Santa Tracker

Here is the link to the Santa tracker:

NORAD

Being Respectful in Room 2

today we watched this movie and talked about how we could show respect - not like these little birds!!

Make your own volcano at home

Hi Room 2.
Did you enjoy making the volcano on Friday?
Here is the link from Science Bob, so you can make your own at home:

Science Bob

The Battle of the Mountatins

We have really enjoyed reading, retelling and exploring the story of the Battle of the Mountains.

We learned the names of the mountains in the North Island and where they are situated. The story tells us where the mountains are today.
We also had lots of wonderings about the mountains. Are they still active volcanoes? How do volcanoes erupt?

We used our research skills to find out where the mountains are and if they are still active.

We then did our own volcano experiment so we could imagine how the magma might run down the mountain.

making taniwha from clay

As we are studying Maori culture and legend this term, we have looked at the local legend of the Taniwha of Wellington Harbour.

We decided to represent them in clay - clay come from the earth, from Papatunuku. We thought that this would be a good choice of media.

We learned how to use clay safely and how to join two pieces of clay together. We are hoping to get our finished pieces fired.

Flax Weaving

We were delighted to receive a visit from Jolie from the Dowse Gallery today.

Jolie told us a story about Papatuanuku, Ranginui and their children. She then shared with us how to harvest flax (harakeke) and finally how to make a flax taniwha.

swimming

Swimming has got off to a great start!
The teachers are very impressed with the confidence of our children in the water, their respectful behaviour towards everyone that they meet both on the way to the pool and at the pool and their amazing listening during their lessons! Kapai!

On the bus with our buddies! 

Starfish floating!  

Captain's coming...water confidence games

Morning tea to refuel, in the beautiful sunshine

What's the plan Stan?

For the past couple of weeks, we have been looking at identifying the differences between hazards and emergencies and how we can be prepared.

We have had lots of drills at school for fire/earthquakes - at lots of different times in the day.

On Friday we were very lucky to have a special visitor come to school to talk to us about her job as an 'Earth Scientist'.

We learned about the earth's plates and how they can move around to cause earthquakes.  We had a go at making our own earthquake with a 'seismograph'! We were very powerful at causing the earth to shake with our vertical jumps!

Lastly, we shared a story from Kaikoura - Moo, Moo and Little Calf too. We saw the effect of what happens when the earth moves around.

We really enjoyed our morning and many of us decided that we too would like to be an earth scientist.  Thank you so much to our kind friend who came to share her knowledge with us. We are so lucky to have such a wonderful school community.

learning about the earth and its plates

Creating our own earthquake! 

Practising what to do if there is an earthquake.

Rosh Hashana

We were very excited today to learn all about the Jewish New Year. We learnt how the moon cycles tell us when the New Year is and some of the things that are done to celebrate the festival. Lots of tasty food, such as apples and honey, is eaten and people get together to celebrate. We were excited to also hear the 'Shofar' this is an instrument that is blown to wake us up for the New Year! Here is one of our very talented students showing her talents off!

fractions-fractions song

Maths Whizz

Hi guys,
I am so impressed to see so many people using our maths whizz program.  Remember the aim is to make 'progressions'.  If you go in through your 'tutor' you can do the exercises and the tests and make the progressions.  I wonder if anyone will get a certificate this week?

Doubles

This week, we have been practising our 'doubles' (and near doubles, e.g. 3 + 3 = 6, so 3 + 4 = 7)
We enjoyed watching this fun video!

Daffodil Day

What a fabulous day to join in with the rest of NZ in raising money for the Cancer Society.  When we discussed as a class about what we were raising money for, many of the children spoke of people in their lives that had been affected by Cancer, so we had a deep understanding of why this is such an important day.

We all dressed in the colours of the daffodil, placed gold coins on a coin trail and had fun in our whānau groups with Daffodil art.

Story Lines

We enjoyed watching the Story Lines performance of "What's the Big Idea?" on Wednesday. We have been enjoying thinking about the 'Big Ideas' from the stories that we have read this week. Here are some photos from the performance.

Like a bright star

This week we are reading the lyrics that go with the song 'Like A Bright Star' for our poetry. Here is the music to go with the poem:

My Amazing Body

Today Constable Blue came to see us. He talked to us about Keeping Ourselves Safe by using the correct names for all parts of our bodies. We learned this song to help us remember how amazing our bodies are.  Here are the lyrics to the song:

Chorus 
This is my amazing body
And it’s how it’s meant to be
Noku nei taku tinana
(This is only MY body)
It all belongs to me!
This is my amazing body
And it’s special all the time
Wonderful arms and legs and tummy
Mine and only mine!

Verse 1 
No one should touch me in a way I do not like
I say “NO,” I say “NO – this is my body!”
No one should touch me in a way I do not like
I say “NO,”
I say “NO – this is my body!”

Chorus

Verse 2 
I’m the boss of my own body
And I say what I like I’m the boss of my own amazing body
I’m the boss of my own body
And I say what I like I’m the boss of my own amazing body

Chorus 

Noku nei taku tinana
Kia pai te awhi taku tinana! (I look after my body)
A naa! (I’m telling you!
It’s up to you now, to take note and act on it)

Audio Reading Books

Hi everyone, I found this wonderful school website today. It has all of the ready to read texts (available) in an audio format, in one handy place. I thought you might enjoy listening to some of your books at home. If you have a ready to read book, check the key at the bottom of the page and see if you can find your book.


Kauri Park School

Thank you to Kauri Park School for making this available.

Magic Rain

On Fridays, we are having great fun with different experiences in our classroom. This week made magic rain!

First we added shaving foam to a jar of water. Next we added a few drops of food colouring on top of the shaving foam...then we waited...

The coloring slowly appeared underneath the shaving foam. It was like a rain cloud with different colours dripping out. 

Lastly, we wrote about this experience - we used some interesting language, and shared this with each other.

Pizza Fractions

This term we are learning about Fractions in Room 2. We have been making our own pizzas so that we can experiment with cutting them into equal pieces to share with our friends!

Spring Time in Room 2

Spring has arrived in Room 2! What a wonderful time of the year. This morning, I was lucky enough to receive a beautiful bunch of daffodils - the first daffodils from the farm of Samantha's family. Then, we had a visit from a little lamb who is being hand-reared. Lamby was very well behaved in Room 2 and drank his bottle all up!

Dog Safety

On Wednesday we had a visit from our friends at animal control. They taught us all about how to be safe around dogs. The most important fact that we learned was "IF A DOG'S ON ITS OWN, LEAVE IT ALONE'. 

Titi Torea

Yesterday we had our first Kapa Haka session learning how to play Te Rakau. Matua Whitiri was very impressed with the great listening that we did and how well we kept the beat.

Magic Milk

Today we had great fun trying out a magic milk experiment. If you want to try it at home, here are the instructions: magic milk

Exploring numbers

We have thought a lot about place value over the past term, whilst we counted how many days we had been at school. Today we looked at some two digit numbers in more detail:

Dancing!

This term we have started learning so awesome dance routines with Footsteps dance company. This week we learnt the 'Ninja Turtles Dance'.
It was great fun!

Chinese New Year

Today,  our Mandarin teacher has been teaching us about Chinese New Year. Last week, we listened to the story of Chinese New Year and this week, we have learned how the festival is celebrated.

Ladybirds in the garden - maths problem solving

Today we had great fun being problem solvers. We began by testing and trying out our thoughts and ideas. We talked to our friends about what the problem was and different ways that we thought we could solve it.

Can you finish solving the problem at home?

Ladybirds in the garden

Recycling

Today we have been thinking about our recycling. We now have a recycling team in Room 2. They are going to be in charge of recycling our food scraps into compost.

Maths games

Today some of us played a maths game. It was called "Hidden Treasure". To play the game, someone hides a treasure under a numbered cup (we used stickers - but it could be anything!) - we used numbers 5 - 10, but you could use any numbers that you like Then asks a question to help the other players guess which cup the treasure is hidden under.  You could play this at home with paper cups or even old yoghurt pots.

Handwriting

This term Room 2 have been working extremely hard to make their handwriting as neat and tidy as possible.

Here we are before school has even begun practising our letters. Way to go Room 2!

Te Papa Trip

We had a great day at Te Papa last week. We explored Bush City, completing a scavenger hunt as we went. We had a tour through the Bug Lab - finding out each 'bug's special talent". We finally had fun looking around the Mountains to sea exhibit.

We were all very tired at the end of the day! A huge 'Thank you" to all of the parents and Grandparents that came along to help us.

Scavenger hunt in Bush City

The beautiful and clever orchid mantis.

Learning from a video how the orchid mantis attracts her prey.

Exploring! 

Dragonfly's flight.

The Jewel Wasp and its venomous talent! 

The Japanese Bee hive - Can you remember how the bees protected their hive?

The Bombardier beetle slide!