Whero's what am I stories

Whero writing group have written and recorded their what am I stories.  Can you guess what they are?

What am I part two from East School on Vimeo.

Our New Year Dragon

The lions reading group read Our New Year Dragon by Sara Oldfield.   

As a follow up activity the children made their own new year dragon. They then used the easy speak to record something they had learnt about the new year dragon.

Here is a video of a dancing dragon.

New Years Celebrations

Last week we learnt the waiata Nga Tamariki O Matariki.  It is a song about Matariki and while we were learning it we also discussed other ways people in A3 celebrated New Years.  Here is Rohit, Tanzeela, Vicky and Nicole telling us about their New Years celebrations.

Can You See an Insect?

The lions reading group read the book Can You See an Insect.

As a follow up to the book they went on an insect hunt in pairs. They used the cameras to take two photos of any insects they found, one photo from a distance and the second close up.  Take a look at the video we made using their pictures.

Seahorses

The lions read the book Seahorses by Hannah Reed.   They have made a movie to share all the interesting facts they learnt about seahorses.  

They also had some questions about Seahorses that were not answered by the book and these were:

1. Where do seahorses sleep?
2. How do they find other seahorses?
3. How do they find their food?

If you can help us answer any of these questions please leave us a comment. 

The Monster, by Vicky

Vicky has written a great story with a clear beginning middle and end.  Listen to her story and let us know what you would do if a monster ate you. 

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. 

The Grinch, by Vicky

Vicky has been working on writing stories with a clear beginning, middle and end.  Yesterday she wrote a fantastic story about the Grinch.  Watch her movie to find out if Christmas has been saved.

Apatosaurus, by Vicky

Our topic last term was dinosaurs and we loved learning all about them.  We were also learning how to write descriptions.  The children got to pick their favorite dinosaur and write a description of it.  They used books and other dinosaur resources to find the information they needed.   Here is Vicky reading her description of an Apatosaurus.

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.

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 Alligator, by Vicky

Last term we were learning about predators and Vicky has written a story telling us how an alligator catches its prey. 

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.  

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.

Predators

We have been learning about predators this term.  Today we went out and pretended to be predators trying to catch prey.  It was a lot of fun, sometimes the prey got away and sometimes it didn't.  Take a look at the video too see some 'predators' stalking their prey . . .

After pretending to be predators the children wrote some great stories.  Here is Shirley reading hers:

More of our  predator stories will be posted soon. . . 

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.

Run run as fast as you can!

On Friday we baked gingerbread men.  It was a messy job but lots of fun!  We watched the gingerbread men carefully to make sure none of them ran away and lucky for us none of them did. 


The gingerbread men waiting to be eaten



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.