Final Goodbyes and thoughts.

Here are some thoughts of our favourite things about our year.

I enjoyed all the sports that we did. Josiah
I enjoyed Room 5 and it's the best class I've been in my whole life. Samuel
I liked the athletics day. Jack
Ho, Ho, Ho. Have a very merry Christmas. Alan
I want to say a big thankyou to Room 5 and to Mr Herring. Aidan
Thankyou very much, Mr Herring for taking us out for sports games. Reagan
I really enjoyed the writing and handwriting. Kelly
I liked everything about school. Jessica
I liked learning more about computers. Caitlyn
I enjoyed all the sports we did and I learnt how to play some more ones, like Teeball. Zia
I liked Mr Herring's activities and the PE he took outside. Simon
I really enjoyed the reading and writing. Maia
I liked making friends in Room5. Paris
I liked making friends and all the learning we did about times tables and division. Trae

My Fairyfriend - Chapter 3

Then I spotted another planet. It was purple! I gasped.
"What is that planet?" I asked Rachel.
"That is Fairyland," She said. Then I looked back at the blue planet with the iceicles hanging from it.
"What is that planet called?" I asked, pointing at the blue planet. Rachel shivered.
"That's Jack Frosts castle," she shivered again.
"Who's Jack Frost?" I asked.
"Jack Frosts that one who is killing my family," she said.
"How?" I asked.
"Jack Frost has been putting my family in seperate freezers and locking them in. They'll freeze if you don't help me!
We landed softly on the ground in Fairyland. She explained everything.
We flew up in the air, glided past all the planets and landed at Jack Frosts ice castle.

By Libby Offord.

Christmas Cards

To practise using our reflection skills Room 5 has made some Christmas cards for our families. We put paint on one side of the card and folded it over to make a reflection on the other side.
Can you see the trees, angels and gifts?

Cultural Day!

To learn more about the different cultures that we have at school we had a cultural experience in the hall. The middle team learnt about Thailand, U.S.A, India, Korea, and the Netherlands. The videos below give a small glimpse into our morning with some kickboxing from Thailand and some Ukulele playing from Hawaii.

Who wants to be a maths millionaire?

Try these games - who wants to be a maths millionaire!

Maths Site - Transformation

Use this website to learn about transformation - our WALT for this week. Click on the picture or the link in the side bar.

Swimming Times

Our swimming days for the rest of the term are Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
Don't forget your togs!

Blog Survey

It would really help us to continue to make our blogs suit all students, family and friends, especially for next year, if you are able to answer a short survey.
It would only take 2-3 minutes. Visit this link to answer! We really appreciate your feedback.
Click Here to take survey

Alan and Dylan's Poster

We are learning about posters. We've decided that a great poster needs the following;
- an impacting picture, small or big, about the topic
- words, not too many
- creative - different, 'out of the normal' and interesting
This is Alan's and Dylans poster. They are communicating the idea that BMX is a great way to benefit our physical side of Hauora.

What can our Blog do? - Video

We wanted to give you a quick tour of what our blogsite can do. We've used the smartboard app - recorder to make a small movie. By Reagan, Maia, Alan and Courtenay.

New Spelling Activity site

Try this spelling activity online. It teaches us how to add to 'ing' and other parts to words. We're using this in class but you could try it at home!
Click on the picture or the link below.



Spelling Game

Contacting Mr Herring

My email, if you would like to send me some pictures or photos for the blog, can be sent to you by requesting it in the comments section under this post.
-especially if you want to use a photo for your poster!

Quote from Yoda!

For handwriting today we copied a quote from Yoda, a character in Star Wars. We had to think about what this means and whether we believe it's true. You can hear it in the podcast on the right hand side. What do you think?

Places to research our pair investigation questions

These are some sites where we can get some answers to our questions for our pair investigations.
- google
- chatrooms (might not be reliable)
- ask.com
- wikipedia
Can you think of some more and add them in the comments?

Room 5 strikes out with podcasts!

Podcast
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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A podcast is a digital media file, or a related collection of such files, which is distributed over the Internet using syndication feeds for playback on portable media players and personal computers. The term, like "radio", can refer either to the content itself or to the method by which it is syndicated; the latter is also termed podcasting. The host or author of a podcast is often called a podcaster.

We've started using podcasts as another form of communication to you, the friends of room 5! I've managed to work through some tech hiccups and we'll experiment with gcast, a free host for audio files online.
The first episode, a trial really, is an interview with Megan that explains the class expectations for our spelling programme. It may pay to listen if you are a confused parent?! (I realise some of the students messages come home a little scrambled...)

Click on the podcast box in the side bar - right hand side (click on 'posts' to get a full list of the podcast files)

Tell us what you think of podcasts and whether you have some ideas about how we could use it!

Room 5 said...

Room5 thinks that we could record some people's writing, maybe about the athletics day tomorrow. We could also use it as a reward for one person to have a 'say what you want to say' 30 seconds sound byte, we could share what we are doing online and what we've found and we could make a playlist of Christmas songs like a radio station!

Room13 said...

Very cool... I liked Megan's explanation of the spelling. She speaks really clearly, but I couldn't understand what Yoda was saying.

By the way, when you get a moment in Room 5, you could check out our Room 13 blog. I need to see Mr Herring about setting up Podcasting too :-)

November 28, 2007 5:13 PM

Middle Team High Jump Champs!

The school has been practising for our athletics day on Tuesday. The Middle team had a jump off for all the class champs to find a middle team champion. Congratulations to Jack for coming first and Reagan for second place - both from room 5! Scroll down to see the videos of their best jumps. They both have excellent scissor kick techniques.

The Power of Writing!

We've been learning about the power of our writing to create pictures in the reader's head. This video shows us, in a graphic way, the true power we have as a writer!

make your own posters!

We're learning about what makes a great poster! Today we used this site to create a basic template. It also has a lot more templates you can use, such as trading cards, calendars and more!
You can have a go at home and make some Christmas presents...

http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/

Week 7 Maths challenge!

Try this activity by clicking on the link:
Apples4theteacher.com

The challenge is to colour in a hundreds board and see the patterns!

New website to visit!

Here's this week's site to try at home. (Thanks to Mrs Pivac!)

It has lots of great activities to try.

gamequarium

Skipping recounts!

Aidan and Nicholas are learning to write about their feelings in their writing. These are their recounts about the skipping fundraiser we took part in!



On Wednesday Room 5 went to the senior court to do some skipping. I felt happy and excited because I went to Mrs Burgess to do the long rope and I got to jump in. I liked the music because it made me want to jump more. By Nicholas.



On Wednesday we went skipping for an hour. I felt very proud of myself because I learnt more skills. I learnt how to do the scissors and how to jump in. I like skipping beacuse you can get fit and healthy. You can have fun because you learn more skills. By Aidan

Fractions challenge!

Here's this weeks fractions challenge. Click on this link:

BBC fractions activities

It has some cool games to play that will really test your understanding about fractions.

Circles could try this link for a REAL challenge. See how you go!

Circles fractions challenge

My Fairyfriend, - the next chapter.

Here's the next chapter in Libby's story.

Oh! No! If Rachel is my mother that means that MY family is dieing! "Wait a minute," I said to Rachel. "Is it possible that you could be my ...my...mother?"
Rachel looked at me and then slumped back on the tree. She looked back down at her feet. "Yes" she said. "I am your mother. Come to Fairyland with me," she said.
"How do we get there?" I asked.
She grinned. "We fly!"
"But I don't have wings!" Rachel hovered up into the air. She took out a mirror and lay it against the oak tree. She smiled.
"Close your eyes," she said. She took off her indigo tipped wand and gently sprinkled fairy dust all over me. "Open," Rachel said. So I opened my eyes and I had wings!
I flew up into the air and did a cartwheel. Then Rachel said to me, "Let's go!. She took my hand and we flew into space.
We flew past Mars, Mercury, Earth, Venus, Saturn, Jupiter and Pluto. Wait, I left out Uranus!
Then I spotted something very unusual. I was heading towards another planet and as I looked closer I saw that it had icicles hanging from it!

This is Libby's second chapter to this story. To read the first chapter, click on the "My Fairyfriend Story" link in the labels section to the right of the posts. Libby really appreciates your feedback.

Clone vs Cursor!

A little scary man is drawn by an animator. In the animation the little man tries to destroy the animator.

If you want to watch this animation you can send your email to Mr Herring. You could write your email address in the comments part of this post - at the bottom.

Writing about what we have done!

This terms writing focus is to get better at recounts; writing about our personal experiences. The following posts have been written by some students that are working on adding 'voice', using more adjectives and putting more feeling into their writing.

You could comment at the bottom of the post by clicking on 'comments'. Do you think they have succeeded?

Art Intensive

On Thursday and Friday we had art and nothing else! The art was on Big cats.
We stuffed it up with newspaper (I shared with Brianna). My cat was a chettah. I had fun. It was great!!
At first I thought I was going to put the mask on our heads. Meanwhile, outside, Mr Herring took 4 or 5 people to do a BIG CAT out of sheep wire. After that we got back to work. I had a chetah to work on!!
First we painted both sides and then the 'big' job came, cutting and curling and...striking! Then we got coloured paper and cut them into the shape of an eye and cut up a smaller one and stuck them on. After we put the two masks together we put on the ears.
By Megan.


I think the art intensive was the great. It was the best thing around. The good, best and great thing. We made a big cat. It was a huge cat. You should see it.
It was the entrance to the display. It was made out of chicken wire. I got to do some stuff. I got to put some material on it.
By Devin

Book Fair Parade

We had a book fair on the 31st October. We had a book parade. We had to dress up as a book character. At the parade we saw lots of people dressing up as a book character.
Mr Herring was Clifford the big Red Dog. It was really fun. Logan dressed up as Darth Vader. At the book fair my mum helped with the book fair counter, At morning tea time I went to see my mum.
By Simon.

First the day started and every one was excited. Then it was time that everyone loved. Mrs Murphy talked and, out of nowhere, Clifford jumped out and walked out.
I saw all sorts of costumes. I didn't wear anything. Most of them were witches. After that we figured out that Mr Herring was clifford. He was funny.
By Trae.

My Fairyfriend By Libby Offord

This is the first installment of Libby's story. She is a very talented writer who has started this story at home. We will add parts of the story to the blog as they are written. Please add a comment for Libby, at the bottom of this post, by clicking on 'comments'.

“My Fairyfriend”

Once on a sunny day I went outside to play when suddenly I looked down at the old Beautiful Oak Tree and saw a flash of golden stars whizz behind the Oak Tree.

I carefully and quietly tip toed through the short green grass. I snuck around the Oak tree and peered round and saw… A FAIRY!!!!

She was brown and she wore a beautiful blue silky gown with soft blue slippers and long, black, silky, curly hair. She had bright red nail polish and cherry red lipgloss. She was very, very beautiful.

Suddenly the fairy turned around and smiled at me in a very soft, gentle voice. She said, ‘Hello, pleased to meet you. My name is Rachel.’ My eyes widened. She was just as pretty as my mother and my mother’s name was Rachel!

“How old are you?” Rachel grinned. “I am 32,” she said. My mother is 32 as well, I thought. That is strange. I hadn’t seen my mum for the last few days.

Rachel had great big beautifully patterned, blue wings. I looked at my house and back at Rachel. I saw that her smile had faded into a frown. She looked back at the hills and a tear poured down her cheek.

“What’s wrong?” I asked. She leaned back on the tree. She looked at me. “My family is dying!” she said.

Tune in next time for the next part of the story.

Brainspot

This weeks maths homework is to have a look at the maths section of 'brainpop.com'.

It would be great if you could encourage your student to explore the site. It has lots of cool, interactive activities for all sorts of learning areas.

Have fun exploring!

Poll Results

Room 5 has had a poll running on our blog for a few weeks. We asked you to tell us how much homework they should have.

The the results were a resounding 80% for NO homework. As an incentive to interact on the blog at home I decided to follow up on the results - that means 'no homework' for next week, which we are all very excited about.

This weeks poll asks, 'What could we buy with our sneeks?' Sneeks are our class currency that we can earn (or be fined). Some of us are in credit and some in debt. I wonder what you will all vote for.

Look for the poll on the right hand side.

Remember - one vote a day!

Alan's Trebuchet

My Dad built this model of a Trebuchet. The Trebuchet was built for firing big loads of stones over walls. This model is made of wood with some string and some leather and a big lead weight sealed with wax. We threw chalk because stones will hurt people. The greatest distance we can throw the chalk was about 10 metres. It was pretty exciting and freaky when it fired because it was fast and creaky.

By Alan.

Frank Stella art!

We wanted to try our hand at some abstract art this term. We combined our learning with construction, our P.E focus and a fun art intensive day!

Frank Stella likes to create his art to depict the movement in sports. We studied one piece he did to show the movement in a formula 1 car race! This is his effort. Can you see the race cars burning around the track? (See http://www.nga.gov/kids/stella/stella2.htm# for the complete slideshow.)



We learnt that abstract art is like charades; you get some clues from the artist and have to work out what they are showing you. We learnt how to do this by using colour, texture, shape and 3d construction to show movement and emotion.

We used card and paint, with a number of different painting techniques, to create these pieces.




Can you guess what sport we are depicting? Use the clues in the colours and movement of the art to help you!

Market day!

We had a fantastic market day on Wednesday. Our class shop made lots of snidges. We learnt about how to price a product, lower or raise the cost depending on the demand and the effort that goes into selling. It took some patience to demonstrate our products to people!

You can see the excitement in our faces. If we had a market day again we would try to make more products and change our pricing.


Some of us learnt that when you have run out of money, you have run out of money. Did you know that you can't just ask for more - you have to earn it!


You can see each teams part of our shop in their market day challenge post. Ask your child to explain some more about how their product sold and what they learnt about designing, making, pricing and selling a product! You never know who the future entrepreneurs could be!

Market day Challenge update photos!

Have a look at the update photos for each Market day challenge group.



Click on the title of each groups post and see some pictures of the class making their products. We're making products to sell in our class shop next week. They have to have mechanisms of some kind. Can you guess what they are?



You can find a quick link to each post by clicking on connected in the side bar on the right.

Super Kid Chair

Check out our 'superkid' chair. It's ergonomic which means, I think, that it's really good for your back. We like to bounce on it while we work.

The superkid gets passed around the class each day and you have be a great role model in the class to be chosen. They get to sit on the chair, take notices to the office, lead the class at the front of a line and be Mr Herring's special helper!

Class update!

You may have noticed some changes about how the class is set up.

We have placed the computers in the middle of the room (we can fit more people around them) and we no longer have any mat space. This has meant a change to how we do things but we are working that out. (I think the children are enjoying not sitting on the floor, for a while.)

It was great to see so many parents at the interviews this week. It was also great to celebrate the children's progress as most have improved in many areas. They should be very proud of their success and I hope you are having some great conversations about what they have achieved!

I hope you are still taking some time, with your child, to look through the posts. We hope that it will stir some 'chatter' about what's happening at school and what they are learning. I know the children are enjoying being 'famous on the net!'

Don't forget to make comments! Click on the comment tab at the bottom and click 'other' to post your name.

Have a great weekend!

Football Rotations

We are learning how to pass and trap the ball for our P.E unit, Football (this is what it should be called, not 'soccer'!).

We're practising our skills during a fitness rotation that keeps us moving and active. It's good to stand in line as little as possible.

Have a look at us using the insides of our feet to control the ball!

Devin's Team - Market Day Challenge!

Here's Devin's team and their shop. They sold their product for 10 - 15 snidges!

Click on the comments below to read our progress.

Samuel's Team - Market Day Challenge!

Here's Samuels shop. They sold their catapults in record time and charged 100 snidges plus for each one!

Click on the comments below to read our progress.

Zia's Team - Market Day Challenge!

Here's Zia's teams shop. They sold their codes for lots of snidges.

Click on the comments below to read our progress.