Philippines typhoon fundraiser

Today our school raised over $1200 to help people living in the Philippines recover from the typhoon. Charlotte G and the charity ambassadors made a coin trail and we all brought a gold coin to school to donate. The photos are of us looking at all the money we raised! 

Buddy class exploration

Today it was sunny so we took our buddy class, Room 16, outside to go exploring with magnifying glasses. 

ANTARCTICA DAY

Here is Room 7 all dressed up in our fabulous costumes on Antarctica Day. Don't we look amazing!

"One Hundred Word Challenge"

This week we have entered the "One hundred word challenge" for the first time. If you click on the link to the right you can read this weeks entries. The theme was a spooky, Halloween-type description of a scary creature.

Apologies to Ethan and Halina- your story is still uploading to Google Drive and may not be available until morning :-(

Calendar Art

Today we finished our calendar art, and I've posted below a picture of your child's artwork for you to view before placing an order.

Don't they look wonderful?!

Angus and the honeycomb

Angus had a bee swarm in his garden last night. His next door neighbour has a beehive and came over to get the bees. Angus brought in today the wax honeycomb that the bees left behind. When we looked closely we could see pollen and even a couple of dead bees! 

Dinosaur games #1

During the holidays, some students have been creating dinosaur games to challenge our dinosaur knowledge and reinforce the dinosaur learning that happened last term. Below you can see Sophia, Erin and Sam M playing their games with some of their friends

Making dinosaur fossils

This afternoon we make dinosaur fossils using clay and plaster. Tomorrow, when they are dry, we will uncover our fossils and see how they have turned out.

Here we are pressing the fossil imprint  into clay

Here we are stirring the plastere ready to pour into the mold

After we pour the plaster, we wait for 24 hours for the  mold to dry

A visit from a fossil expert

On Wednesday we were very lucky to be visited by a real life fossil hunter! He talked to us about how fossil hunters do their job, and showed us some of the different fossils he'd found over the years, including a dinosaur footprint! 

Being number ONE in the world!

Sam is a mathletics STAR! He has been #1 in the daily ranking both for New Zealand and the WORLD a number of times over the last few months! An earthquake during the last school assembly thwarted Sam from receiving his "Star Student" award from Lone Star, but he was presented it today in class. Well done Sam, we are so very proud of your achievement! 

Gymnastics

It was our last day of gymnastics on Tuesday. We have been learning how to balance on the floor and on the beam, as well as how to vault safely.

Our Writing

As the year progresses, we are learning to write in increasingly descriptive ways. At the moment we are looking at a couple of descriptive techniques (AFSAS) to create 'punchy' sentences. See how well we are doing!

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"Swimming" 

The Lake: I see a big fridge with a bowl of melted (still freezing) ice. (Oscar)

I was trying to get in slowly, with macaroni shaking legs, when the pebbles flew away from under my feet. (Sam M)

It’s dark, its damp, its dreadful! (Kahu)

I tried to get in slowly but.... Splash! I fell in. (Maz)

I hated swimming. It gave me the chills. Brrrrrrr. As I slid into the icy cold water it rose quickly and snatched my breath away. (Holly)

“I don’t want to go swimming. It is horrible. It is too cold” I mumbled to my self (Erin)

I hated swimming! It was always too cold, especially in the lake. (Millie)

Sometimes, but not often, Mr Dobson would take us to the icy cold beach. I tried to make myself vomit  so I didn’t have to go.  (Baxter)

Shivering, I reluctantly got in. (Sophia)

I can feel the sloppy moss-covered stones slipping between my toes and rubbing against my feet, as I swam around the icy cold water.  (Henry)

Multimedia Volcanoes

We are finishing the painting of our volcanoes, and are now applying some multimedia elements- bark, sand and glitter... Looking good Room 7! 

A Volcano chaser visits Room 7!

Mr Ross, Sandy's dad, is a volcano chaser! He travels the world filming erupting volcanoes. Today he visited Room 7 and showed our class some amazing films of volcanoes in different stages of eruption. The picture of Sandy and Ian in front of the Icelandic volcano was great! We also got to hold lava that Mr Ross had collected when it was only 3 minutes old!

Thanks Mr Ross for coming and talking to us, we really enjoyed it. 

'Mantle of the Expert' being used in Room 7

Ms Gain, Room 7's teacher when Mr Dobson has Associate Principal release days, has been teaching using 'Mantle of the Expert' each Friday in Room 7. She has made this blog so you can follow the amazing things your child does each Friday. As you can see from the photos and discussion, powerful learning can happen when children are role playing!

Plate Tectonics

Watch this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmC-vjQGSNM

Then with your buddy, using Comic Life, explain "What is Plate Tectonics?"

Make sure your page has:-

• sentences explaining key ideas
• pictures that re-enforce the key ideas 
• is clear to read and easy to understand. 

 

Installing the refreshed Pou

Last week saw the newly refreshed Pou being blessed and introduced to the school. The Pou, the big, beautiful poles you can see in the video, represent our place in the world. In the future, no matter where we end up living, be it locally or on the other side of the world, there will be a little spot in Muritai that belongs to us.

Cross country fitness

We are outside every morning , weather permitting, getting fitter and ready to compete in the school cross country.

Room 7 Orchestra

Today our class orchestra performed their lovely piece of music! The class has been practising with Mrs Hooke for a number of weeks now. Don't they sound GREAT!!!

Looking back over Term One

What has been the best thing we've done this term? Leave a comment below...