The Scientist Who Needed A Friend

Jake had an idea to create a mystery story about a scientist and his appearance in a school yard. The children in the playground are playing with Moshlings. The scientist does his best to find himself a friend.

Let's take a look at the video:

The Lion Cub

Gyda wrote such a good story about an African Reserve that it was turned into script for a puppet theatre. When a lion cub is found by itself and wounded, the team at the reserve go into action. Gyda hopes that you enjoy her story.

Counting down... 3. 2, 1, action

A Touch of Greek Mythology

James, Robert and Ibrahim wrote stories based on the Greek myth about Medusa. Jordyn had fun using her puppet in the role of Medusa. Neve works the narrator puppet.

Let's take a look at how their story pans out.
Counting down 3, 2, 1 .....

Sharing our Puppet Theatres at Syndicate Assembly

After writing narrative stories, a number were selected to be re-written as script for puppet theatres. We had fun making our wooden spoon puppets and having parents come in to work with us during the making process. They looked so real when they were finished. We spent two weeks learning the scripts. Some of us took them home to read for homework.

Last week we ran the Middle Syndicate Assembly so that we had an audience to perform our puppet theatres to. The video footage of each puppet theatre is posted separately because of their length. Find the Puppet Theatre label and the title that you would like to view.

The first video is based on Toby's mystery story about the pyramids in Egypt. Toby was interested in the treasure recovered over the years. He wanted to know what happened to it. Maybe some families from our school were in Melbourne for the recent Tutehkahmen exhibition. Passages of Toby's story were used in this puppet theatre.

What problems could exist? .....

Athletic Results

Team 18 had a wonderful day on Tuesday at St Albans Athletic Sports.

1) Our boys relay team won the Year 3 relay event.

2) Girls 7 years

Piper Wilson-Bungard took first place in; shot put, high jump, long jump and sprints.

Lydia Mercer-Beumelburg came second place in shot put and Gyda Jolley second in discus.

Neve Vangioni came third in shot put, discus, high jump and long jump.

3) Boys 7 years

Jackson William came second in high jump and third in sprints.

Toby Lambert came second in long jump.

We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate these children. They made us all feel very proud of them. All of that training paid off.

Our Big Day Out at Orana Wildlife Park

Our Orana Wildlife Park Visit:

On Wednesday, Room 18 went on a bus trip to Orana Park. The drive was pretty calm until we hit a bump in the road. It felt like we were on a roller-coaster for a short time.

When we got to the park an educational ranger met us near the entrance fence. His name was Toby. Toby explained a few of the rules (re safety) and then let us enter through the gate. He led us into a large room within the park where we could leave our bags. Then we went into another room that had seats similar to that of a theatre. Two other education people met us there.

We followed our guide outside and headed for the lion's den. One of the lions was bigger than all of the others. A family of lions including the mother were all cuddled up in one corner of their yard because it was quite cold. The big lion stood a few metres away to keep watch. We saw the large cubs play with each other. The mother lion got a little cross at times.

Next we went to see the Spider-Monkeys. They came out of a small opening in their house to get to their island. 'Magnificent at swinging!' "I wish I was able to do that." I thought to myself.

After that we went to see the Lemurs. They were sitting on ledges peering out at everyone. We also visited the rhinos and got to feed the giraffes. That was my favourite part. Finally we saw the Meercats. They were digging lots of holes in the sand. I was on guard too!

We were hungry by that time so we went back to the education centre for some lunch. After lunch we had some time to visit the tigers and the farmyard before saying goodbye to the park rangers, getting on the bus and heading back to school. What a fun day we had.

Reported by Robert

Thank you to Jordyn's mother for the photographs:

Our Award Winners for Week Eight

Congratulations to our award winners this week.

The award for achievement went to Gyda for the progress she has made in reading and writing. This week Gyda read to the class from a challenging text. She enjoyed the opportunity to share her literacy skill with her peers and laugh at the humorous content.

Toby was awarded a certificate for his courteous approach to sharing during team assignment. Toby displays many of the values that St Albans School works towards; respect, community, showing initiative and creativity. What a great example he sets .

Jake achieved the Heart of Achievement this week. Jake has demonstrated such a positive attitude to his work and continues to strive for excellence in all that he does. We particularly like Jake's questions and the interest he shows in our Inquiry subjects.

Congratulations and well done to these students.

Expressing An Emotion Using Art

The theme that the Christchurch Art Gallery tutors used for the abstract art lesson was 'emotions.' The children screen printed the background of their work in gold paint and then used dye to paint in their foreground. The use of colours and brush strokes was to depict their chosen emotion. These photographs were

taken throughout the art-making process.

Dr Nutty is Caught on Video

This footage captures some of the moments caught of video by one of our parents. The full performance is available on CD.

Our Performance Day

It is so hard to believe that all our hard work paid off and our performance was staged. It seemed such a lot of time had passed since we had written the script and started to learn it. We went into role, with costume and makeup and it all came to life. It was great having the middle and senior school there as an audience. Best of all we had many of our parents in the audience to clap at the end of each scene. A video was made of the performance by Ibrahim's dad. If any families want a copy please contact our teacher.

Visit from the Public Library

On Tuesday a number of children from the middle syndicate enjoyed participating in storytelling. Props including hand held puppets were used to bring the characters in picture books to life. The performances were superb. Here are a few photographs sent across to us from Room 19. Thanks to Mrs de Vries.

Assembly Presenters and Awards

This week it was Room 18's turn to run assembly. Holly and Jack did a great job.



Our Heart of Achievement Award this week went to Jack for his wonderful attitude to all curriculum work. The other two recipients of awards were Holly for her work ethic and Jordyn who works so hard on her reading. Congratulations for all of your hard work.

Learning About Cubist Artworks

Integrating artwork into our geometry unit gave the concepts of rotation, translation, refection, open and closed spaces an all together new meaning. Having discussed and shared some of Pablo Picasso's cubist work, the children viewed video footage to learn more about the concept of cubism and how this form of artwork is created.

We based our artwork on a selected container within the classroom and proceeded to visually manipulate it. Once the object was drawn onto the paper, shading was taught, as was the importance of enhancing specific lines on the artwork.

Here are some of the completed artworks and children sharing them at assembly.

The first piece of art is Ella's creation.



The second artwork belongs to Jack.



Daniel had not quite completed his work at this stage.

Sharing at assembly:

Room 18 Awards

Assembly Awards;

The recipients of our awards in Week 2 were as follows:

Heart of Achievement: Lydia Mercer Beumelberg

Values Certificate: Daniel Bensley

Achievement Certificate: Blake Sayers

We offer these children our congratulations.

A Message for Room 18 Children and Parents

An opportunity to be really creative:

It seems that we are in the grip of yet another disruption to home and school life. I have decided to post some spelling words onto the Blog and ask the children to use them creatively in a snow poem or short story.
To enhance the writing use a simile if possible (e.g. as slippery as an eel, silent like my thoughts ) or alliteration ( a string of words that start with the same letter or sound).
Don't forget to illustrate your work and bring it into school on Friday morning.

If you have time to access the IXL site on the blog, select Year 3 or Year 4 depending on how confident you feel. This site is closely linked to our math curriculum and will help to develop math concepts. It is interactive and very user friendly.

Words for your writing exercise:

silent shivering still shimmering soaking sudden surprised slippery surface

'Our Wheelie Day'

On Tuesday, one of the requests submitted by the students through their school councillors came into fruition - a 'Wheelie Day.' What a perfect Tuesday it was. The sun shone and the air was warm. The children enjoyed the 45 minutes to show off their skill. What a wonderful way to get some exercise. We include a short slideshow of the event.

The children would like to share some of their narrative stories with you. Having studied the process of bread making, they have written a story about what could happen if the bread making process went horribly wrong. It is difficult to publish all of their work but we hope you enjoy reading a sample.

The Bread Monster
Written by Neve

Early one morning a scientist was doing a bread experiment on how to make bread. He wrote the write things into his book but he had one thing that he had not labelled properly. It would be the potion that would make the bread come alive. He fixed the problem and wrote that down in his book too. He thought that the potion was a bottle of yeast so he put the yeast in with the other ingredients. The scientist stirred it up. The bread was ready.

The bread turned into a bread monster. It chased the scientist all around the laboratory. He ran out of the laboratory and ran into a bread shop. The bread monster had followed him. The scientist was heading straight for the oven. The scientist saw some rope that was dangling off the roof. He got to the oven and quickly climbed up the rope. The bread monster could not stop so it ran right into the oven. The scientist jumped down off the rope and shut the oven door and turned the oven up to 200 degrees Celsius. The bread monster was cooked alive. When he came out of the oven he was as solid as a rock.





Monster on the Rampage

Written by Blake
A monster was on a rampage and every time he stomped his feet, he created an earthquake. He had one eye and a bagel for a shield. He had a bread tail and bread wings. He was quite smelly, really quite rotten.

There was a totally wicked Wednesday when everytime the monster saw the sun, he grew bigger and bigger. He grew so big that he floated off into space, suffocated and died. That made the sky rain loaves of bread.




The Bread Monster

Early one morning the bakers were making a new type of bread. Suddenly the oven started to rumble. It was like a 6.9 earthquake, except in the oven. This tiny bread man jumped out of the oven and slipped out of the bakery.

The sun came out and then the little bread man started to grow. No more than a few minutes later, the bread man was a giant!

He went into the city and went on a rampage. The bakers screamed, “Oh no! That’s not good. That’s where the professor lives.” The bakers ran after him and into the professor’s laboratory. They said,” professor there’s a bread monster on the loose.”
“Oh no!” the professor said. Robert, Jake and James ran in.

“We have a solution,” they yelled. They brought a giant toaster into the room. “Meet the giant toaster 2000,” they said. They all took it outside and lured the bread monster closer. Once he was inside of it, they pushed the lever down and then popped him off into space. No-one knew what might happen next but the professor was delighted with the result.

Written by Robert

Shapes

We have been studying Geometry this past week. We have been learning about the difference between polygons (2D shapes) and polyhedra (3D shapes). We have been learning their names, how many faces, edges and vertices they have and how to use them in artwork and construction. We used translation, reflection and rotation in some of our artwork.

This movie was taken during a team activity. Each group was asked to create a number of different shapes and to colour them. After that was completed we were provided with glue and newspaper and asked to sit in a circle. The goal of the activity was to cooperatively create a picture using the shapes we had individually made without talking to each other, but to use all the shapes we had made. We had to take turns and encourage each other using positive body language. Here is the result.







This is another activity that we completed as a group. We had to construct a polyhedra based on the shapes that we had been shown. To keep the structure together was quite difficult. We found out that triangular shapes were definitely the strongest. We wondered whether maybe we should consider that when we rebuild our new city. Here are some of the photos taken during the construction phase.

End of Term Two Poetry Competition

While the poetry competition results are known, we thought that it would be great to share this movie with you. We are sure that you will agree that Jackson, Lydia, Robert and Bukhosi were very convincing during their poetry recital.

Our In-School Beach Activity Day

The year to date has not enabled school trips to the beach or swimming pools. To make up for these lost opportunities, we thought that it would be fun for the children to participate in beach related activities for their 'Big Day In.' The activities included making a hula skirt in Room 17, a pair of wacky sunglasses in Room 19 and using fabric crayons to create their own placemat based on a beach theme in Room 18. This slideshow was taken after the activities had been completed and the children were sharing their work with the adults and Junior School. Everyone enjoyed their shared lunch.

Welcome to Room 18's Laboratory

Since the beginning of week 3 we have been following an Inquiry process to find out what a number of scientific concepts mean. One of the first was to look at different liquids and to work out why some liquids fell to the bottom of a container while others floated to the top, or remained in the middle of the container. The objective of this Inquiry was to establish what density meant.

Questions asked were:
a) What do we already know about the liquids we are using in this experiment?
b) Knowing this about the liquids we are using, what is our hypothesis?
c) What must we do to create a Fair Test?
d) If we measure 50mls of each liquid and place it in a beaker, can we predict what will happen?
e) How will we make sure that our recordings are accurate?
f) Observing the process, can we conclude what has happened?

The slideshow will take you on a short journey through our Inquiry process. The children having completed this part of the process still have questions they want to answer. We will share the results of this work with you next week. In the meantime, enjoy watching the slideshow.

Evaluation of our clay unit:

We thought you would like to listen to some members of the class sharing their pottery experience . While the creative process develops new skills and is great fun, it is also important to be able to evaluate the end product. Students generally enjoy discussing their process and receiving feedback. The clay sculptures were designed to represent a strength the student exhibited. We hope you enjoy watching the movie.

A Chance To Discuss Our Process:

How we used statistics to learn about Multiple Intelligence

The first two weeks back at school this term have provided an opportunity to reflect on our Term One Inquiry and to enable the children to use their knowledge of SOLO Taxonomy to assess their learning journey. While most children believed that they were in the Unistructural Phase (knew one piece of information) at the beginning of the unit, they were confident to place themselves in the Multistructural Phase (had made multiple links with the subject) or Relational Phase (confident to justify their position based on their understanding and application of knowledge ). Refer to the link on SOLO Taxonomy for further information on SOLO Taxonomy at the side of our Blog.

Rather than have the children write a report on their findings, we decided to informally share ideas. The children were asked to respond to questions aimed at unlocking their understanding of Multiple Intelligence. The movie is divided into sections and is approximately 10 minutes in duration. You may find the youtube site posted at the side of our Blog interesting. Howard Gardner discusses how he believes an understanding of Multiple Intelligence could shape American education in the future. The New Zealand Inquiry Model is certainly taken a huge step towards this goal.

Once you have viewed the movie we would be grateful if you would click on the link 'post a sticky' at the bottom of the wall. This will direct you to wallwisher where you will double click on the orange background to post a note to the children. If you have any questions, the children will do their best to answer them. If your child wants to post a note to share how they feel about the work they completed, they are most welcome.

It's Autumn

During our first week back at school, our writing focus has been the development of Haiku poems. What better ignition than to view our grand old oak trees preparing for winter. Rather than publish poems on the Blog, the children recite their own work. We hope you enjoy the poems that are posted.

Holiday Adventures

The First Week Back for Term Two

The class share their holiday experiences in small groups.





Here are some of the exciting events that they were involved in over the two week break.



Jackson: "I went to Hamner Springs with my friend. I fell off the edge of the mini waterslide but I was okay. My family went down to Lake Ohau. It was there that I got another piece of my favourite Lego."

James " I was in Auckland for some of the holidays. I went to see my friends Elliot and Nick. They used to go to our school. One day we went up into the SkyTower. It was fun."

Neve: " I know that Jake was in Dunedin because I saw him there. I went to stay with a relative. We went to the museum and found out about how electricity works. That's where I saw Jake."

Jake: " Yes, I was in Dunedin. While I was there I went on a tour of the Cadbury's Chocolate Factory. There was lots of chocolate to eat, but I'm not a big fan of it."




Jack: "I went all the way to Tekapo and Queenstown. It was really lovely because the leaves on the trees were all changing colour."

Toby: " We went on a long trip up the West Coast of New Zealand. I went over the Arthur's Pass to Greymouth and Hokitika and then onto up to Westport. We saw the pancake rocks at Punakaiki and then came back through the Lewis Pass. We did such a lot of traveling, but it was fun to see so much."

Myah: " I went up to Nelson to stay with my nana for Easter. She is really artistic. On Monday, we made nests out of clay and coconut shell and decorated them with feathers. Our eggs were made out of small stones. I was allowed to paint them."





Daniel: "I had my birthday during the holidays. I went to the Airforce Museum with my friends Robert and Jake. We had lots of fun jumping out of planes. I was given plane kits to make up. This is a Spitfire."

Working with Clay

This week we commenced the art component of our unit on Multiple Intelligence. Before the children were able to handle the clay they had to think about and design (a) a pot and (b) a sculpture that might represent one of their strengths (intelligences).

The aim of the unit:
To learn about the texture of clay as it is being crafted
To join pieces of clay correctly so that when dry, they remain attached
To produce a coil and pinch pot
To creatively sculpt an object depicting a personally selected intelligence
To evaluate their own work and the work of others

We thought that an early glimpse at a work in progress may demonstrate to you the focus that each child had during the first phase of the unit. In this slideshow the children are producing their coil pot. Mucky hands were just another enjoyable part of this tactile experience.

We will post the sculptures at a later date.

Recounting St Albans Cross Country

The children have been learning how to plan a recount so that events are sequenced and ideas are grouped for audience impact. While it is difficult to share all of their wonderful work on the blog, we will post two recounts this week and another two next.

The Amazing Day
It was the day of the cross-country. I was feeling excited. Mr Williams told us to line up and he showed us where to go. We did warm ups. When we were ready, Mr Williams blew the horn. I was running in 10th place, and running in 11th, Robert was right behind me. I was trying very hard to win. I was trying to get in front of other children. It was very hard. Bukhosi came first. It was his third win in a row. I saw him zooming past me like a rocket. While we were running, we first went out of English Park and through a gate, past the spider web, past the classrooms and out a different gate back into English Park. We had to watch out for trees on the way. We went around the square of the field in English Park, but we had to do two laps. We did some things again , but on the final lap we cut a corner to get to the finish line. At the finish we got a drink bottle. It said ‘ASB’ on it.
Written by Daniel


The Day Finally Came
Guess what I did on Thursday? It was our cross-country. A week before the cross-country we were in training. We were doing laps around the field. We did about six a day until it was time for the proper cross-country.

On the day, first we sat on the grass until we could move onto the chairs in the stadium at English Park. I was wearing my house colours. Mine was yellow. It was my turn to run. Mr Williams warmed us up. Then he blew a horn and I ran as fast as a rocket. I pounded over the hill and past a lot of people. When I got to the end of the race, I got a drink bottle. I found out that I had come in 15th place. Bukhosi won. After that I sat back down on the seat.
Next it was the girl’s turn. Piper came 6th and Lydia came 5th. Beth came first in the Year 3 girl’s race. We all ran a long way.

Written by Jack

Our Cross Country

Our fitness training finally paid off. Every member of Room 18 completed the Middle School Cross Country. Bukhosi went on to win for the third time in succession. His determination was evident from the beginning of the week. We include a few photographs of the event.

1) The team wait as the junior classes complete the course












2)At the finish line





The winners and their very proud moment:


3) Yellow drink bottles each competitor received after completing the race

Poetry (Imagery)

The children in Room 18 have continued to develop their understanding of Imagery. They have written poems about the sea using pictures and objects for motivation. The poetry aims at capturing each experience by using the five senses (sight, sound, taste, touch, smell). We have posted a number of published works for you to read. We hope you enjoy them.

Picture A Calm Day (Imagery)

The salty sea moves gently across the sand
I hear cheeky dolphins wriggling under the rowing boat
I feel the new paint job as a rub my fingers across the side of the boat
And taste the salty sea as it splashes in my face.

Howling gulls flying over the seven seas
Great white sharks surround the boat
I lower the feeding cage under the ocean
The terrifying sharks amaze me.

Finally I head back to the surface
Lightning smashes and thunder rumbles overhead
It’s time to go home.

Written by Blake (Year 3)


My Day at the Beach

Touch the slippery shiny shells
They look like gold
I taste the salty water as it slips down my throat
Hear the dolphins talking to each other
See the bubbles as the shoal of fish splash their tails
Smell the fish after they are reeled onto the boat
I loved my day at the beach

Written by Piper (Year 3)



My Sea Poem

As I lift the rocks, crabs scatter
Their pincers are clicking.
I feel the waves roll smoothly over the top of me,
And taste the water as it swirls over my tongue.
I touch the slippery green seaweed
See the seaweed swaying
As the wind would blow it,
If it were leaves on a tree.
The water is warm,
But I don’t put my head under the salty sea.
I prefer this view.

Written by Madison (Year 3)


My Sea Poem
I watch groups of seagulls flying together.
As we touch the shells, I see massive waves pounding
We see a shoal of fish as we dive into the sea
As I swim, slimy seaweed floats underneath me.

Climbing out of the water,
A crab pinches my thumb with its claws.

We have our picnic on the shore
I make a sandcastle with my shovel
Later, I see my sandcastle disappear.

Written by Holly (Year 3)



The Sea

The dolphins are talking,
Rain pouring,
Thunder roaring.
I dive and touch the sandy bottom
Then swim into an underwater cave
Sharks and fish swim past
I can’t touch them.

Written by Toby (Year 3)