Friday 19 April 2013

End of term one

Well the end came at last. What a busy few days we have had. If you are around the school over the holidays check out our noble pou. Protective spirits we have created from cardboard modeled on the ones we saw at the marae. Room 12 had a go at making some too.
The children were amazing today and managed to finish their art, make handmade ANZAC poppies and clean up the classroom including stacking chairs and moving furniture for cleaning all before lunch! What an awesome crew!
Enjoy your time with the kids and I'll see you all in two weeks. Please try to bring your portfolios back on the first day if you still have it.




Wednesday 17 April 2013

Student Led Conferences

Congratulations everyone who had their SLC's tonight. What a wonderful job you did. I am proud of you and I am sure our parents are too. You have worked very hard in a short space of time to reflect positively on your learning and be able to share it with your families so well. I can sleep well tonight...and so should you!

Thursday 11 April 2013

Our trip to the marae

What a wonderful trip to the marae we have had! The children tried their very best to follow the customs on the marae and did an excellent job. Top marks! How exciting to spend the day with Room 9 (and play relay racing in the dark) How strange to sleep in a beautiful room with 60 other people (only a little snoring!)
The mums and dads worked very hard to create lovely meals. Many thanks to Brendan, Chris, Kelly, Debs, Rachel, Erin, Michael, Bob...ooh have i forgotten anyone? I hope not, forgive me if i have and accept our huge thanks for a job well done.
6sess had the chance to present their storytelling at last. They did an excellent job and their audience was so impressed with the way they had made up the stories themselves, used their whole bodies to describe the details and spoke with clear confident voices. Ka pai.
It took a while to fit all the mattresses into the wharenui but soon we were all comfortably organised. We all slept surprisingly well and were so organised this morning we had an hour to spare to prepare for the powhiri. Once we had settled the classes from the main block we headed off to the Gorge to walk the Loop Track. What amazing views from the top and the big slip looks quite different from the top..a series of giant terraces like steps. Our legs got very tired but after a lofty lunch at the top of the big slip we were soon whizzing downhill back to the buses.
We will sleep well tonight...hopefully there won't be a fire alarm going off at 2 am this time!












Monday 8 April 2013

Marae preparation

Here we are learning the different steps of the powhiri and where we will be on the marae using a game that Joy has made. There are lots of things to remember but the more we talk about it the more confident we will feel tomorrow.





Practising for the Marae

We are learning some songs to sing on the Marae tomorrow. We are singing well. We are going to sing, Te Aroha, E Papa, Te Manu. Each song will be sung at different times during the powhiri and the activities. We will have to learn a stick game to go with E Papa.

Dinosaurs come to school

Harriet's dad has just come back from a trip to China for work and brought us back a present. A real dinosaur fossil. It is a Keichousarus or Guizhousaurus from Guizhou province. It is from the Early Triassic Period about 242 million years ago. What can you see? The long neck? The claws, the ribs?

Wednesday 3 April 2013

Storytelling

We have been exploring the art of storytelling for a while now. We have critiqued some real story tellers Joy found on YouTube. They were amazing. We soon figured out you have to use your voice, your hands and your body to tell your story.
Joy read us a whole collection of creation stories and it became clear that different people around the world had figured out ways to explain the world around them so we have devised stories that examine our world like " why do animals have skin? Why are bananas yellow? And how do clouds stay in the sky?
Here are our story prompts. Because we are storytellers we are learning our stories off by heart rather than writing them out. These picture prompts will help us remember what we need to include!
Ask us to give you a demo and help us with out gestures and expressions. Only 3 more school days until camp!


Sketching our reflections


20130308-142448.jpgWe have been learning how to sketch using three different shades of pencil- whispering is softly, talking is a bit harder and then shouting pencil is very dark. Cooper said, “it is kinda hard because you have to copy the other half of your face, and keep looking at drawing at the same time”. You have to try not ot draw lines but do everything with shading. “It is hard”, groaned the class!!!
W will be finished soon and they will be up on the wall.
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Buddy time art


We worked with our buddies to make twin trees from our handprints and leaf rubbings. Next week we are going to make backgrounds for them. We are learning to cooperate to achieve our goals. We had to draw around each others hands and share the leaves with everyone else. <;
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Reading time


We are getting better at reading to learn. This means that what we read might help us do a project, figure out how to make something, or help us teach someone else about what we now know. Today the Supers are learning how to make a pinata.
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The Excellents are finding out how to make bubble mixture and different kinds of blowers.
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And the Awesomes are each making a cartoon telling the story of the Trojan War. Two of them are writing it from the Trojan’s point of view and the others are writing as if they are the Greeks.
The Fabulouses are going to design a place for the shepherd boy who cried wolf to protect him and the sheep from the wolves.

Tuesday 2 April 2013

Okatia Legend

So we can be prepared for our trip through the Gorge in a couple of weeks here is the legend of Okatia my students made a couple of years ago.