Far Away There is a Land Where ... (Innovating on a Mentor Text)

We read a beautiful story called 'Yardil' by Rosanna Hawke.

The storyline is lovely and the author has used a lot of strong words in her writing. 

We looked at the verbs (action words) that the author used.

We borrowed the structure of the first page to create our own pieces of writing about our town.

Can you share a strong sentence about your town?

Or maybe a strong sentence from a book you are reading?

Using 'Forces' to Get Over the Troll's Bridge

We had a visit from Emily and Alan with 'Science in a Van'. 

They used the story of 'The Billy Goats Gruff' to 

teach us about the forces of push, pull and friction. 

While the big Billy Goat Gruff was strong enough to push the troll out of the way, 

the middle-sized Billy Goat Gruff

 and the littlest Billy Goat Gruff showed us how to 

use friction and pull to get over the troll's bridge.

Thank you Emily and Alan, we loved the science show.

Leave a comment and tell us how you use the forces 

of push, pull or friction in your life.

More Photos from Pets' Day 2012

As promised, here are some more photos from 
our 2012 Pets' Day.
Pets' Day is well-supported each year, attracting entries from pre-schoolers up to Year 10.

Sand Gardens:

Pet Rocks and Models:

Did you notice the big cellulose tape man?

How do you think he was made?

A Slice of Kiwiana: Pets' Day 2012

One of the best things about being a rural school is that we continue with Kiwi traditions such as Pet's Day.

Along with pets, the children also exhibit 

models, sand gardens, art works, pet rocks, photographs, 

decorated bikes and baking.

We hope you enjoy this slice of kiwiana.

The Grand Parade and more:

The Decorated Bikes

Decorated Bikes from Judy McKenzie on Vimeo.

Did you spot one of the teachers dressed as Mary Poppins?

Decorated Cakes and the Fruit Plates

Watch out in the next few days for more photos 
from Pet's Day.

What special events does your school have?

Pacific Prints no. 2

We've chosen our favourite prints for the final display of our Pacific Patterns art works.

Pacific Prints Calendar Art

We've been working with Mrs Wistrand on Pasifica art using different art media .

You can see our latest tapa cloth artwork here, made with pastels on paper.

We also made polystyrene printing blocks which we've used to make a variety of prints:

To finish, we used our block to make our calendar art.

Parents - you can order calendars with your child's artwork during Pets day.

Have you ever made prints?
What did you use?

The Great Bean Race

Back in April, when it was autumn for us but spring for some of our northern hemisphere friends, 

we took part in a bean-growing experiment. 

Read about it here in our Full of Beans post and here in our Observational Drawings post.

Sadly, it proved too cold for our beans to do much more than sprout a little.

Now it is spring here and our three junior classes (years 1-4) have begun 'The Great Bean Race'.
We've collected and prepared our containers, and 
planted our beans.

What advice do you have for us to help us quickly grow our bean plants tall and strong?