A taste of the Pacific

Today Lata and Losa treated us to a beautiful and well-rehearsed Rarotongan dance. What do you think of the girls' amazing hand and hip actions (not to mention the lovely smiles!)

Year 4s Go to Arataki!

Here are a few snaps from our amazing day out in the Waitakere ranges. We learned so much from the park rangers. Teamwork was really important in all the activities.

On ROC day, some of the children planted beans with Mrs Singleton. Today Aarushi e-mailed Mrs Seath photos of her bean plant. It has grown so quickly! The beans look tasty.

Trace fossil, body fossil, or NOT a fossil!

Today Miss Lee showed us a slide show of pictures. We had to look closely and decide whether the picture showed a body fossil, a trace fossil, or not a fossil.

Use the definitions to help you decide, and leave a comment explaining one of your answers!

Body fossils are the preserved remains of the body of an animal or plant.
Trace fossils show that an animal or plant was there, but is not a body fossil.

How Fossils Are Formed

We watched this animated video in science to help us understand the different types of fossils and how fossils are formed.

Newspaper needed

We will be learning about papier mâché in visual art this term so we will need heaps of newspaper! Please could you collect and bring in old newspapers instead of putting them out for recycling.

Thank you!

Herbert's ROC day review

Have a look and listen to Herbert's Voki! He did this at home and e-mailed Mrs Seath the code to pop it on the blog. Well done Herbert! Very clever :)
Click here to comment on this Voki.
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ROC Day Review by Joseph

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ROC Day Review by Isaac

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ROC Day Review

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ROC Day Review

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Have a read of these exciting new narratives.

I couldn’t, I just couldn’t climb this big hill. When I started climbing I saw a spider fighting with a cockroach that made me very scared. But after a while I could hear a bird clearly and when I looked down I could see my Mum’s red top.

But when I looked back up I freaked, “aaaahhh!”. I remembered what my teacher had said, “if you feel scared, you can always count to ten and take three deep breaths, close your eyes and then carry on with what you are doing.

When I opened my eyes I felt proud to be up at the top of the hill. I looked down and thought, gosh, if Mum and Dad were here they would have seen the view from up here!

I climbed back down, then I ran over to Dad. “Dad! Dad!” I said, “thank you for letting me climb a rock face for the first time. Thank you!”

- By Lata

“I dare you!” Ben and I said.

“No! Why do I have to lose,” I asked, “so what do you want me to do, Ben?”

Ben answered, “maybe you could climb one quarter of Mt Everest.”

“No way!” I growled.

“If you don’t, I’m never going to play with you. You can fail if you want,” teased Ben.

I stomped outside.

“Here I go,” I groaned to myself.

I grabbed the first rock. It felt freezing. I grabbed the second one. It was actually even colder. The higher I climbed the colder the rocks were. I climbed and climbed until a snowball fell on me. I felt like I was in -100ºC. I almost lost my balance. I couldn’t believe it. I saw another rock that was about to fall on me. I thought, a snowball already made me lose my balance. Rock is harder than snow, maybe that could kill me. I freaked out. I let go. I fell! I thought I was going to die.

Luckily I climbed just a short way where the ground was covered in snow. My friend Ben was nearby and was watching all of it. He shouted “FAILED!!”. I was angry that I had not succeeded, but as long as Ben still played with me that was okay. I am going to play I dare you again.

- By Campbell

I was one quarter of the way up the cliff. Once I look down I got freaked out. I yelled as loud as I could.

Then I whispered to myself, I can do it. And could do it – I knew because I was already midway up. “That’s it! I can’t take any more,” I said out loud. At that moment I saw my Mum at the bottom and heard her yelling to me, “you can do it!” Also at that moment rocks we falling from right where my feet were. I was about to fall.

I put one foot up and then the other. I did it again and again and I really, actually did it!

- By Aarushi

I carefully stretched out to grab a rock and pull myself up. I was with my Mum and my sister at the face of a cliff. When I touched it it was bumpy, lumpy, and also a little bit grassy. When I started to climb the cliff I wasn’t scared because I was wearing my harness. If I fell, my harness would have caught me. I put on my harness and started to climb.

I was halfway up the cliff. But I could not see my Mum or my sister. When I looked down, the ground was so small and they looked like baby ants. I carried on with my climbing. When I was almost at the top of the cliff I grabbed onto a loose rock but I didn’t notice it was loose. I stopped and lifted my left hand and let it relax while I was still hanging onto the face of the cliff. I was relaxing for a while. I soon started climbing again, but then I wriggled the rock and I finally found out about the wriggly, jiggly rock. I tried reaching out to grab a solid rock but I fell. I started to scream so loudly that my Mum and my sister were shouting to see if I was okay. I started laughing and said, “yes”.

I finally got to the top. I was so exhausted so I lay down and puffed and huffed. I was sweating too. Later I got down safely by looking out for loose rocks and being carefull about where I put my hands and feet.

- By Losa

Have a read of our latest narratives! We wrote in the first person and tried to describe what our character was seeing, hearing, feeling, and thinking, so that our reader could get a clear mind picture...

Click, click. I’m clicking my harness on. I was at the bottom of the mountain. Then we attached a ladder to another ladder. Soon I was halfway up the mountain. I saw rocks: big rocks, little rocks. The grass was swaying. Soon a hard log hit me. I started falling down and I stopped. Then I held on to a branch and was thinking, what will happen if I slip?

- By Aidan

I wondered, will I climb up this mountain? My mum and dad were worried about me falling down. When I was climbing happily, a spider landed on my arm and it bit me so hard that it distracted me, but I didn’t slip. Next I climbed a little bit and slipped a little bit. I was starting to feel worried when I was climbing up. When I got to the top I was feeling proud but I thought to myself, I will never climb a mountain again.

- By Herbert

I was climbing a rock face. A rock was loose I was very, very scared and frightened. My heart was beating louder and louder and louder.

I kept on going up over more and more rocks. I was scared that the rocks were going to fall on me. I got up to the top of the cliff. I thought I was at the top of the world.

- By Isaac

I was climbing up Mount Everest. About halfway I saw a person who was half skeleton. He was still wearing his shirt. I’d heard on the radio that he had got stuck up the mountain and died. I tried reaching him, but I was too scared. I didn’t know what I was doing. Then I fell to the ground. I just couldn’t move a bit. My mum heard the thud and came over. Then my mum rang the ambulance. I had to stay in the hospital for ten weeks.

- By Jarrod

On a sunny hot day there was a girl called Lara. She had beautiful pink dress. She had a white headband and she wore pink shoes. She was at the rock climbing walls. Her mum was watching her. She climbed on pointy shiny rocks. I feel like I’m on top of the world, she thought.

Just then she saw a spider. Ahh! Help! She lost grip of the rock in her hand and slipped. Her safety belt carried her weight. Her mum took her off the climbing wall. She hugged her mum very tight. The girl thought, I’ll never ever go on the rock climbing walls ever again.

- By Katharine

I was ready to climb the cliff. People were watching me. When I was climbing rocks were falling down and a rock cut my arm. It really stung.

My hands slipped off the ledge that I was holding. I was scared that I might fall and die. People were shouting out to me from down at the bottom.

The person that had my harness pulled me down safely and I was really proud of myself because I had climbed really high. I hugged my mum really hard.

- By Tyler

I climbed a rocky hill. I could see some grass and I could hear my mother and father shouting at me. When I had climbed a little bit, my hand slipped off. I felt scared. At last I climbed up the mountain and rolled down the grassy side. I felt happy but a bit scared.

- By Simon

I worried that I would slip at the next rock. I realised that there was a line of red liquid dripping from my arm. I took my arm off to touch the gash. I first thought the position I was in was stable, but it wasn’t. I started to fall. I had pebbles falling on my head. My t-shirt got caught on a rock. I climbed back up the cliff, but I still needed help.

I saw a rock, some weeds, and a stick. I chose the rock and threw it on my dad’s car to set off his car alarm. As soon as it hit the car it went, weee-ooo, weee-ooo! The windscreen was smashed. My dad rushed out to see what happened. He was really mad about what I had done and also mad that I had smashed his car. He didn’t have any insurance either. He yelled, “you’re going to have to pay for my windscreen!” As soon as he said that, I went pale and I said to myself, “oh great!”.

- By George

A Boat Disaster

Have a listen to Sarah's boat disaster story.
Which words do you like the sound of? Can you offer Sarah any suggestions to improve her story?

Palindromes

Mrs Seath spotted a beautiful sunrise last week. It reminded her of a poem about mornings.

'Mornings' is a palindrome poem. It has a pattern of words that is reflected in the second half of the poem.

George and Jennah were inspired to write their own palindromes about the rain. It was tricky to find two-word phrases that would make sense when they were reflected.
------------------------
Rain
clouds rain
shirt wet
thunder
wet shirt
rain clouds
rain

By George
------------------------
Rain
cold shivering
softly falls
fuzzy
falls softly
shivering cold
rain

By Jennah
------------------------

The Toy Boat

Here is Katharine's narrative about a surprising find at the park.
She has chosen some really descriptive verbs and phrases, and has used dialogue to add interest. Have a listen and leave a comment on what you have heard.

Tariq's boat narrative

Tariq has written a really cool story about an adventure at the beach. We think it's interesting the way that Tariq has chosen to write his story in the first person (using 'I', instead of 'he'). It can help the reader to imagine what it was like for the main character.

Holiday highlights

Listen to Losa, Jamie, and Tyler as they describe one of their holiday highlights.

Listen out for:
- exciting words
- description using the five senses (feeling, seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling)

We'd really like you to leave a comment with some feedback.

Herbert's Happy Holiday

Here is Herbert's holiday recount. He tried to make his writing more detailed by choosing specific verbs. What specific verbs can you hear?? Please leave a comment with some helpful feedback for Herbert.

What progress we are making!

Today in music we listened and focused REALLY hard so that we could play a beautiful piece of music together. This video shows our first performance.
Who can you spot playing in time?? Please click on 'comments' to leave some feedback.

Our Holiday Experiences

Please listen in to Paul and Gabriel as they tell about their holiday experiences.

A Beach Discovery

Listen to Sarah's recount about a visit to the beach in the holidays.

Super Soccer!

We were lucky to have a special session today with some real soccer experts. We think we've improved a lot since all our practice passing and dribbling last term.

Landscape art

Today in visual art we looked at Carmine's Landscape Adventure.
You can have another go at home! Just click on the link above.
When you've finished looking at landscapes, you can scroll down and click on the "Back to games" link. Click on "Primary" to see some other cool games. You can test out your knowledge of portraits from Term 2!

Grace's Production Reflection

Listen to Grace's reflection about her role in our production!

Tariq's postcard

Listen to Tariq's postcard. He was imagining that he was still on holiday in the shopping mall.

Gnomes and Gardens!

Here is Jennah talking about her feelings after the matinee performance of our production.

Nifty New Narratives!

Amanda and Lata are working really hard on their narratives - have a listen... The girls have chosen these stories to publish. Can you give them any suggestions to help with the editing process? Please leave a comment with your advice.

The Dog and the Mailman, by Joseph

On Saturday me and Campbell and my dog named Rex were playing. Rex went angry and he broke the chain off and he bit the mailman.

The mailman died and he changed into an angel and it was sad. The dog went back inside his home and dreamed about the mailman getting bitten. He was so sad that he cried. When Rex woke up he took a rose to the mailman’s grave.

What happened to my dinner?! More narratives...

Here are Sarah and Fred's super narratives. Enjoy!! (Please leave a comment too!)

Sarah:


Fred:

Funny narrative podcasts!

Have a listen to these funny stories about a mischievous cat! We tried really hard to use specific verbs, especially to replace words like 'said' and 'went'.

What do you think about them? Please give Katharine or Casper some feedback by leaving a comment. You just have to click on 0 comments at the bottom of this post. When you've written your comment, choose the Name/URL option and write your first name in the box. Thanks!

FIFA fever!!!

The FIFA World Cup in South Africa starts on the 11th of June! Have a look at this cool video which features the 2010 World Cup anthem Wavin' Flag by K'Naan.

To celebrate the World Cup (and to increase our fitness) we are participating in the My Greatest Feat challenge. This week we will get a pedometer to wear so that we can measure our steps. Each day we'll log into the My Greatest Feat website (see the link at the side of the page) and enter our steps. Then we'll be able to travel on a virtual journey through South Africa and unlock cool facts about the NZ soccer team the All Whites.

Leave a comment if you can answer either of these questions:
1. We start at Peter Mokaba stadium in Polokwane. What direction will we travel to get to the second location on the map?
2. FIFA is an acronym. What do the letters stand for?

Kid Pix Characters

We used Kid Pix to draw pictures of the amazing characters we invented. Here are some of them. Maybe the children who drew the pictures could add a comment to explain what their character is like...

Fred's Giant


Katharine's Dragon



Jarrod's Dragon


Casper's Dragon



Gabriel's Dragon

George's giant!

George's giant is not your typical giant. Have a listen!

The cool characters keep coming!!!

Please listen to our new podcasts and comment on what you have heard.

Go Girl! Book Review

Back to School by Meredith Badger is about a girl, Chloe, going back to school after the holidays and how she has to get used to being in a new classroom. It has funny pictures and I really enjoyed reading it.
By Sarah

Cool characters

More cool characters! These two are from Losa and Jamie. Make sure you listen to our other podcasts too! See below...

Cool characters

Listen to Aidan and Campbell's clever character descriptions!

Cool characters

We have invented some really interesting characters!

We were learning to...
- choose words that give our reader a clear picture of the character in their mind
- explain the sort of character they are
- try out different sentence starters

Listen to the children reading aloud their work. Do you think the pictures match up with the descriptions?

Please write a comment about your favourite words or phrases.

A Great Book to Try!

This story is about a girl whose Mum has twins and the girl doesn’t want the twins anymore. Read the story to find out if she like the twins in the end.
I think this book would appeal to girls. Mrs Seath thinks that Jacqueline Wilson is a cool author, so we are going to look for more of her books under WIL in fiction area of the school library

Mr Richardson's present

Mr Richardson our student teacher gave us a special gift as a thank-you. He chose a really cool Geronimo Stilton book called A Fabumouse School Adventure.

Amanda was the lucky student who got to read it first. This is what she thinks about it...

It is a really funny story because it has lots of funny parts. One bit that made me laugh was Geronimo's bus ride to school. Another funny bit was on career day at school, when Geronimo was baking and he really wanted to eat some cheese.

Geronimo Stilton books are fun because they are really colourful. Even the words are coloured and some really stand out. A Fabumouse School Adventure has even got some recipes in it.

We want to say thank you to Mr Richardson for his kind gift. You chose a really great book!

More archery stories!

Here are some more narratives based on our archery pictures.

Exciting Narratives

Have a listen to Jarrod and Ahsan's stories. We all wrote stories from the same three pictures, but each story was quite different. See if you can spot the similarities and differences.

Our Amazing Rhythm!

We were very excited to play instruments for the first time this year. We had great self-control and watched Mr Ramsay closely as he was conducting us.

Can you see someone whose eyes are glued on Mr Ramsay?
Who is playing their rhythm pattern beautifully?

We can do it!!

We read Oh, the Places You'll Go! by Dr Seuss. This book has a message about success and trying hard.

This term we are making FOOTPRINTS TO SUCCESS! We have been thinking about the learning goals we want to achieve and the things we are really good at.

Have a look at Aarushi and Casper's I Can Do It! ideas... There are lots of things we could do if we try. Maybe you could ask an adult at home what they think they could do if they tried.

You can click on the pictures to get a closer look.

Our Class Treaty

Have a look at the pictures of our class treaty, below. We tried to draw symbols and words that would remind us how to put each part of our class treaty into action. Do you think our class treaty will help us have an awesome year?

Marvellous music!

What do you think of our performance? We practised with Mrs Seath so that we could WOW Mr Ramsay when we had our next music lesson. Can you hear some wonderful singing? Who can you spot with great clapping rhythm?

Swimming Carnival

Weren't we lucky to have a gorgeous day to celebrate our middle syndicate swimming carnival?! The children tried their hardest in lots of different races. Have a look at some of the photos...

We are soccer stars!

Our first swimming session

Today we got into the school pool for the first time! It was a great way to beat the heat. Swimming is our physical education (PE) programme for term one. We need to try really hard to remember our togs on swimming days. In our class swimming lessons we will focus on:

- getting really confident in the water
- floating comfortably on our front and back
- gliding through the water on our front and back
- becoming awesome at kicking
- learning the freestyle arm action

Have a look at the photos below.

Welcome to Room 9!

Hi children, parents, and families

Welcome to a new school year. This blog is a place for Room 9 children to share some of their learning.

If you check in regularly, you'll see published work, photos, and find out about events at school.


Our theme throughout 2010 is 'Footprints'. 

Today we brainstormed the word footprints. We combined ideas from each group into this "Wordle".

What do you think about footprints? Can all footprints be seen?  

We would really like you to leave a comment sharing your idea/s.

To create your own Wordle, follow this link http://www.wordle.net/

Some things to remember

Today children should have brought home a brown envelope with important information and a yellow card for parents or caregivers to complete with their contact details. Please return this as soon as possible.


Children also have a list of extra stationery to be purchased at school. You might already have some of these items (e.g. library book bags). 

Our class swimming days are Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. Make sure you have your named togs and towels ready on these days. 

Friday is our library day. Children, you need to remember your book bags to get books out.