Siobhan comes to visit!

Jessica's cousin came to visit just like she promised. Siobhan brought all her stuff to show us from her job as a medic in the army. Her pack was so heavy - it weighed 25 kilos! Miss Rae and Miss Bullen did not think the bed and tent looked very comfortable. Miss Rae said that when she goes camping it was a bit different! We all tested the bed and the tent. The funniest thing she showed us was her collapsible spade, it is used to dig a hole for a toilet in the bush YUK. We found it very exciting and funny too! Thanks for coming Siobhan (and to Jess for bringing her).

Merry Christmas!

Just for Liri :)

Liri wants a Panda on her blog and we have been so busy in class I keep running out of time. So Liri you need to click here. Then choose the pet you want and click on it. Type a name and choose a colour then click finish. Then click on "other sites" on the left. Then you can enter the Blog details and and click post OR cut and past the "embed" code as an html code on your design page.

Does it work? Fingers crossed. Let me know :)

Miss Rae :)

Dictionaries!

We have two questions!

1) Where did dictionaries come from?

2) What does the word dictionary actually mean?

Can you help? Leave a comment! Thanks :)

Proud teacher!

Well done to Kieran, Mackenzie, Ben M and Georgia - you all did a great job at assembly!

Swimming Parent help

Thanks to all the parents who responded to our urgent request. We still need people on Wednesday the 1st of December and Wednesday the 8th of December. Let Miss Rae if you can help! Grandmas, poppas, Aunties and Uncles are ALL welcome. :)
Georgia said "Remember you don't need to swim in the pool!"

Scientists get creating!

Today the mad scientists of Room 13 conducted an experiment. They were making mucus slime! They needed to get hot water, a mixing bowl, 2 teaspoons of lux flakes, a few drops of food colouring, a mixing spoon, measuring cup and spoons. First they put the lux flakes in the bowl and the teacher added food colouring. Then they added hot water. But something went wrong... the water wasn't hot enough to dissolve the flakes. SO they got HOT water and stirred it in. Yay slime - HANG ON! It didn't feel or look like slime! What to do next? 2 groups decided to add citric acid, another group added icing sugar and the last group added baking soda. Room 13 went around and felt every slime, they sat next to the one that felt most like slime. The winner was baking soda and then the citric acid slimes.

Overall Room 13 felt the slime didn't really work. They wanted to add cornflour because that is what was added to the oobleck but we didn't have any. Now Room 13 are going to write it up!

Instruction writing!

The boys' cake

Mixing!


Preparing to cook.


Oops - someone got caught licking their fingers :)



The girls' cake


We have been writing instructions. Yesterday we invented our own yummy chocolate cake! Today we looked at a recipe for Caramel cake and then we followed it and made it mmmmm.

After lunch we came back to class and we are writing instructions. Then we are going to check our instructions against the original recipe to see how well we did.

Can you guess what we are going to do next?












YES you guessed right! WE WILL EAT THEM!

Tricky maths question

I am sitting here marking tests and I was super impressed that 1 person in the class got a tricky question right!

Room 13 and their families, can you figure out the answer at home? Leave the answer as a comment.

Write the next two ordered pairs in this sequence (1,2) (2,5) (3,10) (4,17) (_,_) (_,_)



Good luck!

Can you see me??

http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/hundreds-celebrate-teachers-work-3868141/video?vid=3868228

Miss Rae x

I can't believe we forgot to take photos!

Room 13 has had a fun day! To start with we had quite a few people complaining about aches and pains so we asked everyone "How are you today?" If the said good or okay we clapped and cheered. Then we finished writing our popcorn making instructions. Some people had difficulty explaining how to cook popcorn so we went to the kitchen upstairs in the staffroom. We did fake cooking and Miss Rae tried to stirfry her popcorn! After morning tea we had bad news - we couldn't do PE because the field and hall were being used for setting up the gala. SO we got the popcorn maker from Room 6 and we made popping popcorn! We ATE it! It tasted DELICIOUS!

How are YOU feeling today? Good?

Gala time!

How exciting! It is so exciting - I think everyone will have so much fun! Miss Rae won't be there having fun but she will be busy. She is joining the march up Queen Street for the World teacher's day celebrations - watch out for her on tv :) Room 13 will have lots to tell her on Monday about the gala!

Holiday weekend news.

What a busy weekend we had - having an extra day off for Labour Day was nice!

Cherkia and Kieran both went on picnics. Pyper headed off to the bach. Alexa, Georgia and Zion both went to the swimming pools - lucky! Catherine went to the pools too for her lessons. Liam, Mackenzie, Georgia, Jensen and Miss Rae all spent time at the shops! Miss Rae also visited Eden Gardens with her family. Arnay went to a Diwali festival celebration and saw fireworks. There are more Diwali celebrations this weekend. Arnay also had a busy weekend with parties. Ben M went to Dargaville and went to the Everything shop. It sells everything! Cool! Kieran, Jensen and Georgia both went fishing at the weekend but Room 13 hasn't seen any fresh fish for lunch! :) Joseph did housework at the weekend - hope he did a good job! Joshua's Grandma came over and they went to explore the rock pools at the beach. Christopher spent time with his friends. Logan went with his family to the garden centre. Jude's sister celebrated her birthday. Liri went to a waterfall at Te Henga. Ben G had fun at the skatepark. Dana's family had some sad news at the weekend :( EunChae's dad printed off photos of her travels to Europe last year. Jessie went to Waipu Cove for the long weekend to spend some time in the sun. Amber went to Rangitoto on the boat and stayed there.

It was lovely weather at the weekend - a sneak preview that Summer and Christmas are on their way! YAY!

HELP! WE HAVE A PROBLEM!

We need 3 parent helpers on each swimming trip for us to be able to go. SO far we have 3 helpers on the first Monday, 1 on the first Wednesday and 2 on the 2nd Monday. We will not be able to go unless we have adult helpers.

Aunties, Uncles and Grandparents welcome. A parent helper needs to help us get on the bus, ride with us, and help us get ready. At the pool the swimming instructors do everything so parent helpers can sit and watch. PLEASE contact us if you can help!!! Either send a note or ring the office or send us an email.

Thanks!

Guatemalan worry dolls

Guatemalan Worry Dolls
According to legend, Guatemalan Worry Dolls listen when you tell them a problem. You place the doll under your pillow and the worry goes away!

A few people in class have been worrying about different things so this morning we made our own worry dolls and wrote our worries on them. Then we sat on the mat. Each person shared their worry and the rest of the class gave them strategies to deal with the worries. The worry dolls are in book bags ready to go under pillows tonight!

We also learnt to find our happy place. We lay still and imagined hopping on magic carpets. We flew over the school, up Kyle Road, over the city and then into the country. We flew over fields of different and beautiful coloured flowers, over the gentle green sea, then over the blue foamy waves and landed on our island. We walked up ten big concrete steps and came to a big door. It was heavy and creaked as we pushed it open. Inside the room was full of sunlight we saw a door and opened it using the old fashioned key. Inside was our own private room. In our imaginations we looked around, out the windows and we felt happy and warm and safe. Then we left we went out the door, down the steps, over the ocean, over the fields, across the city and then back to UHPS. We can use our happy place to go to whenever we feel bad, mad, angry, sad, scared, worried, frightened and confused. No one else can see our room except for us!

3D shapes!

This morning we were learning how to make 3D shapes with toothpicks and marshmallows. We made cubes, triangular prisms, square pyramids, triangle pyramids, and cuboids. We thought about edges, faces and corners. We had a great time. After we made different shapes we had to divide the marshmallows into equal groups and then we ATE them!

Yum - 1 lesson and we did Geometry and Division and then later on we are going to write instructions on making 3D shapes!

Dental Clinic

The dental van is currently screening students that are due. If you have a problem and need to see a dental nurse and it isn't your turn, then you can call the Target Road Dental Clinic and make an appointment on 444 4272.

Miss Rae has been playing...

hope Room 13 likes the new look!

In class today...

We looked at the scientific method. We looked at some new blogs -

Mrs. Bachetti's Grade 2 Blog

Room Two North East Valley Normal School

We had an AsTTle reading test. We had our five minute maths test (great excitement). We shared our news... we copied down our spelling and that was nearly the whole day! Time flies when you're learning...

We saw it, liked it, borrowed it! Thanks Room 15!

Science fun!

Today we were discussing scientific method. The question was raised again - was Oobleck a solid or a liquid? It can't be classified as either as it is a strange and special substance called a Non-Newtonian fluid. We also looked at a fun website called Brainpop and we have a free 5 day trial to look around - username and password both room13uhps. Have fun!

Back to the Scientific method. When we do an experiment we will always follow this way:

Ask a question - what do I want to discover?
Make a hypothesis - I think... use information/research to help you.
Method - what steps will I take?
Results - what happened?
Conclusion - What do the results mean?
Draw a picture.

Welcome to the world of wonderings and discoveries.

OOBLEK!

Apologies for the sound - the microphone wasn't the best :)

The mystery of Ooblek!

Today some mysterious STUFF appeared at school called Ooblek. We had a look at it and then went away to wonder about what it might be. We thought it was chalk, dinosaur poo, slime, hard goo, spew, sticky, snot, green dog poo, squashed up green bananas and so much more. It looked green, slimy, shiny, wet, runny, hard, soft, gooey, muddy, bubbly, solid, gungy, sticky and sloppy.

Then we had a turn feeling it. We grabbed it, we stood in it, we walked through it, we picked it up, and we got stuck in it! What was this crazy stuff?

We discovered that it was hard when you touched it but runny when you pick it up. When you stood on it you sunk and you could get stuck. It made a footprint and then ran back together so the footprint disappeared. It felt like playdough. It was solid green. Afterwards when it dried it felt like chalk.

Hmmmmmm so was it a liquid or a solid? No one really knows.

Ooblek was actually a science experiment. When we were at Jump Jam Mrs Aitken and Mrs Millet made the Ooblek for us to look at. It is an interesting substance because it appears hard to the touch but when you move through it, it is runny. You can make ooblek at home with ingredients from the cupboard!

Cornflour and water were turned into Ooblek (and colour was added). You can mix 3 parts of cornflour to 1 part of water and stir, add colour. Is it liquid or solid? You decide!

Geometry!

Today we thought about all the shapes we could remember - and we even remembered that they were either 2D or 3D shapes, then we watched this funny video by James Blunt and Sesame Street.

Stuff needed!

We are really lacking in newspaper when we do art. Please send along your newspapers when you have finished with them - we would really appreciate it!

Also this term we are going to start long stitching calendars, so please send along any spare wool - red and green are always in high demand!

Hats are needed to be worn this term so please make sure you have your hat and it is named clearly.

Swimming notices went home this afternoon - please note the parent help request, we always need so many helpers for this to happen.

Phew! It is going to be a busy term with lots of fun and exciting learning :)

Best book of 2010!

The best book we have read this year is by far "Skippyjon Jones"by Judy Schachner. He even has his own website! Skippyjon says he isn't a Siamese cat and would rather be El Skippito, the great sword fighting Chihuahua. We have great fun reading it aloud and it is well worth reading again at home!


Listen here.






And here.

And last of all Miss Rae's favourite bit is here.

Some new rules for Term 4

The arrival of Smiggle in the classroom creates a lot of disturbance and distraction. From tomorrow onwards Room 13 students cannot use electronic rubbers or pencil sharpeners in the classroom - these are items to be kept at home. Pencil pots do not have a place in the classroom as we just don't have enough room on our tables. Also we do not have enough room for millions of pencil cases. Students may have 1 pencil case on their desk - it is okay to have more than one as long as they fit and live in tote trays.

The Room 13 MIB holiday challenge.

The Room 13 MIB holiday challenge.

This holiday challenge is for Reading, Maths and Spelling! Can you MIB your learning?

Record the amount of time you spend each day on these learning areas and then return on Day 1 of Term 4 with the times totalled.

There will be prizes for the 3 highest amounts of time.

Suggested Learning Ideas –

Reading: favourite books, library visit, blog reading, buddy reading, poetry.

http://www.bigbrownbear.co.uk/

http://www.zooburst.com/

http://classroom.jc-schools.net/basic/la-read.html

http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/interactive/onlinestory.htm - read

http://www.ziptales.com/

http://www.starfall.com/n/level-a/learn-to-read/play.htm?f

Spelling: testing, copying words, make flash cards, websites.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/english/spelling_grammar/

http://www.spellingcity.com/

http://www.earobics.com/gamegoo/gooey.html

Maths: board games, card games, basic facts testing, flash cards.

http://www.primarygames.com/math/numbertwins/index.htm

http://www.hbschool.com/activity/counting_objects/

http://www.neave.com/games/simon/simon.swf

http://www.fun4thebrain.com/addition/snowballAdd.html

http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/math.htm

http://www.tutpup.com/

http://www.ixl.com/math/grade/second/

http://classroom.jc-schools.net/basic/math-time.html

Good luck and happy learning,

Miss Rae.

Miss Rae has an important question.

Miss Rae had a very interesting discussion this morning which leads to the next question.

"Hands up if you wash the dishes at home?" 14 people out of 26. What about the other 12? Why do they not do the dishes?
Liam said he is lazy. 4 people said they stack or empty the dishwasher. 4 people said that their parents don't want them to do the dishes. Madison and Pyper said they sit down, watches tv, read a book and be lazy. Ben M just wants to play playstation.

So what other responsibilities do we have at home? Make your bed, feed your pets, tidy up your stuff, clean the toilet, keep your bedroom tidy, wash the bath tub, clean the shower, make your own breakfast, lunch, or dinner, shower/bathing by yourself, vacuum, clean up your own mess, help with folding the laundry, get your own stuff ready for different outings and offer guests refreshments.

How much do you do? A lot? Or a little? 3 people said everything but most people said they do about half or less.

So here is the challenge? What can you do to MIB this at home? Everyone at home has responsibilities to make it fair.

We will ask this question again next term... maybe we will read posts from parents about sparkling dishes and tidy bedrooms! Good luck everyone!

Prepare for the worst.

Today at school we had an earthquake drill. Room 13 were impressive and got under cover in 2 seconds! Then this afternoon we watched a dvd made by Civil Defence. Some of the things in it were a bit scary but we know now to BE PREPARED! The dvd told us we need food supplies, water, toilet paper, shoes, blanket, towels, warm clothes, tissues, a plastic bag for rubbish, a torch, medicine, first aid kit, a plan, stuff for your animals and batteries. Everyone should know how to turn off the power.

We found out that you can find more information from the radio - you need to listen for the Civil Defence siren. There is more information at the back of the Yellow pages. Not everyone knows where or what the Yellow Pages is so those people are going to ask their parents or caregivers tonight.

Learning fun - maths.

Hands up those people who want to play Mathletics? Room 13 just raised lots and lots of hands. While the school is deciding what to do, I have a suggestion for a free alternative. As a family you may wish to discuss internet safety and then check out www.tutpup.com

You have to set up an account however children's names are not shared. Go have a look.

Take cover - earthquake!

Room 13 and the rest of UHPS has been practicing what to do if there is an earthquake. In Christchurch there were earthquakes and aftershocks that caused damage. We know what to do! If there is an earthquake we drop, cover and hold. Or as Miss Rae said - MAKE LIKE A TURTLE, because turtles tuck in their heads, arms and legs. Our heads are so important because they have your brain inside, which tells your body how to work so we MUST protect it.

If you are inside you should go under a table and hold the table legs so they don't move and you stay covered. If you can't get under a table or you are outside you should try and brace yourself against a wall with NO glass, or just stop, drop, cover and hold.

As a family it is important that everyone knows what to do. If we are at school we need to know what the plan is to get home, or if at home where are emergency supplies kept? Miss Rae showed us a website called What's the plan, Stan?

MISS RAE HAS SET A CHALLENGE! All families please read and discuss this list so everyone in Room 13 knows what to do!

Showing respect and compassion.

This morning we have had a discussion on showing respect and compassion. We think as a school we need to MIB the ways we show we care about the wider community.

Here are some ideas we thought we could put into practise today:

• If someone is not using right time, right place, right person thinking we could remind them.
• Hold the door open for others
• Push chairs in so no one trips over them
• If someone teaches you a word in a different language, be sure that you know what it means before you use it and repeat it to make sure you are not hurting feelings.
• Stop and check if people are hurt - get help from a year 6 leader or duty teacher.
• Use your manners and say good morning or good evening or hello, please and thank you.
• Use people's names.
• Smile.
• Let other people go first through doorways, move aside.

Let the caring begin! Our mission starts NOW! Room 13 can you MIB it? YES WE CAN!

Dear Matthew

We were so glad to hear from you. It is stink that someone threw a sandwich in the garden. We've started using the computer on a daily timetable, we are doing really well and we like it.

We miss you! We hope you are having a good time and made some new friends.

Miss Rae has finished testing everyone and everyone has done so well. Today we have sport and assembly. Do you have a Friday assembly? Does your new class have a blog we can look at? What class are you in - is it a straight year 3 class? What NUMBER class are you? Still in Room 13?

We have to go and do our spelling now, but we might have brainfood first.

We hope to hear from you soon,

Love from Room 13

EXTRA for EXPERTS!

Check out this totally cool website! See what animations you can make by having a play on this website.

Have fun!

Computer use!

Well it has finally happened! We have set up a roster for the computers and each person in the class has a day where they complete all their work on the computer. As we use computers more and more, we also need to improve our keyboarding skills. We have started to use a typing website - have a go at home.

Remember to visit Miss Rae's Delicious site www.delicious.com/misskr to find the websites we use at school.

Long time no blog!

It has been a very busy couple of weeks. We have been celebrating success with our reading results which makes everyone happy.

Lots of rain has made it hard to get out for sport rotation. For those of you who wanted to learn the Miley Cyrus Hoedown Showdown, here it is:

Hoedown Showdown on youtube.

Check us out!

Miss Rae has been playing on the laptop trying to find fun things to add to the blog when she found a photo organiser, the heart one turned out well but the jigsaw puzzle piece doesn't quite look right!

Year 3 students.

As year 3 students there is an expectation that we become more responsible for ourselves. We discussed this today - posted below is what we came up with.

ZUMBA!

A lot of children were disappointed that the Zumba notice that came out recently advertised a course for 5 to 7 year olds. I emailed Carolina and she has now expanded the class to children from 5 - 9. The course starts tomorrow and she just emailed me to say she will take last minute enrolments (on the day).

When: Wednesday 4th August, 4.00 - 4.45 pm for 8 weeks
Where: Albany Hall, Cnr Albany Hall Highway and SH17
Price: $60 term and 10% off for siblings
Contact: Carolina at kidzumba@hotmail.com or 021772566

WINNING!!!!!!!!!!

5th


4th


3rd


2nd


1st

First place went to the Amazing Penguin cake, 2nd Place went to the Sweetheart cake by Jessie, from our very own Room 13! 3rd place went to Miss Rae also from Room 13. 4th place went to the Ipod cake and 5th place to the Mario cake. Well done Tipa team, it was tough competition.

Cakes Part 2

Alexa made this treasure chest.



Eun Chae made these cupcakes.



Matthew made this cake.



Liam made this monster face.



This treasure chest was made by Mackenzie.


MMM the lollipop cake was made by Thomas.




These chocolate cupcakes were made by Joshua.



This cake was made by Madison.



This cake was made by Georgia



The Butterfly was made by Cherkia.



This cake was made by Catherine.



Can you guess that Logan made this?




Pyper made this clown cake.




Dana made this pink roses and cream cake.


This striped cake was made by Amber.



This treasure chest was made by Jude.




The half pipe complete with skater was made by Ben G.