Celebrating a terms worth of learning

Today we are celebrating a term of learning!

At assembly, Talepita and Malaga received the Room 11 Achievement Award for great academic progress. Dinarah won the Kiwi Can award for consistently showing positive values. Ali won the Room 11 Diligence Award from Whaea Claire, our school chaplain. 

We watched the winning performance of Birdwood's Got Talent. 

Room 2 showed us part of the South African dance that they are learning. 

We sadly said farewell to our Brazil topic this morning by illustrating our poem of the week. Here is Lucas' winning illustration. 

Showing our creativity

We show our creativity in our movements,

and in our choice of colours,

and in our design ideas. 

Persuasive writing

We wrote a postcard to someone to persuade them to visit Brazil. 

Brazil is Calling You - Visit Brazil (Tourism Comercial)

After watching this video about the uniqueness of Brazil, we wrote about why you should visit!  Here are some of our pieces of writing...

I think you should visit Brazil. First of all you can see macaws. (Kalo)

I think we should go visit Brazil to see the animals. (Dinarah)

I think you should visit Brazil. First of all there are butterflies. Secondly there are beaches. (Claryssa)

I think we should go to Brazil to see beautiful beaches. (Lucas)

I think we should go to Brazil. First of all I love the beach. Secondly I love the animals. Finally I love the Jesus statue. That is why we should go to Brazil. (Cing)

I think we should go visit Brazil because we can see the rainforest. (Teki)

Fun learning experiences trigger good outcomes

This morning we watched a story from YouTube. It was about a dirty pigeon who desperately needed a bath. Silly pigeon didn't want to take a bath and made lots of excuses before finally getting in!

We wrote about why pigeon should take a bath. Here is some of our work:

After lunch some high school boys came to perform some Maori and Pacifika dances for us. It really inspired us to love our cultures and to try out some of the dance moves!

Earthquake drill

Today we had an earthquake drill! We quickly got under the tables, and covered our heads until the all clear was given. 

Now if a real earthquake strikes we will know what to do!

Friday highlights

Friday was a busy day. We went to the school assembly. Malakai won a 'Caught being good' prize and three of our friends got certificates for their good work in class. 

In Kiwi Can we revised what 'self control' is. 

Then we played 'rob the best' with Room 9. 

We illustrated our poem about the rainforest. 

Cing and Grace won the prize for the best illustration. 

After looking at a video about the blue morpho butterfly, we learnt how to make a symmetrical one by folding paper in half and sketching the wings, body and antennae. Then we painted our butterflies. 

Friday highlights

During Kiwi Can we learnt about the importance of time out when we feel frustrated, or angry. We learnt that it's ok to ask if we can have time out too!

Here is our 'super-star' from today's Kiwi Can session. 

During Math time we did an activity that taught us about symmetry. We had to fold paper and cut symmetrical leaf shapes. Look at what we made!

Our poem for the week was an imaginary poem about macaws. It used lots of rhyming words!

Today we really enjoyed painting some macaws which were made from paper plates. 

Photo by Grace

Photo by Grace

Practicing helps us improve

This week we have been practicing adding skills through a variety of activities. 

Reflecting on our artwork

Today we finished off our assemblage art by spray painting them white. 

Photos by Ofeyliah

We also looked at some of our artworks and talked about what made them effective, and what we could do to make our work better. 

Using the internet to help us learn

We have been using the internet to help us learn. We typed in 'toucan' into the search box today, and found this really cute video about a baby toucan.

We learnt that toucans eat fruit. This baby ate melon, pineapple and bananas.

We also searched the internet for information about sloths. We watched a video of a sloth learning to climb. They are very slow creatures. We found out that they are very friendly too. Some people have pet sloths! 

Using the Internet to learn

During Inquiry time we used the Internet to help us find the answers to some of our questions about Brazil. 

Some of us are very curious about jaguars and what they eat. We found some video about jaguars. We saw a jaguar catch a big crocodile and carry it away for dinner. We also learnt that jaguars can swim, and that sometimes crocodiles attack jaguars. 

Ofeyliah wanted to know how Christ the Redeemer was made, so we found some photos on the Internet showing how it was built on top of the hill. There was a lot of scaffolding around the statue as it was constructed. One website said that all the materials for the statue were taken up the mountain by train. 

When we had some free time, one of our friends built a Jesus statue from Duplo!

Photo by Tetahi

Monday's highlights

We did a Writing test this morning. 

After our test, we learnt that many Brazilians celebrate Carnaval by dancing in elaborate costumes. We were inspired by the fancy Carnaval costumes and made cool masks. 

At the end of the day we played a throwing game with Room 10.