Short Story Competition!!

Late last term the Y3-4's had a homework short story competition, which many children entered. Thanks to everyone who entered! The teachers just LOVED reading all the stories, and were so very impressed with the huge variety of story ideas.

The standard was so high it was a bit tricky to judge the winners!

However, the judging has taken place and the winners are as follows:

Y3 Competition:
3rd- Andrew Sutcliffe
1st equal- Charlotte Goble, Olivia Palmer-Smith.

Y4 Competition:
3rd equal- Willow Forbes, George Mirfin-Newman
2nd- Jasmine Stock
1st- Sally Bird

Congratulations!

Reading and Writing Reports

This term in Room 8 we will be writing reports. During our Guided Reading time we have been reading lots of reports on different things so we know what a great report needs!

In our groups we have read horse reports, kangaroo reports, zookeeper reports, sun bear reports and even reports on colossal squids! After reading these reports we came up with a list of things that a report needs - W.I.L.F (What I am Looking For) for a great report.
Now we are working in pairs and using what we have read to record key words and plan a report.

Ancient Egypt

This term in Room 8 we will be researching all about Ancient Egypt. Today many of the children brought in books and treasures from their or their families experiences in Egypt! It was great to have so many things to look at!

We did KWL charts in our co-operative groups. First we wrote facts or information we knew about Egypt (K). Then, after sharing information and looking at books and treasures, we wrote some questions we have about Egypt on post-it notes (W - what we want to find out).
Some of our questions were:
- What are the pyramids made out of and why were they built?
- Why do people wear headscarves?
- What are mummies?
- What is inside the pyramids?
- Why do people ride camels?
- Do they speak a different language there?
- What do they eat in Egypt?
At the end of the unit we will fill in the L section of our chart - What we learned.

Room 8's Last Day of term

What a fun way to end the term! Art and GREEN DAY!!

Portfolios

This week Room 8 have been working hard to put together examples of their learning into their portfolios.
Today we had a class discussion about this and here are a few things we discussed:
We do portfolios to -
think about our learning.
show our family examples of things we have been learning.
show strategies we have been learning to do.

We are also talked about why end of term is important:
to think about all the stuff we do at school and what we do well or are good at.
for setting new goals and thinking about what we need to work on.

We set new goals so we know what we need to work on at school and to keep improving so that we can be the best that we can be.

Art

For the last week or so Room 8 has been working on a technique called Scraffitto.
It was a long progress but we have created some fantastic pieces of Art.
First we had to plan a 'village or hill scene' with pencil.
Then we had to pastel over it using bright colours and blending the pastel.
Next we painted over piece by piece of our scene in black paint. We used a toothpick to scratch the paint away so the bright pastel colours came through.
We tried to be creative with the patterns we scratched out.

Some of us created another piece of art this time using square or triangle patterns of coloured pastel. We used the scraffitto technique again to stratch out patterns. IT WAS VERY TRICKY!

Kapa haka

This week is Matariki ( the beginning of the Maori new year): Room 8 has found some great information for their homework!

What does Matariki mean? Matariki is a cluster of stars which is only visible in the early morning for a short period of time. Matariki has two meanings, both referring to a tiny constellation of stars; Mata Riki (Tiny Eyes) and Mata Ariki (Eyes of God).

Why is Matariki important? This group of stars is important to Maori as it helped them to know when to plant their crops. It was also seen as an important time for family to gather and reflect on the past and the future.

Why do we celebrate Matariki today?
Today Matariki means celebrating the special place we live in and giving respect to the land we live on.

Year groups around the school have all been celebrating in different ways. Today we had Kapa Haka and we celebrated Matariki by learning Whai - String games!

Fractions!

We are learning about FRACTIONS at the moment!
Here is a cool tutorial about fractions...http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/mathgames/fractions/fracTut1.htm

Here is a fun game you can try...http://themathgames.com/our-games/fraction-games/play-fraction-balls-1/

Matariki

What is Matariki? In Kapa Haka this week Mr Chadwick has been talking to us about Matariki. Next week we will be doing some fun activities to celebrate this special time of year.

For homework this week your task is to gather information about Matariki.
Yesterday we discussed where you can find information. Here are some suggestions the class made:
Lachlan - talking to experts
Mila - newspapers
Alex - Library/books
Lucy B - Internet
Here are a few links you might find useful:
http://www.matarikievents.co.nz/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matariki

Remember we do not want people bringing in pages and pages of information. So you need to summarise the information you have found into a few sentences.

More fizzing and foaming - making Witches Brew!!

What do you think would happen if you mix baking soda, dishwashing liquid and food colouring in a tall glass and then add vinegar!??
Can you remember which ingredient is the acid and which is the carbonate?

Some more things to think about:
What effect does the dishwashing liquid have on this experiment?
Does the shape and size of the glass effect the experiment?
What is the name of the gas that is made by mixing an acid and a carbonate?
To watch another cool fizzing experiment take a look at this great clip Mrs. Chao found!!