Kia Ora all

Habitat challenge: The habitat that you couldn't get today was Arctic tundra.


Literacy quiz contestants

Every now and then Mrs Gatherer pops into Room 5 with a buch of new books and asks for Maddison and Anneke. The girls are currently 'reading up' a range of picture books and novels in preparation for a literacy quiz in September. Today they talked to us about what they have been up to. We will do an video / audio interview at a later date and post it here.

This morning we started off reviewing the precise words we came up with to use when write about the rainy weather.

Precise words for the rainy day

- dodge the puddles
- downpour
- drainpipe
- window wipers
- like a drowned rat
- flood,   flooded
- splash
- downspout
- stranded
- puddles  ,  big puddles
- window wipers beating furiously
- slippery
- storm
- aquaplane
- gutter
- drenched
- steam
- soaked
- gale
- gale force wind
- freezing cold
- pooling up  (the ground is pooling up with water)
- Reflection in the water
- blustery

Congratulations

to JAMES for receiving the Room 5 RESPECT certificate at the Kauri assembly.

Monday 17th June

Kia Ora all

Today we gave out Mathletics certificates to students who earned over 1000 points in the previous week. Here they are. The top scorer went to Harrison with 1968 points. Well done, Harrison.

Today Grace shared 2 large framed photos of minke whales. She also showed some photos of a variety of interesting sea creatures including the conger eel, maori wasse  and clown fish. Last week we read about blue whales that were begin hit by container ships off the Pacific coast of San Francisco and Los Angeles. 

Tuesday 11 June

Kia Ora all

Multiplication challenge:

The answer was    3 X 4 = 12
                            3 X 6 = 18
                            total = 30

The winners ( to the prize box), with the correct setting out were GRACE and MADDISON.
Bonus prize (double tinopai) also to Natasha for using the 'reversal' strategy (4X3, 6X3) to work it out.
A bonus (double tino pai) also to Ashton and Lydia for getting the correct total.


Today many students received one or two of their bronze CARE certificates.  It is looking like we will have our first full bronze recipient by next school assembly. Today we added up our TinoPais from the last 2 weeks and added them to our chart.

Mrs Pousini - our teacher aide

Mrs Pousini comes and visits us on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings from 9:00 -9:40 to support us with literacy.
Today was 'Support Teacher Day' at Oaklands where we say a big 'Thank you' to all of the non-teaching staff that make our jobs as teachers and students a whole lot easier.

Anneke made a card, with a picture drawn by Ngakau, and signed by everyone to give to Mrs Pousini. We also presented her with a box of Roses chocolates.

Here is Mrs Pousini after we gave her the card and chocolates.

Monday 10th June

Maths challenge question: Lydia collects fruit bursts. She has 4 green, 4 blue, 4 yellow, 6 purple, 6 red and 6 orange. How many fruit bursts does she have altogether?
Write it as a times table. Eg    ?? X ?? = ??
                                             ?? X ?? = ??
                                             Total =


Kia Ora all

Today we had our first 'taste' of Milk in Schools. A little ended up on the floor and on students' clothes but most made it into their mouths. Folding the cartons presented quite a challenge but it is something we will get better at. We will receive milk tomorrow and Wednesday (3 times a week).

 

 

 




Multiplication outside activity

As we move into multiplication and division we have a fun outside activity that you can use to practice your times tables. All you need is some space and some chalk. Here is a video of Mr F demonstrating what to do.

And here is Leeana and Maddison demonstrating the activities.

Leeana demonstrating BINGO

Leeana demonstrating HOW MANY

Sunday 9th June

Kia Ora all

Just letting you know about an online reading resource that students might find useful, and interesting. It is the website of sunshine, a group who produce a wide range of guided readers. The school has free access to their online catalogue. The resources are interactive and I think students will enjoy trying them.
They are an ideal reading resource when they don't have anything to read, or want to find more books at their level.

Anyway, take a look and have a go.
http://www.sunshineonline.co.nz/

Username: sunshine2013
Password: newzealand


When you get to the website, scroll halfway down and click on the LEARNING SPACE 3. Books are leveled.

If you are not sure what level your child is, just ask them. They should know.

Roughly;
Group 1 - Level 19-21
Group 2 - level 23-26
Group 3 - level 27,28
Group 4 - level 29,30

Although it is fine for students to read books at a higher level as long as they retain meaning.


Milk in Schools

This kicks off Monday. Each student will receive a carton of milk at about 10:00am. It is not compulsory so students are free to decline the offer.

A short while ago, Maddison was lucky enough to be part of the launch of the programme, and visited a farm. Here is a link to the news item that has been put together.

Thursday 6th June

Kia Ora all

Today we were witness to the CUP SONG, a combination of singing, and hand and cup slapping and clapping. We were all wowed by the skill and teamwork involved.

So, here they are: Mya, Leeana, Anneke and Maddison.

Pretty amazing, huh.

MATHS STRATEGY VIDEOS

Finally, after not being able to upload my instructional videos to the blog, and then videoing them UPSIDE down, I finally got it all sorted, and up on the blog.

So, don't delay, go to the MATHS page and watch the video for the SQUARES and SQUARE + groups.

Thursday 6th June
Rapare e ono Pipiri

Hi. I'm Jade and this is my desk.
"I always keep my desk tidy so I never need to tidy it before desk check. My secret to keeping my desk tidy is KEEP IT IN ORDER - ALL THE TIME"

Wednesday 5th June

Kia Ora all

Writing 

Today we decided to go outside and seek some inspiration for our writing. Whilst we are in the middle of writing information reports, it is important to get experiences writing about other things. So we grabbed our 'jotter books', our pens, Mrs Pousini and went for a walk. We were looking at the theme of winter, and the senses of feel, see and hear. Living things respond to changes in the environment ( we learned this today when talking about MRSGREN and the 'S' for sensitivity). We are living things, so we made some notes about what we saw, felt and heard.

Tomorrow we are going to use our notes to write whatever comes into our mind, related to what we experienced.

We will post some pictures of our notes tomorrow, but here is one of us outside, taken by Mrs Pousini. We could feel the heat of the sun, and definitely saw the sun's rays in our eyes. We responded by putting our hands up to block the glare. Try seeing a BOX do that; not likely.

Reading

Today we completed our information report activity sheets. We are working in small groups, mixing up our reading groups so that we get the chance to work with different students. It also allowed us to help each other. We had to highlight sentence starters and precise vocabulary in the introduction, count up the number of paragraphs, write down some of the sub headings, and find 5 - 10 interesting precise vocabulary. We are doing this so we can see good examples of information reports.

Here we are, working together.

Living World

Today we did an activity where we came up with words to describe MRSGREN - the 7 words that define a living thing.

Here is our worksheet. Perhaps you could work on it together.

Click here to see the worksheet -  and have a go at it yourself

Tuesday 4th June

Kauri team newsletter

Click here to see an enlarged version