Top Team - Co-operating with Burnham School

The other week - lots of the Middle and Senior Learning Team went to Burnham School to participate in the annual Top Team competition.  This year was drizzly and wet but it didn't stop us giving our best.  Sometimes this included getting covered in buckets of water.

This year we also mixed up schools.  That was great because we had to work with kids we didn't know and make sure everyone felt part of the team.

If you haven't been to Top Team yet, you will love it next year.  Remember to wear your old clothes and have heaps of fun.

Playing Golf

After weeks of learning how to play golf at school, this week we got to go to the golf course.  It was much harder to drive the ball do far down the green and when the ground tilted away from the hole.

We looked carefully at the problem and tried not to moan when Allana took us to the wrong hole so we had to walk for ages!  We were great at helping each other remember the steps to take.

1. Feet together
2. Little step
3. Big step
4. Tilt
5. Pop
6. Swing (tick tock like a clock)

Check us out learning tennis

We had lots of sessions learning tennis.  We got pretty good at managing the raquet and moving to the ball.  We were also working very hard on listening carefully to the instructions.

What amazing writing!

I was reading these on my teacher blog this weekend and was so impressed that I have to post them on our class blog.  I know some of them have been posted before but they are well worth reading again.

Tor: 
I was siting down reading my book when all of a sudden the wind, which had started as a light breeze,  started blowing violently.  I pretended that nothing  was happening  but as quick as a boulder falling,  pages were blowing past me.  I wondered if I was heavy enough then suddenly I was hovering and then-blown away.  It felt like a dream and I was clinging onto a street post in the middle of a tornado.  Bicycles flew past.  Would I ever survive to see if I could rescue my books?

Liam:

Morris was sitting on his veranda all of a sudden it started blowing.

Loudly the wind horribly threw Morris accross the veranda as he anxiously gets scared.

Howling, the wind sucked up Morris' books high into the sky.

Before long even the house was gone.

MORRIS was sad.

Will he survive this drama?

Jess:
Morris Lessmore sat amongst piles of books like crooked towers, getting lost in a story when the sky suddenly turned black.  An angry howling wind whipped up the colourful books like they were a flock of flapping birds.  
Dangerously caught by the wind, Morris' hat danced merrily on his head.  While he was clutching his chair, the wind skidded him across the deck, making his eyes widen in fear.  Sucked right up! 
Swirling around amongst the books and houses, Morris wondered when or if the winds would ever let him go.

Make weta hotel

Kidsedchatnz Topic: Sports

Prepare a couple of tweets for the session using the Tweet Sheet.  Take a look at this link to see what makes the 'Tweet of the Week'. 

The criteria for Tweet of the Week is:
- Did your tweet standout and was it interesting?
- Did your tweet get retweeted or favourited?
- Did your tweet include links, photos or video?
- Did your tweet help others to learn?
- Did your tweet use correct spelling and grammar?

Secret Garden Party

The Spring Garden Party

At the Springston Community Secret Garden 

on the 20^th of October from 11 am until 2 pm

Bring your family along to the first ever Spring Garden Party at the community garden in Springston. We aim to raise awareness of the garden, promote its benefits for the community and create a fun-filled event for primary school students and Springston community members.

There will be:

·     A hat competition (Which primary student can make the best spring themed hat before the event?)
A letter hunt challenge
An opportunity for community members to swap plants
And free BBQ sausages

Probability - what's the chance?

We have been looking at chance and probability.  Today we created this chart to help us see how fractions, percentages and words can all explain the chance of something happening.

Is it a fair chance?

We played a game using dice to see which horse would win the race.  We wondered why some numbers seemed to have better luck.  We decided to investigate......

When we tried again, we shared out the numbers with the greater chance.  The game was much more fair!

Persuade Me!

Start writing with talk..... persuade me that your chips are the best.  

How do you persuade Mum and Dad to do something?
You have 10 minutes to prepare your team speech to persuade us to eat YOUR chips.

What persuasive tools do we already know and use?
Which chips will come out the winner?

PRINGLES won!
We used these things:
Descriptive phrases: - bursting with flavour.
Statement of opinion to start:  -Eat Pringles they are the best!
Reminder of opinion:  - eat Pringles
Technical words: - sodium
Lots of reasons:  - handy container, all the same size, not crushed...
Exaggeration:  - the best in the world!

Kidsedchatnz topic: Books

Wednesday 16th October - Topic: Books

This week's topic for Kidsedchatnz is Books. Check out the questions!

Q1. Do you like/dislike books? How often do you read?
Q2. Are books important? Why do people read them?
Q3. Tell us about your favourite book and why do you like it?
Q4. Books provide us with lots of new information, 
can you share with us something you have learnt from a book?
Q5. Can you please share with us any on-line/digital books that you like?

Check out this video for inspiration...

Check out the link to see the new macot and badges!  Do you think they should visit us at Springston Team Endeavour?  Mascot link here.

Maggie science reflection

In Room 6 we have done some really cool science. My group did coke and water. What I mean is that we watered one plant with coke and one with water. 

The coke grew the tallest but the water was the healthist. The greenst one was the water. The coke one was really pale. The water had lots of leaves to make the food but the coke one didn't have many leaves so it died. I think next time I will get another flower.

Lucy Science reflection

My hightlight this term was seeing the insect man from Lincon University on our school trip.

I learnt what an insect is. An insect has six legs only.

I worked mostly well with my group.

I think the best team was the butterfly garden group.

I liked making the poster on the computer.

Next time I would put the plants closer to the wifi.

Cats rap by Maggie

Cats, cats, cats!

Small cats

Big cats

Warm, soft, cuddly cats

Sleeping, chasing, bouncing cats

Those are just a few!

Lazy cats too!

Grumpy cats

Greedy cats

Don't forget tiger cats

Last of all, best of all

I like fluffy cats!

Josh D inquiry reflection

My favourite thing in our science inquiry was our experiment because I learnt that soda water might make a plant grow well.  We need to do some more testing.

I loved when Mike the bug man came to show us all his insects.  We learned that there are tree wetas and cave wetas.  Sometimes a small cave weta might live in your house!

On our experiment we didn’t work very well in a team.  I need to share my great ideas more and help them get on with the task.  In the end we had a great experiment to share at The Science Fair. Lots of parents came to see our learning.

I am still wondering if mobile phones are safe around people and how the would affect plants.

Josh's inquiry reflection

The best thing I learned in science inquiry this term was that plants can be used to make medicine.  Seeds need water, warmth and oxygen to germinate.

I worked with two girls and we did a great job as a team.  We all had jobs to do.  I was great at the Science Fair because I explained to Dad everything I knew – I knew LOTS!

Next time we need to put the seeds closer to the WiFi and let them have more light.

Tweet of the Week

Check out the tweets from Kidsedchatnz all about our Term 3 reflections.  we won Tweet of the Week last week.  I wonder who has won it for this week?

Butterfly Garden - The Insect Hotel

We have built the Insect Hotel in the Butterfly Garden.  Just like the tepee, it was bigger than we expected and should house many insect vistiors.  We were very A+ adaptable because the weather was terrible but we kept going.

Our next step is to:

1.  Make an Insect Garden sign.

2.  Complete some research on some of the insects we might get visiting.

3.  Make information cards and blog posts about the insects.

4.  Keep planting to attract insects.

5.  Build the catepillar at the front of the garden.

Over the holidays Allana is going to search for some ornamental yarrow, honeysuckle, bergamont and a buddleia bush to plant in the garden.

Great word workshops

Eight of our class went off to do a workshop using the iPads to help them find better words to use.  I am looking forwards to seeing them use a few of these great words in their writing.  I wonder if they could show us how to use the new iPad App too?  Kids teaching kids - AKO!

Sorry for cutting you off Lucy!

Science Fair

We shared our science experiments with other classes and our families today at the Springston Science Fair.  It is amazing the learning that has taken place and Allana even saw students explaining other people's experiments to their parents.  We have all learnt lots from each other.  That is called AKO - teaching and learning.