Litter Free Lunchboxes

Well done Amelia for being picked out of the litter free lunchbox draw at assembly.

Sight Word Stars

Congratulations to this weeks Sight Word Stars. Keep up the good work.

Adding detail

When we illustrate our poem our teachers are looking to see if we include detail in our pictures and that what we draw matches the meaning of the poem. 

Here are some examples of fantastic work...

Sight Word champions

Here are Room 21's Sight Word champions for Week 6 -

Commemorating a great achievement

It is important for us to learn about the famous people of our country and how they contributed to the world. 

62 years ago today New Zealander, Sir Edmund Hillary and his friend Sherpa Tenzing Norgay became the first people to reach the summit of Mt Everest. We learnt that they would need layers of warm clothes, a tent, ladders, ropes, food and even oxygen. We wondered how the ladders were carried up the mountain as they are quite heavy. 

Sir Edmund Hillary is now one of New Zealand's most loved heroes. His picture is on the $5 note so we can remember him every time we go shopping! 

To commemorate the great achievement by a New Zealander, we read this story -

Afterwards we drew a picture of the two climbers on the mountain. 

Certificate

Joshua recieved a certificate at the assembly today for demonstrating a great value "Equity"
Well done Josh 😊

What's the time?

Today the orange and the blue group  made a clock on the mat with a chalk and used our body to show time.
Can you guess what time it is?

Alternative Lunchtime Activity

Some children wanted to watch a video about World War 1 pilots. Rafael and Kalais watch the whole 35 minute video and were especially interested to learn about the legendary German fighter pilot nicknamed The Red Baron who shot down the most planes in The Great War. 

Making a sundial

To make a sundial we used a paper plate. 

We folded the plate in half. 

Then we folded the plate in half the other way too to help us find the centre point. We cut a little whole at the centre. 

Next we put a straw into the hole and taped it down. We made sure the straw stood up perpendicular to the plate. 

Now the sundials are ready to be used.

Photos by Liam

Telling the time with the sun

Today the Hub students found out how a sundial uses a shadow to tell the time. 

At 9am we put a mark on the sundial and  then left it. 

Photos by Zoey

Each time we went out to look at the sundial we saw how much the shadow had moved. We marked them with the time when we looked at them. 

Green group students made their own sundials. 

Highlights

Kalais - I liked Reading. 

Lola - I liked doing handwriting. 

Ethan - I liked playing the dice game in Math. 

Marcus - I liked playing on the iPad. 

Investigations

Room 21 students started their investigation into how shadows work this afternoon. Out came the torches and objects, and off the students went outside to see if they could work out the answers to their investigations. Some students were able to find ways to test their hypothesis by imagining their torch was the 'sun'. 

Cooperative Math Game

Students in the Hub had lots of fun adding numbers on dice as fast as they could. They know that to add fast you put the largest number in your head then add on the smallest number by counting on. Most students were successfully able to do this today!

Students had fun using the virtual dice. Some even had the chance to press the button to 'roll' the dice. 

Some students played a 'counting on' game called 'Murtle's Turtle. You had to put 5 in your head, then roll the die and add on the number it showed. The next job was to put a jovi on the answer. This game not only taught an important Math skill, but also how to cooperate with others. 

Star Lab experience offered

Dear parents/caregivers

As part of our topic, Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, Ara Teina has organised Star Lab to visit our school with an inflatable planetarium. Students will have the opportunity to learn about seasons, moon phases and the New Zealand night sky. 

Dates: Monday 8 June - Tuesday 9 June

Location: School Hall

Cost: 30 minute session

$4 per child for Loyalty Card Holders

$6 per child for non Loyalty Card Holders

Please send trip money to your child's classroom teacher no later than Friday 5 June. 

This learning experience is not compulsory and should you wish your child not to participate, alternative educational experiences will be offered as part of the classroom programme. 

Thank you for your support. 

Ara Teina teachers

Questions to explore

Room 21 students thought of some questions they have about shadows. 

Ethan - Why does a shadow copy us?

Lucas B - What happens to our shadow when we go into another shadow?

Roxana - When the sun moves, why does the shadow move too?

Kalais - Why does the sun make the shadow copy us?

Yashvi - Why does a shadow copy us when we are doing something?

Lucas D - Why is a shadow always hooked to us?

Ivo, Rafael and Komail are exploring this question, Can you get coloured shadows?

Now that we have our questions we will make an hypothesis, then do some experiments to see if we can answer our own questions. 

Photo by Eloise

Word and sound prompts

The students are using a variety of word and sound cards to help them in their writing. 

Understanding bold font

Hippos had some words written in bold in their reader today. They learnt to read those words slightly louder than the others. 

Being observant

The sun came out at break time and some of us started playing with shadows. 

Lucas D also noticed a funny spotty shadow appearing on his friend's face!

Green Group Maths

In Math, Green Group practiced counting on from the largest number when adding. 

Learning about shadows

Because it was raining today we couldn't go out to do PE so we used the time to watch some videos about shadows. It was interesting to see a video which showed how shadows can change colour and size by moving them towards or away from the light source.

The children were also interested in the interactive game where they saw an object then had to choose the shadow it cast.

Room 21's Highlights

A surprise sound

When Room 21 students read the new poem today we got a surprise! We found that the word 'motion' contains a /sh/ sound!

Adding quickly

In Math today we talked about the meaning if adding. Fleur was able to explain that when you add you join two numbers together to get a bigger number. 

We learnt a way to add two numbers very quickly. We rolled two dice and had to look for the largest number as fast as we could. We put the largest number in our head then we counted on the smaller number. We call this the 'counting on' strategy. 

Photos by Nina

Sharing our stories

Each Monday morning we have time to share news in our class. This morning we had lots of students wanting to talk!

Mia told us that she went to Maddisyn's birthday party on the weekend. Her favourite part of the party was eating marshmallows! Yum!

Maddisyn told us that she is going on a trip to see her uncle in America. Her friend Rafael asked, "Are you going to the United States of America, or proper America?" Maddisyn told us that she is going to 'proper' America!

Yashvi told us what happened when her wobbly tooth fell out. 

Lucas D explained that he played a Lego-War game on his iPad. He was sad when a soldier's leg was blown off. "He had to survive with just one leg." he told us. 

Ivo made a pop pop boat at home and tried it out in the sink. He also told us that we need to be very careful with matches and naked flames because there are so many flammable things in the classroom. 

Photos by Lucas D