The role of a parent

Today we had an interesting discussion in class about the role of parents.  We decided that a parent's job is to:

• care for their children.
• love their children.
• keep their children safe.
• provide healthy food for their children.
• provide their children with a good education.
• help their children learn about the world by going places and doing things together.
• correct and discipline their children so they know what is right and wrong.
• teach their children how to look after themselves when they grow up.

Parents should teach their children so that:

• their children don't get into fights or end up doing bad things like stealing.
• the children know what is right and wrong.
• their children learn how to make the right decisions or choices in life.
• that their children will become independent.
• that the children will be able to take care of their own possessions.
• that the children are disciplined.

We think parents are very important.  We couldn't be without them! 

Thank you to all our mums and dads and caregivers.  We love you!



What a good parent is

Parents are adults that are mums and dads.  Good parents teach you good words.  They taught you since you were little but they never taught you bad words.

Parents were the ones who made you.  You mother gave birth to you.  Your mum and dad are the ones who looked after you wile you were little and grew bigger. 

HG, Year 4


What a good parent is

Parents are adults who have children or a child.

Good parents teach their children/child how to grow up.  Your parents even take care of you, fed you when you were a baby and even changed your nappies.  That's hwy your parents are good.

I like good parents because they are good to us.

KL, Year 3



What is a good parent?

Parents are adults who have children.  A good parent is comeone who teaches you good things like how to eat, drink, write and talk.  That's why we have good parents.  Our parents have looked after us from when we were small.  I think I know a lot about parents.

TP, Year 4


What a good parent is

Parents are adults who have children.

If you didn't have parents you would probably not get food.

Parents are special because they look after us and they give birth to us, love us and care for us.

I think that parents are very nice.

RD, Year 4


What a good parent is

Parents are people who have children.

Parents are to help children learn how to do things such as teaching them how to talk.  They discipline and teach children many more things too.  Some children can go to school and some can't so some kids learn words from their mums and dads and caregivers like grandparents, aunties, uncles, sisters and brothers and other caregivers.

I think parents are important because if there child steals something from the shop they will be worried as their child didn't do the right thing.

JT, Year 5

Wai means WATER

Wai is the Maori word for water.  We have this word on the wall in our classroom to remind us of our topic for this year.

There are many places in New Zealand that begin with Wai, such as Waitangi, Waihi, Waitakere and many more.  Each of those places have a meaning.  We have learned the meanings of some of them and written them on the 'w':

Waitangi means 'weeping' waters
Waihi means 'water that gushes out'
Waitakere means 'deep pools of water'

On our 'a' we have written down the important oceans, rivers, lakes, bays, harbours and glaciers in New Zealand. 

On the 'i' we have listed all the bodies of water and places where we can find water.  Let us know if we have missed any!

Saying Goodbye

One of our office ladies is moving to Australia.  We are very sorry that she is leaving so we wrote her letters to thank her for all the work she did for us and to wish her all the best.  We are going to miss her.

Here is RD giving our farewell letters to Miss P on her last day at our school.

Story of a drop of water

Miss B read us a story about a drop of water.  It was really amazing!  We didn't realise that water is always recycled. 

The drop of water we read about fell into a puddle.  When the sun came up it evaporated back into the sky and as it rose it joined other water droplets in a cloud that floated over a high mountain.  As the cloud rose higher and higher the temperatures dropped and the water droplets froze into snowflakes.  Our drop of water fell as a snowflake onto the mountain.  In Spring the snow melted and our drop did too.  It flowed down a stream which eventually became a river.  Because there was so much melted snow the river burst its banks and flooded a town.  Our drop of water fell into a drain where it flowed back out into the countryside.  It eventually ended up on a farm.  A cow licked our drop of water and it went down inside the gut of the cow into his lungs.  As the cow breathed out our drop of water was exhaled as water vapour back into the atmosphere.  As the vapour rose up into the sky it cooled and condensed back into a water droplet.  Later the drop fell with other raindrops into a reservoir which provided water for a city.  Our drop went over the dam, through pipes and finally came out the tap and into a cup.  Someone drank it!  The water went through the kidneys, into the bladder and then into the toilet!  Our drop continued its journey through the sewer and into the water treatment plant where it was cleaned.  When the cleaning process was completed our water drop was sent back into the ocean where it evaporated back up into the sky again.  The cycle continues to today!

Wow!  Each drop of rain has a long story! 

Another way of applying paint

We have been learning different ways of applying paint to surfaces.  We have experimented with pointalism and wiping on paint with sponges.  The latest technique we learnt was to dab paint on with a sponge.  We have created some interesting backgrounds for our next lot of paintings.  We can't wait to finish them and show you!

Paper Recycling

A man from Carter Holt Harvey visited our school to talk to us about the importance of recycling paper.  We saw a photo of a gigantic mountain of paper rubbish.  It looked disgusting!  The man explained to us that it is much better for our environment if we would reuse paper.

Carter Holt Harvey is a company that takes the paper and cardboard that we throw away and recycle it into new cardboard products!  What a good idea!

If the paper we don't want is sent to the Carter Holt Harvey factory they will sort it into grades depending on how many fibres it has.  It will be soaked in hot water and at that point any plastics or foreign materials will be scooped out.  Next the pulp is sent through a machine which flattens it into a long continuous sheet.  Next it is sent through a drying machine, then rolled onto a giant roll ready to be made into cardboard boxes.

Carter Holt Harvey will pay our school money for all the paper and cardboard that we put into our recycling bin!  We can bring lots of paper products to school for this project:

newspaper

magazines

old books

egg cartons

cardboard boxes

We cannot bring any paper or cardboard that has held liquids or has been in contact with food.

Let's fill up our bin!

Learning with Computers

We have two lessons in the computer room each week.  Some of us use that time to go on a typing website that is linked to our blog.  Here is a picture of TT learning to touch type!  He is learning to keep his fingers on the home keys.

We have also been using our time at the computer room to create a Voki character.  We have been writing some information about the water cycle for our character to say.  It's been a lot of fun to create our characters but frustrating too because we haven't been able to save them yet.  Miss B has to find a way to do that and then upload them onto our blog for you to see too.  Hopefully that won't take too long!

Another Silver for KL!

KL is the latest student to earn a Silver Mathletics Award.  This is her second award.  Well done!

Learning to make Bar Graphs

We have been learning to read data from bar and column graphs.  We learnt that these type of graphs always have a title.  They also have x and y axes.  We were able to make our own graphs too!  First we had to survey our class to find out some information, then we plotted the data on a graph.  Some children found out which day of the week we like the most.  Others made graphs about our favourite colours.  One group found out what food most children in our class like!

Duffy Books Arrive!

We were so excited to receive another brand new Duffy book recently!  When we saw the box with the Duffy label on it arrive in our classroom we couldn't wait to see what our new book was like!  We know that reading will help us to learn new words and ideas.  It will also expand our knowledge of the real and imaginary worlds.

A big thank you to our school and Duffy sponsors, the Ellerslie Sunrise Rotary Club for providing us with these lovely books to treasure. 

Describing how we feel

Sometimes it is hard to describe how we feel.  We have been thinking of lots of adjectives that explain our emotions and feelings.  Here is a list of our favourites:

RD - clumsy

DO - wonderful

TP - lazy

ST - dizzy

SF - upset

LU - brilliant

UM - proud

KL - mean

JT - disgusting

SS - unhappy

JA - careless

LG - furious

SC - mad

KT - jealous

RD - terrible

AM - shy

TT - nasty

If I was rich...

We are learning how to use commas to separate items in a list. 

If I was rich I would buy a laptop, phone, radio, play station 3, a big house and a swimming pool.  (DO)

When I am rich I will buy anything with my money.  I will buy a new car, a swimming pool, a dog, a laptop and a new house.  (SF)

If I was rich I would buy a big laptop, an ipod, a pretty house, a radio, a phone and a globe.  (SC)

What would you buy if you were rich?

Time to think!

Our thinking keys question for this week is -
What if all the oceans were full of iceburgs?

This is what we have thought of so far:

If the ocean was full of iceburgs:

• some sea creatures would move to other warmer and more comfortable places.
• travelling by boat would be more dangerous.
• people would not swim in the sea because they would get hurt by ice, plus the water would be cold!
• fish wouldn't have places to swim.
• dophins might bump into ice and get hurt.

Do you have any other ideas to add to ours?

A whole lot of drama!

We have been thinking about the feelings of characters in the Pania of the Reef Story.  We become a character in the story then we created a Freeze Frame.  A Freeze Frame is when we each take on the role of a character in our story then capture one moment of it and freeze in that position - just like when a photograph is taken.  This Drama technique helps us to feel what it's like to be a real character in a story.

Here KT is showing the feelings that Pania felt as she ran back to the sea after being tricked into staying on the land.  In the background we see RD as Karitoki pleading for her to stay with him.  Behind him we see his 'family' who look on in disbelief and shock.

Here we see 'Pania's family' who watch as she returns back to the ocean after running away from Karitoki.  They have mixed emotions - some show delight that their girl is coming back to them and others look on with concern that Pania is so upset, wondering what has made her so sad.

Here are the 'friends' of Karitoki looking on in shock and horror as their friend's wife leaves him forever.  In the background we see the kaumatua feeling embarrassed and shy because his magic did not work and the heartbreak that he has caused.

Drama is a wonderful way to explore the deeper thoughts and actions of characters. 

We have learnt new ideas about the characters of the Pania story by participating in the Freeze Frame.

Favourite Spanish YouTube Videos

We have been learning Spanish from some videos on YouTube.  Here are some of our favourite songs:

Nature's Cycles

We have been learning about the Water Cycle recently and how water goes round and round in a continuous cycle.  We know that the Water Cycle is not the only cycle in nature!  Today we were thinking about poppies because we are going to paint some soon.  Miss B showed us some photos of some bright red poppies and we got thinking about how poppies start from buds.  The buds are so small at first.  It is amazing how something so small can contain something that can expand into a much bigger flower.  When the flower is old the petals drop off and a seed pod is left.  The seeds sprout and grow into new buds which continue the cycle all over again. 

Here are some of our sketches showing the life cycle of a poppy.

What other natural cycles can you think of?

Talking About Art

We were so lucky today to have a special visitor in our classroom.  Shumin came to meet us.  One of her hobbies is painting and she brought the one that she is working on at the moment.  We were amazed at how detailed the painting was!  Shumin told us that she has been working on this painting for some time now and uses oil paints.  She said that many of the world's most famous ancient paintings were made using oil paints.  Shumin said that oil paint is fun to use because it doesn't dry quickly so you can return to the painting many times and re-work it. 

TP told Shumin that she really liked how she used many colours in the apples.

SC said that the background was really interesting because it looked cracked.

AM told Shumin that he liked her painting because the vase at the back looked so real.

KT thought the Shumin's shading in the background was great.


Shumin told us that her painting is not finished and that she is not happy with the white cloth.  She asked us for ideas on how to improve her painting.  We gave her some suggestions and she will think about them later at home.

We really enjoyed discussing Shumin's artwork with her.  It was fun to talk with a real artist!

Descriptive Writing

This week we had to write about Mathletics and Math Challenge and describe these activities so that others would understand what they are and how we play them. 

Mathletics

Mathletics is an internet maths game website we play on the computer.  You get to challenge people from other schools and there are levels like Level 1 or Level 2.  Mathletics helps you a lot because you get to know all your Maths!  When you improve you get awards for knowing all your Maths. 

When you want to start you have to put in your password first.  When you're finished putting in your password you clikc on 'sign in' and then it shows the maths games.

ST, Year 3


Mathletics

Mathletics is a type of website that has maths games on it for children to play.  You can play Mathletics on any computer but not on a broken one!  When you want to play on Mathletics you always have to have a username and a password so you can have a page of your own.  If you always get your answers correct and you score 100 points you might earn a certificate like Bronze, Silver or Gold.  Mathletics is a fun game for children to play.  Even if the questions are hard you can sometimes get help from someone that is with you.

LG, Year 5


Mathletics

Mathletics is a website where you play Maths games.  They can be challenging games.  You can play on it if you have a Username and Password.  You can make your own character.  You can get a Bronze, Silver or Gold Certificate.  You can't play on Mathletics if your computer is broken!

RD, Year 3

Mathletics


Mathletics is a website on the internet that allows you to play all kinds of maths games. 


You can't do Mathletics unless you have a password and username.  There's something on Mathletics that's interesting and that is two dictionaries.  When you play Mathletics there is a question mark button and if you click on it then it shows you an example.


I like Mathletics because you can get certificates.


KL, Year 3


Maths Challenge


Maths Challenge is a kind of game that teaches you how to learn your timestables such as the two times table, three times table and all others up to the twelve times tables.  The Maths Challenge can make some people clever by helping them to think before they say the answer for it.  When you win, your name has to move up above the name of the person that you were challenging and if the other person wins you have to go down where that person was before. 

JA, Year 5

Dancing

Today we had Dance class with our teacher.  We were learning about Pathways.  There are four pathways - straight, curved, zig zag and circle!  We practiced moving in all of them then we had to find ways to move our arms in interesting ways while walking. 

Find the Fruit - in Spanish!

We are learning fruit names in Spanish.  Miss B made a game for us to practice learning our new Spanish words as well as coordinates.  We had to locate the card we wanted revealed by using the row and column numbers.  We managed to find un durczno and un tomate already!

Here is our new classmate S playing our new game.

Mathletics Progress

AR is the tenth person in our class to win a Silver Award in Mathletics!  Congratulations!

This graph shows the number of certificates each student in our class has.

Wet Lunchtime in Room 14

When there's a wet lunchtime we have special games to play inside like UNO, Connect Four, blocks for building towers, BINGO, Snakes and Ladders, Dominoes plus many more.

Some people enjoy wet lunchtimes because they don't like getting wet.  If they get wet outside it would be like taking an outdoor shower!  Others don't like wet lunchtimes because they prefer to be outside playing games like soccer and tag or playing on the playground.

Here are some pictures of us playing on a wet day inside our classroom:

How to take good photos

We have been learning how to take good photos.  We would like to share some advice with others so that they can take good photos too.  Here are our top six tips for taking great shots:

Tip number 1
Go close to the subject so that it takes up most of the space in the picture.

Tip number 2
Put the subject a little to the left or right of the picture to make the photo more interesting.

Tip number 3
Stay still when you take the photo so that the picture is not blurry.

Tip number 4
Experiment by taking photos from different angles or perspectives.

Tip number 5
Turn off the flash when taking close up pictures.

Tip number 6
Make sure the sun is behind you when you take photos.