Easter Fun!

On the last day of the term, Room 11 made cardboard eggs for their buddies and hid them in the playground. When the eggs were found, their buddy gave them a real Easter egg. The little buddies also hid an egg around Room 1 for their big buddies to find.
Room 11 taught their buddies the Easter bunny poem. The little buddies were so good at the actions and very cute .

Thank you Grandparents and Grandfriends!

We have had a wonderful first term of 2011 in Room 1! Our inquiry "Here's our History" has been a major focus, with the trip to Pataka Museum for a hands on heritage programme and grandparents and grandfriends visiting on Grandparent's Day. All the children have made thank you cards for their Grandparents and Grandfriends!

Eddie Quansar African drummer

Today we were very lucky to have Eddie Quansah, an African drummer originally from Ghana, entertain us with a concert at school. Eddie explained the importance of drumming in African culture and played many kinds of traditional drums for us.

Grandparents Day today!

Room1 were so excited that today was Grandparent's Day! We have all been working hard learning about our Family Trees, drawing and writing about our grandparents, learning songs to sing and collecting up special things that grandparents have given us.
We had a wonderful afternoon showing and sharing with you and a delicious afternoon tea!
Thank you to all the grandparents and grand friends and every one who helped with the lovely food and photos for the slide show.
We hope you enjoy these photos!

Presenting at Junior Assembly

On Friday it was Room1's turn to organise Junior Assembly. Emma and Lachlan were our presenters and were wonderful at talking into the microphone! We showed our stories about our trip to Pataka and our shape lanterns. We were the best class at sitting quietly to listen so we were awarded "Assembly Bear" for the next 2 weeks. Well done Emma, Lachlan and all of Room 1!

B for Bunny

Room 1 had a special visit from Florence's bunny for B week.
She was timid so we all kept very quiet! Liz and Florence showed us how they look after her and we all patted her soft fur.

Our Writing

Room 1 have been working hard learning how to write about events in the order they happened. We know you will enjoy reading these recounts of our trip to Pataka Museum!

Arts Festival

Our visit to the Capital E Performing Arts Festival began with a trip to Wellington on a double decker bus! Room 1 were so excited! We saw 3 shows and walked between each with a Capital E host to show us the way. We saw Grimace, a show with mixed up nursery rhymes, Passing Wind, about making and playing musical instuments and Boats, with 2 sailors telling stories on a desert island. Room 1's favourite was Passing Wind. We are going to try making a flute from a carrot!

Stand Tall - our personal crests

In Room1 we have been talking about being proud of who we are - our achievements, our values and our goals. Talking about our strengths helps us identify things we need to work on and gives us the determination to keep on trying even when things are tricky! We are learning about trying our best, perseverance and determination.

Science with our buddies - Does coke affect our teeth?

Our buddy class Room 11 are investigating "does coke affect our teeth?" They invited us to see what happens when you compare an egg soaked in coca cola for a short time and brushed with toothpaste, an egg soaked in coke for long periods and "Mr Control", a plain egg. Egg shells make good substitute "teeth"!
Scientist Harriet helped with the tooth brushing.
We used our eyes to observe, and our fingers to feel any changes.
Mr Control was clean and smooth, the brushed egg brownish and the soaked egg blotchy and rough to touch.
Room 1 now think that coca cola is a "sometimes treat" and they should brush their teeth afterwards!

Pataka Visit

As part of our current inquiry "Here's our History" we visited Pataka Museum in Porirua.
Heritage Hands On teacher Linda helped us dress like children did 100 years ago! We wrote on slates and used ink pens, did the washing with a washboard and a mangle, played marbles and then and now matching games. We learned that many daily activities 100 years ago involved time consuming hard work and inventions have made life easier for us. We will ask our grandparents about daily life when they were children when they visit us on Grandparent's Day in April.
We ate our lunch at Aotea Lagoon and had a play on the new adventure playground there before returning to school on the bus. Thank you to all the parent helpers who helped make the day a wonderful experience!

Sea Week

All the Junior classes visited Rona Bay Beach this week as part of Sea Week. Room 1 looked at the difference between low and high tide and enjoyed the opportunity to work together to build sandcastles and dig dams! We used the experience as motivation for recount writing and have written wonderful descriptive stories about visiting the beach! We would love to share these with you in the classroom!

Graphing our Smarties

Over the past 4 weeks Room 1 has carried out a number of statistical observations during our mathematics lessons. We have been learning to record our information in various ways. Our favourite lesson was graphing the colours of the smarties in each of our boxes!

Laptops

Today our Room 11 Buddies helped us explore KidPix, Room 1's favourite art and drawing computer programme. Room 1 are learning to use the laptop touch pads as well as a mouse.
We take turns to use the pod of laptops in our classroom.

Hatching a Monarch Butterfly

Over the past 3 weeks we watched our monarch caterpillar grow bigger and bigger and become a chrysalis. Last Friday we watched it hatch into a butterfly! We compared it with the picture in our butterfly book and took it outside to a bush to set it free. We made butterfly kites to take home.

Summer Swimming

This year Muritai school is taking part in the Kiwi Swimsafe Safety in the Water programme. We have swim school coaches helping the teachers and students learn correct technique. Room 1's goal is to have as many students as possible floating confidently on their front and on their back. We are well on the way to achieving this! All the students will be awarded certificates of achievement at the end of the course. Thank you to all the parents who are helping us get changed without losing any clothing!

Our Self Portraits

Room1 have been completing their self portraits using black pens, pastels and dye. They looked carefully at the size of different parts of their bodies and used the whole sheet of paper with their head at the top, feet at the bottom.
We hope you like them as much as we do!

The wonderful students in Room1!

We have 19 wonderful learners in Room1.
We have begun our reading, writing and maths programmes already and are working hard to be the best that we can be every day!

Meeting our New Big Buddies.

Today Room 11 met their new little buddies from Room 1.
We read books and talked together today and are meeting our buddies again next week for an activity.
Room 11 are lucky to be big buddies this year and are really excited about sharing with Room 1.

Welcome to Room 1 2011!

I hope you have all had a wonderful holiday and are looking forward to returning to school next Wednesday!
Remember to wear your sunhat!