Worm Farm by Emma

this week our inquiry is to make a year 3&4 worm farm.We have been working so hard to get as far as we have,we're already up to putting the worms from MR. Eames. How to make the worm farm is simple first you plan how you are going to make the worm farm second, you make the worm farm third, you set up the worm farm with soil,shreded paper and food and put them in after that you're ready for the worms!!!
By Emma

World of Maths

On Tuesday we went to the "World of Maths" interactive workshop in the Hall. We spent an hour solving all sorts of different mathematical problems. Most problems were 'hands on' and involved strategic thinking, with plenty of opportunity to experiment with the different possible solutions.

Worm Farms!

What have we been up to lately?

Our school garden inquiry has been focussed on worm farms and composting. We visited the Year 7-8 compost and looked at what we could use the compost for.



We now have our Y3-4 compost bin up and running in the garden outside Room 7 and 8.


We visited the Y7-8 worm farm and Mr Eames talked to us about how to look after a worm Farm.






We then spent some time improving our mindmapping skills while researching what worms do that make them valuable enough to ‘farm’





We are really excited about building our own worm farm this afternoon.

Kapa Haka

Each Thursday, Room 7 spends time with Mr Chadwick learning different Waiata during our kapahaka lesson. This week he taught us how to sing "Me he Manu Rere"




We have also learned a rakau (stick) game to go with the song "E papa waiari". The link below shows the actions of the song and shows how much fun it is!

Photos from Eastbourne, UK.

Our Room 7 children have been helping out a class of Year 3 students from Eastbourne, UK. We have been telling them all about Eastbourne, NZ in a special blog which you can visit by clicking on the sidebar link.

Mr Diplock, the teacher of the Year 3 class, has sent some photos of the UK Eastbourne to look at. Eastbourne UK looks so much bigger than our small village!

How snails move

Listen carefully to what the narrator has to say about snails. Do you agree with with everything he says?

Snails

This term's science focus is on garden animals. We will investigate how some animals are 'good' for the garden, and how others are 'not so good'. Emma and Bridie brought some snails to school and they are now happily living in their new home. Having snails in the classroom means we can closely observe their normal habits, such as when they eat, sleep and how they move about.

Leaving comments

I have been made aware of an issue that may be blocking people from leaving comments on both my teaching blog, and the Room 7 student blog. I have now changed some blog settings, and there should no longer be any problems leaving comments.

New 'writing blog' entries

The Room 7 students have recently added new pieces of writing to our classes writing blog.

You can read this writing by clicking on the link to the right.

Learning a new language

In Room 7, as well as learning to speak in Te Reo Maori, we have also been learning to count to 20 in a number of different languages.

We are lucky enough to have students in our class who can speak other languages, and they have been teaching the rest of us how to count to 20 in the other language they know. Margarita has taught us how to count to 20 in Spanish, Matthew, in French, Harry, in Italian, Emma, in Japanese, and Maya, in German.

Above is a photo of Emma teaching us all how to count in Japanese.

Making a Garden #2

Last week we planted some lettuce, cabbage and carrots in the garden outside Room 7.

Here are some photos...





We are also going to try planting some plants under the big gum tree outside Room 7. But it's quite shaded so we will need to keep a close eye on the plants to see if they grow successfully.




We also were lucky enough to be given some strawberry plants from a parent, and planted these as well.

Call in and have a look at our vege garden!

Planting a vege garden

Room 7 has started to plant out some vegetables in our planter boxes. Over the net week we will be planting all sorts of different vegetables. We need to decide as a class what sort of vegetables might be suitable for this time of year. If you have a few ideas, suggest these to your child, who can then share during our discussion. Or, leave us a comment and we will read it. Thanks!

Arts Festival performances

This morning the children spent some time blogging personal responses to last Friday's trip into Wellington, to attend Arts Festival performances. Click the 'Writing Blog' link to the right, to read these posts.

World Maths Day

World Maths Day was today. Room 7 participated by logging in to www.worldmathsday.com and competing in a basic facts competition against other children from around the world.
Below are some photos of us taking part.

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!

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!

"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.

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.

Meet the class of 2009!