Jingle Bells with a Difference...

Christmas QR Code Advent Calendar

Here is the link to the Xmas advent calendar.  Make sure you keep checking back and watching the clips after school finishes!

http://christmasinschools.wikispaces.com/QR+Advent+Calendar

17 more sleeps!!

R28/29 Sleepover

On Friday night R28/29 had a sleepover at school.  The purpose of the sleepover was to finish our Civil Defence Inquiry with a range of activities and to Skype Elm Park Primary School in England.  We had a fantastic time.  Check out some photos and waiata we performed:

R28/29's version of Aotearoa by Stan Walker

When the song Aotearoa was released by Stan Walker for Māori Language Week, we loved the song and decided to learn it.  We recorded our own video and tweeted it to Stan on Twitter and guess what!!!!.... HE REPLIED!  Check the video and the tweet from Stan :)  He also retweeted it to ALL his followers so we might be famous soon :)

It's Time to Celebrate Matariki!

It is Matariki and we have been learning all about what Matariki is and how it is celebrated.  Here is an acrostic poem we wrote together as a class incorporating some of the things we have learnt.  Enjoy!

Matariki               By Rm 28/29

Māori New Year!

A time to predict the harvest

The Seven Sisters shining brightly

Ancestors are remembered by singing waiata

Rise and shine before dawn to catch a glimpse

In the sky we fly kites up high to say “hi!”

Kumara, yum, yum! Let’s share a hangi.

It’s Matariki time!

Auckland Tsunami Risk Zone

Our Inquiry focus this year is Community and in Rm 28/29 we are looking at how our community would react in the event of a natural disaster.  We read this article the other day about how Auckland is actually very vulerable to tsunamis as we are surrounded by the ocean.  Check out the article and see if you are in an evacuation zone!

Auckland tsunami risk zone huge

 Tsunami evacuation maps

Best Days of my Life

Here is our song from this week.  

We had a lot of fun singing this one :)

Kidsedchatnz

On Thursday afternoon's we will be participating in Kidsedchatnz.  

Kidsedchatnz is a New Zealand school's twitter chat that takes part every Thursday between 2-3pm.

The aim of Kidsedchatnz is to motivate kids to be active, engaged and connected learners.

Here is the link:

Kidsedchatnz

Hall of Fame

Here is the song we learnt this week:

Poems written and performed by Michael Rosen

Brylee shared a video of Michael Rosen performing one of his poems, Strict.  We played it in class at the end of the day and all thoroughly enjoyed it.  Here it is:

Here is a link to more poems by Michael Rosen

Welcome to Term 2!

Lunar Eclipse

Keep and eye out for the lunar eclipse that will be visible tomorrow night between 7 and 8pm.

Kids can see eclipse of moon before bed 

What is a lunar eclipse?

32 Amazing Places in the World!

Here is the link for the 32 places we have been looking at over the past week. 

 Share them with your friends and whanau!

32 Amazing Places

Today is International Happiness Day 2014

Share the happiness on 

INTERNATIONAL HAPPINESS DAY! 

Genius hour

What is Genius Hour?    

Genius Hour is something that will happen in our classroom for one hour a week.  During this time, students research and complete an inquiry project based on their passions - really digging deep into what motivates them.  They will be learning research skills, refining their organisational skills, reading nonfiction articles, developing questions, writing, preparing a project, and presenting it.  

We came up with a lot of ideas.  Look... 

We watched this pep talk.  it was very motivating!

Do you want to be a Hummingbird?

Check out this short video we watched today....

What messages did you get from this video? 

Are you a humming bird?

How can you be a humming bird?

Shared Reading - Where the Forest Meets the Sea by Jeannie Baker

Today we read a story about Daintree Forest called When the Forest Meets the Sea by Jeannie Baker. 

We were learning to make implicit and explicit connections to the text.  Here is a word salad we created that shows some of the connections we made to the text from our own experiences:

Here is a video about Daintree Forest:

 Keep an eye out for more learning we do about Daintree Forest and the issues it is facing!

Y4 Te Tuhi Trip

On Monday 3rd February the Year 4's went on a trip to Te Tuhi.  

We particpated in a workshop called 'I am NZ'.  

We learnt about some NZ artists who use ink etchings to create some beautiful paintings of New Zealand.  We made some of our own using black paint on plastic and etching out pictures of things that make New Zealand special to us using an etching tool.  

Here are some photos from our day: