Zoo adventures

Foodchains

Building my knowledge

Interactive website 

Room 11 and 12's assembly this Friday

                           

The children have been rehearsing their lines and are ready to share their play with the school this Friday.  The last thing to organise is costumes.   The children will have time to change out of their uniforms during lunch.  Please bring clothes in a named plastic bag.

Elephants: Grey or black clothing

Snakes: Black and white clothing

Spiders: Black or dark coloured clothing

Parrots: Colourful clothes red, blue, orange etc

Frogs: Green clothing or uniform

Bats: Black or dark clothing

Caterpillars: white, yellow or green clothing

Monkeys: Brown clothing

Athletics day highlights

Reading for information

To support our inquiry we have been learning to research using keywords.  Using our notetaking skills we then record relevant information and reorganise this using a variety of maps.

The next step is to summarise what we have learnt and make connections.

Mahika - 'Crabs have predators like birds and jellyfish.  One way the stay safe is by moving fast over land and having a hard shell over their body. '

Arina - 'The main predators of the seastar are snails and sea turtles.  If they are unlucky to be grabbed by a predator they are forced to detach an arm.  Fortunately they grow a new one.'

Daniel - 'The mussels predators are starfish, crabs and strong currents can cause trouble too.  Their hard shell helps protect the soft insides and their strong foot helps them to suction onto rocks when the water is strong.'

Have a go day

Congratulations to the 5 students selected to represent our school at the Year 3 and 4 'Have a go' day.  You showed excellent sportsmanship and gave every sport 100% effort.

Animal riddles

To write an animal riddle you need to both inform and describe your animal to the audience.  Click through some of our animal riddles and see if you can find our hidden facts.

What is an ecosystem?

Record one key idea that you have learnt from the video.  What are some key topic words we might use when describing an ecosystem?

Crayon and chalk art

Check out our art pieces using crayon, chalk and dye.

WALT explain

After Murielle and Harold shared a litlle bit of information about our digestive system, we wanted to know more.   Using video resources, websites and non fiction books we researched and took notes on how our body transforms our food into nutrients.   We then used our sequence map to explain how the digestive system works.    Check out some of our buddy publishing.

NuoNuo and Jae Eun

Caleb and Aisha

Nimit and Charlie

Taekwondo

This term we had lots of fun learning about body position, balance and control at our Taekwondo kiwisport sessions.

In writing we then wrote to describe being at Taekwondo using our senses.

At taekwondo we have lots of moves like punching and kicking.  I am good at the kicking and can hit the pad hard.  Nimit

"Come on punch! yelled Sir.  So I struck my fist on the black soft pad and kept on punching until I couldn't punch anymore.  Finally it was my partners turn.  His strike was good and  I was pushed backwards.   Alisha

I walk into the hall and our taekwondo leader (Sir) tells us to line up and turn.  I turn to discover my buddy for the day.  As I punch the pad my hand begins to ache.  I hope I didn't break any of my bones.  While I hold the pad my buddy rapidly punches it.  Luckily the pad is soft.     Zayn

Poetry Recital

Congratulations to our Room 11 poetry recital finalists.  We were very proud of how Jonathan, Riha and Sanah represented our class and spoke to such a large audience.

A special mention to Sanah who placed 3rd overall for the Year 3s.  Here is a clip of her performance.

Goodbye Winter, hello Spring!

Harold visit - food, nutrition and our body

Over the last few weeks we were very lucky to visit the Life Education van and hang out with Murielle and Harold.  In our first visit we learnt about the different types of food groups and the nutrients they can provide our body.

In our second visit we then put on our doctor hats and learnt about the different parts of the digestive system.  We didn't realise how busy our bodies were after we ate to break down our food and transport the nutrients into our blood!

WALT use basic Te Reo phrases to describe location

Over the last few weeks we have been learning to say basic phrases to describe location.  To show our new learning we worked with a buddy using the explain everything app.  Here are some of our videos.

Zayn and Daniel

Mahika and Romaisa

Sanah, Zoey and Caleb

Fabulous fractions

We have been working hard to explain our thinking when solving fraction problems.   Check out some of our different strategies below.

Jayna

Dorothy and Jonathan 

Sanah

Cross Country race day

Well done to all the children who competed in the cross country race on Friday.  Everyone put in 100% effort on race day, with many completing the course with a personal best time.

Trade wordweb

De Bono's thinking hats

In reading we have lots of tools to help us gain new understanding of a text.  De Bono's thinking hats help us to look at a story in a variety of ways.

Jonathan

Sanah

Discover the world

Today we explored google earth to help us really understand the distance between countries and help us understand how improvements in transport and communication technology over time has made the world seem more like a village.

To explore the world with someone at home click here. 

Connections with the world

We wanted to share the different ways and parts of the world that we are connected to.  We could use Explain everything or iMovie to show how we are connected to other parts of the world using relevant images.

  

Shalin

NuoNuo

Dorothy

Design and create

At the end of term 2 we applied our science knowledge to design and build a prototype for a new feature in our school playground.  The criteria was to have a moving part and the students could either modify a feature of our existing playground or design a new feature.  Split pins, grooved wheels and hanging ropes were some of the ideas that were tried.

 

What does this mean?

Kiwisport Dance

This term we have had lots of fun learning about dancing shapes, levels and pathways and beat.  Everyone had a chance to learn and perform a dance with a few freestyle beats.  Here are some of the highlights.

Catapult creations

Using visual youtube tutorials we learnt how to make catapults.  Working together in small groups we followed the directions and then tested our creations.  As we were testing our designs, we noticed that the rubber band would stretch when we pressed on it.  This gave the spoon potential energy.  When we let go, the scrunched up paper would fly through the air.  This happened because we had released the potential energy and it changed to kinetic energy.

Wheels day

Yesterday everyone was very excited to bring the bikes, scooters and skateboards to school for wheels day.   Some of the highlights were the scooter relays, construction zone and the short time we had on the obstacle course before the rain started bucketing down.

Writing to inform

Check out some of the reports the students wrote about different reptiles.  They had to research, pull out key facts and then reorganise them into similar ideas.   We found that the sub headings really helped us to sort our ideas into paragraphs.

Challenges:  Pulling out the information without copying all of it.

Success:  Organising our ideas under sub headings.

Problem solving puzzler

As part of our maths we are looking at problem solving.   Try finding the solution to this problem with someone at home.  Think about this while taking on our challenge.

What is the question asking?
What are the clues?
What kind of answer am I looking for? E.g. number, word, measurement

Clue: think of years and months.

Simple machines

As part of our science we have started to take a closer look at the physics involved with simple machines.  Today we looked at pulleys and how the grooved wheel and rope together make it easier for a load to be lifted.

Family challenge:  Design a pulley to lift a load using materials from around your house.

Mustafa's Post on Friday, 19 May 2017

At home I made a transformer. It can be a plane or a car. The front can open and close. The wings can move too.

WAL about topic vocabulary

Did you know that a topic word is a word that is linked to a specific topic or subject.  Today the penguins reading group read a non fiction text about horses.  Together we pulled out the topic vocabulary and created a glossary.

Arjun's Video on Thursday, 18 May 2017

Dorothy's Video on Thursday, 18 May 2017

Shalin's Video on Tuesday, 16 May 2017

Romaisa 's Video on Tuesday, 16 May 2017

Jonathan's Video on Tuesday, 16 May 2017

Alisha's Video on Tuesday, 16 May 2017

Daniel's Video on Tuesday, 16 May 2017

Riha's Video on Tuesday, 16 May 2017

WAL about 2 digit numbers

Here is some of the ways we can show our understanding of 2 digit numbers.  A 2 digit number has one number sitting in the tens place and a number sitting in the ones place.

 

Nimit 's Video on Monday, 15 May 2017

Mahika's Video on Monday, 15 May 2017

Jae-Eun's Video on Friday, 12 May 2017

Congratulations Mahika

We are very proud of Mahika for receiving Edmund bear in assembly today.  Mahika was awarded Edmund bear for always showing respect for her peers and showing kindness towards others.

Sanah 's Video on Friday, 12 May 2017

Zayn's Video on Friday, 12 May 2017

Caleb's Video on Friday, 12 May 2017

WALT summarise

When reading to find out information keywords are very important when we are note taking.  Once you have your notes the  next step is to summarise the main ideas in your own words.

Here is an example some children did in reading today.

Functions

This term we are putting our science hat on and looking at the physical world.  Our main concept is function leading to our big question: 

Our key understandings are:

                 

Discuss the pictures at home this week.  

What do you notice?   What is the whole?   What parts can you see?   How do you think they work? Can you see two parts that might work together?

                                    

Our stories, our treasures exhibition

Today we shared our treasures in a museum exhibition.  There was a collection of objects, images, posters and video descriptions of the things we hold dear to our hearts, our 'taonga.'  Thank you to those that could make it, we loved sharing our learning with you.

Check out some of the highlights.

For those that were unable to make it this afternoon, you can view our individual description videos by clicking the image below.

WALT retell the main events in a story

Using picture prompts and our sequencing words the penguins reading group used the explain everything app to retell the main events form the story 'Taking out the scraps' written by Carey Conn.

Zoey and Aisha

Charlie

Arina's Video on Tuesday, 4 April 2017

We are developing our knowledge of action verbs

Action verbs are words that show physical movement.

As readers, we love verbs because they bring action to the story.  

When writing, we can use them to help us a build a picture for the reader.

Zoey's Video on Friday, 24 March 2017

Romaisa's Video on Friday, 24 March 2017

WAL the maori names for the main parts of our body

We can share our learning in lots of different ways.   Over the last few weeks we have been learning Te Reo vocabulary to name the main parts of our body.   Here are some of our strip designer posters showing our new knowledge.

 

                                                                     Watch the video to hear our audio dictionary.

WALT describe a character

This week the Giraffes reading group met a character called Mike and saw how his feelings towards his cousin changed in the story.   They created a describe map using pic collage to show what they had learned about Mike's feelings and why he acted they way he did.

Similarities and differences

As part of our inquiry we have been looking at 'taonga.'   To help us understand this concept better we decided to research two cultural objects and analyse the similarities and differences.

Similarity: a similar feature                                                

Difference: a point or way that something is not the same

Class compare and contrast map 

Charlie's Video on Friday, 10 March 2017

Sanah's Video on Wednesday, 8 March 2017

Caleb's Video on Wednesday, 8 March 2017

Aisha's Video on Wednesday, 8 March 2017

Arjun's Video on Tuesday, 7 March 2017

Teen numbers

Today the circles maths group showed their knowledge of teen numbers using pic collage and 10s and 1s blocks.  Well done Aleena for showing the basic fact number sentence.
 

Digital Citizenship at school

Our class is very lucky to have iPads and chromebooks in our class to help us with our learning.   We can do so much like create posters, make movies and publish using google docs, but with using devices also comes extra responsibilities.   Here are some of our ideas of how we can show we are DIGIkids in class.

Current Events

Each week we pop onto kiwikids news to discuss a current event.  This week we looked at the article about the Cadbury factory in Dunedin closing down.  We decided this was national news because Dunedin is in New Zealand and that is where the news event took place.  Write in the comments what you think about this news.

Image source: kiwikidsnews.co.nz

WALT describe a character

Image source: literacyshed.com

Caleb

Dorothy

Here is the animation we watched as a writing prompt.  You could choose another creature to describe at home from the story.  

My learning

Using the iMovie app, we used pictures and the recording tool to make a movie about our learning.  We identified an area that was a strength and an area we would like to make our goal for the year.  

NuoNuo

Riha

Arjun

Who am I riddles

We had lots of fun getting to know our new friends in Room 11.  We then wrote a riddle describing ourselves and had fun guessing who had written it.

Tally mark challenge

We had lots of fun applying our knowledge of tally marks to race our buddy to 50.  Tally marks are grouped in 5s, we can use our counting in 5s to quickly find the total.

Would you rather ......

While getting to know each other better we set up our talking donut and worked on sharing ideas.  We were given two options and had to decide which one we would rather do and why.

Chat with someone at home using the powerpoint and see what their opinion is.