This week, Nevaeh had a fun music session with Julie Wylie and a whole team of her people to support and join in. Nevaeh especially enjoyed the bells that Julie brought in, and quickly showed off her chops by sounding out Mary had a Little Lamb (her current favourite). Julie will be back to visit in the first week of June. Beautiful playing Nevaeh 🙂
Nevaeh had a great week last week, and enjoyed some drawing time, RDA, and lots of music (just the way she likes it). At her music lesson, she is getting more confident playing both Mary had a Little Lamb and Pepeha independently. A highlight was using animal cards to do some matching- Olivia would set out a set of cards, and Nevaeh would look, find the matching card, and lay it on top of the other one. Very clever. Next we’ll look at early numbers with a similar matching game. Thanks for a fun week team!
This year I have a new ORS teacher named Miss Cunningham. She loves music as much as I do, so we’ve decided to have weekly jam sessions on Tuesday mornings. Miss plays guitar and sings, and I listen closely to play along on either the drum, mini piano, or xylophone. I move to the music, and sometimes try a bit of singing. Miss Cunningham is really impressed with my musicality and sense of rhythm.
If you have any musical requests, we’d love to know! We’re learning new songs each week.
Nevaeh has been in Tūī for three years. Here is a short presentation of some of the things that she has done during this time. We have really enjoyed having you in Tūī Nevaeh, and it has been a privilege to witness all the learning that you have done during your time in class. I am sure that you will come back for a visit and pop in to see what Tūī is doing next year.
Add a heading by Olivia & Mrs Fearn
Today was the last riding and music days. Thankfully it was fine. It seems like there have been so many rainy Thursdays this term. During music Nevaeh played Ode to Joy and Pepeha. RDA had a Christmas flavour. Students decorated themselves and the horses. Nevaeh was taken with the little green elf. She carefully examined it before the elf was placed on Lucy’s neck. You can see from the first picture how excited Nevaeh was to be on a horse again.
Nevaeh was excited to get to music this week. She jumped across the room with joy. Her fingering of the keys is getting much better and when reminded Nevaeh will use her left hand. Today she did especially well playing Colours Shine and Playground Fun. In her formal lesson, she played her favourites Pepeha and Ode to Joy.
Before lunch, Nevaeh went back to the music room to lay with Jackie. She practised ‘Chopsticks’, her new favourite song.
Swimming didn’t happen this week, but here are a few photos from last week’s swim. Nevaeh is so confident and happy in the water.
Wednesday was a great day. Nevaeh is happy to be back in the pool with Sam and Alex. She squealed when Jackie picked up the life jacket from the sensory room. Nevaeh was echoing what was said to her.
At the pool Nevaeh had us all in fits of laughter. Out of nowhere, Nevaeh shouted out clearly ‘Shark Attack!” It was in context and she enjoyed hearing all of us chuckling. She loves it when she gets a positive reaction
We were pretty tired on Thursday. As always we enjoyed our music lesson with Marilyn. We will work on learning Chopsticks to integrate both hands when playing. When playing Nevaeh is mouthing the words and uttering sounds as she plays. We believe she is trying to sing along. This is so exciting.
RDA was cancelled because it was wet, so we had a quiet day in the sensory room listening to music and reading stories.
Enjoy this short movie of Nevaeh’s term at school.
Ruma Tui has completed their fire safety learning. It ended with a visit from the Fire Brigade. After our fire safety talk with all the juniors, it was outside for a wonderful surprise. Nevaeh was so excited to see the fire engine at school. She had a close inspection of the hoses and pumps. Emergency vehicles have long been Nevaeh’s passion. We were worried she would not want to get out when she sat in the fire engine.
Then it was off to help firefighter Craig squirt the hose.
Nevaeh continues to excel with her music. She is using her left side more frequently and we are supporting her to play single notes with her left hand. Awesome work Nevaeh, you are a star.
Along with Andy, we are working on building Nevaeh’s vocabulary. As we walked yesterday lunchtime I asked Nevaeh if she enjoyed her music session with Marilyn. To our surprise, Nevaeh said “Yes.” She knows how to access this on her device, as well as no, and all finished. We added a child’s voiceover to make it more like Nevaeh’s voice.
Nikki from St Johns visited the school this week. Nevaeh went with her class to the lesson in Kotuku. She was very interested in what was going on. Nevaeh showed her curiosity by standing close to her peers to observe.
Here she is helping with the tucking of the bandage. Aren’t you just the cleverest girl.
Nevaeh has also learnt a new song this week and can sing “Stop the clock you are amazing…” and you certainly are.
In class we have been trailling HelpKidzLearn. This is a web based activity. It has a incredible number of activities that we can use to develop an understanding of what Nevaeh knows and can extend and develop her language.
In her music lessons Nevaeh is accessing her left hand more. With Marilyn’s support she is spreading her fingers to hit single notes. Nevaeh is confident playing Hot Cross Buns with her right hand. We all enjoy her steady beats and improvised rhythms.
You are an amazing young lady.