Cultural Learning

On Thursday last week the Karawha team went to the Ko Tāne Experience at Willowbank.
We were welcomed onto the 'marae' and we listened to the kaumatua as he greeted us in Te Reo Māori. We loved listening to the group sang waiata, did a haka, performed with poi and ti rakau.
Then it was our turn.
We learned how to use a poi.

We learned how to use the ti rakau

Then, we had to perform in front of everyone.

After that we had lunch. We went with our small groups and explored the rest of Willowbank and all of the wonderful animals there. We had a fantastic day!

Science

Wow! It’s Term 4 already! We have just completed two very busy weeks of swimming lessons at Aquagym. All of the children who had swimming lessons have learned so much and gained lots of confidence in the water. We will be ready for the Summer.

We have also been learning a lot of new and fascinating things to do with Science. Our student teacher, Mr Colvin, has been taking us for these lessons.

We had two bottles that were joined together. The bottom one was filled with water. We tipped the bottles upside down. The water went through slowly because big bubbles of air slowed the water down. But when Mr Colvin turned the bottles around some thing really amazing happened.

The spun around and made a vortex (tornado).  The water passed through very quickly. It was amazing! We learned lots of new words – vortex, air pressure, water pressure, displaced and hypothesis.

Learning as it Happens!

Early in Term 3 Jay brought in a very strange looking cocoon. It looked very old and we all thought that it was dead because it rattled.
Mrs Geal put it safely on the desk and we all forgot about it.

This is what it looked like.

In the last week of the term Mrs Geal and Mr Colvin found this big beautiful moth in the classroom. We thought it must have hatched from the cocoon. We could not find the cocoon anywhere!

It was really big. We did some research online and found out that it was a female Gum Emperor Moth. They live in Eucalyptus (gum) trees. We called her Mikayla.
We found out that she would only live for 3 or 4 days and that she would not eat anything!
Mtrs Geal set her free the next day because we thought she was dying. We hope she flew to the nearby trees to lay her eggs.

Mrs Geal found the cocoon. Mikayla must have had to wriggle very hard to get out and the cocoon fell down behind a book on the desk. You can see the big hole where she came out.

We were fascinated and did a lot of learning about the life cycle of moths and butterflies. We also wrote lots of stories in our exciting week.

The Culture Festival

Last week the Senior School Cultural Groups performed at the Christchurch Primary School's Culture Festival. Two children from Room 5 were chosen to join the groups.
Lyrik and Elsie were very excited but also very nervous about performing before such a large audience. It was a marvellous show. You can watch it on http://www.youtube.com/culturalfestivalchch.

Elsie in the school hall all ready to go to Horncastle Arena.

Lyrik is practising her pukana before we left school.

Learning about Change

We are very excited about our Inquiry. We are learning about Change and we are looking at it in a scientific way. The change we are learning about is not natural, it happens when we humans experiment with things we use or see every day.

We put some white daffodils in jars that had food colouring in them.

The daffodil in the blue colour looked like this two days later.

The daffodils in the green colouring looked like this! What a big change!

This is what happened to the daffodils in the red colouring. This was the biggest change for us. 

Colour

We have been doing a lot of learning in our Writing about colours. We have learned how we use colour to define our emotions
 - blue for sad / cold
 - yellow for happy
  - red for angry / hot
We read the book "I'm NOT Just a Scribble" by Diane Alber. This book helped us how to relate to our emotions and how colour is a way of our showing how we feel.

We are now reading "Sky Colour" and learning that the sky is not always blue - it is often a mix of many colours.

The children had a lot of new learning (and fun!) using a prism in the sun to learn about how colours are made - the rainbow. 

Can you see the rainbow?

Two rainbows.

We had so much fun learning about colour, the rainbow and the SPECTRUM.

Anniversary Day - 110years

On Friday 3rd August Linwood North had its 110th birthday. It was a very big day for the whole school and we celebrated by having the official opening of our beautiful new hall.
In Room 5 we had an old fashhioned school day. We did our learning in a way that the children would have done 110 years ago.

We did handwriting with loops and curls. It's called cursive handwriting.

We drew and wrote on slates.

We used stencils to help us draw.

Lyrik was in the Kapa Haka group that performed in the anniversary ceremony. Look at her amazing pukana!

Elsie was in the Pasifika group. 

We were so proud of everyone on Friday.

back to school for Term 3.

We are all happy to be back at school after the holidays. Didn't we have some lovely weather?

Justin and Hayley were back with their KiwiCan lessons. The focus for this term is 'Integrity - making good choices'. We played some fun games:

We played 'Look Down, Look Up'

If we pointed at another person who was pointing at us, we had to sit down.

We played 'Heads Down, Thumbs Up'

Both games helped us to make choices and they were fun.

Kiwisport Fun

On Fridays Nate comes to teach us new skills. We have been learning how to catch and throw a ball while we are moving.

We play fun games to help us with our new skills.

Learning about Māori Tikanga

At Culture lessons on Thursday afternoons we usually sing and do action songs . Lina teaches us for Pasifika and Whaea Jo takes us for Kapa Haka and Tikanga Māori.
We have been so lucky to have Mr Betts working in our team. Mr Betts has been teaching us about using a taiaha and to use it properly. He showed us some of the special moves and the stories behind them.

Mr Betts showed us his own taiaha. He explained what all the parts are.

We had to jump up.

A taiaha is a dangerous weapon and Mr Betts showed us how fit the warriors needed to be to use one.

Learning about Long ago.

This week we went on a trip to Ferrymead to learn about the things children did over 100 years ago.
We had a wonderful day and tried many things. We got dressed in the clothes that school children would have to wear.

Schools were a lot different to our school. Mr Black was very strict and a bit mean.

We had to write with a scratchy pen that we dipped into ink. It was messy.

We had a ride on a tram. There were no sides so it was quite cold.

We had to do housework. It was very hard and messy doing the washing.

We baked biscuits at the Bakery. Children didn't get much time to play.

We had a really lovely, busy day!

Cross Country

On Tuesday we had our school Cross Country race. It was a cold grey morning. The Year 2, 3 and 4 children all ran together. It was very confusing at first but we soon found our way.

We all finished feeling happy and successful.

Learning About Asthma

On Wednesday Chris Lam Sam came to talk to us about Asthma Awareness. He showed us what happens to our bronchial tubes when we get a cold, and then he showed us what happens when an asthmatic person gets a cold.

He showed us the correct way to use an inhaler (or puffer as some people call it).  His puffer fish assistant helped him.

Chris showed us some of the things that can 'trigger' an asthma attack.

Pollen, smoke, viruses, dust mites and pet hair are all asthma triggers.

Chris made our very serious learning very funny. 

First Week Back.

Term 2 has started and we have been so busy every day.
We have been getting on the bus  at 9:05am to go to Aquagym every day for our wonderful swimming lessons.  Some of us are very sleepy on the bus ride back to school. We really enjoy our lessons.

When we got back to school on Friday we were really lucky to be able to go straight to Kiwisport with Nate. We are learning how to throw and catch. We were throwing bean bags to each other.

Some of us were very tired after swimming so we weren't so full of energy as we usually are.

Some Reminders:
1. We need to drink water every day at school so can you please make sure that our drink bottles are washed every night and returned to school every day.
2. The children have a sandwich and milk break every morning at 10:00am. As the school no longer supplies the bread, can you please pack a sandwich for your child to eat at this time?. It only needs to be a piece of bread that is folded in half.
3. Homework begins in week 2.

A New Term of Learning Begins.

Kia ora Te Whanau

It's hard to believe that a term has gone by. Even worse is the thought that a third of 2018 has already gone!
We finished Term 1 with some good fun learning with Nate from Kiwisport. We have been learning to throw and catch a ball in a variety of situations.

Louie recently took part in the Weet Bix Duathalon. Good for you Louie, what an amazing way to spend a day. He was very proud to be able to model his medal.

Reminder:
We are going to Aquagym for our swimming lessons as soon as we return to school on Monday 30th April.
 Room 5 will be leaving school at 9:00am and travelling by bus to the pool.
We will be in the pool for our lessons from 9:30 - 10:00am.
Please come along to the pool to watch the progress that your child will make.

Short week with lots of learning.

Last week was a short week but we still did a lot of learning.
We have been talking about The Commonwealth Games and many of the children are showing a lot of interest in the activities.
We have been learning about Autumn and why the deciduous trees lose their leaves at this time of year.
Hayley took our KiwiCan lesson this week. It was our last class lesson for this term. Hasn't this term gone quickly?

We played a game called 'Doggy, Doggy'.

At Kapa Haka time Whaea Jo was helping us to learn the words and the actions for the Haka Powhiri "Toia Mai". She told us that we were as good as the seniors!

The girls.

The boys.