28 October 2013

Our Goal: Grow the biggest pumpkin in the school!

On Thursday we all helped to plant the pumpkin seedling.  We discussed what a seedling needs to grow into a large healthy plant.


Chalk Art Techniques with Lynne Sinclair Taylor

We had a fabulous time with Mrs Lynne Sinclair Taylor.  She encouraged us all to use our imagination and experiment with different chalk colours and designs.








Place Value Team Work

TW

We had an awesome time learning about place value.  We earnt Totara Team money each day and we kept a tally of our total.  At the end of three weeks we had to negotiate and work together to buy classroom stationery items.  Just look at the team work going on.



25 August 2013

The Big Friendly Giant


One day there was a girl named Sophie and a boy named The BFG.  Sophie couldn’t sleep.  The BFG poked his nose in the window to see if people were sleeping.  Sophie hid under the pillow.  The BFG took Sophie.  She said “who are you?”  “I’m the BFG.” Sophie said “you have big ears!”  “I’m a giant.”  “I can listen to ants talk!"  Ailish



The BFG said “hi, what are you doing?"  The BFG flew away.  Truze

The BFG had big ears and he can hear ants talking and worms talking.  He collects some dreams with a net.  The rocks are blue and the ground is yellow. and he has hairy yucky hair.  His name is  Bloodbottler and he takes people from their houses.   Suleman

One night Sophie couldn’t sleep.  She was tossing turning all the way until ….midnight!  She lept out of bed when she heard a giant thumping noise.  Wondering curiously, she crept to the window to see an incredible image, a giant walking image coming towards her neighbourhood.  She couldn’t make it out.  There was a giant!  Isabel



Once upon a time there lived a giant called BFG.  He was a nice and friendly giant.  One day Sophie was sleeping and then Sophie heard an earthquake and Sophie woke up from the noise.  But it wasn’t an earthquake!  That was the BFG who catches dreams.  Safa

Once upon a time there was a girl called Sophie.  She had a dress on. She had blue eyes, curly hair and she wore glasses.  She went to bed but she heard a FE FI FO FUM.  Sophie got scared.  She went under her warm blanket but she was still scared.  She heard FE FI FO FUM again.  She heard him come and pick her up from her bed.  She nearly screeeeaaaaammmmed but didn’t want to scream.  He went outside with Sophie in his hand.  The BFG has humungous ears and big smelly feet.  The giant lived in a dark and dingy cave inside the giant world.  It had yellow grass and blue rocks.  The BFG tried to explain that he caught dreams.  Scania




Gymnastics Fun








Skipping Fun







10 June 2013

Shadow Writing


Last week we were looking for  rays of sunshine between the showers to draw our shadows.  We had fun discovering that the length of our shadow is due to the position of the sun at a particular time of day.

Today shadows went to the next level.  Faster than a bull racing after a red car!  I posed as a tiger with fake ears.  My partner had to trace around my shadow.  The size wasn’t my size for sure.  It was too stretchy.  Soon we are going to check if our shadows have moved.  I was wondering if it would?  At lunchtime my friend Scania just came down from checking the shadows up top and my shadow had moved.  It was so exciting.  “Wow” I gasped.  It was as amazing as a buried treasure being shared for free.  “Woohoo” I yelled in joy galore spreading the news to the class faster than a cheetah!   Isabel


My shadow is a copycat.  It copies what I do.  My shadow is dark.  It’s fun to play with your shadow.  My shadow can be long, short, tall and small.  Shahil
I was racing down the road to buy chocolate cake.  I was running and a shadow was following me.  Maybe he was playing tag with me.  I was running really fast.  I stopped and the shadow stopped too.  I don’t know what happened to the shadow?  It was black.  I couldn’t catch the shadow.   Guru




26 May 2013

A visit from Stu Duval


Stu’s Writing Tips

Stu had some wonderful ideas to help us generate our own unique story.

  1.     Create a personal ideas scrapbook.
   2. Use Music to inspire you!  Music helps you create pictures or characters in      your mind.
  3.     Use the questions: What ?Where? Who? When? Why?
  4.     Play the game: Luckily Unluckily….This will help build tension in your story.
  5.     Use random things– e.g. pick an object, colour…e.g. the cheerleading dog   in a pink tutu.  Make a random crazy word list!
  6.     Use pictures:  draw a piture of something crazy e.g.  a deep pit.  What three things can you use to get out of the pit?



Stu told us the exciting story he created about Captain Custard and the lovely Lamington Lilly.


We went back to class and created our own story about Wiggle the Hedgehog who ate too many jiggly worms, snails and slugs one night on Middle.  He was soooo full he couldn't move when it was daylight!  His tummy felt like it would burst.  He had to hide under the leaves and hope that Totara kids wouldn't step on him.  Poor Wiggle.  He said to his mum that it" felt like an earthquake"when the children were running and jumping at playtime. 





10 May 2013

Those Yucky Meanies by Joy Cowley


This week we have been responding to our Book of the Week by describing characters.   We wrote some descriptions about The Meanies using a mindmap.

Meanies enjoy eating dead flies and they don't like having a bath.


Meanies smell and they are slimy.  They love to play in mud! Eeew yuck!  Meanies don't know how to behave so we wrote some rules for them. 




24 March 2013

Room 15's Monarchs


Just hatched and drying my wings.


The butterfly has four wings but it looks like the Monarch Butterfly only has two wings.  When our butterfly came out of the chrysalis it hung down for about 3 hours.  Our caterpillars keep getting fatter and fatter.  Over the night and day it chews big holes.  Nevarah  



  


Term 3 Week 1

 Kia ora e te whānau.  Welcome to term 3. We have started the term with 3 new students, so we welcome them to our Room 15 whānau. This week ...