them and playing with them.  After morning tea, Room 27 joined us to watch a movie together and then have a picnic lunch in our classroom.  It was a super fun way to spend the second last day!

Year One Books

Today we received the end of year books that Mrs Nichol made for us of all of our special work from throughout the year.  It was really fun to see what we were able to do at the beginning of the year and how much more we are able to do now!  We chatted about what we have done throughout the year and remembered so many fun activities and shared memories.  These will be special books for us to keep for a very long time.

Santa's Stuck!!

We had fun writing and creating today.  First we watched half of the Youtube movie, When Santa Got Stuck Up the Chimney.  You can view the video below, or click on this link.  Then we wrote our own ending to the story, how we thought Santa would get out.  After we finished writing, we coloured our brick fireplace and then made Santa stuck in our chimney.

Reindeer Art

This week we have been making reindeer art.  First Mrs Saleh painted our feet brown.  It looked like we had chocolate feet!  Then we stepped onto a piece of paper to make our footprint.  After it dried we painted a red nose, white eyes, antlers and ears.

Mrs Maingay & Christmas Goodies

We have been so lucky to have Mrs Maingay working in our class every Wednesday this year.  She has helped us with our Reading and Writing.  Today was her last day with us this year so Mrs Nichol decided it would be fun to make some Christmas goodies with Mrs Maingay.  We all got to go upstairs to the staffroom - the fun could have ended there - everyone was so excited to be in the staffroom!!!  

The first thing we did was unwrap a candy cane.  We had to make sure we got all the plastic wrap off and we weren't allowed to eat it.  Mrs Nichol crushed them in the Magic Bullet. (You could also use a rolling pin to break them up.)  Next we emptied two bags of white chocolate buttons into bowls to melt in the microwave.

Then we took turns stirring the melted chocolate into the crushed candy canes.  When it was all mixed together we spread it onto baking paper.  When it was cooled and hardened, we broke it into smaller pieces to eat it.  It was soooo yummy!

When we got back to class we gave Mrs Maingay letters we had written to her.  We hope to see her again next year around the school.

The Mr Men Roadshow!

In the last few days we have had so much fun sharing our Mr Men stories with so many people!  On Wednesday we shared with Mrs Maingay, Rooms 23, 29 and Mr Keenan.  On Thursday it was our buddy class, Room 3.  On Friday it was Year 8 students from Somerville Intermediate School and Mrs Michell's Year 6 class.  And, of course, all of our parents who have popped in throughout the week to read our books.  Mrs Maingay still has a few more to read on her next visit to our class on Wednesday, and then the books will come home. (Much to the children's delight!  They can't wait to take them home.)

Please have a look at the album of all of the people we have shared with.  There are some really great pictures of the children so engaged in sharing their stories with others.  View album by clicking HERE

Somerville Intermediate School Year 8 students came to share with us the big books that they had written and illustrated.  Mrs Nichol's daughter, Miss Paige Nichol, is the teacher of the class who came to visit us!  Two other Year 1 classes and 1 Year 4 class also had groups of SIS students visit them.

A Busy Morning

We had a busy start to our day.  First we had a speedy look through all the blog posts for the whole year!  It was fun to look back at all the exciting things we have done as a class. We have sure learnt a lot this year and have had a lot of fun along the way!  Afterwards we made a word bank full of words about our learning journey in 2014.  Tomorrow we will write about our highlights of Year 1.

Then we had a skype visit with Mrs Nichol's friends in Drumheller, Alberta, Canada.  It was -10C and the children had just come home from school.  They showed us all of the clothes they have to put on to go outside to play.  After we watched them get all their layers on, they went into their backyard and made snow angels, threw snow in the air and just had fun in the snow!  

It was interesting to see what children are doing on the other side of the world in December when we have bare feet and are playing in at the beach!  The children in Canada were only outside for about 7 minutes and their cheeks were rosy red from being so cold.  After they came in and took off all their wet, snowy clothes, we went outside to our playground and showed them what it is like for us at school in New Zealand.  It was a great experience to visit with children in Canada.

(side note:  Drumheller is a site where there have been hundreds of dinosaur bones found - a very amazing museum! http://www.tyrrellmuseum.com/)

 

Mr Men Books & a Happy Birthday!

Today we shared our Mr Men books with Rooms 23 and 29, and Mr Keenan.

It was fun to read our stories to other people and everyone really enjoyed them.

Before we shared our books with Mr Keenan, we surprised him by singing 'Happy Birthday' to him.  We did very well sneaking up to his office without him noticing!    Happy Birthday Mr Keenan!

 

 

After school some parents came in to hear our stories.  They will be in our classroom for the rest of the week, so please feel free to pop in before or after school to listen to us read our books to you.

Here are some more pictures of us sharing our books around the school today. 

View the album by clicking here

Swimming

Nothing like having the pool all to ourselves!  Lots of room to play!

Our favourite thing to do after swimming is to run across the field pretending to be superheroes with our towels as our capes!