Christmas Carol Dance

Today we had a Christmas Challenge day where the kids had to create lots of different things including coming up with a dance or skit to a Christmas Carol. Here we have Kordell, Ajay and Nathaniel's dance.

Making Christmas Cupcakes with Holly

Including a gate crasher from Room 1!

Year 3 and 4 Netball

This term the Year 3 and 4's were learning to play netball. Two teams were picked to participate  in the tournament on Wednesday. They had a great day and won all their games!
Thanks to the coaches from the Papakura Netball Centre that came and gave us our training's on Fridays, we all had an awesome time and learnt lots of new skills.

Fairy Bread

Yesterday those of us that didn't get to go to netball made fairy bread and wrote about it. Check out the students individual blogs to see their writing!

Which will melt first - science experiment

Here is a science experiment we had a go at in class. Leave your predictions below in the comments!
We learnt that ice is a temporary change because it can be turned back into water.

Argumentation Board - Plastic Fantastic

Argumentation Board

Giant Jenga

This week we made Giant Jenga!
Thank you to our awesome caretaker/grounds keeper Mr Cornish for getting our wood and cutting and sanding it.
Here we are dying each block, drying them and then playing!

Science - Poached Eggs on Toast

For science on Monday we made poached eggs on toast.
We learnt:

• Cooking changes the colour, texture and taste of food.
• Some changes can't be undone.
• Some changes are permanent.

Te Tuhi Art Trip

Today we went to Te Tuhi art gallery. We painted a colour wheel and learnt how to use a paintbrush correctly and how to mix different colours.

Mana Atua - Eating Time

Some students from Room 2 showing us how it's done at eating time!
Our rules are:

1. When the bell goes we go and get our kai straight away.
2. We sit down during eating time.
3. We eat our own kai.
4. We put our hands up after the bell if we are ready to go.
5. We put our rubbish in the right bins on our way to class.

Waking up Yeast

We were learning about cause and effect, by feeding the yeast (sugar) we can wake up (activate) the yeast. The more we fed the yeast and gave it better conditions (warmth, water) the more gas it produced (expanding the bag) and the smellier it got!
Thanks Susan Heeps for coming in and sharing this learning experience with us!

Mana Atua - Kind words

Kia ora,
This week our mana atua focus is using kind words.
Notice the first photo of the apple is in excellent condition, we then then handed the apple around the class and each did something to hurt the apple.
We then all said "sorry" to the apple after hurting it and cut it open.
We noticed that even though we said sorry the apple was still hurt, bruised and crying.
Sometimes saying sorry isn't enough and by using our kind words and actions we can avoid hurting people (and apples).

Shakeout!

This week our school took part in the New Zealand Shakeout Challenge.
We were learning what to do in an earthquake.
All the kids have a booklet of home challenges as well so complete the challenges at home and bring the checklist back to Gretchen to get a prize!

Argumentation Board

Colour Run

On the last day of Term 3 we had our Colour Run.
This was an awesome afternoon and everyone had a great time!

Term 3 Kaitiaki Inquiry

Kaitiakitanga Evening

Tangaroa

A little investigation we are under taking to see what is safe for our oceans and what isn't. Some of the materials used are made from plastic or have plastic coatings which we know takes a long time to break down and kills many sea animals.
Lots of us predicted the paper would dissolve but we are still waiting for it to happen!

Sea Shells

We were learning to draw a scientific drawing from observation. This means drawing what we see not our ideas or symbols. Some times this takes lots of tries and requires constructive feedback to help us improve. Any feed back you have for us would be awesome.

Which one doesn't belong?

Leave a comment stating which shape you think doesn't belong and why.

Remember to structure your comment as a proper sentence.

"I think the shape the doesn't belong is...because..."

Te wiki o te Reo Maori - Ti Rakau

Today for te wiki o te Reo Maori we were learning to use Ti Rakau (long sticks). Come along to our assembly tomorrow at 12pm (Thursday 14th) to see us perform!

Which one doesn't belong?

Which shape do you think doesn't belong? Give your reasons why.

Maths - adding 10

Some of the boys from our Black Widow maths group practicing adding 10 to any number by playing a loopy. This got very exciting for some us!

Te Wiki o te Reo Maori - Day 1

Today we were learning to make a flower with flax.
The Maori words we learnt were: harakeke (flax), putiputi (flower), raranga (weaving).
Test us on our Te Reo at home to check we are remembering the language we are using at school!

Tongan Language Week

Two of our gorgeous girls that performed for us today for Tongan Language week. Thank you to all the people that performed you were amazing!

Foam - Science

This week for science Susan came in and shared an experience with us.
We were learning to draw scientific diagrams of different tools and explore the structure and function of them.
We then used 2 different types of tools to see how effective they were.

Fractions

When you try to take a nice photo of the kids and their learning and one of the boys pretends to strangle himself...

The Hulk group again! This time learning to order fractions, in the photo the kids have ordered the pizza fractions from smallest to largest. How did they do?

Fractions

Today the Hulk maths group were learning about fractions by matching written fractions to their corresponding picture. Leave us a comment and let us know how we did!

Banana Cake

Today we made 2 banana cakes!
We had some brown bananas from our class fruit bowl that I had been collecting so decided to use them to make a banana cake with the kids.
First I gave them a recipe, but the ingredients only had enough to make cake for 14 people, our class has 28 people so for maths we had to double all our ingredients including fractions!
Then to make the cake we had to measure all our ingredients, and time our cake while it was in the oven.
We had a great time making and EATING our cakes!

Our photos below are not in sequential order but we will be writing about this next week so check your child's blog for a post!

Science - Water Pump

Today we looked at water and how essential it is to survival, it's amazing how much water we use in New Zealand without considering it (we just turn on the tap/shower/hose).

We watched a video of a school girl in Africa and how different using water is for her. Here is the link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8STrs78yxO0

We had a go at making a water pump in class.

Thanks to Mrs Heeps who comes in and shares her science, engineering and technology knowledge with us!

Making a Cloud

Today for science we were looking at how clouds are made through condensation. We used a model to see how this works by putting hot water in a beaker to represent how the sun heats the earth and the seas, the cling wrap on top to represent the atmosphere and the ice on top for the temperature of space.
We learnt:

• How to measure in millilitres.
• Heat rises.
• Hot water vapour (steam) rises and collects at the top (condensation).
• This process is the same way a cloud is made!

Look out for our cloud writing next week.

Writing - Term 2 Holidays

Last week we were writing about our Term 2 holidays. At he top of our writing you can see our plan, we always use a plan for writing and make sure the key words we use in our plan are turned into sentences for the body of our writing. 

Below is Kody's writing!

Something Fun to Finish the Term (Reading 6/7/18)

This morning the kids were reading and presenting a play by recording it on their chromebooks. There isn't a lot of acting in this video but there are some very entertaining intermittent dance moves from the boys through out and some great reading!

We hope you enjoy and have a wonderful Term 2 holiday!

Science

We had Susan in again today to teach us about the characteristics/features of bubbles. One thing really interesting we learnt through our observations was that they have a mirror effect. Something fun and easy to try at home! You just need to mix dish washing liquid with a bit of water, the tool for blowing bubbles can easily be made by bending some soft wire.

It's a bit tricky to see our bubbles in the photo's but they are there!

Robots

Last week on Friday Nane and Baruk from Maker-y came in to teach us some robot coding! We were learning how to code the robot to change the colour of the lights. We had a great time and are looking forward to the second session this week!

Reading and Arguing

This week we read the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears and then read the following articles:
https://www.radionz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/353236/hungry-hola-victims-in-vanuatu-resort-to-stealing-food
https://kiwikidsnews.co.nz/addiction-to-chocolate-lands-man-in-jail/
https://citizen.co.za/news/south-africa/1933579/food-handlers-in-court-for-stealing-school-groceries/
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/stealing-food-if-you-are-poor-and-hungry-is-not-a-crime-italian-court-rules-a7011631.html
Then we wrote an argument about the following question:
Should Goldilocks have entered the house, eaten the food, and broken their things?
Here are our responses (recorded on a padlet)

Matariki

The first slides include a few questions the students researched about Matariki, the following slides show the students Matariki writing

WALT: retell the Maori legend of Matariki (writing).

Maths - Symmetry

WALT: create a pattern with a reflective line of symmetry.

Below is a photo of some of the students in Room 2 and their symmetrical design.

All About Us!

Last week in Cybersmart we were creating slideshows about ourselves including information that is safe to go on the internet. We also learnt how to take a photo and insert it into google slides as well as creating word art and changing our backgrounds. Check out some of our neat mahi below! 

Smart Footprint

Last Friday in Cybersmart we were learning about digital footprints and what is safe for us to publish on the internet. Below you can see on the left are the things that are safe for the internet, on the right are things we need to keep private.

Mariah:

Nathaniel:

Science - Pepper + Water + Detergent

WALT: Compare and contrast Pepper + Water vs Pepper + Water + Detergent

Above is some of the observational drawings, notes, and labels by Kody, Orlando and Nathaniel! Some of the class thought this was a really easy experience that could be shared at home.

Here is a YouTube clip of the experience:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eR-ZV-_fQok&t=18s

Spaghetti Tower

This weeks post is a lesson the kids did with Holly, similar to our Easter Egg Tower experience. The students were learning how to make the tallest and sturdiest structure using dry spaghetti and playdough.

Writing

We watched a short clip called Spy Fox we then wrote a plan for an episode 2 and used this plan for our writing. 

https://www.literacyshed.com/spyfox.html 

Mariah:

Lina:

Malia:

Art

The last few weeks we have been working on our paintings. First we looked at some pictures of water then painted our own backgrounds mixing our own paints to create a mix of dark and light blues and greens. We then researched the fish we wanted to put on our backgrounds and sketched these onto our backgrounds before painting them in colour. Finally we used oil pastels to add details.

Chromebook Comic

Kordell

Isaac

Karnie

On Friday we were learnt how to create a comic strip using google drawings. 

Science - Easter Egg Tower 29/3/18

Last week we looked at how some different bridges were structured,  we then designed our own tower to hold an easter egg. We learned that the foundation of the structure needed to be strong to hold the egg, we also learned that if we handled the egg too long it would go soft and break. The slides show the designs Room 2 came up with.

Chromebook Kawa of Care

Here is the slide show Azryiel has designed to share what she learned about the Chromebook Kawa of Care.

Science Experience

This week Mrs Heeps came into our class and shared a science experience with us. Ice and air, ice and water, and ice and oil.

Adding Using Place Value

Some of Kyahn's amazing math's, adding using place value for numbers up to 1000!

Auckland Museum Trip 28/2/18

Math

WALT: Reading and writing numbers

Some of the students from Room 2 doing some amazing independent mahi in math.

Science - Straw Kazoo

This week for science we experimented with pitch and sound by making our own straw kazoos.

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