Monday, March 25, 2013

'Top of the South' Area Schools' Tournament

We have 120 teenagers from six other schools visiting for the Top of the South Area Schools' Tournament. 
Area Schools are located in rural areas throughout New Zealand and cater for students from Years 0-13.
This tournament includes sporting and cultural events 
for the older students from:
Reefton Area School
Collingwood Area School
Rai Valley Area School
Tapawera Area School
Murchison Area School
Karamea Area School
and South Westland Area School.
Visiting students are billeted with school and community families for the week. 


View Top of the South Area Schools in a larger map

The first day started with a powhiri to welcome the visitors to our school.
The visitors were called in:
Powhiri 1 from Judy McKenzie on Vimeo.

and welcomed with a waiata (song):
Powhiri 2 from Judy McKenzie on Vimeo.

Each of the other schools spoke and sang waiata, 
then we finished with the Fair Play Code 
and two more waiata:
Powhiri 3 from Judy McKenzie on Vimeo.
Powhiri 4 from Judy McKenzie on Vimeo.

We hope all tournament participants enjoy their week.

Did you billet some students for the week?
Have you attended a powhiri?
How do you welcome visiting groups to your school?



Thursday, March 21, 2013

Courage

We've been talking about how trying new things 
sometimes takes courage, with an example being when 
Listen to these young writers telling you how they needed 
to have courage:

Do you remember a time when you needed courage to try something new?

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Measuring Ingredients and Baking Biscuits

The topic for Our World, Our Numbers this week 
is recipes and measurement.

We used our measuring skills in B4 to make Anzac biscuits using the recipe from the Edmonds Cookbook - many homes in New Zealand would have a copy of this cookbook!

We noticed that Anzac biscuits also featured in 4KM and 4KJ's  post this week!

Anzac biscuits:
125 g (4ozs.) flour                                    100g (3 1/2 ozs.) butter
150 g (6ozs.) sugar                                  1 tablespoon golden syrup
1 cup coconut                                           1/2 teaspoon bicarb soda
1 cup rolled oats                                       2 tablespoons boiling water

Mix together flour, sugar, coconut and rolled oats.
Melt butter and golden syrup.
Dissolve Bicarb. Soda in the boiling water and add to butter and golden syrup.
Make a well in the centre of the flour and stir in the liquid.
Place in spoonfuls on the trays.
Bake 15 to 20 minutes at 180˚C. (350˚F)

We measured the flour and sugar with these scales.
They have both metric and imperial units on them.
We used the metric units.


We needed a cup each of coconut and rolled oats, so we used our measuring cup.

We needed 100g of butter. 
How many lots of 100g are in our block of butter?

The biscuits were laid out in an array on the baking tray.

How many biscuits on our tray?
We made 3 trays of biscuits, so how many biscuits did we make?

Finally it was time to enjoy the biscuits!


Do you do baking at home?

What do you like to make?

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Our World, Our Numbers: Topic 3 Measurement and Recipes

On Our World, Our Numbers this week, our buddies 'Room With a View' from England put up a post with a
delicious recipe for 20 gingerbread cookies.

In B4, Jia Xuan and Tarris used the place value equipment while working out how to double the recipe 
to make 40 cookies.


In New Zealand we measure using metric units, such as kilograms, grams, metres, kilometres, litres and millilitres.


Some of our buddies measure using imperial units, such as pounds, ounces, miles, yards, pints and gallons.

Why don't you head over to Our World, Our  Numbers 

Monday, March 11, 2013

Swim for Life

The Year 3's are having a series of 10 swimming lessons in a special program 
called 'Swim for Life'.
They are all trying new things in the pool and we talked about how some activities take a lot of courage if you haven't done it before.
Watch out later in the week for some student writing about  courageous moments! 




Tell us about your courageous moment!

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Our World, Our Numbers -Topic 2: Landmarks

Our global project 'Our World, Our Numbers' got off to a great start last week with lots of conversations about currency.

The latest topic is landmarks and monuments,
 along with their statistics.

In B4 we made a list of New Zealand landmarks 
that we knew of. 

Jordan suggested the Sky Tower in Auckland (our tallest tower at 328 metres / 1,076 feet).
Jia Xuan suggested Mt Cook (our tallest mountain at 3,754 metres / 12,316 feet).

In our region we have the Pancake Rocks at Punakaiki.
Pancake Rocks, Punakaiki
By Christian Michel [CC-BY-2.0], By Christian Michel [CC-BY-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

These rocks began forming 30,000,000 years ago!

Can you see how the Pancake Rocks got their name?
Have you ever visited the Pancake Rocks?
What other New Zealand landmarks would you add 
to the list?

Friday, March 1, 2013

Problem Solver, Thinker .... or Vandal?

In art this term we are looking at birds.
We've already looked closely at the pukeko and now we're looking at keas.
Our class mascot Quicksilver is VERY happy about that. 
He's been busy preening his feathers to make 
himself look beautiful. 
Can you see a little flash of orange under his wing?

Quicksilver would like to show you this video about keas.
The video shows how clever keas are. 
(Quicksilver is a little embarrassed about the destruction his family can cause, but he is proud that keas are such great problem solvers and thinkers!)
Did you think the keas were clever?
How do you go about solving problems?