Gymnastics Festival

Look at how high I can vault.
I am good at balancing. Hopefully I don't fall off.
The step-hop is pretty hard- I did quite good actually.
We make a pretty good team.

Bus Driver

This week Kea Reading Group have been to learning more about how to make a picture in your head while you are reading. They read the journal story 'Bus Driver' Part 1 Number 3 2001. Kiera did a wonderful job of sharing her mind picture of this text from the article.....

"Bus drivers have to keep a careful look out all the time. There is so much traffic and so many pedestrians. There are flashing traffic lights, screaming sirens and people, people and more people."

Well done, Kiera.

Learning about Shadows

Moutere have been learning about shadows and how they are formed and what happens to them during the day. Please leave a comment for them on what you think of their investigation. Remember to tell them your first name when you leave your comment.

Jupiter

This week for homework we had to write a report about a subject of our choice. Hayley wrote her report about Jupiter and she emailed it to us. Didn't she do well.
Jupiter’s size
Jupiter is the biggest planet in the universe it is at least as big as all of the other planets put together.

Jupiter’s moons
Jupiter has at least 47 moons and Earth has only one moon.

Jupiter is a gas giant
Jupiter is sometimes called a gas giant because that’s what it is a giant ball of gas that’s why nobody can land on it.

Jupiter’s great red spot
Jupiter’s great red spot is a storm the size of Earth.

Comparing Fractions

We have been learning how to put fractions into order form smallest to biggest. With Dolphin Racing you pick the colour of the dolphin you want to win the race and then pick the biggest fraction to make it swim the fastest to win the race!
With this fraction ordering game you have to slot your fraction into the right place from highest to lowest. Be careful though because each time you get it wrong you can lose a life!With Fraction Number Lines you have to darg the fractions onto the right place on the number line.
With the Balloon Popping Game you have to burst the smallest fraction balloon first then pop the bigger one.

Equivalent Fractions

We are learning in class about equivalent fractions. Fractions that are the same size. Fraction Bars will help you learn more about how to make equivalent fractions. Move the bars back and forward until you can see fractions that are the same size.
Fraction Memory goes over the same thing where you have to match the equivalent fractions. You can do it on your own or in pairs.
With Fractions One you have to drop the equivalent fractions onto the correct shape.

Writing Fun

This week for homework we are writing a report on a topic of your choice. I found this excellent web site to support report writing called Writing Fun. When you click on the writing type it gives you some ideas on how to write all sorts of writing genre. When you click on report it tells you how to write a report and even gives examples of reports that other people have written.

You can then write your own on line and print it off. It is a really useful site. It will be interesting to see what you come up with and how you get on with it.

Pet Day

Yesterday was pet day. I took Lilly's puppies to school. This is a group photo of all the puppies.
This is Jemma holding one of them. Don't you think that that puppy loves her.
Look at this one. It is asleep on Shaun. There are two puppies that are always asleep at the back of their cage.
Skye would love to take this little puppy home- can't you tell!
Then a man came and his dog rounded up ducks. I thought that that was amazing. How it did not eat them because I know that Mikey and Lilly would eat them.
This is Rachel and her pet lamb. I don't know it's name but it was so cute.

Wow look at Hugo's dog Moko. He is huge.
After that we did some pet day activities. We made play dough animals and drew animals using Kid Pix. I wonder who made this dog and snail. It is so cool.
Look at Alex and her bunny. I wonder if the bunny is Alex's favourite animal.

Look at this movie. It is of the lambs feeding. Look at the tail wagging.

The Observatory Visit

We went on an Observatory Visit last week on Thursday related to our project on Space this term. This is George looking at the Moon book. He is looking at the part of the Moon that you could see in the telescope that night.
This is one of the telescopes that the owner of the observatory ( Mr Knowles) has. This particular telescope happened to be looking at the Moon. Up the top is a picture of the telescope. If you looked through that telescope you would have seen a quarter of the Moon. That quarter of the Moon was on the right, top side.
This is a photo of Mr Knowles. He came to our school and talked to us about space. The observatory was round and small. There were two telescopes there one looking at the Moon and one looking at Jupiter. He turned a telescope around so that we could look at two stars circling one another. Most of us enjoyed the experience and thank you, Mr Knowles for letting us use your telescopes and teaching us about space.

My Last Week in Moturoa

Wow talk about time flying! I have had the pleasure of sharing the learning experiences with Moturoa for the last month and what an action packed four weeks that has been. Allanah must be exhausted by the end of each term.
With all the studying, assignments, and exams that have had to be done over the last year, spending time in the classroom has reminded me of the real reason why I have chosen to train as a teacher - the children. What a great bunch Moturoa are. I will surely smile when I remember some of the things that we have done together, although I do not think that my attempts at playing the recorder will make me smile, laugh perhaps.

Allanah has put so much time into my training and shown so much patience, that saying 'THANKS HEAPS' can not start to cover it. Thankfully today is only Wednesday and tomorrow is Pet Day, so there is still time to fit more learning into what has already been a fantastic experience. Although I would really love to bring my dog JJ to Pet Day, I think that being at school all day would not be very fair for her. So I have posted a couple of photos to share with you instead.

This is JJ when she was just a puppy. So cute and look how tiny she was. Her favourite things are: food, sleeping, food, playing fetch, food, swimming, food, going for a walk and did I mention FOOD. Her favourite person is me of course, oh and anyone that will feed her!

This is JJ now. She is just over five and a half years old. Her coat is so soft and cuddly. She is a very affectionate dog and loves to give you hugs. She has an extremely annoying habit of stealing your shoe and taking it into her kennel to sleep with. She only takes one of each shoe, not a pair, a very strange habit indeed.

Sylvia

Book Your 2012 Holiday

It will cost $5 million for a three-night stay at the the Galactic Suite Space Resort.

A company behind plans to open the first hotel in space says it is on target to accept its first paying guests in 2012 despite critics questioning the investment and time frame for the multi-billion dollar project.

The Barcelona-based architects of The Galactic Suite Space Resort say it will cost $5 million for a three-night stay at the hotel, with this price including an eight-week training course on a tropical island.

During their stay, guests would see the sun rise 15 times a day and travel around the world every 80 minutes. They would wear velcro suits so they can crawl around their pod rooms by sticking themselves to the walls like Spiderman.

What do you think of that idea?

Shelly Park School

Room 11 at Shelly Park School in Howick, near Auckland are following our blog. Last term they were learning about historical Howick in the same way we were learning about old Nelson. This term they are studying Space like we are. Here is their latest posting. You can say what you think through our comments or click on their link and reply to their blog directly. What do you think of their question?

This is a video of the Ares 1-X Rocket finally being launched on Thursday 29th October 2009. NASA is trying to return astronauts to the moon instead of the space shuttle programme. The test launch did not have astronauts inside it this time but eventually it will. During the past 3 years it has cost $620 million and it was all over in 2 minutes. Do you think sending astronauts to the moon is a good idea?

Calendar Art

This week we have been doing our calenders about space. First we painted the piece of paper black, then we splattered our page with white paint. Then we started to draw our planets. We cut them out and glued them on. This is what they look like. I think that they look awesome.