Celebration of Learning 2012

We've ended our school year with a school-wide 

Celebration of Learning.

The home-room classes presented items, and achievements were acknowledged. 

Last term B4 made kites as part of a unit on Asia and we learned the song 'Let's Go Fly a Kite'. 

Here we are presenting our song at the 
Celebration of Learning.

Fly a Kite from Judy McKenzie on Vimeo.

View the rest of our school's items here.

Do you enjoy being up on a stage?
Do you like singing, dancing and performing?

Have you seen the film or the stage show of Mary Poppins?Do you have a favourite Mary Poppins song?

Yummy AND Healthy

In Health with Mrs Wistrand we've been talking about foods we might eat at a celebration that are both 

yummy and healthy. 

We came up with lots of great ideas and just as well, because then we got to bring some food for an end-of-year class celebration!

We even made our own jelly in class with berries, berry juice and gelatine. 

What party etiquette did we use?

What yummy AND healthy food do you enjoy at celebrations?

Back to Slab Hut Creek

It's nearly the end of our school year so today we had an adventure day.

Last year we had such a good time at Slab Hut Creek that we decided to go back there this year.

B5 (the Year 1 and 2 class) came too.

We found tadpoles in a tiny stream nearby, went for a bush-walk along the riverside and enjoyed a picnic lunch.

Everyone was begging to get to the creek but first we had a scavenger hunt.

At last it was time for some water fun!

Maybe next year we should take our bathing suits!

Have you ever had an adventure day?

Far Away There is a Land Where ... (Innovating on a Mentor Text)

We read a beautiful story called 'Yardil' by Rosanna Hawke.

The storyline is lovely and the author has used a lot of strong words in her writing. 

We looked at the verbs (action words) that the author used.

We borrowed the structure of the first page to create our own pieces of writing about our town.

Can you share a strong sentence about your town?

Or maybe a strong sentence from a book you are reading?

Using 'Forces' to Get Over the Troll's Bridge

We had a visit from Emily and Alan with 'Science in a Van'. 

They used the story of 'The Billy Goats Gruff' to 

teach us about the forces of push, pull and friction. 

While the big Billy Goat Gruff was strong enough to push the troll out of the way, 

the middle-sized Billy Goat Gruff

 and the littlest Billy Goat Gruff showed us how to 

use friction and pull to get over the troll's bridge.

Thank you Emily and Alan, we loved the science show.

Leave a comment and tell us how you use the forces 

of push, pull or friction in your life.

More Photos from Pets' Day 2012

As promised, here are some more photos from 
our 2012 Pets' Day.
Pets' Day is well-supported each year, attracting entries from pre-schoolers up to Year 10.

Sand Gardens:

Pet Rocks and Models:

Did you notice the big cellulose tape man?

How do you think he was made?

A Slice of Kiwiana: Pets' Day 2012

One of the best things about being a rural school is that we continue with Kiwi traditions such as Pet's Day.

Along with pets, the children also exhibit 

models, sand gardens, art works, pet rocks, photographs, 

decorated bikes and baking.

We hope you enjoy this slice of kiwiana.

The Grand Parade and more:

The Decorated Bikes

Decorated Bikes from Judy McKenzie on Vimeo.

Did you spot one of the teachers dressed as Mary Poppins?

Decorated Cakes and the Fruit Plates

Watch out in the next few days for more photos 
from Pet's Day.

What special events does your school have?

Pacific Prints no. 2

We've chosen our favourite prints for the final display of our Pacific Patterns art works.

Pacific Prints Calendar Art

We've been working with Mrs Wistrand on Pasifica art using different art media .

You can see our latest tapa cloth artwork here, made with pastels on paper.

We also made polystyrene printing blocks which we've used to make a variety of prints:

To finish, we used our block to make our calendar art.

Parents - you can order calendars with your child's artwork during Pets day.

Have you ever made prints?
What did you use?

The Great Bean Race

Back in April, when it was autumn for us but spring for some of our northern hemisphere friends, 

we took part in a bean-growing experiment. 

Read about it here in our Full of Beans post and here in our Observational Drawings post.

Sadly, it proved too cold for our beans to do much more than sprout a little.

Now it is spring here and our three junior classes (years 1-4) have begun 'The Great Bean Race'.
We've collected and prepared our containers, and 
planted our beans.

What advice do you have for us to help us quickly grow our bean plants tall and strong?

Water It!

This term our science topic is about living things, 

specifically plants. 

We are looking at how plants need and use water; 
how living things (plants) are suited to their habitat;
and how to group plants by their features.

We visited three ponds to look at the plants that are living there.

A reed pond

An open water pond. (Can you see the rain?)

A swampy pond.

Here are some of the plants we saw:

Now some classes have their own miniature ponds in our shaded bush area.

Do you recognise some of our pond plants?
Do you have a pond? What is in your pond?

Are You Scared, Mrs McKenzie?

Mrs McKenzie has never been on a hydroslide. 

Do you think she will be brave enough to try after reading these letters?

What else have the B4 writers been up to?




Have you ever been down a hydroslide?
What would you say to Mrs McKenzie to persuade her to go down the hydroslide?

And the Rule is ..... (Skip-Counting Patterns)

We've been looking at patterns and deciding what the rule is to continue each pattern,
 and how to use charts and tables to show our information.

(We used a Level 1 NZ Maths unit called Beetle Wheels)

Skip-Counting Patterns from Judy McKenzie on Vimeo.

Can you leave a letter, number or object pattern for us?

Flat Rosie's Visit

Flat Rosie is here for a week from Sydney, Australia.

She comes from the Year 2 class at Roseville College.

We were surprised to find out that all of the children at that school are girls!

Flat Rosie is traveling the world and even has her own blog.

The girls in 2T sent some wonderings for us to answer:

Now it is time for Flat Rosie to go home, as our 

two-week term break starts.

Read about our previous flat person project here.

(Click on the link and scroll down).

Have you read the story of Flat Stanley or done a flat person project?

Making Our Kites

Our Social Studies topic this term was 'Flying High in Asia'.

We used the context of kite festivals as a way of learning about some of the similarities and differences between a Chinese way of life and our lives in New Zealand.

We ended the topic by researching, planning 
and making our own kites.

Take a look!

This kite is a traditional Maori kite. 

The boys wove the flax themselves.They decided to not fly it, 

that it would just be a decorative kite.

The groups used Mr Salsich's Global Kite wiki to help them with their research. Thanks Mr Salsich! 

All of the groups used bamboo as part of their kite structure.

Other materials used were fabrics, string, pictures, plastic, and bubble wrap!

The kites even flew quite well. We had a lot of fun, plus we learned a lot about working together.

Have you ever made a kite? What shape was it? What materials did you use?

Skyping With Our California Buddies

We enjoyed a 'Share and Compare' skype session with 

Mrs Yollis and her Grade 2/3 students.

Here is the distance between us 'as the crow flies'.
Do you know what that means?

Each class prepared information on a Google Doc about the communities

 and the schools.
Whose school is bigger?

In New Zealand it was 9am on Friday September 21, and one of our students was celebrating his 7th birthday.
In California it was 2pm on Thursday 20 September where his birthday would be the next day!
Why?

Birthday boy!

We wrote our information on little boards to make for easy sharing.

We met mascots Panda and Beverly from Mrs Yollis' class,

Beverley the Bear liked the look of our couch! Zzzzz.

and introduced our mascot, the cheeky and clever 

Quicksilver the Kea, and his friends: kind and helpful Mr Beesley, and fun, cuddly Squirmy-Wormy.

Our mascots Quicksilver

and Mr Beesley

These boys proudly showed their 'manu taratahi', a traditional Maori kite that they made during our Social Studies topic.

These boys made this manu taratahi during topic. 

Thank you Mrs Yollis and Grade 2/3.

We hope to talk to you again soon.

Do you have any questions for us or for our Californian friends?

Have you ever Skyped someone from home or from school?