Week 2

We were shocked by the news of Margaret Mahy passing away on Monday. She was a famous New Zealand author of children’s book and poems. On Tuesday we read a copy of A Lion in The Meadow, both the 1969 version and then a version printed in 2007, we were surprised that they had different endings and that the new one was slightly longer. We compared the illustrations in both books, we found the original version was very basic, and only had one shade of each colour and the new version had heaps of detail, better graphics and shades of each colour. We read an interview about Maragret Mahy, an article about her life and then a newspaper article about her death. All of this information then helped us completed a quiz on her at the end of the day and will help in our magazine unit. The winning team was Caleb, Sam and Troy, they each got 6 bleds and a little pack of lollies.

 

Earlier in the week we got into groups of 3 and had to decide what the topic of our magazine was going to be. It had to have a connection to health and P.E.  Some groups decided really easily where as others took awhile to make their mind up. There is a huge range of themes, including fishing and hunting, Olympics, netball, rugby, soccer, cooking. When we had the COW on Wednesday we did a practice page ready for when we do our own magazines. They included an article on Margaret Mahy, a photo with a caption and an advertisment for one of the books she has written.

What a long week being stuck inside because of the horrible rain! Talk about Cabin Fever! Thank goodness at the end of the week we could get outside and stretch our legs! Hopefully it is fine on Monday so we can get practicing for Spooner.

This week for Availll we have been watching a documentary DVD called Earth – The Power of the Planet. The section we have watched for this weeks activities was called Rare Earth. We found out heaps of weird facts, like how earth collided with its twin Theia and in billions of years the moon will not be with us. We have focused on Key Words and how they help us retell information, these skills are going to be super handy when we get researching for our Olympic unit!

We have looked at the different sports that will be at the 2012 olympics, we learnt that these were different from events, e.g. Athletics is the sport, but 100m sprint is the event. We also matched the symbols to the sports.

By Troy, Foni and Caleb

Term 3 Week 1

The clock is ticking down to the 2012 London Olympics. Over the holidays we were given the task to research a country each, these were countries that we hadn’t really heard of, some of the names sounded strange and unusual. With this information we have collated it onto a sheet summarising that country, next week we are sharing the country information with the class and then this will become part of our Olympic display. Next up we will be looking at the history behind the Olympics.

Spooner fever has arrived; we are striving to be the best in the upcoming interschool competition.  This week we have been organising the teams. The sports are soccer boys and girls, hockey, netball and rugby 10’s. Some teams have had to have trials because so many people wanted to be in the teams. We have begun practising, leading up to the week 6 competition.

The 3 R’s – resilience, respect and responsibility have been a focus this week, these expectations are part of the new school emblem so we have spent time talking about them and what they mean to us. There is now a new reward system during break times, if you are caught using the 3 R’s you get a slip which then gets recorded on the chart, if you get 5 you get a certificate and then when you reach 10 you get a moosie or a juicey, and then when you get even more you get a special school badge!  The 3 R’s are now displayed in murals around the school and in every classroom.

When you hear this you may think that we have been slack but no! This week we have watched the movie Meet the Robinsons. It is about a kid whose dream is to become an inventor. Every day we have watched a part of the movie with subtitles and done reading activities based around it. Some of the activities are, finding the longest word in the subtitle and making as many words out of that word in a minute, identifying synonyms in the subtitles plus many more. We can’t wait for the next movie next week.

The Real Art Roadshow came to school which was full of different art by different artists. All up the art was worth 1 million dollars, including one painting which was worth $400,000! It is owned by a lady in Wanaka. It was amazing to see a huge range of different types of art. It really showed the unique ideas and how everyone has a different view as to what good art is. The whole truck was worth $2.5 million. What an amazing opportunity to have an art gallery on our court. We were lucky enough to visit the truck multiple times and hear all about the meanings behind the different pieces of art.

 Bang, bang, bang at the door!

‘Rei’s here!’ someone called out.

On Tuesday we did some paper painting, otherwise known as collage with paper with Rei a visiting art teacher. She showed us how to use ripped up magazines to create pictures. You had to pick simple object to do for example a sun, drink bottle or heart. You then had to hunt through magazines and find the correct colour for your object. The idea was to have little bits of colour not full images. The only way you could use a magazine picture was to rip it into small pieces and piece it back together. It was great to have a visit from someone so enthusiastic about art. We are still busy finishing these off and will post some pictures when they are done.

Contributors to this blog are Humo, Troy, Caleb, Sam, Kimberley and Angala.