Room 22 (Ashgrove Satellite Class)

The weather last week was very wet, and as a result we had lots of inside lunchtimes.  By the time the sun came out on Friday the cabin fever was really starting to set in, so we made the most of our outing day and went to a park to burn off some energy. Ouruhia Domain , on Marshlands Rd, is a fantastic playground. Set back from the road down a long driveway, it is very quiet and we often have the place totally to ourselves. There is a set of 5 swings, a slide, climbing rock, a spinning 'spider web', and also a great flying fox which was definitely the favourite activity for several of the students! Lake and Johnandrew went straight to the flying fox and had a few turns each, bringing all the way back to the top afterwards and handing it on to the next person. Kereama stood nearby watching, but didn't want a turn when I asked. After about 10mins I asked him again and he said yes! I helped him get on and then checked he was ok then let go of the rop...

At morning tea time we take a box of sports equipment out to the playground with us. This week the favourite item in the box has definitely been the coloured cones. The fact that many of the students want them means that we have had plenty of opportunities to practice our sharing and negotiations skills! Today I noticed that the cones are being used for a wide variety of things so I took some photos... Kereama was fascinated by the noise that was made when you clapped two cones together. Kereama and Sophie-Marie played a game where they pretended the cones were trying to eat their hands. Johnandrew and Jayden threw the ball between each other and tried to catch it in the cone. Great catch Jayden! Lake too enjoyed the sound of two cones clapping together. Lake and Kereama experimented holding a blue ball with the cones and not their hands. Kieran loved the sound of his voice when he made a roaring noise in the cone! Then Lake asked me to make a v...

In preparation for Saturday's Royal Wedding, our class spent a bit of time during the week talking about the royal family, sharing our knowledge of them, and discussing who it is who was getting married on Saturday. Then to top it all off, and get into the wedding spirit, we made some delicious English treats, decorated our classroom, and invited some of our friends to our Tea Party - a great way to end the week! Johnandrew posed for a photo with the royal couple. Some of our decorations included Steph's beautiful tea towel with the Queen's picture on it, and a very precious photo belonging to Sophie-Marie's mum which is of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip on their wedding day. Thank you very much for sharing these with us. Our afternoon tea included scones with jam and cream, dainty sandwiches, ginger kisses, heart shaped biscuits and "champagne" (lemonade). We invited Zara, Mollie, Rylee and Kaitlin from Mahuri class to join us. ...

Our class philosophy is that learning needs to be fun and engaging and can be built into every activity that we do. Cooking is definitely high up the list of favourite activities we do each week, but during cooking we are learning so many things! We learn about hygiene (why we need to wash our hands before we start, why we wash the dishes afterwards), about safety (how to use knives carefully, how to be safe around hot things), we practice our reading (recipes, packets and labels), our maths (counting out the number of ingredients, measuring half and quarter, recognising numbers in the recipe), fine motor skills (stirring, grating, mixing, rolling, opening packets and tins), and also we try new flavours and textures which can be very challenging for some students. This week we made something really delicious - lolly cake! And when I broke the news to the students that it wasn't for them, but to give their mothers for Mother's Day, they all took the news really well! First...

We are so lucky to have started our weekly music therapy sessions with Devin this week! He will be visiting us at Ashgrove every Thursday morning, and we are also lucky to have 4 students from Mahuri (the block we are attached to) join us for our sessions. Our new Mahuri friends are called Molly, Zara, Bella and Kaitlyn. Today we made some fantastic music together, firstly with lots of different drums, and then with a choice of a whole lot of different instruments (cabasa, bells, xylophone, shakers and more!). It was heaps of fun and everyone was totally engaged for the entire session. Can't wait until next week! After each song we had a chat about what we all noticed during the song. Lake enjoyed looking inside the drum Kereama chose a drum nearly as big as he is! Johnandrew tried playing it with his elbows Savannah enjoyed the xylophone