Boxing Day

Rather than study the same celebrations each year Boxing day was chosen this year for the children to study. To celebrate boxing the we taught the children the origin of Boxing Day and the way we typically celebrate it in modern times. 

I taught them that it was a day when the rich give to the poor and that bosses used to give gifts to their employees, servants and/or tradesmen. Nowadays we celebrate by going to a pantomime, going to catch the boxing day sales and watching a sport such as cricket or horse racing. 

The children also decorated boxes and put inside special message wishing their friends good luck, happiness, good christmas presents etc. Here are some photos of their boxes:

These were my two favourites BMO and Jake from Adventure Time. 

Instruments

The second years were learning about the different instruments and since music is a passion of mine I decided to share with them some classic songs so that they could begin to connect the sounds of the instruments to the names. To start the class I asked them which instruments they'd already heard of then I played the songs I told them to put their hand up when they recognised the instrument. Here are the songs I played for them:

Violin:

Flute:

Voice:

Piano:

Guitar:

Landscape description

A few weeks ago with one of the quinto classes we were working on landscape description by first looking at some useful phrases and words and then by describing some landscapes, I choose landscapes mostly from New Zealand so I could show the children some more of my country.

Here are the phrases we leant: 

There is a (noun) in the background / foreground, on the left / in the middle / on the right.

There are some (noun + s) in the background / foreground, on the left / in the middle / on the right.

There is a (noun) (verb + ing) in the background / foreground, on the left / in the middle / on the right.

 And here is some of the vocab:

Types of Landscapes: Plain, mountain, beach, valley, forest, jungle, city, town, village, island, coral reef, the country, a farm

General Description words: picturesque, polluted, crowded, boring, beautiful, new, old, on the horizon, in the distance.

Farm: field, livestock, fence, barn, a flock of sheep, a herd of cattle, tractor, Gumboots (also known as wellys)

Mountain: Mountain range, glaciers, rocks, rivers, reflection,

City: tall buildings, skyscrapers, lights, harbour, boats, bridge, clock tower, streetlights, lamps, cobble stones (cobbled streets).

Beach: bay, cove, cape, coast, sand dune, ocean, sea, seaweed, white/black/yellow sand, stones.

 And finally here are some of the images I had for the children to descibe:

 Auckland City

 My family farm at Raglan

 Coromandel

Southern Alps