Wednesday 19 September 2012

Hello from Room 4 ! We have been very busy this past few weeks working on our sculptures and creations for our Grand Design evening. Mrs Millar instructed us to work in groups so we could learn to co-operate and make a team effort. We had to decide on an environment to create for our group ( this was hard enough !) It was a challenge cause we all think we know best!! We then had to design a sculpture out of packaging or recycled goods of our own which contributed towards the group environment.

As you can see this also caused a mess all over again ! I think we are champions at creating a massive mess. We hope you all come along and see what we have made.

Mrs Millar erupted our volcano last week and I was able to take photos to show the process. We used baking soda, warm water, detergent, red food colouring and vinegar.












Monday 3 September 2012

Wow !!! We have just had a super afternoon at Peel Forest exploring sooooo many different aspects of our very own Kahikatea Walk. I feel so privileged to be part of this school and the guardianship we have been given over this magical piece of Peel Forest. Our groups rotated with ease and excitement and I'm sure we all feel more connected to "our" Kahikatea Walk now. A  MASSIVE  thank you to Mrs Rayner for all the organising and co-ordinating she did to make this such a dream afternoon. Thanks also to our fabulous parents, bus drivers and Hilary and George for their expertise and support. By the way - here are a few questions just to make sure you were listening :

What is the tallest part ( the chimney ) of the forest structure called ?
What is the job of the canopy layer ? What would happen if we removed the canopy  layer ?
Name three pests that are a problem in our Kahikatea Walk.
What insects live on the floor of our bush ?






As we walked out we passed the other groups that had been working at the opposite end of the walkway. In the middle we lay down and looked up at the canopy and emergent layers of the forest. It was cool as we could see the most enormous kahikatea looming high in to the sky above us. As we got near the end of the track Mrs Millar showed us the bush lawyer plant and we brushed ourselves past it and felt it grab our shirts. This was an awesome experience.



Sunday 2 September 2012

In our class we are starting a reading theme on spiders. So far we have made connections with what we already know and we have had to fill out a data gathering sheet to show the different places we are going to go to in search of our information. We will use our library, our internet, people and information from home. Some of us are researching projects, others are selecting main ideas in text and others are reading and making inferences. Below is the start of our reading display and Mrs Millar  has put two chocolate spiders on our web - mean !!!

In writing we have abandoned our recounts for a week as the senior speeches have popped up !!! We are trying to have our recount plans and final published works done by the end of next week. So far our speech plans are going well and we are now putting our information on to cue cards. Our class finals are this Thursday and the Lions Club finals are on Friday in Room 3 at 11.00 am. Our speeches can only be 2- 3 minutes long. If you are visiting school come in to Room 4 and read our cool stories and recounts on our wall.
If you have been to school lately you may have seen our works of art in the sandpit. Room 4 studied the height of each of the three volcanoes and we have tried to recreate them in out pit. Watch out for eruptions though and boiling hot crater lakes - enter at your own risk !!! There is also a lovely zoo under creation in one corner of the sandpit.