The Room 4 Stars of Plimmerton School Variety Show

Because it was raining at the Gala on Saturday, it was decided to hold the Variety Show on Wednesday afternoon in the school hall. It was a fantastic show, with some amazing talent - jokes, singers, dancers, and the very talented Plimmerton School Rock Band "Almost Famous". But according to Room 4, the real stars of the show were two from our class: Edie and Emma! Emma danced a solo number - very brave! And Edie danced with her sister Maia and friend Jordyn.  The rest of Room 4 think you girls rocked!

Josie's nearly first Waka Ama Regatta!

I went down to Onepoto Domain today in Porirua to watch the Hoe Tonga Waka Ama Sprint Regatta ... because one of our class was racing ... and it wasn't me! Josie has started paddling with her brother at TOA Waka Ama Club, and they were supposed to race today in the Midget Division. Unfortunately it was just a bit too windy, so their race was cancelled. Lets hope the weather is better for the next race on the 12th December. I'm organising that one, so the weather WILL be perfect! Here's a pic of Josie in her uniform.

Katie's Waka Ama race

Hi from kaiteriteri! I had my first race today ... In a single waka for 10km. It was a pretty big sea - waves of about 3 metres!! I came last but had so much fun. Lots of people pulled out so I'm glad I finished. I flipped as I came over the finishing line! Tomorrow we have the 6 person 21km race. Wish me luck! I'll try and post pics tomorrow.

Katie x

C'mon Cool Cats ... its Swimming Time Again!

The first day of swimming was today, and only 4 people with no togs - that's a pretty good effort.  Lets try and get everyone with their togs tomorrow! We're swimming in Weeks 3,4,7,8.  Everyone needs to remember their togs, towel, goggles and a bag to put all your gear in. Our swimming days are:
Monday 1.20pm, Tuesday 11.50am, Wednesday 10.50am, Thursday 11.50am. We may try to go swimming this Friday as well (since we missed out on Monday because of Labour Weekend).

Parents - if you would like to come and help with swimming - all help is appreciated!

Cheers,

Katie

Mission Possible ...

OK Room 4 ... here is your mission ...

1.  You need to go down the side of our class blog - and find the part that looks like this.  The title is "Blogs to Check Out"
   
2. Click on one of the blogs - if you have a brother/sister/cousin at school - click on their blog.  
3. Have a look around their blog - then leave a comment.
4. On Monday we will check the blogs - and if your comment is there ... you are a winner!  You will be a chair person on one of the days this week.

SO GET BLOGGING!!  :)

Question of the day ...

OK folks ... here is today's Question:

Who was the last animal that got on the bus in the book Fiona read to us today in the library?

First two to tell me the answer are Chair People tomorrow!

See you tomorrow.

Katie

Term 4!

Hi everyone!

I hope you've had a great holiday - I know I have! School on Monday - I'm looking forward to it, and I hope you all are.

Question for the first day back:

In our Teacher Read book "Saving Mr Spender", What did Sam call the lady who has arrived in town and seems evil?

The first two people to tell me the correct answer on Monday morning will be the chair people for the day!

See you on Monday

Katie

Funky Hair Day Pics ...

If those Mum's that took photos today could email me a copy - that would be fantastic!

Katie

New cool website ...

Hi,

Happy Holidays!
I got an email from Telecom today and it included a very cool website address called www2.shidonni.com. Kids have to register then they can draw an animal, which gets animated and they have to draw food to feed it, draw a background and then play games with it. Looks lots of fun! Give it a go ... might be good for the holidays!

Katie

And So It Began ... the Stars of the Show!

Here are some pics of everyone in their costumes from our AWESOME production - you were all superstars! I've put the photo of Emma in now too - she was also one of the storytellers, and did an amazing job!

Parents - if you have any photos you took, could you please email them to me - thanks!

North Island Primary School Ski Champs

Here is a youtube clip of our school ski team in action - including Buddy from our class ... well he will be when he comes back next term!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTF6VJfUzMg

The Contraction Action Rap Movie

As promised ... here is the Contraction Action Rap - a song about Contractions.

News from Buddy

Last term Buddy left us to go and live in Queenstown for 3 months. Earlier this term he sent us an email to tell us what he's been up to in Queenstown.

Here is the email and the photos he sent us. I've included some new photos his Mum Julie sent this week ...

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Hi Room 4

I hope everyone had a great holiday.

I have started at my new school called Queenstown Primary and I am in Room 9. I am starting to learn how to Ice skate on Thursday.

We have done heaps of skiing but Jackson has done heaps more!!!

I went on the World Cup halfpipe on Sunday at the Ski field called Cardrona....it was AWESOME!!!! But after that I had a major crash with another skier who broke my goggles!!! ( see photo).

We can see heaps of Mountains from my new home and it is very cold.

We are going to go on the Shotover Jet boat real soon and next week when my Gran comes to stay, we are going up the Gondola and doing the Luge....sounds like fun.

Take care, I miss you guys

From Buddy

Our Feelings ...

Earlier this term we were learning about Keeping Ourselves Safe. We took photos of each other showing different feelings, such as happy, sad, scared, angry, confused, and proud. Can you tell what feelings we are showing??

Mathletics

The NZ Maths Challenge on Mathletics will be starting next week www.mathletics.co.nz/nzmathsweek.

It's on for 1 week starting 24 August ... so check it out. I'll be giving you all user names and passwords at the end of this week. Give it a go!

Katie

Kowhai and Mana School Production

We are getting started on our School Production ... which is going to be fantastic. The song for our scene is "Reach for the Stars" by S Club 7. Here's a video of S Club 7 performing for you to practise - we want to sound awesome!

The Contraction Action Rap

This week we have been learning about contractions ... so we decided to make up a rap about Contractions to share at Syndicate Assembly. Here is what we came up with - we think it's pretty awesome!


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Contraction Action!
Hey, ho … come on let’s go!

Today in school there’s been some action
We’ve been learning about contractions.

Sit on down & listen to a tale that’s pretty phat.
Contractions, cool cats, are where it’s at!

First take one word then another.
Even better smash ‘em together and make less letters!

I’m the first word – don’t change me
Oh no, just let me be

I’m the second word – it’s ok -
make me shorter cos I know you oughta

And what do ya know, out of the blow
just one word remains – that’s plain!

The other letters that were there
Have all gone and disappeared

All that’s left is a little dot … cute as can be
That we like to call an apostrophe

So let’s go cool cats and hear some action –
give us a list of some groovy contractions ...

I’ve = I have, Wasn’t = was not, You’re = you are, He’s = he is, There’s = there is, Can’t = Can not, I’d = I had, Let’s = let us, I’m = I am, We’ve = we have, Don’t = do not, It’s = it is, She’d = she would, Isn’t = is not, Wouldn’t = would not, Didn’t = did not, We’ll = we will, Couldn’t = could not

The End!

Next Teacher Read Book??

Hi,

Bianca has asked which book we're reading after Matilda ... which is a great question Bianca! Soooo .... send me a comment with your ideas for which book to read next, and then I'll create a poll so we can vote on it. I hope you're all having a fantastic time on holiday - I am! I'm taking Gracie to see Ice Age 3 tomorrow - can't wait!

Katie

Swine Flu Song

This is a craze sweeping the school at the moment ... thanks to Miss J!

Don't blame it on the pigs!

We love Gingerbread!

This term we've been looking at Measurement in Maths. We've been using Gingerbread Men to look at length. After doing this we decided it would be a great idea to make gingerbread men. They were really fun to make - a bit messy though! We made Gingerbread Men, Gingerbread Comets, Gingerbread Christmas Trees and Gingerbread Flowers ... they tasted AWESOME! Thanks to Claire - Hollie's Mum - who came and helped us make them. Here's the recipe we used if you want to try them (thanks to Emma McClutchie for the recipe!)

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Yummy Gingerbread Men

Ingredients:
350g plain flour
2t ground ginger
1t baking soda
115g butter
175g soft brown sugar
4T golden syrup
1 egg

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 190˚C.
2. Cover 2 trays (minimum!) with baking paper.
3. Mix flour, ginger & baking soda together in food processor.
4. Add butter & whiz until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
5. Add sugar, golden syrup & egg & process again until it forms a soft (pliable) dough.
6. Roll out dough & cut into shapes.
7. Decorate with craisins, M&Ms etc
8. Bake for about 15 mins until golden brown – DON’T OVER COOK!! (10 minutes fan bake)
9. Leave on trays until firm, then cool on a wire rack.
10. Great iced with plain icing & decorated with M&Ms, craisins etc too!

Science Experiment - How rockets work ...

Here is a quick video of a space experiment we did today on how rockets work.

Check out Tux Paint

This is a very cool program that we have been having lots of fun with in class. Its called Tuxpaint, and is free to download. It's like Microsoft Paint ... but it has lots of cool effects - including space pictures!

So go to www.tuxpaint.org and click on download. It saves to your computer, so the kids don't have to be on the internet to use it. Here's something I created really quickly (so its not too flash!)

Have fun!

Katie

Email Addresses Required ...

Hi Parents!

As requested in last week's school newsletter, can you please send me your email address so that if the school has to close I have a way to keep in contact with the kids of Room 4.  If you don't have an email address available at home or work - please let me know your postal address (for sending work home).

My email address: katiet@plimmerton.school.nz

Cheers,

Katie

New Teacher Read Book Chosen!

Thanks to all the people that voted for which book we'll be reading as our Teacher Read book in Room 4.  

And the winner was ... Matilda by Roald Dahl!  We started it on Monday, and it's a great book.  If anyone has suggestions for other books to read, post a comment and let us know!

Our Sun!

We have been learning to write explanations this term.  Here are some of our fantastic explanations about what the Sun is.  They are "Sun-sational"!!

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What is the Sun?

What does it do? … The Sun is a ball of gas.  In the middle it’s called a core, that’s the hot part.  Then there’s the Radiative zone.  Next comes Photosphere and then there’s Convective Zone.  Next comes Prominence and well then there’s sunspots.  That’s a big storm.  It’s the biggest and closest star to us.  What does the Sun do?  Does the Sun make air?  No it gives us light and heat.  That’s what the Sun is.

By Emma

The Sun

The Sun has sunspots.  They are as big as Earth, don’t you think they are huge?  Solar winds pull the closest star into it, that’s CRAZY!  The Sun is made out of gas.  In fact it is burning gas.  Is that familiar?  NO!

By Hollie

What is the Sun?

The Sun is a big ball of fire.  If you look directly at the sun it may cause eye damage.  If we didn’t have the Sun Earth would be a little ball of ice.  The Sun is our nearest star.  I love the Sun because it gives us light.

By Argus

The Sun

The Sun is a star, and the sun gives us warmth and light.  We need light to live and grow.  The Sun is bigger than 1,000 Earths.  The Sun is our nearest star as well as our coolest star!

By Rose 

 

The Sun

The Sun is a big ball of gas.  The Sun gives us heat and light.  When the Sun explodes we would not have light.  We wouldn’t be alive.

By Buddy

  

The Sun

Our nearest star is the Sun.  The Sun has sunspots.  Sunspots are big storms.  The Sun pulls out a star that is nearest to the Sun and pulls it back in again.  The solar flares are like spaghetti sauce.  The inside of the Sun is called a core.  The nearest planet is Mercury.

By Edie

  

The Sun

The Sun is our nearest star.  The Sun is a big ball of fire and gas.  The Sun keeps us warm on Earth.  The Sun makes us live on Earth.

By Isabella

The Sun

The Sun has solar flares.  They are like spaghetti sauce.  The Sun is made of gases.  The Sun is big.

By Quinn S.

  

The Sun

The Sun is the solar system’s star.  It gives Earth the heat and light that are essential for life on the planet.  Because the Sun is only 150 million kilometres (93 million miles) away astronomers can find out far more about it than about any other star.  The Sun is made of gas.  

By Josh

  

The Sun

The Sun is our very own star.  It is made out of gas and dust.  It is very hot.

By Charlotte

  

The Sun

Our nearest star is the Sun.  The Sun is a big ball of gas.  Did you know that the Sun has lots of holes in it.  And the Sun is made of dust!

By Zoey 

 

What is the Sun?

The Sun is big.  The Sun is a big ball of fire.  We liked the Sun.

By Bailey

  

The Sun

Did you know that the Sun is a star?  It has lots of big flames called solar flares.  The Sun has black and white spots.  

By Luc

 

The Sun

The Sun is made from hot gas and dust but it is not a planet, it is a big star.  The Sun is very hot but don’t look at it closely or you might damage your eyes.

By Andrea

  

The Sun

The Sun is our very own star.  The Sun is bigger than the Earth. 

By Josie

 

The Sun

The Sun keeps us warm.

By Ben 

The Sun

Our nearest star to Earth is the Sun.  The Sun has sunspots.  Sunspots are storms on the Sun.  The Sun grabs whatever star is closest to itself.  The Sun is made out of gas and dust.  The Sun makes solar wind.

By Isabelle

 

The Sun

The Sun is big and hot.

By Quinn M

Spaced Out!

We are loving our Space Odyssey 2009 integrated unit this term, and it's awesome to see how excited everyone is about space!  We have been making hypotheses and doing experiments on topics like gravity, why the sky looks blue on earth but space looks back from the moon. Here is a couple of good websites to check out at home.  If you find any others - please leave a comment on the blog with the link!

http://www.kidsastronomy.com/

http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/en/kids/

www.earthsunmoon.co.uk

http://www.artyastro.com/

Katie 

Term 2 - it's about to start!

Hi!

I hope everyone's getting excited about coming back to school ... I know you missed me! :) This term we will be looking at space, and we have science fair as well - it's going to be a great term.

Remember: if you haven't brought your permission slip and money back for the Cosmodome - please do on Monday.

Enjoy the last few days of the holiday!

Katie

School Song for Assembly Week 10

Hi,

Here is the school song for Whole School Assembly in Week 10. It is the song "Always on My Mind" by Tiki Tane - an awesome New Zealand singer. So lets get practising, we want it to sound fabulous at assembly!

School Song for Assembly Week 7 - 3rs

Kia ora koutou,

Here is our latest song we're learning for the Week 7 Assembly: "The 3Rs" by Jack Johnson. Remember its all about "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle"!

More Monarch Shots

Hi,

Here are some more exciting shots of our monarch butterflies. We were lucky enough to be in class when the butterfly hatched.

Kevin the "Kea"

We had a visitor in class last week - Kevin, who was staying with Quinn because Quinn had got his Kea's scarf. Kevin helped in class, came and watched us swimming, played in the playground - and had a great day!

BubbleShare: Share photos - Easy Photo Sharing

Update on our swan plants

Well we have two chrysalises now in class - and one caterpillar who went walkabout for awhile, but luckily Josie found him! Unfortunately one of the chrysalises had to get sellotaped to the wall, after a hungry caterpillar ate the leaf and stalk it was attached too! Keep checking the blog for more pics of the chrysalises progress.

Room 4's Writing

Today we wrote about what we did on the weekend. Here are our awesome pieces of writing!

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I got a new bunk bed in the weekend and my brother and me and sometimes Jack goes up my ladder.
By Josh

In the weekend I went to the lagoon. I went round a lot. I went on an octopus. A boy got sick it was fun. After that we went to the mall. We got our friends a present we got him a ball and a drink bottle. And I got these bombs and you hold one hand and in the other you hold one on top of the other and when you drop it makes a bang.
By Argus

On the weekend I went to the park. My brother fell off the slide. He landed on his head and on his shoulder too.
By Andrea

On the weekend I went to the park.
By Charlotte

Today I scooted to the school. On the way I fell off my scooter and got a bleeding knee. I’ve been at the medical room. I have a band aid on my knee.
By Rose

I went to a concert. It was fun. They sang a school song. I made a friend there. Her name was Francesca. We bought heaps of stuff. It was fun. I went with Chelsea and Tasha and mum and dad and their mum and dad it was fun.

By Isabella

In the weekend I went bike riding to the pool. And I got a new hat today.
By Quinn S

I went to the city to see the football.
By Ben

I went to the supermarket and I got a bleeding knee.
By Quinn M

I went to my friends, sisters birthday. I got the stupidest prize. Her name is Erina. There was no film. It was just a party. Our dad took us.
By Bianca

I went to my friends house we went to my camp.
By Lucas

On the weekend we are going to Australia we are staying in Brisbane. We are seeing people having photographs with tigers.
By Isabelle

On the weekend I went to my Aunties place. My Uncle and Auntie were leaving today. I was sad.
By Emma

On the weekend I went to the parade. And they were funny.
By Josie

I went to my Grans, I jumped off the top of the pool.
By Buddy

On the weekend I went to a fair. There was a Ferris wheel, it went zooming around. It was so much fun.
By Edie

On the weekend I got some bunk beds and I am on the top bunk. It's fun I can touch the roof.
By Hollie

Our Swan plants

Here are some pictures of our swan plants. One of the caterpillars is beginning to turn into a chrysalis - it's very exciting! The others are still pretty tiny, but eating lots so I'm sure they will be getting big very soon.

Welcome to Room 4 2009!

Kia ora koutou!

I'm really excited to be in Room 4 - and I hope you all are too! This blog is a chance for your parents, family and friends to check out what's happening in Room 4 this year. I'll also put links to any useful websites that you can check out at home.

School Song - from High School Musical

Here is the link for our first school song this year. It's from High School Musical. I've included one from the movie, and then one with the lyrics. Lets practise, so we are fantastic at assembly!