Rāpare - Thursday 26th August

 Ata mārie/ ahi ahi mārie / pō mārie koutou depending on what time of the day you may be reading this. We are reaching the point in our whare where we are getting a bit scratchy with each other. Being together all the time can take its toll. Yesterday after a tricky day full of big emotions from little people I made sure to take some time on my yoga mat to relax and be all by myself. What's your favourite form of self care and how can you take the time to make sure your needs are being met too? 

It wasn't all bad yesterday, the scavenger hunt was a big hit! Another activity that was a hit recently was bird watching, we lay down with a sketch pad and had to stay very still and quiet. We saw so many birds come and eat the crusts on the lawn, I drew the birds while the kids were on bird watch. We also have a bunch of beads and Dotty has loved making bracelets for her friends, I like making them too! 

Today while I write this Atticus is helping Ash make some ginger crunch and Dotty is having cuddles with her Grandma before she starts work for the day. She is a psychotherapist and makes phone calls with clients locked up in her room while we try to be as quiet as possible. 

Thursday already! 

Literacy

Review the squares from earlier in the week, can you remember what words you made? Can you find more? 

Maybe you could play I spy with my little eye using your sound knowledge? "I spy with my little eye, something beginning with b, /b/ (/b/ written this way is the sound b makes, not the letter's name).

Another thing you could do is try and find items around the house that start with each letter of the alphabet. X may be tricky, we usually use x as a middle or end sound. Keep a record of what you find.

Maths

Practice skip counting in 2s, 5s, 10s, how high can you skip count? What about counting backwards? We usually start at 60, see if you can start higher! 70? 70, 69, 68, 67, 66, 65...

At school we have been exploring shapes, last time we were all together we made shapes out of string and glue on bits of card, then we drew pictures using shapes, it was a lot of fun! 

The shapes we have been using are: circle, oval, square, rectangle, triangle and diamond. We talk about what makes each shape different to another, how is a square different to a rectangle for example... 

Today you might like to make something like this, cut shapes out of tissue paper if you have some to make sun catchers. You could also use coloured or drawn on 'normal' paper and cooking oil to make it more transparent. 

Image from - https://happytotshelf.com/shapes-sorting-suncatcher/

Wising you all well, missing your faces and conversations and looking forward to when we can all be together again.

Arohanui

Stacey