Science, Sport and Shovelling!

Life in Room 2 is always full of much variety. This week we began our week with a tree planting trip up the Brook organised by our local council.  We were so efficient that they had to go and get more trees for us to plant!

On Wednesday we held our biennial school Science Fair.  We each discussed with the judges our experiments and the outcomes of our testing.  We were very proud to showcase our work to the school and our parents!

Today a number of students from our class went to the Inter-Regional Cross Country Champs at Rabbit Island. At this even we competed against children from across the Nelson/Tasman Region.  Well done to our very own Hollie who place 11th in the Year 5 race and Jasmin who placed 9th in the Year 6 race.

All this term Meg, Tilly, Arlo and Grayson have been lucky enough to be a part of an Art extension programme by local artist Rose Shepard.  You can see below the amazing masks that they produced as part of the workshops.

Shark Man and Bug Man Visit!

Today we were very lucky to have Riley Elliot A.K.A the Shark Man and  Rud Kleinpast A.K.A the Bug Man here as part of a special EnviroDay.  This EnviroDay was held as part of our special opening for a new specially designed sensory garden . A special thanks must go out to one of teachers Lynley who wont his makeover for us and who has organised and driven the whole project.

Can you spot the weta on Rudd's nose?

Cross Country, Fidget Spinners and More!

There's never a dull week in Room 2! Check out our highlights of the week below.

In Maths we have been learning all about probability. Many teachers have banned the fidget spinners, the latest craze!  However, our teacher Sally has us use them in Maths. We played a number of different games and had to decide if they were fair or not.

We were lucky enough to have Andrew and his dog Bo from the Department of Conservation come and visit us on Wednesday. We learnt about the role that Doc dogs have locating both protected and harmful species. 

On Wednesday we also had our Totara Syndicate Cross Country at Branford Park. Well done to the following children who placed in the event.

Year 5 Girls

3rd Hollie

6th - Keara

Year 5 Boys

Year 6 Girls

2nd - Jasmin

4th - Jenaya

8th - Rosie

Year 6 Boys

2nd - Zai

3rd - Koebi

6th - Michael

This week our Science Fair theme carried on. We have all been working hard on our experiments at home and school and Sally is very impressed. We all took part in Caitlin's Science experiment. In her experiment we were blindfolded and had to block our nose and eat a sample of potatoe and apple and guess which one was which. Let's just say there were some interesting reactions!

In Writing we are learning to write explanations. This week we watched an interesting video about the Sea Turtle's life cycle. Did you know that only 1-2% survive to breeding age!  Crazy huh!

Our week

We've had a week filled with much variety. On Monday we tested out our little ovens that we made with Sue in a Science workshop. Sue showed us how to make one and then we each made modifications to them in order to carry out a fair test. We enjoyed cooking smoores in them even though they didn't melt as much as we had hoped.

On Tuesday we went to the Suter for the Optical Illusions exhibition. We had fun looking at lots of different artworks and exploring a variety of techniques to create optical illusions within art.

This week in Maths we have been focussing on Statistics.  We enjoyed constructing a pie graph out of M&M's and then of course eating it!

We also watched a fascinating video about what it would be like if it was a village of 100 people. We then constructed pie graphs on a variety of topics from the video.  You can watch the video below.

Week 4!

It's been all go in Room two this last week. On Tuesday we were lucky enough to go to the Da Vinci exhibition at the Nelson Museum. We had fun exploring lots of mechanisms and machines invented by Da Vinci.

In Inquiry at the moment we are focussing on the upcoming Science Fair. We have been learning all about Fair Testing. Below you can see the results we we placed a gummy bear overnight in two different liquids.  We found that the gummy bear grew the largest in the cup full of water. We learnt about the process of Osmosis.

We also had fun exploring making parachutes.  We had to decide what was the one variable that we would change to make it a fair test. Some of us changed the size of our parachute, the material the parachute was made of, and others the shape.

We've also had fun during some hockey sessions with some coaches from Nelson Hockey

In writing we have been learning about writing instructions. Check out some of the instructional videos below that we have made.

Exploring and Creating

This term at school we are very lucky enough to have our own Artist in Residence Rose Sheppard.  She is a famous Nelson artist who is basing herself at our school.  Four lucky children are also attending extension art workshops run by her each week. On Tuesday we all got to go up and meet Rose and have a look in her studio.

This week for Inquiry we continued on with our Science focus. We had fun carrying out the Magic Milk experiment. We look forward to sharing this experiment at our student led conferences at the end of this term.

In Reading we had lots of fun reading and following instructions.  We especially loved the making part.  We made friendship braclets, pinantas, stressballs and yummy kumera chips. A special shoutout to Felicity and Caroll who came and helped us.

Exploring, Making & Racing!

We've a week filled with much action!  This term in writing we are focussing on instruction writing.  To kick start our topic we had to write instructions for a buddy on how to make a hot chocolate.  We especially enjoyed that Sally brought marshmallows for us and that they warmed us up on a cold Autumn morning!

In reading this week we have focussed on ANZAC day. We have enjoyed reading a variety of stories and articles and visiting a number of sites online.  One reading group were lucky enough to make ANZAC biscuits for us.

 The video below is a very powerful movie clip telling the story of two men's involvement in the war.

On Thursday we participated in a fantastic Amazing Race organised by a group of girls from Room 2. They spent much of Term 1 planning and organising this event for the Totara Syndicate classes. During the race we had to complete tasks such as performing the school haka, digging for buried treasure and a number of physical challenges. Thank you Ruby, Rosie, Summer, Hollie, Jasmin, and Jenaya for organising this for us.

This term we have a science focus for our inquiry topic.  On Thursday we explored the topic of denisty. Do you know that when you put a can of Coke in a container of water it will sink, but a can of diet coke will float?  We learnt that the normal can of coke is more dense because it has more sugar in it causing it to sink

We also had fun exploring density through the experiment lava in a cup Check out the hyperlink for the instructions.

Happy Holidays!

We began our week with our very own Room 2 student councillors leading our whole school assembly. Well done Ruby, Zai and Hollie!

We also finished our cubism inspired artwork.  Can you work out what the original objects were?

 

We ended our week with an easter egg scavenger hunt.  Well done Chloe for organising this.

Memoirs, movies and mmmmmm!

This week we published our final memoir.  We could choose how we published them.  Arlo decided to share his digitally. Check out his fantastic retelling below.

In Art at the moment we are learning about the cubism art period.  Check out our blog soon to see the completed artwork!

On Wednesday we had our Totara Trading Market Day. This is where we exchange the points we have earnt in class this term into Totara Dollars. Children then create stalls to sell and buy goods at.  Some of us come away with more money than we started with us, whilst sometimes some of us spend it all!

On Wednesday we were lucky enough to be taste testers for students from NMIT. We got to taste delicious berry and mango flavoured smoothies and then vote on which one we liked best!

 

This week in reading we have been focussing on retelling.  Check out some students retelling of the story the Coyote and the Turtle below.

See-saw!

In reading we have been focussing on re-telling.  Listen below to hear Tilly and Niall re-tell their story from this week!

In Maths we are focussing on multiplication and division.  The Division Dinosaurs created their own little videos to share some of the strategies that they have been learning.

When Sally is reading to us we are allowed to massage each other. This week a big group of us decided to make a massage circle!

Finally we were lucky enough to have Grayson's kitten Spot visit us. She was a stray kitten that a farmer found.  Spot is a very confident wee kitten!