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