Frosty Footprints

We had a week of -10˚C frosts, so we just had to get out and explore our frosty environment.

We also enjoyed the first two lines of a poem called

'Frosty Ghosts' by Sydney Victoria.

Frosty Ghosts      

Frosty ghosts escape my throat,

Showing themselves in the damp winter air.

Her lines inspired us to write about frost too, especially when we saw these frosty footprints in the grass!

(Click on the image to enlarge it for reading)

What is the weather like at your place?

Enjoying Kahurangi Theatre

We've enjoyed another quality show from Kahurangi Theatre .

This show told the story of Matariki, a star cluster who's appearance marks the beginning of the Maori New Year. Harvesting is done, food is collected and stored, and it is a time for stories, singing and dancing.

Kahurangi show at Reefton Area School from Judy McKenzie on Vimeo.

When do you celebrate New Year?

Fog

Reefton had a day of thick fog  

5.30pm

and it was still foggy the next morning so out we went for a 

fog adventure!

When we came back in we read two fog poems.

Do you know them?

Fog

The fog comes


on little cat feet.



It sits looking


over harbor and city


on silent haunches


and then moves on.

Carl Sandburg

and 

 In the Fog

Stand still.


The fog wraps you up


and no one can find you.

Walk.


The fog opens up


to let you through


and closes behind you.

Lilian Moore

Here are our responses to our fog adventure:

Do you like the fog?

Which poem do you like best?

Our World, Our Numbers: Topic 7 Seasons and Temperature

We've reached the seventh and final topic 

on Our World, Our Numbers. 

It's been a lot of fun sharing our mathematical lives with the other classes.

This week we’re talking seasons and temperatures.

In our inland town on the west coast of the South Island of New Zealand we get quite distinctive seasonal changes.

 Summers are usually hot and dry; spring is often wet; and winter brings frost, fog and sometimes (if the children are really lucky) some snow.

Right now in the southern hemisphere it is autumn. 

The weather is getting cooler and the colours of the trees are changing.

One of the oak trees at our school.

This year many areas of New Zealand suffered drought over the summer and for the first time ever drought was declared on the South Island’s west coast!

Here is some temperature and rainfall information for our town over the past few months:

Can you see which months we were in drought?

We searched out some information about 

weather extremes for our town.

Can you share some weather data about the place where you live?

All of the classes are keeping track of this week’s midday temperatures on this   Voicethread.

Are there seasonal changes where you live? 

Which season is your favourite? Why?

Why don't you head on over to Our World, Our Numbers to check out the other posts and the comments.

Using Action Words to Bring Our Writing to Life

We're learning that strong action words can bring 

our writing to life. 

Action words are verbs. 

They tell what someone or something is doing.

We've written about our favourite seasons and tried to think about our action words.

How do you think we did?

Which words did you enjoy the most?

Snowflakes Fall, Flutter, Flutter.

Just as we were about to begin writing on Wednesday 

it started to snow!

That immediately gave us some inspiration.

We went outside to watch and listen. 

Next we brainstormed the sounds we'd heard and made a list of onomatopoeia.

Some of us tried out a pattern: naming word (noun), action word (verb), and some onomatopoeia.

Here are our snowy weather poems, plus some others written as a Daily 5 choice in reading time.

Can you make a poem that includes some onomatopoeia?

It Snowed!

☃☃☃☃☃☃☃☃☃☃
It Snowed! on PhotoPeach



How did you have fun in the snow after school?

Foggy, Frosty Morning

Today we came to school in the fog and the frost.
Our slide and playground were too icy to play on.
The sun finally came out at lunchtime!

Winter wallwisher