Swimming

On Thursday and Friday we go swimming and we do cool things in the water. We glide on our tummy and on our back. To glide you have to be able to float on top of the water. After the girls and the boys have had a turn at swimming the whole class get to have some free time. We have been learning to float on our back and our tummy. The pool is too shallow so we can't dive or bomb. We chuck rings in the water and see who gets the most. If they win we give them a paki paki and then put the rings back in the container.

We REALLY love swimming!

Our Highlights from Athletics

Athletics

On Tuesday Russell Street School went to Massey to do some athletics. There were heaps of activities for us to do. They were so much fun. We did discuss. It was really hard with the black discuss but it was easy with the blue ones. We did high jump too. The year 2 boys had to have the bar getting higher and higher. Barclay won the high jump for the year twos. There was shot putt too. Sandi taught us that when you throw the bean bags you have to say "dirty neck, clean palm". We also did long jump and long jump is a bit hard because if you put one of your does in the sandpit it means no jump. For most of the class we loved running in the running races best. Many of us were in the finals for the year two sprints. Georgia won for the girls and Barclay won for the boys. We had a fantastic day at the Massey University Athletics Track.

The Tweety Baby Bird

Today Maia, Salah and Jewelian-Paul found a baby bird on the field. Maia helped Salah and Jewelian-Paul look after it. They put it in a ice-cream container with some soft leaves and grass to sit on. We hope it will survive!

Raffle for a Ride

Today it was Raffle for a Ride. Jacob got to go in a Corvette. I think Jacob's car was the fastest (Salah). We went around the square and a little bit onto the open road then we had to turn back because we were running out of time to get back to school (Jacob). We got to see a helicopter flying in the air and then flying down to land. When we next saw it it was taking off again (Maia). We saw a Ferrari, a Lamborghini, a crane, an army truck, a police car, a limousine, a few vintage cars, motorbikes and hot rods, more fm car, a smart car, Guthrey baron car, a landrover, a truck and many more.

Take a look at our photos to see the cars.

Marvelous Music with Jenifer

We have been learning about sound. We can have rough, smooth, fast, slow and other sounds. We have been using musical instruments for different things like you can make things from home into instruments. Like stones, glad wrap rolls, blender, pan lid, pots and pans and other bits and bobs.

Today we were learning how to make the sound of something using instruments and our voices. We each had a card with a picture and we had to try to make up sounds for it. We had a picture of a long stick so we had to make a long sound (Adam). I scrapped a salad spinner with a beater (Cam). I scrapped a dish rake with a beater to make a long scratchy.

I know I am getting better when I give it a try and might get it right and can try new things (Salah). You know if you're getting better if what your group talks about if you do that with the whole class (Callum). You can get better by making lots of different sounds. One time you could make a soft time and next time you could try doing it another way (Dallas). You get better by practicing (Jacob).

The Crazy BIke!

Today we saw this recycled bike. It was made out of different kinds of bikes. When you ride it you lie down. The bike is relaxing! The pedals are way in front of you. You have to have long legs to reach them! It is a weird bike because there are three parts that are made out of different bikes. It is way wider than a normal bike. It goes extremely fast! Adam got to have a ride on it. He couldn't quite reach the pedals. The man rode it after Adam and he went really fast! Sometimes when you go around a corner really fast the back wheel skids. The bike has three wheels and a very long chain that goes from the front of the bike to the back. This bike has a mirror because you can't twist your head right around because your lying down so you need a mirror to see behind you.

What a neat bike!

Amazing Measurement

We are learning about measurement. We drew around our bodies with chalk and then we used rods or other objects from the classroom to measure parts of our body.

We measured how tall we are. Like me (Jacob) and Maia are both 55 counters tall. Other people come be taller or shorter than us.

We also measured how long other parts of our body are. We can get objects from the class to measure how long parts of our body are.

We have to make sure the objects we are using are all the same size.

We were estimating how long our body part is before we measured it. We are getting really good a estimating.

We also learnt you can measure using your hands. If different people measure with their hands they get different answers because their hands are different sizes.

We want to find out the length of our classroom. We thought we could measure it with our bodies. We wonder, how many Cam's would fit down the length of our classroom?

Bye for now,
The Pirates.

HOT Wheels

We've been learning about wheels. Some planes land on water. They don't have wheels. We are also transport. Transport is something that can take you to a different place. If you are in one place and want to go somewhere else you can use transport to get you there.

We talked about what transport is. Is walking transport? What about skating? Are snow shoes a type of transport? If you imagine you are somewhere else in your mind is that transport? These could be good ideas to talk about at home.

Length

We started to learn about length in maths today. This is what we already know about length.

Fire Wise

Today we learnt how fire fighters get ready for fires. We learnt about what firefighters wear to protect themselves. They wear a mask that helps them breath because they can't breath the smoke. They have breathing gear like at the hospital you breath though a mask. They have zips on their boots and they have the boots on their pants to get to the fire quick. They also have jackets they put on. When they have put on all their clothes non of their skin is showing. They have a button they can press so that if they get hurt they press the button and other fire fighters come to help them. They have torches in their jackets to help them see through the smoke. They don't wear their thing that goes over their face so they don't have a crash when they're driving to the fire.

Run, Jump, Throw

We are going to start doing some athletics. We learnt some cool new things outside. We were jumping over a pole. It kept on getting higher and we had to try jumping over it without making the pole fall. We learnt how to do shot putt. You have a very heavy ball and you put it by your neck. The other hand you have like you are looking at a watch. Then you have to push the ball forward. We had to turn around and look at the other people and throw the ball behind us. We were learning to heave the ball. It was fun because we had to jump over skipping ropes. In the middle of the skipping ropes was water. We had to take off with one leg and then land with two legs. We ran out of time to do the hurdles.

We can't wait till we do some more athletics.

Term 4

Wow it's term 4 already! This year has been going so fast! We have all had great holidays but we are happy to be back at school. After the holidays we were excited to come back to school because Ngaire was engaged.

We have started learning about fire wise. We came up with some ideas about what is fire, like the blue parts of the flame are the hottest bit. We got books gave out to all of us about fire wise and it's got a disc in it so we can watch it at home. It would be great if families looked at the book and watched the DVD together. When we started learning about fire wise we looked at some pictures with children in it and some that were safe and some that weren't.

We are excited to hear about fire wise tomorrow.

The Coke (fizzy) Experiment

Mentos and Coke experiment on PhotoPeach

Today we made coats out of plastic bags because we were doing a messy experiment. The messy experiment was fizzy and mentos experiment. We dropped the mentos in the coke with the things we invented with our buddies and then it exploded up. It didn't go that high because some of our dispenses didn't fit in. The fanta was the one that didn't really work very good.Sometimes when people tried to put the mentos in the mentos fell out. Room 13s one went the highest. Even Julie held it but if she put it on the ground it would still have gone high. They had the lids on so the gas stayed in. They put the mentos in by pulling a string. We had so much fun!

To see a video of the experiment go to http://www.stuff.co.nz/manawatu-standard/4155657/Schools-fizzy-experi-mint

Which takes longer?

The Pirates of the Pacific have started to learn about measurement and have only just started today.

We talked about what we think meausurment is. We had lots of different ideas. Look at the photos of the ideas we wrote down.

The type of measurement we are learning is time. We had a list of things to do and we had partners. The partner had to write down how long it took them to do an activity.

Hopping on one foot took the least amount of time. For some people building the tower took the longest amount of time. For other people writing their name 10 times took the longest amount of time.

Carrot update

We have been watching our carrots since we put them in water a few weeks ago. They have changed a lot!

Roots have grown out the sides of the carrots and green bits have grown out the top (Kobe).

The carrots have grown gynormous green stalks out of the top of the carrots and the carrots grown huge, white roots out the side of the carrots. They all have roots. All of the carrots have black bits that are mould growing on them (Morgan).

The carrots have sucked up heaps of water. Ngaire has been putting more water in every day (Georgia).

I wonder if they're going go rotten (Jacob).
I wonder why the green stalks are different sizes on different carrots (Salah).
I wonder if the black bits will go away (Grace).
I wonder how big the green stalks are going to grow (Lili).
I wonder if the orange that is still on the carrot it will all go black and have green stalks and a black top of carrot (Morgan).
I wonder if the green stalks will get any bigger (Maia).
I wonder if the orange bit is going to go all black (Emma).
I wonder if it's going to grow even larger (Adarsh).
I wonder if the roots are going to come out even more (Maia).
I wonder if soon the green bits will start falling off (Corban).

Board Report

We have been learning to play soccer and it's not just normal soccer. You have to get it between the cones (Jewelian-Paul). We have been learning about to do dribble a ball. We dribble the ball with the side of our foot (Georgia). We've been learning to dribble the ball halfway and pass it to your player (Kaleb).

In maths time triangles have been learning to count in doubles and we have to count the doubles in our heads and if it's really hard we just do it with our fingers behind our backs. You do doubles like 10+10=20 (Morgan). We [circles] have been learning how to count in our heads so you know the answer just like that (Adam).

In science we put the tops of carrots in water. After a few weeks they started to grow. The top leafy part of the carrot has grown tall (Brooklyn). In science we have been doing some water and salt [experiments]. Each time Ngaire comes around giving us some salt and everyone has a turn to mix the water so the salt dissolves (Salah). Crystals were supposed to grow but they haven't. We have been doing experiments to answer our questions.

Click here for larger version

Carrots

Today we put some tops of some carrots into some water. We are going to look at them all week to see what happens.

They will probably change colour. Joshua
The carrots will turn the water orange. Lili
The carrots will disappear in the water and then the water will turn orange. Corban
The orange part of the carrots is going to drop into the water so all the water is orange but the green part of the carrot is going to float on top of the water. Maia
When we put the carrot in the water the carrot juice sucks it up and when the juice sucks it up maybe everything will turn orange.

Celery Eperiment take 2

The leaves on the celery have turned red and the leaves on the blue one have turned blue. The colour even went up the stems of the celery. It looked like veins.

We have also put some flowers into water with food colouring and the pedals starting to be the same colour as the food colouring that is in the water. The die has coloured the flowers a lot quicker than the celery. I wonder why the flowers took less time than the celery did?

You could try this experiment at home too. You will need some flowers or celery, food colouring, water and a jar or a cup to put it in.

The celery experiment

We have made an experiment about celery and we put water in a jar and we put food colouring in and then we put the celery in. We wanted to see if the celery could turn blue or red so we could know that the experiment really is true. We had to just wait like for an hour to wait for the celery grow the colours. The colours were blue and red. The leaves and the bottom parts have turned a bit red but the celery that was int eh blue dye was just blue at the bottom. There is starting to be a little bit of blue on the leaves. But there is a lot of red on the other celery. The red celery is dark and the blue celery is light. I wonder what the celery will look like tomorrow.

Jacob the bubble maker

Jacob blew a bubble when it was discovery time (Lili). This is a secret way of making Jacob's bubble (Brooklyn). I had to rub my hands in the bubble mixture. Then rub it on my hands. Then carefully make my fingers to a diamond and then point it up a little bit and then blow softly (Jacob). It was really easy for Jacob and others tried to do the same as him (Salah). Some people make bubbles in the bath (Georgia). Jacob must be very proud of himself (Georgia). Jacob is quite clever (Brooklyn)! This is a secret way of doing a bubble with your hands (Dallas). Here is a video of Jacob making bubbles. Please leave us a comment!

Brooklyn's work

This is Brooklyn learning during maths. He is trying to figure out his activity sheet using counters (Grace). Our group is learning to make the numbers into groups and then takeaway the number (Brooklyn). He was acting like I wasn't even there when I took the photo (Kobe). This shows integrity (Jacob). He must have really been concentrating! This is working with excellence because he was trying his best and not talking to anyone (Kaleb). When Brooklyn was doing his worksheet he was showing integrity (Lili). When someone was talking to him he just ignored them and he just kept working Kaleb.

The old man and the sand monster

There once was an old man. He had no money. He was very poor. He could not go a kilometer a day. he had no shoes. His feet were extremely hot. Suddenly the ground started to shake. The poor man fell down and the sand monster who had spikes on his back and fiery eyes ate the man up. But his skin was so wrinkly and yukky and his feet extremely hot that it burnt the sand monsters tongue. So he spat him out. He was covered in slime.

This is Callum's story. Isn't it fantastic? He did it when it was writing time yesterday. We were impressed because he used heaps of wow words to explain what he really wanted it to be. This made it really interesting. Well done Callum!

Sudent Led Conference Practice

Kaleb is showing his portfolio to Kobe. Kaleb was showing Kobe his wordpower. He nearly about forgot to introduce Kobe to the teacher. Kobe told Kaleb that he forgot to show something around the room. So then Kaleb went and showed her something. Kaleb did it really well when he practiced his student led conference. He was saying how he did it and what he did to make it so he could reach his goal. Kaleb and Kobe were not being silly.

At maths time

Gemma was working out the answers on her maths sheet. She worked really hard on it to get it all right. We can tell this because at maths she was putting her head down and she was working her pencil hard out. When she accidentally made a mistake she went back and fixed it. Gemma tried really hard to fix her mistake. Good job Gemma!

Helping Lili

This is Georgia and Lili. Georgia is helping Lili with the listening post. That was really helpful of Georgia! Georgia was showing excellence by helping Lili and showing her what to do. Next time Lili will be able to do it herself. Maybe another time Lili can help someone else with the listening post.

The Pirates Holiday

The Pirates have had a fantastic holiday. Everyone did lots of interesting things. It would take far too long for us all to say something about our holiday!

Ngaire can tell you about her holiday. She went to Cambodia. She went to Cambodia because she wanted to see her mum and dad and to teach the teachers. Ngaire taught the kids in the village too. You can see photos and read stories about what she did on www.getjealous.com/leafschoolplus.

We are all really happy to be back at school.

Ngaire is in Cambodia

Ngaire has gone to Cambodia to do some teaching with the children and to train some local teachers. If you want to see some pictures and read about what she has been doing go to http://www.getjealous.com/Leafschoolplus.

Emma's activity sheet

In Loving Literacy Emma was working hard on her activity sheet because she wasn't talking to anyone else. Emma was doing such hard work that she didn't need help. Emma was being on task by not talking to anyone or something like that.

Barclay's Spelling

In The Pirates, we have decided we are going to have Blog Detectives. A blog detective is a person who takes photos of people doing good work so we can put it on our blog. Today our blog detectives were Siobhan and M.

This picture is about Barclay working really hard and concentrating in literacy. He was concentrating on his spelling. We can tell because he's got his head down showing excellence with his work and what he's meant to be doing. Barclay was concentrating on doing his spelling. Barclay was not getting distracted by other people. Barclay was showing integrity by doing his learning and not getting distracted even though Ngaire was not watching.

Fantastic work Barclay!

Morgan's Narative

Emma's Writing

Story Teller

Today we had a story teller come to school. We listened to him tell stories. The story teller made his stories really interesting by:
- acting them out. He did actions for them. Lili
- using a high voice on one of the songs. Morgan
- using a high voice when a lady or a child was talking. Lili
- he played instruments and made the man out of string and the bird out of string. Adam
- he was using exlamation to make it interesting. Jacob
- the songs. Corban
- he did lots of tunes on the songs like high, middle and low. Dallas. That's called pitch. Jacob
- He used expression when he was reading the stories. M
- He made silly faces when seven little fishes were playing tag. Emma
- it was ka pai rawa when he made Maui out of string. Jewelian-Paul
- asking us questions. We were answering them properly and not being silly. Siobhan
- he used a low voice when the seven fishes were laughing. Maia

We can do some of these things when we retell stories.

M's Handwriting

We are learning to make the letters that have tails go below the line. The tails have to go to the middle of the line underneath. We are using pink for think and gold for goal. It means that the pink highlighter is for the ones that you need to practice a little bit more and the gold is for the ones that you can do properly. M did a really good job at making the capital y's go straight and the little lines go under the line to the middle of the next line under. He did a really good job of writing the sentence because he wrote it neatly and he did the letters right. He took his time. M's work is very beautiful. He could make is three better because the top bit is really small and the bottom bit is really big and it went under the line.

In maths today I was learning to do number boggle in my head. Not just putting 7+3=5 because that's not true. Siobhan

In maths time we learnt how many cars are in the garage. We had 5 cars altogether. If there three cars outside of the garage two would be inside the garage. Adam.

I learnt that in the problem of the week there were 6 tripods. Jacob

I learnt how to play crossing the river with Adam and Corban and Josh. We were playing really good. Salah.

I played number boggle. I was learning new basic facts. Jewelian-Paul

I learnt that you have to try your hardest if you can't figure out what the answer is when you play number boggle. Georgia

At maths time I was learning to do take aways and add on by using my head. I used my fingers though because it was too hard. I could get better at it by putting (imagining) fingers in my head. Callum

Gym

What: have you done?
We have been doing gymnastics on Wednesday and Thursday. We did the beam, the tramp, skipping ropes, the box and the mat.

So What: have we been learning?
We have been learning how to jump on the spring board and onto the box and then onto the ground. Adam
We have been learning to try and get our balance on the beam. Lili
We have been learning to walk instead of run when you go back to the line because if we run we might crash into somebody. Morgan
We have been learning to balance on the beam. Salah
We are learning to skip better with the skipping ropes. We are practicing the skipping. Kaleb
We have been learning to bounce with two legs onto the tramp and two legs onto the big mat. Kobe
We have been learning to jump on the spring board. You run on a little bit of the blue then you jump with two feet on the white bit of sellotape and you jump on the white box. Then you walk back to the line. Callum
We have been learning to keep ourselves safe on the big mat by landing on our feet instead of our knees. Matthias
We have been learning to not make the skipping ropes touch the seats when you skip because when you make it go onto the seat it makes a loud noise and it wrecks the seat. Siobhan
We have been learning to do barrel rolls on the mat. Gemma

Now What: do you want to get better at?
I want to get better at skipping. Corban and Joshua and Siobhan
I want to get better at balancing on the beam. Emma
I want to get better at going on the beam. Grace
I want to get better by doing barrel rolls straight. Lili and Salah
I want to get better at freezing when the whistle goes. Kaleb
I want to get better at bouncing on the spring board. Adam
I want get faster at walking across the beam. Adarsh
I want to get better at running and balancing on the trampoline and then bouncing on the big mat. Morgan
I am trying to get up to skipping backwards instead of skipping forwards. Dallas
I want to try and make the skipping ropes not touch my feet because it really does hurt. Callum.

Visiting Performance

Today we had a school performance in the hall. We really liked it because it was really funny! It was funny when they said it was a story that happened a long, long, long, long, long time ago. We think it was a myth and legend because it was a story that had been told from a long time ago. It took a long time but we got through it all. The performers were really proud of themselves because they thought they did a good job.

Myths and Legends

We read a book called "How Maui Slowed the Sun". He got his brothers to help him slow the sun down so they could have a little longer days. They made ropes out of flax to make the sun slow down. Myths are stories that have been told not read. We learnt about telling a story again. This is Morgan's story board. She is going to use it to help her retell the story. It has the 6 main things that happened in the story.

Discovery Time

At Discovery Time we had a target with a hole in the middle and you had throw the ball threw the hole. We had to stand behind the yellow because otherwise it would be too easy. We had to put one foot infront of the other and put our hand out to aim and we might get it through the hole.

We also had some straws which you clip together to make things. Campbell and Lili made themselves look like Harry Potter by making circle glasses and a magic wand.

We made marble tracks. You have to build the tracks on top of each other so the marbles can go down. The marbles go down the track a little fast.

Maia made a puppet show. It was a funny puppet show because the tiger ate the rabbit. Poor rabbit!

Puppet Show

Yesterday we went to a puppet show. Everyone laughed when the baby crocodile went "Mummy, mummy, mummy, mummy." I learnt that if you want to get one of the puppets changed you just put his head on another body." Kaleb. "I learnt that you can be all dress up in black and you can do the puppet show with you still standing up." Lili. "When he pocked his tongue he pushed his foot down, to close the curtains." Georgia. "I learnt that you can make puppets out of gloves. They are called finger puppets" Barclay. I learn how to make paper puppets and an elephant face." Morgan. "It was really funny when David took the head of the puppet and he said, 'hay put my head back on'" Georgia. "It was funny when one of the puppets made the diving board go up and down." Maia. "We all laughed when the puppet put a sword in his body and it went straight through his butt and straight through a chair." Jewelian-Paul. "There are different kinds of puppets like shadow puppets and string puppets." Jacob.

Cross Country

Today we did the cross country. It was around the field and on the footpath. Georgia O. came first out of the year two girls. Cam came first out of the year two boys. Almost everyone in the whole school got some jelly beans at the end of the cross country. When we were going down the footpath there were lots of people cheering. There were cones on the path to tell us which way to go. But you have to go around them! Our mums and dads were there to cheer for us. I felt extremely puffed, sweaty and exhausted. I felt proud because I did the best that I've ever done and I bet the people that always bet me.

Bullying

This term we have learnt about bullying. Bullying is when someone does something mean to you lots of times. Please listen to our voice thread about what we would do if we were bullied. Leave us a comment to tell us what you think.