Shields

We created these shields which represent ourselves. First on our shields we did our draft we have to select symbols that represent ourselves. We drew them in pencil then outlined with vivid, then we used pastel to colour in the pictures, next we dyed the background of our shields, each of the 4 segments a different colour. Then we cut strips of tinfoil and glued it onto the edges on our shields to make it look like metal. Then we stapled the handle on the back, this made them curved and look more interesting, plus gave us something to hold.

 

Special Assembly

This morning we had a special whole school assembly for Ms Bevis, welcoming her as the new principal. Mr Turfrey was there to present a special gift to Ms Bevis, a tuki, it is a dark greenstone necklace, and the shape of it represents building new things. The whole school sung a special song that we learnt for the event and the school song. School families and Ms Bevis’s family was there to watch the special event.

Reading Groups

Last week we started our reading groups, each group is named from a house from Harry Potter. The groups are Slytherin, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Griffindor.

One group is reading Trash and doing a literacy circle, they will tell you more about this later.

 

The other three groups are reading smaller novels focusing on making text to self-connections.

 

Room 13 are gardening!

Last week we decided that we were going to help with the management of the gardens at school, especially those outside our class rooms.

We talked to Mrs Makene who had a similar idea and had talked to the city council about putting our plan into action.

A parent has donated a worm farm to the school, so Caleb and Humo were given the job to research the worm farm and what they can actually eat and how they work. They are currently working on this to share with the class.

Anna and Kimberley are researching compost bins and finding out about what can go in those, they are also gathering the information to share with the class. We are looking forward to the arrival of some special compost bins that have been ordered.

Seth and Te Ahu were given the task to find out a bit more about pig buckets, as we already have these in the school.

Isabel, Nikita, Nick and Bryce headed outside and had a sort through the garden and pulled out any items that were no longer suitable (dead or gone to seed).

Kayla, Chloe, Micayela, Ethan, Anthony, Shohei and Isabelle started sorting through the books in our class, noting down interesting websites and beginning to find out what plants we can plant.

We are all very excited and have brainstormed some really cool ideas of what we want to achieve.

We look forward to sharing our work with you.
 

Te Reo and Tryathlon

Te Reo Maori

On Wednesday we had our first Te Reo Maori session with Hoani for 2013. We started off by doing introductions e.g.

Ko Humo ahu

Ko Kayla ahu

Then we made a list for all the Maori words for family members, this allows us to add more lines to our pepeha.

Then we did the kapa haka, we sung the songs that we knew from last year. Ethan and Nikita picked up the words and actions really fast (they are new to our school).

Hoani was really proud of us because we worked really well for the first time this year and we displayed the 3R’s (Respect, Resilience and Responsibility.)

Ethan and Nikita shared the star of the week and both received a Maori sticker.

By Humo and Kayla

 

 

Te Ahu at the Kiwi Kids Tryathlon

On Wednesday Te Ahu was away because he was at the kiwi kids triathlon. It was a big event at Frimley Park in Hastings, with nearly one thousand kids participating.

The three events that he had to do were swimming, biking and running.

Seth and Sam asked Te Ahu what his must challenging moment was.

Te Ahu told them “It was the waiting, you had to be really patient, which was hard because I was excited, everyone was bored!”

There were 7 age groups, each had a different coloured cap and stickers so you could tell them apart and the group they were in. 

The youngest competitor was 6 the oldest was 15.

Te Ahu enjoyed his day, especially the running. He hopes to do it next year and is trying to convince his mates to enter.

Written by Te Ahu, Seth and Sam.

 

Welcome to 2013!

Bio Poems by Isabel and Anna

In the first week of school we wrote a poem called a bio poem, which is all about ourselves. We wrote a draft and then later we published them on the school laptops. We took a ‘selfie’ of ourselves using the iPad and then inserted them into our poems; we then had to alter the photo so they were black and white. Now they are on the wall looking spectacular.

Swimming by Nick and Pasa

Monday the 10^th of February was the first time we swum as a class. During the first lesson we showed Mrs Colliss our best swimming so she could put us into groups. Once we got back to class we came up with our group names.

1.     Sharks

2.    Stingrays

3.    Silver Sharks

4.    Clams.

On Tuesday we were in our groups and started to work on our breathing and our freestyle technique.  Tuesday was a great day because every single person remembered their togs!

 

 

 

Studyladder by Te Ahu and Tommy

We have started working on the website studyladder.co.nz. We each have own account, our username is three letters of our first name then some random numbers. Our password is a random computer generated word. We can customise our avatar and bedroom by earning points, you earn the points by completing learning tasks that Mrs Colliss has set for us. We are all excited to get on there and start earning points. This is part of our home learning and sometimes we will do it during class time.

About Us Posters by Ethan and Caleb           

One of our first activities this year has been our About Us Posters, these are posters all about ourselves. We filled out all our details on the posters (nothing too personal!). The types of information we included are our favourites, our family, hobbies etc. Using the iPad we took silly pictures and printed them out so we could insert them on our posters. At the top of our page there is a scroll, in here we wrote our name and decorated it. They are now up on our wall for everyone to read and learn about each other. Surrounding them are words that describe the members of Room 13.