2012 Athletics Day

It was Pakuranga Height's Year 1 & 2 Athletics Day yesterday and we had perfect weather for it.

There are different athletic events around the field. The kids stayed with their own class and 'compete' against their classmates for events. They were not really competing. It was all about participation and having fun. It also gave them an insight of the different athletic events.

Ryan enjoyed all the events except for one... they had to put on a skirt and hat and race. He screamed every time he had the skirt on. It was quite a funny sight.

We had a good day and it was fun watching all the kiddies running around. They are so cute :)

2012 Junior School Poetry Festival

Ryan's school had their annual Junior School Poetry Festival today. All the students from Year 0 to Year 2 have been practicing poems everyday for the last couple of weeks, and the teachers from each class had to select a few students to read their poems on stage today.

There were 5 selected from Ryan's class - 4 Year One's and a Year 0. Ryan was one of the selected few with his poem titled Superheroes.

We went to watch his performance today and he did pretty well - judge for yourself :)
(Although he did it so much better when he was praticing)

All the students that performed received a certificate for their achievement.

Attached is a video of Ryan reading his poem and a scanned copy of his certificate. The photo is o the 5 students that got selected from his class.

First Fun Run

Ryan had his first ever fun run at school today. We have been collecting sponsors for him the last couple of weeks.

They were really lucky to have good weather today as it has been raining the last few days. Because of time constraint, they were only allowed 5 laps. I'm unsure if this applied to everyone or just the juniors. They (Year One) were the first to run. Once everyone has completed, they were to sit and  watch the others.

The name of the house that he is in is Tui and his house colour is yellow.

I think he did pretty well. He completed his 5 laps and he looked pretty happy running. I'm sure he was able to do more laps if he was allowed to.

Coming out of the classroom

Lining up to go to the starting line

Near the end of his first lap

 

Waiting for his card to get ticked off

There he goes again

Waiting for all the other Year One's to complete their laps

The name of house he is in

Proof that he has completed his 5 laps

With his friend from after school care

One of his classmates

Since I was there, I thought I'll have a bit of a nosy in his classroom as with him going to after school care, I don't get to go to it. Here are a couple of photos that I took. The first one is his koi fish artwork (the one in the centre) which I thought is pretty good. The other one shows where his reading level his at the moment.

Chinese & Korean - Any difference?

Not according to Ryan :)

Last night Ryan said to me that there were some kids from my old school at his school on that day. I asked him what he was on about and he repeated what he just said. I was confused and he was getting very frustrated that I didn't understand him. Then it clicked... It was in his school newsletter recently that they have some Korean students coming to their school.

I told him that those kids are Korean, not Chinese but he argued back saying that they are Chinese. He was so adamant about it that I decided to leave it.

Be it Chinese, Korean or Japanese, I guess we all look the same to him. The funny thing about him is that he doesn't acknowledge himself as half Chinese.

2012 Class Photo

Can you believe it? Ryan has just started the first day of his 3rd term in primary school. That's half a year of school. Where has the time gone?

We had him at a school holiday programme when he had his 2nd term holidays and boy, did he have fun. He was asking me today if he can go back for the next school holidays. He went to the meuseum, a playland, the movies and it's all play everyday.

Anyway, he got his class photos back at school today. His very first school photo :) Doesn't he look smart in his uniform? (proud mummy hehehe). It's nice to be able to see all the kids in his class. Dad is the one that drops him off in the morning and he's at after school when I pick him in the afternoon, so I don't get to see who's in his class. There's a very uneven ratio of boys and girls in his class :)

Easter 2012

I have decided to give the Easter Show a miss this year as we are going to Rotorua next week. Instead, we went to the Amazing Maze. It's a maze made of maize plants.

They had an Easter egg hunt and I thought Ryan might enjoy it. The hunt wasn't for Easter chocolate eggs. Kids are given a sheet with different patterned eggs on it. There are posts with numbers scattered all over the maze. Each post has a patterned egg attached to it. We had to go around and find the posts that have the eggs on our sheet. It took us quite a while to do as it was a big maze.

There were 2 Easter bunnies going around in the maze and handing out chocolate eggs. The kids love them :)

Pakuranga Heights Cultural Evening

It was Pakuranga Heights cultural evening yesterday and Ryan had to do a performance. All the Year One kids went on stage to perform Tutira Mai Nga Iwi. Here are some photos of the evening and a video of Ryan's performance.

The agar agar I made for school. Someone actually bought it!

School Principal. Kids called him Mr Van.

Representing different cultures of the school

Year One students waiting to go on stage

MC's of the night

Getting ready for their performance

Blonde lady in white - Ryan's class teacher, Miss Yates

Tūtira Mai Ngā Iwi

Line up together, people
All of us, all of us.
Stand in rows, people
All of us, all of us.
Seek after knowledge
and love of others - everybody!
Think as one,
Act as one.
All of us, all of us.

All of us, all of us!!

Hi aue hei !!!

After School Care

Due to both of us working full time, Ryan has to attend after school care everyday. We took him for a visit this afternoon and it looked to be quite good. They all meet at the school hall and have some afternoon snack. It's free time after snack. There are lots of things they can do. They can choose to play games, draw and even watch TV. The thing I like about it is they group all the students together. This gives him a chance to get to know the older kids as well. They all appeared to be very friendly.

He was to attend the after school care everyday but we just found out today that he's able to learn Chinese after school at the school itself. So we have enrolled him into that. It suits us perfectly as he has to be at the school anyway. Hope he will enjoy it.

Here's a photo of his after school care. They are waiting for their snack.

First Day of School

Ryan started his first day at Pakuranga Heights Primary School today (7th February 2012).  He is lucky to have been born at the beginning of the year as he is going straight to Year One. There are 5 different classes for Year One and he is in Room Two. His teacher's name is Joanna Yates.

He was very excited this morning. We were slightly early and he kept asking us if we are going yet but he was nervous when we got there. We were very proud of him though as he was very good. When we told him it was time for us to go, he came over to give us a hug and kiss goodbye without any tears.

This is where they put their school bags

Year 1, Room 2

Writing his name

Who's here today board

Happy Birthday Ryan!

Ryan turned 5 today!

Yesterday was his last day at Daycare and he had a little birthday celebration with his friends and teachers. He is a very lucky boy as he got a birthday present from the Daycare and Ngaire,who looked after him when he was a baby.

We didn't have a party for him today as we went to Sydney recently and that was his "party". He got Eruptor, a Skylanders character, for his birthday cake as that was what he requested for.

We took him for a game of mini golf. Unfortunately he had no other kids to play with as he was the only kid in our group of 10. The good thing was he got all the attention.

He said he had a good birthday when asked. At the end of the day, that is all that matters.

Here are some photos of the day.

More videos from Sydney

Up Up and Away

Ryan just came back from his first overseas trip. It was also his first time on an aeroplane. We went to Sydney for a short break and he was so excited the day we were due to fly out. He tried to act like it was no big deal but his actions/behaviours were telling us otherwise.

I think he enjoyed the flight as everything was new to him. The only problem was when the plane started to descend. He couldn't stand the pressure in  his ears and was crying the whole time. Unfortunately we did not have any lollies for him to suck on and neither did the aircraft. He said he wasn't going to go on an aeroplane again but that was forgotten after we landed.

He threw a huge tanty on one of the days we were there but other than that, it was a really good trip... tiring but good. We walked a lot and went to a few tourist attractions. Ryan went on his first cable car ride to the Zoo. He loved it. His only complain was the ride wasn't long enough. We also went to a quite a few playgrounds.

It's our first day back but he decided he doesn't want to come home. A friend picked us up from the airport and he wanted to stay at their house and play. It could be because he did not have any kids to play with when we were in Australia. After that, he decided he wanted to spend the night at his grandparents because he misses them.

Here are some holiday photos...

At the airport waiting to board the aeroplane

Having his meal on the plane

First outing in Sydney

About to go on the monorail

At the train station

On the ferris wheel at Luna Park

Water play at Darling Harbour