Friday And The Flat Stanley Project.

This week we poured over maps and worked in groups to find information in atlases. We had an atlas treasure hunt where we had to use atlases to label outline maps of New Zealand, Australia, and Japan. We had to find out things including: the names of the 3 islands in New Zealand, where different major cities in Australia were, and the names of the four different islands that make up Japan. We are beginning to become real map reading experts!

We also addressed our own envelopes for posting our Flat Stanleys and we will be bringing them home to post this week.



Our Flat Stanleys - Ready for Adventure!

Heart Jam

On Friday the Year 1 & 2's took part in New Zealand's Largest Aerobic Class!! Heart Jam. Thank you to all the children who brought a gold coin donation in support of Kiwi Kids with heart conditions!

Yummy Stickers

Please bring along Yummy stickers to school and we can add to our chart, the more
stickers we get the more free sports equipment we can have for the school!!!

Frog life cycle

We have been learning about the frog life cycle. We used the internet and books to locate information and have used what we found to write an explanation for how frogs change.

Frogs always change a lot in the life cycle. First the frog lays an egg. Next the egg hatches! Then the tadpole comes out. Then it grows back legs. Next it grows front legs. The the tail gets smaller and smaller. Finally it turns into a frog! Then the life cycle goes round again.

By Oscar


Frogs always change a lot in their life cycle. First the frog lays eggs. Some times the frog lays its eggs under a lilly pad but sometimes it does not. Next the tiny tadpole cracks its egg and comes out of its egg. It grows back legs and then front legs. Finally it turns into a frog.

By Bridie

Heart Jam

This Friday at 10.00 the students will be partaking in Heart Jam which will be held in the hall.

Please remember to bring along a gold coin donation on Friday. Your donation will go towards babies who are born with a heart defect!

Thank you!!

Friday: Flat Stanley Project Update

Oscar and Jack Mapping

Jasper Mapping

We now have most of our addresses for our Flat Stanley project and we are really excited about all the different places our Flat Stanleys are going! Today we continued to mark on our world map where our Flat Stanleys are going. We revised our continent knowledge and learned the names of the major oceans in the world too:

The North Pacific Ocean
The South Pacific Ocean
The North Atlantic Ocean
The South Atlantic Ocean
The Indian Ocean

We have all made a good copy of a world map that has been coloured and labelled with the names of the 7 continents and major oceans. Ms Gain is going to laminate them for us and we will be able to bring them home next week to share.

Today we also finished our letters. It is hoped that next Friday the Flat Stanleys will be in their addressed envelopes ready for adventure!

Water to ice

We put water and green dye inside a glove and then put it inside the freezer. We discussed what would happen to the water. We knew it would turn to ice but wanted to find out why water changes into ice.
We found out everything living has particles called molecules. We used drama to learn about what happens to the molecules. Their are photos of us moving around quickly and then when we get cold we move slower and stick together to freeze.

We wrote some explanations here they are:

Why does water change into ice?
We put green dye and water in a glove. The molecules started to slowly cuddle up into ice.
By Georgie

Why does water change into ice?
First the molecules start off fast. When you switch the tap on the molecules start to go. When you put the water in the freezer the molecules go slow.
By Rufus

Why does water change into ice?
The molecules move fast to stop them from freezing but when it gets put in the freezer it gets cold and the molecules all freeze to death and they stick together.
By Noah

Why does water change into ice?
The molecules start to stick together.
By Sam

Wish bone in Vinegar update!

What we did:
We put some vinegar in a container but before we put it in we put a wishbone in. I think it will turn into ice cream. It was fun. After a lot of days we checked it but it didn’t turn to ice cream at all it turned soft and squishy.


By Holly


We poured the vinegar into the bowl. Next we put the wishbone into the container. I think it will grow more skin. After 7 days it felt spongy and it smelt like vinegar!

By Rufus


What we did was put some white vinegar and we put a wishbone into the vinegar. I think the wishbone will grow some skin and it is growing some skin! It’s white skin very white skin. After 7 days we felt it and it felt like a rubber band and it was soft.

By Leon

We put some white vinegar in a container. Next we put a wishbone in and left it for 7 days.
What I think will happen:
It will go white.
After 7 days we checked it. It felt slimy and soggy.

By Bridie

What we did:
We put the wishbone in the container. Next we left the wishbone.
What I think will happen:
I think it will grow new skin.
After 7 days we checked it and it was slimy.

By Edward

Friday And The Flat Stanley Project

On Friday we started learning about the different continents in the world. We learnt that there are 7 major land areas in the world called continents. The continents are:

Australasia (where New Zealand is)
Europe
Asia
Africa
North America
South America
Antarctica

We coloured in the continents on world maps and played Geospy, which is a game on the kids National Geographic website that tests you on your knowledge of the continents and countries. The link for this game is on the right hand side tool bar of this blog page if you want to try it at home!

We looked at some of the addresses that people have brought in so far and started to find these places on our map. We finished our Flat Stanleys and wrote a letter as a whole class to go in the envelope with our Flat Stanley to explain what we want people to do. This week we will address our envelopes and publish our letters. Then we will be ready to post our Flat Stanleys. We are all looking forward to learning more about the countries in the world through our Flat Stanleys' adventures.

Learning spelling words made fun!

Here are some ways you can help your child study their spelling words! If they choose one a night they will be ready for Friday’s spelling test!

Type ‘Em - Type all of your spelling words on the computer you can even email them to me!

Fancy Letters - Use old magazines, or newspapers to cut out letters and glue them down to spell your words!

Spelling Baseball - Draw four bases on a piece of paper or set up four chairs to be the bases. Pitcher selects a word. If batter can spell it correctly, he moves forward one base. If batter cannot spell word, he remains where he is. Child receives point every time he passes home base.

Spelling Bingo

Snowman or Scarecrow (Hangman) - Draw a snowman with a hat and three buttons. Play like hangman (don't forget to draw the lines to show how many letters the chosen word has), but show a part of the snowman for each guess. The object is to guess the word before the snowman melts.

Water Wash - (Warm day required!) Use a paintbrush and water to write your words on the sidewalk!

Trace Around - Print one of your spelling words neatly. Take a colored pen and draw an outline around the word, closely following the shapes of the letters. Close your eyes and remember the shape. Now try to write the word.

ABC Order - Write your words in alphabetical order. Then write them in reverse alphabetical order.

Riddle Me - Write a riddle for each word.

Connect the Dots - Make a square of 4 rows of dots with 4 dots in each row. Before taking a turn, the player must spell a spelling word. If the word is correct, he connects two dots. When a player forms a square, he can write his initials in the box. Player with most squares at the end wins.

Story, Story - Write a story using ALL of your spelling words.

Sentence Please - Write a sentence for each spelling word.

Colourful Words - Use two different colour pens to write your spelling words. Use one colour to write the consonants and the other for the vowels. Do this one more time. Close your eyes and picture the word in your mind. Now try and write the word with just one colour.

Word search - Make a word search puzzle. Do it online here!

Memory Game - Make pairs of word cards. Flip them over and try to match the pairs!

Finger Tracing - Use your finger to spell out each of your words one letter at a time on your Mom or Dad’s back. Then it’s YOUR turn to feel and spell.

Practice Test - Take a practice test (this is especially good on Thursday night before the REAL test!)

Scrabble - Use Scrabble tiles to spell your words.

Sings Them Loud, Sing Them Soft - Have your Mom or Dad sing the letters of a spelling word to you in a loud voice. You echo the spelling and then sing it again softly. Now BOTH of you sing the word in the voice you choose!


Alliterations - Do any of your spelling words begin with the same sound? Even if they don't, you can write alliterations for them!

Stair steps - Write words as if they are stairs, adding one letter each time

Rainbow Words - Write a spelling word with your pencil. Now trace around the outside with a crayon, hugging the same but not touching the letters. Pick two other crayons to continue tracing outward!

Volcano eruption!

Room 2 and Room 4 put on their green hats (creative thinking) and became scientists!

We made our own volcano and created a chemical reaction (chemical change) by adding food colouring, liquid detergent, baking soda, vinegar and water. After mixing the baking soda and vinegar we watched the chemical reaction, green lava fizzed and bubbled out the top!!

We are interested in finding out why mixing baking soda and vinegar creates a chemical reaction.

We wrote explanations about what happened to the baking soda and vinegar:
When the vinegar mixes with the baking soda a gas is formed called carbon dioxide and the bubbles push the "lava" out the volcano.