I'm A Poet And I Know It

In writing today we explored the language of poetry. We read a poem about scootering around the town and used it as inspiration for our poems. It was a challenge to try and write in this way. Here are some poems we composed:

Riding on my skateboard
Balancing, balancing, balancing
All around the city
-Oscar Carey

Swishing on my skates
Around, around, around
Spinning, spinning, spinning, 
All around the town
-Luana Kirchoff Pereira

Once went I was riding
I was doing 360s
With my sister
I listened to my Mum
And I loved it
-Noah Reid

I am on my bike
I am turning on my bike 
To jump
I fell in the pond
I was covered in frogs!
-Angus Roberts

Riding my waterski
All around the lake
Doing some tricks
And back flips
On my waterskis
I was going and going 
Until I was stopping
I got into the boat
-Cruz Schwalger

Riding on my skates
Going swishing round the gates
Seeing all my mates
Holding on the gates
Seeing the whole estates
Faceplanting!
Waaaaaa!
I WANT MY MUMMY!
-Tessa Hurndell

A Sheepish Visit

We were so lucky today to have a visit from some Dads who work on a farm. They sheared sheep in front of us! We also had a turn at feeding a lamb.

We learned that sheep have lanolin in their wool to keep them dry.

Thank you to our visitors. There was a lot of curiosity and therefore a lot of learning!

Check out our videos.

From the kids:

"The man sheared a sheep and it was awesome." - William 

"The baby lamb was cute." - Beau

"We got to feed the baby lamb." - Olivia

Watch this space.....

We have been observing our environment and using it to inspire us in art. We have also been learning about different media in art. That means "the tools or materials you use for art". Tomorrow we're going to use dye and photography to create a new piece of art. Watch this space.....

Friends with Tami

Every Thursday we are lucky to have Tami who takes our friends programme. We have been using Spike the talking tool to share what makes us happy. We're talking about different feelings we feel. We feel scared, happy, nervous, grumpy, lonely and mischievous.

We practiced "milkshake breathing" which helps us relax. It was fun. We inhaled and exhaled through straws. (Check out our video below!) Listen for the sounds, it's like the Hanmer Hot Pools!

"You have to make bubbles!" - Cruz

"It sounds like the sea!" - Bella T 

"We made some pictures of our bodies and our feelings." - Ashton

"We did bubbles with the straws because it was for practice." - Beau 

"With Tami we did some bubbles with water bottles and we also some people had some straws. They had cups too. It was so fun." -Tom 

Super Spellers in KA

Today we were practising spelling words that we often use. We practised 'is', 'the', 'I', 'am', 'to', 'and', 'on' and 'like'.

Whispering, Talking and Shouting with my pencil!

Today we were using observation skills to sketch a soft toy bunny. We had to use shading to show the light and dark bits. One good way of understanding it is to talk, shout and whisper with your pencil to show the shades.  It was a challenge but we made sure we had growth mindsets and worked hard. We did a walk around and commented on each other's art. It's good to see how others do it. 

Jack Frost Visits

Jack Frost visited this morning and we were curious about the art that he created. We used our new microscopes to OBSERVE and DESCRIBE the frost crystals that he left on our seats.

My House, My Castle

In writing we are using our study of homes to look back a few centuries at castles. Miss Eve showed us real castles she's been to such as Edinburgh Castle in Scotland and the Hohensalzburg fortress in Austria. Some of us have been to a real castle - Lanarch Castle in Dunedin. Hunter C went to a castle in Australia that had real jewels. We explored the parts of a castle, photos of real castles and even used a 'how to' video on YouTube to get ideas for how to draw our castles. We're going to use our castles to do some writing this week.

"Castles normally have rocks and wood. And also castles have flags, drawbridges and windows." - Tom

"A castle is a safe place where you can hide from people." - Felix

"My castle has a drawbridge, walls and a roof." - Benji

"Castles can have bricks and stones." - James

"Some castles have flags." - Lily

"They have walls and rooves." - Ashton

"Castles have really good hiding places. The enemies can fall into the moat." - Luka 

"Castles have canons and drawbridges. They pull them up and down for people to come and fight." - George 

"Castles have flags on the top of the roof." - Hunter C

Winter Fest - Sustainability Rap!

Hi there, just a reminder to please practice this rap for Saturday.

Please practice this rap every moment that you can! This will be chanted alongside our Winter Fest float next Saturday. 

Verse 1

Sh Sh  Shotover

Sh Sh  Shotover

Sh Sh  Shotover

Sh Sh  Shotover

Sustainability (uh huh)

Sustainability (uh huh)

Sustainability (uh huh)

Sustainability 

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8!

Verse 2

You’ve got the ability for

Sustainability from

Now to infinity

(Uh huh) For our community

Go back to first verse

Verse 3

Don’t stain it  

Sustain it!

Don’t drain it 

Maintain it! (repeat this verse)

Go back to first verse

Verse 4

Uh huh Queenstown, looking fine

Uh huh Queenstown, looking fine

Uh huh Queenstown, looking fine

Uh huh Queenstown, looking fine

Repeat whole rap

Literacy Experiences

We love having literacy experiences outside of a book, too. Here Kimi Aakau are showing different ways we are writing. Tessa is enjoying chalk pens on the window, Olivia and Anja are writing on the large lines in the modelling book and Felix and George are writing in their books. Maybe at home we could show you new words we have learned.

Quarter Pizza (Caught A Pizza!)

As part of our learning in fractions we embraced our inner chefs and created pizzas. We had to put toppings onto quarters. Miss Eve wondered why there were a lot of mushrooms left over. 😎 it was fun and we wish they were edible. Ask us if we can explain the fraction that we explored today. 

From the Lions:

"My pizza had mushrooms, cheese, bacon and capsicums. It was (cut in) quarters." - Chase 

"My pizza had a quarter mushrooms and I put lots of cheese and green stuff and mushrooms on my pizza." - Tom

"I like learning about pizzas." - Thomas

"I love quarters. I think I'm never going to stop doing them." - Hunter T

"I like to learn about quarters. 2 quarters is the same as a half." - Daisy

"I like quarters. They make one whole." - Caeleigh

"I like learning and I like learning about pizzas." - Mason

"I like learning about pizzas, it is fun!" - Tessa

There's No Place Like Home

We are using our study in to homes to inspire us in writing. We have been creating houses using different materials. Check out our amazing homes. Would you like to live there? 

Old Style Dancing

We are learning about old and new things. We have been exploring old and new dance. Here's the 'Jiffy Mixer' dance. Perhaps you can play it at home and we can show you the moves or even dance with you!

A Hovering Visitor

We were so lucky to have a visit from a helicopter! Mrs Clarke's husband Shaun is a helicopter pilot and Shelly is a paramedic. They work together to help hurt people in the Wakatipu. It was so exciting to wait for the chopper to land on our school field. We use experiences like this to inspire us in writing time. 

Children's responses:

Olivia: It was noisy. Helicopters start with 'h' Miss Eve. (It's our sound of the day!)

William: It was cool going inside it and I liked the propellers.

Elsie: I thought it was weird that they didn't have a boot in the back of the helicopter because when I saw my first helicopter they had a boot where they put all their stuff. 

Thomas: It has a spinning thing on the back and on the top. On the top it had a lot of things. The rescue helicopter comes when you need it. 

Tim: I liked going through the helicopter. When I went up the steps and when I went down the steps myself. 

May The Fourth Be With You!

Thank you to Hunter T who shared his favourite Star Wars characters via cupcakes today. We have a lot of Star Wars fans (Jedi Knights in training?) in Kimi Akau. Among our favourite characters were R2D2, Darth Vader, Chewbacca, Leia, Yoda and the Bounty Hunter. May the force be with you.