Thursday 1st November

Kia Ora all

Maori

Today we had a visit from matua Rihari to help us with our Maori language skills.

We have been learning our mihi and matua worked on how to ask the questions to get that information. For example, in our mihi we say " Ko Mr Forman toku kaiako" - Mr Forman is my teacher.
So, today we practised asking the question - "Who is your teacher?"  = Ko wai to kaiako?

We learned that  < to > means your

We also learned to ask, "How old are you?"
In Maori you say, " E hia o tau?"

E hia = how many
 o  = your ( the plurar form)

We also learned that "No tehea to kura?" means, " What school do you go to / What is the name of your school?"

Writing

Today we shared sentences we had written. We have been identifying the verbs and adjectives. We put a triangle over top of the verbs and a circle around the adjectives.

We got into pairs with one being the teacher and the other the student. We shared our sentences and pointed out the verbs and adjectives. The ' teacher' then signed their name if the sentence was correct, or gave us advice if we had missed out any verbs or adjectives.

Here are some pics of us in action.

Wednesday 31st October

Kia Ora everyone.

Wow! What a warm, sunny day. When I was doing sport today with the Junior Sport Academy,


 I could hear the excited, screams of sporty students as they dived and zigzagged to avoid being stung by the small, yellow, rubbery ball.


How is that for a descriptive sentence with lots of verbs and adjectives.

Here is a challenge. Tomorrow morning write all the verbs and adjectives I used in the sentence on a piece of paper, hand it to me, and you go in the draw for a prize from the 'prize bag'.

Thanks for your awesome effort today with the testing.  You did some spelling, basic facts AND reading. You must be exhausted!

And... I didn't get to see your NEW dance - the kung fu one. I am looking forward to seeing it tomorrow as we have dancing from 2:20 - 2:50pm.

Speaking of dancing, did you see the picture and text about the Rising Stars dancing in the school newsletter. If not, you can check it out on the NEWSLETTERS and NOTICES page.

See you tomorrow

Oh, I almost forget. Miss Tait has asked if we can locate (perhaps on you tube) a traditional Zimbabwean dance that the Rising Stars could learn.

Can you help me with that?

Tuesday 30th October

Just a reminder that I will be out of class tomorrow - Mrs Casey is in.

P.S - Sorry Dylan - i had to change the template design as there was a problem with the one you chose -  it made many of the PAGES disappear.


What a busy day today.

MATHS

For maths the proportions group learned how to work out fractions like 2/3 of 21 or 6/9 of 81.


The ratios group worked on an activity called "Which is bigger?" - This involved working out whether 2/5 is bigger than 3/7 etc.

Here is a link to an activity that helps students to get an understanding of whether a fraction is more than a half, same as a half, or more than a half.


more,same, less than a half


The fractions group did an activity on the computer called Melvin's Make a Match. Here is the link to it if you want to give it a go.


Melvin's Make a Match



WRITING

Today we shared our sentences and looked at which words in our sentences are VERBS and which are ADJECTIVES.

Some students have published their sentences under the respective photos on the WRITING PAGE.

We are also publishing sentences on paper to put up on the wall. We will take a photo of these in a few days and put it up on the blog.

READING

Group 2 focused on using a dictionary and thesaurus to look up words from the ZIMBABWE reading.
Group 1discussed how Ina felt being new to a school in NZ, all the way from Rarotonga - and how she joined the Polynesian Dance Group at her school. This made Ina happy because she could do the 'Ura dance.
We tried to look up the dance on You Tube but You Tube wasn't working well so we will try it on Thursday.


We also checked our Zimbabwe facts. Some students had found information about festivals. We didn't get much of a chance to share these although some students, for their independent research, went on the internet on search of information on festivals.

We will discuss these on Friday as students are still doing research.

Some students searched for information on vegetable gardens while some got down to the business of designing the bird platform.

DANCING

After lunch the Rising Stars met in the hall to learn the 2nd of 3 dances for the gala. This one was a traditional English (England) folk dance. This was done in large circles.


INDIAN CULTURE

After the dancing we were invited by room 13 to joint them and listen to Jessica Patel's mum talk about Indian culture and Diwali - the festival of lights.

We learned many things about life in India, schooling -  they still have the strap -, food and a heap about Diwali.

We also got to sample some authentic food from where Jessica's mum was born. Delicious.

Here is a photo of Jessica, her brother and mother.

Monday 29th October



Today we managed to get out into the garden and do some weeding. 3 classes of students = 75 students = many weeds pulled out in a short time.  Thanks year 4 students - awesome effort.

For reading today we read about ZIMBABWE as this is a country with which room 12 has a close connection. We learned that Zimbabwe is located in Southern Africa and is landlocked.

We looked at picture of the Zimbabwean flag and made educated guesses of what each colour or image meant.

Joshua was ' right in the button' when he predicted that the bird might be a symbol of Zimbabwe, a bit like our kiwi or silver fern.

Well done, Joshua.

Rudo helped with information about Zimbabwe that we hadn't included.

I did leave out the part about FESTIVALS in Zimbabwe - asking students to help me out. Hopefully some will come with information tomorrow.

Below is a picture of the flag, and a copy of the reading we read.

Zimbabwe facts - reading for 29.10.12


Writing 

We are learning about describing events using our 5 senses. Today we went outside and used a massive parachute to have a bit of fun and also inspire us to write.

Here is a picture of use outside with the parachute.
Students wrote many interesting sentences using powerful verbs and adjectives. We will be publishing some of them tomorrow to put in display in the room. Some students will also publish on our blog, on a NEW page called WRITING

   

Thursday 25 October


 Dancing - preparation for the school GALA

I liked that we did some zumba dances today - Sammy W

I liked learning about the new dances -  it was really cool -Dylan

I liked learning new dances because it was from different cultures and was really cool - Isabella

 WRITING

We are focusing on increasing our vocbulary - specifically powerful verbs and adjectives, as well as adverbs.

Today we had two pictures that we could write about. Before we wrote we brainstormed as many verbs and adjectives related to the pictures as we could think of.

Here are some of the words we came up with

 Map Skills Session

Today we used different types of world maps to locate all the countries associated with Room 12.

Sean, Alex, Cameron and Jonathan are proud to inform the girls that they were first finished and have scored one point for the boys.

 

Wednesday 24th October

READING: 

Today we started a journal article called "Finding China". We read part of it as a class and had some discussion about what it would be like for Yani to go over to China by herself. The text may prove challenging for some students, so it is OK to share the reading of it.

Tomorrow we will be dong some Q and A questions to show our comprehension.

Then we will use the text to focus on our reading goals - vocabulary development (powerful verbs, adjectives and adverbs), using a dictionary and thesaurus.

If anyone has had a similar experience, we would love to hear from you ( as in come on in and chat with the kids). Just a thought.


GET WISE FINANCIAL LITERACY



Today we had Hollie from ASB who entertained us with stories and scenarios aimed to help us learn the importance of saving.

Rather than go over the things we learned, I have added a photo of what Hollie wrote on the mini whiteboard so that you can go over it with your child.

Hollie was energetic and very entertaining and students really enjoyed having her in.

And here is a picture of room 12 and Hollie

Tuesday 23rd October


Today we managed to get the field events portion of our athletics sports completed.

We kicked off at 10:30 am, and with a stop for lunch, finished just after 3:00pm.

We didn't get time to share our results so we will do that tomorrow. Well done to everyone, though - great to see you out that keeping fit and gaining skills, regardless of where you finished.

I have included a couple of photos that Cameron, our camera man, took.

HOME LEARNING:

We were quite rushed this morning so not everyone may have got their spelling words. Where they haven't we will get it sorted out tomorrow. I will be sending home the list 1 - 6 lists for some students this week - we still need to finish one part of it.

You can also view the WEEK 2 TERM 4 home learning newsletter at the NEWSLETTERS and NOTICES page. I have used a programme called 'youblisher' which makes the uploaded document look all fancy. Enjoy