Mrs Yollis' Class starts a New School Year

Our quad-blogging buddy Mrs Yollis is back at school with a brand new Grade 3 class.

Mrs Yollis and her students live in Los Angeles, California.

Their summer is ending and a new school year has begun.

(Our buddies 2KM and 2KJ  explain why it has been winter here and summer in America.)

Most of Mrs Yollis' students are new to blogging and they are learning how to write great comments.

Last year Mrs Yollis' students were great role-models for us in 

writing quality comments.

Now we get the chance to be role-models!

Why don't you head on over to Mrs Yollis' blog and leave the class a welcoming comment.

Be sure to show that YOU know how to make a great comment.

Don't forget to say who you are and where you are from.

What Fraction is My Share?

We shared some wafer biscuits. 

Lily and Mrs McKenzie shared one and got 1/2 each.

Ganda, Tyla and Stevie shared one and got 1/3 each.

Paige, Jonathon, Spike and Holly shared one and got 1/4 each.

Jack, Liam, Jordan, Dylan and Nathan shared one and got 1/5 each.

The consternation grew as Kayden, Kaeleb, Nikki, Sam, Teagan, Neil, Matthew and Lukah shared one and saw how small their 1/8 share would be!

Now we're sure we can order fraction numbers from smallest to biggest!

How would you share 3 wafers between 4 people?

Adding Interest to our Writing

As learners it's good to Make Connections as it helps us in our understanding.

We are studying the work of Eric Carle as an artist and 

as a writer. 

This week we were using his story

 "Slowly, Slowly, Slowly," said the Sloth.

The children were able to make a connection to the sloth, 

as our quad-blogging buddy Mr Salsich has a sloth 

named Perezoso as a class mascot.

We are reading Eric Carle's books to identify techniques he uses to add interest to his writing.

On the last page of this book, the sloth objects to being called lazy and gives a long list of other adjectives that could be used to describe a sloth.

Adjectives are describing words and being able to use adjectives well is a great technique for adding interest to your writing.

We were excited to make another connection, when we saw that our friends in 2KM and 2KJ have also been learning about using adjectives!

Read their post here.

We've created a Wordle of adjectives that could be used to describe the fireflies that we made in art last week.

Can you make this sentence more interesting by adding some adjectives?
The firefly is in the tree.

Inspired by Eric Carle

This term our art work is being inspired by Eric Carle.

After reading some of his books

we used paint with toothbrushes, sponges, brushes, plastic knives and fingers to create textural effects, then used our painted sheets of paper to create an artwork.

The focus as we created our firefly artworks 

was to have texture, balance and symmetry.

'Firefly' on PhotoPeach

How did we do?

What is your favourite Eric Carle book?

It Snowed!

☃☃☃☃☃☃☃☃☃☃
It Snowed! on PhotoPeach



How did you have fun in the snow after school?

Humuhumunukunukuapua'a

What a big name for a cute little fish!

Our California friend Mrs Yollis sent us this postcard when she was on holiday in Hawaii.

You can read all about her snorkeling adventures 

here and here.

This big, long name reminded me that there is a hill in New Zealand that has one of the longest place names in the world.

The name is

Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapiki-maungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu

Click here 

to read the story behind the name.

Click here

to hear the name being pronounced.

Do you know of a long name to add to our list?

Mystery Skype Call

What a great morning we had!
Last term Mrs McKenzie was inspired by a post by
 Mrs Yollis about a mystery Skype call, 
and was keen for the B4 children to do something similar.

During our Skype today, we had to find out what country the other class was in, and possibly whereabouts they are in 
that country, by 

asking CLOSED questions. 

The closed questions could only be answered by YES or NO.

We prepared some questions beforehand 
and thought about what the possibilities could be, depending on the YES or NO answers.

Every student had a job during the call.

Some were the SPEAKERS, and asked the questions.

Some were the CAMERA PEOPLE.

Some were NOTETAKERS and wrote YES or NO on the questions as they were answered.

Some were using the ATLASES and were eliminating or suggesting countries.

Others were the HELPERS and took the suggestions from the atlas people to the speakers.

After some great questions, they guessed first where we live.

Finally, we figured out that our mystery Skype callers were from Australia! 

Our callers were P-1-2 from Harston School!

Thanks P-1-2@Harston School, we had a great time talking to you.

What did you like about the Skype call?

What job did you do?

What job would you like next time?

A Parcel from Miss Esnouf

We received a lovely surprise parcel in the mail from Miss Esnouf, who worked in B4 

during Term 1.

Now she lives back in Australia.
We love all the special treats. Thank you Miss Esnouf.

Before she left, Miss Esnouf tried to convert the B4 children from supporting the 
New Zealand All Blacks rugby team 
to supporting the 
Australian Wallabies rugby team.

Sorry Miss Esnouf, we don't think it worked!

We will be cheering for the All Blacks 
in the Rugby World Cup 
which is being held in New Zealand from 
September 9-October 23.

Solving Math Problems using a Graphic Organiser

As part of the Key Competency of 'Thinking', we've been reviewing the use of graphic organisers.

We use them while reading and in our topic work.

We also used a graphic organiser to help us solve the maths problems that our friends in

 P-2@Harston in Australia 

have written, based on 

the fairy tales they are learning about.
People like to solve problems in different ways, so our graphic organiser has spaces to: draw a picture or diagram, use real things, to write a word problem, and to write an equation. 

Thanks P-1-2, we enjoyed solving some of your math problems.

B4 children and others, post your own math problem as a comment!