visual mihi

W.A.L.T: express who we are and where we come from using visual means - patterns, koru and pictures.
Here are a few examples of what we have done. Come into our classroom to see them all...

A mihi is used to introduce ourselves, and is usually spoken. We have made some wonderful visual representations of who we are!
Now we are going to learn how to present a traditional maori mihi. We hope we can blog that too!

Who are we?

This week Room 8 was asked to bring something in from home that gives the rest of the class a clue about who you are. It can be anything, as long as you can explain to the class why it is important to you.

What could you bring to show?

Fabulous faces!

This week in Room 8 we have been creating self portraits. We have been learning to create a Picasso style portrait using strips of paper.
First we practiced drawing eyes, noses and mouths by themselves. Then we drew a pencil outline of our portrait using a grid so we could put our features in the correct place.
We had to cut our portraits in 4 - 5 strips! We arranged them so that our face looked crazy!
Then we glued them into place and used pastel to make them fabulously bright.
We hope you like them....

Writing about what we know

This term for writing we are writing about Memories! Today we were learning to recall a memory. We created a class memory wall with some of our favourite memories we could write about. Some of our ideas were: My first friend, Gran's new house, My first school visit, A camping trip, My cat, my first tooth and many more!

Our first day!

Today we had our first day together in Room 8! We had a great day getting to know each other and organising ourselves for the school year.
We started the year with a special Powhiri to welcome new students and teachers to Muritai School. We have two new families joining our school in Room 8. We have Isla Armstrong who has come from San Antonio School and Lucy Blacker who has moved to Eastbourne from England. Welcome to Muritai School and Room 8 girls!
Check out the photos of the powhiri below..

Room 8 2010!

Welcome to Room 8's blog for 2009. On this blog you can keep up to date with Room 8's learning throughout 2010.
Room 8 I have been busy getting your classroom all ready for this year and I am really looking forward to seeing you all on Wednesday the 3rd of February - the first day of school for 2010!
From Miss Collier.

Hi Room 8!

I hope you have had a very Merry Christmas and are having lots of fun now that it is holidays.

I am writing you this message because you might remember we asked my friend Chris in Antarctica some questions on his blog. He has been really busy with his work down in Antarctica BUT he has answered your questions for you! If you would like to find out the answers to our fantastic questions then you can follow this link http://chrisjury.wordpress.com
You will need to scroll down to where it says "Hello Miss Collier and Room 8 Muritai School" and then click on comments in blue writing on the side. There you will find the answers to Room 7's, Room 11's and our questions.

Enjoy the rest of your holidays and see you at school next year!!

End of year!!

Well it is the last day of school and we can not believe how fast the year has gone!
Room 8 has had a great year full of fantastic learning and lots of fun!!
We hope you have a MERRY CHRISTMAS and a nice holiday break.
See you in 2010!

Antarctic Treaty

This week in Inquiry we will be learning about the Antarctic Treaty. Do you know what this is?

Look at the map here it might give you some glues...
What is a treaty? (Have a think about our class treaty, what is it and what does it mean?)
What does the map tell you about the Antarctic Treaty?
Does one country 'own' Antarctica?
What types of statements might the treaty include?

Have a think about these questions and be ready to share your ideas and thoughts in Inquiry this week!

Inquiry Presentations!

For the last few weeks Room 8 have been researching an Antarctic animal. We have been finding information from books and websites. Our big question is "How does (our animal) survive in the extreme weather conditions of Antarctica? To answer this question we had to research their habitat, the food they eat and where the fit into the food chain, their appearance and all of these factors contribute to their survival.
We were then able to choose how we wanted to present our information to the class, for the last week and a half some people have been making Diaramas, some people are working on posters, news presentations and videos. Below are the videos that some of us have made. The rest of us will be presenting our 'animal inquiry' to the class on Monday. We hope you enjoy our videos!