It has been a busy week.

We are on the countdown until the school holidays now.

We carved flat out last week, and made it to the sculpture unveiling ceremony on Thursday morning. We were very lucky that Arch Deacon Harvey Ruru came and blessed our work. It looks great - take a look at our other blog site for more on the sculptures.

The Christmas carols on Wednesday night were fun. Lots of singing, even though it was hard to hear with the windy weather! The kapa haka girls looked lovely in their white clothes and angel wings.

The whole kapa haka group performed in the hall on Thursday afternoon. They were fabulous! Well done guys.

On Friday we had Tabloid sports - lots of water and lots of fun. I don't think anyone managed to remain dry, especially with Mr Wemyss "accidentally" getting people with buckets of water or the hose!

Only 2 and a half days to go now. We have moved from Room 14 to Room 9, but we still feel like we are room 14!

ENJOY YOUR HOLIDAYS AND MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Mr Science

Mr Science (Sterling) has been taking each class for 3 sessions. We had one session on magnets, one session on flight, and one session on lazer pointers and reflection. Here are some photos of us as budding scientists!

Sculpture planning

Today Ian Longley came to our class to help us plan ideas for our Smart Art sculpture.

We used wooden blocks to plan our sculpture instead of the limestone so that it didn't make a mess!

Then we had some carving practice on our limestone blocks (Oamaru stone).

Go to the link at the right of this page to see how our art is progressing.......

Isobella

I am new in room 14. I have made heaps of friends and my mum has a new job and dad has too. I've enjoyed this week, doing swimming because it's the best. I've made friends with Anahera, Rebecca, Kieran, Kyle, Finnian, Olivia, Elicia, Deon, Erica, Del'chez, Sophie, Brenton, Hannah, Janaya, and Maya.

Isobella

Maths- fractions

We started doing FRACTIONS 2 days ago. The bigger the bottom number on a fraction, the littler the fraction is.

Jack S

maths developmental 2

Maths developmental

Today we were able to choose our maths equipment because we have finished our TIME topic and will start a new topic on FRACTIONS on Monday.

Here are some pictures of us, and the equipment we decided to use. Lots of innovative thinking and team work involved!

Computer Suite time

This week we have been working on pictures of Maui and the Sun.

We read the Maori legend and have been making Kidpix pictures about the story.

We will add some words with the easispeak next week.

We are also making a big book in class - retelling the legend in our own words.

Wow! Congratulations Room 14! You are a great bunch!

I am amazed at how many of you are using the FREE RICE link on our blog to donate grains of rice to 3rd world countries. The questions are pretty tricky but you are using PERSEVERANCE and feeding heaps of people!

Well done, I'm very proud of you!

Kim x

Gymnastics

At gymnastics, going round on the bar was awesome.

Kieran

Art

On Monday when we came back to school I realised that we had a new Inquiry topic. I wondered what it was about, and then I found out when Kim started talking about it. It was interesting and we've got some people that might help us out with sculpting things. We have to design and create a piece of artwork to go outdoors at our school.

Leah

Maths - Time

We have been working on Months and Days of the Week. We have a list of the months. My birthday is in October. October is in Spring.

Arlya

What did you do in your holidays.....?

Make a comment about your holidays.....

Welcome back to Term 4

Hi everyone,

Welcome back to school for term 4.

Remember that wearing hats is compulsory this term. Summer is coming!

We will be swimming later in the term once the pool is clean and warm.

Teacher Only Day is the day after Labour Day, so you get an EXTRA LONG weekend. School is closed on that day.

I hope you all had a good break. A strange mix of weather!

I spent the 2 weeks with the Nelson Youth Theatre company, helping out with their production of "Annie". It is fantastic to see such a huge bunch of kids (about 80), all giving up their holidays to rehearse and perform. It is very encouraging to see such a great group of kids, from all ages and backgrounds, mixing together and enjoying themselves.

Well done to Leah in room 14, who was a wee star! I could see you enjoyed yourself Leah, and you are a natural on stage!

Thank you to all the audience members I saw coming and going. Hope you enjoyed the show!

And now we look forward to another exciting term in Room 14. Lots to happen before we wind down for christmas. Looking forward to seeing you all back in the class tomorrow.

Kim

I will set up another post, just for comments about what you did in your holidays, so feel free to add to the comments.

Enjoy your holidays everyone!

It has been a very busy term, but we've had heaps of fun. Enjoy your break and see you back here, and refreshed in term 4.

A HUGE thank you to all our parent help this term. I am constantly amazed at the generosity of the parents in Room 14. We love having you part of our classroom, and appreciate everything you do for us.

THANKS!

Book Week - a great end to term 3

book character day on PhotoPeach

Folkdancing from around the world

On Tuesday this week the Junior School put on a folk dance display. The dances were from all around the world. Our class did the Twist. You can really see us twisting in these photos!

tennis coaching with greg

Room 14 had lots of fun with Greg and Cameron who came to show us some basic tennis skills. The local tennis club has an open day this weekend and some of us might go and check it out!

Tennis on PhotoPeach

Digging to China

Today we read the book "Digging to China" by Donna Rawlins. We thought of places that we would want to discover if we dug to the other side of the world.

We used our imaginations and some of our schools keys for learning to help us with our ideas.

The keys we used were: INNOVATIVE THINKERS, PROBLEM SOLVING, REFLECT.

Then we drew pictures of our new land and wrote about what we would find there.

Brenton went to China. Hannah went to Fairyland. Leah went to Crazyland. Sophie went to Auckland. Jack P went to Japan. Olivia went to England. Kyle went to Japan. Finnian went to Africa. Kieran went to the Space between Spaces. Josh went to Raratonga. Rebecca went to Dragons. Erica went to Fairyland Fiji. Maya went to China. Janaya went to Auckland. Deon went to China. Niklas went to Germany. Millie went to El Dorado. Jack S went to Heaven. Anahera went to Wellington. Elicia went to China.

Phil visits room 14

Phil came and talked to us about flight. He talked about how the flaps move up and down and if one goes up and the other one is flat, it will turn. He showed us that if we put a spoon under running water we can feel the water move the spoon. That showed us LIFT because the spoon is the same shape as a wing.

We dressed up in pilot suits, with hats too. The captain suit had 4 stripes, the 2nd in command has 3 stripes and the person who is the youngest has 2 stripes. They are golden stripes.

He talked about DRAG LIFT and THRUST. Drag is when the wheels are down it will go much slower, because the air has to pass over the wheels aswell. People think that planes go slow in the air but they actually go fast.

The propellors make THRUST.

Phil talked about when cars move. Rounded cars move better than bumpy cars because of the DRAG on the bumps. They are STREAMLINED when they are smooth.

He also told us about the JET STREAM that comes out the back of the plane and it happens when the air is the right temperature. It turns to ice.

Millie

winging it

Room 14 has been doing Flight for our topic. On Friday 4th September we are making some flight things. They have to carry a lego person.

Sophie

Tree planting

Today we went tree planting with NELMAC, at Corder Park in Atawhai.

The weather cleared up for us and it was hot work digging the holes for the new trees.

There were some grasses, some flax, some kowhai and other native trees.

Some people planted dozens of trees! We must have planted over a hundred!!

It will be great to watch them grow as the months go by.

Here is a slide show of our morning planting.

Science Fair

We have been participating in the science fair, using our inquiry unit on Flight, as a base for a scientific investigation.

We decided to find out what paper plane flies the longest distance.

We tested 5 different designs and found out that the one that was the easiest to make, and had less folds flew the longest distance.

Dinosaurumpus

One of our favourite class books is Rumpus Bumpus Dinosaurumpus. You can see it on our blog book shelf.

We decided we would draw pictures of dinosaurs in the same colourful style that the illustrator used in the book.

Then the Blue Reading Group read the book onto the easispeak microphone and we added the words to photos of our artwork. Here is our finished podcast. Enjoy!

Making paper planes was hard work. Following paper-folding instructions was difficult. BUT..... flying paper planes on a windy day was nearly impossible! Check out our slide show..... there will be more flight photos to come as we delve deeper into our inquiry topic.

Statistics

We are learning about Statistics and have been doing some statistical investigations. We have thought of questions to investigate, collected data, sorted the data, and made different graphs. Then we looked at our graphs and made comments about what we found out.

We know that it is important for a graph to be clear, careful and colourful so you can see the results clearly.

Collecting and sorting data....

Making the graph...

Term 3 is here!

Welcome back to school. I hope you all had a great holiday. I sure did!

There is alot happening this term. Our inquiry topic is "winging it", and we will be having a Flight Extravaganza in about 6 weeks time. Look at for that.

I had fun in the holidays buying new games for the class. A BIG THANKYOU TO THE HOME AND SCHOOL COMMITTEE FOR GIVING US MONEY FOR NEW CLASS GAMES!!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!

Enjoy your break everyone.

You have all worked really hard this term, and deserve a good, relaxing, fun holiday.

If you check in on our blog site during the holidays, leave a comment here to tell me what you've been up to.

I'm off to the Sounds for a few days and will hopefully get some skiing done if Rainbow opens their slopes.

Take care and I'll see you all in 2 weeks!

Kim

The literacy cycle

We have been working on a LITERACY CYCLE in Room 14. This is where we brainstorm good writing ideas, adding interesting words, using punctuation, and publish our work in an interesting way. Then we view our own work and other people's work, and reflect on it, before we start the cycle again.

Here are some photos of us publishing our work. Some people chose to publish onto the easispeak. We can put the recorded stories into the computer and listen to them. Some people decided to do a kidpix picture to go with their recordings. 2 girls in Room 14 decided to publish their work onto themselves and wear it for the day to see how many people would read it! Look at all the signatures!

Others have donated their writing to classes to read and respond to.

We are having fun "getting our writing out there", and reading others work.

Get Well Soon Elicia!

We made cards for Elicia. She has been very sick. We really miss her smiling, happy face, and hope she can come back to school soon. Enjoy your cards Elicia.

Love from Kim and Room 14 xxx

Snow Angels

Today the ground looked like it was snowing. Erica, Maya and me skied on the ice. The water fountains froze over. Some people wrote their names in the ice. Some people lay on their backs. It felt freezing and our hands froze off. We're lucky that we've got great heaters in our classroom.

Hannah