Eric Carle

As the end of term gets closer we are busy rehearsing our 'wind' dance for the Kowhai production of Over The Rainbow and learning the words to all the songs. You will have received a picture this week explaining the costumes we will be wearing. The only items that need to be provided from home are a t-shirt and shorts or tights in either white, pale blue, silver or grey. The rest of the costume is being made at school. Costumes need to be sent into Room 11 by Friday 4th December in a named bag.

Sometime ago we made clay birds with Esther at the Suter Art Gallery. The finishing touches were put on hold due to mask making for the Mask Parade but finally here are the finished perky pukekos. We. are all looking forward to our final Suter visit of the year on Monday 30th November, check the reminders list for details.

Perky Pukekos on PhotoPeach

As part of our art focus and stream study we are making a class book of imaginary stream creatures illustrated in the style of Eric Carle. This week we created a palette of different coloured and textured papers. Take a look at how we did this.

Check in next week to see how we turn the paper palette into a stream creature collage. To find out more about Eric Carle check out his website at http://www.eric-carle.com/home.html

This week we will be looking at words that contain the letter 'o' and silent 'e' e.g. smoke, hope as well as thinking about alphabetical order. Our tricky words will be 'there' and 'should'. This will be our last week of numeracy in maths so we will be revising doubles, halves and addition and subtraction facts to 10.

Tracy will be out of the classroom on Tuesday, for Interactive White Board training and Thursday for report writing.

Have a great and keep practicing those dance moves.

REMINDERS
Monday: Library books due back
Wednesday: Walk to School Wednesday
Tuesday 24th November: last day to vote for Yellow Pages art work http://www.yellowartawards.co.nz/
Monday 30th November: Suter Visit Aquamarine 1-3pm helpers needed

Friday 4th December: last day to send in costumes for production
Tuesday 8th and Wednesday 9th December Kowhai production "Over the Rainbow" in the afternoon
Monday 14th December: Kowhai Big Day out at Tahuna Trains, all welcome
Tuesday 15th 2.15pm Room 11 ukelele sing along, all musicians welcome
Wednesday 16th December: Final Assembly 11.15, school at 12.15 for summer break

Swim Safe

On Wednesday Fiona, from the Swim Magic team at Riverside Pool, talked to us about water safety. We learnt how to keep ourselves and our younger brothers and sisters safe not only in the swimming pool, but also around rivers, the sea, the home and farms. Later in the week we wrote thank you letters to Fiona and told her all our water related tales. If you want to learn more about the lessons Swim Magic offer check out the website at http://www.swimmagic.co.nz/

In poetry we have been looking at rhyme in the nursey rhyme Humpty Dumpty. We then worked with a friend to make up our own Humpty Dumpty poems and illustrated them with oil pastel and dye. Have listen to the fabulous end results.

We also set ourselves the challenge of writing a whole class alphabet poem using alliteration. This is what we have come up with so far:
Angry, annoyed, adorable ant. Busy, bendy bee. Crooked, crazy, colourful cat. Donald the dancing dog. Excellent Eddie Elephant. Fantastic flowers. Green grass. Harold the hungry horse. Interesting insects. Jumping, joyful jellyfish. Kicking kangaroo.

Can you come up with any alliterative lines for L-Z? If so please send it to us in a comment.

In Week 6 our tricky words will be 'does' and 'goes' and we will be looking at words with the i-e sound e.g. time, smile. In maths we will be playing dice games to help practice the different strategies we have learnt for adding small numbers. Our soft toys will be coming to school at the start of the week to be photographed for the books we are making with our buddies from Room 5. We will be writing a shared narrative story about what the toys get up to when they sleepover in the classroom. In art we will be looking at book illustrations by Eric Carle and starting to think about our class book on the bugs we saw on the stream visit.

I will be out of the classroom on a number of days over the next 2 weeks for report writing and ICT professional development. I appreciate your understanding and all should be back to normal by the end of Week 8.

REMINDERS

Monday: Library books due back

Wednesday: Walk to School Wednesday

Tuesday 24th November: last day to vote for Yellow Pages art work http://www.yellowartawards.co.nz/

Monday 30th November: Suter Visit Aquamarine 1-3pm helpers needed

Tuesday 8th and Wednesday 9th December Kowhai production "Over the Rainbow" in the afternoon

Monday 14th December: Kowhai Big Day out at Tahuna Trains, all welcome

Tuesday 15th 2.15pm Room 11 ukelele sing along, all musicians welcome

Wednesday 16th December: Final Assembly 11.15, school at 12.15 for summer break

Stream Dipping

On Thursday of last week we ventured up the Brook, just above the first dam to investigate how healthy the stream is at this location. We saw clear, fast running water and caught a range of stream creatures including the sensitive mayfly larva. These findings told us that the stream is healthy and unpolluted in this section. Share our experience with us through this slide show.

We continued to enjoy the sunny weather on Friday afternoon when our Room 5 buddies gave us a lesson in frisby throwing.

Our poem last week was all about fireworks. It contains a number of nonsense words, how many can you spot?

Watch out for our firework haiku poems and art coming on the Room 11 Kidzstuff blog later this week.
This week we will be looking at magic 'e' and 'a' words e.g. mat/mate, hat/hate and we will be learning about initial blends e.g. 'cl', 'cr', 'br' and 'bl'. Our tricky words are 'before' and 'just'. In writing we will be working on alternative versions of the traditional nursery rhyme Humpty Dumpty and then illustrating them in art. We will be using dice in maths to help memorise our number facts to 10 and 20. In our inquiry we will be working on effective questions to help us find out more about the lives of the stream animals we saw last week.
Finally some very special news from our Room 11 community. This painting by Jack's grandma has been shortlisted in the top 3 pictures to be used on the cover of the new Yellow Pages telephone directory. If you would like to see one of our Room 11 friends on the front cover then make sure you place your vote at http://www.yellowartawards.co.nz/ on or before 22nd November.

Reminders
Monday: Library books due back
Wednesday: Walk to School Wednesday
Friday 13th November: Extended last day for ordering calendars and cards
Monday 30th November: Suter Visit Aquamarine 1-3pm helpers needed

Tuesday 8th and Wednesday 9th December pm Kowhai production "Over the Rainbow"

Monday 14th December: Kowhai Big Day out at Tahuna Trains, all welcome

Wednesday 16th December: Final Assembly 11.15, school at 12.15 for summer break

Calendar Fish

On Thursday we completed our fish pictures ready for families to order 2010 calendars or cards. Have a quick look at them here but you can also check them out on your child's individual blog at Room 11 Kidz Stuff. Final orders need to be in by this Friday, 6th November.
Room 11 Calendar Art 2010 on PhotoPeach

Our poem this week was 'A Busy Day' by Michael Rosen. Thank you Zandi for the lovely colouring. How many times can you hear the word 'pop' as you listen to our class performance.

Due to this week just being 3 days we do not have much else to share with you but have a look at what we will be doing in week 4 of term 4.

In our Fresh Water Inquiry topic we will be working on forming effective questions to help us acquire the knowledge we need to discover how to keep a stream healthy. On Thursday afternoon we will be going on our first stream visit and seeing how many different types of animals live in the stream. All helpers very welcome..bring your gumboots!

In literacy we will be looking at short vowels to help us with our spelling, adverbs to make our writing more interesting and the tricky words 'two' and 'because'. Our poetry focus will be a haiku poem on the subject of fireworks. In art we will be doing observational drawings of stream creatures and producing a picture to go with our firework haiku. Our focus in maths will be subtraction in the range 0-10 as well as our specific focus for each group. In P.E. we will be continuing to join in Jump Jam sessions with Room 6 and start exploring throwing skills.

Have a great week and stay safe.

Reminders

Monday: Library books due back

Wednesday: Walk to School Wednesday

Monday 2nd November: Kowhai Parents' Placement Meeting 2.30

Thursday 5th November: Stream study 1.30, helpers needed

Friday 6th November: Last day for ordering calendars and cards

Monday 30th November: Suter Visit Aquamarine 1-3pm helpers needed

Healthy Diets

Last week we Iron Brion came to school to teach us all about the 4 food groups that we need for a healthy diet. These are:
meat and meat alternatives
milk and dairy products
fruit and vegetables
breads and cereals
Afterwards we enjoyed a healthy burger with salad. Which 3 food groups were covered by this meal?
On Friday we decided to make our shared toast healthier by using wholemeal bread, a good source of fibre.

Our poem last week was Miss Polly had a Dolly. It helped us to look at words that ended in 'll', 'ss', and 'ck'. Here we are performing it with a little help from Jenny. Can you teach everyone at home the actions?

On Thursday we set the scene for our Fresh Water Stream inquiry with a talk from Mel who showed us the types of animals we might find in the stream and the equipment we will be using to study them. We looked at a film which showed what would happen to a stream if were not cared for responsibly.

With all the excitement of the holidays and the Mask Parade we forgot to publish our final piece of work from last term's Fairy Tale Inquiry about good citizenship. Apologies for those of you who have been waiting to share it with friends and family. Here it is......

In week 3 we will be learning some more about verbs and looking at the tricky word 'now'. In art we will be finishing of our fish for the calender project and looking at Van Gogh's sunflowers. Maths will continue with the focus on doubles and halves and work specific to each group. As this is just a 3 day week there will be no spelling homework.

Watch out for all the events coming up during the rest of this term, including our Kowhai syndicate performance of 'Over The Rainbow'. Please sign the list in class if you can help with supervision or transport. on any of the trips.

Reminders

Monday: Library books due back
Wednesday: Walk to School Wednesday
Monday 2nd November: Kowhai Parents' Placement Meeting 2.30
Thursday 5th November: Stream study 1.30, helpers needed
Monday 30th November: Suter Visit Aquamarine 1-3pm helpers needed

Mask Parade

What an exciting start to Term 4. On Tuesday we had another fun packed session with the kelly Sports team. Have a look at the photos Ben took of us.
Kelly Sports on PhotoPeach

All week we were putting the final touches to our Cambodian masks ready for Friday's big parade. Here we are in the final dress rehearsal and waiting for the real thing. Check our Room 12's blog to see a video clip of us marching in the parade. A big thank you to all the mums, dads and grandparents who helped us to make the masks.

Despite all this excitement we still made time to record this week's poem to share with you. Thank you Tom for the lovely picture. The poem is called 'Spring' and this week we wrote our own acrostic poems about Spring. Look out for them on display with our Spring trees painted in the style of the French artist Monet

In week 2 of term 4 we will be starting our Fresh Water Stream inquiry unit with a talk by our expert friend, Mel. On Tuesday we will be learning about how to have a balanced diet and enjoying a healthy burger when Iron Brion comes to visit. In literacy we will be will be looking at words that end with ss, ll, ff and ck as well as learning about adverbs to help us make our writing more interesting. We will continue our acrostic poetry by writing a poem about ourselves. In art we will be producing art work for 2010 calenders..they will make great Christmas presents. In maths we are conslidating our instant recall of halves and doubles.

As always term 4 will be very busy so keep checking the reminders on each week's blog. Have a great week.

Reminders

Monday: Library books due back

Wednesday: Walk to School Wednesday

Monday 26th October: Labour Day, no school

Tuesday 27th October: Teacher Only Day

Monday 2nd November: Kowhai Parents' Placement Meeting 2.30

Thursday 5th November: Stream study 1.30, helpers needed

Monday 30th November: Suter Visit Aquamarine 1-3pm

End of Term 3

Hello to all my Room 11 friends and families. This is a very interantional blog as I am writing it from Kuala Lumpur airport on my way back from Cambodia. Looking at all the things we did in the last week of term 3 has put a big smile on my face. Here we are sharing a massage circle together.

We also had a great time thinking of a different adjective for each section of our giant adjective snake that we made during literacy. Can you think of any other adjectives we could add?



The week ended with a fabulous folk dancing demonstration with Renwick 2. How many of our Room 11 friends can you spot doing the Birdie Dance? Dancing with the Stars ...here we come!

The return to school for our final term of the year will have a busy start putting the final touches to our masks for Friday's parade. In literacy we will be continuing to look at short vowel sounds and learning when to use the word 'an' in a sentence. To help us make our writing more interesting we will be learning about verbs and our tricky words will be 'why' and 'walk'. In maths we will be returning to our numeracy groups with a whole class focus on halves and doubles. Art and poetry this week will have a Spring theme...I am hoping warmer weather might have arrived whilst I have been away. Before starting our final inquiry topic we will be spending some time practicing forming effective inquiry questions. Spelling homework will begin again in week 2.
I hope you have all had a wonderful holiday and look forward to seeing you all and hearing all your news on Monday.

Reminders:

Friday 16th October: Mask Parade 4.45pm Montgomery Square