Our Pages in the R.A.S Magazine 2011

One of our school traditions is the school magazine. 

After the Celebration of Learning 

the students all gather in their homerooms and 

the magazines are handed out and eagerly read.

Along with other articles in the magazine, there is a double page for each class to write about their year.

Here are B4's pages:

What are your favourite memories of B4?

Does your school have a school magazine?

Special Friends

It's always wonderful to hear from or catch up with 
special friends 

and in the last two weeks of school this happened three times!

First we received an amazing story written by our friends 
in 2KM and 2KJ in Leopold, Australia.

In the story Santa has to save the Internet by discovering the meaning of Christmas. 
Following clues Santa is led around the world and ends up visiting all of 2KM/2KJ's blogging buddies, including us, gathering Christmas values as he goes. 

By the end of the story Santa knows that the meaning of Christmas involves the values of happiness, giving, friendship, sharing and togetherness.
Thank you Mrs Morris, Miss Jordan and 2KM/2KJ for a fantastic story and surprise.

Secondly, we heard from Miss Esnouf 
who taught in B4 in Term 1. 

Miss Esnouf is Australian and while she was here tried very hard to turn us into little Aussies too (especially because of the World Cup Rugby).

Miss Esnouf sent us this lovely book called 'Santa Koala'. 

The story is a song sung to the tune of 'Waltzing Matilda'.

The animals try to help Santa out but end up delivering the presents a week early!

Thanks Miss Esnouf, the story was very popular on the listening post last week. :)

Finally, on our last day of school we skyped with 
our good friends Mrs Watson and her 2/3/ class in Canada.

We talked about Christmas and Our World, Our Stories, we compared local wildlife, we got to sing some songs to each other and even a song together!

You can see their post about our skype session here.

Thank you everyone for the special times.
Merry Christmas to you all.

Celebration of Learning 2011

We have now finished school for the 2011 school year 

and our new school year will start at the end of January, 

after the summer break.

At our school we always end the year with an evening celebrating the learning of the students. 

Younger classes put on items 

while older students are recognised for their 

efforts and successes.

For B4's item we shared 
the 'Make New Friends' video 
we made with our global project buddies, celebrating 

the Our World, Our Stories project.

To view the original song click here.

Thank you to our singing and blogging buddies:
Mrs Yollis and Grade 3 in California, USA
2KM and 2KJ in Leopold, Australia
Mr Salsich and Grade 3 in Connecticut, USA
Mrs Watson and Grade 2/3 in Sointula, Canada
 Kristina Larkin, Miss Usher and Std 3 in Belize 
and Andy Boachie and students in Ghana.

We loved being involved in such an amazing project with you.


How does your school celebrate the end 
of a school year?

B4 children, what did you enjoy the most about this year?

Christmas Trees 2011

Every year in the last week of school 
each class gets a 

Christmas tree to decorate.

  Here are last year's trees.

The trees sit in the hall foyer during the Celebration of Learning and families can buy the trees. 
Money votes are also cast for the favourite tree.

Any profits go to 'Who Cares', a local community support group.

This year we had a theme of seasons and B4 got SPRING.
We made these cute little lambs and some blossom balls for our tree.

Check out the trees. They are all beautiful.

Spring by B4 (Yr 1/2/3)

Spring by Rm 2 (Yr 6/7)

Summer by B2 (Yr 5/6)

Summer by Rm 8 (Yr 8)

Autumn by B3 (Yr 3/4/5)

Autumn by Rm 4 (Yr 9)

Winter by B5 (Yr 1/2)

Winter by Year 10

Do you have a favourite tree?

Do you have your Christmas tree up yet?

Vote For Us! - Edublog Awards 2011

We are very excited to have been nominated and shortlisted in the Best Class Blog category 

for the Edublog Awards.

Voting is open until December 14.

We'd love you to show your support by voting for us!

Here's how to vote:

Visit the voting page: http://edublogawards.com/vote-here/

Click on the category drop-down menu and 
select Best Class Blog.

Another drop-down menu will appear. 

Select Open the Door to B4

then click the red VOTE button.

You can only vote once per day from an IP address so ...
visit every day to vote and 

get your family and friends to vote for us too from their home and office computers 

on as many different days as possible!

Picnic at Slab Hut Creek.

We enjoyed an end-of-year picnic at Slab Hut creek.

We went on a bush walk beside the river, 

ate our picnic lunch, 

played frisbee rounders, had a scavenger hunt and 

FINALLY 

got to play at the creek.

What a perfect day!

Thank you to the parents who came with us.

What was your favourite part of the day?

Playing Bamboo, Switch and Global Tag

One of the themes the classes have posted about on 
the 'Our World, Our Stories' blog 
is favourite recess games.

Mrs Yollis' class in California showed us all how they play a game called 'Bamboo' on the parallel bars.

In a type of global tag, the post got our friends in Mrs Watson's 2/3 class in Canada 
thinking about how they could adapt the game to suit their taller parallel bars.
Their new version is called 'Switch'.


Next to play the game was a class at 2KM/2KJ's school. 
Even the teacher, Mrs deVries had a go!


Today we went out and played on our parallel bars. 
Our bars are tall (and wider), so we played the Canadian version 'Switch'.

It was quite tricky, but a lot of fun.

Tag, you're in!

Leave us a comment - did you play Bamboo or Switch?

Maui and the Fish

Last week we shared a turn to lead the posts 

on Our World, Our Stories with the class in Belize.

The theme was Traditional Stories.

The story we share here is the Maori legend of 

'Maui and the Fish'.

There are many stories about Maui.

One of our other favourites is 'Maui and the Sun.'

You can read more about him here.

We hope you enjoy our retelling.

Legends are stories that have been told and retold and handed down over many generations.

People listened to legends long before the stories were ever written in books.

Do you think this legend is real?

How were legends useful to cultures in the past?

Connecting with Connecticut

This week we had the chance to skype with some of our quad-blogging buddies,

Mr Salsich and his Grade 3 students in Connecticut, USA.

Our school day usually starts at 8.50 am 

but we started our skype session at 8.30 am (Wednesday) 

to fit in with Mr Salsich's class 

where it was 2.30pm (Tuesday).

We can only manage to do this during our summer when our clocks are put forward and it's winter in Connecticut and the clocks are put back.

Chase, Maura, Anthony, Carla, Joey, Creighton and Hanna shared some facts about the state of Connecticut and we shared facts about the country of New Zealand.

Then we had time to answer questions and to share 

items of interest.

We met Mr Salsich's class mascots.

 Shea introduced us to Perezoso the Sloth and

Joey introduced us to Juan Pablo, the green tree frog.

Ganda introduced our mascot, Quicksilver the Kea.

Nathan showed his rugby ball. 

It is a little different to an American football 

as it doesn't have laces.

Paige shared her toy lamb, 

because New Zealand has lots of sheep!

All too soon it was time for Mr Salsich's students 

to get ready for home, 

and time for us to get on with the rest of our day.

What similarities and differences did you notice?

Each place has a similar population but which place has more room for the people?

What is the difference between a state and a country?

What questions do you still have?

Water of Life

B4 have been doing Science for topic with 

Mrs Webb and Mr Cook this term. 

Our theme is 'Water of Life'.

Today was a perfect day to learn about water!

Mrs Webb taught the children this song about the water cycle -

Join in and sing with us!

Have you ever studied the water cycle?

What do you know about the water cycle?

Why is it important to look after the earth's water?

Our Edublog Awards nominations 2011

Our blog has been a fabulous part of the learning in B4 since the start of 2010 and we have made lots of good friends around the world.
So this year we'd like to make some nominations for 

the Edublog Awards.

The purpose of the Edublog awards is promote and demonstrate the educational values of  learner and teacher blog sites. 

Here are our nominations:

Best Class Blog

Mrs Watson and Grade 2/3 in Canada 

Mrs Watson and her class 

were among our first blogging contacts and we have become good friends. 

Their blog inspires us to try new things.

We loved our collaboration earlier in the year 

when we wrote stories together using Storybird.

Best Group blog

Our World, Our Stories

This blog has led to wonderful learning for our class and for our blogging buddies.

The students have had the opportunity to share their stories and the blog had led to authentic writing experiences, and geographical and Social Studies learning.

Best Twitter hashtag

#d5chat

Twitter is a great source of educational information and many teachers relish the connection with other educators around the world. 

The daily 5 hashtag has been very useful in developing our changing reading programme this year.

Best Teacher blog

e-learning2011

New Zealander Kimberley Rivett's reflective blog about her e-learning classroom is always inspiring.

To make nominations:

If you have some favourite educational websites or web tools visit the Edublogs awards site and find out how to make your own nominations.

Nominations close for voting soon and there will be an awards ceremony in December.

What do you like about our nominated blogs?

Local Environments

The posts this week on 

Our World, Our Stories

are all about our local environments.

Head on over and check out the photos and videos!

What are the special features of your environment?

Iconic Kiwi Foods

The classes have been posting about food this week on the Our World, Our Stories blog.

That got us thinking about some iconic kiwi foods, the foods that make us think of New Zealand.

Here are some that we came up with:

Pineapple Lumps and Crunchie bars

Lemon and Paeroa (L&P)

Kiwifruit

Manuka honey

Roast lamb and Mint Sauce chips (crisps)

Where was pavlova created - Australia or New Zealand?

Can you think of some more 'kiwi' foods?

What  foods from around the world are regarded as iconic?

Pets Day 2011

The children did a great job taking photos of Pets Day today.
To see previous Pets day click here.

Here's our 2011 Pets Day from their point of view!

Pets Day 2011 - the hall exhibits 

Pets Day 2011- the animals 

Tell us about your pet!

How do you look after it? What does it like?

If you don't have a pet, what would you choose if you were allowed one?

Recess and Lunchtime

Have you visited the 'Our World, Our Stories' global project yet?

This week the classes have been posting and commenting about 

recess and lunchtime.

Head on over, check out what we all have to say, and let us know about your recess or lunchtime activities.

Writing with a Purpose

 Our global connections provide numerous opportunities for authentic, purposeful writing.

This morning some children were working in pairs 

to add comments to the posts 

on the 'Our World, Our Stories' blog.

Others were writing letters to send back to

Miss Harrison and P3/4 

in Northern Ireland.

During the holidays we had received not a postcard but  a CUPCAKE card from them.

The cupcake was decorated with lots of little jewels.

What kind of writing do you like to do?

Pets Day is Coming Up

Hey kids, Pets Day is next Tuesday (8 November).

You can read about last year's Pets Day here.

I hope you're already planning your entries!

What will you be bringing?

Do you have a great idea for decorating your bike?

Do you have a pet? What is it? How do you look after it?

A Typical School Day

The classes are talking about a typical school day on the 

Our World, Our Stories blog this week.

B4 have made a video to share our day. 

Here's a preview picture!

Head on over and check out the videos and comments.

B4, what else do we do at school that we didn't get the chance to show in our video?

Our World, Our Stories

We are excited to launch a new global project with some 
of our blogging buddies:

Mrs Yollis and Grade 3, USA

Mr Salsich and Grade 3, USA

2KM and 2KJ, Australia

Mrs Watson and Grade 2/3, Canada

Andy Boachie and students, Ghana, Africa

Miss Usher and Standard 3 from Punta Gorda, Belize



View Larger Map


Over seven weeks we will share our experiences on common themes through a new blog:

Our World, Our Stories



Each week a different class will lead a new theme and the other classes will add posts and/or comments.


We look forward to the connections that we will make, 
the conversations that we will have 
and the opportunities that will occur to find out about the similarities and differences in our lives.


Pop on over to the new blog now and check out 
the latest post.
 Leave a quality comment to add to the conversations 
and be sure to say 
your first name and your class. 




What would you like to see the classes posting about on the new blog?

Catching Whitebait

New Zealand schools are in the middle of a two-week 
spring term break, 
and Mrs McKenzie has been enjoying spending 
some time whitebaiting at one of her favourite places, the 
Fox River.
Some people like to use a long-handled scoop net to catch the little whitebait, as they swim into the river 
on the oncoming tide.

Others prefer to use a set net at the side of the river. 

It pays to have a lot of patience and a good book!

Have you ever been whitebaiting?

Is this an activity you would enjoy?

Do you have a similar type of fish where you live?

How did you spend your holidays?

Quarter-Turn Corners

We've been learning about quarter-turn corners.

We also call quarter-turn corners  right-angles.

We found out that squares and rectangles have quarter-turn corners, so we used these shapes to test other corners in the classroom.

This is what we found:

We also found corners that are NOT quarter-turn corners. Some were too big and some were too small!

Look around you - where have you noticed some quarter-turn corners (right-angles)?


For older children - what are the names for the angles that are bigger than right-angles and the angles that are smaller than right-angles?