Describe a Monster

Jump Rope for Heart Skip-a-thon

Book week!

Tongue Twisters

Our Book Week theme is TONGUE TWISTERS.
Do you know some good twisters you can share this week?

http://www.uebersetzung.at/twister/en.htm
http://www.indianchild.com/tongue_twisters.htm
http://thinks.com/words/tonguetwisters.htm
http://www.starfall.com/n/level-b/twisters/play.htm?f

Search on the internet or the Library for more!

Individuality

Sing along to the song we have been singing in class this week :)

Wanted

Make a Wanted Poster.
Do you know what makes a good friend?

http://www.glassgiant.com/wanted/

Mask Making

Hear our self reflections:

We have used the 4 of the 6 Thinking Hats
Red Hat: How do I feel about my mask?
Yellow Hat: What went well when I made my mask?
Black Hat: What went wrong?
Blue Hat: Thinking about what I could do next time.

Our Class reflection:

We thought our paper mache masks were bad and our flat cardboard ones were good.  But actually our paper mache masks are really good!

Kiwi Kids are Rocking it

Thanks for finding this for us Adam!

The Wicked Fairy phoned Mrs Kruijer

Oh dear, Mrs Kruijer got a very angry phone call at 5 o'clock (5 am) yesterday morning! You know how much the Wicked Fairy does not like children especially after Hansel and Gretel nibbled on the gingerbread cottage and then shoved the defenceless witch into her own oven! Well, she was very upset because the children had done so much work researching, writing and acting about using manners but they were not remembering to use them all the time. Especially when Mrs Western took them for a Health Lesson about being a good friend this week! Everyone had forgotten their manners! The class thought we had better do something and so we are writing instructions about how to use good manners.

Later in the day we had a visit from Mr Turrell (DP) and he had a very important message from the Good Fairy. She had emailed Mr Turrell and told him to take a look at Room 23's blog because they had been doing so much wonderful work learning about manners. So Mr Turrell thought he would pop in to share this with Room 23. He told us we were a wonderful class and we used our best manners when he visited. That was really good news! We hope the Fairy Godmother will tell the Wicked Witch!

We are a little worried because the Big Bad Wolf is visiting the Three Little Pigs next week. We must get our manners instructions written before he goes!

Parents
Using the inquiry model through drama, art and literacy we have extended the manners theme through to using the traditional Fairy Tales because of the use of messages throughout the stories. If you some time free Tuesday or Wednesday afternoons to read your favourite Fairy Tale you are welcome to come into the class. It will give the children an opportunity to use their manners too!
We are also looking at geometry in maths and through that we will explore the artist Picassso and Maori colours. The children are investigating mask making for the Three Little Pigs play and will look at integrating all these ideas together. Masks from home are welcome as examples. The end product will be a paper mache mask. Our work afternoons on the masks will be Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Please come in if you can :)

Homework
Click on this wiki link
You will be taken to our continuous story using spelling words.

Maths Books are going home today

Maths books are going home today. Please check the bookbags for these. I haven't put in a comment sheet this time but if you feel you would like to leave a comment for your child please do!

No school tomorrow. Teacher Only Day. Enjoy the long weekend :)

Plays and Drama

We have made our Manners doco-drama. If the children bring in a DVD disc I can burn a copy for you. Although you probably do not need to because here it is. Enjoy!



Thank you for the work you put into helping your child to get this information together. It is all very interesting and we have all learned so much!
We have peer evaluated our doco-drama and here is what we thought:
1. Parents and grandparents need to write down the information using language we can read and understand.
2. Parents need to help us at home to practice reading the information.
3. Talk clearly and with expression. Not too fast and not too slow.
4. Remember to pause and stop at the commas and full stops.
5. When in the drama remember to stay in the role of the character.

The doco-drama is based on the style of a German playwright, Bertolt Brecht. Here are some examples if you are looking to know more about our drama.




Jerome Bruner's notion of forming concepts through a three modes of representation and to use these three modes as a useful way of understanding:

Symbolic: mostly words, spoken or written, but also maths symbols, musical notes

Iconic Paintings: drawings, photos, videos, diagrams (visual representation)

Enactive Doing: engaging physically

Hopefully you can see these ideas coming through in our Manners doco-drama. It would be fantastic if you could leave us a comment!

Speaking of Change

Week 4

There have been lots of great stories about manners and etiquette come in from Mums, Dads and Grandparents. The children will be reading these so please get your child to read your story to you at home. Talk to them about reading your story fluently and clearly with expression.

Don't forget the home learning activities. I do not see many ticks on the sheets?? Are you forgetting to use your manners at home?

Under the Sea news week 2

Well done everyone who presented their homework this week. Here are some we videoed:


We were trying to be clever with how we videoed and we tried to have the video picture behind the speaker but it hasn't worked! Maybe try something else next time.

Manners and Etiquette

I was so impressed when Charlie arrived at school on Monday morning ready with a story about his mum and how she used her manners! The story is fabulous. Well done Charlie! Many of the children have indicated they are working on their stories. I can't wait to see them.

See if you can find out about some manners from these videos. Try them out at home. We will be role playing these in class.

Home learning Week 2

We are underway with our topic;

Speaking of Change

This week I want you to do some research. Find out from your Mum, Dad, Grandmother or Grandfather a story about how they used their manners or were reminded to use them when they were your age. Get them to write it down. We are going to make a doco-drama video using the information. This means you will read their story about what happened. If you are able to get a photo of them when they were young to go with it would be great too. Ask politely first if it is alright to use their photo.

Verb song

We have been learning about adding verbs, nouns and adjectives to help to make our writing more interesting. Have a listen to the 'Verb Song' and sing along too!

Jump Rope For Heart

We are getting involved with the Jump Rope for Heart fund. More details to come but you can visit Digivillage: http://www.digivillage.org.nz/manawanui/

We have got started with skipping this week. We have learnt some new skipping moves. Check them out!

Speaking of Change

The Arrowtown Museum Website: http://www.handsonhistory.co.nz/student/life.php
The topic we will be looking at this term is 'Speaking of Change'. We will be producing a video for the Arrowtown Museum about the changes in the Wakatipu area. To do this we are going to be working with Room 24 and interview their teacher, Mrs Excell. Did you know she has lived here all her life! She will have some amazing stories to share!

Included with the topic we are going to be using the 'Habits of the Mind'. Art Costa's theory about how minds are developed. Along with the value; Integrity which involves being honest, responsible, and accountable and acting ethically (NZ Curriculum, 2007). (I have added the links for parents who want to know more).

As you can see this has lead into thinking about how change happens and looking at integrity with a manners theme. As the children will be interviewing an older person from our community it is a good opportunity to find out about the types of manners their grandparents use to have. To also practice using them themselves and to think about developing them as a habit or to evaluate why they never use them. How do others react and how does it feel? So you will also see this has been integrated into the terms home learning. Watch these videos:

My Greatest Feat

The 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.

http://www.mygreatestfeat.org/

Our class has joined!
The passwords will be glued into the Homework books.

What we have learnt about the Water Cycle

Here is our Water Cycle assessment. I think the children all worked very hard. We used the SUPER THREE to help us to work together and to get the job done. We also wrote our own explanations about the water cycle. Here is the Water Cycle explanation we wrote together as a class:

The Water Cycle

Yesterday I learnt from the Highlander I need to drink 8 glasses of water every day to stay healthy. I have also found out that water is older than my parents. This is because it has been on the earth since earth began! Wow that is old!

First the sun heats the water up and it turns into clouds. When it is going up into the clouds this is called vapour and this is transpiration. When it is made into a cloud this is called condensation.

Precipitation is when the clouds cannot hold anymore water and it rains.

After that, the water that has not been used by the plants, animals or us soaks into the ground and goes into an aquifer. Then the cycle starts all over again.

Each time the water goes around the cycle it is like a washing machine. If too much rubbish is put into the water cycle the water will not be clean. I am going to remember to look after water because it is important for me, the animals and all the plants on the earth.

Written by Room 23

In our writing books we assessed our own writing with this rubric:

Have I used a title with capitals?

Have I used words like next, then, and last?

Have I used capital letters and full stops?

Have I introduced the topic?

Have I used paragraphs?

Have I rounded off my explanation?

The next thing I need to work on is....