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.