Timez Attack

Timez Attack is a really popular game in the classroom and I could recommend it to parents who are interested in helping their children learn the times tables. At school we have downloaded the free level one version but I would love to have a look at the paid for home version which would sell for about $60NZ. If anyone would like to shout us a paid for copy we would love to hear from you.
To download the free level one version for PC or Mac click here.

http://www.bigbrainz.com/Download.html

Polar Bear Swim

We have just had our New Zealand shortest day and it was celebrated by a mid-winter swim. We read a School Journal Part 1 Number 3 2001. It was an article about a Polar Bear Swim at Kaiteriteri. Children were asked to write a poem about the polar bear swim and then they read them aloud. Here they are. Children would love some feedback about their poems. Add the feedback to the comments.

Click here to listen to Alex.

Click here to listen to Hayley.

Click here to listen to Jordan.

Click here to listen to Kiera.

Click here to listen Maisie.

Click here to listen to Tullamore.

Click here to listen to Jessica.

Prefixes

We have been learning about prefixes and the way that they can change a word. Kakapo reading group have been collecting words with prefixes and sharing them with Wordle.

Book Review Homework

I am trying something a little different for the last week of term. As well as gluing a copy of the homework sheet in children's homework books I am going to try to make a link to the download of it here.

So here it is. Click on this link to download a copy of this week's homework grid.

It is as a pdf (Portable Document File) which should mean that it can be read on all computers with a free Adobe download.

If you need the download you can click here.

Book Review

We are going to have another go at preparing a book review for our homework this week. Here is a great book review from Courtney at Springston School.

Review done by Courtney J.
Age 10 from Springston School.

Candy Floss
By Jacqueline Wilson

How easy was it to get stuck into this book?
It’s very easy to get stuck into all of Jacqueline Wilson’s books because she has such a thought for her readers and tries to base her book ideas on problems that her readers might have in their life. Also this book has a great personality which might sound odd, but what I mean is that I think this book isn’t like all her other ones (because there’s like millions) it’s one in particular that I would most certainly recommend to someone.

Who are the main characters?
Well first off, there’s Floss who’s a kind, friendly girl and then there’s her dad and he’s a tubby, happy person, but will he find his true love, or will he be left heartbroken?

What’s the story-line?
The story-line is about a young girl whose parents split but as her mum goes on a work trip to Australia with her new boyfriend Floss is determined to stay with her dad who takes her to every fun fair that passes through her town. But as her dad meets a wonder woman he is set to follow her and have a great time. But then, as Floss’ dad goes broke and loses his house, will wonder woman save him?

How it’s written!!
This book is written both in a formal and informal style because it is something that happens to people, but it’s also quite funny and jokey.

Other books by the same author that I know about!!

Jacky Daydream
My Sister Jodie
Love Lessons
Best Friends
Double Act

My Rating!!

I give this book a 4/5 because it’s the best Jacqueline Wilson book I’ve ever read, but that’s just me so why don’t you read it yourself because it’s a great book?

☼ ☼ ☼ ☼

The Working Form

We have been learning how to do the working form of adding making sure the ones, tens and hundreds are all in the right place. This website lets you write the working form and check your answers right then and there. This one will be a clever one for you to do Olivia- while you are at home getting better. Now that's one clever web site!

Fletcher's Homework

Last week for homework we had to some do some art so I decided to do a battleship. It was an English battleship with English soldiers that were fighting German soldiers and there were German planes.

Fletcher made this post on our playground blog. What a lot of work he put into making this piece of art. If you want to see the big display you will have to come into Moturoa.

Rugby

On Saturday we travelled to Murchison to play against Murchison. This is my rugby team. Their names are Daniel, Cody, Conner B, Conner C, Josh, George, Liam, William, Reon and I.
We lost against them but we played well and I got player of the day. I was really sore after the game.

Frozen Lake

On Thursday morning Dad, Mum, Flynn and I went up the back of our place to have a look at the pond that was frozen.

It felt weird to stand on a frozen pond.
My feet were freezing to death.

Wimbledon Tennis

The Wimbledon Tennis Tournament has just started in London, England. Just for a bit of fun to while away these cold winter evenings I thought you might like to play a spot of tennis to improve your hand/eye co-ordination.

Click here to play a spot of tennis.

Remember to Vote

Free Rice

Free Rice is a great website for a couple of very good reasons.

Firstly it helps you get better at knowing what words mean. It can increase your vocabulary. If you click on the speaker to the right of the word your computer will say the word out loud.

For every word you get right the organisers of the web site donate grains of rice to people who are hungry.



Give it a try and see how you get on. Let us know in the comments.

Kevin Shares His Holiday

Kevin sent us an email showing us some of the fun things he has been doing on his holiday back to Germany.
He walked along this treetop path through the forest in Schärding in Austria.
Mini-Dylan is having a great holiday as well. They will have great stories to tell on their return.
He visited a Bavarian castle- that's a pretty big fountain.
This is what the inside of the palace looks like.
Here is a ferry boat on Germany's biggest lake.
Kevin writes...

I really miss New Zealand. We visited some of our friends in the weekends. My brothers and my whole family and I went to a German festival. The next day we went to the tree top way in Austria. This is a type of a bridge on top of a forest there is a slide which is 50 m long. My two brothers and my dad and my uncle and me went to the biggest lake in Germany. It is called Chiemsee- for three days. There is a big castle and a very interesting museum of King Ludwig. Six days later we went with a train to a hunting & fishing museum in Munich. Munich is the main city in Bavaria.

A Voicethread from Karie

As a follow-up from our Skype conversation with Karie in Canada she has made us a Voicethread. If you want to see it full screen click on this link here. We will add some more comments on Wednesday.

Once Upon a Pie

On Monday Appleby School watched a performance called Once Upon A Pie. Aranui Theatre produced the play.
It was very entertaining because they made it into a comedy. The audience got to join in with them. It was so funny my head nearly fell off laughing.

The fractured fairy tales were: Rapunzel, Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood and Jack and the Beanstalk.

Thanks for coming guys.

Tower Blaster

We play Rocket in the classroom and this game is a lot like it apart from you play against a heap of Vikings instead of a real classroom buddy. Good to play at home when your mates aren't there. In Tower Blaster you have to arrange your tower in order before the Vikings get theirs together.

Fair Go Ad Awards

I have an idea.

Fair Go have their ad awards again this year. This year's primary school topic is...

Sell us a time travel holiday, for instance, two weeks in Elizabethan England.

Next term we will be looking at the history of Appleby School. What about we have a go at entering the awards?? We would want a smallish group of kids to script, film and act out the ad. What do you think???

Soccer Coaching

This week we learnt about soccer.


We were quite good at it and it was fun.


Here is a video of us all doing the 'Hugo'. The Hugo is a move when you squeeze a ball in between your feet and make the ball jump up.

Talking with one of our mentors from Canada

Today we had a great conversation with Karie- one of our mentors from Canada. We are getting better at asking open questions and seem quite at ease with using Skype to talk with people from all over the place. The picture quality wasn't great this time but the audio was excellent.

Thank you Karie for joining with us and helping us find out more about life in Canada.

Moturoa's Playground Blog

Today we started a new blog called Moturoa's Playground. The children know the username and password so will be able to blog from home which is really cool. Georgia made good use of it already to publish a spirograph picture that she had made.

We look forward to reading and looking at lots more posts on that blog.

Catch The Thief

Yes- this digital object is working again. Give it another go!

If you like mystery stories then this will be an adventure you'll love- Catch the Thief. The plot is that a burglar steals a painting from the wall in the art gallery and you have to catch the thief by looking carefully at the evidence.

The web site needs a username and password that you will only have to enter the first time you look at the site and tell the computer to remember it.

The username is apple34 but I am not allowed to tell you the password publicly so I will give it to you on a piece of paper at school.

My Storymaker

My Storymaker is a web site where you create a story and the website helps you write the story for you as you add setting and characters and develop the plot.

When you are done you can save the whole story and print it off. It will be fun to see how creative and clever you can be with your stories.

Allanah's Desk

Today when Appleby School was watching a movie Allanah tidied her desk. It was spick and span when I saw it. Allanah found things she had forgotten about and she found spilt coffee on her desk too. It took Allanah about half an hour to tidy her desk. Allanah is very proud of herself.

Moturoa's Got Talent

This week it is Moturoa's assembly and we showed the school that Moturoa has got talent. We had juggling, balancing, Jump Jam, gymnastics, poetry, keyboard, dancing, guitar, drumming, body piercing and even arm farting to music.

George's magic trick was a bit hard for the whole school to see so we put it on the blog to share. We were amazed.

Questionaut

Questionaut is a web game that I found last year and absolutely loved and just remembered to put it on the blog. The idea is that you have to solve problems first by working out clues that you find by waving your mouse over parts of the picture. Then you have to answer some English and Maths questions correctly to advance to the next level.

It will take you some time to work out all the clues but it is something I hope you will enjoy looking more closely at- your parents will enjoy the challenge as well.

If you play the game with your parents and they let us know how they get on in the comments, you will be excused homework for the week. How is that for a good deal???

Andrew Lees from the BBC left a comment on our blog telling us about another game by the same people that made Questionaut. The new game is called Samorost 2.

Kahurangi's Blog

Did you know that Kahurangi class at Appleby School has a really good blog as well. They made these brilliant plasticine characters and picked some mint Kid Pix backgrounds for them. How about encouraging Kahurangi by leaving them a comment.

Spirograph Designs

Here is a bit of fun. You can make your own spirograph design by changing the radius of the pen and letting it draw the circles for you.