Goodbye 2009

We have reached the end of school for 2009, and we're going on holiday! We have had a fantastic year this year, filled with exciting things, but we're all looking forward to Christmas and having a break. We'll be back at school at the start of February next year, although we'll all be in different classes. We'll be big Year 4's! Some of us are going to be in Sandie and Kerry's class and some of us will be with Mrs Fale. Mrs Hamilton is moving too, but she's just changing classrooms.

Our class is packed up and we are going to enjoy our holidays! See you next year!

Highlights of 2009

Room 10 has had a wonderful year in 2009. We did lots of wonderful things like going on trips, making circuits, writing sense poems, sports events, algebra fun day, art, keeping ourselves safe, writing narratives, learning about Antarctica, reading journals and lots more. We have really liked having a blog so that we can share our learning with people around the world. Mrs Hamilton's highlight of the year is watching her fantastic class become independent learners who have lots of fun! Watch the movie to find out some more highlights!

Reflecting on our Learning

Since school is almost over for the year, we have been talking about all the interesting things we have learned this year. We wrote all about what we have learned in reading, writing, maths and other areas, and then picked one thing to tell YOU about! Watch the clip to find out what we learned...

Fiafia Day

On Friday it was Fiafia Day. Our parents came to our classroom at 9am to see our amazing artwork and all the great learning we have done this year. Then we did a performance for them. We performed the song, Uira, which is about the Maori god of thunder and lightning. We looked pretty cool! If you'd like to hear the song, play the slideshow and you'll hear it!

The Edublog Awards

This week, we were lucky enough to be nominated by Room 9 Nelson Central as the Class Blog of the year. On Wednesday, we heard that we had made the finals! This is a global award and there are many schools competing around the world. We are very grateful to Room 9 Nelson Central for nominating us and also very proud of ourselves for all the work we have done this year. We have had lots of fun!

If you're visiting here from edublog, please check out all the exciting things we have done over the year! If you'd like to vote for us, click here, scroll down to find our name, and then press vote!

Collaborative Writing: Narrative

This week we have been doing some really cool writing! We were asked by Room 9 at Nelson Central if we would like to write narratives with them.

We have been using google docs to do this. A group of two people from our class and two from theirs write the story together, at the same time, over the internet! It is very cool.

If you'd like to check out some of our stories, please visit their blog by clicking on the link, since their teacher has kindly put them up!

It has been lots of fun for us, learning to write in a different style, and getting to work together with kids we've never met! Thanks for including us, Room 9!

Narrative Writing: Robots

We have been practising narrative writing this week because we are doing an exciting collaborative project with another school, so we wrote our own narratives all about our robots. They are masterpieces!! Many of them are pages and pages long, so here are the beginnings of just a few to give you a peek into the fantastic robot narratives!

Today was Robot Day and I think it was the best day ever! Something weird happened when I finished making my robot though. It suddenly came alive! When I moved, the robot moved the same way as me. Then I realised that I was the controller, but I didn't know how I controlled it...

By Anisah

Once upon a time there was a robot called Chucky who lived in the trees. I lived in my house underneath him. He was very cool but I was scared of him. I wasn't sure if he was a friendly robot. One day, he came down from his tree and started walking towards me. I was so scared that I couldn't move. All I could do was...

By Ethan

A long time ago there was a robot and a girl. The robot's name was Aly and the girl's name was Phoenix. Aly wanted to save the world but there was a problem - he had to break into the Evil Diamond Palace because the blue powerful diamond that would help him beat the bad guys was there...

By Phoenix

Robot Construction

Yesterday was robot making day! We spent all morning gluing, tying, nailing, taping and fitting together our recycled plastic and metal objects to make or robots. We had some fantastic parent helpers who made sure we were safe using the hot glue guns, sawed and drilled for us, and helped our robots to come to life!

Next we got to choose a colour to spray paint our robots, and we taped over any parts that we didn't want sprayed. Our lovely parents then spray painted them for us and we left them in the sun to dry.

Finally, we added the finishing touches, unwrapping any covered bits, adding extra decoration and fixing up any bits that had fallen off. We are very proud of our finished robots and think they look amazing.

Thanks to Toni, Donald, Julie and Peter for all their help!

Photos by Jennifer.

Maui and the Sun: Retelling Maori Stories

This week, Group A have been reading all about the trickster Maui and how he slowed the sun. They then retold the story in eight points and made those points into a play. They practiced and practiced their play until it was perfect. Then they performed it for the class and for you! We hope you enjoy watching.

Robot Preparation: Sketches

We are going to be constructing our robots this week, so in preparation we have sketched the plan of what we hope they look like. We then created a charcoal drawing of our robots, complete with their names. We also made a crayon and indian ink creation of our design. Now we know exactly what we want them to look like, we're ready to begin building!

EOTC at Grey Lynn Park

Continuing our EOTC experience, today we went to Grey Lynn Park to do a scavenger hunt. We had to count and name the sculptures there, count the number of rubbish bins and answer lots of other hard questions! We also had to find objects that went with different adjectives, like prickly, tall and heavy. Then we played Castle as a final activity. Phoenix took heaps of photos of us while we were doing all these cool things. Check out her awesome photography!

Our Trip to MOTAT

On Wednesday, the Kauri Team went to MOTAT. MOTAT is short for Musuem Of Transport And Technology. We went there to learn more about electricity. We learned about electrons, conductors and insulators from a man called Frazer. We did an electricity trail around MOTAT and saw heaps of cool things like the Victorian Village, old forms of transport, the boiler room and lots more!

We also went to the Challenge Zone, where there were lots of fun activities to do like building a small bridge, the kaleidoscope room, looking in a mirror that made you look short and fat, and there was even a mirror where you could shake your own hand!

Another area was Sports Alive! There was a rowing race, a running track where you could test your own speed, there were places to shoot balls into hoops, there was a rugby ball you could kick into a net to see how fast your kick was, and a balancing machine that sees how long you can balance for.

We had a really fun time at MOTAT and we hope that we can go there again soon!

Kid Pix Animation: Building Robots

Our robot construction project is underway! Today we divided up all of the junk we have collected. We sketched the design of our robots, and soon we will begin to assemble them. Jennifer made a slideshow which shows how she might build her robot, piece by piece. Check out her awesome work!

Science Concepts: Gravity

This Kid Pix slideshow by Robbie shows gravity in action. His leaf slowly falls from the tree and hits the ground. Watch the movement happen!

Science concepts: Magnetism

We're learning all about electricity, movement, sound, light and magnetism this term. We learned that magnets have a north and south pole, and that unlike poles attract each other while like poles repel each other. Celia chose to show this by making an animation in Kid Pix. Check it out!

Martin Horspool's Robots

Since we're going to be building robots soon, we had a fantastic guest speaker in to tell us all about how he does it. Martin Horspool builds amazing robots which he sells to people. He builds his robots out of things that have been thrown away. He showed us some of his cool robots and then explained how we could join different parts together to make our robots. He also answered heaps of questions for us so we're feeling almost ready to begin constructing our own robots!

Calendar Scraffitos

These are the last scraffitos that Room 10 will be doing this year. We made these for the calendars that our parents can buy for next year. So parents, see if you can pick which one will be coming to your house sometime soon! As for Room 10, we're moving on and will be looking at construction this term, specifically the construction of robots. Look out for those later in Term 4!

Myths and Legends: Poems about the Trojan War

For reading, Group D has been learning all about the Trojan War. They have written some poems to explain what happened. See if you can tell what kinds of poems they are!

Long, long ago there was a war

and you’ll never believe what people saw.

A thousand ships were sent,

hundreds of peoples souls were lent.

The Greeks built a wooden horse,

the Trojans took it in of course.

Greek soldiers came out of the horse at night,

all around there was fire and fright.

The Greeks won and they left the place

and the Trojans left, without a trace.

By Maia.

Troy

blood thirsty, scary

fighting, killing, trying

it was really horrible

War

By Stella

Wooden horse

Open war

Optional

Disaster caused by the gods

Ended with many deaths

Not fair

Horse was a trick

Of the Greeks to get inside Troy

Really strong armies

Ships sailed from Greece

Enough ships to conquer Troy

By Jordan

Troy

Swords, shields

fighting, chopping, battling

Many people died there

City of flame

By Briar

Harvesting Radishes and Lettuce from our Garden

Earlier last term, the Kauri team planted vegetables in our school garden. We have been watering them and looking after them since then. We got back to school this term to find that all our vegetables had grown! The radishes and the lettuce were ready to eat so today we harvested them. We brought bread and some other fillings from home and together with the lettuce and radishes, made ourselves yummy sandwiches! They tasted delicious and we had lots of fun.

Hercules and the Lion by Group D

Last week Group D read a book all about Hercules, a Greek mythical hero, and how he killed the Hydra, a nine headed monster. They also read a list of the other tasks Hercules had to do. Then they had to expand one of Hercules' tasks using their imaginations. Stella chose to write about Hercules and the Lion. The book said, "Hercules had to kill a lion with very tough skin. Then he put on it's skin to keep him safe." Stella expanded the story and then her group created a play based on her story. Watch the clip to see Group D performing Stella's rendition of Hercules and the Lion.

Retelling the story: Why the Crocodile Has No Tongue

Group A have been hard at work already this term. This week, they have read the Junior Journal story, Why the Crocodile Has No Tongue. Then they retold the story in six points and then acted out the story. Watch the clip to find out why the crocodile has no tongue, and read the original story in Junior Journal 24!

Term 4 Learning Goals

We are back for our fourth and final term this year! We're very excited as we will be learning all about mythical and scientific heroes, statistics and writing to inquire. As well as that, we will be improving our animation skills using Kid Pix and Keynote. We have also been thinking about other ways in which we could improve. We all set one goal in an area we think we could strengthen. Watch the clip to find out our goals!

Term 4: Looking Ahead

We're already thinking about Term 4 in Room 10. Here are some of the things that we are looking forward to next term!

Term Three: PMI (Plus, Minus, Interesting)

.We've almost reached the end of Term Three, so Room 10 has been reflecting on everything we have done this term. We did a PMI using Post It Notes, which we stuck on the windows, to help us reflect on all of our learning this term and how we felt about it. Then some of us recorded our thoughts using Photo Booth. Watch the clip above to find out about our Pluses, Minuses and Interestings!

Trip to Waitakere Gymnasium

Today Room 10 and the Kauri Team went to the Waitakere Gymnasium. We got to use heaps of cool equipment and practice lots of fantastic moves at different stations. Then we did a sculpture walk in Olympic Park, which was hard work since it was raining! We had a great time today and hope we get to go back again in the future!

All about Reports

This week for reading, Group B read an report by Mitchell Rattenbury about his Grandma, Dot Meharry. It told them all about Nana Dot, her likes and dislikes and her hobbies. Then the members of Group B were asked to write reports just like Mitchell, but about another person in their group. Here are Jennifer and Xavier to tell you all about each other!

(Reading from Junior Journal 33, My Grandma is an Author.)

Kid Pix Diagrams

Because we are learning all about animals and report writing, we drew our animal and labelled it's features in Kid Pix. Here are some of our finished diagrams!

Friday Reflections

On Thursday, Room 10 went to the Grey Lynn Library. We walked for 10 minutes to get there. When we got there I was so excited to use my library card. There were two ladies there who helped us. I got out a rhino book for my report. We stayed there for 30 minutes and looked around the library. Then we walked back to school. I felt happy on the way back because I had a good time. I liked going to the library because it was so fun and I learned lots about animals.By Ethan.

Nearly every day this week we did art. For art we have been learning to do scraffito. We also did drawing and painting. My group painted a lion. The colours we chose for our

scraffito background were pink, purple and green. It looks really good. The part I liked most about it was the drawing and painting. I only sort of liked scratching because the black paint got under my fingernails. I really really liked painting because our lion was so big that we could choose lots of colours. Art was great this week.

By Amy.

The thing I enjoyed most this week was PE because I liked playing tapawai which is a traditional Maori ball game. We won 2:1 after we had split our class in two and challenged each other. I scored one point and the other point we got because the defender knocked over the cone. My favourite position is shooter because I am good at it. In total I've scored six points but two didn't count. I felt really happy playing tapawai.

By Matt.

Visual Art: Scraffito Panels

Here are Room 10's finished scraffito panels, which took us about 5 weeks to finish. They were a lot of work! We talked about hot and cold colours, creating a contrast, shape, patterns and how to use space effectively when creating our masterpieces. Each panel was designed and created by one person who had to work together with their group of three to make their panels look like part of a whole. Have a look at the results!

Algebra Fun Day

Today in Room 10 we had Algebra Fun Day! This meant that we got to do algebra all day. We learned all about patterns, how to find the next number in a pattern and work out what the rule is, and also how to use "greater than, less than and equal to" signs. We learned lots and had heaps of fun. Check out our pictures to see our cool day!

Group A: Facts about Bees

Here are the girls in Group A to tell you some interesting facts they learned this week in reading! Phoenix filmed this movie using the flipvideo. Listen carefully and you can find out all about how bees talk to each other.

Reading Group C: Retelling the Frog Adventure Story

Here are the other three members of Group C (Robbie, Anton and Max) to retell their story of the week. This is the same story that Amy and Celia used to find frog facts! We hope you enjoy the retelling just as much!

Xtranormal Movie: Reading Group C on Frogs

This week, Group C read a School Journal story about frogs. Here are Amy and Celia to tell you some facts they learned when they were reading.

Zoo Trip

On Thursday, the Kauri Team went to the zoo to gather information for our report writing. We walked there from school through Western Springs. At the zoo, there were lots of animals for us to choose from for our reports. We also visited the Education Centre where Jen talked to us about Orangutans and Kiwi and how their habitats are changed. Then we had the long walk home, which really tired us out! It was an exciting day.

Protect the Kakapo!

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Grandparents Day and Book Week

This week was Book Week at Grey Lynn School. We celebrated by reading exciting books and having different teachers read to different classes every day. Today was also Grandparents Day, so our grandparents came to see our class, and we showed them around the school, especially the library, where they were allowed to donate a book if they wanted! They also looked at our art (the scruffito drawings) as part of the Art Exhibition.

The day finished with a character parade. The Kauri Team dressed up as animals from any book we had read which tied in with our Animal Heroes theme. Costume winners were chosen based on originality, connection to a book, and whether they had used stuff at home to make the costume. Watch the clip and see our winners, as well as the rest of our fun day!

Term 3 Art Project - Scruffito

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For art this term, we are learning all about painting. We are also experimenting with a technique called Scruffito, where you colour in a piece of paper with crayons or pastels, paint over it with black paint, and then scratch patterns into it. We also added painted animals, since animal heroes are our topic this term. Here are the finished results of Room 10's first try at scruffito!

Classifying Animals: Birds

Here are Matt and Sasha to tell exactly why birds are part of the bird family. This helped us to understand how birds like the kiwi and penguins could be birds even though they can't fly! We hope you like it!

Report Writing: Sharks are fish!

For report writing this week, have been focusing on making sure all the words we use are factual and that we don't use words like 'you,' 'I', and 'we.' We are also learning to have an introduction at the start, bundles of facts in the middle and a conclusion at the end. Maia has written a fantastic report about sharks, and together with Jaime they made a movie using the report as a script. See if you can hear the three parts of a report in the movie!

Classifying Animals: Amphibians

We have been learning how to classify animals in Room 10. Here is a movie by Max and Jennifer about what the characteristics of an amphibian. Take a look!

Kelly Sports

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This term we are practicing Report Writing. Here is our report, which we wrote as a class, on our Friday experience at Kelly Sports.

Kelly Sports is a sports programme that happens after school on a Tuesday on our school field or courts. Once a term a person from Kelly Sports shows their activities to Grey Lynn School kids. Jeremy works at Kelly Sports.

Jeremy teaches a game called "Fishing." One person has a net and the other has two tennis balls. The first person throws the tennis balls and the other person has to try and catch them in the net.

Another game is called "Chopsticks Catching." The game requires one person. The person throws the ball and then catches it with two or three fingers like chopsticks. This game requires lots of skill.

A third game involved passing a rugby ball over one persons head, and then under the other persons head, before doing the "washing machine" where the two people pass their ball around their waists while standing back to back.

Kelly Sports teaches skills like passing a ball, catching, throwing and skill for playing games like ripper rugby, hockey and soccer.

100 Days of Learning Celebration

Today we celebrated 100 days of learning at school this year. We did lots of fun activities to do with 100: for fitness we did 100 star jumps, we worked out facts like which day was 100 days after our birthday for maths, and we drew what we thought we'd look like when we're 100 and wrote a description for writing. We're also trying to fill our 100 minutes of reading thermometer this week!

Another fun thing today was making fairy bread using 100s and 1000s. We also dressed up using the number 100, and the Kauri Team tried to bring more than 100 cans to give to Auckland City Mission. We definitely succeeded!

We had a school assembly on the court and presented some items to our parents to celebrate 100 days of learning. The Kauri Team sung a fantastic song and did our Kauri Team cheer, which was really loud. All our parents were really impressed with us. It's been a great day!

Term Three: Looking Forward

We're back! Today was Room 10's first day back at school for Term 3. We have had some exciting holidays, but we're all glad to be back at school and ready to learn about new, interesting things. Our topic this term is Animal Heroes, and as part of it we will be going to the zoo. We will be learning how to write informational reports for writing, and we're working hard on multiplication and division for maths! Painting will be our focus for art, and gymnastics is part of our P.E for the term. It's going to be a busy term full of learning and fun!

Watch the movie to see some of the things we are most looking forward to.

Term Two PMI

It is the last day of Term Two today! We are halfway through the year! Today we did a PMI (Plus, Minus and Interesting) about this term to find out how we felt it had gone and what we could improve on. Here's Room 10 to talk to you about their P's, M's and I's!

Keeping Ourselves Safe: Talking and Listening

Here are the latest brainstorms Room 10 have made during Keeping Ourselves Safe. We talked about what we liked about speaking and listening, practiced speaking to each other and listening to our friend's answered, and then brainstormed what we enjoyed about doing this with our friends. Here are the results!

Poetry: Antarctic Haiku

We have been busy writing Antarctic haiku to show what we have learned this term about Antarctica. Here are Briar, Jordan, Sasha and Matt giving you some important information about Antarctica. Watch and enjoy!

Keeping Ourselves Safe: Hazards

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Keeping Ourselves Safe: Real and Imaginary Fears

Here are our next two brainstorms which we have discussed as part of keeping ourselves safe.

We looked at things we can be afraid of, how to deal with them, and who we can ask for help.

Keeping Ourselves Safe: Feeling Safe

The Kauri Team has just started the Keeping Ourselves Safe Programme this week. We will be working through the programme during the next two weeks, learning all about keeping ourselves safe and knowing what to do in different situations. Today we started by learning about safety, and what that means. Here are three of our brainstorms on feeling safe:

Kid Pix Animation

Here is Jeru's whale for you to see!  It even winks it's eye at you!  Hope you enjoy watching, keep an eye out for our next animation.

Kid Pix Animation: Penguin Egg

Our newest skill that we have been practicing is creating animations using Kid Pix.  First, we draw a picture and save it.  Then, we move some of the bits around and save it again.  We continue doing this over and over until we have a good number of pictures to create a slideshow.  When we put them all together, it looks like our picture is moving!  Here is Max's first attempt, showing a baby penguin hatching.

Letter Writing: Do I need to wear warm clothes in Antarctica?

Room 10 are busy extending their skills of persuasion, this time through letter writing.  They were told to write a letter persuading someone that they needed to wear warm clothes if they went to Antarctica.  Here are some amazing letters for you to read!  I'm sure you'll be persuaded too...

Dear Mum,

You should wear warm clothes to Antarctica!  Here are the reasons why:  Firstly, your hands will freeze without gloves and you will get frostbite.  Secondly, Antarctica is the coldest place in the world so you need to stay warm.  Thirdly, if you don't wear any goggles in Antarctica, you might go blind from snow

 blindness.  The thing you need to be most careful of, though, is BLIZZARDS!  The blizzards are strong, they're like the wind blowing a building over.  I hope you will wear warm clothes to Antarctica now you know why you should! 

From Jennifer.  

Dear Dad,

You HAVE to wear warm clothes in Antarctica because if you don't you might freeze!  Another reason is you might die.  Oh how would that feel?  You also need to wear goggles in case you go blind without them!   I'm telling you that you should wear warm clothes because if you don't your skin might crack from the dry weather.  Oh no!  Another reason is that it's windy and you might be blown into icy water and without warm clothes you would die!  

From Robbie.

Dear Jane,

You absolutely positively need to wear warm clothes to Antarctica!  This is because in Antarctica there are blizzards and you might die because of the temperature if you aren't warm enough.  I think this is a very good reason to wear as many clothes as you can!

From Anisah.

Dear Mum,

You definitely need to wear warm clothes if you visit Antarctica.  If you go there and you don't have warm clothes you would get cold and die.  Firstly, wear goggles to keep your eyes covered so you don't go blind.  Secondly, wear gloves, boots and a hat so that you are warm all over.  This is also so that everything is covered and you won't have any skin that can be touched by the dry weather and crack open!  Finally, make sure you are warm all over by wearing lots and lots of clothes.  Then you will have a fun time in Antarctica.

From Salote.

Group D: Thinking Critically When Reading

This week, Reading Group D read a chapter book called Maddy in the Middle.  They are focusing both on retelling a story and thinking critically when they read a story.  This week, their task was to come up with a way to explain what might have happened after the book had finished.  Watch what they came up with!

Cross Country!

Today our whole school went to Grey Lynn Park to do the Cross Country.  We're busy writing full recounts of the day, but so that you get to know what happened faster, here are some photos of the Kauri Team at Cross Country.  Check out our fantastic running!

Persuasive Writing: Should there be snow in Antarctica?

Should there be snow in Antarctica?  Here are some Room 10 opinions...

I believe there shouldn't be snow in Antarctica because small animals like penguins might get blown over.  Also it would be very difficult to have a race there.  Another reason is that if there is too much snow and you have just got out of a plane, you might get frozen.  That is why there shouldn't be snow there. 

By Sasha

I think there should be snow in Antarctica because all the animals would die if there wasn't snow.  The race to be first to the South Pole would also not be much of a challenge without snow.  Another reason is that snow can be very interesting and if they tried to explore the

 Arctic instead they might get eaten by a polar bear, but there are

 no polar bears in Antarctica. Lastly, snow is really fun.  There should definitely be snow in Antarctica.

By Matt.

I believe snow shouldn't be in Antarctica because if you are racing someone to the South Pole it would be better and much easier.  Another reason is that it would be much warmer and you wouldn't be so very very cold.  I also think that snow shouldn't be in Antarctica because then there wouldn't be any blizzards and people wouldn't get lost.  Antarctica would be safer without snow.

By Robbie

There should be snow in Antarctica because all the wild life like penguins and seals would die if it wasn't there.   Also birds and other animals might not exist any more because they would be extinct.  That would be very sad so we should keep the snow in Antarctica.

By Olivia.

After reading our opinions, which way were you persuaded?  Leave a comment and let us know!

Persuasive Writing: Antarctica - Scott vs Amundsen

Who should have won the race to the South Pole -  Robert Falcon Scott or Roald Amundsen? Let Jordan, Jennifer and Xavier persuade you by sharing THEIR opinions on the subject!

Reading Group D Retells "Hot Stuff" by Margaret Clark

When Harry got home from school he saw a big van in his drive way.  It was called Hot Stuff and it was for selling doughnuts.

One day Dad took Hot Stuff for a drive and backed into a pole.  It made a big dent but the van still worked so that was good.

They decided to take the van to the beach, but when they got to the beach Hot Stuff blew up!

Doughnuts flew everywhere around the beach, landing on everyone and all over the ground.

Dad made a deal with a business man who liked the doughnuts so that they could get new vans and sell the doughnuts all over the place!

However, one day, Harry came home and found a new van in his driveway.  It was a noodle van...

Reading Group B Retell "The Sheep and the Goat"

Here is the re-enactment of the classic fable, The Sheep and The Goat, as told by Reading Group B.  They were focusing on retelling their fictional story in the way that they thought would be the easiest for others to understand.  How do you think they did?

Group A's Fact Finding Mission: Ice Cream

Group A have again been learning how to tell the difference between non fiction and fiction.  They discussed how non fiction writing often has lots of facts to find when you are reading.  To prove that their book, Ice Cream, was a non fiction book, they went on a fact finding mission.  Here are their top 5 facts about the ice cream making process for you to enjoy!

"How to write a review" by Reading Group C

Are you struggling to write a review of an event?  Here are Group C to give you the facts:  how to write a rave review!  They learned this from their book of the week, Rave Reviews, which gives lots of different types of reviews about funny fictional events.  Enjoy!

Reading: Crab Attack! by Group D

Group D thought long and hard about how they would like to retell their story this week, and decided they'd like to act it out.  However, they didn't have enough people to act in their story!  They solved this problem by rewriting the story so that the main points were still shown, but the story was adapted for a five person play.  Check out the result!  

Antarctica: What we know so far

We were meant to have a school assembly today, but because it was raining, we couldn't go to hall that we usually use since it's a bit of a walk up the road.  However, this means that our lucky blog audience get to be the first viewers of the movie we made especially for assembly!  It shows what the Year 3's have been doing lately.  Room 10 explains what they learned at Kelly Tarlton's, and then Room 9 shows some amazing Umu Poems!  Feel free to leave us a comment about what YOU know about Antarctica, and if you want to leave a comment for Room 9, they have JUST started a blog too!  Click here to check them (and our movie) out and say hello!

Reading: Retelling the story

Reading Group A read "Rosie and the Big Bad Bear" today and they decided to retell the story for you!  They then had to decide whether the story was fiction or non-fiction, and how they can tell. What do you think?

Our favourite foods

Room 10's persuasive writing continues.  This time, we decided to try to persuade our audience about our favourite food.  Here are some kids in Room 10 trying to make YOU like their food too!

Recount Writing: Our Kelly Tarlton's Adventure!

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On Thursday we went to Kelly Tarlton's with the Kauri Team.  First we hopped on the bus.  To pass the time, I played "eye spy" with Amy.  Finally we got there.  Then we had our morning tea in the car park.  I had banana cake, a sandwich and raisins.  A few minutes later we were following the penguin feet and going into Kelly Tarlton's.

One of my favourite parts was the Interactive Room.  I dressed up as a penguin in a penguin suit and Lisa (Amy's mum) took a photo of me and Amy in our penguin suits.  Then we had a race!

After that, we went into the shark tank.  There were fish, stingrays, sharks, eels, big and small fish.  Fish and stingrays were gliding across the tank like clouds floating across the sky.  I saw a fish as spotty as a cheetah.  

Soon it was time to go back to school and have lunch.  It was a really fun day.

By Celia.

On Thursday, Rooms 10, 11, 9 and 8 went to Kelly Tarlton's.  We went by bus.  When we got there, we had morning tea outside Kelly Tarlton's and then we went to the Education Room and watched a movie about Antarctica.  We learnt that Antarctica is very dry so you have to wear lots of moisturizer, and that it is the coldest place in the whole world.  Also, if you don't wear goggles there, you could get snow blindness.  

Then we went to the snow cat ride.  On the ride we saw penguins and a big fake whale came out of the water with a seal in it's big mouth.  We also saw still flags and fake people.  It was very cool and fun. 

After that we went to the Stingray Bay.  I saw a turtle swimming and under the turtle was a big stingray.  Soon we had to leave Kelly Tarlton's and go back to school.  It was a good day.

By Phoenix.

On Thursday was the Kauri Team's trip to Kelly Tarltons.  I was in Jordan's group.  I was next to Jordan and we chatted lots and lots.  When we got to Kelly Tarlton's, we had morning tea.  I had tiny teddies and tangles.  It was cold eating outside.

One place we went to inside Kelly Tarlton's was the stingray tank.  We saw the stingrays getting fed.  There were heaps of fish.  I saw a turtle too.  

Next we went to the sharks.  I saw two tiger sharks.  There were two divers with the sharks.  I also saw a turtle.  It looked like it was fake.

I felt happy at Kelly Tarlton's.  I had a fun day.

By Max

Persuasive Writing: Dogs are better than cats

This term in Room 10, we are focusing on writing to persuade our audience.  Today, we looked at ways of convincing our audience to agree with our statement, whether we believed the statement or not.  Our statement was: dogs are better than cats!  Here are some persuasive arguments we came up with:

Dogs are better than cats because you can take them for a walk.  They also do what you say.  For example, when I say to a dog, "sit," it sits.  As well as that, dogs don't vomit as much as cats.  Another reason is that dogs can play fetch with you and cats can't.  Dogs don't scratch chairs and furniture either.  You also don't have to feed dogs as much as cats.  I have to feed my cats every morning and night but you can just feed dogs once a day.  Finally, dogs can swim with you and cats don't know how to.

By Amy.

Dogs are better than cats because they do what you say.  For example, when I said, "sit" to Maia, she sad.  They also sleep in your towel.  At a party I was at, the puppy slept in my towel.  Another reason is that they are sometimes nice and calm like when Maia lay down.  As well as that, they can scare away the burglars.  Also, cats don't lick or kiss you but dogs do.  Dogs can also save lives.  I like dogs because they are cuter than cats.

By Maia.

Dogs are better than cats because they will fetch a ball if you show them how, but cats won't.  Cats mostly scratch you more than dogs do, and dogs play with you but cats don't as much because they just lie there.  Dogs do what you say like when you tell them to sit, but cats don't do that.  They don't listen to you.  Dogs do lots of funny stuff too but cats don't really.

By Cameron.

Dogs are better than cats because cats scratch your furniture and sometimes bite your hands.  Dogs can play with you and play fetch and cat's cant.  Cats are still cute but dogs are cuter than cats.  Cats are fluffy, but dogs are much fluffier.  Dogs do what you say like rolling over and sitting, but cats do what they want to.  Dogs are also faster than cats and taller too.  Cats are much smaller and so they can't play with you as well.

By Olivia.

Have a look at the great kid pix pictures of dogs and cats drawn by Jeru, Phoenix, Max and Stella.  Aren't they great artists?

Recount writing: Our holidays

In the holidays my family went to Taupo.  It was a long drive to Taupo.  When we got there we had to get our stuff out of the car.  After that we got into our togs and went to the lake.  It was freezing cold.  We went for a swim and then went back to the house to have lunch.  For lunch I had a bacon sandwich.  While I was eating it, I made my bionical lego toy.  

The next morning my sister and I were getting ready to go to the pools, but first my dad had to see if they were open and they were!  Then we did go to the pools.  All of the pools were heated!  

The next day we got ready to head home.  It took 4 hours to get there.  Once we got home I had to unpack.  I had so much fun on holiday! 

By Robbie.

In the holidays my family and I went to my grandparent's beach house.  We played on the beach and had a sand ball fight.  Dad was on my team and Julius was by himself.  Me and my dad won the sand fight.

The next day it was Easter! I was soooo excited.  I raced to my dad's room and asked for the first clue for our hunt and we started to look.  The first clue was "Harry Potter lives here." When we found the eggs we went upstairs. "We've found them," we said. Finally we got to the last one and the clue was, "it is red and you work with them ever day." It was a hard clue, but at last I found the answer.  It was the violins!  The hunt was finally finished and I had lots of fun. I'll never forget that Easter.

By Sasha.

Hero Cinquains

Cinquains are another type of poetry we have been practicing in Room 10.  The first line is meant to be the title, which is a noun.  The second line should have two adjectives.  The third line has three -ing words, which are verbs.  The fourth line should be a four word sentence.  The fifth and final line should have another noun which is similar to the title.  Here are some cinquains we wrote about our heroes:

Mum

short, english

jumping, running, swimming

mum's a great swimmer

Annabel

By Celia.

Adrian

loving, smart

playing, walking, sleeping

he is very nice

Dad

By Robbie.

Mummy

nice, helpful

caring, loving, working

I love my mummy

Hill

By Olivia.

Dad

big, tall

fixing, building, buying

he can make computers

Martin

By Max.

Dad

nice, kind

caring, loving, helping

he is my hero

family

By Willie.

Brother

nice, kind

helping, running, loving

he is the best

Julius

By Sasha.

Kid pix hero pictures to come!

Hero Haiku

This term we have been learning about poetry.  One style of poetry we have learned about are haikus.  To write a successful haiku, there needs to be 5 syllables in the first line, 7 in the second line and 5 again in the last line.  Here are some examples we wrote about our heroes:

My dad is the best.

My dad is nice and loves me.

I love my dad lots.

By Anton

Savannah is cool.

She helps me when I'm hurt.

I love my sister.

By Phoenix

Mum cares about me.

She helps me when I need help.

She puts me to bed.

By Amy.

I love my mummy.

My mum is helpful and kind.

My mum cooks me food.

By Xavier.

My dad is called Tim.

I love my dad more than food.

My dad loves me too!

By Briar.

Kid pix pictures of our heroes to come!

Kid Pix Super Heroes

In Room 10, we have been discussing heroes and villains this term. As part of our visual poster, we have drawn ourselves as super heroes and given ourselves a super hero name. Here are the results so far!


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Aloha Night

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It is our Aloha festival tonight at Grey Lynn School! Our school is a hive of activity. The stage is being built, the field is being readied for stalls, and right outside our classroom window, the umu is being prepared. Here are some of our stories about the umu preparation and our predictions for Aloha night!

We have just watched the pig get chopped up for the umu with a knife and an axe! I smelt smoke and saw smoke. It looked cool like a house on fire, but it made me feel sick because the smoke got into my mouth. I heard an axe hitting the bone of the pig as it was being chopped. I tasted smoke in my mouth. I feel happy and excited about Aloha tonight!
By Jordan

When we watched the pig get chopped up, I smelt smoke like when you roast marshmallows. I heard the banging of the axe and coughing because of the smoke. It felt like my mouth was going to water. I feel excited about Aloha.
By Matt

Today outside our class people were making an umu and they were cutting up a pig. Tonight it is Aloha. I think they are going to sell the pig at Aloha. I saw lots of smoke from the umu. I saw the people chopping the pig with an aze. I heard the noise of the bone being cut. It sounded really loud. I smelt smoke. I also tasted smoke. I am so excited!
By Amy

I predict that at Aloha there will be people performing on stage, dog rides, hairspray, glow sticks, tattoos, jaffas, cakes, and muffins. I can't wait till Aloha. It's going to be a lot of fun. There will probably be lots of pig to eat. When it gets dark I'm going to buy a glow stick and a ride with Amy, probably the dog ride. I can't wait!
By Celia

Kauri Team Wheels Day

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Today the Kauri Team (Rooms 8, 9, 10 and 11) went to the court because it was wheels day.  You needed to bring stuff that had wheels and a gold coin, and we all wore green because that's our team colour.  After we got there, we got to ride our wheels around on the court.  Some of the kids didn't bring any wheels and so they went on the playground.  Mrs Hamilton turned some music on when we were riding.  It was lots of fun.  Then Ruth handed out the prizes for people wearing the best costumes.  I didn't get a prize because I wasn't the one wearing the most green.  At the end we went back to our class and headed to the pool for swimming.  It was a fun day.
By Jennifer.
For wheels day, we had bikes, scooters, roller skates and skateboards.  Some kids brought remote controlled cars and toy cars.  I have a bike and I wore green when I rode it.  It was so cool.  I really enjoyed it until I fell off my bike.  That hurt.  But after that, I got back on and it was fun.
By Phoenix.