Meet the neighbours

There was a 'Pocket' behind the couch in Room 8! A cat named Pocket and another cat called Puss in Boots who both live over the fence came to Room 8 for a visit. They are very curious cats and had a good look around the class room. Don't be surprised if you bump into them when you are out doing cross country training!

Cross Country Practise

We went down to Williams Park to go over the course for the Cross Country Race on Tuesday 7th June. Everyone has made huge improvements since we have started practicing in the mornings. We are getting stronger and fitter! Keep up the good work!

Plays

We have been doing plays during reading time. We needed to know our parts well enough so that our voices would be clear and fluent and we needed to speak with expression and use our bodies to show what we were feeling. Room 8 has got some great actors!

An apple a day keeps the doctor away

Thank you very much to the Lion's Club for supplying the apples!

Writing Instructions

We have been learning how to write instructions. We had to write instructions for making milos and then we had to follow the instructions to make the milos. The instructions needed to have a title, a list of the materials needed, numbered step by step instructions and pictures to go with each step. It was really easy to see when the instructions were missing some steps or didn't have enough details! After completing the activity we did a class reflection. This is what we need to remember for next time.



We had a buddy conference before we published our instructions. We had to sit knee to knee and we needed to find two compliments to give to the other person about their work and one 'wonder'. The wonder had to be something that the other person could do to make their work better.

Well done Room 8!

Because you sat so well during assembly and because you showed so much courtesy, you got the Muritai Bear AND 10 minutes of extra play!

Reading and Follwing Instructions

We have been unpacking instructions during reading time and learning how to follow them. We have been making paper cups, pop-up cards, danish heart-baskets and purerehuas (spinners that make a noise). Some instructions were easy to follow and others much harder. There were lots of verbs, such as measure, fold, cut, and rule. We had to reread the instructions to make sure we were doing them right.

Tea bag rockets and lava lamps

Click here to find out how to make a tea bag rocket Children need adult supervision to do this at home.

We conducted our own science demonstrations in the class. The tea bag rockets worked really well. The air inside the teabag became heated and caused the tea bag to float up into the air. It worked just like a little hot air balloon.

The oil and water in the lava lamp don't mix. All you need to aid is food colouring and alka seltza tablets to get the blobs.
















Click here to find out how to make a homemade lava lamp

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 BLAST OFF!

The weather was great and the students were lined up to watch the science demonstration. The rocket was going to fly up into the air. BUT it didn't go according to plan. It turned out the pump was faulty and leaked air so the bottle couldn't get enough pressure to launch into the air far enough. Mr Devonport's bike pump helped and the rocket was able to travel 20-30 metres.

Similes

Your eyes are as bright as the sun. By Rufus

You are as soft as a kitten. By Georgina

You are as beautiful as a rose. By Holly

You are as brave as a lion.By Saxon

You are as sweet as a lolly. By Sabine

You are as soft as cotton. By Luca

You are lovely like a kitten. By Daan

You are as cute as a puppy. By Nina

You are as cool as a rockstar. By Rachel

You are as fast as a tornado. By Ethan

You are as small as a mouse. By Scott

You are bigger than a tree. By Mika

You are as cuddly as a puppy. By Charlotte

You are as nice as a Burman. By Amy

You are as fast as a cheetah. By Katie

You are as funny as a clown. By Lea

You are as soft as a cloud. By Charlotte

You are as smart as a scientist. By George

You are as witty as Jason. By Samantha

You are as wet as the rain. By Fergus

You are as fizzy as a fizzy drink. By Abigail

You are as hot as an oven. By Ethan

A simile compares two things.

Lest We Forget

Anzac Day was on April 25th. ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. Some of Room 8 students attended the Memorial Service on that rainy Monday morning last week. We walked past the memorial this morning and the lovely flower wreaths were still there. There were notes attached to the wreaths saying 'thank you' and 'we remember you'. We looked at the dates of the wars and the engraved names. The big wars happened a long time ago but we still remember.

Welcome back to school

Welcome back to Term 2! Hope you have had a fabulous holiday and I'm looking forward to seeing you all back in Room 8. What is happening on Tuesday?

Week 1 is National Science Week. We are celebrating as a whole school on Tuesday with the FIRST ROCKET LAUNCH using our new rocket launcher.

Then we are beginning a Term long SCIENCE Unit studying the FORCES OF FLIGHT.

We aim to:

• Learn how an aircraft flies.
• Carry out a series of scientific experiments to explore the the forces of flight.
• and then use our knowledge to design, create and test our own rocket using the rocket launcher!

HERE'S SOME other HIGHLIGHTS FOR TERM 2

As part of LITERACY we will be reading and writing lots of INSTRUCTIONS and EXPLANATIONS, following and reflecting on different science experiments. There will be lots of thinking, observing, measuring and reflecting as we carry out the different science experiments.

MATHS will be about addition and subtraction, measurement and statistics. Students will need to be able to measure accurately to the nearest metre, centimetre and second in their science experiments.

During VISUAL ART we will be delving deep into the finer points of painting, studying a model artist and creating some wonderful artworks of our own.

PE for the first half of term will be DAILY Cross country training, in preparation for the BIG RACE in Week 6. Later in the term, we will be developing our ball skills - throwing and catching.

Check out the Year 3/4 WIKI on the BLOG throughout the Term for fun videos, games and information from our in class learning.