Happy Holidays!!

GOOD BYE ROOM 18!!
It was a busy last couple of weeks!
Enjoy your holidays and I will look forward to seeing you all in 2013!
Keep a look out for updates on our blog in January.

I also said I would update you that... Baby Ireland is a girl! :)

PHOTOS!!

Room 18 have had fun with a new temporary class member - Quackers!
Thank you Grosse Ile Cycle 2 Class for letting us look after him!
Quackers travelled all the way to us from a set of islands called the Magdalen Islands.  Their island belongs to the province of Quebec, Canada

Here are a few photos to show what Quackers has been up to...

We all knew it was Quackers straight away when Mrs Ireland received the package.  We have been eagerly waiting for Quackers to arrive for nearly 3 months.  We confirmed that it was Quackers when we looked for clues on the package!

Quackers with Room 18 being silly

 Quackers reading a book about ducks in our school library

Quackers enjoying the fresh air out in Oxford with Angus and eating his grub! 

Quackers helping to measure accurately to make Sponge Bob Square Pants

 Quackers with his 'Dancer of the Day Certificate' with the Kelly Sports Dance girls!

Last week we were also very lucky to have the South Learning Centre come to our library to work with us.  We worked in pairs with an ipad to do a book review using Puppet Pals.  It was heaps of fun!  Here are a few photos...

       

   

Here are a few photos from when the V8 Motorsport Racers recently visited our school!

                            

Term 4 update!

We have had heaps happening in Room 18 over the last couple of weeks! Here are a few photos to show you what has been happening!

 

We skyped a class from New Jersey in the USA last week. We are going answer some more questions soon and write to each other through Google Docs. They were affected by Hurricane Sandy.

On Wednesday we also were really intrigued by the solar eclipse! Miss Tempero brought some special eclipse glasses to swimming so afterwards when we were dressed and outside we got to see it!

 Today we have learnt about why the moon looks like it changes shapes. Can you remember the 8 phases of the moon in order?! We made the phases of the moon using Oreo biscuits!

 

                   

Willowbank and Ko Tane!

Last Wednesday we had lots of fun at Willowbank Wildlife reserve. We spent the morning exploring the park and checking out the animals, we then stopped for lunch in the farmyard and after that we went to Ko Tane, a Maori village, where we watched an amazing performance before learning and performing ti rakau (stick games), the haka and a poi dance. Check out our performances below!

Haka

Brayden performed The Haka for us this week.  

He has determination and pride on his face. 

 I am sure Piri Weepu would be impressed!

Brayden has also started an excellent letter to the All Blacks.

We have been writing letters to practice writing in paragraphs.

I am looking forward to a fun Friday tomorrow.

1st week of Term 4!

We have had a busy first week and now can enjoy a lovely long weekend with Labour Day on Monday! 

We welcome Emma to our class this term.  Emma has returned to Halswell after living in England for 2 years.     She was lucky enough to get to go to watch Trampolining and Canoeing at the Olympics before she returned home to New Zealand.

This week we have done Geometry in maths this week.  We know that a decagon has 10 sides and a dodecagon has 12 sides.  We have got very quick at knowing our 3D and 2D shapes in Loopy and got a record time of 1.06 minutes!

We have learnt what prefixes and suffixes are:

We know the difference between a simple sentence and a compound sentence.

Simple - I have a dog.

Compound - I have a dog and her name is Daisy.   (Ollie's sentences)

Seamus shared his animations that he made at home.  Here is one of them:

We are looking forward to a great last term!  Especially to our upcoming trip to Willowbank.

We also found out that we will be getting an ipad to trial in our class for the term so can't wait to use it!

Quad Blogging 'Limbrick Class - England'

Room 18 check out another cool blog that is part of our Quad Blogging group.  They live in Chorley, England (which is not too far from Manchester!).  I know we have a couple of big Manchester United fans in our class!

They have posted a video of them singing 'Doe a deer', I wonder if any of you know which movie that song comes from?  They have also been doing some '5 sentence challenges', we will need to do more of them and the 100 word challenges next term. 

I hope you are enjoying your holidays!! 

Cross Country and Whistling Idol

Well done Room 18 for the AWESOME running you all did in the cross country on Tuesday!!
Watch this space for some photos of the action to come!

Also well done to the 'Whistling Idol' winners...
Molly
Brayden
Jakob
Alex
Jorja

Quad Blogging!

Check out this cool blog...

The children in Mrs Livingston's class are also 7-9 years old.  They live in Virginia in the United States which is near

 'The White House' in Washington DC! 

Term 3

Term 3 on PhotoPeach

Term 3 has definitely been a busy term! We have learnt heaps about Ancient Greece, Air, The Olympics and currently are learning about Sound.
We have also had The Ned Show, Life Education, The Art Gallery, Tennis and sport with Mr Stanton and the girls had a special soccer lesson today!
 It is also exciting that next week we have our Cross Country down at the Halswell Quarry!!! :)

Charlie and Jordan were busy in the weekend!  Charlie made some very cool characters from The Muppets and Jordan made an army tank!

                                         

Sound

Cool Dude! :)

Orkut Scrap Toys

Sophie Pascoe

Well done to Sophie Pascoe for winning 6 medals!!!
What an AMAZING achievement!!!  I wonder if their will be any Halswell School pupils in the future to follow on from Sophie and win an Olympic medal?!!

Quad Blogging!

QUAD BLOGGING!

We are checking out a cool blog from Badger Class in Barcombe CE Primary, England, this week!

They have done a pizza survey that they would like us to answer.  

http://mrcobbsclass.wordpress.com/

Cool Dude

Orkut Scrap Toys
Room 18 have been SO impressed by the awesome muppet characters that Jordan's Nana makes!!!!

Jorja and Jakob's update

These last few weeks we have been lucky to have Mr Stanton, Brian and Mike, Harold and Bex teach us.  Mr Stanton taught us ball skills , Brian and Mike taught us tennis and we had Harold and Bex for Life Education.
We are looking forward to having "Quackers" visit us all the way from Canada.
We are starting quad blogging again this week.
From Jorja and Jakob

2 YEARS SINCE OUR BIG EARTHQUAKE

Zzzzzz... The earthquake struck.  My bookshelf fell on me and the light also fell on me as well.  There was a crack through the bedroom.  We walked outside and there were people over at the neighbours because their car lights and alarm was on.   There was a hole in the pipe so we had no water, water was all over the street.  We had to get all new glasses and things for our kitchen.
Ollie.B

In the night I heard my shelf falling down onto my football table.  It was so scary and I was frightened.
Charlie

I remember in the earthquake I got trapped in my room.  Luckily I got out.  It was so freaky.  I thought I would never get out of my room.  It was dark.  My Dad got hurt, I got hurt, my whole family got hurt.
Brielle

Crash! Bang! The bookcase fell over.  When I went to Mum and Dads room the hallway was on a lean.  We couldn't get our cat out of the garage.
Finn

Cool Dude

Orkut Scrap Toys

Ollie found some bones in a forest near his house! He worked out that they are most likely possum bones.  It was interesting looking at the bones with the microscope - we could see grass and cobwebs near the teeth that we could barely see without the microscope!!  Possums do mainly eat plants!

Asha also brought in her paua shell to look at the detail close up with the microscope!

Cool Dude week 7!

Orkut Scrap Toys


On Friday Libby went to welcome home and congratulate our New Zealand Olympians! We were excited to see a photo of Libby on the internet!!

Week 6 Cool Dude and blog comments

Orkut Scrap Toys

We have enjoyed getting comments on our blog!  Thank you!

Remember to check out Room 15, 16, 17, 19 and 20's blogs and leave a comment for them to read.

When we leave a comment on a blog we need to remember to...
1. Start with a greeting
2. Comment or make a compliment. ( I like....., Wow, that's great, You have done a lot of research...)
3. Maybe ask a question.
4. Say farewell ( bye, have a great day….)
5. Check spelling, punctuation and meaning.

Can you believe we are half way through another term already!!

The Sid Shuffle!



Rocket Fun!

Cool Dude!

Orkut Scrap Toys

Cool Dude Week 4

Orkut Scrap Toys 

We had heaps of fun this afternoon with the rocket launchers!! I was so impressed with how far they went! We have some great video footage of the rockets. The best thing is... that was only the beginning of all the fun we are going to be having with our new topic over the next couple of weeks! 

1 week left of the Olympics! New Zealand is doing AWESOME with 3 gold medals and 4 bronze medals and there are heaps of other athletes who didn't receive a medal but did still did so well!

The Olympics and Ancient Greece

We have been enjoying learning about Ancient Greece and have been working hard to do 'quality work' on our lapbooks!  

Some photos to show what we have been doing are to come!

 

The Olympics have begun!! 

                   

                   

Cool Dude - week 3

Orkut Scrap Toys

Cool Dude of the week!

Orkut Scrap Toys

Term 3!

A new term busy term has begun!

We will be beginning our new topic tomorrow after morning tea.  I am looking forward to it! :)

We began practicing some multiplication facts this week, using marshmallows, fruit loops and tooth picks.

We read a book that had lots of idioms in it!  We learnt that an idioms have meanings that can't be figured out by looking up the words in the dictionary.  They have meanings that are understood by people who speak that language, but are very hard to understand for people who don't speak that language.

                                               

                             
What other idioms can you think of?... at AnswerGarden.ch.




We have also been having a go at writing character descriptions.  
See if you can find a character description in one of your books at home.  
Write a sentence or two that you like, in your author notebooks.


See you tomorrow!

ICE CREAM!

ICE CREAM! on PhotoPeach

THE HOLIDAYS ARE HERE!

Enjoy your holidays Room 18! :)

We have children going all over the place these holidays... Mexico, Dunedin, Blenheim, Fairley, Hanmer Springs, Queenstown and heaps more!  Some children are going skiing, some are going to check out the latest movies and do some cool Kidsfest activities!

Here is the link to check out the Winter Reading Club.  Pick up your challenge card from the Halswell Public Library.

Winter Reading Club



See you all in two weeks!!

In the holidays...

In the holidays I am going to Oscar Holiday Programme and next week on Monday I'm going to Chipmunks with Oscar. - Emma

On the second week of the holidays, I am going on a campervan trip with Livvy.  We are going to have two seperate campervans.  I think we are going to Kaikoura... OMG I can't wait! - Larissa

In the holidays I might be going to Lake Brunner.  If it is sunny we are going to go out in our boat and me and Henry will go in the biscuit.  It will be so fun because once I fell off!! It was scary! On the way to Lake Brunner we will get some lollies.  Yum. Yum Yum! I would love to stay for two weeks!  I hope I don't get a flat tyre on the way back.  I can't wait!! - Lily

Yay! Yay! Yay! I can't wait until it's my birthday on the 5th of July.  I won't be going to gym on my birthday because we are going tenpin bowling!  I hope I win!  - Jenna

In the holidays I'm going to the 'What Now' studio with my brother to hopefully be on t.v!  I can't wait!  I am also going to Hanmer Springs for a holiday.  I will be going on the ride.  I love going on holiday with my family and friends. - Molly

Today I am leaving school early to go to Fairley with my next door neighbours.  We are going skiing for two days.  I can't wait until we get there!  - Jordan

On Saturday I have rugby.  I will be going to Dad's work to help him and also earn some money! I am also going to Queenstown! - Ollie.B

Next Friday before I go to Hanmer I am in a drums competition.  I am looking forward to a holiday just with Mum  for two nights in Hanmer.  We are going to go to the hot pools for the whole day! - Brielle

I'm going to Glen Tunnel in the holidays with my Dad and my cousin.  We go on our bikes there.  It is heaps of fun.  - Coby

In the holidays I am going to Blenheim to see my cousins.  We will be staying at my Grandad's house.  I like going to Blenheim because they have a cool pool and I like spending time with my cousins.  - Jorja

In the holidays  I might be going to the movies.  I want to see Brave - Jake

I think I am going to go skiing with my Mum and Dad and next door neighbours - Amy and Breanna.  I will also be playing on my wii with Dad! - Charlie

Cool Dude!

Orkut Scrap Toys

Guess what Room 18?

After school on Friday we received two brand new large laptops for our classroom!

 See you all tomorrow for a fun last week! 

Barking fish!

I was swimming peacefully but then Lucy came from outside.  My heart was racing.  I was really scared.  Lucy crept quietly.  She must of thought I had no ears.  Fish have ears you dumpy knuckle.  Wait!  I remembered Roxy, the dog, taught me how to woof.  I better try it out.
Here it goes...
"WOOF"
"Meowww"
Good Lucy's gone.  I'm really proud of myself and I'm glad I met Roxy.  He's a really good friend.
By Molly

I'm not stupid cat!  You may be trying to sneak up on me but I'm going to scare you out of your wits!  Rouff!!!!!!!
See you later punk!
Peace at last and that's what you get when you mess with me!
By Alex

I was in the water, all was quiet... until Coco came, but I knew what to do.
When Coco put her paw in my bowl I barked at her.  She got so scared she ran out of the house.  Then it was quiet again.  I asked myself, will Coco come and try again?
By Jorja

"Oh no the cats coming!  Does he think I'm stupid?  Yeah right.  He probably just wants to chat with me.
He might eat me though. Oh no!  Should I do this?  It's worth a try.
As I shook my hear.  "WOOF".
That scared the cat.  "Meeooowwww", the cat shrieked.  That was worth the the try!
By Emma

I'm so hungry! Where have my owners been all day?  I know! How about I creep up on Frank.  He won't even see me.  So I crept up on him.  My heart was pounding and I was licking my chops.  Frank was going to be so delicious.  So I crept up even faster.  I couldn't stop thinking about how delicious he would be!
I got up to the fish tank and put my paw in and my heart stopped.  The fish had barked at me!!
I ran outside as fast as I could and I never wanted to see the fish again!
By Lily

I'm hungry.  Where's my owners?  Oh well.  I'll eat the fish.  I started creeping.  I got my claw out and I started lifting my paw then suddenly...
There was a bark!  It was the fish!  So I ran away quickly.  Phew! I'm off the table.
I was like OMG I am not eating the fish!
By Larissa

I'm hungry!  Where on earth are my owners?? They've been out all day!  I know I'll creep up to Frank and EAT him!  He won't even know it's coming.  This is going to be hilarious.  I can't wait.
"Woof woof"
Oh no!  I had no idea fish could bark!
By Livvy

Orkut Scrap Toys

Coco LOVES the SNOW!
She has been running in and out of her dog door all day!