Jamie's Cycle Challenge

Hi everyone,
Here is a photo of me handing over the VH class donation money to the ladies at the Heart Children's tent at the Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge on the weekend. They were really, really thankful for all the money we raised for the Heart children and were impressed with our class' chores chart and Red day.

Thanks Mrs H!

I was given a special @ Heart t-shirt to wear.

Here is a photo of me and Mum riding through the finish line. Yay! We made it and I didn't even stop.

Thanks again everyone

Your friend Jamie.

Spots, spots, spots!

Hi everyone it's Jack V here.

I haven't been at school this week because I have chicken pox. They are not as itchy as they were before. To keep me distracted Dad got me Lego Harry Potter for the Wii. Possibiy I could be back on Thursday.

What a Stunning Week!

We had a fantastic week in Room VH. We have been working hard on our measurement skills doing lots of real measuring. For our inquiry we measured around the playground so that we have accurate measurements for our playground plans. Here we are doing our measuring....



In maths we also started using our basic fact knowledge to solve double digit problems this week. Most of us on Monday only got about 8-10 right but by Friday we were getting them all right. What a great effort.
This week in writing we have been writing dragon stories. Mrs Nicholson, our librarian, let us have three brand new dragon books. We wrote about a funny dragon called Cinder, a bubble blowing dragon.
We learnt a new song called Aotearoa, for our school assembly that was on Friday. It sounded beautiful as it each syndicate had a different part to sing. A great effort by everyone.
Our inquiry is moving along really well. We have received some priming paint for the playground donated by Flett Painters. The class also wrote a fax to Mr Resene and Mr Bunnings to see if they could donate some colourful paint. We hope we hear from them this week.
We met Ally Todd and listened to a presentation about our new school pool because this coming week we start swimming for three weeks.

Recipes are coming in thick and fast. These children still need to send in their recipe...

Jack N, Blake, Jack V, Ruby, Penny, Emma, Jayde, Alyx and Bella

I have four recipes that don't have names on them so if your child has brought in one of these, thanks.

Coming up next week....

Swimming - starts this week - remember your togs, towel, swimming cap. A newsletter came home on Friday on which day your child is swimming so have a look in book bags.
Library - Wednesday
Kapa Haka - Thursday

Only 13.5 days left of school - can you believe it? We have had a fantastic year but boy it has gone fast.

Take care

Mrs H

Dragons Galore and so much more!

Today we read a story called Cinder the Bubble Blowing Dragon by Jessica Anderson. Cinder is a popular dragon with one small problem – instead of fire, Cinder breathes bubbles! While the king searches for a fire-breathing dragon for his palace, Cinder is sidelined. But can the bubble-blowing dragon save the day - Yes he can! This was a great starter for our dragon writing week.

Today we also started a new way to practice adding bigger

numbers for our hot spot - or quick 20 basic facts quiz.

This afternoon Adventure Syndicate had a syndicate assembly. It is always fun to get together with the other classes and sing together and share our learning.

Today I sent home a notice. If you haven't had a chance to read it here it is!

ROOM VH SEEKS YOUR HELP!

SEEKING…. YUMMY RECIPES

This week Room VH are looking at recipes as part of our writing unit on instructions. Please could you send in or email your child’s or family’s favourite recipe (biscuit, cake, main meal, dessert etc).

Our focus is on looking at how recipes need to have clear instructions, how they are set out, how important correct measurements are etc.

If you are able to either write it out, encourage your child to write it out or email it to us at vh@discovery.school.nz that would be fantastic.

It would be especially great if every child was able to bring in a recipe.

ALSO SEEKING…. PAINT

As part of our inquiry unit the children have decided to take action by painting our Adventure playground. If you have old colourful paint left over from decorating, eg. red, yellow, green, purple, blue etc, could we please use to repaint and bring to life our very dull playground.

We are planning on painting in Week 9 starting 7 December. If you are able to help with paint I would love to hear from you.

Thanks for your help

Vicki Howarth (aka Mrs H)

Ravishing in Red

Don't we look fantastic for Red Day on Friday!

Go for gold next weekend Jamie in Taupo!

Money money money!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you all VH Class for helping me raise money for the children in hospital who have sore hearts. We raised $55.80. I will take this money up to Taupo and give it to the lady who oraganised the Heart Children's ride.

Thank you, Thank you all. Your donation will make the children in Hospital very happy this Christmas.

Your Friend Jamie.

Aargh! What a Beautiful Couple of Days

Busy, busy, busy in Room VH. We have been writing some fantastic pirate stories. What an imaginative bunch we are! Here we all are enjoying our jelly!

We measured our classroom today with chairs, tables and finally a metre rule. We could fit 30 chairs, 9 tables and then our room measured 10.83m long. A good process to introduce measuring with rulers.

We have sent off our letters and faxes to the playground companies and we hope to hear from them soon.

Remember tomorrow is Red Day for Heart Children.

Have a great night.

Whats Happened Today in VH

Hi again,

This morning we followed instructions and made some jelly. We followed the recipe for three packets of jelly crystals and didn't for one recipe. We saw how important it is to follow a recipe carefully. The one we didn't follow correctly (we didn't use hot water) didn't set correctly. So remember to always read and follow instructions carefully.

Measurement carries on. Today we found things longer and shorter than our hands and feet.

We did some skipping for fitness. After morning tea we had reading groups. We also started writing pirate stories. What a fierce bunch of characters!

This afternoon we carried on with our inquiry. Viewing different school playgrounds and stated our opinions on what is good about each of the three examples. Six children also wrote letters and faxes to send off to Playground companies asking for playground design information and brochures.

To end our day we enjoyed our jelly! Yum Yum!

That's it for today. Tomorrow is library day so bring along your library books.

Room VH

Measurement is Everywhere

Hi all, we have had a great start to the week. Lots of work and wonderful weather too. We started the morning with Jump Jam with the whole syndicate. Next we started our measurement unit. The first thing we did was think of all the measurement words we could.

After morning tea we read some instructions to follow. Then we wrote about Christmas (yes it's only 40 days away! eek).

This afternoon we did some more thinking and discussion on our extreme makeover topic. We used google and learnt about keywords to find images of school playgrounds. We then found two NZ companies that make school playgrounds. Tomorrow we are going to write to and fax them to get some brochures to investigate new playgrounds.

Today we put up our colourful Patchwork Cats on the wall.

We ended the day by playing a throwing game. So as you can see a busy busy day of learning in Room VH.

Coming up this week....

Wednesday - Library

Thursday - Kapa Haka

Friday - RED DAY for HEART CHILDREN. We are raising money to support Jamie in her quest to ride in the Round the Taupo Relay. If the kids could wear some red that would add to the fun this Friday. Remember to do your jobs to bring in a gold coin for this worthwhile cause.

Remember we'd love to hear from you.

Room VH

Jobs Around The House

Room VH thought it was a good idea to do some jobs to earn a gold coin to support Jamie next Friday, 19th November. Here are some ideas of jobs we could do.

From Room VH

Jamie's Cycle Challenge

Hi everyone, next Friday, 19th November, we are having a fundraiser to support the Heart Children of New Zealand. Jamie Redshaw in our class is going to be part of the Round the Taupo Cycle Challenge with her mum.

It would be great if the kids could bring in a gold coin to support the Heart Children and Jamie.

Thanks

Mrs H

My dog Flynn.

Hi everyone!

I hope you enjoyed the visit from my dog Flynn. :-)

He was very excited to meet everybody.

Flynn was born on the 21st March 2008 and is 2 years 7 months old.

He is a Fox Terrier crossed with a Bichon/Tibetan Spaniel, a designer dog.

Dad went to Pet Essentials in Porirua to buy cat food and came back with him as well, we love him so much.

By Jacob Bolleboom

Yum Popcorn!

Hi everyone...

Today we made popcorn. We were learning what instructions need and how important it is to do things in the right order.

Instructions need.... a title, easy to follow sentences, action words and numbered in the right order. If we don't do this we won't be able to follow instructions to make, bake, create and do things properly.

Can you tell if our photos are in the right order?

Today we also had a visit from Flynn, Jacob's dog, at news time. He was very good and we all loved meeting him.

Instructions are Everywhere

Hi everyone, what a beautiful day. This morning in writing we talked about this term's writing. We are focussing on instructions. Here is our brainstorm of when people need instructions.

After our big discussion we followed instructions to make lego vehicles. We had to pair up and cooperate to create our vehicles as well as following sequenced diagrams.

Did You Read About Us?

Did you read about our fantastic Production in last week's Porirua News. Our Ava made the front page!

This Week in Reading

What a great week in reading. All the groups have been busy discussing, making and creating (even planting!)

You may have seen the snake cake that was made for the Planets reading group (Monday Post)

This week the Rockets have been learning about seeds. We even got to plant carrots, beans and pumpkin seeds. We can't wait to see if they germinate.

Flying Saucers have been learning about night time. They have learnt that lots of people work at night like taxi drivers, pilots, doctors, vets, radio announcers and police.

Finally the Comets have been challenged to make bridges. They learnt about two types of bridges, a beam bridge and an arch bridge. The group split in two and worked together to create the bridges to span a 30cm gap. Here are their projects.

Art Workshop

Yesterday we had a great afternoon with Jane Lloyd from Graham Braddock Art. This was our third session with Jane this year and we worked on extending our art skills drawing perspective. We created great pieces of art showing boatsheds. Lots of fun!

Fantastic Fractions

Hi everyone. Today we had a great maths morning learning about fractions. We watched a video to introduce fractions and then we had fun creating shapes and cutting them into fractions. We are learning to show and use 1/2's and 1/4's. A fraction is part of a whole. Each part has to be equal in size.

Spelling books have come home today so encourage the kids to get practicing for this weeks spelling test on Friday. All of the words have come from the children's writing.

This morning we played hopscotch to think about the instructions and rules of a game. There were a few discussions about how to play so the kids saw how important instructions and rules are.

We had a great reading session this morning. One reading group have been reading a story about a magician and what he makes for lunch. He used spells to make up different "delicious" lunches. One was a snake cake. Here is the group with their snake cake.

This afternoon we had fun in the sun playing T-ball.

Remember tomorrow we

have library. We also have art in

the afternoon with Jane Lloyd. So yet another busy day at Discovery School.

Have a super day.

Mrs H

What's Happening in Room VH

Hi everyone, what a beautiful day we've had in Whitby.

Today has been busy busy busy. This morning I was able to finish all our maths testing which was fantastic.

Room VH began their instruction writing. We wrote instructions on how to clean our hands. Trying to remember all the steps we have to do to have clean hands. We learnt that we have to number all the steps and give our instructions a title.

This afternoon we had Syndicate Assembly. We learnt a new song called 'The Water Song' which was all about how we can save water - really good as we are coming into summer.

We also had reading this afternoon. Have a super night.

Mrs H