Finishing off our Portraits

We have spent a long time making our portraits.  We finally finished them today.  We cannot wait to show them to you at our 3 Way Conference next week.  If you cannot make it, they will be on our blog next week when they are dry.

Our School Chicken Expert

The kiwifruit reading group read an article which interviewed a cockatoo owner.  They were then given a task to create questions to interview our school chicken expert - Tyler.

Why do chickens not crow?

Boy chickens, called Roosters, crow.  Female chickens are called hens.  They do not crow.

Why do birds crack open bird seeds and nuts?

It's their diet.  Mrs Christiansen said the birds do not like to eat the shells.  Theyonly like to eat the insides.  The shells are not good for their diet.

Are chickens friendly?

Sometimes, if they are tame.

How big are chicken brains?

About the size of the chicken's eye.

Do chickens go out of their cage?

Yes.

Do chickens like getting rubbed?

Yes, if they are friendly.

Do chickens get their wings cut?

They can.  People cut part of the feathers off one wing.  Then when they try to fly, they fall back down. 

Do chickens fly?

No.  They can jump high and flap their wings to go a short distance.  But they cannot fly like other birds.

Do chickens drink water?

Yes.

How do chicks hatch out of eggs?

The mother needs to sit on the egg for three weeks (21 days).  You also need to have a rooster.

Maths Problem Solving Questions

We are learning to solve problems using a number story.  Josh wanted to practise these at home, so he asked me to post them onto the blog.  Here they are Josh!  I hope you enjoy them.

Poem: A Change

Last week, we had a really fun poem. 

We loved acting it out every day.

Library Time

Room 1 read beautifully in the library.

Junior Swimming Sports

We had lots of fun at the swimming sports.  A big thank you to all the parents who came to support and cheer us on.  

We are definitely getting better at swimming.  Can you tell?

Visiting Mrs Simpson

Oh no!  Mrs Simpson was going to cancel our lunch breaks.  We wrote explanations to explain the importance of lunch breaks.  Today we went to her office and shared our reasons.  Yippee, yahoo!  We can still have lunch breaks.  Thank you Mrs Simpson!

Duck, Duck, Goose

We make sure we enjoy the sunshine when we can.  We went outside for a game of Duck, Duck, Goose.  It was a very nice way to end our busy day.

Chrysalis Explanation Writing

How does a caterpillar turn into a chrysalis?

Wow!  The Caterpillar ate and ate.  Then it started to begin a chrysalis.  It made some silk and it stuck to the leaf.  It begun to make a J shape.  It scrunched itself into a teeny tiny chrysalis!  It was cool!  I can't wait until the butterfly comes out.  By Heather.

How does a caterpillar turn into a chrysalis?

Wow!  I did not know that the caterpillar was a chrysalis on Wednesday morning.  First the caterpillar spun silk so the caterpillar realised the chrysalis would not fall from the leaf.  Then it scrunched up its skin.  Next the caterpillar wiggles and jiggles.  Now it is a chrysalis.  By Zoe.

Buddy Class Swimming

We had a lot of fun swimming with our buddy classes today.  We played Ring-a-Ring-a-Rosie, we made whirlpools, waves, and had piggy back races.  It was a bit cold, so we didn't stay in the water for long.

Caterpillars

We are very excited to have caterpillars in our classroom.  They are eating lots of the swan plant leaves.  Every morning we rush in and look at how big they have grown.

Making Thank You Cards

We have made cards to thank Mr Bramwell for helping us learn how to swim.  We can't wait to give them to him.

Explanation Writing

How do you make jelly?
Today we made jelly.  We poured jelly crystals into the bowl.  Then we poured hot water on it.  It turned red.  We stirred the jelly crystals and water in a bowl with a spoon carefully until the crystals melted.  We put the jelly on the bench to cool down.  Next we put it in the fridge to set.  Scrumptious!  I can't wait until we eat it tomorrow. 

5 Little Men in Their Flying Saucers

We worked so well toay, we had time for a quick game at the end of the day.  This was a favourite game from kindergarten, 5 Little Men in Their Flying Saucers.  We loved flying around the room.

A Visit From Mrs O'Donnell

Every two weeks Mrs O'Donnell comes into our classroom.  If she behaves herself, she is allowed to read us a story.  We really enjoyed learning the song at the end of the book.  Thank you for the wonderful story.

Massage Circle

At the end of the day we have been having a massage circle.  We draw on each others backs.  It is a lot of fun.  We always remember to say thank you to the person behind us.

Earthquake Practice

Our class has been talking about the Christchurch earthquakes this week.  We have been practising what to do if there is an earthquke at out school.  Look at us under the table.

Room 1 Gardeners

We finally got to plant our garden today.  Every other day we had time, it rained.  We needed to weed our garden, turn the soil, plant the vegetables and flowers, and then water the garden.  It was a big job.

Thinking Hats

In our class, we use Thinking Hats to help us organise our thinking.  Today was the first time we used them.

We used the hats to help us think about the scavenger hunt we did with our buddy class.  We did a lot of thinking.  We felt happy, nervous, and excited.  We carefully thought about where we would like to hide clues next time.

Buddy Class

Today we went on a scavenger hunt to find clues about what makes out bodies 'Happy and Healthy.'  It was a lot of fun!  We learnt lots of different ways to wake our brains up for learning.  

Maths - Statistics

Last week we brainstormed different questions we would like to find answers for.  Today we found the answer to "How many people have short or long hair from our class and buddy class?"  Every child had to decide if their hair was short or long.  This was tricky.  If your hair was above your shoulders it was short.  If it was below your shoulders it was long.  Our class decided, the best way to record the data was to use tally marks.  We guessed girls would all have long hair and boys would have short hair.  We were wrong!  26 people had short hair and 17 people had long hair.  Thank you Room 4 for letting us come into your class today!

Wonderful Weekly Writer

My WeekendI went to the fun day.  We went in a fire castle.  It had a tunnel.  I had a sausage.  It was delicious.  I chased a scarecrow.  I had a water fight.

Swimming with Mr Bramwell

Thank you Mr Bramwell for helping us learn to swim.  We enjoyed learning the new skills you taught us.  We will keep practising them over the next few weeks, so we can get better each day.

Maths - Statistics

We are getting a lot better at making graphs.  We have learnt there are many different ways to record data.  We have used a dot graph, a block graph and blocks, to answer the question, "How many letters are in your name?"

We even made our own graphs today.  We needed to cut out fruit, group them together, use tally marks and numbers to record our findings.  We enjoyed this so much, Mrs C thought there were no children in our class because we were so engrossed in our work.

Big Book

We have been enjoying reading a funny big book about a lady dressed like a bee.  A silly bumblebee follows her around all day long.  Poor Maizy cannot go on the bus, eat at a cafe, or read in the library.  Maizy sings a funny song when things keep going wrong.    Tomorrow we are going to use instruments to make music for her 'Booms-a-daisy" song.

Maths - Statistics

We are learning about statistics.  This is a tricky word for us to learn.  We are asking questions, finding out the answers, and making graphs.  Today we looked at our lunch boxes.

We found it tricky to guess what colour would be the most common.  Most of us guessed our own coloured lunchbox.  So we got our lunch boxes and then we could make a better guess.  We thought pink and blue would be the most common.  We guessed there would be no brown lunch boxes and we were right.  We are still learning to talk about our findings and group similar objects together.

Swimming

Brrr ... Today it was a little bit cold in the pool. 
But we still had lots of fun.