Our new class pet

Today we had a mystery parcel arrive by courier, Mrs Wyeth brought it over to our classroom. We noticed it was addressed to Room 3 and had lots of air holes. We made some guesses about what we thought was in the box - lots of people thought it might have been a kiwi. Hannah decided it couldn't be a giraffe because a giraffe wouldn't fit in the box. Some children were scared when Stephanie opened the box - they thought something might jump out! We found a sheep inside the box and a letter which Josh read out to us. We had a class vote and named it Rosie. We are going to take turns at taking Rosie home with us to take her on some new adventures at our house. 

We have to write about our adventures with Rosie in the Class Pet Journal. We will then share our adventures with the class as part of our news programme. We love our sheep Rosie!

Room Three's Assembly

Wow Room 3 you were amazing today at assembly! You spoke clearly and confidently, sat still on the stage and showcased your art with pride. What superb role models for the rest of the juniors at Gore Main. You worked so hard all week on your Laurel Burch inspired pastel art and on learning your lines! I am incredibly proud of you all! 

A special congratulations to our award winners this week Madison, Myia and Ethan - Room 3 won the shooting star trophy this week too! 

We read the big book Alley Cats this week and created some cat artwork. Our style of cats was inspired by an artist named Laurel Burch (google her name to check out her amazing art) . 

Here are the finished masterpieces....

Don't they look great? The children have done an amazing job!

Our writing genre this term is information reports - we wrote a report on cats as a class. We hope you learn a new fact about cats from our report. 

More Mother's Day Letters

Here are the last few videos of our Room 3 children reading their Mother's Day Letters...

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all of our wonderful Room 3 Mums (and Grandmas/Nanas/Grans). Everyone in Room 3 has been busy this week creating something for our Mums (or Grandmas) so they know how special they are to us. 

Here we all are on Mufti Day (to raise money for the Westpac Rescue Helicopter) with our Mother's Day cards

Some children chose to share what they had written to their Mum with us. Watch our videos below to hear why we love our Mums...

I apoligise to a small handful of children who did read their letter out on camera and the video is not up yet. This is because the video footage was too long to upload to the blog. I will attempt to edit the two videos that are too long and upload them to our blog as soon as I can figure out how to do it!! Sorry guys!

How to comment on our blog

It was brought to my attention last term that some of our friends and families had attempted to comment on our class blog but it didn't seem to work...

I think I may have solved the problem - try this and let me know if you've tried to comment but it hasn't been successful.

Step 1. Click on the title of the post you would like to comment on

Step 2. Scroll right down to the end of the post and you will see a box that says 'Enter your comment'

Step 3. Write your comment

Step 4. Click the drop-down menu where it says 'comment as' and click 'name/URL'

Step 5. Type your name and don't worry about a URL. Click 'continue' then 'publish'

Please note: Your comment may not appear straight away, it needs to be verified by Miss McKenzie first

Thank you for commenting on our blog, we love to read your feedback!

Inquiry: Where do I Belong?

Today we began our term 2 inquiry. We are learning about where we fit into the world. We have started by talking about towns and cities in New Zealand - we could name lots of towns and cities in our own country. We did find it a little tricky to show where they are on a blank map of NZ.

Here we are playing a simplified version of 'The Amazing Moa Hunt' as a class to help us learn where the towns and cities we know of are located in New Zealand. We were in two teams (boys vs girls) and we had to take a NZ town/city card off the pile and discuss as a team where we thought that town or city was in New Zealand if we got it right we got to keep the icon. The girls team got 6 icons and the boys got 4 icons today. 

Kids - Next time you are on a long car trip maybe you could take a road map with you so you can follow your journey and see which towns or cities you will be travelling through and tell mum or dad which town will be coming up next!

Also if anyone has any old New Zealand road maps or city maps that they don't need anymore we would love to use them in Room 3 to continue to grow our understanding and knowledge of our country 

Our Poppies for ANZAC Day

Today we learnt about ANZAC Day and what it means. We made some poppies to display in our classroom! 

Here is a panoramic shot of our poppies displayed in the window of Room 3

Chocolate Treats

With Easter fast approaching and the excitement building in Room 3 we were given the task to write a story about 'The day the Easter Bunny ran out of chocolate eggs' in our stories a few children wrote about the children of Gore Main School helping out the Easter Bunny by making more or helping him to hunt for the missing eggs.

Today we did just that! With the help of some absolutely wonderful parents helpers, Toni (George's Mum), Stephanie (Josh's Mum) and Brenda (Charlee's Mum), we made our own chocolate easter treats and learned about how chocolate was made (starting at the cacao pod) by researching on the Cadbury World website and then using You Tube to find out about how the easter eggs are molded in a factory.

Georgia and Sam's Maths

WOW! Check out these mathematicians! Today Georgia and Sam used a new strategy to add numbers together. They jumped to a tidy number (a 'ty number or a ten number) using a number line. Very clever! Your next step to use this strategy with some bigger numbers!!

There was lots of great maths going on today in Room 3 keep up the great work guys! 

Our Butterfly Writing...A Sneak Peek...

Watching our 5 beautiful butterflies emerging from their chrysalises this week was a pretty amazing experience! We did a lot of observations and reading and had many discussions about our Monarch Butterflies. These experiences gave the children a lot of fuel for some incredible writing.

Here is a sneak peek of some of the writing that has been happening in Room 3 lately (pop into class to view the full stories)...

The  butterfly finally came out of their chrysalis. It flew clumsily around the classroom. 

By Kaden

Sam had a turn at looking at the butterflies. They were Ninja, Steve, Stripes, Molly and Rosie. We love our butterflies.

By Anouk

When the butterflies came out the wings were crinkly and it stayed still for a very long time.

By Stephanie 

Wow. Today the last butterfly hatched. I was the first one to see it. When it first hatched it’s wings were crinkled and crumpled.

 By Sam

I missed the butterfly hatching this morning. I missed it and Sam saw them.

By Felix 

The butterflies were flying clumsily. I wanted to have a touch of it. I didn’t want it to go to it’s new home. 

By Saydee

Today when I got to school Olivia told me that the last butterfly had hatched. It was crinkly, wrinkly, crinkled and wet. The other one that had hatched yesterday fluttered clumsily around the classroom.

By Brianah

Woohoo! Three of our chrysalises have hatched but where are they? I must find them.

By Hannah 

We did butterfly everything, it was fun, fun, fun! It was Tuesday, the next day, that Room 3 had one more. It had crinkled wings and they were delicate.

By Hunter 

Do you know how you know if it is a girl or a boy? I think you tell by checking its name tag! No, don’t be silly! You see if it’s got a spot on its wings. A girl butterfly has no spots.

By Georgia 

I found a butterfly in the art bay. It is colourful and black.

By Koen 

Whoopee! We had to find the butterflies. It was a mystery. There was one on the caterpillars and one in the art bay. The wait was over.

By Josh 

The butterflies cracked open because they were ready. Come and watch, they were drying their skin and wings.

by Summer 

On Monday I knew our butterflies were going to come out when I was at school. I was right, 3 butterflies came out of their chrysalises. 2 more need to come out and one is black . The children screamed that  3 butterflies come out.

By Katia 

Woohoo! It’s finally over. Now it was cool when the butterflies went clumsily around the classroom and one of them was riding one of the caterpillars we made and it was funny. 

By George

“Woohoo! Look Miss McKenzie, one butterfly has hatched!”

We were amazed. It slowly came out. We know if it is a boy or girl if it has got a dot in the middle of its wing. If it is a girl it will have no dots. It has some wet, crumpled, delicate wings.

By Isabelle 

Whoopie! It was exciting, it was butterfly day yesterday and it hatched this morning. It’s wings were all crinkly when it came out. After lunch we got to hold it. Georgia got the freaks when it climbed up to her hair.

By Kazia 

This butterfly was flying. The wings were coloured wings. I liked the wings too. It opened today and it was fun to see.

By Ethan 

It was a clumsy butterfly but it looked awesome. Some people got butterflies on their head and hands. I will love them.

By Makayla 

When we were doing maths I noticed there was one butterfly who had hatched. We were very excited. We saw it fluttering clumsily around the classroom. The wings were very delicate.

By Charlee

Yesterday morning at maths time, one butterfly hatched from its chrysalis. When it finally managed to wriggle its way out it started flying clumsily around the classroom. We knew it was a male because it had 2 black dots.

By Tom