Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

Thursday 19th December was the last day of school for 2013. I hope everyone has a great holiday! See you on the 3rd of February 2014.

Our Visit to the Dunedin Botanic Gardens

Today we went to the Botanic Gardens. We left school at 10.30am and walked to the Gardens - it was a long walk for some of us. When we got there we had morning tea and a little play. Next, we got into groups and went with staff members from the Botanic Gardens to do some jobs. Kindle 2 went along a path and pulled out seedlings from Sycamore trees that shouldn't be growing in the Gardens. We got nearly a whole bucketful each. After that we went back to the information centre and bagged some food for the ducks. Mrs Dakers saw several children sampling the duck food for themselves, she suggested that it was probably more suitable for ducks than children! We went and fed the ducks with some of the food we had bagged. Some children got quite close to the edge of the pond. It wasn't deep, but we had no spare clothes with us - so children were asked to stay one large step back from the edge! The last thing we did was go back to the big tree near the band rotunda and have a picnic lunch and another play. Some children found the walk back to school absolutely exhausting. What a great day!

Production Practise

We have been practising hard for our end of year production - "Past - Present - Future: A night in the museum." It is a celebration of some of the learning related to our schoolwide overarching concept for the year. The Junior Team part of the show is about Dinosaurs. Teacher aide - Marie Hansen and Lucy's grandma - Mavis Turnbull made 120 dinosaur tails. Ellis Fibre donated the dacron to stuff the tails. Thank you so much for that!! Here are some photos of the Junior Team children practising with their tails on, so we could see how they would be on the night!

Get Firewise

Our college teacher, Miss Ross used the 'Get Firewise' Programme to teach us about Fire Safety. As a follow up, the firemen from Willowbank Fire Station came to school for 2 visits. In the first visit - we practised the things we had been learning. If children notice smoke they shout "fire, fire, fire", they get out of the house or classroom and go to their safe meeting place. If there is smoke in a room they crawl low and get out of the house or classroom shouting "fire, fire, fire " as they go. In the second visit - Miss Ross got to dress up as a fire fighter, we all had turns at squirting the fire hose and we got to have a look in the fire engine.

Value of the Term - Consideration

Look at the ways that Kindle 2 children are showing consideration:

Pet Day

Today was Pet Day at school. Kindle 1 & 2 gathered to look at each others pets. Some people brought live pets, some people brought photos of their pets and some people brought stuffed toy pets.

Rock Solid

As part of our inquiry into Dinosaurs we visited the Otago Museum. Kimberley, one of the museum teachers, talked to us about dinosaurs and fossils. She made a fossil of Noahsaurus' hand. She showed us some fossils and petrified objects. We learned about what happens when a volcano erupts, we had a dinosaur treasure hunt and did some dinosaur drama. It was great. We had some fantastic helpers too! Thanks Folks!

 Kimberley helping Noahsaurus make a fossil of his hand.

 We remembered to put up our hands when we answered questions.

Kimberley was very impressed with our knowledge of dinosaurs.

 A volcano erupting.

 Lava covering the dinosaur.

 A shell fossil.

 Petrified wood.

We all got to hold this petrified object and tried to guess what it was, can you guess?

George Street Normal School Athletics Day

Today we had our school athletics. We have been practising doing activities in teams with Miss Ross our college teacher. We got to try 9 different activities at the Caledonian, then we watched the big kids and teacher's relay races. What a fun, but tiring day.

The School Fair

During Term 3 we were very busy making things for the School Fair. We made lollipop people, sherbet and lollipop spiders. Can anyone spot a common theme? As the day got closer we became more and more excited. On the day of the fair there were so many things to do, look at and eat!! The things we made were set up on a table in Room 10 with the other things from the Junior Team. Our stall was very colourful and we had lots of customers. Hope you stopped by for a look.

Geometry - Area

Area is the amount of space a shape takes up. In Kindle 2, we measured some shapes on the floor using unconventional units.

 Four children can fit into this square lying down.

But, eleven children can fit sitting up!

 Four children can nearly fit into this triangle lying down.

 Nine children can fit sitting down.

The whole class can fit into this triangle standing up.

Which shape has the greatest area or takes up the most space?

Futsal

Today Michael and Dan from Football South came and helped Kindle 2 play a game of Futsal. It was the last of 4 skill sessions. It was great fun. Watch the video to see us in action.

Look what we have made

To see some of the things we have created in the classroom, click on the page entitled "Look what we have made....." on the right hand side of the blog.

Snow Day

Brrrrrr........ school was closed today because of snow. I hope everyone was keeping warm at home. Mrs Dakers walked down to school and put some signs up on the main doors to tell people that school was closed, then waited for a while just to check that no one was dropped off. This is what the junior playground looked like:

Cheese Please

Miss McClintock taught us the poem 'Cheese Please' by Jill Eggleton. We made some little mice and recited the poem.

I don't want fish
to eat, eat, eat.

I don't want spinach
and I don't want meat.

I don't want apples
and I don't want peas.

I am a mouse
and I want cheese.

Look what we made ...

Bubble Fun

 Wow, that bubble blowing looks like serious fun.

The Big Jazz Apple Crunch

 Today at 2.13 pm the children in the Junior Team gathered in Kindle 2 for the Big Jazz Apple Crunch. Children gave a gold coin donation which was for the KidsCan charity and got an apple to crunch.

Rosie's World

 Rosie the cow and friends visited George Street Normal School today. They helped us learn about dairy farms, cows and milk. It was a very funny show and a great introduction to the Fonterra 'Milk in Schools' programme which starts very soon.

Thanks Rosie!

Mana - The Spirit of Polynesia

Today we saw a dance performer called Bernard Mangakahia. In his performance, he showed us Maori, Samoan and American Indian dances.