Not so much snow anymore . . .

So the snow is gone, but Jack and Emily managed to throw a few snowballs before it all disappeared. Thanks for sending the photo in Jack.

SNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Bet you wish you were here!

We have 6 whole people at school today! (7 if you count Ms A). We have Maddie, Niamh, Neve, Olly, Swastik and James.

First thing after the roll we headed out into the snow and down to Oak Leaf Cafe for a delicious hot chocolate. Yummo!!! Don't you wish you came to school now?

If you are at home, send us photos of your snow excursions. You can email them to Ms A. The address is on your homework sheets.

Have a super duper snow day!

Science Friction

The senior school have been having a great time with Science Alive learning about forces. We had our turn last Thursday and it was a tonne of fun. We measured using newtons, built air powered cars, made hovercrafts and watched some exciting experiments involving eggs and vacuum cleaners! We definitely have some future scientists in Room 23.

Red Cross

Last Thursday we had a mufti day to raise money for the Red Cross. They have donated a significant amount of money to Christchurch schools, so we are doing our bit to give back.

Times Tables Challenge

Eleven times twelve equals... one hundred and thirty two!

Go! The hall went silent and the finalists were off. The only sound was the scratching of pencils writing.

STOP

Round two start!

BEEP!

Now it's time for the Room 23 oral challenge.

Room 23 Oral Challenge

In the end Caleb won on 4 and moved to the top 8 and came 5th= out of all the Year 4-6 children. Well done!!

X-Country Super Stars

Last Wednesday was our school X-Country day - a day loved by some and loathed by others! Despite this, the Room 23 children participated in the race with good sportsmanship and great determination. It was fantastic to see so many people pushing themselves to run the whole way. I was proud of all of your efforts. Well done. Special congratulations to Jordyn and Michael for making the Year 5 Zone X-Country team.

CRUSADERS!!!

Today we got blown away by some exciting visitors. It was Zac Guildford and Tom Donnelly from the Crusaders. Toby and Finley got to meet them, ask some questions, get signatures and play a game of touch. They did this because they are doing Rugby Ready on a Wednesday afternoon. The Hagley rugby team got to meet them and Ms A was pretty excited as well! Here's what Toby and Finley thought:

Toby - It was awesome that they were able to come and play touch with us. It was interesting to find out that before their match on game day they just rest and relax.

Finley - It felt like I was in dream world when they came through the door. I learned that if you follow your dreams and work hard you'll get to where you want to go.

Rachel King came to school!

Today Rachel King came to school. She told us about her two adults books: the Sound of Butterflies and Magpie Hall. She also told us about her first kids book: Red Rocks. Then we got to listen to a bit of Red Rocks.

Listening to Red Rocks

After that we asked her some questions, some popular ones were: what is it like being an author and how long does it takes to write your average book.

Asking the questions

Rachel is an awesome author. Here's some things RM23 kids have to say about her:

After meeting her I really want to read her books.

(Joshua)

It's really awesome that we got to meet an author at school.

(Swastik)

It was interesting how she got her ideas for Red Rocks.

(Toby)

It's great that she lives on my street.

(Caleb)

Thanks Caleb for writing up this post. :-) 

May The Force Be With You!

Beep beep, the truck honked and started moving. Today St Albans School started our Science Inquiry - a truck pulling contest! The winners got to do a tug-of-war and the losers have to wash Heather's truck!

First up the junior teachers, senior teachers and finally the student council all had a go. The student council smashed the teachers times and did it in 9.1 seconds. That became the time to beat.

Later in the day we finally got our turn to pull the truck with Room 5. We pulled like rampaging bulls but our best time was only 10.8 seconds. This was the slowest time. Do we care? No! We want to wash Heather's truck.

We are excited about completing our task and we're planning on getting very, very wet with Room 5! May the force be with us!

Big event starting

Junior teachers pulling

Senior teachers have a go

School council smashes the record
(9.1 seconds)

RM 23 pulls the truck

Lets go group two

Don't stop Josh and Robert!

Everyone pull pull pull!!!

Our New Room - Explaining the madness!!

This term in Room 23 we are trying out a new learning environment. We had a think and a talk about where we each learn best, as well as what size groups work best for us in different curriculum areas. We realised that there are times when we work best in a big group, a small group or a pair and other times when we need to be on our own.

So we got rid of messy desk trays and individual desks and we changed our room around. The Room 23 children planned how the desks would go together, moved the furniture and set up a completely new and exciting layout. Now, each time we begin a new task, each child thinks about which learning area will work best for them. This is a step towards managing our own learning in the ways that suit our learning styles. And so far we love it!!!

Here are the names we gave our new learning areas:

Single desk - a cave
Two desks - an office
Three/four desks - a cubby house
Six desks - the conference room
Under a desk - a burrow
Moving from space to space - the gypsy caravan
Our equipment area - the smiggle shop / the stuff boxes

We can also work in the library corner, the computer lab or on the floor.

Jada-Lee and Charlotte in an Office

Niamh, Grace and Jordyn in a Cubby House

Toby in a Burrow

Libby in the Corner Cave

Quillan and Kairau in an Office

Josh in a Cave

Caleb in the Art Cave

The Library

THe Smiggle Shop / Stuff Boxes

The Conference Room

Picasso Art

Here are a few samples of the superb art work that the Room 23 children did last term. After learning how to draw portraits, we learned about how Picasso took the idea of a face and turned it into abstract art. We were also learning how to blend pastels for effect, and which colours blend together well.

Kiwi Kids News

Here is the latest episode of Kiwi Kids News. Caleb and Bella were part of the team that put this together.

Year 5 Big Day Out

On Tuesday the Year 5's headed off to Blue Skies for their Big Day Out. They had a fantastic day doing a confidence course, initiative activities and orienteering. It was fantastic to see them pushing their confidence and working together with their team mates to solve problems. Here are some photos from the day.

Hagley Golf Trip

Last week the senior school got to test out all the golf skills they had been learning by playing on a real golf course. Here are some pics and two recounts about the day. Thanks Libby and Neve for your stories.

Plop, in the hole! Soon the bell rang. It was 9am. Soon enough everyone came charging down to the mat! The roll was being read out. In my head I thought, “here comes my name.”  “Good Morning Ms Archbold,” I said quietly. Soon she started to talk about golf but I had completely forgotten about it.! We all listened with care and you could tell we were all excited! Soon we (the year 5 and 6’s) went outside and lined up next to Room 24, but the Year 4’s and Room 27 didn’t come.

We walked over to the parking place and we waited for 25 minutes because the bus was late! We waited and waited and waited. I got so bored! “Look,” I said. “The bus is here.” The bus pulled up and took Room 25 and Room 26. “Nooooo!” I said, looking disappointed. So we kept waiting. After a while the bus came up. “In we go,: I said to myself.

Soon we all rushed onto the bus. I sat in the 3^rd seat from the back of the bus. In front of me was my two best friends, Jake and Thomas. We started to talk about Minecraft (the computer game)!  Thomas soon changed the subject to War Hammer! Jake talked about Orks and I talked about Space Wolves. Soon I changed the subjest to tigers. WE talked for such a long, long time that we didn’t realise that we were there!

We walked in pairs over the bridge and into Hagley Park golf. We got into groups so we could get into the real stuff. On hole number 7 I got the longest hit. Soon we got it into the hole. Next we were on number 8 and Finley got the longest hit and I got it into the hole.  Then we were on number 9. Michael’s ball got us half way so we were the first group finished. We had a little practice where the grass was really short and it had the holes in it.

We had a lot of fun at golf. I liked it when I got the longest hit and we got to use my golf ball!

By Neve Vangioni.

I woke up early in the morning, tramped out of bed and started to get into my uniform. Once I had gotten dressed and pinned on my Eco-Warrior Badge I sped down the hallway following the smell of breakfast. Mmmmm yummy. “Lib,” I heard Dad say. “Yeah,” I replied back. “You going to walk to school by yourself today!” I stopped and stared at him like he had gone crazy, then my mouth dropped open. 1…2…3…. “Ok,” I shouted. When I got to school I went to put my scooter away. I walked into class and remembered – it was Golf day.

So next we were on the bus going to play golf. Screech! “We’re here” Ms Archbold said. Clap clap, clap calp clap. Mrs Jones clapped to get everyone’s attention. “Listen up everyone,” she called. “Today I have a golf helper who is going to explain to you how to use this short grass.” “Good morning everyone,” said the helper. “Good morning,” we replied back. “Ok everyone, can anyone tell me what this grass circle thingy is?” A Year 6 boy put his hand up. “Yes, what is it?” she said. “It’s called a green,” he squeaked quietly. “Good, “she said. “now you’re going to go off in groups and you’re going to do some golf.” Half an hour later we had done a few golf hits and were trying out different greens. Bella and Emma were hitting golf balls up sandy hills.

The net thing we knew we were going back on the bus. My Dad said, “Maybe you’ll take up golfing!”. “Maybe,” I mutter. But I think for now I’m fine!

By Libby Scott.

Shall We Dance?

Earlier in the term some of the senior children opted into learning a little bit about dance. They learned about levels, relationships, tempo, body parts, energy and space. Here are some of their dances. The groups only had 15 mins to create and rehearse them. Well done!

Thanks!!

Room 23 - you are all amazing, parents included! Thank you so much for my surprise wedding themed morning tea, and thank you very much for the fantastic book with all of your splendid wedding poems. I am especially impressed that you kept the secret so well!

Have a great week with Mrs Allen and I'll see you all next Wednesday. Love Miss A.

Woah - someone needs to update this blog!!!

Ok major update time. We have a selection of video's that have been waiting to be uploaded on the blog. The most popular I'm sure will be today's Room 23 Harlem Shake! Here it is folks.

This is a play done a few weeks ago by the Wild Cats reading group. They are working on using expression, staying in character and speaking towards the audience.




Here is a rap that Grace and Niamh wrote about a story their reading group read.

Golf

Last week we had our first of three golf lessons with a kiwisport coach. It was awesome to see children who had never held a golf club before doing some great drives down the field. After our lessons at school we will hopefully get to have a go on a real golf course!!

Student Council Reps

Today we finally got to hear the last of the class representative speeches and we could vote. It was an incredibly close race so well done to Maddie, Jack, Niamh, Grace, Bella and Emma for having a go.
Our class reps are:
Year 4 - Bella
Year 5 - Jack

Week 2 Certificates

Congratulations to last week's certificate winners:

Nikau - Heart of Achievement
Finley - Achievement in Maths
Toby - Values Award