Merry Christmas!!!

It was our last day of school for the year today and now we are on holiday until January 31st.  When we get back there will be a new bunch of children in A3.  It has been a great year and we have had a lot of fun together.  Thanks to everyone who has supported our blog this year.   Wally has promised to update the blog with tales of his holiday, so stay posted for his updates.  We wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year. 

Miss Mac and the Shark, by Sandy

Sandy has a great imagination and she loves to make up stories.  Listen to her reading a scary story she wrote about Miss Mac meeting a shark.

Letters to Santa

Here are the last of our letters to Santa written by Deziah, Rishaad, Aliyaah, Kaya and Sandy.  We were very excited when he commented on our blog and we are looking forward to hearing from him again!

Watching the Fireworks, by Sandy

Sandy was out watching the fireworks for the opening of the Rugby World Cup on Friday.  While she was waiting for the fireworks to start she learned some things about the sea and she has written a story to tell us about it.  

Catch it if you can

We have been reading the poem Catch it if you can.  It's about cooking pancakes so on Friday we decided to make some pancakes of our own. 

 Sandy, Noelani and Ennie have written stories about the pancake experience:

Tui Garden Challenge

A3 and A1 have entered the Tui Gardening challenge and on Monday we started getting our gardens ready.  We pulled out all of the weeds and old plants from our garden beds.  As part of the garden challenge we were given new gardening tools and these were very helpful to pull out the plants.  

Ashley with some of our new tools

One of our gardens before we weeded it.

Take a look at this slide show to see the children hard at work.
   

Four of the children wrote and recorded stories about their gardening experience so far. 

Dinosaur Prints

Last week we were very busy working on  dinosaur prints. It was a lot of work but we love the results. We made two different prints.  For the first one we chose one colour of ink to use, then we used dye and creative glue to add detail to the picture.  For our second print we were allowed to chose two different colours of ink.  Take a look at our slide show and let us know what you think.

Untitled from Kirsty Macfarlane on Vimeo.

Maths Week

Last week was maths week.  Each day we worked in groups to solve a different maths problem.  Some of the problems were quite tricky and we enjoyed the challenge of solving them. 

Here is Aliyaah, Ofa and Noelani telling us how they solved the following problem:

Mother Bear is making her 5 bear cubs new coats.  The coats have 3 buttons each. How many buttons does Mother Bear need?

We also used paint to copy a picture of a robot using shapes.  Take a look at the slide show to see the results. 

Monster Mash

We have been reading 'The Monster's Party' by Joy Cowley and we decided to have our own monster mash. We made monster masks and played charades, musical chairs and pin the hat on the monster.  After we had finished the games we ate lots of jelly!  

 

Here are some photos of the scary monsters at play. 

We also made a sound scape to match what was happening in the story.  We had to think of sounds that matched the story and then we added actions.  We hope you like it. 

The sandpit has opened!

Our sandpit is open and we love it!  So far we have made sandcastles, volcanoes and whales and we can't wait to see what else we can make.   Amalani, Sandy and Aliyaah have written stories about what they did in the sandpit, can you think of anything else they could make?

The Mouse By Sandy

Sandy has written a story about some unwanted visitors in her house.  How do you think she should get rid of them? 

Bye Bye Wattle

Friday was Wattle's last day in A3.  He has been visiting us from Australia for the last 7 weeks and now it is time for him to go back to his class Learning Together.  We have had lots of fun with Wattle and we are going to miss him, but we are looking forward to seeing our giraffe Wally again.  Take a look at the video to see what Wattle got up to while he was with us.  

Untitled from Kirsty Macfarlane on Vimeo.

Here is a video of us singing a goodbye song for Wattle.

Meeting the kittens

On Thursday we skyped with our friends in Australia, Learning Together.  We got to see their rabbit blue bell and her seven kittens.  The kittens have grown since we last saw them and Wally is having a great time playing with them.  You can see Wally playing with the kittens by clicking here.   

Wattle is saying hi to his classmates.  

Sandy's Zoo Story

When we went to Auckland Zoo we were lucky enough to see Burma the elephant with her keeper.  We saw her moving a log with her trunk, swimming in her pool and throwing sand on herself.  Sandy really liked Burma and she has written a story about her.  This is the first time Sandy has recorded one of her stories and she has done a great job! 

Going to the zoo!

We went to Auckland Zoo yesterday and had a great time.  We were lucky the sun came out and all the animals were very active.  Wattle came with us and he had lots of fun and he made some new friends. 

Wattle met some friends at the zoo and he saw a real wombat's skull!  

Take a look at the slide show and movie to see photos and videos of the day. 

Untitled from Kirsty Macfarlane on Vimeo.

Futuristic Transport

Once a week A3 goes to the library to work on the computers with Ms Clark.  Last week they were learning to use kidpix to draw futuristic transport.  Take a look at their amazing creations.

The Gingerbread Man

We have been reading different versions of the Gingerbread Man this week.  Some of the children have written their own versions, watch the video to see what they wrote.

Sweet Sticky Buns

We have been reading Greedy Cat and on Friday we decided to make some sweet sticky buns.  Take a look at the slide show to see how we did it.  Deziah and Maqushio did a great job as our official photographers. 

Untitled from Kirsty Macfarlane on Vimeo.

Here is Amalani reading his story about the sticky buns.

The Dark Dark House

This week we have been reading a poem called 'The Dark Dark House'  We wanted to act it out and we needed a dark dark box to do it.  

Take a look at the video to hear us reading the poem and see what comes out of the box. 

Wattle and Wally have arrived!

Today we received an envelope in the post and inside we found Wattle and Wally.  There was also some vegemite and a book full of stories that the children from Prep K and Prep S had written.  Wattle and Wally said they had had a great trip, although they had been a little frightened by the tornado.  Wattle is going to stay with us and Wally is going to spend his time in A4.  Take a look at the video to see what Wattle got up to on his first day here.

Untitled from Kirsty Macfarlane on Vimeo.