MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Well, last day in Room 2 tomorrow for all of us! We had 2 visitors on Tuesday, Mrs Cody and little Eva...she is gorgeous! Mrs Cody looks great and all is well- we asked a few questions about Eva, including whether she would get eyebrows!
Yesterday we went for another fun swim, and today we watched the Y3-6 Rehearsal for their Christmas concert, which was fantastic and involved lots of singing, dancing and playing instruments. We have our final assembly tomorrow, before finishing at 1pm.
So this year is coming to an end, but we are all looking forward to a new year in a new classroom. For my part I am really glad to have shared Term 4 with you Room 2, thank you! Judging from the blog for Terms 1-3 it certainly looks like you have had a fun, busy year! Thanks to all the parents who have helped out this year, and remember to keep reading over the holidays...have a fantastic holiday Room 2 and a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

The week before Christmas!

What an exciting time we've been having. Tis the glitter season and we have been busy making cards, candles and lanterns among other things. We wrote our letters to Santa and posted them to the North Pole, and received letters back from Santa a few days later! We had our Christmas concert and sang beautifully in our red and green Christmas clothes. We also had a fun swim at the pool and got all the floats and balls out to play with. We met our new teachers for next year... AND it's not finished yet...we still have a few more days left in Room 2!

Term 4's Inquiry

This term we have been looking at playgrounds, and how we move on the equipment. We have slid, jumped and twisted at Muritai playground, climbed and crawled at Bishop's Park playground, and turned, twisted and glided at Avalon Park. We talked about how each of these movements requires a push or a pull. Then we thought about what we would like, and designed and made our own playgrounds, also thinking about how we would make our equipment move. The result: amazing slides, fantastic swings and a wide range of other equipment including monkey bars, rock walls, and even roundabouts! Well done Room 2- a great term's Inquiry!

Christmas at Capital E!

On Tuesday, as part of EOTC week, we went to Capital E's Christmas Woodland. We posted our wishes in the Wishing Tree in the Christmas woodland area, played Christmas games with and heard a story from Santa's elves, and climbed a rock wall! Then we made a Christmas decoration to take home. We had a great time, and a big thank you to mums and dads who came with us!

EOTC Week- fun in the sun!

What a busy week! We were so lucky to have such fantastic weather for our EOTC week- have a look at the photos from Avalon Park and our parachute games!

Cricket

Today Charlie and Raj came from the Westpac Stadium to give us some cricket coaching. We learned about the 3 important skills of batting, fielding and bowling, and practised each of them in teams. We learned to keep our arms straight when bowling, and to really watch the ball. When rolling the ball to each other we need to keep our fingers on the ground so we catch the ball. As the coaching was sponsored by Milo, we were given a goody bag with all sorts of cricket cards and posters, and a sachet of Milo for afternoon tea. We had a great afternoon, thanks guys!

Happiness!

Today we wrote a class poem about Happiness! We had lots of ideas about what made us happy and these were some of the suggestions....

Happiness is making new friends in the playground.

Happiness is playing with my dog in the park.

Happiness is receiving a present I've wanted for a long time.

Happiness is eating lots of very sweet honey on fresh bread.

Happiness is catching a big fish in the harbour.

Disco Fever!

What a busy week we had last week, Junior athletics, the beginning of Christmas concert practise, and finally the Disco on Friday evening! We put our best clothes on and danced the night away. A big thank you to all the Parents who made it all possible.

Athletics

On Tuesday we were lucky enough to have a beautiful day for Junior Athletics. Everyone took part and really enjoyed the events. This is what we had to say about it:

Yesterday I did athletics it was fun. I liked high jump the most. There were six activities. One was long jump, high jump, tennis ball throwing, sprints, shotput and quoits. Kahu

Yesterday I did athletics. It was fantastic! I loved the sprints! Rufus

Yesterday I won high jump and long jump and I came third in the finals. Ryan

Yesterday we did athletics. It was cool. My favourite part was high jump because it was fun. Bridie

Yesterday we did athletics and my favourite was high jump. Daniel

My favourite thing in athletics is the high jump because I like jumping. What is your favourite? Noah

Yesterday my class went to athletics. We did running and it was spectacular. I came third. Edward

Next week is swimming...!

Reading Response

As part of this week's Reading Response, the Whero Group acted out their play "The Cardboard Box" for us. What could you make out of a cardboard box? Superb reading and acting, well done!

Maths this week

We have been practising our number bonds using the Save the Whale game . Find it on http://www.ictgames.com/save_the_whale_v4.html

We've also been looking at capacity, and today we tried to guess which of these containers would hold more than or less than a litre.

Fireworks

This week we watched and listened to a clip of fireworks and made a list of wow words. We then made some firework pictures using glitter, crayons, paint prints and added some of our wow words. Enjoy the fireworks this weekend and stay safe!

Ballet

Last week we had some lessons from a ballet teacher in the hall. This is what we thought:

On Tuesday we went into the hall to do ballet. We learnt how to do lovely steps and we did it with Room3. It was cool. Jasper

On Tuesday we did ballet. We did steps, actions and creeping. It was in the hall. The ballet teacher was Shannon and at the end we did jumps over the river. It was fun because we did lots of things. Oscar

On Tuesday I went to the hall to get taught for ballet steps. We learned some moves from the olden days. The person that taught us the steps was Shannon. We did it after morning tea and it was fun. We did some steps that I do at my ballet. Alana

Yesterday we went to the hall. There was a ballet dancer and I was excited because I thought that we were going to be dancers. The first thing he did was to introduce himself his name was Shannon. We learnt some moves and we learned some actions it was exciting. Sophia

On Tuesday at school in the hall we learnt lots of steps. Shannon was the man who taught us the ballet steps. It was great fun! Eliza

This week we are going to see some of the RNZ Ballet's 'The Nutcracker'.

Reading Response

We have been reading The Robber Fox and discussing wow words to describe what he was like. Then we drew him and used crayons and dyes to illustrate the picture.

Athletics

On Wednesday we took advantage of the fine weather and practiced some athletic skills. These are photos of us practicing relays and long jump. After we learnt the skills needed for each activity, we got to practice them. When we got back to class we made a list of the skills we needed to use to achieve the best results.

These are the skills we shared with one another:

Long Jump
I need to use one strong leg to push myself forward
I need to land on two feet
I can fling my arms forward so I can push myself further forward

Relays
I need to put one arm behind me so I am ready for the next runner
I need to use my arms and legs to give myself power to run fast
I need to sprint to the next runner
I need to look forward so I know where I am going

Friday with Ms Gain

Today we had a classroom focus on Japan. We had a visit from Tim Fieldes who lives in Japan. We sent a class Flat Stanley to visit Tim in Japan last term. Tim is now visiting New Zealand so he came in to talk to us about what it was like having Flat Stanley to visit. He also answered lots of our questions about Japan.

Questions for Tim


DOES JAPAN LOOK LIKE NEW ZEALAND?

Tim showed us a map of New Zealand and a map of Japan. We saw that New Zealand had 3 islands and Japan had 4. Japan is a little bit bigger than New Zealand but there are 30 times more people living there! Tim lives on the middle island called Honshuu, which he said looks like a banana. He said the top island in Japan is the coldest and the bottom island the warmest. In New Zealand our North Island is warmer than the South island, this was interesting to think about.

HAVE YOU BEEN ON A BULLET TRAIN?

Yes. Tim had been on a bullet train and he told us about travelling from Osaka to Tokyo. He said it would take 8 hours to drive but it only takes 2 hours by bullet train. He said bullet trains move so smoothly you don’t feel anything, and can go to sleep very easily.

Tim also told us that a lot of people in Japan travel by trains because there are so many people living in Japan there wouldn’t be enough room for everyone to drive cars.

CAN YOU EAT WITH CHOPSTICKS?

Yes, Tim uses chopsticks to eat with a lot. Tim told us the difference between Japanese and Chinese chopsticks. Japanese chopsticks are pointy at the ends, like pencils. Chinese chopsticks are flat and straight. He said even though Japanese chopsticks are pointy you shouldn’t stab your food to pick it up because that is bad manners.

WHAT KIND OF ANIMALS LIVE IN JAPAN THAT DON'T LIVE IN NEW ZEALAND?
Tim told us about snakes and monkeys, which live in Japan.

HAVE YOU BEEN ON THE JAPANESE ROADS THAT ARE ABOVE THE CITY?

Yes. Tim talked to us about how the Japanese motorways are put on poles high above the city because there is no room on the ground.

IS YOUR WATCH FROM JAPAN?/DO YOU LIKE PINK?
Tim was wearing a brightly coloured watch with a pink face. He said these kind of watches are very popular in Japan at the moment and that lots of men in Japan wear pink.

Tim showing us his pink watch.



ARE THE SHOPS IN JAPAN LIKE THE SHOPS IN NEW ZEALAND?

Tim told us that most of the shops in the big cities in Japan are open all day and all night. There are a lot of toy shops, costume shops, and sushi shops.

WHAT KIND OF LOLLIES DO THEY HAVE IN JAPAN?
Tim showed us lots of different types of Japanese lollies including candy floss that pops in your mouth and lemonade candies in a lemonade bottle.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE MARTIAL ARTS?

We learnt that Tim’s favourite martial art in Japan is karate. He also talked to us about sumo wrestling and how the men try and use their strength and weight to push each other out of the ring.

We also learnt that Samurais are like Japanese knights who live in castles. The castles of the Samurais have curved red rooves and are decorated with gold to show the people inside are rich and powerful.

WHEN DID YOU LEARN TO SPEAK JAPANESE?
Tim learnt to speak Japanese at high school and then he moved to Japan where he learnt how to speak it really well.

Tim taught us how to say:
hello: konnichi wa
good morning Ms Gain: Gain Sensei Ohaiyoo Gozaimasu
thank you: arigato
goodbye: sayonara

After Tim’s visit we continued to learn about Japan with some more Japanese activities. We made some origami booklets, see the link to the video on the right hand side of this blog page to have a go at home. We also learnt about Children’s Day in Japan, which is a day that celebrates children. We did some colouring of Japanese children wearing traditional clothes and started making some carp kites, which are flown on Children’s day. Keep a look out for our finished carp kites next week!

Edward's Colouring

Jasper and Noah with their origami booklet.

Noah and Henry making their origami booklets.


Finally we said goodbye to Finn who is going to England for the rest of the year. We played a game of Fruit Salad and finished the day with chocolate cake and a goodbye song. Ka Kite Finn, we will miss you!

Finn sharing his farewell chocolate cake.

Holiday

This morning we shared places we had visited during our holidays and stuck our names alongside the place. Students visited many places throughout the North Island and South Island while others had fun staying in Wellington. We found it interesting how one student visited Cape Reinga which is right at the top of the North Island and another student visited Stewart Island which is right at the bottom of the South Island.
We heard some interesting stories about what people did and have started writing letters to one another describing what we did. We will blog some of these once we have finished.

Holidays

Remember to continue to read, practice your basic facts carriages, revisit your spelling rockets and practice them so you can accurately use them in your writing, play Maths and Literacy games through the links on the class blogs and have lots of fun with your family and friends!

Have a fantastic holiday break and see you on the 11th of October well rested and ready to learn!

Reading Response

Kowhai reading group read a non-fiction book about Giant Pandas. They used their note taking skills to record facts about pandas and then report back to the class. Here were some facts they shared with us:

• Most pandas live on their own
• Giant pandas are endangered animals
• Some babies are born in captivity and they need to be fed by hand
• They have black and white fur
• They love bamboo
• They live in Central China
• They live alone
• They do not hibernate

Production

The students put in so much effort towards learning and practicing their dance routines for the school production we decided to have a production party!!! Prior to the party we discussed what foods we could bring, remembering the food pyramid and what foods we should eat lots of, some of and little of.
We sat outside and had a delicious picnic with Room 4!

Buddies

This week we worked with Room 13 and used some of the computer skills we have been learning this term to draw on kid pix, write a comment on a Muritai School Blog, play Letterland, take photos on photo booth and play numeracy& literacy games on class blogs.
It was fun!

Friday with Ms Gain

Today we listened to the story of ‘The Three Legged Cat’ by Margaret Mahy. We then wrote some descriptions for the main characters in the story who were:

• Tom the three legged cat,
• Cyril the swagman, and
• Mrs Gimble of 7 Cardamom Street.

Here are some of our descriptions:

Oscar:
‘Tom the cat is a fat tabby tom cat. He is a three legged cat. He is a ginger cat. He is good at dreaming. He is good a snuggling up.’

‘Cyril the swagman travels around the world. He has a stinky old hat. He is a prowler. He is bald.’

‘Mrs Gimble doesn’ like earthquakes or prowlers and especially doesn’t like prowling through earthquakes. She likes furniture.’

Georgie:
‘Tom the cat is big. He is a 3 legged cat with a wooden leg. He is a ginger tabby cat. He is a warm cat which makes him a fantastic hat. He likes food. He dreams of exploring the world.’

Alana:
‘Tom the cat is good at curling his tail up and going to sleep. Tom is ginger and he dreams of going around the world.’

Noah:
‘The explorers hat is a cat with a broken leg. A cat who has warm fur and likes to go to sleep. That makes him the perfect hat.’

After we had all had a go at writing our own character descriptions we wrote one as a whole class as a piece of shared writing. This is what we came up with when we all worked together sharing our ideas:

‘Cyril is an adventurous swagman who likes to explore the world and sleep under the stars. He has an old scruffy Russian hat to keep his bald head warm when he prowls.

Cyril likes to talk about travelling around the world and the adventures he has. He doesn’t like talking about furniture polish or about the indoors. He likes the outdoors.

Mrs Gimble doesn’t like anything that prowls. She doesn’t like hearing about Cyril talk about prowling through earthquakes. It makes her scared and worried. She is always worried about what her nosey neighbours who pry and spy think about her brother.’


You can see in our writing that we tried to include:

• some long descriptive sentences AND short sentences,
• interesting words, and
• lots of information to really describe the character in detail.

Today we also continued work on our Flat Stanley project. We looked at Australia in detail today, using our atlases to find answers to questions about places in Australia including:

• Different cities including: Sydney, Brisbane, Canberra, Adelaide, Melbourne, Darwin, and Perth
• Uluru (Ayers) Rock,
• The Great Barrier Reef,
• The Tasman Sea, and
• Tasmania.

We also looked at the Australian flag and learnt that the stars on the flag symbolise the Southern Cross, which is a pattern of stars (constellation) that you can see from Australia (and New Zealand too). We also drew different Australian animals including: echidnas, koalas, crocodiles, platypuses, kangaroos, snakes, dingos, wombats and more.




We finished the day with the story of ‘Josephine Wants to Dance’ by Jackie French. This was an appropriate book because the ballet came to Muritai School this week and the book was full of Australian animals including brolgas and lyrebirds, which were new to many of us.

Royal NZ Ballet

On Wednesday we had some dancers from the Royal NZ Ballet perform for us. They started with warm ups, we were amazed how flexible the dancers were! After the warm up they showed us 4 different dances. The men used crutches for one dance and the girls danced to a Lady Gaga Song, they were fantastic! We loved the show!!!

We got time to ask the dancers some questions, these were some questions we asked:
What are your ballet shoes made of? paper mache
How often do you need to buy new ballet shoes? 2 pairs a week, they are $100 a pair!
When did you start dancing? When I was 2, 6 and 14
How old are you? 18 years old, 22 years old, 24 years old.
How often do you practice? 5 days a week from 9.00am to 5.00pm