Starting September

We are all so happy to see the sun shining again. The weather has been really interesting lately. Every morning we check the weather on the Metservice website. We can all say that we are in Christchurch, and that our country is New Zealand. The weather really effects what we can do in a day, and what we need to take with us when we go out. After we check the weather we can make our final plans for the day. We have our visual timetable up on the board and we also write up extra information that we need. 

Every day we do some form of exercise. We are all trying to improve our fitness. Rawiri was going so fast walking on the treadmill he is just a blur in this photo! We have seen a huge improvement in his attitude to exercise. Well done Ra! 

 Matthew thought the gym was really scary for a start. He has developed skills in using the treadmill and rowing machine, and now Fay is helping him to pedal correctly on the bike.

 We have been talking about shaving faces with Megan, our OT. She has these funny faces and we have to spread the shaving foam around where whiskers grow, and then we practise scraping it off. Next time she is bringing a razor and we are going to shave water balloons. We think that will be pretty funny!

  We got to go to the Cultural Festival to see the Allevale Kapa Haka group perform. Rawiri, Merit and Kyle were in the team that performed. Alex had lots of fun in the audience.

 James, William, Matthew and Aimee were there too.

Click here to see the Allenvale Cultural Festival Performance 2015 . It took a long time to develop  and perfect the routine. The members of the Kapa Haka group are dedicated and hard working. Well done to all of them, and a special thanks to the teachers and teacher assistants involved.

We have been talking about koanga - spring. We are learning about the leaves growing on the deciduous trees, flowers blooming and baby animals being born. We know that birds are making nests and laying eggs. We decided to make some bird feeders to provide food for the birds that visit our garden. On Monday we visited Animates to see if we could find some birds, then we went to Bunnings to look for some supplies for making bird feeders.

Matthew had a look at the birds, then he was very excited because he found the RATS!!! Pet rat Mum?

 Merit loved the birds. She noticed all of the different colours of the budgies.

 Alex and Fay chatted about the birds. Alex can make bird chirps.

 We also saw some guinea pigs. They go squeak squeak.

 There were so many beautiful animals and birds to look at. Some of us got to pat a puppy too.

We are continuing to work on our bird feeder projects. We have looked a various designs and have purchased and recycled some materials so that we can begin construction next week.

Now that the sun is shining more often we have been able to get out and have some fun in our local area. Aimee loves a walk.

 James is a big fan of swings. Edgar Mackintosh Park has some excellent ones for all ages.

 William and his trusty I-Pod had fun on the round-a-bout. He enjoys spinning around and around. Look at that gorgeous smile!

We have had a really busy week. Next week we'll be getting into making our bird feeders. We are working on some amazing mosaics too. Everyone will be doing some cooking. Some people will attend a cooking class and others will work at school. We will all do some gardening too. We will get out and about on the public bus if the weather is warm enough, and we'll do some practice shopping.

Homework
Can you tell someone about the weather and the season? Can you tell someone: 

• where you live (your address)?
• what city or town you live in?
• what country we live in? 

Everyone who has a communication device has this information programmed. Look under "describe" for weather information. "About me" is under "Chat".