Ava's Worm Poem

Worms

I hate worms
because they are slippery 

and dirty
They live in the ground
sometimes they slip and slide
in the grass
They wiggle and jiggle
in the green grass
I hate worms!

By Ava

Developmental

Last Friday afternoon we had lots of activities to choose from during Developmental including...

Construction


 




Dress Ups, Drawing, Board Games & some students even chose to read their Writing books to each other



And even decorating and eating Easter Biscuits - THANKS MRS HAWKE!!! 
 

Magic Moving Milk

Today we did a mini science experiment to add to our Science Book.

We filled a bowl with milk. We dropped some dye and food colouring into it. We made some predictions (sensible guesses) about what we thought would happen if we added dishwashing liquid.

Some of our predictions were:
*the colours would mix
*it would make a colourful bubble
*it would turn hard

We added the dishwashing liquid and we observed:
*the colours moving
*the milk moving
*it looked a bit like art

But WHY???
Milk has got some fat in it. When the dishwahing liquid is added it breaks down the fat and causes the milk to move. The colours made it easier to see the movement of the milk.

Writing

Yesterday for Writing, Mrs Robertson gave us the following sentence:

The cat went after the mouse.

Our job was to rewrite the sentence or 'story' to make it sound more exciting!

We brainstormed a list of verbs (action words) and adjectives (describing words).  We talked about how these words help make our writing sound more exciting and help make a more detailed picture in the readers' minds.  

Here are some EXCITING examples!

Page 1

Page 2

We are Scientists!

We are starting a Science Unit this week which will run into next term. 
It will have a chemistry focus with students learning that Materials undergo change.

As an introduction to our unit we had a visit from Science Alive.  They took us for a 'Fairytale Forensics' session where we had to investigate who broke Baby Bear's chair and ate his porridge because IT WASN'T GOLDILOCKS! Goldilocks had infact been playing hide and seek with her friends and found the cottage.  She went inside (which she shouldn't have) and fell asleep in Baby Bear's chair!  When she woke up she discovered the broken chair and empty porridge bowl..

Watch our slideshow to find out how we solved the mystery!

 

Thanks so much to our parent helpers! We couldn't have done it without you! 

One Word Stories

Today for Oral Language we sat in a circle and had to create a story together with each person saying one word at a time.  We had to think about what word would make sense.   Here are our two first attempts!
  
One day there was an elephant.  I was excited to jump on his back.  It was a baby elephant.  It was bumpy, fast and scary. 

Today there was a storm.  There was thunder and lightning.  It was the worst storm and I didn't get scared!  Rain came into the house! 

Art

In Art we learned about warm and cool colours as we did these self portraits.  Can you guess which colours are cool and which are warm?

To make these portraits Mrs Robertson took a photo of us and used an app on her phone to change it to a pencil sketch.  We then used our darkest warm or cool colour to go over the dark lines, the medium warm or cool colour to go over the next darkest, and our lightest warm or cool colour to go over the faint pencil sketched lines.  These were our results...Can you tell who is who!?

     

Swimming Sports

Today all of Russley School went to Wharenui Pool to compete in the Swimming Sports and Swimming Carnival.  Below are some photos of the Year 2 boys and girls from their time in the pool.  Many thanks to the parent and student helpers who got into the pool with our team! 
Swimming Carnival on PhotoPeach

Unfortunately the Year 3s went at a different time and I never arranged a photographer!  If anyone has any photos of the Year 3s that they would love to share then feel free to email me and I will put them online.

Japanese Kimono and Indian Mehndi Design

Megha's Mehndi Design

Amelia's Japanese Kimono

Megha's mum drew a traditional Indian  design using Mehndi paste, on Megha's hand.   Mehndi designs are drawn for festive occasions, such as weddings, religious events and traditional ceremonies.  The designs can also be drawn on arms and feet.   Almost all brides have mehndi designs applied to their hands, wrist and feet to look attractive, stylish and beautiful.

Amelia's Dad went to Japan when Amelia was younger.  He brought her back a Japanese kimono and sandals.  Kimonos are traditional Japanese dress and these days worn on special occasions.  Kimono are wrapped around the body, always with the left side over the right and tied at the back with a sash called an obi. Kimono are generally worn with traditional footwear which resemble jandals or sandals. 

Korean Clothing

Miss Rachel taught us all about the clothes which people in Korea wear.  We learned about summer, winter,  celebration, royal and common clothes.

Miss Rachel DREW a male and female Korean outfit for us to colour in.  She told us that we were not allowed to use dark colours like black or brown as Korean clothes are always bright and colourful.

Miss Rachel stuck photos of our heads onto the costumes.

We think they look fabulous!

Culture

We have been discussing what 'culture' is.  We brainstormed some ideas and then watched the below video to further our understanding.   Then we added to our brainstormed.

 

Next we looked at why countries have flags.  We had 13 different flags and had to colour them the correct colours.

Our Russley Community

For our Social Studies unit this term we have been looking at 'The Russley Community'. 

Our community starts in our own classroom so we have been looking at who we are. We have expressed our likes and dislikes through artwork and also made graphs during Maths which highlight some of the similartities and/or differences with others. We have written descriptions about ourselves in Writing and shared information about our families during Oral Language.  We also looked at a world map and talked about the different countries and cities within New Zealand we have come from, (or where our parents have come from).

Poetry last week

Maths: Statistics

We have started off the term looking at statistics.  It is a great way to get to know each other and think about similarities and differences which ties in well with our Social Studies unit.

We have been learning to:
*gather data
*make picture graphs
*make tally charts
*make bar graphs
*interpret the graph (explain what the graph shows us)

Here are some examples of the super work we have been doing..

          

Reading

Last week the Giraffes read a book all about Mice.  They each made posters about mice which included:
* a heading
* pictures with labels
* at least three facts they found from the book

Here are some examples...
    

Team Arawai Spot

This year Team Arawai are playing sport against each other each week.

We have three classes so each week two classes will compete against each other.  The third class will  play a smaller class game or have a skills session.

The winner of the class battle will get to defend their title the following week against the other class.

This week Room 12 versed Room 13 in a hockey variation game and would you believe it...it was a tie! 4-4!  Mr Ogston and Mrs Cooley will have a quick game before next session to decide the winner.

Room 11 were outside playing a simplified version of cricket against each other.  Riley was the captain of one team and Tyson was the captain of the other. Riley's team batted first and got 25 runs.  Tyson's team then batted and got.....30 runs!

It was lots of fun playing against each other.  We can't wait to verse Room 12 or Room 13 next week!