Week 7 - Production Week

¡Lo hicimos! We did it!
We performed in front of hundreds of people and although we felt nervous we still remembered all of our three Rock n' Roll dances and lines. I am so proud of all of you, especially those of you from Room 13 who were in the Cast. Special mention to Cody (Wolf O'Malley), you have developed a great attitude throughout the production practises and the other teachers and I were impressed how you held it together with the 'mishap' on the first night performance! It goes to show that 'things' can go wrong on the night but as Mrs Funnell rightly pointed out "The Show MUST Go On". Riana (Narrator One), you did very well saying your script! Your confidence has blossomed! Chorus and dancers, we are proud of you too!

In week six, we made lemonade in our class for maths. We learnt how to measure ingredients (weight) and how to triple the lemonade recipe. We also learnt how it is important to follow instructions. Our classroom had a lovely citrus smell as we filled our rubbish bin up with lemon skins! We decided the lemonade was soooo yummy that we were queuing up for third helpings.




We created a Pop Art apple and they look awesome on display. We learnt how to sketch using a pencil, how to shade and how to use water paint and oil pastel.

Week 6

Less than one week to go and we will be performing our production live in front of hundreds! Next Friday we will have our end of production party and boy, what a party we will have! What a mission learning three rock n' roll dances, two songs and creating props and practising over and over again!

Thank you to Whaea (Mana's Nan)for her time in our class on Monday and Wednesday afternoons for Te Reo. This week we learnt, E hia, E hia tenei? including items around the classroom. We are working on our pronounciation and having fun! There has been no Spanish this week due to production!

On Monday, our Spanish speaking countries are due. I am blown away at the high standard of work being put into this homework activity and I would like to remind you just to do the best you can do and you are allowed input from whanau/familia. I am still unsure of who is more excited about this project - you or your parents!! If you need any resources you just need to ask! Remember, think outside the dodecagon (12 sided shape).



Remember to restock your pencil case. You need a glue stick, pens and a lead pencil - pene rakau.

Term 3, week five

What a week! Gemma represented our class at Mt Pukaha (Bruce) on Monday as she and three other students presented the wildlife reserve with a $100 cheque from our fundraising! Thank you, Gemma!

A huge welcome to Ariana and her family who have joined us at NSS! You have settled in well, Ariana!

Guess what? Today, we received a letter from HRH Queen Elizabeth! You can only imagine the look on Room 13 faces (particularly Riana, who was asking me almost everyday of Term Two if the letter from the Queen had arrived)!!!! Yes, you read it right!!!! In term one we answered the inquiry question, "Am I an Island" and we wrote letters to the Queen of England because some of us learnt that we were connected to the Commonwealth and their was a Queen in England. In our letters we wrote how we found out we were connected to England and we asked what it was like to be Queen. Our letter is on display in our classroom (and a copy is already glued into the personal profiles) and next week, we will all have a copy of the letter to take home. (I know we are all very excited but we need to wait until four of our friends who were away today to be back at school on Monday so we can share the news with them).


REMEMBER: NO teacher only day on Monday! SCHOOL AS NORMAL

We have made wonderful progress in the area of the Arts. Not only are we dancing magnificently in our production but we also created some wonderful sketches! Yes, that's right, we are now sketching with pencil and you will agree with me how super the work will be as it is displayed at an exhibition at the Production. Here is a little highlight of our work from only two art sessions!





Don't forget your mini project about a Spanish speaking country is due a week on Monday. I can't wait to see how you present your project!

Enjoy your long weekend!

Mrs. C.

Half way through Term 3

Wow, this term is flying by! We are practising our class dance for our production and we have a lot of art to do in the next couple of weeks. We are aware that some of you are busy at lunchtimes with production practice so you need to remember to use the 15 minutes of lunchtime wisely. Because of this busy time, it is important you fuel your body with food and water!

This Friday is a Teacher Only Day so remember, a day off for you!
Remember, we also have two competitions on at the moment:
1. Create a title page for our production; and
2. Draw a picture of a Takahe.

Because we are doing art and we are creating our own exhibition to sell our artwork during the production you will need to bring to school a black pen and an HB pencil (preferably a soft lead pencil for shading).

Homework this week has now changed to a project to be completed at home. This project may take 2-3 weeks to complete and of course, you will need to use the computers at school to research your information. We have five computers with internet access so no excuses.

For those parents who received their student reports and who couldn't make it to the interviews feel free to pop in and discuss the report with me as it can be confusing as it is based off the NZ National Standards.

Have a wonderful 'short' week!

Mrs C.

Middle Team fundraising for Mt Pukaha (Bruce)

What a hectic time of slinkying over 60 apples but it was well worth it because we fundraised over $100!!! Awesome effort, Middle Team! Mrs Watson and four students from the middle team (and Gemma from Room 13) will be sending the money next week to Mt Pukaha which will be warmly welcomed since they had an unfortunate loss of several kiwi chicks recently.




If anyone has sighted a green slinky machine can you please contact Mrs C. :0)

Term Three

Hola! Wow, our term is already flying by! We would like to share with you a selection of our work:

Have you left any comments?

Over the school holidays Room 13 want to encourage you to leave feedback about what we have been doing in our classroom. We really enjoy reading other people's comments.

Now, it is your turn. Every week there will be a photo posted on our blog. You have to be as original as you can to write a comment about what you think is happening in the picture. Remember, when you click on comment and you select annoymous you need to write your name.

Prize for the most creative thinking ...

Middle Team Soccer Tournament

Well done to Brazil (Room 14) and Slovakia (Room 13) in the final of the NSS Middle Team soccer tournament! It came down to a penalty shootout! Ka rawe!
We all had fun playing and cheering the other classes on and the teachers were super impressed at your 'fair play' and great attitude to the sport!

We look forward to having more interclass competitions!

Endangered Species talk 2

THANK YOU, Mrs Dudunski for sharing with the Middle Team at NSS of your experience working with Chimpanzee's! What an incredible life changing experience that would have been. We have learnt how humans play in making animals endangered and how we can make a difference in saving animals.

What a week!

We have had a very busy week 10. Today, it is exactly six months until Christmas much to the delight of Room 13 (and their parents). Congratulations to Mrs Clark's maths class where two thirds of the class have moved to stage six in number knowledge. That is a fabulous effort so keep using those strategies and remember, you all need to be learning your 7 and 8 timetables.
We carried out a Smarties activity for probability this week and we will be continuing on with this next week by presenting our findings using the various graphs in MS Excel.
Right choice on Thursday, so make sure this week you continue to make those right choices.

Have a lovely weekend and enjoy your winter sport even if it is in the rain!

Adios!

Our trip to Mount Pukaha (Mt Bruce)

Last Friday we finally got to go to visit the bird sanctuary at Mt Pukaha. We had a really neat time. We will be writing some storyboards which you will soon be able to check out under our literacy link. For some of us, it was the first time we had seen a real Kiwi! They are HUGE - okay, not as big as us but they are still a big bird and they can move quickly! We all enjoyed seeing the eels and most of us got to feed the eels! They looked very slimey.

Endangered species - Africa theme

The middle team had a visit from Mrs Hay who has worked with zoo animals AND who also has been a tour guide in South Africa. We had a great time seeing amazing photos of endangered animals and we learnt some interesting facts. Thank you for coming to share your experiences with us. We hope you enjoy our photostory.

Our bone inquiry

WALHT (We are learning how to) identify the bones in our skeletal system.
WILF that we can put the bones together in the correct place

Our geometry lesson

Art

In Room 13 we have been learning about an artist called Pablo Picasso. Because we are learning Spanish we also learnt that Picasso was Spanish too! We learnt how everyone can paint differently.

This week we learnt how to take a 'dot' for a walk! Everyone must have thought Mrs C was going crazy when she asked us to close our eyes and we had to follow the bones in our face while we kept our whiteboard marker on the piece of paper. Mrs C gave us instructions and she made sure that no one was peeping. It was hard to draw AND trace our face with the other hand. We were all amazed at how great they turned out and some of them even looked a little bit like Picasso's paintings! Okay, not quite! We used whiteboard marker for the outline, then we used the primary colours to colour it in it and lastly, we brushed dye over the picture. We have them displayed in our classroom.

Simulation Games about Endangered Species

Week 8
Rooms 13 & 12 had a marvellous day! Because our trip to Mt Pukaha was postponed our teachers came up with a different way to introduce our next Inquiry Unit about Endangered Species.
Firstly we had a big discussion about the Gulf of Mexico and what was happening there. Some of us wondered what that had to do with us, but later on, we saw the importance of it.
Then we were put into 7 teams or Tribes and the game began. We were told that in this game we were all starting a new civilisation, so we discussed what we needed to survive. This was our list:
 food
 shelter
 water
 love- we decided that this was going to be taken for granted as we are great children.
 And because our teachers didn't want us to be naked we also had to think about clothes.

We named our Tribes and decided where on the paper island each Tribe would live. When Mrs F. rung her chime she tossed a dice. If it landed on an odd number she read out a negative thing that happened on our Island and if it landed on an even number she read out a positive thing. Each Tribe then had to decide how the event effected them. Some of the things that happened were:
• A forest fire burnt through a lot of the forest;
• Many of the animals produced twins or triplets;
• An earthquake created a tsunami;
• Half of the animals got struck down by disease;
• The rivers had been overfished; and
• It was a good year for crops.
Every once and a while we had time to trade between the Tribes. Of course, some Tribes had more to trade than others. The Tribe that controlled the water supply was quite popular. None of us wanted the negative things to happen to us. Some of the negative things had a major effect on a Tribe and some didn't.
By the end of the game we could explain the things that could affect species and the meaning of the two words ‘extinct’ and ‘endangered’.
Many of you were able to work fantastically in groups especially when it came to negotiation time with the other Tribes. Good job!
What a great start to our Inquiry. Hopefully the weather will be better next Friday and we will be able to visit Mt Pukaha.

By the way
I wonder where Mt Pukaha is?
I wonder what Mt Pukaha used to be called?
I wonder what happens at Mt Pukaha?

Week 7

Hola mis amigos

Ka pai with your wonderful window 'posters' on the skeletal system! You all realised the importance of bones and ways to look after them (eating the right food). I look forward to seeing your next inquiry presentation on your own choice of another body system.

Congratulations to Bonnie for super mathematics thinking (great work in positional and orientation - geometry), Cory for displaying great confidence in all areas of learning, lastly, to Riana for excellence in all academic areas.

Next week we have a short week. It is a public holiday on Monday, teacher only day on Tuesday and on Friday we have our day trip to Mount Bruce. You will need to make sure you pay the money and return the permission slip to school by Friday at the latest.

Your homework this week is: Spelling and maths from your notebook; think about your inquiry topic on a body system; think of an end of term activity once the marble jar is full and lastly, think of some things to do for Right Choice Day. What do you want to do?

Remember, the best time for your whanau to catch up with me is after school Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

Que tengan una semana encantadora mis amigos.
(have a lovely week my friends).

Senorita Clark

The Minstrel visits NSS

Kia ora, Room 13.
This afternoon we had an adventure learning about fishing safety on and around water - lakes, rivers and the sea around New Zealand. Some things we learnt are:
"I learnt that you should always have a parent with you when you're in the water" (Hayden).
"That you should always should take a ruler with you when you go fishing because you don't want to take oversized or undersized fish. You want the fish to get bigger and breed. Always look at where you are going when you are on a boat" (Cody).
"That you always have to wear a lifejacket when you go out because if something bad happens and you don't have a lifejacket you'll drown" (Gemma).
"When you are on a boat you need to put the fish in the salt water ice as soon as you catch it. Because then it doesn't go off" (Riley).
"You need a flare incase your boat sinks so the plane people can see you" (Patrick).
"You need to make sure you can fit the lifejacket" (Kuuipo).
"You never leave your lifejacket on the tip of a boat incase your boat crashes" (Sharnah).
"You never fish at a Marine Reserve" (Pippa).

We learnt a lot. Ka rawe Room 13!

End of week 5

Congratulations on the three students who received certificates at the Middle Team assembly: to Gemma -for showing confidence and determination in her school work, Valma - for detailed note-taking during our inquiry unit, and Jack -for showing great confidence by helping others in reading.

Can you believe that we are already nearly half way through term two! I cannot believe how quick the school year is going. It is only 24 days until FIFA World Cup fever hits our classroom as we follow the All White's journey through South Africa! We will be studying "Country of the week" and learning about the different cultures and languages. Our pedometers arrived (thank you, McDonalds) so we will be getting healthy by recording our combined steps we take each day in support of the New Zealand soccer team.

I am so proud of you all with your enthusiasm of picking up another language - Spanish!

Check out the kids National Geographic link under science as well as the mathematics and spelling links.

Mrs C wants to introduce 'Brain Food' to Room 13 so we will trial this next week during the literacy class.

Don't forget to bring $3 to school for the Minstrel show!

Have a wonderful weekend and best of luck with your sport. Rememember, it does not matter who wins, it is all about participating and enjoying yourselves! You are also representing your school so do us proud! I hope to get around to see all the games over the winter.

Wrap up warm, winter is on its way so all you Kiwi kids can now stop running around in barefeet OTHERWISE I may have to somehow permanently attach your socks to the bottom of your feet!

Saint James School, Montgomery, AL, USA

I thought you might like to click the tab on the left handside to see Mrs Clark's childrens old school in Alabama. Check out the 2008-2009 photos! When the students finish High School they have a graduation ceremony. Mrs Clark's daughter also had a graduation ceremony going from the kindergarten programme into primary school. In New Zealand we only graduate from University.

Happy viewing.

Mrs C.

Viernes 14 de mayo (Friday 14 of May)

Hola. (Hello).
¿Cómo estás? (How are you?)
No estoy muy bien. (I am not very well).
He estado en casa con mi hija que tiene asma. (I have been home with my daughter who has asthma).

By now you should be familiar with greetings and asking how someone is to also replying with Muy bien or No muy bien. I am super impressed at how quick all of you are able to speak some Spanish AND understand what I am saying. You will discover later this term how loud and colourful the language can be AND you will slowly see some changes happening in the classroom with more Spanish words on display! Fingers crossed our Skype will work next Friday! Finger and toes crossed!

Did you know there are between 329 and 358 MILLION people in the world who speak Spanish as their first language! Hmmm, that's ALOT of people because New Zealand only has four million people! Did you also know there are 21 countries that speak Spanish as their first language! I wonder if you can list those countries! Fantástico.

This week we had a train visit to Life Education Trust. We learnt about the circulatory system and we discovered some amazing facts from the Magic School Bus videos AND Suzy's World. You will see there are links to Suzy's World and Life Education, so click on them and go off on your own adventure of discovery of the human body!



I have a treat in store for you next week as we make pasta skeleton's and create our own digestive system!

Now the cooler season is upon us, we need to make sure we stay healthy by eating the right food and wrapping up nice and warm!

¡Hasta luego! (See you later)

Monday 10th May

Hola sala de trece (Hello, room 13)
Fantástico trabajo, Shiah (fantastic work, Shiah)for creativity in your story writing!

Well, here we are in week four of term 2 and we are well and truly on our journey learning so many languages - Te Reo Maori, French and Spanish! I cannot believe that just after one lesson some of you are able to say hello and ask how someone is as well as counting in Spanish!!! Muy buena.

What a disgusting time we had examining the contents of the box - animal brains and an Ox heart! At least we saw how big an animals heart can be!

Life Education is at our school at the moment and we are learning some fascinating things about our circulatory system! We will soon be sharing our work on this site!

Don't forget Middle Team hockey practice on Wednesdays at lunch times.

Adios

Mrs. C.

End of Week 3, Term 2

It seems like our weeks are flying by ... so much to do in such a short amount of time. Firstly, congratulations to Jordan for great story writing, Mana for a super presentation on your ANZAC poster and Patrick for showing outstanding research skills, ka rawe!

Next week is going to be very exciting as we welcome a new student to our class, we get to go through the Life Education bus and our Spanish classes should be up and running (once we have our projector and screen working).

We are going to have fun as we go on the Inquiry Journey about the different systems in our body and you have some great questions to find out the answers to.

I am going to be coaching hockey at lunchtimes on Wednesdays so make sure you bring your stick, hockey shoes, shin pads and socks as well as your mouth guard. I hope to make it to most Saturday games.

Well, that's all from me. We have had yet another lovely week and I can't wait to hear about what you have been up to during the weekend. Don't forget to bring any Life Education money to school on Monday morning ($3.50).

Adios!
Senorita Clark

Term 2 Week 2

Well, we are all set for another busy term! Already, we have successfully completed our mini inquiry unit about ANZAC Day and we created great posters about our question that we researched. I can tell you have learnt alot! We survived our second week of cross grouping for literacy and our maths classes are ticking along nicely, well done!

Have a look at the Times Square link in New York - it is exactly like that - bright lights, people and cars everywhere. I can even still remember standing there and watching that very M&M sign ... enjoy.

Thumper is being replaced by another class mascot since the weather is getting cooler and Thumper needs to burrow deep underground until the spring (probably much to Mr Giesen's relief). Start thinking of some names for our turkey looking creature!

Congratulations to the following people who received certificates at last weeks assembly: Cullen (for respecting others), Mason (for great questions), Elzandah (improvement on speaking) and Sharnah (for always being considerate and helpful).

Hopefully next week, Room 13 year 3's will be learning Spanish via the internet with another school in Palmerston North. Starting in week four we will be having 'Country of the week' in preparation for the FIFA World Cup(soccer). Fingers crossed we also get a letter back from HRH Queen Elizabeth II SOON.

So, as you can see, we have a lot going on in Room 13 - that's why I call you the Busy Bees! Enjoy your weekend and make sure you are refreshed for Monday as we travel with Mrs Frizzle and the Magic School Bus through our body ... and oh, did I tell you, Life Education will be at our school in the next couple of weeks!

¡hasta luego! (See you later)
Mrs C.

Easter message

I hope you all enjoyed your time at Easter and you remembered to spread the chocolate out over ... hmmmm, let me see.... months! Make sure the ants don't get to the chocolate!

Term 2 is going to be very exciting and very busy so make sure you are well rested before school starts! It is going to be a longer term of 11 weeks instead of the nearly 9 weeks in Term 1.

We can't wait to hear about what Thumper has been up to with you, Cody! I hope your Dad didn't make rabbit pie out of him like he threatened to! As for Mrs C's mini lop rabbit, Thumper, he has GROWN! It must be all the healthy food I am feeding him.

Be safe over the holidays!

Mrs C.

News Flash

Spread the word to your family:

The Middle Team would like to invite you to see their presentations for the topic –

Am I an Island?

Date: Tuesday 30th March

Time: 2:00-2:45

Place: NSS Hall

You are able to collect your child from their classroom so they can then show and tell you about what they have learnt.

Our letter writing

Ka rawe, Room 13, your letters are on their way to Queen Elizabeth! Well done to those of you asking a super question, "How are we connected?" I wonder what the response will be?

Have a lovely last week of school. We get to present our "Am I an island display" to whanau on Tuesday and Wednesday is Right Choice day followed with a lovely afternoon watching a movie IF we can fill that marble jar up!

Enjoy the sun before winter arrives!

Mrs C.

Weetbix Kids Tri - Palmerston North

This morning there were approximately 1200 children competing in the final round of the Weetbix Tri series. Well done to Ayla, Riley, Mason, Cody, Lleyton, Aliyah who I cheered along and anyone else from the Middle Team who I didn't get to see. You did yourself and N.S.S. proud! Ka rawe!

Enjoy the photos ...

Congratulations, Paige for receiving a NSS certificate for achievement in story writing!

What a busy week we are in for. At the moment we are making our own family trees with a twist - using a real tree! We are ready for interviews on Tuesday and Wednesday night and I believe you will agree with me, the children have been very busy!

Getting to know our class mascot - Thumper

Mrs C. has a mini lop rabbit called Thumper and a guinea pig called Speedy. Here is a photo of them taken on my daughters bed. In our classroom we have a soft toy rabbit called Thumper and we have been writing beautiful stories about Thumper.

Here are some photos of Thumper and Speedy.

Welcome

Wow, look at this, we are starting blogging! How exciting!!!
What a great way to share our work with our whanau and school friends.

Keep coming back and make sure you view each others work!

Have a lovely week, everyone!