Funtastic Four's Learning 2010

Discovering Sunflowers

2010-12-10T11:41:00.000+13:00

Discovering Sunflowers - an animation by Shardia and Laura

The Grow Show

2010-12-09T16:13:00.001+13:00

The Grow Show - an animation by Jack D and Nick

Growing Sunflowers

2010-12-09T14:53:00.000+13:00

Growing Sunflowers - an animation by Campbell and Waima

Dwarf Sunflower

2010-12-09T14:48:00.000+13:00

Dwarf Sunflower animation - By Ryan and Tauryn

Special Sunflower

2010-12-09T13:14:00.000+13:00

Special Sunflower - an animation by Lexie and Emily

The Flower Show

2010-12-09T12:51:00.000+13:00

The Flower Show Animation by James and Aidan

A Sunflower Show

2010-12-09T12:47:00.002+13:00

A Sunflower Show Animation - by Selena and Jaidyn

Growing Sunflowers

2010-12-09T12:18:00.000+13:00

Growing Sunflowers - an animation by Cory and Caleb

Happy National Jandal Day

2010-12-03T10:59:00.007+13:00

Today it is National Jandal Day.

We are wearing our jandals and beachy clothes to support the Surf lifeguards.

We all brought in a gold coin, our class raised $23! We wonder how much our WHOLE school will raise?

We are all having a lot of fun dressed up in our clothes and this afternoon we are going to be having a "Handle the Jandal" afternoon of games with the rest of the school.

Shared writing by Room 4

Check out our Jandals in our Movie below!!!

Prizes for our Picture Book!

2010-12-02T16:37:00.004+13:00

Yesterday, Room 4 checked our emails and there was an email from the Feet First people. Then a big box arrived.

It had a message on it. It said that we were one of the top 5 finalists “Highly Commended” in the competition for making a picture book of safe ways to get to school.

In the box there was 11 brand new library books. One of the books is called “I’m a whale”, the next book we took out of the box was called “Never eat a princess".

We’re very proud of ourselves!

You can read our picture book "Pukeko's A - Z School Travels" here if you haven't already.

Sunflower Window Art

2010-11-25T10:04:00.002+13:00

Room 4 drew some sunflowers with vivid on to glad wrap which was on our window.

When everyone drew one we painted the sunflowers in red, yellow, orange, and green.

It took a long time to paint the sunflowers.

We think our sunflower art looks beautiful and looks like we have a sunflower garden in our classroom!

By Shardia & Nick

Our Picture Book - Pukeko's A - Z School Travels

2010-11-12T17:43:00.010+13:00

Room 4 have been busy writing narratives over the past 5 weeks. We have also been reading lots of picture books an fairy tales to get ideas for our narratives. One of the interesting picture books that inspired us was "Animalia" by Graeme Base - it is full of vivid language, alliteration and uses the A - Z writing format.

We used some of these ideas when creating our Feet First Picture Book based on safe travel to school.

Our main character is Pukeko (named after one of our school houses). He wants to get to Bird School in lots of different ways. Have a read and see what you think!

It is called "Pukeko's A - Z School Travels"

Pukeko's A - Z School Travels

Laura teaches the class

2010-11-10T13:11:00.003+13:00

Yesterday Laura bought “teach the class” from the Room 4 shop.

It cost $25 Room 4 dollars.

Laura taught Room 4 hula hooping.

Laura taught Room 4 all sorts of hula hooping.

Laura is really good. We wondered how Laura learned it all.

She could even do it on her leg. We all thought she is good.

By Laura and Waima

Skyping Charlotte in the UK

2010-11-10T13:07:00.002+13:00

On Thursday last week Room 4 Skyped Charlotte in the UK. It was fun skyping Charlotte. We talked to her on the computer.

Her school is called Swallow Dell. The whole class asked Charlotte questions about her life in the UK.

By Ryan & Caleb

Our Sunflower Surprise!

2010-11-02T17:32:00.002+13:00

On Monday something special happened.

When we came into school we found out that some of our dwarf sunflower plants had grown.

You could see some green bits sticking out of the soil. They have 2 leaves.

So far Aidan’s, Cory’s, Laura’s, Shardia’s, Lexie’s, Jack D’s and Rachel’s sunflowers have grown.

By Aidan and Cory

Messages for Charlotte

2010-11-02T12:33:00.001+13:00

Back in Term 2 Charlotte left our school to move to England.

We got an email today from her with lots of photos and information about how she is.

We are going to Skype Charlotte, this means we are going to see and speak to her using the computer. When it is 9:30am on Thursday it will be 8:30pm on Wednesday for her!

Leave your messages for Charlotte in the Comments section Room 4 :)

Happy World Teachers' Day!

2010-10-29T14:37:00.006+13:00

Today it is World Teachers' Day.

Room 4 got two people from every class in the school to help us make a special surprise for our teachers.

We made a wonderful video saying why we like our teachers.

We hope you enjoy it, from all the students at Waiuku Primary.

Writing by Natasha, Waima and Laura

We are growing healthy sunflowers

2010-10-27T12:55:00.002+13:00

This term, in Room 4 we are growing dwarf sunflowers.

First we chose a pot. You had the choice of terracotta or green. Then we decorated the pots using colourful contact like you cover your books with.

After we had done that we put soil in the pots. Then we got given two seeds. We put the seeds in and covered them with soil.

Next we watered our sunflower seeds. We are watching them closely. We are hoping they grow soon!

We hope that they grow up to be healthy plants. Yellow and brown is the colours of a sunflower.

By Selena & Lexie.

We are getting paid for coming to school!

2010-10-27T12:50:00.001+13:00

Room 4 is getting paid money every day if we came to school. The money is special “Room 4 money”.

If you don’t come to school we will not get paid. We get paid$2 to come to school. Then we have to pay Rachel for rental of our chair and desk.

Room 4 gets to buy these things with their money.
· have a pillow for the whole day $3
· first choice of job responsibilities $4
· sit on a chair instead of sitting on the mat $5
· 5 minutes early to morning tea $6
· 5 minutes early to lunch $7
· 5 minutes of stencils in class time $7
· make a fancy desk sign $7
· first choice of sports gear for the day $8
· 5 minutes on computer in class time $8
· run the morning programme (roll, absences, calendar etc.) $9
· 5 minutes free choice games in class time (with bubby) $6
· choose activities for group on task board (reading) $11
· 10 minutes on the computer

Rachel pays us extra money if we are good. We can get money for working hard, being star of the day or being spotted by a learning detective or being helpful.
Here is a photo of our Room 4 shop and what we can buy.

By Ryan and Natasha

Art Exhibition

2010-10-26T13:12:00.000+13:00

On Wednesday last week Waiuku Primary School had an Art Exhibition.

Each class did some artwork.

Room 4 did a print of “Where the Wild Things Are”. Some people got certificates: Jack D, Luke, Tauryn, Waima and Ryan. There was heaps of art there.

Other art works were good too. Room 6 did a “Where the Wild Things are” paper mache monsters. They were really cool.

There were heaps of different colours. We loved all of the art.

By Laura and Waima

Christchurch Earthquake Fundraising - Part 2

2010-09-23T14:31:00.002+12:00

Today we are having another trash and treasure sale to raise money for the Red Cross to give to Christchurch.
First we put the toys into the right groups.
Next we see how much money the toys are.
Last we get all the people in the school to come and buy some toys and to have fun with the toys and play with them.
We hope we raise lots of money

By Nick and Aidan

UPDATE:

Today we raised $95.30 bringing our

Fundraising grand total to: $360.30

What a fantastic job you have done Room 4!

Rachel will deliver the cheque from the school to the Red Cross when she is in Christchurch in 2 weeks!

Equinox

2010-09-23T10:29:00.002+12:00

23rd of September 2010 it is equinox day. It is when day and night are of equal length and only occurs once a year. It is today.

By Selena

Arts Alive Performance

2010-09-21T17:03:00.003+12:00

On Monday the 20th of September, Syndicate 2 did an Arts Alive performance.

First Room 6 did an interesting dance all about magic playdough. When the kids were not looking it would jump off the big table.

Then room 5 went and did a cool play about The Three Little Pigs.

Last was our class, Room 4, we did two ribbon dances. Our first dance was not that good. Our next dance was really good, it looked amazing. We did lots of circles and moving with our ribbons and bodies.

By Waima and Laura

Christchurch Earthquake Fundraising Update

2010-09-20T10:04:00.000+12:00

On Friday Room 4 held a Trash and Treasure Sale at our school.

We had LOADS of awesome items for sale and a raffle.
You could buy great things from just 10c!

Our Trash and Treasure Sale raised $115 for the Red Cross' Christchurch Earthquake Appeal.

Well done Room 4, that brings our fundraising up to a total of $265 - WOW!

Earthquake Fundraising: Room 4's Bake Sale

2010-09-16T11:50:00.005+12:00

Today Room 4 had a Bake Sale to raise money for the Christchurch Earthquake Appeal.

We baked some food last night to bring to school to sell. At school we had to get organised. We made signs that said 20c, 50c and $1. We cleaned our tables so everything was clean for the food. Then we had to decide how much the food would cost.

Here are some photos of JUST SOME of the delicious food we had on sale:

"I felt really glad because we had so much people coming. I thought we
wouldn't sell much food" - Waima

" I felt really busy because I had to give stamps to everyone who had paid"
- Lexie

" I felt really nervous because I didn't think we had enough food to feed
the long line of people" - Ryan

"It felt really fun because I had to ask people what they wanted and then I
had to give it to them. I liked being the cashier" - Cory

"I felt excited. I had to go really fast because there was so many people
that were trying to buy things at the same time" - Campbell

" I felt nervous when I saw the long line of people coming to buy some
food" - Caleb

"I felt really, really excited, when I came back from a job I saw a giant
line and a whole lot of people in our classroom" - Emily

" I felt cool because I got to stamp everybody's hand who paid" -
Luke

WE RAISED JUST UNDER $150!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you so much to all the children from Waiuku Primary who came and spent their pocket money.

How to keep safe in an earthquake

2010-09-15T14:23:00.000+12:00

We have been listening to this great song made by Julie Wylie.

It is all about how to keep safe in an earthquake.

The main words are:

Stop, drop, be like a turtle,

Under the table, away from the windows.

Stay still under the table,

Wait 'till the shaking stops!

Our Earthquake Fundraising Assembly Presentation

2010-09-14T14:47:00.003+12:00

On Friday Cory, Tauryn and Emily gave a presentation to our WHOLE school at assembly on Friday.

They were telling them all about Room 4's fundraising we are having this week to raise money for the Christchurch earthquake victims.

Check out their amazing clear speaking!

Well done Tauryn, Emily and Cory!

Earthquake Relief Fundraising

2010-09-13T20:34:00.001+12:00

Room 4 Earthquake Relief Fundraising

Bake Sale!

This Thursday at morning tea in Room 4

Yummy things to buy for 50c and $1

Bring your pocket money!!

Trash and Treasure Sale!
This Friday at lunchtime (1:10pm) in Room 4
Awesome toys, games, books and more for sale for 10c, 20c, 50c & $1.
Bring your pocket money and buy some cool stuff!

ALL MONEY RAISED TO THE RED CROSS TO HELP THE PEOPLE OF CHRISTCHURCH RECOVER FROM THE EARTHQUAKE!

Dig deep for a good cause!

Helping Earthquake Victims

2010-09-09T09:52:00.004+12:00

We are thinking of how we can help the people of Christchurch who have been hurt by the earthquake.

Cory had an idea that we could fundraise for them. Fundraising means getting some money and giving it to them.

We think the money would be useful because:

to get food to them
to help them get gas to get away to other places
to help them buy new houses or ask builders to build new houses
get people to fix up the water pipes
buying things they need - to replace what has been broken

Some of our ideas for fundraising are:

make a box for people to put food into in the office, then send it to New World who are collecting for the Red Cross - Cory
have a trash and treasure sale where we bring in stuff from home we don't want anymore and sell it to children at school - Waima
bring food from home that we don't want and put it in the box in the office - Ryan
make some signs up around the school and in New World to get people to help us collect food for the Red Cross - Natasha
have a bake sale where we all make yummy food at home and sell it to people in the school

We have sent an email to Miss Joplin (our Principal) asking her if we are allowed to do any of our ideas.It makes us feel really good, happy and glad to help Christchurch people who were in the earthquake.

The Christchurch Earthquake

2010-09-07T14:07:00.009+12:00

We have been learning about the BIG earthquake that happened in Christchurch over the weekend.

Christchurch is in the South Island of New Zealand. Rachel comes from Nelson in the South Island and she lived in Christchurch while she learned to be a teacher about 10 years ago.

We used this page from Kiwi Kids News to learn more about it. It has videos from the TV news and information about Earthquakes in it.

We pretended we were Newspaper Reporters and wrote some quick reports about the earthquake. Have a read...

The Christchurch Earthquake

On Saturday in Christchurch before 4:30am there was an earthquake. There was no water or power. Everything in their houses was falling down. After the earthquake there was cracks in the ground. There were heaps of workers fixing the road.

By Jack B

******

The Christchurch Earthquake

On Saturday 4th of September just before 4:30am there was an earthquake in Christchurch. There was no water and no power. Some of the buildings fell down. On the news some kids were playing in the big cracks in the roads.

By Aidan

******

The Christchurch Earthquake

On the 4th of September on Saturday there was a big warthquake. It was in Christchurch. The time was 4:30 in the morning. There was a flood too. There was no power and no water. Some cars got crashed by some buildings and metal. The road got wrecked by the earthquake A whole lot of people's homes got destroyed. The police helped to get people out of their houses. The fire brigade also helped get everyone out safely.

By Waima

CLICK HERE FOR A GREAT VIDEO ABOUT EARTHQUAKES

See the video below for what it was like in Noel Leemings in Christchurch during the earthquake:

An email to Gil

2010-09-07T10:01:00.003+12:00

Today we read an email Gil sent to us. He has left Waiuku and moved all the way to Israel.

We wrote him back an email, this is what it said:

Dear Gil,

We got your message. We heard it is really hot in Israel.
We fixed it so that you can go back into Mathletics. We can see how many points you get!
We also heard that you cannot understand the language in Israel. Maybe you could learn a few words to make it easier.

Here are some messages from Room 4:

We miss you - from Emily
You had better remember me, I'm one of your best friends - From Cory
I hope you enjoy living in Israel - From Waima
Do you think it is cool in Israel? - From Ryan
What is it like in Israel? What do they eat? - From Tauryn
Is it fun in Israel? - From Caleb
How is your school in Israel? - From Nick
What is your class' name? - From Natasha
We have been missing you for weeks - from Luke

Bye!

From Room 4 & Rachel

Kidpix by Nick

We hope we get a reply soon!

Take our "What is the Arts?" QUIZ!

2010-09-06T12:10:00.004+12:00

Do you think you know about

"The Arts"?

Test your knowledge below in the QUIZ we made!

Press the play button to begin :)

Leave us a comment to tell us how many you get right!

A farm

2010-09-06T10:00:00.005+12:00

Lexie wrote a brilliant acrostic poem about "A Farm" at home... read it below

A cow eating grass.

Farmers plowing.

Animals waiting hungrily for FOOD!

Red barn yard with a chicken at the top.

Mysterious cats peering through the BUSHES!

By Lexie

Concrete (shape) poems

2010-09-03T08:04:00.010+12:00

WALHT write a concrete (shape) poem.

Here are some of our shape poems published using Comic Life.

Click on the image to see it bigger!

Here are some of our concrete poems published using Tagul

center>

By Nick

Our class heart adjective shape poem:

Ka Kite Winter

2010-09-02T10:22:00.005+12:00

Ka Kite (Goodbye) Winter!

Ka Kite warm hot chocolate (Laura)
Ka Kite cold weather (Jaidyn)
Ka Kite bad storms (Caleb)
And freezing dangerous wind (Waima)

Haere Ra fun playing inside (Ryan)
Haere Ra mud all around (Cory)
Haere ra hot fires (Natasha)
And fun cool games (Tauryn)

Kia Ora tweeting, singing birds (Emily)
Kia Ora beautiful butterflies (Campbell)
Kia Ora baby lambs and bugs (Selena)
And buzzing bees (Jack B)

Haere Mai bright leaves (Shardia)
Haere Mai extraordinary, happy flowers (Aidan)
Haere Mai growing grass (James)
And blossom trees starting to grow (Emily)

2010-09-02T09:29:00.003+12:00

WALT use adjectives in our poetry to make it interesting.

We decided upon the following success criteria as a class. If we do these things it will make sure our poems are interesting.

use one adjective to describe the 'thing' per line of poem
don't use the same adjective twice.

Check out this video to learn more about adjectives:

An adjective can make our poems interesting - Jack B.
An adjective is a describing word - Ryan
An adjective describes a thing "noun" - Laura & Tauryn
Using adjectives adds more detail - Cory

Arts Alive Inquiry: The Musician

2010-08-31T09:23:00.009+12:00

On Monday a musician named Steve came to our school. He came because we are learning about The Arts and he knows lots about music.

Steve played a song for us on his guitar and harmonica. He came after lunch for us to interview him. We wanted to learn about music and why he likes music. We wrote some questions to ask him. Here are some of them:

What is it like being a musician?
How many times a week do you practice your music?
Who writes the lyrics to your songs?
What is fun that you like about music?
What type of music do you like the best?
When did you start playing music?

Steve said he like the blues the best. The blues are songs that people wrote saying how they felt - Campbell & Lexie

Steve also said he practiced on the guitar every day - Laura

Steve thought it was fun being a musician. The hard part about being a musician was when he missed home - Ryan & Aidan

Sometimes his friends write some lyrics and sometimes Steve writes them by himself - Tauryn

Sometimes Steve gets music off the computer to practise with - Cory

It was fun when he played the guitar - James

I liked when he played the guitar because I want to get a guitar - Jack B.

Listen in the below video to Steve singing one of Room 4's favourite songs - Shadow Dance

Similes

2010-08-24T15:48:00.001+12:00

WALT write similies for our poetry this week.

A simile compares two different things using the word "like" or "as"

Click on the picture below to see all the examples of similes Room 4 thought of, some of them are very funny!

To learn more about similes check out the awesome video below:

Inquiry: Interviewing the Printmaker

2010-08-23T14:42:00.003+12:00

IToday John from the Auckland Print Studio came to our school.

He came to show us prints and teach us about printmaking. He does lots of prints of extinct birds on rocks. This is called lithography. He likes doing printing because drawing and with printing he can can make lots of pictures.

We wrote some questions to ask John. Here are some of the answers:

How do you make your printings better and do you make mistakes?

John does make mistakes. When he makes a mistake he keeps on going and tries to get it finished. Each time he makes a mistake he thinks about how to make it better - Aidan and Tauryn

When did you start printing and what is your favourite type of printing?

John was 18 when he first started printing. His favourite type of printing is lithography - Ryan and Selena

When do you do your art?

John mainly does his art at night time because he is working with other people during the day. During the day he is teaching at university - Luke and Jaidyn

Where do you do your printing and who do you it with?

John does his printing his studio. He does it with another person called his assistant. Sometimes he also helps classes or other people to print - Emily and Cory

What do you use to do your printing?

a roller - Shardia
some rocks from different countries like Germany and America - Campbell
a machine to put pressure on his art - Ryan
ink for the colour - Jaidyn
paper - Waima

What is the size of the biggest print you have ever done?
John's biggest print is 1.2metres long! - Caleb

We thought John's artwork looked cool. He sometimes makes up his own pretend birds from two different birds. It sometimes takes him a long time to do his prints. John can mix together colours to make lots of new colours.

Here is a video you can watch to learn about the process of lithography:

Cross Country Running!

2010-08-16T14:44:00.007+12:00

Last Tuesday we had the School Cross Country.
We have been training a lot and trying to run really fast.

First we sat in lines in our year groups. There was a year 2 girls and a year 2 boys line. The Year 0/1 girls ran first, then the boys. Next it was our turn... some of us had our hearts pumping really fast. Some of us were really nervous.

The year 2 girls ran first. Room 4 got some great placings:

2nd - Natasha
3rd - Laura
4th - Lexie
5th - Waima

Then the year 2 boys raced. Here are some of our best results:

3rd - Ryan
6th - Jack D
7th - Aidan
8th - Gil
10th - Jaidyn

After the race we felt proud of ourselves but we were really puffed. It was so great to have lots of our parents and aunties come and watch us. We were very happy!

Shared writing by Room 4

Learning about "The Arts"

2010-08-06T22:30:00.008+12:00

We are learning about "The Arts" and all of the different ways people have of expressing themselves.

Today we worked cooperatively in our Inquiry groups to sort lots and lots of images of people doing all sorts of artistic things. We had to discuss each picture and then agree together where it belonged. We had the headings "Drama", "Visual Art", "Dance" and "Music" to group our images together under.

Check out the photos of us working together below!

"The Arts" Cooperative Work on PhotoPeach

100th Day of School

2010-07-20T13:29:00.001+12:00

Room 4 has been counting each day that we come to school.

Today was our 100th Day of School.

We celebrated by having a fantastic day all about the number ONE HUNDRED!

Here are some of the things we did to celebrate:

We read poems about 100 and 100 days,
We counted in 1's, 2's 5's, 10's, 25's and 50's to get to 100
We did a challenge where we had to write 100 words as quickly as we could
We watched videos about 100
We coloured 100 things
We sang numbers to 100
We made a 100 Crown (and put our 100 things on it!)

PHEW!!!

Here are some photos of some of the action:
100 Days of School on PhotoPeach

If you want to celebrate 100 days of school also, check out two of the cool videos that we watched today:

People aged 1 - 100

Singing numbers to 100

What a great day :)

Climbing the Mathletics Ranks

2010-07-20T09:52:00.005+12:00

Today we saw that Room 4 was 22nd on Mathletics in the whole of New Zealand. We were proud of what we achieved. Room4 is proud of themselves.

By Emily & Waima

Google Earth and Google Mars

2010-06-22T15:32:00.001+12:00

We have been using Google Earth and Google Mars to help us learn about the planets Earth and Mars for our Inquiry topic
"There's no Place like Home"

Yesterday we did a comparison of the terrain on Earth and Mars. This means we used the visual images from Google Earth to compare and contrast the ground or land on Earth with that on Mars.

Here are some posters to show you what we thought. Click on any picture to see our ideas bigger.

If you want to have a play with using Google Earth or Google Mars at home click here to download it!

21 Awesome Mathletes

2010-06-21T22:23:00.002+12:00

Week 9 was a fantastic week for the brilliant Mathletes in
Room 4.

ALL of us reached our goal of 1000 points on Mathletics this week!

Usually we have been very, very, very close with Room 4 usually achieving 19-20 certificates for achieving over 1000 points. This week we ALL did it!

Great team work Room 4. You have learned lots and gained so many points. Way to make us all proud :)

Happy Matariki

2010-06-18T14:46:00.000+12:00

Matariki is the name of seven stars in the sky. They are also the Seven Sisters.
They sparkle. You can get a chance to see Marariki if you get up at 6am in the morning. Matariki comes up every May/June. It celebrates the Maori New Year.

We watched a Matariki myth movie. At the start of the movie the sky was black there was no stars. Tamarereti went out fishing in his waka. He caught 3 fish but then the wind died down and he fell asleep. The wind carried him to the shore. He made a fire and cooked his fish. Tamarereti saw some rocks that were glowing. He got into his waka and threw them into the sky. They became stars.

Room 4 Mathletics Stars

2010-06-17T15:19:00.016+12:00

It has been a huge week for all the amazing Mathletes in Room 4.

Firstly, Campbell made it to the front page of Mathletics as one of the whole of NZ's top 50 in the World Hall of Fame!!

Then, we discovered that our whole class was one of the TOP 50 classes for Mathletics in all of New Zealand. We had 50,089 points!!!!

Keep up all the fantastic maths learning Room 4 :)

Can you spot Room 4 above? Not sure why it says we are year 3s but it is certainly our class!

Amazing Space Artwork Pt 2

2010-06-15T22:15:00.001+12:00

Here are the rest of our amazing space artworks.
Enjoy :)

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Amazing Space Artwork

2010-06-14T21:34:00.003+12:00

Room 4 have finally finished their amazing space artwork that we've all been working on for weeks and weeks!

To complete our artwork we:

researched in space books
planned our artwork in our sketching books
sketched our artwork in pencil
coloured in pastel - checking we were using the correct colours
outlined in white pastel
added glitter
posed for digital photos
glued on our digital photos

Check out the amazing results below...

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Our Space Poetry Recital Invitation

2010-06-14T14:53:00.000+12:00

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

We would like to invite you to our Class Space Poetry Recital.

When:    Wednesday 16th June
Time:      2pm
Where:   Room 4, Waiuku Primary School.

We hope you can make it. We look forward to seeing you there.

From Room 4

We're going to Mars!

2010-06-04T15:37:00.004+12:00

That's right... all of Room 4 are going to Mars in 2011... well, our names are anyway!

Today we visited a NASA website, it said that they were sending a new rover to Mars next year.

It is taking with it a special microchip with our names on it!

We went onto this website and filled out the form all by ourselves. Then it gave us a special number and made us a certificate of participation saying we were part of history!

We printed our certificates to take home. If you would like your name to go to Mars you can visit the same NASA website we went to here:
http://marsparticipate.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/participate/sendyourname/

Here is a copy of what our certificates look like (this is Rachel's one)

Good questions about Mars

2010-06-02T10:18:00.002+12:00

We have been learning to ask good questions.
The questions are going to help us learn more about our Inquiry topic "There's no Place like Home"
Today we looked at this picture from Mars.

First we asked:
"What is that?"

"Why is that there?"

"What colour is that?"

We tried to find the answer using these questions BUT we couldn't.
We didn't have the words "face" or "Mars".

To ask a good question you have to have a Seven Servant question starter + a keyword.

The Seven Servant question starters are:

How
Where
Why
When
Who
Which
What

Then we changed our questions to:
"What is the face on Mars made out of?"
"Why is the face on Mars?"
"What colour is the face on Mars?"

Answers we found out are:

The face on Mars is made out of rock/stone (Tauryn)
The face is on Mars because it made itself - it happened naturally (Lexie)
The face on Mars is goldish redish and orangeish. (Jaidyn)
The face is black and white in the photos because the satelite took the photo in black and white (Ryan)

Mars Vs Earth

2010-05-26T15:18:00.001+12:00

For our Inquiry topic we have been learning about Mars and wondering if it would be a good place for humans to live on. We know that Earth is very special and unique, but what about Mars?

We watched this video several times to get information (click here to view). Each time we watched it we had a particular focus or question that we were trying to find the answer to. In our Inquiry groups we discussed what we learned.

Here are some diagrams we made using webspiration about ways that Mars and Earth are DIFFERENT and the SAME.
(click on the pictures to see our thinking bigger)

Letters to the Astronomers

2010-05-25T15:59:00.019+12:00

We have been learning to write letters to communicate with people.

Today we wrote thank you letters to the astronomers for coming out to our school last week with their amazing telescopes.

Take a read of some of our brilliant letters below, do you think they meet our success criteria?

21 George Street,
WAIUKU

25 May 2010

Dear Chris, John and Arthur,

Thank you for coming to Waiuku Primary School with the telescopes so we can see the moon and Saturn. I enjoyed seeing Saturn.

From Jack D.

____________________________________

21 George Street,
WAIUKU

25 May 2010

Dear Chris, John and Arthur,

Thank you for taking the telescopes to our school. I have learned a lot about the planets because you let us see through the telescopes.

From Tauryn

____________________________________

21 George Street,
WAIUKU

25 May 2010

Dear Chris, John and Arthur,

Thank you for coming to Waiuku Primary School. I really liked it. It was amazing because Saturn was very small. The telescopes were very amazing too. Please come next year!

From Emily

Space Poems

2010-05-25T12:20:00.001+12:00

We are learning how to present space poems.

At the end of the term we are having a poem recital. We have been learning different space poems and working hard to recite them with expression and to read them clearly. We don't want it to sound like we are robots reading!

Take a listen to us reading the poem "Space" and let us know what you think of our presentation!

Viewing Planets & Stars

2010-05-21T12:32:00.001+12:00

Yesterday night I looked through the telescopes.

I saw Saturn.

By Luke

Last night my Mum and I went back to school because the Astronomy Club came to our school. They came so we could look at some planets, the moon and the stars.
We watched a movie and looked in the telescopes. My favourite part was when we watched the movie. It was fun.

By Waima

Yesterday night at 7pm Room 4, 5 and 6 came to Waiuku Primary School. We looked at the moon and at Saturn through a telescope. The astronomer had to keep adjusting it because the planet moves away. It was fun. The astronomers came because we are learning about Space.

To see a planet you need a telescope. The telescope that looked like wood you could see the moon through.

By Jack D

Our Blogging Guidelines

2010-05-20T20:33:00.005+12:00

We have discussed and decided as a class on these guidelines for the use of our class blog.

It is really important we all abide by them because they are designed to keep us safe while we are online!

We will...

only ever use our FIRST name on the blog
get all posts on the blog CHECKED by Rachel before publishing
never put any of our personal DETAILS online - this includes phone numbers, addresses, personal email addresses or family information
only have our name, work or photo on the blog if we have written PARENT PERMISSION
only display nice PHOTOS of other people (check with them first - we don't want them to feel embarrassed)
be RESPONSIBLE when writing and using our class blog

We also ask that...

parents and adults commenting only use their FIRST name or describe themselves as "John's Mum" (for example) so they don't identify their child

All comments on our blog are also "moderated" by Rachel first. This means she checks them and they have to be approved by her before they go onto our blog.

It is VERY important to keep safe online so ALL of Room 4 have agreed to these guidelines.

If you have any other questions or comments about the security of Room 4's blog, please contact Rachel.

Book Character Parade

2010-05-19T11:47:00.004+12:00

On Friday (when it was also Natasha and Cory's birthday) our school had a book character parade. We all dressed up in our favourite book character costumes and got to parade around in front of the whole school.

Room 4 dressed up as lots of amazing characters! We had Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Little Red Riding Hood, The White Witch, Hannah Montana, Batman, Thomas the Tank Engine, Zac Power, "The Tiger who came to tea" a skeleton, a robber from Cops and Robbers and a cowboy. Rachel dressed up as Cat in the Hat.

Emily, who was dressed as a robber from Cops and Robbers, was the winner from Room 4, she won some new books!

"It was fun at the book parade because I was dressed up as Batman" - Caleb
"It was excellent at the book character parade" - Lexie
"It was fun because heaps of people were dressed up" - Jaidyn
"People looked cool in their costumes" - Campbell
"I was Thomas the Tank Engine" - Jack D

Our special visitor

2010-05-19T10:31:00.001+12:00

Last week Room 4 had a special visitor. His name was Geronimo Stilton. He was a mouse.
He came to Waiuku because he is a famous book character and we were having a book fair.
We got to have photos with Geronimo. We also got a special stamp on our hands from him. It had his name on it. Geronomo was a bit scared of us, he was very shy. We found out that Geronimo liked cheese. When we said "cheese" when the photo was taken he sniffed us!

"I thought Geronimo was fun!' - Selena
"I though that Geronomo was funny because when we sais cheese he would sniff us" - Lexie
"Geronimo was funny because he sniffed us" - Caleb
"Geronomo was soft and he liked cuddling his tail" - Tauryn
"I thought Geronimo was confortable to hug" - Charlotte

Welcome!

2010-05-10T21:50:00.000+12:00

Welcome to the BRAND NEW blog of Room 4 @ Waiuku School in New Zealand.

We are a year 2 class of 6 and 7 year olds and our teacher is Rachel Boyd.

On this blog we hope to share and celebrate our learning with you and gain feedback from you our audience and readers!

Feel free to leave us a comment :)

We are just getting started for the school year so stay tuned for more updates!