The Great Barrier Reef

As most of you are aware, I had the honour of being bridesmaid for my best friend over in Australia in the holidays.  This was why Mr Williams was teaching in Room 10 for the first week of term.
My friend got married on Hayman Island which is a short boat ride from Hamilton Island.  We stayed on Hamilton Island after the wedding and enjoyed what the Island had to offer.
I had never snorkelled before so was very excited to share with my experience with the children.
We are developing Growth Mindsets in Room 10 and I had to share with the children how I had to use my growth mindset to overcome my fear of deep water.  Once I relaxed, I couldn't believe the beauty of a coral reef.  Truly magnificent.  This has led to us doing a little bit of research on the Great Barrier Reef.  It was a magical experience and I can't wait to receive the underwater photos we took so I can share.  I'm very lucky to have seen one of the 7 wonders of the world.

Neighbourhood Maps

In Week 2 we drew a neighbourhood map that shows a place/area that we feel connected to.  It could be a map of a town we live in or used to live in, our school, marae, holiday spot... etc
As part of our writing programme this term we are going to have some for 'free writing' which means we can write a poem, a short story, a recipe, some song lyrics... anything and everything.  There are times however where some of the children in Room 10 get writers block ;)  By having a neighbourhood map, we can look at the places we have drawn and think about some memories we may have that we can write about.  We have ownership.
The pictures below show how enthusiastic we were in drawing our maps.