Holiday Writing

Welcome back to Term 2. The Trailblazers have had an enthusiastic start with some great writing all about our holidays. We are sharing our favourite part of our holiday in a format called 'A Moment in Time'. It involves us writing eight sentences that start with 'I saw', 'I felt', 'I heard' and 'I wondered'. Our learning intentions are to write using WOW words and to use 'show not tell'. Here are a few snippets from some of the students:

"I heard the quad's powerful engine grumbling like a dog that hasn't had  enough to eat." By Isaac

"I felt the vibration tingle up my feet when I dropped it." By Jack

"I also saw the glazing red fire that was spreading across the jungle." By Yara

"I felt the rough rope clenched in my hand." By Sakura.

Kiwiana Art

We have been doing some amazing Art with Mrs Hickey this term. We have linked it to our topic of 'Kiwiana' by creating some 'tiles' based around iconic New Zealand images. We have pictures of the red band gumboot, pohutukawa and kowhai flowers, the humble pineapple lump through to the buzzy bee.

The creation of the tiles has been a gradual, layered process. We started by drawing the outline in pencil, using bold shapes. The next step was to use a mixture of black paint and PVA glue mixed up in sauce bottles to draw over the pencil lines. This was a lot more difficult than we first thought. There was a real 'art' to get the thickness of the line right and to make sure that we didn't smudge any of the lines. After this had dried, we then used water based paint to paint between our raised black lines. Only once the paint was dry could we then had the finishing touches of oil pastels to give our paintings some highlights, lowlights and shadows.

The finished products look amazing, take a look for yourself!

The 'Trailblazers' Classroom

The start of this year has seen the re-naming of the classrooms. Room 1 is now the 'Trailblazers' classroom. We are going to spend some time discussing what this means, what our classroom motto of 'Learning isn't a spectator sport' means and what this will look like in the classroom. We have some amazing new signs up around the school introducing the classrooms and it lists some of the things you will see us doing and learning about in our classrooms.

End of Term 2

Room 3 enjoying the Bumperballs as the celebration for the end of the Term 2.


Term 2 has flown past in Room 3. We have been busy writing poems and designing flags that represent what we think is special to New Zealand. Many of the flags show mountains, the Ocean, native plants and animals and the koru.

Congratulations to all those students who went up levels in spelling this term, especially in the last level test when half the class went up to the next level. Congratulations also to Sammy, Kate and Kassidy who won the Tables Challenge. It was a great effort to get 100% from 100. Yara just missed out with 99% {just 1 wrong}.

It has been a sad and a happy week for me as I have really enjoyed teaching this class. I appreciate the many cards and the shared morning tea that the class put on for me. Room 3 can certainly keep a secret. One of the things that I will miss the most is the discussions we had over Current Events. It was good to see everybody confident in expressing their own opinion but prepared to listen and think about what others had to say.

Keep working hard and make the right choices in the classroom and in the playground and I will follow your progress with interest.

Trip to Lake Karapiro

Wow! We are half-way through term 2. Room 3 has been very busy including a school trip to Lake Karapiro and a fun, mud run at Mrs Trousdale's farm.
Here is an account of our visit to Cambridge written by Jack Pallister.

"Ring, ring ,ring!"
"OK, everybody on the bus!"
"Vroom, Vroom"
"This is going to be a long ride."
When we got to the trenches, "You may now hop off the bus and have some lunch"
We chucked our bags into a corner and sat down to have some lunch. I was busting to go to the toilet. Just in time, Mrs Rosendaal said," All senior boys can go to the toilet." As quick as light ,I raced down to the toilet; I heard the same said to the girls. There goes the whistle. I went up the stairs." Now the fun begins," I thought.
All Seniors, go down the stairs to Sport Waikato".
First, we had to run around to get into groups. There was about 8 in a group. The fist game was hula-hoop, we had to get it around a circle without dropping it. Then we had to make shapes with a giant rubber band. We had a lot more games and finally we went to the trenches. It was awesome. There was a big cannon and a small one. The soldier told us some facts- some sad and some good. Finally we hopped back on the bus but it felt longer going back to school.

ANZAC in Room 3

For the beginning of Term 2, Room 3 has made a display of Anzac information and memorabilia around the classroom. From researching information in books, computers and from watching television we are writing a report on things we have learnt about the Great War.

Here is a photo of Yara and Sammy reading a report of "Why We Have Anzac Day "to the School.
.

End of Term 1 for Room 3