School Councillors

Today we voted for our Term Two School Councillors. Caleb and Olivia were voted to be our class representatives because of the great ideas they had. We hope they will represent us wisely on the student council.

Active Listening

We have been learning about the things we need to do to listen actively to other people. When you listen well you look at the person who is talking, make eye contact and reflect on what the other person is saying.

We all made up a role play to show we knew what to do. Rachel is very good at actively listening. Look how well she brings George into the conversation.

Funny Clown

The circus of Oz! Alex and Maisie went to the circus of Oz. First we went to the Smugglers Cafe in Tahunanui. Inside there was a big table with a fire around it and guarded with rocks. At the cafe Alex and Maisie had chicken fingers and for pudding we had a ice cream sundae. It was yum. Then we were off and away to wherever we were going to the surprise. At the surprise we saw a clown on stilts. Then we just went to the door and saw a sign saying Circus of Oz. We went inside we got our tickets and went to find our seats. We saw Hugo. Then it started. Every one was silent and the lights went dim. It was magnificent.

What Time Will It Be?

What Time Will It Be asks you what the time will be in a while from now. This one could be quite a challenge for the experts.

Stop The Clock

The Stop the Clock game is a little trickier because you have to match the five digital times to the clock faces and try and be real quick about it. And it counts the time in minutes.

Time For Time

I'm on a roll now. This time website can let you know the current time, digital time and you can take control of time and make the clock show the time that you want it to. I also like that it shows the movement of the sun as it crosses the sky as the day passes.

Bang On Time

Now you have had a bit of a practice with telling the time see if you can beat the clock in this game. What score can you get in ten turns? The highest score can win some house points. Westdale, Cotterill, Landsdowne, Hammond, Redwood. Tell us your score and what house you are in in the comments and we will see who wins!

PS The class competition was won by Cotterell but the overall house competition was won by Westdale. Go Westdale! Allanah K

Coal from Wesport

We went to Westport and I got a piece of coal from an old mining shaft also Dad got a big piece of coal too.

Our Ampitheatre's Shelter Fell Down

Last night the Ampitheatre's shelter fell down so everybody had a surprise the next morning to see the sails flapping around in the wind. My class thinks it was because the wind was blowing very hard. It gave me a jump to see the sails had fallen down!

We won't be having our lunch out there today.

The Face

On Monday I found a butternut with a mouth so I drew a face on it.

Time

We are learning about the measurement of Time for maths and I was surprised at how many children have some difficulty telling the time on analogue and digital clock faces. Here are a couple of great sites to practice telling the time with. This first one does everything you tell it to.


This second site lets you count up as a stop-watch or count down as a countdown clock.


When we move to learning about international time zones next week and you watch our blog from some place else we would love to Skype you to ask you what the time is. If you are up for this could you let us know in the comments.

Friendship

A friend is someone who is truthful and caring
Likes you whoever you are, short hair or long, different country or not. Who is FUN and FUNNY
Stays in to help you with your work if it isn't finished.
Invites you to their birthday party and are first on the list.
And just likes to be themselves.
A friend is a friend, no matter what.

by Olivia

This term we are starting off our learning look more deeply into the Kia Kaha programme- what it takes to be a friend and what it takes to make friends and keep them. Olivia's poem seems like a good place to start.

What do you think it takes to be a good a friend?

Kiera Goes to Austalia

In Australia we went to Dreamworld. I was really desperate to hold a koala bear. We signed in after the first set of people. They were really soft and very cute. I thought they would be at the zoo. We saw the tigers playing in the water and kangeroos jumping. We had lots of fun. I loved it. Then we went on all the rides which was fun too. I mostly liked the claw that went up about 16 metres and swung down to the other side. It was real scary. I went and did it again. I loved it.

Musical Mysteries

For those of you who like music this Musical Mysteries Web Site is something that I know you will all enjoy- lots of fun digital learning objects here.

Do you know your animals?

Here's a quickie for you. Do you know your animals? Click here to test your skills in sorting animals.

Life Sized Blue Whale

From my random wanderings on the internet I came across a life sized blue whale. It's a bit like Google Earth for whales. Go explore!

Kerpoof

Here's a little more holiday fun- Kerpoof!!!!
You can make a card, write a comic story, draw and try your hand at making a movie using their scenes. I played with this one for ages. You can see the beginning of a pirate story!!

Your Own Keyboard

Mighty, Mighty Appleby

Jess was fabulous to have on camp with us and she taught as a new Appleby Song. It was a very cool camp.

Have a great Easter holiday.

Safe River Crossing

Sorry I couldn't be at school today. I am sick. What a poor way to start the holidays! How did you get on the paper making?

This photo shows how to cross a river safely. You pick a shallow, slow moving piece of river and then link up to support each other in case you stumble.

Eeling

To see the slideshow in full screen click on this link.

Sefton helped us to make an eeling net to catch an eel in the river. How to make an eel net. You will need wire netting, pliers and meat. First you will have to cut about half a metre of wire, then tie it togeter until you stick the meat in the net. Then you close the end up.

When we put the net in the water all the blood leaked from the ox meat into he river. The next morning the eel net was empty and the morning after that there was an eel in there.

Sefton got out his conker and smacked it on the head and made it unconscious. He skinned it and gutted with his really sharp knife. Anyone who wanted to hold it got their photo taken.

Sefton took it home and smoked it and brought to school on Monday for us to try. Jake didn't feel like trying to eat it but Torbea decided to and he said that he thought it was a delightful taste sensation.

Raft Making

Yay! Raft making. We sang a New-Zealander song for our boat. This is Rua's boat. The songs name is the New Zealand dollar boat. TINY but fast!!!
This is Tahi's MASSIVE boat!!!! They look proud and ready to race. It looks like they are desperate to WIN!!! "We think they are saying, "Exciting!!!"
This is Toru- awesome boat- looks fast and it's going to win. If you want to see the movie click the play button down below on the picture. To see who wins!!! Exciting stuff!!
Watch this. It's exciting.

Abseiling

Rachel is being the guinea pig in this photo. She is showing the people how to put on their abseiling clothes properly.
Here is Nadia abseiling down the cliff face. She took a minute to get down.
Here is Jordon half way down the cliff.
Here's Tullamore down the end of the cliff. He looks like he wants to go again by the look on his face.
Emily is making her way down the cliff.
Sefeti is enjoying this.

Sefeti is going well. You can give us your ideas on how you think he is going by watching the video and writing a comment.

Cooking Damper

These chaps look like they're having a good time cooking damper don't they ?
MMMMMM! They must taste YUMMY for my tummy!!!
Is it yum?
That looks a bit burnt.

Food- Glorious Food

We had lots of wonderful food on camp and lots of yummy desert like jelly and ice cream.
Here is Kevin is eating his really, really yummy meal. You can really see that Kevin likes meat very much and tomato sauce. The food on camp was delicious. Thank you Tracy for being the head chef!

Glow Worms

On the second day we were at camp we went to see the glow worms at night time to see what they looked like. We were going to go at day time but then we decided not to because we ran out of time. The glow worms looked like stars on a summer night though we had to be quiet or they would turn off their lights. I expect you are wondering if we took torches. Well we did. It was lovely to feel the cool air of the night. Ahhhh. We all loved it. Apart from Allanah and Gary- who were scared of the cave wetas that were the size of a fingernail. I was not scared at all because I am brave.

Diary Writing

Write, write, write. I wonder how much I can get done? I can't wait until we go to the gloworms!
Pen on the paper. What should I write about??? Hmmmmm......
"What are you looking at? I am trying to get on with my diary writing."

Co-operative Games

We played ants hospital were there was a bird and the rest of the people were ants. The bird had run around tagging all the ants and if the ants got tagged they had to get down on the ground with their legs and hands in the air. Then four people had to come along and each of them had to grab one of the ant's legs and lift them into the tyre which was the ant hospital.

We played blindfolded soccer. Their partners had to call out instructions to the people who were playing on the field. It was very confusing and loud.

Gold Panning

Here is a great song written in the old days all about finding gold in the Wakamarina River. Click on the little play button to hear the audio.




This looks like a good place to go gold panning because Alex's Dad looks like he's concentrating.
I think I might have some gold in here. I might be rich. Yay .
Why do I have to get a picture? I've only got one tiny piece! Better than nothing.
This is going to be fun if I get some gold. Hopefully we'll be rich beyond our wildest dreams.

All lined up and ready to go!

Tailrace Walk

The tailrace was built by the old miners to take the water down to the river with enough pressure to work the sluices to get the gold. Here is a photo of the track to the tailrace.On the second day of camp we walked on the Tailrace track. You had to be careful because there are heaps of roots, water and rocks. The tree roots had grown all the way down the cliff face to reach the water.
We had a great time walking through the tailrace as you can see Emily and I had a cool time because it was really challenging.
We had to walk in the through this water that is in the picture. Above there were some deep parts that went to the top of some gumboots.

Canvastown's Mining History

Kevin is shooting a musket that John brought to Canvastown so he could show us what they used in the wars before the miners came.

John took us down to the river next to the camp to show us how to gold pan so we knew how to do it for the group activities and find gold. He also told us about where gold was usually found.

He showed us how to fire his musket. John put some gunpowder in the muzzle and then fired it. A heap of smoke came out.