Potatoes!

Earlier this year we planted potatoes in our little vegetable garden. Gayle gave us some tips and we all took up our gardening trowels. 2 to 3 months later and our potatoes had grown into leafy green plants. Our potatoes were harvested and used in a shared lunch for our Enviro visitors. Well done Kowhai!



Music: "Pain" by Harry Des Forges on Garageband

Bubbles

On Friday Room 7 decided to be scientists and do some bubble blowing. We had a think about bubbles and what we would like to explore.

• Are bubbles always the same size and shape?
• How do they move and why do they move in certain directions?
• What makes them pop?
• Are there different ways to make bubbles?

It was a lot of fun and together we wrote an account of our experience.

Bubble Blowing by Room 7

On Friday we went down to the field and blew bubbles! We used soap and water to make bubbles.

The wind pushed them and they flew far away.

When they land on something or touch a sharp corner or went very high they popped. If a bubble popped in our eyes it really stings.

James on the Farm

James has been having a wonderful time on a farm. His mum has sent some photos and videos of his adventures. James has written a story with me to explain what's going on.

Room 7 Aliens

We had some fun talking and writing about Aliens with names like Flower, Anaia and Quazar. They come from planets named Bong, Golf and Potato-Z-land. We painted our aliens and used paint palettes so that we could try mixing colours too. 

Here are our aliens accompanied by fantastic spacey music by Zachary in Te Ako Kahikatea. 
Zach used Garage Band to create his composition titled "Glorious".

Bookweek

We love books so we really loved bookweek! We got to have stories read to us by different teachers and our big buddies from Room 10. Finally, on Friday we dressed up as our favourite book characters and paraded around. Here's a video of some of the highlights.


Roboskater by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Artist: http://audionautix.com/

Making Butter and Toast

We found out how to make bread last term so this term we were curious about butter.
We knew it had something to do with milk and cows and that if you beat it for long enough it would get thicker. So we tried the old "shake the cream in the jar" method and with everyone having a go, it did't take very long to see and hear a change take place. 
Why did this happen? I added a video from youtube that explains the process.

But what's butter without something to spread it on.
Time for some toast!

We wrote a story about our experience.

Butter and Toast by R.7

How do you make butter?
You need to get cream which comes from cows and you can buy it at the supermarket. First you put the cream in a container. You have to make sure that the lid is on tight or the cream will splash out when you shake it. We put a little bit of salt in the cream but you don't have to.
Then we all took turns to shake the container. We counted to 10 as we shook it. We could hear the cream sloshing in the container.
When we had all had two goes, Andrea gave it a big shake. The cream wasn't sloshing much any more. Andrea took the lid off the container and we saw that the cream had changed. It wasn't runny any more. Some of it looked like milk but there was some yellow lumpy stuff in the container. It looked a bit yucky but it was the butter.
We put white softbread in the toaster and waited for the heat to change it to crisby brown toast. We spread the butter on our toast. It was delicious!

Counting to 10 in different languages

O Te Whanau Matariki

Last year for Matariki the children started sewing the stars on our Matariki flag. We finished sewing the stars on this year thanks to help from Yannie's mum.

Leadership Workshops 2017

We love Leadership Week at Newmarket School. Especially when the Kahikatea Students lead fun workshops that we can all take part in. We could choose from Soccer, Gymnastics, Slime, Lava lamps, Drawing and Sketching, Tinkercad, Dance and Movement, Drama, Bubbleology, Rubix Cubes, Makey Makey and Origami.

We love Leadership Week Workshops!

NPS Leadership Assembly 2017

Here are some highlights of this year's Sir Peter Blake Leadership Assembly.

Come and read our fabulous stories

We love writing. Here are four authors from Room 7 with their stories from this week.

The Shiny Shiny Star
by Keiran

The stars are glowing in the sky and no one can sleep!

We looked at an image on Pobble of a miniature castle. Here are three stories inspired by this picture.

The Silly Castle by Connor

My castle has four arms and four legs. It is a silly castle.

The Goblin's Castle by Sebastian

I saw a castle and it was in a forest. It was the castle of the goblin king and Amelie is caught in the dungeon. A waterfall comes down the tower and into the moat. There is a dragon and a portal that leads to a parallel world. If you go there you turn into a bad person.

The Monster Trap by Jowan

I went into a castle and I was scared and I didn't know that the castle was a big scary monster! The monster swallowed me! When I was in the monster's stomach I got out my knife and I cut a door out of his stomach and I escaped!

Making Bread

Meet the Room 7 bakers.

We wondered how bread was made so, last week in Room 7 we made bread. It was interesting to watch how the yeast mixture went frothy and the dough became more and more stretchy when we kneaded it. The yeast made the dough rise and our bread rolls grew bigger when we left them on the tray. They smelled delicious when they came out of the oven and they tasted yummy too. Some of the children put butter on their bread. 

Now we are wondering how butter is made.....

Elliot our class bear is 22 years old now. To help him celebrate this important occasion, the children of R.7 organised a party. We had to make decorations, invitations, games, party food, party hats and a birthday card.

Friday 2 June was the party day and we all had a great time. Elliot was most impressed with his party planners.
Elliot's birthday 2017 from andrea des forges on Vimeo.

Elliot's Birthday by Sebastian

At Elliot's birthday we ate scrumptious, dumptious, yumptious food until we had sore tummies.


Elliot's Birthday by Yannie

Elliot is wiggly because he is happy and playing pin the tail on the lion.

Samoan Language Week

Talofa!

It was Samoan Language Week last week.  Mr J talked to us about Samoan culture. We have learned greetings; counting to 10; a Samoan song, and a traditional dance - the  Sasa.

Ka pai!

Mia, Iris and Sunyu read a Ready to Ready book titled "Getting Ready for the Visitors" by Kiwa Hammond. The book was about visitors coming onto a Marae. We learned about the words Kapai and Kia ora. Here are Mia, Iris and Sunyu to tell you what they mean.
Music is 'Tena Koe - Hello to one' sung by William Poutu.

Ka pai from andrea des forges on Vimeo.

The Polar Bear on the Cold Ice

We looked at a photo of a polar bear on an iceberg that looked too small. We thought about what we thought was happening in the photo and wondered what would happen next.

This is Austin's story

The Polar Bear on the Cold Ice
by Austin

This is my house and the polar bear is on the cold ice at my house. He is my friend.

Ormie the Pig

Room 7 watched a short animated film called Ormie the Pig. It told the story of a pig who desperately wanted some cookies from the jar on top of the fridge. We talked about how there were no words but the animators used physical comedy to tell the story.  It is a funny movie and some of the children wrote about it.

Ormie the Pig Stories

This is a pig getting cookies.

Sophia

Ormie the pig climbed the fridge to get the cookies.

Hoshika

The dinosaur is trying to get the leaves off the fridge but he is too small and a rock fell and cut his tail.

Keiran

The pig wants come cookies on top of the fridge but he is too small.

Hanzalah

Ormie the pig went to the shop.  He went looking up the fridge for the cookies.  The cookies were too high up and the people took all of the cookies and there was none left.

Poor Ormie!

Rachel

Sunyu's story

Sunyu wrote a story this week about picking a flower. She used some great words to describe things in her story.

Picking a Flower by Sunyu

I am picking a flower outside.  It was windy and I wore my black jacket with my lacey dress.

Dance Stories

Ballet

By Taya

I go to ballet and I like ballet because I can do Saute.

My Mum Can Dance

by Martin

I am watching my mum dance at home. She is a good dancer.

The Dancers

by Mia

I like the girls move. It looks cool. I also like the music and I think they are tired. I think I should help the girls finish their dance.

Dance Words

Here are some Dance Words that we came up with after watching the fabulous Royal Family dancers.

Dancing Words from andrea des forges on Vimeo.

Dance, Dance, Dance!

Members of the Royal Family Hip Hop Dance Crew came to Newmarket School and put on a wonderful performance for us. These fabulous dancers will be heading off to the World Hip Hop Championships in the USA and we wish them all the best.


Dance dance dance from andrea des forges on Vimeo.

Dear Mum

Mum
by Gemma

Dear Mum I hope you have a lovely Mother’s day. You do stuff like sew me my own dressing gown. You care about me and sometimes you pick me up from school.

I love my mum. Happy Mother’s Day. I hope you like my card and crown that I made you. I love that you will listen to me every time I talk to you.

Love from Iris

Air Scientists

We were scientists this week and did some wondering about air. We experimented with moving different objects - blowing through straws, using a hairdryer, and fanning air with cardboard.

Air Science from andrea des forges on Vimeo.

Stories of the Week

Here's three great pieces of writing from Week 1

Cleaning My House

by Rachel

I am flooding my house with milk because my house is really, really dirty.

My Haircut

by Mia

I was in my house. My mum cut my own hair and I can’t breathe because the hair goes up my nose so I wiggle!

Climbing the Volcano

By Gemma

Me and mum are climbing an extinct volcano.  I am scared but mum says,

“It’s ok, I’ll help you”

And she towed me to the top with a big rope.

Pirate Stories

Pirate Treasure by Austin

The pirate found treasure in the house. He found so many chocolates.

Treasure  by Thomas

Pirate found treasure. It is apples!

Peter the Pirate  by Sebastian

Peter the pirate found a treasure box under the mountain.  He took it out and opened it and found some golden fish. Aaargh!

Aaargh!!

We had a visit from Peter the Pirate. He left us a letter in pretty messy handwriting that told us that there was treasure in our class. 

We followed the clues and found the golden treasure. We decided to write some piratey stories and thought of some good pirate words we could use.

Swimming

We had a great time swimming and we learned a lot of new skills. Thanks to the Hilton Brown Instructors at the Newmarket Olympic pool and a big, big thanks to all the parents and grandparents who helped us.
Enjoy listening to our swimming stories written and read by Vethuja, R.J, Soparri, Mia, Fallon, Maggie, Kaelyn, Iris, Zeppelin

Swimming2 from andrea des forges on Vimeo.

Safe Walking

Thanks to Constable Rob we've learned a lot about being safe when we are walking on the footpath, crossing the road and putting on seat belts when we are in the car.

Safe Walking 2017 from andrea des forges on Vimeo.

Welcome to Te Ako Kowhai 2017

Welcome back everyone. Hope you had a great holiday and are ready for an exciting term!


Here are some important dates for February

Police Constable Rob is with us for the Safe Walking programme which will start in Week 2 - 7th Feb.
He will have 3 in class lessons and then a practical session where we go for a walk with him and practise crossing the road.

Our overnight camp is on Thursday 9th February. Don't forget to tell your teddies!

Swimming at the Olympic pool starts on Monday 13th February.

Elliot's Holiday

Elliot had a great holiday. Here are some of the things he got up to while we were away from school.

Elliot's Holiday2 from andrea des forges on Vimeo.