Zealandia!

We had an amazing trip on Monday where we explored Zealandia in search of native birds, plants and insects. We were able to use ipads to record our observations and upload them a website called naturewatch. Click on the link and see if you can identify any of the birds we saw.

*I'll be adding some photos and a recount of our trip in the next few days

Time

We've recently finished learning how to tell the time. So that we don't forget - it would be great if you could have some time related discussions with us at home. You could ask us to tell the time using analogue and digital clocks, talk about time and distances or look at time in sports.

Here's a game to help you tell the time at home

Stop the clock

Feelings

Following on from our friendships chat last week - we've had some discussions about anger. We've talked about what anger makes us do, how we can tell we've been angry and what to do when we are angry.

I'd really appreciate it if you could reinforce these discussions at home as well. You could also model and teach some of the strategies you use to calm down when you are angry too.

Swimming Sports

Swimming sports is coming up very soon! We still have quite a few children who haven't put their names forward for any event yet. It would be great if every child put their name down for at least one event.

If they aren't a confident swimmer (or they just don't like the idea of racing) then there are many non-competitive events that can be entered into.

I've attached the link below which has more information and the entry form.

https://www.school-links.org.nz/static2/2874/gn/kns_swimming_-_year_3-4_2016.pdf

Similes

Today we learnt about Similes. We looked at what they are and how they can make our writing more interesting. Here's a quick video explaining what similes are:

Check out some of the similes we wrote....


The wind was as strong as an ox - alex!

I am as rich as a leprechan - Archie

You're as strong as an elephant - Josiah

Bethan was as good as an angel - Charlotte

A ball was as round as the earth - Leo

Mrs Sydney's tail was long like a sock - Leah

Marek is strong as Yoda - Nestor

Archie is as fast as a cheetah - Rory

Sophie was as slow as a snake - Amara

Gary the gadget guy was as pale as a ghost - Michael

Harry the Rhino was as fast as a snail - Jacob

Emily was as good as an angel - Amy

Charlotte was as good as gold - Emily B

Amy is as pretty as a flower - Bethan

Ghast are as deadly as poison dart frogs - Dylan

Congratulations Amara

Here's Amara showing off her medal and certificates from the weekend. She came second overall in gymnastics. Well done Amara - We are very proud of you!

Respect

Today we talked about the school value of Respect. We talked about how respect is really important and the different ways we might see it in the classroom.

Miles and Archie came up with a brilliant definition...

"Acting in a way that makes everybody happy"

Friendships

We've been looking at friendships lately in the classroom. We've looked at what it is to be a good friend, accepting others and how our actions can effect others. Quite often we use a video to encourage and start our discussion. I've put a video we watched last week called "the present".

Have a watch and talk about it at home. How did your feelings change the video? Why do you think the boy reacted like he did? What do you think of the present?

Toys & Tech Day

This Friday we'll be having a 'toys and technology day' in Room 17. This means that we're able to bring one toy and/or piece of technology into school to share with others and play.

Because we've worked really hard for this day and we want it to be successful, we've agreed upon a couple of rules:

- We must check with our parents before bringing anything to school. If they don't agree, we have to find something else (without fussing)
- Anything we bring to school must not leave the classroom. We know that some of these items might be really important and special to us so we'll be respectful of others as well.
- We know this isn't just a play day and we do have some learning to complete during the day.

Healthy Living Videos

Here are our videos we made as part of our healthy living inquiry. The children wrote, directed and starred them all by themselves.

They had choose a topic and think carefully about how and what to explain to other children. They used storyboards and scripts to help them along the way. As you will see, each group was incredibly creative with how they chose to convey their messages.

It was really impressive to see our amazing Year 4's display their leadership skills - they were very conscious of including all the members in their group and ended up creating some really fantastic videos. Well done Room 17!

Maths: E-learning

Here's what you'll be doing over the next few weeks when you're using the technology...

It’s time to plan a summer holiday! Pick a place to travel to and find somewhere to stay. Add up all the costs and list them in your book.

Use these websites to help you:

www.trivago.com

www.skyscanner.com

Need to make it harder or easier?

-       Change how far you travel. Travelling in New Zealand will keep the prices down.

-       Change how long you go for. Travelling for longer periods will probably cost more.

-       Look up some activities to while you’re away. Add these to the cost.

Still stuck?

-       Ask a friend. You don’t need to complete this by yourself

-       See Mr McIntosh (not while he is teaching though)