Fun filled week

We have started Term 3 with a bang. This term in writing we are focussing on noticing, observing and describing. On Wednesday Sally brought in a box of favourites. We had to notice, observe and describe these using our five senses. We then tried to guess what chocolate our friends had by reading their description. Can you guess which chocolate Ella M had? 

It looks as rectangle as a pool. 

It sounds like crinkles from packets of chips. 

It smells yummy like marshmallows. 

It tastes like cherries and strawberries in chocolate. 

It feels as bumpy as the Mars planet. 

What chocolate am I? 

 We also spent part of a lesson noticing and observing from the front of our school. Check out this great descriptive poem that Tavie wrote. 

 Cars zoom as they find their way around town. 

Trees stand and wave their branches. 

Seagulls fly looking for food. 

People talk in confusing languages. 

 In Maths we have been learning about translation, reflection and rotation. We found this song helpful helping us to remember what each word means.  

We also had fun creating artwork to show what they each mean.

This term our inquiry topic is 'Water is life'

We know that we are very lucky in NZ to be able to access nice clean water out of the taps.  Some children are not so lucky and have to go and fetch water.  We had a little taste of this when Sally sent us a bit of a challenge to carry a big bucket of water around a loop in the school grounds.  Whilst we thought it was fun at the time Sally wonders if we would actually like to have to do it everyday!

In art we are are focussing on collage.  This week we created these beautiful rainbows using the technique called chipping. Check out Andre's one below.

Are you prepared??

This term as part of our inquiry we have been learning all about Natural Disasters.  We have discussed how people's rights are affected as a result of natural disaster.  

One way that we can be prepared if there is a natural disaster is to have a survival kit.  When we began our topic most of us thought that we should have fresh fruit and frozen veges in our survival kit.  However, we wouldn't advise you to have these things now.  Check out our video to find out what we think you should have in a survival kit.

Matariki Celebrations

Today we celebrated Matariki, the Maori New Year at Nelson Central School.  In Kahikatea we spent the morning rotation around a range of activities. these including making Matariki stars, playing traditional games such as string games and an outdoor game called Te Uru and using Rako.  We then had shared kai for lunch.  In the afternoon we had a whole school celebration assembly.  Our syndicate performed the Jump Jam song Kotahitanga. Check us out below! 

Getting crafty and creative

Yesterday we have had a bit of fun getting crafty and creative and our afternoon evolved into our own little discovery time..

Whilst we were printing our robots  Sally gave us some choosing time.  The Cheeky Crocodiles carried on making their traditional Maori kites which they had started as part of their reading activity.  Sally was very impressed how they persisted and overcame some of the challenges they faced.

A group of children made their own crazy loom bracelets and necklaces.  Ella S was extremely generous sharing out her bands with others.  Again Sally was very impressed at how they were all relating to others, our current key competency focus.  There was lots of great co-operation and negotiation.

 

Some boys decided to make paper aeroplanes.  They quickly discovered that the smaller ones flew further than the larger ones.  They had lots of fun making smaller and smaller ones to see which one flew the furthest.  

Cross Country

Today the big day finally arrived.... our annual school cross-country. We had been training hard for six weeks for the event. After a rainy week it turned out a beautiful winter's day. We all did our best and Sally was proud of us all and the effort we put in. 

 Well done to Room 5's place getters. 
Year 3 Girls 
2nd - Klara 
5th - Ruby M 
6th - Anna 
 7th - Emilia 
8th - Amba 

Year 3 Boys 
2nd - Cullen 
10th - Lucus 

Year 4 Girls 
1st - Floss 
3rd - Tavie 
7th - Cooper 
8th - Ruby R

A is for Art, B is for Booklets, C is for Cross Country

A is for Art. This week we finished off our start prints. We made our blocks by drawing a star design and then indenting the shape by poking lots of little holes in it using the end or our pencil. We think they look pretty cool all mounted and on display. 

 B is for Booklets This week we also finished our little Information Report booklets on our chosen animal. We learnt how to find images using Google that are not under copyright laws. 

 C is for Cross Country We have continued to train hard for our cross country which is just a week away. We are getting faster and fitter each week. 

TEKKIE BREKKIE

This morning before school Cooper,Floss and Ruby R taught the teachers how to use the app Little bird tales. We were nervous at first but then we got happier. Lots of teachers came to the Teekie brekkie. We had lots of fun. Dr Potaka took lots of photos of us.  Then he interviewed us in his office.  HE'S GOING TO PUT US IN THE NEWSLETTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

By Cooper,Ruby R & Floss!!!

Let's get 3D!

Today we had fun with our little buddies using an amazing app called Colar Mix.  It turned our special colouring in pages downloaded from the Colar Mix website into amazing animated 3D images.  This app is available in both Android and Apple and can also be used on your smartphones.

Museum, measurement and mmmm..... chocolate cake!

We have had another busy week in Room 5 this week.  We kicked off the week by a visit to the Museum on Monday.  We visited the Christchurch Earthquake exhibition as part of our inquiry topic.  To find out more check out our blog posts on our individual blogs.

  

On Tuesday we sadly said farewell to our student teacher Roxy.  She has been in our classroom one day a week for the last 6 weeks.  We were sad to see her go but we loved the cupcakes that she made for us.

In Art this week we had fun printing our leaf string prints.  Most of us think the results were worth our persistence last week.

In Maths we have been learning all about measurement.  On Thursday we had fun seeing how many cups of water it took to fill a variety of containers.  To celebrate the end of our measurement unit and to also help Sally celebrate her birthday we baked a yummy chocolate cake!

Pirates, printing, persisting and performing

We have kicked of Term 2 with a lot of fun! On Monday when we arrived at school we found Sally dressed in a Pirate costume. Our Maths had a bit of pirate theme. Captain Blook A.k.a. Sally had a treasure chest to bury but she needed to measure out the correct distances and then draw it on her map. On Tuesday we had fun drawing out the measurements for Captain Bloods new pirate ship on the front courts. 

 On Tuesday after lunch we discovered that we could not enter our classroom as it was under inspection to see if it was Earthquake safe. As a result we had to have our writing lesson outside in a tent with just a small amount of resources that Sally was able to gather up for us. It was challenging as there were not enough pens and paper for us all. Room 7 joined us for a bit and we quickly discovered that it was very challenging due to the noise, because we were uncomfortable and hot. 

In art this week we started our new topic of print making. On our cardboard block we each created a leaf design using string. We all found it challenging to begin with, but we were proud of our results after we persisted with it. 

Today a large number of us performed as part of the school choir singing the song Malala. We were filmed performing this and our video will be combined with others from around the world to make a music video for this song.