What's Been Happening in…Kānuka

February

Antarctica has absorbed us these past few weeks in Kānuka! What a fascinating and critical part of the world we have right on our doorstep! The wonderful House of Science resource has taken us through experiments from seeing how baleen whales eat compared to toothed whales, and we've discovered first hand how blubber can help keep us warm from freezing temperatures. Having Zoe's grandad, Colin, in to talk about his many years of experience in Antarctica was inspiring and drew some wonderful deep questioning from the children. 

We are so grateful also to Nicky, John and Pauline for inviting us to see them extracting honey ... and for the delicious samples we got to try! Beyond being fascinating and tasty, it inspired a whole week of writing and lots of rich conversation!

Before getting stuck into our Prime Maths maths programme, we have been busying ourselves with strengthening our basic facts knowledge. The children gain 'Bricks' for each block of knowledge they conquer and we have, as a class, been building a fabulous brick wall to celebrate these achievements.

May

In our learning around Pink Shirt Day, we have been deep diving into anti-bullying and inclusion in Kānuka. This led us through the story of Wolfgang the Wolf's wonderful coat as well as a number of quotes explaining the concept of inclusion. We did some fun collaborative art and penned our own quotes to show what we had learned. A couple can be seen below...

Science has collided with art this month as we learn flowers and the real reason behind why they are so beautiful. Our art focus looking at creating secondary and tertiary colours from primary colours is building into the creation of some bold and brilliant flowers ... that are also anatomically correct! ... Anna