Play is the Way

Play is the Way is a unique programme of physically interactive games that develop self regulation within children and fosters independent, self-motivated, and empathetic behaviours. Play is the Way develops emotional intelligence and social competency skills so children can create close personal connections and a sense of self worth and belonging. We are very excited to be implementing this programme at Milton Primary this year. On Monday 7 May we had its founder, Wilson McCaskill, come to school and work with the teachers and the children. The children learn through playing a wide variety of fun games which challenge them to think about their behaviour and develop positive attitudes towards facing challenges, developing perseverance and achieving success. We are looking forwarding to embedding this programme into our school culture as a reflection of our school values of respect, responsibility, confidence and teamwork.

Wearable Art

As part of our investigation into the concept of "Sustainability", the children were set the task of creating an item of wearable art. They had several weeks to plan and make their creations and were encouraged to enlist the help of their parents on this homework project. On the last day of the term, the children presented their work to the class. They had to explain what they had made, how they made it, what materials they used, and what they would do differently if they did it again. There was a great variety in their creations ranging from various types of headgear to jet-packs and all of the children should be very proud of their efforts.

School Fair

On Saturday 17th March, Milton Primary School had its school fair. This year’s fair had a St Patrick’s Day theme and there were a lot of activities based around this theme. There were a lot of fun things to do including sponge throw, a bouncy castle, paintball, horse riding, and many other interesting activities. Lots of people also contributed to the raffles. Thank you to those who donated the wonderful prizes for these. The sponge throw was really fun and the willing Year 6 victims got thoroughly soaked. In the paintball you had to shoot the paintballs and try to hit the targets. Laser tag was also very popular. In the Fire Engine it was very loud and it was fun to ride around with the siren going. Also there was a baking sale and there were a lot of sweet treats to buy. Thanks to all the people who contributed to help set everything up. It was a massive fundraiser for the school. 

Geometry

In geometry, we have been learning about the properties of 2-D and 3-D shapes. We have learnt that the flat surfaces on a 3-D shape are called faces, and the pointy bits are called vertices. We have learnt the names of some 3-D shapes and how to recognise them from flat representations of themselves called nets. There are a lot of new words to learn in like parallel, perpendicular and congruent. We have been learning to use the language of geometry to describe 3-D shapes like the ones you can see in this photo.

Athletic Sports

On Friday the 23^rd of February it was the Milton Schools Athletics day. St Marys and Tokoiti came to participate with us. All of the events started at 9.30am and went to around 2.00pm. Lots of parents and caregivers came to cheer their children along as well as their school. These were all of the events: high jump, long jump, mini hurdles, 100 metre sprints, 200 metres, 800 metres, shot put and discus. Each child put in a one hundred and one percent effort. At the end of the day children went home with a red face and a smile with tomato sauce over it from the delicious sausage sizzle at lunchtime provided by Home and School helpers. The 800 metre run was the longest and made us puff and slow down a little bit more at the end of the race. Everyone tried their hardest and our best wishes go to the children who qualified for the South Otago sports in Balclutha. It was a great day but everyone’s bones would have been very stiff and sore the next day!!

Swimming

We were all delighted to be able to get straight into swimming instruction right from the first day of the school year. We were also fortunate that the weather stayed fine for us so we only missed one swimming day. In this block of swimming, we focus on practising the basic swimming strokes eg freestyle and backstroke. We use equipment such as floatboards to work on our leg action and once we have mastered that we go on to work on arm action and breathing. Many children have made tremendous progress since last year. Later in the term we will have another block of swimming lessons and we will be off to the pool again at the end of the year when the focus will be on water safety.

2018

Welcome to the start of the new school year. It's great to be back for what promises to be another exciting year for the students in Room 8. The children have settled into their work very quickly and our classroom routines are already well established. There will be regular updates to our class blog throughout the year including samples of the children's work and photos of the children participating in a variety of different events and activities. You are encouraged to make regular visits to the blog to check out any updates and leave a comment if you would like to.