Group Activities

Thursday 27 September 2012

Week 11

This week we have been busy writing letters to our penpals in England.  We tried to think about things we might have in common.  We realised that England has just had the Olympics and we have enjoyed watching the games so we asked about that.  We also found out that children in England have just finished their summer holidays so we asked them about that and also tried to think about what we like to do during our holidays.
Today we got into buddies and wrote about our school.  Each group chose some place that we liked and wrote about it.  The cool thing was that we could choose what style of writing to use.  Some of us wrote poems about the rock gardens, some wrote information reports about the sandpit and others wrote recounts about the library!  We even wrote a set of instructions for how to use the playground!  Mr Miller was really impressed with what a great job we did.

How to use the playground
A poem about the trees
Our favourite computers lesson
Memories of the library


Today was also the year 3/4 speech final.  Well done to Terri and Connor.  You both did a terrific job and we were all proud of you.

Wednesday 19 September 2012

Greek Projects

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SAM_1191 (Large)

Today we shared our projects. We have been working really hard on them for the last 3 weeks. We saw lots of different and interesting ideas. We learned lots of interest facts. Here are some of the photos of the day, more will follow over the next few days.

ALSO! Tomorrow we have tennis in the afternoon. We will finish tennis at 3pm and walk back so we may not arrive back at school until about 3:10. It is also mufti and sausage sizzle day, so bring so bring some coins for lunch!

Tuesday 18 September 2012

Isometrics!

Today we have been practicing Isometric drawings.  We drew shapes onto special paper and made them look 3d.  It was a bit tricky at first but then we managed it.  Some of us even managed to draw some really clever and detailed shapes. Here is a website that you can use to try this at home...




We also had another go with Wordle.  We think it's pretty cool how it can take a whole bunch of words and put them into interesting order.  We also found out that you can make some words bigger by writing them out more times.  If you want to have a go for yourself, click on the wordle picture below. (note: you will need java to use wordle and the isometric game above so it may not work on your computer at home)


Friday 14 September 2012

Week 9 is bugging me!

It's been another busy week in Room 11.  We've been writing stories and information reports, learning about fractions and decimals, doing algebra tests, making mind maps in reading, listening to speeches and much much more.

Some of the things we have enjoyed most this week is learning about the 'Drop, Cover, Hold' technique during an earthquake as part of the NZ Shakedown campaign.  At 9.26 on 26/9/12 the whole country will practice what to do if there is an earthquake.  We enjoyed learning about how to stay safe when the world starts shaking!
For more information you can watch this video (we loved the 'dangerous salami'!)




We have also been taking advantage of the glorious sunshine and drawing perspective pictures.  First we drew some bugs (plastic, not real!) in the classroom and then went outside to draw the backgrounds.

 
Next week is week 10.  This is a big week for us.  Wednesday is the deadline for our Greek projects, which means that this is our last weekend to finish them.  We are all very excited to share our hard work.  We will also listen to the speech finals on Thursday so good luck to Connor and Terri who will probably spend some time this weekend practicing!



Tuesday 11 September 2012

And the winners are....(drumroll please)


We have chosen our speech finalists.  Well done to Connor and Terri.  When we asked them how they felt, we didn't get the over excited answers we expected.  Here is what they said...
 Hopefully they will feel a bit more positive about it next week!



Today we had a swap around and we did our reading in the library in the morning.  In writing for the last two days we have been revising information reports. 

Friday 7 September 2012

Speech!!!!

This week room 11 had their speech finals.  We have been writing our speeches for a few weeks and Thursday was the big day!  We had all sorts of interesting topics from penguins to the Titanic, from World War 2 to Garfield. We all felt pretty nervous but all the work we had been doing on reading poetry and using expression and rhythm really helped us.  In the end our speeches sounded really good.  We don't know who the winner is yet but we're all excited to find out!


This afternoon we all played T-ball against room 14.  It was so much fun!  Now that it is getting sunny again we are hoping to play more games outside.


Wednesday 5 September 2012

Leverage....


Today we have been learning about levers.  We made a see saw and tried to lift Mr Miller.  We weren’t able to do it.  Then we moved the lever so that Mr Miller stood on the short end.  Then we found we could lift it up!  We found out that the Greeks used levers to lift heavy things like big stones for their temples.


We have also been practicing our performance poetry.  We are trying to put lots of expression into our voices.  Some of us read a poem called, 'Time Warp'.  We had to read the first part in an excited way, the 2nd part in a sad way and the 3rd part in a determined and bossy way.  Here is the poem.

Time Warp 

When I have fun
The time goes ZOOM!!!!
The awesome times
Are over too soon.

But if I'm down
The time will DRAG.
That's much too long
For feeling bad.

So I've decided
That starting today
I'm doing things round
The other way. 

Feana Tu'akoi

Monday 3 September 2012

Week 8!

This morning we did a maths test!  We had to answer A,B,C,D or E for each question.  Some of the questions were easy and some were a little trickier but mostly they were ok.




This afternoon we joined up with the other year 3/4 classes and had a singing assembly.  We sang, Fireflies, You are my Sunshine, Raindrops keep falling on my head, Black and White and others.

We also checked to see how we were getting on with our Greek Projects.  Most of us have done at least half of it and some have nearly finished!  Keep up the good work!