Summer Wallwisher

Season's Greetings

☆ ☆

I would like to wish all of our families and friends season's greetings, 

and to thank you all for following us throughout 

our first year of blogging.

☆ ☆

School is out now until February 1, 

although there will be some occasional posts over the summer.

We look forward to catching up with you all again then. 

☆ ☆ 

Grease Lightning

The video of our item at the Celebration of Learning didn't work out!

So here is one of our favourite items instead. 

The Year 5/6 class worked all term with our Arts support staff, Ina and Sandy,

to bring their item together.

Summer Reading Challenge

Custom Glitter Text
The Summer Reading Challenge is on again!

Read over the summer and WIN!

Come in to school on these dates and change the books in your book pack.

Visit a library and take out books over the summer.

Bring back your signed forms when school starts in February.

What kind of books do you enjoy?

Where do you like to read?

Our Christmas Tree is Beautiful.

Our Christmas tree is ready to go up to the hall foyer

for the Celebration of Learning 

tomorrow night.

We wrapped tinsel string around geometric wire shapes that

Mr McKenzie made for us.

We used squares, circles and triangles.

Here are all of the trees made by the homerooms:

Skyping with Mrs Yollis and the Grade 3s

We had a great Skype session with Mrs Yollis and her class, in Los Angeles, California.

We got to share facts about our towns, 

and to find out some similarities (S) and differences (D).

What did we learn?

School: 

They have 23 children in their class and we have 22. (S)

There are 611 children in their school and we have just over 200. (D)

They don't often have composite classes, but we often have a mix of year groups because we have fewer children at each year level. (D)

They call it elementary school and we say primary school. After elementary school they go to middle school and then high school. We can stay at  our school until we are 18, because we are an Area school. (D)

They change to a new grade level at the start of their school year each September. 

We change to a new year level when the new school year starts in February. (D)

Community: 

They have a community of 24,000 people and we have less than 1000. (D)

The elevation of their community is 850 ft (259m). Reefton is 198m above sea level (649ft). (S)

They have a 30 minute drive to get to a beach. We drive for an hour. (D)

Disneyland is a 1 and 1/2 hour drive away and most of their class have been there. 

In our class Liam and Mrs McK have been to the Los Angeles Disneyland. (D)

Climate: 

They live on the West Coast of America and their annual rainfall is about 14 inches (about 355mm). 

We live on the West Coast of New Zealand and our average annual rainfall is 2200mm (about 86 inches)! (D)

Their summer temperatures range from 60-90˚F (16-32˚C).

Our average summer temperature is 25˚C (77˚F). (S)

Their winter temperatures range from  40-60˚F (4-16˚C).

Our average winter temperature is 15˚C (59˚F). (D)

They almost never get snow. Mrs Yollis can remember getting snow once. We might get snow in town once a year, although it snows on the hills around us. (D)

Mrs Yollis' class had skyped with 2KM in Australia and had learnt that they have magpies that swoop on people. They asked us if we have magpies that swoop and the answer is YES!

Iliana noticed about our school uniform. Mrs Yollis thought a uniform would save time in the morning. (D)

She asked about dairy farms, so Adam, Liam, Jonathon and Emily told her that the cows are milked twice a day, and whoever is milking has to get up very early in the morning (3-5 am). (D)

We asked about their pets. Nick has a bulldog, Grace had guinea pigs and Kristen has a cat. (S)

We met Ryan, who had left a great comment on our blog page back in September.

Where there any questions that you didn't get to ask?

We ♥ our skype session and think it was great to talk to everyone. (S)

Thank you so much.

☆ ★ ★ ★ ☆

Watch this Space (or watch this tree)!

Every year in the last week of school each class gets a Christmas tree to decorate. 

All decorations must be hand-made, 

and we can only spend $20 on supplies. 

On Thursday night 

the trees will be on display in the hall foyer at the Celebration of Learning 

and families can bid for a tree. 

Proceeds go to a local good cause.

When do you put your tree up?

Does your family have special decorations and ornaments that

you use year after year?

Temperature Trends

Thank you to all the people who have sent in their local temperatures. 

As you can see, 

our map is already showing some clear trends!

If you would like to contribute from somewhere in the world, 

we will keep collecting temperatures

for a few more days.

Onomatopoeia

Onomatopoeia 

is the word we use to describe 

words that resemble the object or action they name.

After we read 

'Mr Brown can Moo! Can You?' by Dr. Seuss,

the class brainstormed some words, then chose one each to illustrate.

Can you think of some more 

onomatopoeia?

Meet Jamie

Jamie came to visit for the first time today and had his bath while he was here.
Jamie loved his bath and didn't cry once!

?

Perhaps you have a funny story to share 

about when you were a baby?