School's Out For Summer

It is now summer holidays for the students and teachers 

from B4.

We wish everyone a safe and happy summertime.

We'll be back at the end of January.

Our New Zealand Christmas song Playlist

Our friends in Mr Avery's 6th grade class in 

Massachusetts, U.S.A. have created their

 Christmas playlist 

and have challenged other classes to add a playlist 

to their blogs.

While we enjoy many traditional Christmas songs, we're going to put some uniquely New Zealand Christmas songs on our playlist!

Te Harinui

Pohutukawa Christmas Tree

Aotearoa Christmas 

Christmas in the Summertime

Kiwi Christmas Carol

What songs would you include in your Christmas playlist?
If you post, please make a link to both our blog and Mr Avery's blog!

Toys at Midnight - Teddy Bears and Lego Blocks

What happens in the toy box when the clock strikes twelve?

These teddy bears and Lego blocks show you in our 
Celebration of Learning item.

Toys at Midnight from Judy McKenzie on Vimeo.

What do you think your toys get up to at midnight?
What toy would you most like to receive as a gift?

Wrapping Paper

We've been working together in maths to make our own 

wrapping paper.

After looking closely at some commercial papers, we discovered that the patterns are sequenced and often show slides, turns and flips!

We chose 1,2,or 3 shapes for our paper and decided on our pattern sequence.

Have you ever made your own wrapping paper for a special occasion?

Edublog Awards - Voting is Open!

We are pleased to announce that our blog has been short-listed as a finalist in the 

2013 Edublog Awards.

We have been nominated in the

best class blog section.

Category: Best Class Blog

Vote now!

See full list on Listly

Click on the thumb on the left to vote for Open the Door to B4. 

The voting will be done via a site called List.ly. You must be 13 or over to sign up for List.ly, so please ask your parents and adult friends to vote. 

They can sign in with their Facebook log-in.

Only one vote per day from each IEP address will be  counted, 

so remember to come back and vote each day.

Voting closes on Wednesday December 18.

Thank you for your support.

The Magic Forest and the Babbling Brook

We had a fabulous time on our class picnic at Slab Hut Creek. It's our favourite place to go. 
Rain was forecast, but the day was hot and sunny!

After a walk along a mossy track where we 
were surrounded by native trees, 
we played in the nearby pine forest. 
It was magic, with lots of huts to build and fun to have. 
After our picnic lunch we used the sun to cook some more s'mores in our solar ovens, then we were off to the creek.



What is your favourite end-of-the-school-year event?

Solar Oven S'mores

We had a sunny day today so it was time to use 

our solar ovens to make s'mores.

They were delicious!

We hope to make some more s'mores later this week when we go on our class picnic.

Have you ever made s'mores?

Where is the most fun place you've ever eaten them?

Hot - or Not? : Zeer Pots and Solar Ovens

In technology with Mrs Wistrand we've been learning that the sun's energy is used in many ways. 
We've looked at solar heating systems and also 
cooling systems.

We've already made zeer pot fridges, to keep our milk cool. See the post about it here. 

Now we've made solar ovens. 

When we get a sunny day we'll try making s'mores with our ovens!

Do you think our solar ovens will work?

What else could we try cooking with our ovens?
Do YOU make use of solar energy?

Can You Guess What We are Doing?

Can you guess what we are doing?



Can you guess what was in the container?

provided by flash-gear.com

Can you guess the missing vowels in these words?
h - t 
c - ld 
- ns - l - t -
m - t - r - - l

Lily Writes About Getting Ready For Pets Day

Lily has just turned 6. 

She was excited to enter her rock Mouse Family as an exhibit on Pets Day last week.

Do you have any feedback for Lily about her writing and her mouse family?

Through the Window: Looking At Ourselves

We've been working with Mrs Wistrand to create these artworks, where we are looking at ourselves 

through a four-pane, white-framed window.

These are the pictures that gave us inspiration:

'Birds of a Feather'

(2005)

Joanna Braithwaite

and 

'Boy with Noah's Ark'

(1916, 1917)

Edith Collier

Our sepia-look picture has a photo of us now, with our baby photo in the background. 

The sepia effect was created with crayon and dye.

In the second picture we clothed ourselves with photos of something special to us.

The third picture, with our toys, was done using water colour pencils, high-lighted with vivid pen.

For the fourth picture we drew memories, using pastels in our school colours.

What would you include if you were making artworks like ours?

What inspires you?

The Global Classroom Scrapbook Moves On

A few weeks ago a Global Classroom scrapbook arrived in the mail for us. 

You can read about it in this post.

We've put together our pages for the scrapbook. 
Here are two of them:

Now it is time to send the scrapbook on to the next class.

Off it goes to a school in Milton Keynes, England!
We're looking forward to hearing that it has arrived safely.

Do you think a traveling scrapbook is a good idea?
How can it help us in our learning?

Mystery Number Skype

Mrs. McKenzie read this post by Ms. Cassidy in Canada about her class doing a mystery number skype, and thought that the students in B4 would enjoy doing it too.

Now we've had our first mystery number skype with Miss Revell and her Year 2 class of iKids, near Napier, New Zealand.
Beforehand, we brainstormed some useful questions, so we could eliminate lots of numbers from our choices.
These questions can all be answered with 'yes' or 'no' answers. They are called skinny questions!

First, our class had to work out their mystery number.

After lots of questions to eliminate the numbers, there was only one number left. It was 64!
That meant that the iKids won that round!

Then it was their turn to guess the number we had 
chosen to start with, which was 67. 
It was funny that both classes had chosen a number in the 60s!
For the next rounds we tallied the number of questions asked. Both classes solved their puzzles in only 6 questions.

Now we are looking forward to more mystery number skypes with Mrs. Watson's class in Canada; 

and Ms. Lirenman's class, also in Canada!

We have a mystery number for you to work out.

Ask us questions in the comments section.

Remember, questions can only be answered with 'yes' or 'no'!

In It, Not At It

We've had a school-wide focus on taking responsibility for our school environment in the past few weeks. 

At an assembly this week students are sharing visual presentations they have made, reinforcing the message 
'In it, not at it - Put your rubbish in the bin'.

These are the presentations made by some B4 students. 

Jamie, Bradley and Michelle used Puppet Pals on the ipad to share their message:
Jamie, Bradley and Michelle from Judy McKenzie on Vimeo.

Caleb and Billy used Skitch on the ipad:

Liv, Samuel and Aubrey used Pic Collage on the ipad:

Reagan and Chelsea made a video using the ipod and computer (with the help of camera person Liv):

Reagan and Chelsea from Judy McKenzie on Vimeo.

Marcus, Korbyn and Bobby also used ipod and computer to make their video clip:

Marcus, Korbyn and Bobby from Judy McKenzie on Vimeo.

How do you care for your school environment?
What ipad apps do you like to use for creating?

'World Traveler' -a global classroom scrapbook

We were excited to receive a scrapbook in the mail. 

This is one of the scrapbooks that began traveling the world in 2012 as part of a Global Classroom project.

So far this scrapbook has visited classes in Australia, 

Hawaii, USA 

and Ohio, USA.

Over the next few weeks we will add to the scrapbook before sending it on to a new class.

Have you taken part in a global project like this?

What should we include on our scrapbook pages?

Effective Writers Play with Words

The students in B4 are learning that effective 
writers play with words until their writing sounds 'just right'.

We've used a variety of mentor texts during the term and we've examined how the writers used words to add effect.

We read many of New Zealand author Lynley Dodd's books. 

She REALLY has fun with words!

One of our mentor texts

Another mentor text

We also read a piece of writing by a young New Zealand writer, in the Journal of Young People's Writing 2003.

Our third mentor text

What are some other things that writers do to make their writing effective?
What do you enjoy most about writing?
Can you describe for us how you eat your favourite food?

Liv's Little Lamb

(This is a guest post by Liv.)

Recently I got a lamb. It was a girl. 

I named her Ruby because I've already had a lamb called Max and now I have a lamb called Ruby. (There is a TV show called Max and Ruby!).

I got her for an early birthday present for when I turn 7.

She is so loud that I could hear her from the bathroom and she was in the living room.

Because Ruby is so noisy when I put her into her cage, she keeps me up all night until she falls fast asleep.

I got Ruby from my nana.
Ruby is only a few days old and lives inside at the moment, because she might wander away. 
When she is bigger she will live up at the calf pen with the calves.
Sometimes Ruby wears a nappy to keep the house clean.

We have to feed Ruby every four hours. She drinks a lot.

Today Ruby came in for a visit to school. I thought she would be nervous but she was fine.

Lambs are good pets to have and they are cuddly.

Ruby is so loveable and she is the best pet in the world!

Do you have a lamb or another pet?

How do you take care of it?

What do you like about your pet?

by Liv

Toys: Past, Present and Future

Within our big idea 'Look Back to Look Forward', 

this term's Social Studies topic is 'Toys: Past, Present and Future'.

One of Mrs McKenzie's favourite toys when she was growing up in the 1960s were her little china tea-sets. 

One of them had also been played with by her mother as a child!

Mr McKenzie loved playing with his truck.

Tell us about your favourite toy when you were aged 

about 5-8 years old.

Which decade was that in?

 2000- now, 

1990-1999,

1980-1989,

1970-1979,

1960-1969,

1950-1959,

1940-1949,

1930-1939

or even earlier?

What do you think children will play with in the future?