Our Class Reward!!

We filled up our sparkler jar again!! We came up with lots of ideas for what we wanted to do for our whole class reward, then we voted. Star Wars and Target the Teacher won. Normally we play Star Wars on the field, but today we decided we would play it in the pool. There are two teams and each team starts at one end of the pool. When Miss Gentil blew the whistle both teams were allowed to run or swim to the middle of the pool and grab the sponges. Once you get hit by a sponge you have to put both your hands up. There is also one jedi in each team. The jedi has the noodle and can save people when they have been hit by the sponges. The aim of the game is to hit the other team's jedi when the jedi isn't touching their cone. When they are touching the cone or are underwater they are safe.

After our game of Star Wars we played Target the Teacher. Everyone got a sponge and lined up on one side of the pool. Miss Gentil stood on the other side of the pool and we all threw sponges at her!! We had an awesome afternoon.

By Room 2

Our Healthy Breakfast From Classic Hits and New World!!

Yesterday we were given the opportunity to make a poster for Classic Hits. The poster had to include pictures of our favourite healthy breakfasts, the New World and Classic Hits logos, a picture of what we thought Mike and Charmaine looked like and the name of our school. We each drew a picture of our favourite, healthy breakfast. Then we dyed it bright colours and Miss Gentil helped us to put the black vivid around the edges. Next we glued them onto coloured paper. Our poster was the winning poster! It will be displayed in New World for a whole week.

This morning Classic Hits and a lady that works at New World visited our school. They gave each of us a bag with breakfast it in. In the bag was a bottle of water, cereal, a piece of fruit, a yoghurt and a fruit bar. It was a very big breakfast! We ate our breakfast on the field, in the sunshine. After we had breakfast Mike did some magic tricks, we had a sprint race and played tackle bullrush. Before they left we had a photo infront of the Classic Hits car. Then Stella stood up and said thank for you for coming to Morningside School. We also got a photo beside our poster. It was lots of fun!

Saving Pinchy

This morning I found a bird by our house. I stopped and Tikaro said, "what is it?" I told her that it was a bird. Then I tried to grab it, but it ran instead of flying. That's when I thought its wing was broken. I picked it up and gave it to my sister to hold. Then Tikaro gave it to Tupuārangi. Then we put the bird in my hat. It jumped out of the hat and ran away. It almost fell into the creek. I picked it up and carried it to school. When we got to school we put it in the garden out by the office. Then I showed Miss Gentil that I caught a bird. She put it inside a box and gave it to Mrs Farmer. Mrs Farmer is going to take it to the Bird Recovery Centre so they fix his wing. The funniest bit was when he tried to jump out of my hand and I caught him by his legs, to try to stop him from falling into the creek. I named him Pinchy because he kept biting us on our fingers. We hope Pinchy gets better soon.

 

 

By Tūmai and Tupuārangi 

 

 

 

 

Kidsedchatnz's First Birthday Party

Yesterday afternoon we celebrated Kidsedchatnz's first birthday. Kidsedchatnz is a chat on Twitter that kids from all over New Zealand can participate in. It happens each Wednesday afternoon from 2.00pm - 3.00pm. Each week there is a new topic and questions for us to talk about.

Yesterday was all about birthdays. Our favourite question was why do you think it is important to celebrate birthdays? We think it's important because everyone can have a special day and see all their family. We celebrated Kidsedchatnz's first birthday by tweeting on Twitter, blowing up balloons and having cake.

We like joining in with Kidsedchatnz because it's fun and we get to talk to new people, from schools all over New Zealand. You can also post photos and videos on Twitter. We have learnt to write sensible things that are to do with the questions and not just random things. If you do that, then people will comment back. We have learnt new things that we would like to do in our classroom. We have also taught other classes about our Adventure Learning. We are going to make a movie or puppet show to teach the rest of our syndicate how to use Kidsedchatnz properly. We are going to share this at our next assembly. We think everyone should join Kidsedchatnz!!


By Room 2 Twitter Club

Rainbow Jelly

This morning we made the final layer of our rainbow jelly. It was the red, raspberry layer! After lunch Miss Gentil helped us to spoon the jelly into cups. We each got a cup of jelly and a spoon. Once we got our cup, we sat underneath the trees to eat our yummy rainbow jelly. We have had lots of fun learning about measuring volume!!

By Room 2

 

 

 

World Famous in NZ, Just Like L&P!!

Last term we helped to contribute to an article that Pascal wrote about #Kidsedchatnz. This week the Education Review magazine arrived at school and the article was printed in it. We were very excited!! Next week it is #Kidsedchatnz's first birthday. #Kidsedchat is a Twitter chat that was created by a teacher named Pascal. Every Wednesday there is a topic and focus questions. We tweet with other classes from all over NZ about the topic. 

To read the article from the Education Review magazine you can click this link. The part that we helped write is right at the bottom of the page. http://goo.gl/5Z6ujo

If your class is interested in joining #Kidsedchat you can visit the blog to find out more http://kidsedchatnz.blogspot.co.nz/

Learning Places and Spaces

Here are some examples of our watering hole and cave spaces. A watering hole is a group space and a cave is a space for one person. We learn in all kinds of places and spaces in Room 2!! 

How to Make Rainbow Jelly

We have been learning about measuring volume. We have learnt that you can measure volume in millilitres and litres. We know that one cup is 250 ml and two cups is 500 ml. We also know that 1000 ml make one litre. To practise measuring volume we have been making a rainbow jelly. We have already made two layers. They are blue and green. Today we are making the yellow layer. We still have to make the red and orange layers.

Here is how you can make rainbow jelly at home. We doubled the numbers of jelly packets we used to make enough for everyone in Room 2.


You will need:

1 packet of red jelly
1 packet of orange jelly
1 packet of yellow jelly
1 packet of green jelly
1 packet of blue jelly
250 ml of water to mix up each packet of jelly

1 measuring cup
2 bowls
1 spoon


Method

1. Put the packet of blue jelly crystals into a bowl.
2. Add 250 ml of hot water and stir until the jelly crystals dissolve.
3. Put the jelly in the fridge to set.
4. Make the green jelly in a different bowl.
5. When it is cool, pour it on top of the blue jelly.
6. Put it in the fridge to set again.
7. Repeat these steps with the yellow, orange and red jelly.
8. Once it has set, spoon it into a bowl and eat.

 

 

 

 

Meet Curtis Junior

Today at lunch time I found a skink on the rugby field. It was hiding in the grass. I picked it up and I brought it to Room 2 to show Miss Gentil. She said that we could keep it for the afternoon. We put it in Miss Gentil's lunch box. We put leaves, bark and grass into the lunch box to create a habitat for the skink. I named him Curtis Junior. After school Kyren and I are going to let it go in the garden.

By Curtis

 

 

Bucket Filling

In our class we do something called bucket filling.We have cards that we can give to someone when they do something nice for someone else or if we want to give them a compliment.We each have our own buckets that people put the cards in. At the end of the week everybody gets to read their notes in their bucket.We also have  secret fairies that fill up buckets that are a bit emtpy.We think that bucket filling is important because it makes people feel happy. There is a book about bucket filling too.

 

By Stella and Suga-Rae

 

 

 

 

Visual Poet

Making a Worm Farm

As part of 'tuning in' for our minibeasts inquiry unit we made our own worm farm today. Miss Gentil brought in lots of worms from her chicken coop and we went exploring for more in our school vegetable gardens. Next week we are hoping to make a larger worm farm that has holes drilled into the bottom of the container, with another container underneath to catch the worm wee. Worm wee is great for gardens and growing plants! Today we used an old fish bowl. Here is how we made our worm farm. 

1. Put stones into the bottom of the fish bowl for drainage.

2. Put a layer of sand on top.

3. Add a layer of soil, then another layer of sand.

4. Add the final layer of soil.

5. Put the worms on top of the moist soil.

6. Add grass clippings, leaves and some food for your worms. Worms like to eat food scraps so you could add some chopped up banana.

7. Cover the outside of the bowl with black paper or newspaper so that the container is dark for the worms.

8. Cover the top of the container with a piece of damp carpet, old towel or cardboard.

9. Remember to feed your worms and keep the soil moist. 

Blue Day!!

Today was Blue Day!! Lots of children and teachers dressed up in blue to support National Dwarfism Awareness. Room 2 did an awesome job of coming to school in blue. 

Writing Notebooks

Today everyone in Room 2 got given a writer's notebook. The purpose of the notebook is to collect seed ideas for writing. The writing seeds will then be used to grow ideas during writing time. We have talked about how often the best ideas don't always come to you during writing time. Room 2 have been encouraged to use their notebooks throughout the day to record ideas or exciting words. Some children are even choosing to take them home at night.

This morning we were focusing on nouns and adjectives. We went down to the gardens to find some inspiration. There was also a simile challenge for clever cookies. Room 2, I was so proud of what you achieved during our first session. I'm sure our writing will continue to get even more exciting as we learn more.


Here are some examples of adjectives

• Crunchy leaves
• Prickly plants
• Peaceful bees
• Dusty gravel
• Shiny sand
• Silky sand
• Crispy leaves
• Glowing sand
• Slimy slugs

Here are some examples of our similes. We learnt that a simile compares something to something similar by using like or as.

• The rocks are as sharp as shark teeth. By Jacob
• The sand is sparkling like glitter. By Carlia
• The log is as smooth as a seal's body. By Hanna
• The artwork on the concrete wall as is as red as a ruby rose. By Hanna
• The flowers are as orange as Fanta. By Luke
• The flowers are as yellow as lemons. By Tatyana
• The bark is brown like chocolate bars. By Suga-Rae
• The flowers smelt like sweet honey. By Stella
• The green house was as hot as Singapore.

Writing Notebooks - slideshows

Exploring for Minibeasts

Our inquiry topic this term is minibeasts and today Room 2 went out to the garden to find some minibeasts. Minibeasts are creatures that live in the garden and don't have a backbone. Before we went exploring we watched a Suzy's World DVD about why bees make honey. We learnt that the bees eat honey and they have lots of jobs to do.

When we were exploring for minibeasts I got stung by a bee. Everyone was interested and Miss Gentil had to pull the stinger out. I have still got it. We found a skink, worms, centipede, slater, wasp by their wasp nest, bees, spiders, a caterpillar and butterflies. We learnt a skink is not a minibeast. We got to touch some of the minibeasts and we also took photos of them. When Jacob picked up the skink the tail dropped off. They do this because they are scared. It's either drop the tail and grow it back or lose your life.

We are excited to learn more about minibeasts and their habitats.

By Hanna and Room 2

Wasp hanging onto the wasp nest.

Wriggly worm on the edge of the garden. 

A caterpillar we found in the butterfly garden. 

The slater rolled up into a tiny ball when it got scared. 

The tail that dropped off the skink. We learnt that it wasn't a minibeast, but it was still pretty cool! 

Welcome to Room 2 Tupuārangi

We would like to give a warm welcome to Tupuārangi. Today was his first day in Room 2. You can scan the QR codes to find out a little bit more about Tupuārangi. We hope that you enjoy your time in our classroom. 

From Room 2 

Stop Shark Finning in NZ

For Adventure Learning we have been learning about shark finning and how we can stop it in NZ waters. If you want to help stop shark finning you can visit http://www.nzsharkalliance.org.nz/ to sign the petition. 

Here is our sharing item that we created using Sock Puppets.

By Curtis, Matai, Joel and Xyin

Kiwiana Calendar Art

This term each class had to produce some art for our school calendars. Room 2 decided to create art inspired by Kiwiana. Each classroom will have their own 2014 calendar and every child's artwork will be feature in it. Calendars will be available to purchase for $10 early in Term 4. Check out Room 2's awesome art. I'm so proud of all your hard work Room 2. Have a happy and safe holiday. 

Miss Gentil 

Kiwiana Art - slideshow

A Special Visitor

Every Friday morning we do Adventure Learning and this morning a special visitor came it. It was the Whangarei Council man. His name is Spencer Jellyman. He came to talk to us about the Morningside Park upgrade. It might not be upgraded for another five years. This is because there are 40 playgrounds in whangarei and only two playgrounds get replaced a year. It will take 20 years to replace all the playgrounds in Whangarei. The next playgrounds to be upgraded are one in Onerahi and Kensington Park. We asked him some questions. 

Here are some of the questions we asked:

• When did you start working at the council?
• Where do you get the equipment from for the playgrounds?
• What things do you need to make the playground safe?
• How can we improve our playground design?

Stella used to live my Mander Park and it just been upgraded. Then she moved to Morningside and she thought the Morningside Park playground was boring and old. So that's when we thought that we could design a new playground. We went over the the Morningside Park and took some photos. We went there to see what needed to be done. We also went to the park behind the Information Centre. We liked the equipment at that playground. We made a poster of all the stuff we learnt about playgrounds. 

This afternoon we made a card using Pic Collage on the iPad to say thank you to Mr Jellyman. We emailed him the card. Next term we are going to do a competition to design the best playground. We are going to do this at lunch time and anyone from other classes can come along. 

By Carlia and Lakeysha