Merry Christmas Room VH 2011

I hope you have a magical and fun Christmas day!

Thinking of you.

Wow! Can't Believe it is our Last Week

2011 has flown by. We are down to only a couple of days left before heading off on a break and then into the big wide world of being a Year 3.

It has been a busy and fun year with lots and lots of learning.

Tomorrow everyone is heading off to meet their new teacher. This will be great.

A couple of things - all library books need to be returned asap. If you have any of the general readers please return these also.

Wednesday we have Grasshopper Tennis and on Thursday we are having our secret santa, so send in those little gifts to put under our Christmas tree.

We are having a final assembly at noon - to farewell our Year 8s. School will then finish at 12.30.

Blown away by the Kapa Haka Showcase

What a magnificent night! I hope you all enjoyed it as much as the kids and I did. The kids are very proud of their efforts.

"Extreme" Dancers

Hayley (Winter Blossum), Brooke(Autumn Leaf), Nicola (Sunflower), Meg(ET) and Jessica (Cowgirl) all performed last weekend on stage at the Southwards Car Museum in the Extreme Dance "Explode" Concert! They were all super confident on stage and fabulous!

You girls look absolutely fab! What a fun time you would have had after all your hard work! I wish I could've been there to watch you all. Mrs H

Jandal Day Big Success

The kids have had lots of fun today not only wearing their jandals and raising money for the Titahi Bay Life Saving Club but the best part was throwing sponges at the teachers.

Here is Zyah having a really good shot!

Porirua Library Holiday Programme

This exciting holiday programme has come to my attention. Bookings open tomorrow and will fill up quickly. There are some fantastic presenters and activities planned to keep your kids amazed by books and writers.

Character Day!

Wow! What a successful end to a fantastic Book Week!

We have had such an exciting day with all the costumes! Here are some snaps.

Huge, huge thanks to all the magnificent Mystery Book Readers! We loved every minute of all the stories you shared.

Thanks, Thanks, Thanks!

Fun Fun Fun

Another fun book day today. We had four mystery readers which were alot of fun. Taine read us his book Marmaduke Duck and Bernadette Bear. What a great rhyming story.

Today we also designed some pretty amazing witch's brooms after reading Julia Donaldson's 'Room on a Broom.'

Tomorrow is Character Day. Lots of fun and laughter is planned tomorrow. So get your costumes ready!

Storyline Online

Yesterday we enjoyed Sean Astin reading us 'A Bad Case of Stripes' on Storyline Online. This is a great website where kids can enjoy picture books read aloud.

There are lots of stories and books to enjoy like Stellaluna, Harry the Dirty Dog and so many more.

Check it out at http://www.storylineonline.net/

Mystery Readers Galore

We've had so much fun listening to all our amazing mystery book readers. Over the past two days we've had Mr Enoka, Mrs Molen, Mrs Nicholls-Cox from our school office, Mrs Webb, Mr Davey and Mrs Leadbeater. We've even had Mr Kell, our school caretaker.

This afternoon even Mackenzie read us one of her favourite books.

We can't wait for the next two days to find out who else is going to come in and read to us.

This afternoon we had fun in the library choosing books and looking around the Book Fair. There are so many fantastic books.

Ze Bong Storyteller

This morning we met a storyteller called Ze Bong. He told us lots of stories about his family. He had a big big quilt that he helped us choose stories. Ze Bong told us four stories. He chose people from adventure syndicate to be part of the story. John, Kerre and Zyah were part of one of the stories. Mrs H was even a silly, silly grandma in one of the stories. Ze Bong made us laugh so much he made some of us cry. It was hilarious. Some of the stories were real but some were made up.

s We all loved listening to Ze Bong.

Book Week Has Begun!

What a great start to Book Week. Room VH had a fun day reading, making and creating things based on fun picture books. Lots of people brought in their favourite books. Here are some photos.
Here we are with our Gruffalo masks. We enjoyed watching The Gruffalo and The Gruffalo's Child by Julia Donaldson. The rhyming makes these books fun to read and listen to.

We went to the ICT suite this morning to create some colourful Elmer elephants. Elmer is such a great character to teach us that it's ok to be special, unique and different.

This afternoon we had our first books quiz. Each day each table group will work together to solve puzzles based on books. It was pretty close scoring today.

Hunter read his book 'Dragon Stew.' He did a great job. Dragon Stew is about a group of Vikings that are a little bored so decide to hunt for a dragon to make Dragon Stew. They really do end up in a pickle.

Hopefully tomorrow another class mate will read their story.

We were lucky today, Room VH had 3 mystery readers. Thank you to Jill Reti, Esme Knoetze and Mr Jennings for reading to us today. We can't wait to find out who our next mystery readers will be tomorrow.

So despite the weather and not being able to visit Whitby Library we had a great first day of Book Week.

Art Workshop

On Wednesday we had an art workshop with Graham Braddock Art. Our teacher was Jane Lloyd. We drew a Kea. Drawing is really fun. We followed the steps and created some colourful kea. Come into our cloakroom to see our Cheeky Kea.

From this we extended our writing focus this week of writing similes. The kids wrote some really cool similes to describe the kea.

The kea's feathers are as soft as moss.

The kea's beak is sharp like a sword swinging in the air.

The kea is as clever as a scientist.

The kea's claws are as pointy as a witch's nose.

Also this week we wrote some great simile poems to describe koru. We've made these into a book for sharing.

Today was the last day Mrs McKee was with us. She has been a great teacher in our classroom and we will miss her but we know she will make a top teacher when she graduates.

Thanks for all the help this week, especially Helena, who was an amazing weaving teacher.

Next week we have Book Week. I have lots of fun book experiences planned for the kids and I know they are really looking forward to the book fun.

Please remind your little one to bring along their Porirua Library Card for our visit on Monday to Whitby Library and their favourite book for sharing.

Have a great weekend.

Mrs H

Weaving Fun 2!

Today we had an amazing afternoon - we had our second weaving experience. We made headbands for our upcoming Kapa Haka performance. Each of us got to weave a headband with the help of some pretty special (and talented mums). A big thank you to Christine, Lisa, Debs, Jill and Helena. Big thumbs up to Mrs McKee too!

We also got to do some other colourful weaving as well as some kowhaiwhai patterns. It was a really busy afternoon but very satisfying and creative.

Well done to everyone!

Our Week in Photos

Amazing Kapahaka

This morning the whole of Adventure and Exploration syndicates went to see Mana College Kapa Haka Troupe to do some amazing Kapa Haka. In the Haka the boys were scary. (Lachlin)
The poi went flying fast. (Brooke)

The boys were doing their Kapa Haka using their loud voices. The boys had tattoos on their faces. They were like warriors but I wasn't scared (Elias).

They were concentrating really hard. The girls sang really loudly. The boys had lots of tattoos on them. (Taylor)

At the end some boys got up and did the haka. I thought they were really good. I got to hold the taiaha (Levi).

Multiplication Madness

What a fun week - we have been learning about multiplication. We have been learning how to work out problems involving groups of things.

The class has been divided into two groups. Mrs McKee is working with one group and Mrs H is working with the other. So far we have been learning and using our 2x, 5x and 10x tables. It has been fun.

Here are some of us using our new maths knowledge to play a multiplication connect 4 game. It is so much fun learning together.

Weaving Fun

This afternoon we did some weaving. As part of our inquiry 'I am a Performer' we moved onto Discovering. So Ms McKee taught us all how to create a windmill and angel fish. A big thank you to Jill for her help too.

Next Tuesday afternoon we will be attempting to make some headbands for our upcoming Kapa Haka performance.

Wow! What a Busy Week

Room VH has had such a busy week. We have been learning a lot too. This week we continued on learning about groups of things in preparation for learning our times tables.

Here are four groups with 3 balls in each. So this is the same as 4 groups of 3 or 4x 3. How many balls altogether? 12

We have also been learning about joining or glue words that can make sentences in our writing interesting for our reader using words like because, and, so and of course but.

You must take a look at our latest additions for the Top 50 Kiwi Kid Things.

At Kapa Haka we have begun practising hard all our songs for the performance coming up in December.

This afternoon we were lucky enough to go and watch the Exploration girls who are representing Discovery School at the National Jump Jam Competition. They were fantastic - we wish them the best of luck cause we all thought they were winners already!

At the End of the Day

Today the Amethyst reading group read a story called 'At the End of the Day.' It is a story about an Auckland class does at the end of a day. So at the end our of busy day we had a massage circle. We had a lot of fun making circles, lighting, rain and thunder on each other's back. Each person in the group shared an instruction. As you can see we had lots of laughs.

Our Sunflowers are a Growin'

Have a look at our seedlings. We planted our seeds exactly one week ago and they are sprouting beautifully. Despite the wind, summer certainly is on its way.

Library Tomorrow

Tomorrow we have our regular library visit. We love going along and checking out all the new books. Mrs Nicholson is so helpful. So bring your library book back so you can get a new book out.

Remember to keep checking out our fantastic writing in the Top 50 Awesome Kid Things!

Welcome to Term 4

We have had a very busy week to start our last term together. The children have started learning about multiplication and learning how to solve 2x problems.

Yesterday we set sail on our inquiry 'I Am A Performer' in preparation for our Kapa Haka performance later this term. Our question was 'What is Kapa Haka?' In two weeks we will have a special visit from the Mana College Kapa Haka Troupe. This will be very exciting.

After our Kapa Haka practice today with Papa Murray we were very lucky to see a real Maori piu piu and cloak.

Here is Indya and Elias with them on.

The Sunflower Tree

This week our big book has been 'The Sunflower Tree.' It is a funny story about Mr Potty who loves gardening but doesn't understand that sunflowers need the sun. He plants his seed in the shade of a great big tree. The determined little seed grows and grows despite the shade and ends up growing taller than the tree to reach the sun.

Today we planted sunflower seeds ourselves. We must learn from Mr Potty and give our little seeds lots of sun so they can grow big and strong.

Wow! What a Win!

Congratulations to the All Blacks! It was a very close, nail-biting game. The All Blacks held out, defending hard to beat France in the final 8-7.

They played hard and as a team worked together to beat France. This team showed us that if you work together you can do great things.

Go New Zealand! Go Black!

It is a bit funny because 8-7 was the last time New Zealand won the Webb Ellis/World Cup Trophy!

School Holiday Fun!

Check out these fun things to do in the Holidays.

Capital E

Slide down the rabbit hole and into Capital E's topsy-turvy terrain where up is down and small is big and rabbits can tell the time. As you wander through the Fortress of Doors into Heart Palace, through Wonderland Wood and into the Jabberwocky's Lair, you may sometimes feel like your eyes are deceiving you. This is a journey you won't forget with crafts, questions, games, riddles and tasks along the way. If you are a fan of flamingo croquet, Mad Hatter hat tosses, and not afraid of being shrunk or enlarged, this is the adventure for you. There will be an Unbirthday Cake for each Wonderland Wanderer to decorate and take home with them at the end — if they make it all the way through to the other side!

When: Daily Sat 8 – 22 Oct (not Sundays)
Time: 10am – 4pm

Duration: As long as you like
Venue: Capital E Main Floor
Price: $6 (under 2's free) $12 includes Give It A Try!

Local Libraries

EGG-CITING TIMES AT THE OCTOBER SCHOOL HOLIDAY PROGRAMME

• Porirua Library: Story and art/craft times Tuesday-Friday both weeks, 10.15AM.
• Cannons Creek Library: Story and art/craft times Tuesday-Thursday both weeks, 1.30PM, with independent activities available Mondays and Fridays.
• Whitby Library: Blooming Blooms, Butterflies and Bees is a series of independent activities available during all open hours. Preschool storytime with Jos' happens as usual, on Fridays from 10.30-11AM.

Wintergarden Ice Skating Rink

An ice skating rink is now open in Wellington under the sails at Queens Wharf. It's here until 30 October during the Festival of Carnivale.

Date	30 Sep 2011 (Fri) - 30 Oct 2011 (Sun)
Time	Open 10am - 10pm daily
Venue	Under the sails, Queens Wharf
Address	Wellington Central
Cost	Adults $20, Children (12 & under): $15, Students (with ID): $15, Families (2 adults + 2 children or 1 adult + 3 children): $50

The Improvisors: Spaced Out!

The Improvisors present an out of this world adventure for the October holidays with an intergalactic improvised show just for kids at Circa Theatre – Spaced Out!

Date	10 Oct 2011 (Mon) - 22 Oct 2011 (Sat)
Time	11am & 1pm weekdays 11am Sat No show Sun
More Time Info	45 mins
Venue	Circa Theatre
Address	1 Taranaki St, Wellington Central
Cost	$10 each
Bookings	04 801 7992 or circa@circa.co.nz

Last Day Fun!

Since today was our last day for Term 3 we had fun creating things in groups. We made paper dolls, palm trees and cats. We created a wind chime. We all took turns threading shells on string. Today we learnt a new game called Holiday. It was great fun for all.

Have a super holiday everyone! Keep checking out our blog over the break to check out fun things to do during the holidays.

Mrs H