Potato, Potato, Potato!

Today is our Potato Day! We have been growing potatoes since last term. Today we harvested them, which mean we dug them out. We found 31 potatoes, all different shapes and sizes!

Here are our entries into the potato competition:

Most unusual  potato

The biggest potato

The tiniest potato

The potato that looks the most like Mrs Parr

 

All the rest!

Nathan's Orcasome Prize

Today I won an awesome prize because I was the first to enter both Orca competitions. You can see my drawing and my poem. I won an Orcasome DVD called Killers I Have Known. I feel amazed and excited to watch my new DVD! I am so proud of myself. I am one of the few people in New Zealand that has the DVD.

Oli's new pup!

Here is my new puppy. He is so adorable! The kind of breed is a Retradoodle, which is crossed between a poodle and a Golden Retriever. He is called Harry.

 

By Oliver

Photos Galore!

It has been a while since we have updated our blog, so here are a few slideshows of photos to show you what we have been up to over the last month!

Voice Recording with Blair:
We got to use this flash microphone while Blair recorded our voices for his exciting educational resource he is making!

Zoo Trip!

Technology
We learnt about ingredients in drinks that we love and learnt how to make some delicious drinks without all the sugar and colouring. Check them out!

Mathletics

The focus for Mathletics for Week 3 & 4 is Symmetry. Make sure you complete the tasks set for you!


http://scs.mathletics.com/SignIn.asp

Hola!

Hola from Quito, Ecuador! It has been a very fun, busy trip so far! We have been to the following places in Peru (see if you can find them on a map):

• Lima
• Cusco
• Puno
• Arequipa
• Aguas Calientes
• Machu Picchu!

And Bolivia:

• Lake Titicaca
• Copacabana
• Isla del Sol

Me at Machu Picchu!

 Llama at Machu Picchu... very friendly!

 Machu Picchu

 The snake Tim nearly sat on as we rested whileclimbing up Mount Machu Picchu. We found out later that it is poisonous! Lucky it was sleeping!

We are now in Quito, Ecuador until October 12th. See you in Week Two of Term Four Room 30!

Class Speech Finals

A HUGE congratulations to

Shelby and Mary who are our class speech finalists, competing in the middle school speech finals this Friday 10th September. Notices have gone home today to invite parents to come along to support and enjoy the presentations of all finalists.

Good luck!
Mrs Guy

Speeches

Congratulations to the class speech finalists for Room 30:
Nathan
Lucca
Shelby
Ashleigh
James
Kenta
Mary
Akshaya

Only two students will be selected today to compete in the middle school speech finals this Friday at 9am. Good luck everybody!

Speeches

What I will be looking at when I mark your speech:

Speech Assessment Criteria

Introduction: TOTAL /50 points

Captures your attention /5

Delivery:

Clear voice / pace /5

Volume /5

Eye contact/ No fidgeting /5

Content:

Topic is of interest to class /5

The purpose of the speech is clear  (it is a persuasive speech about the greatest journey ever) /5

Ideas are presented in a sensible order /5

Conclusion:

Summarises points from the speech /5

Leaves the audience with something to think about /5

Personality:

Is enthusiastic in the way they present the speech /5

Cross Country

Well done to everyone for participating in the Middle School Cross Country today! Congratulations to Kenta for coming second in Year 4 boys! Ashleigh was the first girl in our class to finish. I hope your muscles aren't too sore! You will be exercise your mouth muscles over the weekend as you practise your speeches for next week! It's all go in Room 30!

Bible

Here's what we sang in Bible today with our awesome Bible teacher, Johnathan!

Speeches

Room 30 have been busy planning, writing and practising speeches for next week's competition! We have also listened to some famous speeches and discussed what the speaker did really well that we could do in our own speeches.
Below are some guidelines for delivering our speech to the class:

Below are some extra do's and don't created by Mrs Guy's Year 8 class from last year to help us! Just click on the link to check them out!

 http://voicethread.com/share/563789/

We also had a visitor called Sarah, from ASB today. She came to teach us about how to be sensible with our money and how to save. She did some funny role playing to show us how electronic money works and how to be wise with our money even when we can't see it! Money doesn't appear magically in the bank. We have to earn it in the first place. We can earn money by: selling stuff, working, doing chores, saving pocket money, trading stuff (only if we are allowed to!), looking after pets, and more. We went on a money 'boot camp', where we had to pretend to do some tasks to earn money, like: walking two dogs, washing the dishes while standing on one leg, mowing the lawns. Check out our photos below, don't we look funny! We played a game where we were split into 3 teams and had to sit in a line and earn money by passing cups back to our boss at the back of the line, who would then pay us by passing money back to the front. The trick was we had to pass the cup and the money to each person in the line without missing anyone out. We had to teamwork to complete this task. The winning team was the Yellow group. Check out our photos below!

Next stop: Nelson

As you may know, we are doing a virtual tiki tour of New Zealand as we learn about people and places. At the moment we are still in Northland, but this morning we did a detour and had a Skype conversation with a class in Nelson, Moturoa class from Appleby School! We wrote some questions that would help us to learn about how people in Nelson live and what they do and they answered them straight away! It was great being able to see the other class as we spoke to them. We found out lots of interesting things, and we noticed that we had lots of things in common! Thanks to Motorua class for giving their morning up to help us out, it was great to meet you. We especially loved the maori song you sang to us before we said goodbye.

This morning we also had a visitor, Miss Scott, who is a student teacher from America. She stayed with us until this end of the day. Below is a photo of her reading us a New Zealand story, The Little Tuatara, by Robin Cunningham.

MOTAT trip

Kiwiana

In class today we learnt about Kiwiana and what it means to be a Kiwi! We watched the following ad for McDonalds' Kiwiburger and identified the Kiwiana things in the ad. Watch out for our Kiwiana Wordle posters which will be appearing on our individual wiki pages in the next few days. Click here to visit our wiki now!



We are looking forward to our trip to MOTAT on Friday to do the Kiwi Identity programme. Things we need to remember for Friday:

• come in normal school uniform
• morning tea
• lunch (a little bit more than usual)
• 2x bottles of water
• raincoat
• umbrella (if you have one)
• manners
• a ready to learn attitude
• parents if they are coming!

MOTAT trip

Here is the newsletter for those who lost theirs!
http://room30pvs.wikispaces.com/Newsletters

Tane Mahuta - The Giant Kauri Tree of Waipoua Forest

Questions we would like answered:

• When was this tree first discovered?
• Who planted it?
• How tall is it?
• Why is it so famous?
• How old is this tree?
• How fat is its trunk?
• What patterns can you see on its bark?
• How big is this tree?
• Is it a spiritual place for Maori and if it is, how?
• Was it alive when dinosaurs lived?
• When was it planted?
• Has anyone ever climbed this tree?
• Are people allowed to climb it?
• How many leaves are on it?!
• Who owns Tane Mahuta?
• How much does it weigh?
• What do its roots look like?
• How big is a Kauri seed?
• What is the colour of the leaves?
• Is Tane Mahuta bigger than the Auckland Sky Tower?

Room 30's Tiki Tour of New Zealand

This term for inquiry learning, we are learning about People and Places. Our big idea is:

Where someone lives influences how they live.

This week we are looking at Cape Reinga and have learnt a lot about how it is such a special place in New Zealand.

Here are some things we have learnt so far about Cape Reinga:

• It is at the very tip of New Zealand.
• A lighthouse is a landmark on this landform.
• The Tasman Sea is on the west and the Pacific Ocean is on the East.
• It is a spiritual place for Maori.
• Maori believe that when their people die, their spirits travel to Cape Reinga before they pass on to their heaven - this is just what some people believe, it is not necessarily what we believe!
• There is a Pohutukawa tree on the headland and it is believed to be 800 years old and has never bloomed.
• Lots of tourists visit Cape Reinga.
• There is a post that shows lots of main cities around the world and in what direction they are.

Next stop on our tiki tour of New Zealand...Tane Mahuta - the Giant Kauri Tree of Waipoua Forest. Visit us soon to learn more about this place!

Bloggers: Mrs Guy and all of Room 30

Senior School Production Trailer: Voyage of the Dawn Treader

The tickets are on sale before and after school in the library.

Technology with Mr Rankin

Back into it!

It has been busy week in Room 30! This week,we did drama with Mrs Naus. We acted out poems, it was great! Gaarunyaa performed in the year 4 dance group at assembly and she looked like she was born to dance! We were so proud of her.

This term we are so excited about going to the zoo for our school trip. For our topic, we are going for a Tiki Tour around NZ [not a real tour!] as we learn about people and places. We are excited to have our own wiki page to share our work on! We are doing speeches this term, it is going to be fun and exciting.

Bloggers: Youri and Aleisha

Chopsticks eating competition!

Today we learnt about the ancient Chinese style of eating... using chopsticks! It was hard at first, but with the help of some of our experts in Room 30, we picked it up pretty quickly! We got a good idea of how the Chinese eat their food. Many people in Room 30 use chopsticks at home to eat most of their meals.

First, we watched a You Tube clip to get some tips... (you can check it out at the below link)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJrz8HYaOfA

Then, we moved into groups, each with an expert as the leader. They helped us to master our chopsticks skills! We were given one Twistie to practice on, then six more for our competition! The winners for our Eating Twisties with Chopsticks Competition were: Ashleigh (1st), Jenny (2nd). Congratulations to them! When we were finished, we placed our chopsticks across our plate and called out "wanla!", which means "finished" in Chinese.

Check out our photos below...

Written by Mrs Guy with the help of all of the students in Room 30.

New Class Wiki!

Check out our brand new wiki for Room 30!

Museum Trip

On Tuesday the 4 of June Rooms 28, 29, 30 and 31 went on a museum trip, so we could learn about Ancient China and other things from the past.

First we had morning tea when we got to the museum.

Then we went in our groups to look around the museum. We liked the volcano movie best because it was very exciting.

After that Room 30 had lunch in the lunch room but we only had 15 minutes to eat so we gobbled it down!

Finally Room 30 went to the learning centre and learnt about fossils and dinosaurs bones. After that Room 30 went to look at the Egyptian Mummy.

We liked learning about the Egyptian Mummy.

Finally, Rooms 28, 29, 30 and 31 went on the bus and back to school. We hope you like our photos!

Written by Rebecca and Heather

Go the All Whites!

Today we are supporting the All Whites by dressing up in white or soccer gear that we own. Aren't we just the cutest class?!

Buddhist Temple Visit

Last Friday, Rooms 13, 29, 30 and 31 travelled to the Fo Guang Shan Temple to learn about some Ancient Chinese traditions. We are currently writing our recounts of the trip so pop back soon to read some! We hope you enjoy looking at our photos from the trip. What a great day it was! Thanks to all the parents who helped.

Inquiry Learning Brainstorm

Museum Trip Reminders

We are travelling to the Museum on Tuesday 8th June to discover the past some more, including visiting the dinosaur exhibit.
Here's what you need to bring:

• raincoat
• morning tea
• lunch
• afternoon tea
• 2 bottles of water

My Greatest Feat

Room 30 are signed on, have our pedometers on and are ready to escort the All Whites onto the pitch for the FIFA World Cup! Visit http://www.mygreatestfeat.org/ for more details about this exciting event. Photos coming soon!

Making a Splash

Every Friday, we travel to the pools for swimming lessons. Here a few photos of us getting ready to make a splash! There are not many of use showing off our skills as the light is not very good indoors from a distance, plus there is so much splashing going on!

Discovering Ancient Chinese Artifacts

We can learn a lot about a country and its culture by viewing its ancient artifacts. We were lucky enough to inspect these artifacts up close. You can also see more ancient Chinese artifacts by clicking this link: http://images.ask.com/pictures?q=ancient%2Bchinese+artifacts&qsrc=8&o=10601&l=dir

Hello strangers!

Well, it has been a while since we last blogged, the children of Room 30 have just been so busy discovering the past in Ancient China! They have found that there are so many things we use today that we invented in China many years ago. Room 30 will be looking at Ancient Chinese dynasties over the next few days and learning how to read and create time-lines to present information. We will also find out what major events and discoveries occurred during each dynasty's ruling. Over the next few weeks, students will be working in groups to investigate an area of particular interest to them to follow the inquiry process and develop their research skills, as well as learning about how activities of the past impact on our lives today.

We have also been making a splash with our free swimming lessons at Lloyd Elsmore every Friday! Thanks to all our parents who have helped out so far with supervision. Photos will be posted soon. I wonder if any of these children will be Olympic swimmers one day? You just never know...

Written by Mrs Guy

Term 2 Week 1

Welcome to Week 1! This week has been a week of discovering the past which is the topic for this term. We have learnt about ANZAC day and what happened in Gallipoli. We learnt that ANZAC stands for Australia and New Zealand Army Corps. We read a poem called In Flanders Fields by John McCrae, who wrote the poem for his friend who died in the war. This Sunday, we will be remembering soldiers from Australia and New Zealand who have fought in wars for us. Are you going to a dawn service this Sunday? See our photos of us making ANZAC poppies with our Year 1 buddy class!

We have also been learning about Ancient China and how lots of inventions came from China, like: umbrellas, paper, silk, porcelain, gunpowder and much more. We brainstormed in groups how they make our lives better today. See our photos below...

This week's certificate was awarded for being on task at all times. The award winner is below!

The best part about this week was learning about discovering the past because now we realise how precious old things really are!

Terrific talents

A note from Mrs Guy:
This term has gone so fast. We have had a great time in Room 30, getting to know each other and discovering our own and others' gifts and talents. We all enjoyed our Terrifically Talented Tuesday, where contestants from each middle school class competed in a range of fun events, to showcase unusual talents. I hope you all enjoy a great Easter break. See you next term!

View our video below to see how the afternoon went...


Room 30's thoughts on Term One in Room 30 as Year 4 students:

Shelby: Terrifically Talented Tuesday, going to Lake Pupuke, creating a name Wordle and going on our e-learning wiki!
Mohammed: Competing in Terrifically Talented Tuesday
Jack: Technology was cool
Amy: Our Lake Pupuke Trip and doing art
Mackenzie: our self portraits and our colour wheels
Lucca: being able to show my class my karate skills and being the Year 4 skipping champion
Ashleigh: Stu Duval visiting and our I Am poems, and.... art!
Aileen: Doing some of the activities on the middle school wiki
James: Winning the medal in the Terrifically Talented Tuesday skipping contest
Rebecca: Terrifically Talented Tuesday and winning a medal, and having a great teacher ( I did not make her write that!). Doing technology
Oliver: Lake Pupuke, meeting other students, having a new teacher, our class blog, and getting a certificate at assembly
Stella: The art that we did and going to Lake Pupuke
Heather: Maths, art, Bible, having a new teacher
Aleisha: Sketching our friends and writing, suing alliteration, painting the colour wheel
Taran: Terrifically Talented Tuesday and the Birkenhead Leisure Centre trip
Kenta: Describing and writing our What's in the Box? poem
Chloe: Having a nice new teacher
Nathan: Going to Lake Pupuke, sharing my gifts and talents
John: Our trip to Lake Pupuke, doing maths with the teacher and playing Multi-dice
(Some students were not present in class while this was being done)

Anosh: Looking at the blog and watching the slideshows

Week 8!

Wow, what a week in Room 30! We have done lots of things this week, including art! We learnt painting skills. Mrs Guy gave each group red, blue, and yellow paint. They are called primary colours. Then she gave us a our own palettes to put some of the primary colours on. Next, we were given blank colour wheels. We painted yellow slowly and carefully. After that, we painted red, and then blue. We also mixed the primary colours to make secondary colours, orange, purple and green! We thought this week was brilliant!

We will tell you about the pool party next week!

Week 8's certificate goes to...


Written by Jenny and Mary