Camp notice...

I am delighted to let you know that we will be going on camp this term – Thursday 29^th – Friday 30^th of October. We are lucky to have secured the expertise of Glenn Beach from Kahikatea Outdoor Education Academy!

The camp will include: fishing with rod and reel, exploring a glow worm cave, walking and camping out at the Putangirua Pinnacles, looking at traps and snares and hopefully squeezing in a visit to the seals at Ngawi. The two days will be full of adventure and excitement!

For this camp to be successful we will need a few brave volunteers to accompany us as well as provide transport. This is a super way for us to finish off our year. Room 9 have been a great class, and the opportunity to share an experience like this is too good to miss.

The cost of the camp is $70 per student, adults are not charged to attend.

Class Trip

Room 9 has been working on a Maths Inquiry to look at the best possible place to visit as a practical end to our term of looking at conservation and tourism. After costing it up, considering transport and the day itself, we have decided on a trip to Pukaha/Mt. Bruce.

We will leave school at 9.00am on Monday 21^st September and have a booking from 10.00. We will have a ranger guide us around the aviaries and park from 10.00 until just before 2pm seeing takahe and Manukura the white kiwi, visiting the interactive gallery, feeding the eels and visiting the ‘Kaka Circus’ before heading home to be back at school by 3pm.

In order for this day to go ahead, we will be relying on transport from parents. Could you please let me know, as soon as possible, if you are able to drive, and transport Room 9 kids, to and from Pukaha/Mt. Bruce on Monday 21^st September?!

As part of our inquiry we looked at costs. The cost per student is $4 and we are required to have a ratio of 1 adult to 6 children. If we have more than 5 adults, there will be an additional charge of $20/adult which can be spread across all of the adults present, if necessary.

Thank you very much for your support!!

Last home learning task of the term...

Predator Home Learning

Your final conservation based home learning presentation this term is to be on a predator or a threat to a New Zealand native species. Think outside the box about your presentation this time! Power-points and posters are great, and you’ve proved you can make those. Can you do something even more creative?? Write a song? Make a video? Maybe put together a stop-motion? What about a puppet show? Or a video of a puppet show? Or a board game that teaches people about your predator and the effects it has?

Things to include:

·               The name of predator

·               What it affects

·               How it attacks

·               Where it lives

·               Why it is a threat to our native species

·               How it is managed (by the Department of Conservation, farmers, students etc)

·               Can it be eradicated???

     Design a trap that could be used by Dept. of Conservation. Draw a diagram and            explain how your trap would work.

Due: Friday 18^th September

Technology and Te Reo Maori videos

We have been working hard this term and as we have assembly this week, thought we'd better show off some of our learning!

Balloon Racers

Kei te pehea koe

Home Learning due Friday Week 6.

Native Plant Home Learning

Choose a native plant to investigate. You can present your information any way you like – video clip, powerpoint, prezi, poster, speech, song, rap, poem etc.

Your presentation will need to include the following:

·        Where your plant grows and what conditions it needs to thrive.

·        What the English and Maori names are for your plant.

·        A description of your plant – how tall it grows, what it looks like, its leaves etc.

·        A diagram of your tree or leaves from your tree – this could be a rubbing as well.

·        Any uses for your plant – can it be medicine???   How is it used?

·        Is there any other information you would like to tell us?

DUE: Friday 28^th August

Your kids!

Wow! I have been literally been blown away by the quality of presentations on New Zealand's native birds today. The kids have made power-points, posters, models, prezis, written from the perspective of a smuggled bird, and delivered speeches and generally have impressed each other throughout the morning. I am so proud of their effort and achievements!! Thank you for all the support at home. It's been a pleasure to mark home learning for perhaps the first time ever! We will continue on this project-based home learning while we're on a roll!!
Pics to come.

New maths maintenance website

The kids have been trying out 'skoolbo' today and are really excited by the competitive nature of this website. All of the games are leveled to their ability and change the level of difficulty according to success. This is a great website for maintenance and practice - both for maths and literacy.

www.skoolbo.co.nz

The kids all have usernames and know the password. If they forget their username then I have an extra copy!

Home Learning Task Term 3

You child should be bringing home a task sheet as below... 

 Native Bird Home Learning Task

Choose a native bird to investigate.  You can present your information in any way you like – powerpoint, poster, brochure, stop-motion, video ‘documentary’, speech, song/rap etc.

You will need to include the following information in your presentation:

A diagram that you have drawn yourself –don’t forget to label the different body parts of your bird.  Use colouring pencils/jovis/felts to show your birds’ feathers/colour pattern.	Where can your bird be found?
What trees does your bird like to live in/eat from?	What food does your bird eat?
What are the English and Maori names of your bird?	Can you find any other interesting information?

Due: Friday 7^th August

Autumn Leaves

On Friday the kids worked their socks off on some Autumnal art. Mrs. Riddell took them through the processes of leaf rubbing, stenciling and sketching. Their art looks fantastic as a result!!

Basketball skills videos

The kids have been learning the skills of basketball and have put these videos together on the ipads this week... (thanks Mrs. Sutherland!)

Tegan, Hannah and Phaelyn

Archie, Arna, Makayla AND Andre, Rose and Archie AND Sophia and Josh, with a little Archie!

Welcome back, Archie! We sure needed your skills this week!!

Kaitiaki

We have been working hard on creating our own kaitiaki as guardians of our classroom... we think they look pretty good!

Pink Shirt Day

We were lucky enough to have some people talk to us today...

Pink Shirt Day

Pink Shirt Day... anti-bullying!

Well, today was a little different for most of the kids. We talked, we questioned, and we discussed bullying. We used a few of the techniques learned by Ms. B. at the Thinking and Questioning PD last Friday like '3-2-1' where we distill our thinking down by sharing, comparing and discarding the less relevant ideas. We came up with slogans of our own to stamp out bullying, we tried to work out why people might bully in the first place, we did some creative role playing and recorded these on the ipads with the help of some super helpful kids from Room 12. The videos are 'rough' but you get the gist of our day...

Meanies

Bullying

No Bully

Sons of Gallipoli rehearsal

ANZAC singers in final rehearsal... pretty good!!!
Well done, girls! You were spectacularly good at our assembly!! I'm proud of you!

Sons of Gallipoli rehearsal

Something to watch...

The Berry Boys - you may need to sign in!
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/ondemand/the-berry-boys/null

We have bunting!!

Day Two poppies

Sewing the ANZAC bunting

Wow, so if I'd ever thought this would work so well I'd have done it much sooner!! A huge thanks to the parental units who came to help thread needles and gently guide the kids!! I do believe I would have lost some of my sanity trying to do all of that by myself!
A big thank you also to Mrs. Buckley who edged every flag beautifully and gave us a quick sewing lesson.
Here are the flags at the end of 'Day One'. I am super-proud of all the kids who've done some pretty good sewing, especially for first timers!!

ANZAC

http://www.abc.net.au/innovation/gallipoli/gallipoli2.htm#

Something to look at...

Moving on from cricket, well done to the Black Caps, onto the rugby...

http://www.ruggerland.co.nz/

Just a little fun...

Hi all,

I have introduced the kids to Comic Life. This is a fantastic programme that allows kids, or adults, to present their 'stuff' in really unique and funky ways. You can do SOOO much with it! 
I've suggested to the kids that they (you) download the free 30 day trial (it's not a gimmick, I promise!) and have a go with it. You'll find the link here:

 http://plasq.com/downloads/comic-life-desktop/

Apart from that, thanks for all the research and information you're finding out at home about your family history etc, the kids are really enjoying it! We've even got someone emailing their great-aunt!  
Have fun on Comic Life. The kids can export the comics to PDF then email them to me if they'd like to. Always great to see how creative they can be at home!

B.

Choir song...

Check out the youtube link to  'Paradise'
Please practice!

Maths Maths Maths

I've been looking for helpful maths sites... Please find links below.

http://resources.oswego.org/games/mathmagician/maths1.html

Cross the Swamp

Math Playground

NZ Maths Centre

Free Rice

Cool Maths Games

Multiplication dot com

Primary Maths Games

Reading...

Hi all,
As I work my way through the class running records, checking the reading ages of all your kids, I am finding that comprehension is something that the majority of the class will be working on in some way throughout the year. I've looked for some tips for helping out at home and so thought I'd share them here. I hope they're helpful! 
(This is from www.readingrockets.org)

Firstly, what exactly is comprehension? 

Comprehension is the understanding and interpretation of what is read. To be able to
accurately understand written material, children need to be able to 
(1) decode what they read; 
(2) make connections between what they read and what they already know; and 
(3) think deeply about what they have read. 
One big part of comprehension is having a sufficient vocabulary, or knowing the meanings of enough words. 

So...

Readers who have strong comprehension are able to draw conclusions about what they read – what is important, what is a fact, what caused an event to happen, which characters are funny. Thus comprehension involves combining reading with thinking and reasoning.

What parents can do to help at home

• ·    Hold a conversation and discuss what your child has read. Ask your child probing questions about the book and connect the events to his or her own life. For example, say "I wonder why that girl did that?" or "How do you think he felt? Why?" and "So, what lesson can we learn here?”
• ·    Help your child make connections between what he or she reads and similar experiences he has felt, saw in a movie, or read in another book.
• ·    Help your child monitor his or her understanding. Teach her to continually ask herself whether she understands what she's reading.
• ·    Help your child go back to the text to support his or her answers.
• ·    Discuss the meanings of unknown words, both those he reads and those he hears.
• ·    Read material in short sections, making sure your child understands each step of the way.
• ·    Discuss what your child has learned from reading non-fiction/informational text.

Home Learning Expectations

This is just a copy of the expectations that are glued in the front of your child's home learning book...

	Room 9 ‘The Beehive’ Home Learning Expectations

Reading

It is vital for all children to be reading for at least 15 minutes a night to keep up their fluency and for pure reading mileage. We need them to get as many ‘words in front of their eyes’ as possible. Most children will bring home reading from school in the form of a journal or PM book. If they forget then you can find the link to Sunshine Reading Online on our blog site. The user name is: Marty and the password is: learning

Maths

Basic Facts are the foundation of all maths and these should be practised each night. All students at Stage 4 have been supplied with an ‘ideas to help your child at home’ packet which suggests fun ways of helping your child build a strong foundation from which to build his/her mathematical knowledge. Please have a look at this. Some resources need to be made up – cereal boxes are ideal for making up the cards etc.

Spelling

We have glued in the essential spelling lists into our home learning books. There are links to activities in order to practise and learn these words on our blog – www.2015beehive.blogspot.co.nz

Spelling words will begin to come home – mostly selected from your child’s writing as they try to use bigger and better words throughout the year. If you require extra spelling, then the essential lists are a perfect place to start!

Home Learning books will be taken home on Mondays and are expected back 

on Fridays.

Any questions or concerns can be emailed to Ms B. at: anna.ballantyne@martinborough.school.nz 

or phoned through to the office: 06 306 9602

Welcome to a new year!

The Beehive is already buzzing with learning energy!
Watch this space for students' work, updates, notices and general information as we gear up for an action-packed year!!

Homework is always at hand - here are some links to helpful sites:

Maths practice

Spelling City

Reading - Sunshine online - login: Marty password: learning