We have finished our placemats!

Here is a slideshow showcasing our finished placemats!
Well done Whio- very cool!
Our Kowhaiwhai Inspired Placemats on PhotoPeach

James' new baby brother!

On Friday at 4.40pm my baby brother was born. He is really small and cute! He cries all the time and he sleeps a lot. Here is a special poster I made about him using pages.

I have printed these off to send to my family.
James.

John Keys Speech

This is a really inspirational speech John Key made yesterday. Write your thoughts on it by writing a comment

Christchurch Earthquake

Here is a video from some of the first footage of yesterdays earthquake.


We are shocked about the Christchurch earthquake so we decided to write some prayers
for the people in Christchurch.

We are all thinking of you down in Christchurch,we are currently brainstorming how we can help.Watch this space...

Mathletics Madness!

For the last 3 weeks we have been using Mathletics at school and at home as a way of learning and practicing our maths in a fun way. Each week if we get 1000 or more points we get a certificate. This week all these children got one!

Go Whio -Maths Superstars!

This is what one look's like close up

Bailey's Certificate

Jordan and Julia did really well this week and scored over 3000 points each. They received an extra prize from Mrs T. Well done girls.

Jordan and Julia- Superstars!

We interviewed a few students to see what they enjoy about Mathletics;
Jordan -'Its a fun way to learn Maths!"
Julia- ' Its easy if you know what you are doing and it makes maths fun!'
Holly- "It has helped me learn my positive and negative numbers"

Bailey- I like to earn credits on Live Mathletics so I can buy my avatar new things!"

Bailey's Avatar

Mrs Thomas " I love the way everyone is so enthusiastic about Maths- So often when they have finished a task in class its; "Can I go on Mathletics?"!!

Week 3

Maori fishing hooks and sinkers

Hi!! Julia and Chloe here to tell you about our third exciting week in 2011. We went on a science trip to the Mapua Aquarium and to the McKee reserve in Ruby Bay ( see photo's) to find some shellfish and some little beach animals such as a variety of crabs and shells, little shrimps and cats eyes. In the aquarium we fed the fish since it was feeding day. Then we went to the discovery room and Richard, a man who works at the aquarium, thought us all about the Maori and the early fishing that they did.

A Maori drill we used to drill holes.

A huge stingray we saw in the aquarium.

Our class also got to keep a huge cray fish shell that a crayfish sucked it's body out of to be able to grow bigger.

A crayfish we caught on a Maori inspired hook.

We also tried to fish with a flax net but we didn't manage to catch anything because the fish broke the net.  It is really interesting to be able to learn about the rocky shore since it is very important to New Zealand and also because you get to learn about all the little creatures under the rocks and in the rock pools.

1. 

Our rocky shore searchers at the McKee reserve

Finding rocky shore creatures.

 


Here are some facts we either heard from Richard or facts that we found in the aquarium:

• An octopus only lives for about 18 to 24 months; The red eared turtle is native to Southern U.S.A 
• There is more oxygen in cold water than in warm  water.

In the afternoon we went to the McKee reserve to observe little sea creatures such as: crabs , starfish, worms, anemonies, barnacles shrimps and sponges, mussel shells, limpets and seaweeds. We then put everything we found together and shared  all the different 'stuff' we found. From this I learned that there are about 5000 tiny animals under a single rock.

  We had swimming every day of this week at the ASB Aquatic Centre to improve our swimming skills for swimming sports.

In class we have carried on with our novels, Silverstream, Hatchet and Island of the Blue Dolphins. we are now up to chapter 3 and we are getting to know the characters more and more.

We have nearly finished our placemats with the Koru designs as a border. It has been a very cool week with the field trip  and we hope we have some more field trips over the year.

First Week Back

 Hey, Rachel and Claudia here to tell you about our first  full week back! We are two year eight girls
( not our best picture!) and we have been at this wonderful school since we were five. 
We began the week with our very first Technology lesson of the year at Garin College! Mrs Rowling (a teacher from Garin) has us for Fashion Design/Textiles. We had heaps of fun using the sewing machine and learning how to set them up.

  We have also been designing our very own  place-mats on the computers based on 'INNOVATION!' We all have been using our creative side with photos and colours. They have all been split into four sections: reminders, goals, what 'Innovation' means and about me. I think we are all very impressed on how they turned out.

  In our Reading groups - Investigators, Explorers, Inquirers and Discoverers - we have just read the first chapters of our new novels: Island of the Blue Dolphins, Silver Stream, and Hatchet. When we were done we did some vocab work on some of the more challenging words in our book. 

  Maths groups have been sorted out into : Ratios, Fraction, Decimals and Percentages. We are all doing different types of work on place value. We are both really enjoying this part of math because we are learning something new.
  In science we have been learning about the Rocky Shore and its creatures. Next week we are going on a field trip to McKee reserve which is near Ruby Bay, it'll be really interesting to see all the creatures there and will be alot of fun. 

Last of all, in Integrated Studies we have been learning about how our ancestors came to New Zealand and adapted to the environment around them. We have gathered a group of 17 questions that we would like answered before the end of this topic.
We have really enjoyed the new IPads this week. There are lots of fun apps and we have set up the new pod with both laptops and IPads to share.
This week has been a great start to the year and hope the rest of the term is just as exciting. 

 On Laptops, doing Dance Mat Typing.

 Some of our digitally produced place mats.

 Rocky Shore Collection table.

 Questions for our integrated studies.

Novels we are reading.