Spring Tapestries

Here are some of our finished spring tapestries. Once the border had been sewn, we went stick hunting and found a stick to thread through the material at the top of our tapestry. Then we plaited wool, using colours that would compliment our work, and tied it to the stick to give us something to hang our tapestries with. Next we took them outside and placed them in natural surroundings. We took photos of our tapestries in three different locations and then chose the best photo. Watch the clip to see the results!

Narrative Writing: The Orientation

We are learning how to write a narrative in Room 8 at the moment. We know that a narrative needs an orientation, a problem and a resolution, and this week we are focusing on the orientation. The orientation sets the scene and tells the reader who, what and where. Here is Josie's orientation. Did she explain who, what and where? If she did, tell her so in the comments!

The Problem With The Triplets

Once upon a time there lived three girls who were identical triplets. They even liked to wear the same clothes! Their names were Torey, Maya and Emma. They had black straight hair and their favourite outfit was a denim skirt and a violet top.

They lived in a small, old brick house with their mum and dad. The house was two storeys but it was very skinny. The bedrooms were upstairs and the lounge, bathroom and kitchen were downstairs.

The girls were lying on their beds in the room that they shared, listening to the storm that night. Their parents were downstairs in the lounge, drinking a cup of tea when . . .

Term 4: Looking Forward

Here are some more Room 8 members to share with you what they are looking forward to.

What I learned in Term 3

We have been reflecting on Term 3 this week, especially on our learning. We made a list of ALL the things we have learned this term, and then we went away and wrote about the one that we felt was the most important to us. Here are some of the answers - the rest will be up as soon as they are recorded!

What makes ice cream colourful?

Josie decided that she'd like to tell you all about what makes ice cream colourful. We are reading "George's Marvellous Medicine" by Roald Dahl as a class at the moment, which might tell you where she got her imaginative ideas from!

What Makes Ice Cream Colourful?

Ice Cream is colourful because of the colour of paint that is added to the mixture when it is being made.

Ice cream doesn't taste like paint because there is a special powder that they put in the mixture. The powder is magic powder that is made by fairies.

Some colours taste like paint even though they have the powder in them so we don't get those colours in the shops because if we did, we would be eating ice cream that tasted bad!

When the ice cream leaves the fairies, it gets to the shops by a magic password. To make the carpet go to the shops, the fairies have to read the password. The password is ^@#)!{*U3.

Ice cream is colourful because of paint and still tastes good because of magic powder.

By Josie.

Writing to explain: New World Records at the 2008 Olympics

How did athletes get to be so quick?

Athletes get to be quick by keeping fit and healthy.

To become an Olympic medalist, training is important. You have to train ever day. You still have to train when you are sick or tired. You need to train hard because that’s how you win.

Athletes wear special clothes to make them faster. Swimmers wear tight fitting togs to swim faster because then the water can’t slow them down runners wear light clothes to run faster. Cyclists wear light and tight clothes to go faster. Basketballers wear clothes that are loose and have little holes so that they don’t get too hot.

One way athletes get faster is by eating the right food. Athletes eat the right food to get more energy because otherwise they would be tired in the middle of the competition. For example eating fruit and vegetables is good to keep you healthy. Athletes don’t eat Junk food or else in the competition they might get a tummy ache.

Athletes become quick by eating healthy food, wearing the right clothes and training every day.

By Juanita, Toby and Josie.

Can you see their identifying statement, explanation sequence and summary statement? If you can, they reached their goal!

Measurement - Tallest to Shortest

In Room 8, we are learning to order things from tallest to shortest at the moment. This week our topic activity for maths was to use a camera to take a photo of our maths group standing in order of tallest to shortest. To do this, we made signs that said "tallest" and "shortest" and gave them to the tallest person and the shortest person to hold. So Mrs Hamilton would know who ordered the group and took the photo, we got the middle person to hold a sign saying who the photo was by.

Have a look at our photos and see if we got it right!

Term 2 PMI: Josie

Here is Josie to share her PMI with you.

Reflecting on Term 2 - What we have learned

Today we have been reflecting our our Term 2 learning. We brainstormed ideas of all the different topics we have learned about, and all the different things we learned in those topics. Then we went away and wrote about our favourite thing that we have learned this term. Here are the first half of Room 8 to share their learning, look out for the second half tomorrow!

Procedural Writing: How to make popcorn

As part of our procedural writing, Room 8 made popcorn and then wrote instructions for others so that they would know how. Then we got into groups and we made movies using our instructions. We were allowed to use whatever media we wanted to create our movie, as long as we had all the parts of a procedure in our finished product.

When we were finished, we made popcorn again and voted using strict criteria to find a winning movie. Josie, Madeleine, Ben and Anetema's group won. We hope you like their movie, made in I Can Animate on our class whiteboard.

The rest of the movies will be put on the blog later this week, so keep an eye out!

Science: Baking Cookies

Today during science we continued to look at the changes that can happen when materials are mixed, heated and cooled. We baked cookies and observed them when the dry materials were mixed together, when the wet materials were mixed with the dry materials, when they were baking, and while they cooled. Then we conducted the final test - taste! They were very yummy.

Photos by Josie.

Arbor Day 2010: How to Plant a Tree

Yesterday we celebrated Arbor Day at GLS.  We had a special assembly to talk about the meaning of Arbor Day, and ASB donated some trees for us to plant.  At the assembly, Josie spoke on behalf of the Puriri Team and explained what Arbor Day meant to here.  Here is what she said:

Arbor Day makes me stop and think about nature.  It makes me appreciate the trees and plants surrounding me.  We are lucky because we have lots of trees and plants at Grey Lynn School so we should look after them.

Josie spoke so well that she was asked to help plant the Puriri Team's tree.  After it was planted, we went back to class and wrote instructions for planting a tree.  Here is Josie's!

How To Plant A Tree

You will need: a small tree, water, soil, a watering can and a spade.

1. Dig a hole.

2. Put the tree in the hole.

3. Put some soil in and around the hole until it is full.

4. Fill the watering can with water.

5. Pour some water onto the tree.

6. Watch it grow over time.