Puppet Pals!

Watch our wonderful videos we made of the narratives we wrote based on The Three Little Pigs. We made them into videos using Puppet Pals:

The Three Cars by Cooper

The Three Little Kids by Leah

The Three Little Countries by Sophie

The Three Little Frogs by Lily

The Three Little Friends by Alexis

The Brave Little Rubbers by Emma

The Three Little Vacuum Cleaners by Mackenzie

The Three Stars and One Understands by Mikayla

The Three Sunhats by Maya

The Three Little Dogs by Garick

The Big Bad Child by Avy

The Three Little Bananas by Rydah

The Three Little Rabbits by Harrison

The Three Little Snakes by Ryan

The Three Little Wolves by Marshall

The Three Birds by Vincent

The Three Little Dolphins by Jess

The Three Little Underpants by Chloe

The Three Brothers by Finn

The Three Little Dogs by Harry

The Three Little Quagmires by Seth

The Three Little Homers by Bailey

The Three Little Bananas by Kalib

Icons of New Zealand Towns

Check out our awesome paintings of our NZ town icons. They are up on display in our cloakroom.

Fun at the Halswell Trains!

Jen

Down the Back of the Chair!

Museum Trip

A photo from our fun trip to the Museum and Gardens last week.

Tennis Lesson Fun

Tennis Lessons

Today we had our first tennis lesson with Shane and Ian.

Go the All Blacks!!

Sprints and Junior Games

Today we had our sprints races. Everyone tried their very best. Well done to Cooper who got first in the 8 year old boys and Leah who got second in the 8 year old girls.
The Junior Games were lots of fun! We practised our throwing, running and jumping.

Long Distance Races

Well done to all of Room 5 who ran so well in the Long Distance Races this afternoon. A particular congratulations to the children who got a placing in their age groups:

Cooper (1st; 8 year old boys)

Kalib (3rd; 8 year old boys)

Leah (3rd; 8 year old girls)

Sophie (4th; 7 year old girls).

We are looking forward to the sprints and Junior Athletics and Games tomorrow!

Kiwiana!

Here we are having a race to brainstorm lots of Kiwiana items. It was tricky to find one for every letter of the alphabet!

Jess and Rydah's Inquiry into Kings and Queens

Jess and Rydah entertained us all today with their hilarious play about King Henry VIII and his six wives!

Vincent and Kalib's Inquiry into Romans

Bailey and Harrison's Inquiry into Easter Island

Ryan and Seth's Inquiry into Dinosaurs

Marshall and Garick's Inquiry into Egyptians and Romans

Chloe and Ilaisa's Inquiry into Dinosaurs

Cricket Coaching

Today we had cricket coaching from Canterbury Cricket!

Mikayla, Maya, Alexis and Avy's Inquiry

Today we shared our learning about Egyptians. We created a play and performed it to Room 5.

Mackenzie and Emma's Inquiry!

Library Time!

Here is Rydah reading a book about a taniwha to Room 5. We all really enjoyed the story and illustrations. Great reading Rydah!

What Focus!

It's great seeing the concentration on these boys' faces as they brainstorm their writing. They are writing down key words. Once their research is completed, they'll write an information report on their chosen animal. Awesome effort boys!

Great Website

Here is a great website with lots of fun educational games. Have a look through. Unfortunately it may not work so well on iPads.
Thanks, Miss Cousins

http://interactivesites.weebly.com/

Dancing!

A belated welcome back to Term 3! We have been busy practising for our Production item - Night at the Museum. Everyone has been working really hard at learning the dance moves.

Printmaking...

Our wonderful prints of clouds and raindrops are now up in Room 5 to see. They look fantastic!

Tornadoes in Jars!

Yesterday we made our own tornadoes in jars. We put water, dishwashing liquid and vinegar in a jar as well as some glitter to represent debris. We swirled them around and we could see the funnel shape of a tornado. It was tricky to swirl the jars!

Plays!

Today Room 5 performed the plays they have been practising all week. I was so impressed with the enthusiasm and expression everyone put into them. They were also very funny! I would not like to eat worm fritters...
From Miss Cousins

 Magic Finger Group performing with Fantastic Mr Fox Group

 Esio Trot Group

 Giraffe, Pelly and Me Group

BFG Group

Lightning in the classroom!

Today we were lucky enough to have Jessica's dad come in to share a special machine called a Jacob's Ladder. Grant's friend had made it. It creates lightning and it was great to watch, especially after learning yesterday  about how lightning happens. Thanks Grant!

Printmaking!

Last week we learnt about printmaking. We made our own cardboard blocks and cut and glued pieces to make a sun. We then rolled ink on top, placed a piece of paper on top and then rolled with a dry roller. When we peeled the paper off, we had made an awesome print of our suns. We can reuse the blocks again if we want and make more prints in different colours. These suns are now brightening up our classroom! We know the sun is an important part of the Water Cycle.

Water Cycle Experiment...

Today we did another Water Cycle experiment. We found out that we could create the water cycle for ourselves. It was interesting observing how the hot water in the bowl evaporated, then condensed because of the ice on top and then it 'rained' into the empty bowl inside, showing precipitation.

Dunk the Teacher!

Today Miss Cousins, Miss Meaclem and Mrs McCauley got dunked for charity. It was a bit chilly (maybe the coldest day we have had this year!) but it raised money for the 40 Hour Famine charity.

STRIKE Percussion

Today Finn and Vincent got chosen to join in with the Strike Percussion group. They were great!

Bookworms...

Bookworms in the library this afternoon!

NZ Sign Language!

Today we learnt some sign language from Dennis. We learnt a lot and we can teach you some signs at home. This week is NZ Sign Language Awareness week. We enjoyed our free taster session.

Library Roadshow

Today we were lucky enough to be entertained by the Christchurch City Librarians as they read stories and acted them out. They read with great expression!

The Three Brothers

Today we enjoyed the Giraffe, Pelly and Me reading group perform their story The Three Brothers. They had the task to make a prop and then they decided to turn the story into a play for us. They made us laugh! Super acting and reading Harry, Cooper, Lily and Sophie!

Up, Up and Away!

Today we finished our paintings of the house that was attached to big balloons and floated away just like in the movie 'Up'! We dipped actual balloons in paint to make our balloons. Earlier in the week we had written our opinions of whether this had really happened or not, and whether we thought it was safe or not. Some people thought it hadn't really happened and some did. Many of us thought it was unsafe because the balloons could be popped by birds! At the end we watched a video of it and it did really happen...by National Geographic staff in California! Check out this link:

Flying House!

Jessica's Crystals

Today Jessica brought in her salt crystals that she made at home. It was really interesting to hear how they formed!

Neurons!

Yesterday we learnt about how we have about a billion neurons in our brain. We learnt about how when we learn, the neurons connect. If we are learning something for the first time, the connection will be weak but if we keep practising, then the connection will become stronger. If we have become an expert at something (e.g. walking or reading) then the connection is so strong that it usually can't be broken! We have to keep learning, practising and challenging ourselves to make sure our neuron connections are strong.

Here is a picture of some of us pretending to be neurons. The weak connection (cotton) shows the boy's understanding of the Make 10 maths strategy as he has just started learning this. The stronger connection (wool) shows his understanding of doubles which he knows well but needs to keep practising. The strongest connection (rope) is his knowledge about horses!

ANZAC Day

During our first week back at school we read stories and articles about Anzac Day as we commemorate the soldiers who fought in wars. We learnt about the significance of poppies, what ANZAC stands for and learnt that our soldiers landed in Gallipoli exactly 100 years ago. We will remember them.

Term 2

Message from Miss Cousins:
Room 5 have started their week back with lots of energy and enthusiasm. We have been reading stories and articles about Anzac Day as we learn about the significance of this special time. It has been great to hear that many children have been discussing these stories with their families.

Today many of the children also completed sketching their toucans which look fantastic. The children were learning about the importance of feedback. After each draft they gave kind, specific and useful feedback to each other which helped them to improve each time.

Tomorrow the children will bring home their class newsletter and I will also email it you.
Check out some of the toucans:

Let the Games Begin!

Today the second class of Room 5 and 6 children completed their games. We all got to play the games after all the hard work of trialling and modifying them.

'Bean Bag Rush' (Created by Lily, Willow, Mackenzie and Leah)

'The Hurricane' (Created by Cooper, Alex, Gus and Bailey A)

"Nest Burglars" (Created by Jessica, Alexis, Alexis P, Ryan and Avy)

"Animal Tornado" (Created by Harrison, Yurick, Jason and Bailey)

"Jump Jump Relay" (Created by Sophie, Lily S, Ashleigh and Hazel)

"Bean Bag Attack" (Created by Maika, Garick, Rydah and Sam)

Easter Egg Hunts!

Today we finished writing our Easter Egg Hunts! We wrote our instructions with our buddies and tomorrow we will hide the eggs and follow another pair's instructions. Here are some of us writing our instructions:

Backing the Black Caps!

Today we wore our blue and black (and some beige!) to support the awesome Black Caps. We are so proud of their achievements!

And the Games Began!

Today was our last day of our topic because on Monday we will swap over: the children who have been learning all about music with Mrs Kim will now learn in Room 5 with Miss Cousins and vice versa.

We really enjoyed our learning over the past two weeks. Today in Room 5, the groups all played the games that had been invented. "Diamond Teams" by Vincent, Maya, Cohen and Hendrix was voted the most enjoyable but all the others were lots of fun too. It was really hard inventing a game but we did it, We hope you enjoy the videos below of the new games we created. If you would like to watch some videos of the learning that took place in Room 6, check out their blog: http://room6templeton.blogspot.co.nz/

"Diamond Teams" (Invented by Vincent, Maya, Cohen and Hendrix)

"Throw and Run" (Invented by Seth W, Seth H, Gemma and Finn)

"Bean Bag Rush" (Invented by Courtney, Grace, Kalib and Marshall)

"Hop Skip Jelly" (Invented by Chloe, Tai, Cody and Ilaisa)

"Zig Zag Bean Bag" (Invented by Kaydn, Emma, Mikayla and Daniel)

"Chuck Run Relay" (Invented by Lucy, Mikayla, Jake and Harry)

Let the Games Begin!

Here is half of Room 5 and 6 playing a game of Tunnel and Chase (or Chuck the Chicken!). We are learning to participate in team games and then create our own new game! This game gave some of us some good ideas. The rest of Room 5 and 6 are learning all about music with Mrs Kim. After next week we will swap over. This is a great opportunity to learn with our friends in Room 6 and to learn with both teachers.

Week 5

We can't believe it is already Week 5 of Term 1! Time is flying. We are enjoying swimming each day for our last week of swimming lessons.

WISE Challenge 2: The Lego Challenge!

Today we completed our second WISE Challenge. Next week we will post a recount of what happened! Check out these photos in the meantime...