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Riley

Homework Week 1

Just a formal announcement - please ignore the Homework Challenge sheet that is glued in the homework book.  The class is unpacking this throughout this week, it may look daunting and overwhelming. 

Homework for tonight is the "calendar"- and this was my holiday... 

There is also spelling, basic facts and a poem that was handed out today.  Please make sure your poetry book is back on Wednesday for buddy reading.

Holidays

Hope the holiday is going great...
Wow hasn't it been cold, I'd heard of farmers struggling because their milking plant and teat spray had frozen.

What experience have you had with the ice outside your place?

It is a great time to throw a few words together, especially when you can use your senses.

I love the crunching sound when walking over the grass
I love looking closely at the crystals
I love the whiteness
I love snuggling under the covers
I love seeing my breath
I love hot food
I love being by the heater
But
I hate having cold toes...

Don't you just love what water can do.

I'll share some pictures from last year with the beautiful crystals formed while we were near Mt Cook at Lake Pukaki and when we cycled at Lake Ohau.

These crystals were amazing - little spikes growing off the rocks, when you picked them up they all fell off.

Can't wait to hear about your holiday break.

Mrs H
PS: Email me any photos you have of the ice at your place.

It's a bright, bright sun shiny day...

What a beautiful day Thursday was, it was made even more special when Mr Byers came and had a little word to see if  Olivia could come for a visit!  Super exciting!

It was so great to meet her in person or catch up again for many of her class mates.  She kept asking to stay on for longer and longer!  She nearly was given a whistle to ref our game of Gooj.

We were able to sing to her and share our new action song Njema Njema.  We've also been given a special monkey on a chair - this is to sit in Olivia's chair until she rejoins the class.  

We hope Olivia enjoyed her time with us as much as we did.

Zero Waste

Wow, zero waste - what a concept!  

Firstly, Colleen our zero waste educator wasn't about to tell us that we couldn't have rubbish.  Her job was to share with us ways to reduce the amount of rubbish that we actually throw away.  Each month a rugby field x 30 classrooms high get thrown into the landfills - we can make a difference!  think about the paper, plastics, food scraps,glass, aluminium and steel that could be reused or recycled.  

What could we do in our class to make a difference?

Some great messages were shared and wouldn't it be amazing if we really could be zero waste...

Happy Mother's Day

I hope all the Mum's and Grandmum's enjoy their special day.  The class have enjoyed creating art work (which I hope you'll treasure) and worked extremely hard to get your Mother's Day stories finished in time.  

Have a lovely day!

On Thursday our Team Energiser - John Muir shared with us the importance of having breakfast.  He will be back with us   next week to share healthy lunches as well as do some large ball skills with the class.

A verb is a doing word...

Lovely to have a short week this week after a fairly actioned pack weekend, about a quarter of the class attended an ANZAC day event.  They had the opportunity to share this with the class, certainly a lot more meaningful now.

Sofia became our very important courier to go and visit Olivia At Starship Hospital.  She took the card that class members signed.  The great news is that she has been moved to the Ronald McDonald House.  Her video shows her getting mobile again - way to go Olivia.

We've adjusted a few events in the timetable.  Our Library session will be on a Wednesday morning from next week.  On Thursday's nine class members attend Kapa Haka and the rest of us are joining with Room 4, 9 and 11 for a middle school singing assembly.  On Thursday afternoons we are going to make a regular commitment to sport, while the grounds aren't too wet, we'll make use of them.  Once they become too soggy we'll use the gym.

We've been looking closely at Verbs and making them powerful using a thesaurus to improve them.  A verb is a doing word.  We made a cline of our words and I hope to share in the next couple of weeks some great sentences using some amazing verbs to enhance them.

End of Week 1

Our mini unit on ANZAC has brought about a lot of great discussion, sharing of family information and developing understandings.
We've enjoyed hearing stories from home - the coconut thrower, the photos of medals, pictures of soldiers from both WW1 and WW2.
Here are some of the reflections about the week from the class.

Upokoina - I think ANZAC day is special because the people died so we can live in peace.

Leah - This week we have been learning about Anzac Day. We looked at different groups in the army. I was excited, we started with a soldier then we went higher and higher, I loved it.

Teagan - I think ANZAC day is special because these people fought for us.  They gave up their lives so we could live in peace.  This week I learnt how many soldiers were in a squad, an army group, and a troop.  I was surprised.

Bradley - The ANZAC's risked their lives for us.  We are thankful that they did that.  They showed dignity bravery and strength.  They did it for us to have peace and to have freedom.  Flander's Field has lots of poppies and trenches.

Sophie - In Room 10 we have learnt how many people are in a squad, in a platoon and lots of other different group names in the army.  We had to go home and have a talk to our family about relatives in our family that may have been involved in the war.  They had to be 18 to go to war but some faked their age.

Laine - I learnt that Anzac day is special for a lot of people. People died for New Zealand. First I knew a little but I know a lot more about Anzac day. Anzac day is a time to remember the soldiers who have fought in the wars.

Natasha - I think that Anzac day is special to remember the soldiers that died in war for us  and for peace in the world.

Sativa - I learnt that Anzac Day is a day of remembrance for some people.  Some people stand for a minute in silence to remember all the humble and very brave soldiers that fought for us so we can keep on living.  Thousands of Kiwi's and other people were fighting, getting killed, wounded and badly injured.

It is rude to let any country or cities flag touch the ground, it is disrespectful.

Chance - We have been learning about Anzac day. We found out that there is up to 1 000 000 people in an army group and there are 250 in a troop. Around 16 000 000 died in World War 1.

Sofia - This week I have learnt how many solders are in a army,wing,platoon...we printed,copied,counted,

glued & researched.We got up to a million solders !

But all the hard work payed of.Mrs H also read us a book about Anzac day,it had a lot of letters to read.We learned alot about how & why people wear poppies on Anzac day,we created poppies to put on our display.

Anna - Poppies grow upon Flander's Fields between France and Belgium where many soldiers lost their lives and were killed in the war. Some people were saved and some were injured. Grenades, bombs and shells were flying threw the air.

Sarah-Jo - The Great war was from 1914-1918. There were over 16 million soldiers deaths and over 20 million wounded. This year is 100 years since the ANZAC soldiers went to Gallipoli and landed at Anzac Cove on the 25th April 1915 and my great, great grandad was one of them. The turkish had the advantage because they were on top of the hill and it was very hard for the Anzac's to climb up because the hill was very, very steep. After 4 years war the remaining ANZACS boats sailed back to their homes in Australia and New Zealand.

Shelby- Anzac day means a lot to people, especially those that went to the war or relatives who were involved. Some soldiers didn't come back. That's why it means a lot to the parents. We found out there were up to 40 thousand soldiers in a Corps.

Blake

I hav learnt that we should never let a flag touch the ground. We wear poppies to remember the people that died in the war.  People stand quietly to remember the people that died n the war.

Riley - I think ANZAC day is special because it is a day to remember the people who have fallen just to bring all the destruction to an end, sacrificing themselves so we could all live in peace.  People sell poppies to remember those who have been in wars and haven't returned.  Some people who died, got buried in Flander's field with a cross at the head of the grave.

Noah - This year is very special because it is 100 years since Gallipoli.  In Gallipoli there are still trenches from WW1.  We made poppies with lolly sticks, paper and cardboard.

Toby - ANZAC day is a special day because people died so we can live in peace and live well.  (Always Remember them).

Joseph - I asked my Mum if she knew how many medals my great, great, great grandad Ruben had.  He has five medals for serving.  He was in World War 1 but was too old for WW2.  My great, great, great, grandad Ruben was in a brigade.

Kahurangi - We learnt more about ANZAC day.  A battle in the first World War was in Gallipoli which is in Turkey.  Many soldiers from Australia and New Zealand were there.  It was horrific, guns going off, grenades being thrown and people being killed everywhere.  It was a fight to the top of the mountain. 

Welcome back to Term 2. 
Unfortunately I wasn't able to see all your faces first thing Monday morning.  Mr Haddock and all the family attended his welcoming powhiri to Matamata Primary School.  It was quite emotional and a very special occasion for all the family.

However when I did arrive, it was great to catch up about your holidays as well as find out how you were working as a team with the list of challenges Miss Roycroft had set for you.  A big welcome to Leah who has joined the class.  We've also had some promising news in regard to Olivia's well being.

This week our focus is on ANZAC day and we will also follow up with news next week to hear about dawn parades, the Anzac services and what you get up to on this special memorial day.  It is even more significant this year, do you know why?

Lots of great questions/wonderings have emerged, watch this space as we try and answer as many of them as we can.

Some of the children have even mentioned that grandparents have medals through discussion about their learning at home, this is great!

I was able to even uncover some shoebox photos of relatives who fought in WW1.

Today we explored aspects of the symbolic Poppy and why we wear them - we also read along to the Flanders Field poem.    

Joseph shared this picture with the class via email.

If you have precious photos, war memorabilia etc you can take a photo and upload it via Google drive, sign in just like you do at school.

Class Dojo - I'm going to try my hardest to make this work, however I do find it extremely difficult to be monitoring when I'm really engaged with the children and their learning.  I found a moment yesterday when we had silent reading however this is not ideal.  I'll see how we get on over the next few weeks.

Until next time,
Mrs Haddock 

Homework Holiday

It is official this week is a Homework Holiday! - I have not issued homework this week for the class.  My only condition is to keep Reading!  Everyone needs to make sure they have two library books for the holidays.  Library Day is Wednesday.

Sumdog

We are launching into Sumdog this week - a maths programme to support our learning - click on the link to sign in.

Try this out...

Created with Padlet

Week 5 - Anna and Noah

Teagan's wondering

How many muscles in our body?
We found out that we have 640 skeletal muscles

Our next question was how many bones do we have?
206 - WOW

Laine has had an incident this week where his bone needs to repair itself, it is now in a cast.  Aren't we lucky our bones can do this...

Week 4 with Richie & Sativa

Bloggers - Richie and Sativa

In Room 10 we have been practising for swimming sports.

We have been doing some summer posters about our Room 10  summer holidays here are some of them.

In Week 1 we did not know about our new classmates so Mrs Haddock made us make ‘Me’ charts.

Mrs Haddock here ;) I was so impressed by all of our swimmers this week, it was an extremely long day and for some their first ever swimming sports.

I've enjoyed meeting parents at the PACT interviews where we had some lovely conversations about how you've settled into school.

For Olivia

I'm going to share this with the class, I've heard that you love to sing - be Brave Olivia!  http://youtu.be/t9fMNNsdPjU

[Cyndi Lauper:]
You with the sad eyes
Don’t be discouraged
Oh I realize
Its hard to take courage
In a world full of people
You can lose sight of it all
And the darkness inside you
Can make you feel so small

[Sara Bareilles:]

You can be amazing

You can turn a phrase into a weapon or a drug

You can be the outcast

Or be the backlash of somebody’s lack of love

But I wonder what would happen if you

[Cyndi Lauper:]
But I see your true colors
Shining through
I see your true colors
And that’s why I love you
So don’t be afraid to let them show

[Sara Bareilles:]
I just wanna see you
I just wanna see you
I just wanna see you
I wanna see you be brave

Show me a smile then,
Don’t be unhappy, can’t remember
When I last saw you laughing
If this world makes you crazy
And you’ve taken all you can bear
You call me up
Because you know I’ll be there
Come on, now
You call me up
Because you know I’ll be there
Come on, call me up

Everybody’s been there, everybody’s been stared down
By the enemy
Fallen for the fear and done some disappearing
Bow down to the mighty
Don’t run, stop holding your tongue
Maybe there’s a way out of the cage where you live
Maybe one of these days you can let the light in
Show me how big your brave is

[Cyndi Lauper & Sara Bareilles:]
Say what you wanna say
And let the words fall out
Honestly I wanna see you be brave

With what you want to say
And let the words fall out
Honestly I wanna see you be brave

[Cyndi Lauper:]
So don’t be afraid to let them show
Your true colors
True colors are beautiful

[Sara Bareilles:]
Innocence, your history of silence

[Cyndi Lauper:]
I can’t remember when I last saw you laughing

[Sara Bareilles:]
Let your words be anything but empty. 

[Cyndi Lauper:]
You call me up
Because you know I’ll be there

[Sara Bareilles:]
Why don’t you tell them the truth?

[Overlapping:]
And I’ll see your true colors
Shining through
I see your true colors
And that’s why I love you
So don’t be afraid to let them show
Your true colors
True colors are beautiful,
Like a rainbow

Say what you wanna say
And let the words fall out
Honestly I wanna see you be brave
Just wanna see you be brave
Wanna see you be brave
Just wanna see you be brave
Don’t be
Don’t be afraid

Thinking out loud!

I think Mr Byers, Mr Spicer or Mr Harrop really need to be Kissing the Pig.  They all love competition and they all deserve to win, maybe we could arrange a draw!  If it was kissing the piglet then I'd be keen, especially if it is as cute as this!  Reminds me of Wilbur 'Some Pig'.  Let me know via the blog if you have read, had it read to you or seen the movie of Charlotte's Web.

Week 3

What a great week, we've focussed on proper nouns and using capital letters in the correct places for our spelling words.  This is us sorting proper nouns into different categories.

We have learnt some new games that involved skills to develop teamwork,  coping with winning and losing and having fun!  We played 'Whiz,Boing, Bounce', Giants Wizards Elves( a larger version of Paper Scissors Rock) and untangling a Human knot.

We did a basic facts assessment on Friday. One hundred sums in 8 minutes. Some of the class used a coloured overlay to see if it helped make it clearer.  Congratulations to the nine children who improved their scores since their last one.

Our class poem this week was called Remember Summer.  This is us presenting it in groups to the class.  We talked about pausing at the punctuation.

Welcome back!

Kia ora and welcome back to an exciting year at Stanley Avenue School.   A super special welcome back to Ruma Tekau/Room 10.  I'm really looking forward to meeting all the children today.

Throughout 2014 our family travelled throughout NZ in our motorhome, exploring our extensive 'backyard'.  Previous to this I was teaching at Tahuna School.

I know it is going to be a great year with a great group.
Happy first 2015 school day!