Science topic on "Light"

We started the term with our science topic on Light! Part of our study was looking at shadows . We know what makes them and how they change during the day. We had to wait for a sunny day before we could test out our ideas. We now know lots and had a lot of fun discovering and experimenting.

More Experiments

Miss Elliott used green food dye and put some celery in it to see how water is absorbed by plants. It wasn't as exciting as we wanted so we moved on to plan B. We picked some pale coloured flowers from around the school and put them into red dye. In no time at all the flowers changed colour and it was really interesting to see the veins in the petals and leaves.

New term -New classmates!!

We have two new children in our room. Tauaoa has come back to our school and Mary Rose has moved here. It is lovely to have such cheerful, hard working children join our busy classroom.

Anzac Day

Anzac Day was in the holidays this year so we had our own Anzac assembly on the first day of term. Mr McKenzie welcomed lots of new children to our school and spoke about the brave people who were in the war and how we want peace not fighting. We looked at the arch and the names on the honour board and saw the crosses that were for the soldiers who had died.

School Cross Country

What a lovely day it was for our cross country. After interval we walked down to Chingford Park and sat in our year levels. The first group headed off on their race and they did really well . Before long it was the year 3 girls. We had been training so we knew we could run the distance but it still seemed a long way. Next it was the year 3 boys and then the year 4 boys and girls. By then we were feeling hungry so it was good to have some lunch. After the teachers/parents race we all packed up and walked back to school. We were all a bit tired but it had been a great day.

Working hard

We have been doing lots of interesting activities with Miss Elliott. Here are a few of them. We wrote about what we wanted to be when we grew up and there were a lot of different jobs.

We started using more descriptive words in our written work and trying differnet metaphors. Our work is on the wall in the classroom so please come in and have a look.

We carefully observed an experiment after we had hypothesised what we thought might happen and then saw what actually happened.

Orokonui

After having to postpone our first trip because of bad weather we were lucky to get a great day for our visit to the Eco-sanctuary. S.1 and S.2 travelled on a double decker bus which was fun. Once we arrived Nathan welcomed us with a song about the sanctuary and we saw a video. He told us all about the predators that they cleared out of the sanctuary after the 9kms of fence was installed. Nathan explained how ferrets and stoats were so good at hunting. After morning tea we split into 4 groups.
There was the pond group that looked at the insects you might find in and on a small pond and how they show us how healthy the pond is. There was a group that looked at birds' nests and listened to the birdsong in the bush. They also made poo bombs. There was a group that looked at how predators were removed from the sanctuary and how birds are tracked and how there are constant checks to keep the area pest free. The final group looked at the Takahe that live there and also the skinks. After lunch we walked through the sanctuary down to Waitati and our bus collected us there and took us back to school. We had an amazing day and all felt happy and tired.

         

Bug Census

The Otago Museum came along to do a Bug Census at our school. First we gave as much information as we could about insects and the different types we thought we might see at school. Then we went up to the Community Garden and got into groups. We looked at the insects on the plants, the ones flying around and the ones hiding under rocks and bricks. If we didn't know the name of an insect we were given a series of questions such as how many legs or wings or antennae. We weren't able to catch many insects in the net but we did see quite a few.

Changes

As part of our topic on Changes we thought growing plants would be a good thing to do. Unfortunately we didn't have a lot of success with our bean plants. First the plants were over-watered and then when we tried again, only a few grew. We grew two types of 'potato-heads" and also did experiments with bean sprouts that we planted in different locations in the room. We are now going to try growing some bulbs, hopefully these will work!!

Looking forward to our trip to Orokonui

Tahu came to school to talk about our topic "Changes". We all gave our ideas about the changes that happen in all sorts of ways. Then we went up into our playground to look for native plants. We are going to the Eco-sanctuary soon.

A trip to the Art Gallery

We went to the Dunedin Art Gallery and worked with Mr Neumegen on our wonderful pictures. We used lots of colour and the results look fantastic.

Scientists at Work

In S2 we have been using our observation skills and looking closely at plants and insects. We used magnifying glasses and bug viewers to get an even clearer view. We have made observations about size, shape and texture as well as colour and anything else of interest.

Busy in S2

We started the year talking about all the places that people went to over the holidays. seeing as it has been such a great summer there were lots of stories to tell and pictures to draw.

 

We talked about all the things we think Summer means to us . There were great ideas like playing in the sprinkler and eating real fruit icecreams.

We designed summery looking jandals to go with our ideas.

Treaty

Room S2 has made its class treaty, deciding on the main ideas that we want to follow in our room, so that we can all enjoy learning. On February 6th it was Waitangi Day so we also talked about the treaty that was signed in Waitangi and what it means to New Zealand.

Library time

The weather has been so lovely that on Thursday when we are at the library some of us can read outside in the shade.

The couches inside though are still really comfortable so some of us are still keen to read inside.

Welcome.... Welcome.......Welcome.

                                                 Welcome to the Senior Bock and S2.

Everyone has settled into the room and is working hard . Our class has grown by 4!! Emily and Thalia have joined us from Pine Hill and Otto has come all the way from Auckland. We also have a visitor from China, Guo Guo who is with us for the first 3 weeks.
Our College teacher is Miss Elliott and she will be coming every Wednesday and Thursday as well as spending  blocks of time in the room right up until the end of the second term.
Mrs Hesson is in the room Tuesday afternoon ,Wednesday and Friday and Mrs Evans-Weir is there Monday, Tuesday morning and Thursday.

                                     We are all looking forward to a busy and exciting year.