East Idol

On Friday we held the finals of East Idol and two of the groups in the final were from A3.  It was great to see them singing and dancing in front of the whole school and both groups did a great job.  Take a look at the video to see some of the performances and performers.  

More 'As I Was Going Out One Day'

Here are Hayzel, Katie and Jerome using fluency and expression to read a poem to the ipad.

listen to ‘Hayzel’ on Audioboo

listen to ‘Katie’ on Audioboo

listen to ‘Jerome’ on Audioboo

Jerome's first chapter book

Some of the children in the Kakariki writing group have been writing their very first chapter book.   They started creating them two weeks ago.  First they thought of the characters and a problem that they would need to solve.  Next they planned five chapters for their books and each day they wrote a chapter.  Once they had written the final chapter they worked with a buddy to do some final editing.  The last step was creating the illustrations using paint and thinking up a title for their book.  Here is Jerome's completed book, we hope you enjoy it. 

Open publication - Free publishing - More fiction

Some of the children in Kakariki are still working on their books and we hope to get them up on the blog soon.  

Hairy Pants, by Jerome

On Monday we read The Hairy Book by Babette Cole. 

Jerome enjoyed the book so much he decided to write his own version. 

The Kings Mistake, By Jerome

It's the Queens Birthday but the King has forgotten something important.  What will the Queen do? Listen to Jerome's story to find out.



Our Botanic Garden reflection

After our trip to the Auckland Botanic Gardens I gave the children the option of using the ipad to record themselves sharing what they learned and/or a question they would like the answer to.  They were able to do this when they had some spare time and had completed their set work. This is the first time they have used the ipad to record themselves and here is a video of the results. 

Now our challenge is to answer some of these questions.  Share your ideas about how we could find the answers by leaving a comment.

Jerome and the fox, by Jerome

Jerome is feeling hungry and he wants to eat fox! Another Mr fox inspired story, recorded by Shirley and edited by Kiet. 

Super Jerome

We have started story writing this week and everyone is writing really interesting stories.  Here is one Jerome wrote about being a super hero.  The ending is unexpected, listen to the story and tell us why you think Jerome said what he did.  The movie was recorded by Jerome with the help of Noelani.

Welcome Back!

We are all back at school for the new year and it is very exciting.  This year the children in A3 are year 2s, so we are a little older and there are alot more of us! Take a look at the slideshow to meet the children who are in A3 this year,  you might recognise some of the faces.  We are looking forward to sharing our learning with everyone.

  A3 Children 2012 on PhotoPeach

Concert Video

Take a look at the videos of our end of year concert.  We had a great time so we hope you enjoy watching them.

The year ones

The year twos

The year threes

A roaring good time!

Today the junior school had our Christmas concert.  All of the year ones had their face painted as lions and we sung 'In the Jungle'.

It was a lot of fun and the children did a great job performing their songs!  Take a look at our photos and stay posted for a video of our performance.  

Christmas Concert on PhotoPeach

Goodbye Nanas

It's time for Nanas to go back to his class in Christchurch so we decided to give him a farewell party.  We had a treasure hunt and played some games then we made banana splits! Yum!  We will miss Nanas, but we are looking forward to seeing Wally again.

Nanas Big day at the museum!

Yesterday A3 and A4 took Nanas on his first adventure into the big city.  He went with us to the museum and he got to see lots of interesting things, like dinosaur bones. 

Nanas on looking at the motorway on the way to the museum

Nanas looking at some cockroaches in the weird and wonderful exhibition 

Take a look at this slideshow to see what else Nanas and A3 got up to:

Here are some stories that the children wrote about their trip to the museum.  It is Tevita's first video since starting in our class, well done Tevita! 

First Contact

Yesterday we had our first ever skype call with the Springston Explorers in Christchurch.  We got to see Wally and ask them questions about what he was doing down there.  They asked us some questions too!  It was very exciting.

Nanas is waving hello to his class.

Asking questions about Wally

A3 and A4 go bananas for Nanas

Nanas has arrived and everyone is very excited.  He has spent the day meeting the children, reading books and playing games.  It's been great and he even came out to fitness with us.

Happy Diwali

On Friday it was Diwali, the Indian festival of light.  We decided to celebrate it by making Barfi and Rangoli patterns.  Take a look at our video to see the what we did.

Trick or Treat

It was Halloween last week.  We decided to make some scary halloween food.  We got together with A4 and made marshmellow ghosts and fingers covered in blood!  It was fun making them but even better when we got to eat them.

Gardening

On Wednesday we started to get our garden bed ready for the plants.  First we took out the weeds, then we put newspaper down and wet it.  This was to stop more weeds from growing.  Once the newspaper was really wet we started to fill up our garden with dirt.  It was a very messy job but lots of fun.  We were all very tired at the end but we can't wait to start growing strawberries so we can eat them all up! Alex wrote a story about what we did to make our garden, have a look:

Take a look at this slide show to see what we did.

Our puffer Fish

We have been working hard for about five weeks to make these wonderful puffer fish.  First we had to cover our balloons in layers and layers of newspaper and glue. After that we had to cover the balloon in white paper and wait for it to dry before we could begin painting it.  It's taken a long time but the results are great and all of the children are very proud of their fish.

Year one barbeque

On the last day of term we had a barbeque with all of the year one classes.  We got to play with the sports equipment and the parachute.  It was heaps of fun.  Take a look at our photos.