Remembering Summer Part 2

A couple of weeks ago  Mrs McKenzie put the 'Remembering Summer' poems onto the
wiki pages.
Today some of the children chose their favourite line from their poem and read it out for the video.
Listen carefully and you will hear some very clever similes.

Pacific Shells and Asian Fans

Today in art we concentrated really well on finishing our Pacific shells and Asian fans. We are going to use the Pacific shells to make a class tapa cloth when everyone is finished.
We have some more Pacific patterns on our Arts page.

The School Ball

Last night Mrs McKenzie went to the school ball. 

The school ball is held every two years for the senior students in Years 11, 12 and 13. 

It is run as a community ball and takes a lot of planning by the senior students and the staff.

Last night's ball was very successful and everyone looked

amazing. 

Elementary VoiceThreads

Last term we posted the VoiceThread that we had made about our school on to the
Elementary VoiceThreads wiki, which is based in America. Some other schools added their voices to it, and that was very exciting, and we enjoyed finding out about other schools.

Then right at the end of last term we finished this VoiceThread that we made about our community and also posted it on the wiki.

Now the summer break in America is over and schools are back in session. The creator of the wiki, Mark Carls, emailed me this week. He thought that our community VoiceThread was a great idea and he has highlighted it on their front page.

We hope that children from around the world will answer the questions that we asked, and add comments about their communities.

If your school would like to add a photo about their community please email me at judymckenzie@ras.school.nz

Gentle Giant

This week we read 'Gentle Giant' by Michael Morpurgo.
Last week Bob told us about some other books by Michael Morpurgo.

We know that it is a narrative story. There was a problem in the middle, that resolved by the end of the story.

The story also reminded us about the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

We think lots of children would like this story.

Photos of the All Blacks Roadshow

Check out the All Blacks Roadshow photos on the Reefton Rugby Club website.

Click here.

Remembering Summer

This week our class poem was 'Remembering Summer' by Sharon Holt. (School Journal Pt1 No2 2004).

We had fun talking about what we remember about the summer, and spent the week writing our own innovations on the poem, using similes in our poems to make pictures in the reader's mind.

Listen to lines from our poems

here 

What do you remember most about the summer?

Bob's Books

Today Bob Docherty came to school to talk about books. Bob used to work for the National Library and he has read lots of books.

Bob wants us to READ, READ, READ.

Bob read us two stories - 'Little Beauty' by Anthony Browne and 'The Wild Girl' by Chris Wormell.

Bob told us about these other good books too, but he didn't tell us the endings so now we want to read:

'Really, Really High Diving Tower' by David Metzenthen, 'Birdbrain Amos' by Michael Delaney,

'No Such Thing as Dragons' by Phillip Reeve,

'BMX Bully' by Jake Maddox,

'Cool!' and 'Running Wild' both by Michael Morpurgo.

Thanks Bob, we always like to hear about good books.

B4, which book would you like us to read first?

Library Buddies

On Tuesdays when we go to the library we read with our buddies from Year 6/7. It's something we look forward to every week

.

Chinese Writing

Jia Jia can write her full name, Jia Xin, in Chinese writing. She is learning other words too. Isn't she clever?

Vampire Slime and Mucus Slime

2KM and 2KJ@Leopold in Australia have been making Oobleck. We commented on their blog page and told them about making Oobleck, and about our Vampire slime and other slimes. We got lots of comments back, so we are giving them some recipes. We hope they have lots of fun with the slimes. We wonder which one will be their favourite.

Custom Glitter Text

You need:

½ cup of cornflour Red food colouring

1 ½ cups of water a frying pan

measuring cups a stirring spoon

Steps:

Mix all the ingredients in a frying pan. We used an electric frypan.

Heat the mixture slowly, stirring continuously.

Once the mixture is thick, stop stirring. Allow it to cool.

Handle at ‘blood’ temperature.

Custom Glitter Text

You need:

2 teaspoons of Lux flakes a few drops of food colouring

2 cups of very hot water a mixing bowl

a measuring cup a stirring spoon

Steps:

Mix all ingredients together vigorously.

Your mixture will bubble and foam. Watch it flow over the table, slipping and sliding.

It will clean up your table and your hands. (But it will mess up your clothes).

If the Earth were an Apple

If the Earth is this apple .....

about 3/4 (three quarters) of it is ocean. We can't live there.

This is what is left.

Some is desert. We can't live there.

This is what is left.

Some is mountains. We can't live there.

This is what is left.

Only the Earth's crust is used as living space for humans and other land animals.

This is it.

How can we make sure we don't waste the Earth's resources?

How can we share them more fairly?

Jazz Band

Today we were lucky enough to have a Jazz Band, made up of students from King's High School and from Queen's High School in Dunedin, visit us. They gave a very polished performance and even had an awesome jazz singer.

Jump Jam

Wednesdays are Jump Jam day up in the hall at lunchtime. It's a lot of fun.

Our Stories

Emily's story

JiaJia's story

Adam J's story

Hamish's story

Krystal's story

Ben's story

Photos from America

Wow, did Liam really meet the President of the United States? Do you know his name?

This is the Grand Canyon. It is an amazing place to visit.