Term 2 Week 5

At the end of the week it was my birthday, Zico got to use his writing for an authentic context by writing in my card with Daddy. To celebrate my old age we went out on our double kayak as a family. Zico loved the big swell and got excited by the wavy wobbles. We had a picnic and cake on the beach.

We visited Animal Farm and were excited to see that the Alpacas had escaped! We made sure that we shut the gate and told the owners who then went to round them up. We loved seeing them gallop around. They can move quite fast.

Zico was super brave and fed, sheep, goats, pigs, Alpacas and Donkeys. We went in to see the Goats but the were as big as Zico and a little too interested in getting very close to them so it was a short visit!

Zico has been getting more into healthy eating. He's been having a huge fruit salad for lunch and snacking on healthy raw natural bliss balls.  He's also gotten enthusiastic about drawing. This week he has been drawing on a whiteboard and with special window pens on the windows too. Can you spot Superman, Harlequin, Batman, The Riddler, Joker and Batgirl?

Zico has been reading more books and is really good at making connections between the books. Zico loved reading fire fire as there was a Puss that goes under the deck just like our cat Pixie does. Zico also enjoys reading his own writing and looking back at what he has written before. He is trying to write lots about his dinosaur creations. This week his writing was the smallest he has ever done. He wrote I made a little baby Dimorfadon.
Zico has been working on numeral identification and ordering numbers up to 30. He is also learning how to write the numerals too.

Term 2 Week 4

Another week of trying some science experiments. This week we tried to put a sharp stick through a balloon without it popping by covering it in vaseline. We also watched the colour and sugar dissolve on 4 M and M's. It was fun watching the M's float off. After the balloon experiment Zico and I played with a balloon. It was great throwing and catching and hand eye coordination practise.

We got our old ipad out this week and Zico used a drawing programme called Lazoo to draw lots of different super heroes. Here is his picture of Robin.

Zico also discovered drawing on the magna doodle. He drew Batman, Riddler, and all sort of other heroes and villains.

Zico has been reading heaps of new books over the past few weeks. He is reading a variety of books that are easy and some which have a few tricky words in too. This week one of our books was a counting and rhyming book called Seven Big Bubbles. After reading the book we got out our own bubble mixture and blew bubbles too.

As well as Superheroes, Zico loves Dinosaurs and the writing lately has been all about Dinosaurs. Zico has started to add colour to his drawings and he is now writing on lines and learning about half size, tall stick and hanging letters.

Term 2 week 3

Zico has a love of taking photos so there are a few on here that he took, I bet you can spot which ones. 

Physical Education: This week Zico has been trying new things at Gymnastics. His confidence and upper body strength are growing, which is amazing to see. At horse riding Zico is now riding a much bigger horse called Nelly and this week he was confident enough to hold the reins and steer Nelly around. 

Science and History:  Zico has been learning lots about our planet by Watching walking with Dinosaurs and then Walking with beasts and Walking with Monsters, he has made great observations about things like sparrows by saying that their ancestors used to be big but now the birds have adapted to be small because of their food. We have also done a couple of experiments at home. The pictures show Zico making a Wizards Brew out of vinegar, baking soda, dish wash and a variety of food colouring. We visited Natureland as a family and Zico got to pat a Tuatara and we talked about how they have been around since the dinosaurs. Zico also enjoyed observing the monkeys especially one who was eating some beetroot.

Zico took these photos of his lego dinosaurs, they tell a story of attack and battle and finally the winner eating the loser. This was great to see Zico combining the things he loves, story telling, taking photos, dinosaurs and goodies and baddies. 

Zico loved the puddles on the way back from Gymnastics, we talked about how his feet were invincible in his gumboots.

 Zico's sentence at writing time are getting quite long, we have tried building the sentence out of lego to help remember the words and remind Zico about the spaces between the words. My favourite sentence from this week was "Pixie's cat flap was locked but Mum let her in."  I published some of Zico's writing into a little book and this week Zico finished illustrating it. When it was finished he took it to Nana and Grandad's house and read the whole book to them, including my publishing mistake where I typed "The fish are in a jar ready to be eaten by the frogs." instead of "The flies are in a jar ready to be eaten by the frogs."
Zico's reading is going well, he loves being read to and visiting the library at least once a week and this week Dave noticed that he was reading some of the words that came up on the screen when he was playing a computer game, he is relying less on his memory and starting to really pay attention to the letters in the words.

Term 2, week 2

Another busy week for Zico with lots of new learning.
Physical Education. Zico has been using a hoop at Gymnastics so he showed me skipping through the hoop with his hoop at home. Zico is getting more confident with his body so he also climbed up on the window sill in his bedroom!

Zico's writing is coming along nicely, he has been suggesting his own topics and knows lots of the sight words as well as how to form so many letters without assistance.

 Zico loved listening to a new book in the car. Zico has been reading to us everyday at least 2 books as well as listening to stories and having stories read to him. He also really enjoys just looking at the pictures too. We have been visiting the library at least once a week as we just love getting new books, this week Zico was thrilled to find the sequel to his favourite Ruth Paul book Stomp, called Dinosaur Dads.

 Zico got to do some monoprinting with paint, we discovered that if you write words then when you put the paper on you get a mirror image of the word. Zico also enjoyed doing some finger painting and mixing silver and orange paint.

 At Gymnastics Zico was learning about Spacial awareness so he had to try and keep his eyes closed as he jumped on the trampoline as well as walking across the room with his eyes closed and falling back into my arms. So much fun.

 Zico has learnt how to take "selfie's" on my phone, he also found out how to search on google with his voice instead of typing words in. He taught me and we said the names of his favourite dinosaurs and then learnt more about them through watching the videos that google showed us.

 As well as typing letters onto google Zico had a go at typing numbers onto a calculator, it wasn't as much fun though but he still enjoyed typing a number and getting me to read what he had typed.

 Zico had a go on a new swing as we had an early start and got to the library before they were even open! Luckily they have a swing outside to kill some time on.

Term 2 Week 1

Zico loves to visit the library and has learnt how to use the self issue machine so he can now issue books himself. We have reserved some of his favourite books about Dinosaurs by Penny Dale. Here is Zico showing you the inside cover which is the part of the book that he always reads.  Zico has been reading lots of sea related books to us. He went fishing off the wharf in the easter holidays so finds reading tricky words like line and bait quite easy.

 We have been lucky enough to have a visit from a Preying Mantis. She had a fat tummy and a few days later we were lucky enough to see her laying her egg sack on our deck.

 Zico continues to grow in confidence and try new things. Here he is trying the round about at the beach playground.

 We have been enjoying some autumn sunshine at the beach. Zico found a log to balance on and a stick to use as a weapon.