Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Blogging our writing



Today we published a piece of writing on the Room 7 publishing blog (see the sidebar to the right).

Click on the ' student publishing' link, then click your child's name in the label column, to see what they have written.

Please leave a comment on the writing- the children LOVE to read these.

Enjoy!

Friday, February 20, 2009

Week Three has been very busy as we establish the learning routine for the rest of the term. We have finished publishing our first piece of writing, which is a short description of someone we know really well. While drafting our description we were learning how similes could be used to make our writing descriptive. Our publishing is on display in Room 7 for you to come and read. Next week, we will publish the descriptions on the Room 7 writing blog (see the side bar for a link to this blog).

In Maths we have been revising our fractions knowledge, as well as plenty of place value/number knowledge practice. Each day we start Maths with some revision activities before group work begins with the teacher.

We are reading a shared novel called “Island of the Blue Dolphins”. The story is set in the distant past (some time during the 1800’s) on an island of the coast of California. A young teenage girl called Karana is left behind while he rest of her village evacuates the island after a tragic incident, and has to survive the dangers of the island by herself. Each child has made a map of the island, showing where different landmarks are, to help visualise the island a little better. Below is a photo of some of these maps.




Our inquiry into ‘friendship’ has focused on the skills needed to be a ‘good friend’,
The photo below shows Howie surrounded by ideas generated by the statement
“I like a friend who…”



During this inquiry we will also explore what skills are needed to keep friendships healthy and positive, and look at what to do when friendships go wrong.

Our daily fitness has been a mix of Swimming, Jump Jam and running activities and is keeping us on the go all week. The weather has been great for most of the week so it has been really easy to get out of the classroom for physical activity. Swimming groups are busy practicing swimming skills, ready for the Year 3-4 swimming sports on Tuesday 10th March at Eastbourne Pool.

Certainly Room 7 has started the year strongly!

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

"Belonging"



These pieces of art represent our 'belonging' to our classroom, Room 7. The inspiration came from famous New Zealand artist, Colin MacCahon. He painted pictures using ideas from the New Zealand landscape. We used his style to create a picture using our initials, and inspiration from the hills that surround Eastbourne.

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Day One

What a great day! Lots of enthusiastic children and lots of smiles! We spent some time today getting to know what the '4 C's" co-operation, consideration, courtesy and common sense- are all about. The 4 C's form Muritai School's 'code of behaviour' (you and I would have called them school rules when we were at school), and they also form the basis of our classroom treaty.

We spent time working co-operatively and independently thinking about what these concepts really mean, and as class we arrived at a common understanding for each. We were then able to sign off on our class treaty, which outlines they way we will behave in class this year.