For Bella

Hey there Bella,

Dave, a teacher friend of mine, who loves dachsund's too made this video of his dog. I thought you would like it.

Christmas Day

Merry Christmas people. I trust you had a great time with family, friends, food and fun. You can share your Christmas stories in the comments.

That's It!

That's all for 2009 folks. It has been a fabulous year and I have really enjoyed the company of all of you fine folks. Have a safe and happy holidays.

Allanah K

Beach Trip

We had a fabulous morning at Moturoa Beach this morning. One more sleep to go before the holidays.

The year in video

Year Six Leavers' Assembly

Tonight was our final assembly for Appleby School and Miriam and the band played a set for us. You might remember way back in November 2007 when Miriam first sung for us as a homework task. She was a bit shy to sing in front of an audience so she gave us a CD with her singing on it. That post received 15 comments from her new fans from around the globe. Those comments gave her the boost she needed to sing in front of her peers. It is fabulous to see how much more confidence she has now to share her talent. Thanks Miriam. You are a star.

Kiera sent us a Christmas Card

Emily's Cornet

I have been playing the cornet for five terms. A cornet is like a trumpet except a trumpet is longer. On Mondays after school I go into Nelson to play at the Brass Band Hall.

I like playing the cornet.

Ukulele Talent

This little lad has been an instant hit on the internet with over 4 million hits on his video and it was only uploaded this month. He is so talented don't you think. Although his singing has a way to go his ukulele playing is masterful.

Wallwisher

Here is another way to write on the internet. Just click Post a Sticky down the bottom and then double click on the green part of the wall and start typing. Remember to say who you are. Click OK when you are done. I am monitoring the wall so make sure what you write is appropriate for others to read.

What do you wish for the school holidays???????

Our Favourite Bits

Luke Sumich, the principal of Summerlands School challenged us to think of a list of the things that we are particularly proud of this year and want to share. Our blog is a good way to share that list.

Click on the photo to take you to the blog post. Here is what we thought....

Caleb and Tullamore really liked their Science Fair Presentation because they got to present about their favourite thing- soccer, soccer, soccer.

Liam liked our eeling on camp because he likes trapping animals and seeing if he has caught anything.

Carl was proud that Tyler did so well at BMX.

Bella liked her post with the puppies because it got 19 comments.


Emily's favourite was her Skype call to Melville Intermediate to learn her mihi. She and Georgia had lots of fun learning and making scissors at the screen. I think she liked me being a little bit silly as well.

Hugo liked his photo with Moko because it makes a great memory of him. When Moko is gone Hugo will always have this memory of him.


Georgia liked her I Statement video because she thought it was hilarious. It makes me laugh as well. You wouldn't want to upset Georgia!

Amy liked the disco night just because it was so much fun.

Nadia liked this post of abseiling on camp because it reminded her about the awesome time she had on camp.


George and Jake liked it when we did 'Moturoa's Got Talent' and George did a fabulous magic trick.

Kiera was proud of her work visualising her reading.

Skye was proud of her achievements in gymnastics.

Alex liked it that she got her photo in the paper.

Maisie was so proud of the quilt her Nana made for her. It really is magnificent.

Of course there is so many more that we could add. One of my favourites is Georgia's speeches Voicethread. The little 'oh dear' towards the end makes me laugh every single time I listen.

Galaxies

I was so proud of Tullamore, Caleb, Kevin and George today. I am feeling poorly with a head cold so had a days sick leave and was not at school. Their group was next in line to finalise their animation. Totally on their own they were able to take the photos, upload them, use Quicktime to animate them, save into iMovie, add sound affects, narration and finally drop into Dropbox so I could access the 186MB iMovie project ready for me to compress and upload to YouTube.

Clever, resourceful boys.

PS I am away again today. If you could add some text to the wiki Galaxies page as well that would be great. Have a look at the clipboard with the Space animation groups on it and ask Joyce to see who is next to publish their animation.

Our Tidy Bedrooms

To try and help busy parents this week I have set the task of tidying our bedrooms and taking before and after photos and emailing them to school to show the difference.

The first one is Jordan's.

Here is Taine's. There is quite a difference between the two!



Emily's room looks nice and neat now but Mum says she still has to work on the wardrobe.

Here is Nadia's tidy bedroom.

And now we hear from Hayley.
And now her bed is nice and tidy.
Rachel's room is nice and tidy now as well.

And here is Alex's Christmas themed bedroom.

Recorder Concert

Here is a short concert to show you how far we have come with our recorder playing. I have included two ways of listening to see which one is easier to use.

1. The first song is a class favourite. Indian Chant. It is a link to a gadget called Audio Pal.



2. The second version of Indian Chant is a link to a sound file. Click on the photo to listen to it.


The second piece is Jingle Bells.

1. The Audio Pal version...



2. To hear on the linked version. Click on the photo.


What do you think of our progress and which version do you find it easier to listen to???

Our Lego Mindstorms Robot

Liam and Jake mainly put our robot together. After a bit of programming help from Allanah we got it to follow a line and back away from you if you stand in front of it. The boys showed great teamwork and perseverance to work their way through problems and sort out solutions that could work with no help from Allanah in the building of it 'cos she has no idea at all how to do it.

Fishing Trip

Last Friday Dad took Sean and I fishing in the Marlborough Sounds. I took my homework with me to do on the boat. Here I am doing my homework.I caught a kahawai when we were trolling. This is a bait fish that I caught. I used flies that are tiny hooks with tiny, reflector, shiny bits to catch bait fish.
Here I am early on Saturday morning pulling in a huge stingray. It got away. I felt really disappointed because it would have weighed a lot and I could have got lots of points for it.
This is a photo of me with the huge snapper that Dad caught at three o'clock in the morning.
I also caught a bit of the bottom.
When we got home Dad cut it up in to fillets and here is what it looked like before that.
It was so much fun because I had not been out on an overnighter for a while.

Venus Animation

Bella, Emily, Georgia and Olivia worked on this next animation. I had a 2010 planning day so was unable to lend a hand apart from about three minutes at lunchtime.

They must have worked together really well because when I went back to my classroom at 4pm the finished video was there waiting for me to upload it.

Someone said that the Blogger video wasn't playing well for them at home so I suggest that you look on the Venus page on the wiki or I have embedded the YouTube version here as well so you can compare the two. Which do you like best and why?

Orbits Animation

Another fabulous animation is ready to view. Well done Rachel, Shaun, Torbea and Carl. It is on the wiki as well and we will add more text to the orbits wiki page next week.

This animation is all about how the planets orbit the sun and how the moon orbits earth.

Maisie's Quilt

This is a quilt my nanny made for me. It's very special because there is no other quilt like that in the world. It took 4 years to make this. She started in March 2005 and finished in November 2009.

Star Animation

We have been making some animations that show our learning about Space. Here is our first one about a star and how it goes supernova and explodes. This is our first go at making an animation- and mine too. I have added it to the wiki page on stars as well.

There are more to come so keep a look out!

Skim Reading

Kakapo Reading Group is learning how to skim read a text to locate information. This skimming activity will be good practice for them. It is timed so I suggest you start on the easiest level and work your way up.

In this reading activity you read the story of the Velveteen Rabbit and time yourself while you read to practise reading a bit faster than you normally would.