A snail by Terina

Terina has shared some interesting facts about snails. Listen to her reading her work.

A snail by Simaima

Listen to Simaima shared an interesting fact about a snail.

Minibeasts by Jayden

What interesting facts does Jayden know about minibeasts? Listen to him reading his work.

A snail by Taylor

Taylor knows a very important fact about a snail. Listen to him sharing this fact.

The very hungry caterpillar retold by Terina

Below is a photo of Terina as we recorded her as she retold the story of The very hungry caterpillar. We have put this together with the pictures she drew at home. Fantastic work Terina.

Swimming by Deborah

Over the term Deborah has gained confidence in the water and can put her head under the water. We are all very proud of her. Listen to her read the story she wrote earlier in the term.

Touch rugby session

This week we had a touch rugby session with Issi and Willie from North Harbour sport. It was an action packed and fun filled session. They talked to us about
- holding the ball with two hands, making sure we made the letter L with our hand
- how to score a try
- how to touch our partner, saying in a very loud voice 'touch' and then run backwards.

Here we are saying 'touch' and then running backwards.



Here we are trying to score a try

Snails by Finlay

We have learnt some very interesting facts about snails. Listen to Finlay reading his information report about a snail. He took the photo of the snail and put labels on it using KidPix. Well done Finlay

Weekly update

It's been another busy week in room 2. Mrs David our student teacher worked with us to create a describe map about the monarch caterpillar. We now know quite a lot about the monarch caterpillar and have begun to write about them.
We enjoyed watching this video from utube.



We have also been watching the caterpillar that Finlay brought into school a few weeks ago - growing bigger and bigger - all day every day he seems to do nothing else but eat and eat and eat. Watch this video of Finlay's caterpillar doing what it does best - EATING




We have been using KidPix this week to start drawing the life cycle of the butterfly. We started by drawing a leaf and an egg. Next week we will add the caterpillar and chrysalis.



We have continued to paint paper ready to construct our caterpillars - using collage just like Eric Carle did when he illustrated The very hungry caterpillar. We have tried to use different shades of green and different textures.





Terina drew some pictures of the very hungry caterpillar at home. Well done Terina.

Minibeasts by Pia

Listen to Pia reading her definition of a minibeast.

Living and not living things by Gabriel

Gabriel wrote about the difference between things that are living and not living. Listen to him reading his work. He drew the image using KidPix.

Catching butterflies by Anthony

Anthony likes catching butterflies and wrote this story at the beginning of the term.

Minibeasts by Terina

Listen to Terina read her definition of a minibeast.

I am Aesop by Aesop

Aesop is new to our class and new to speaking English. He was keen to be videoed speaking English. Well done Aesop.

I like .....

Deborah wrote about the things she likes. What does she like?

Minibeasts by Eunji

Listen to Eunji read her definition of a minibeast.

What is a minibeast ? by Adriel

Listen to Adriel read his definition of a minibeast. What important facts did Adriel share?

The very hungry caterpillar retold by Anthony

Anthony drew these great pictures of the very hungry caterpillar.


We asked him to retell the story and recorded him.


We put his images with his recording and made his video - enjoy.

What minibeasts do by Sharlene

Sharlene wrote about the different things minibeasts do. Listen to her reading her story.

A praying mantis

On Monday Adriel brought in a praying mantis in an egg carton. Later in the week Isabel brought in a praying mantis in a plastic container.


We needed to make a better environment for each praying mantis and make sure they each had food. Mrs David our student teacher told us that a praying mantis likes to eat other insects and likes to hide in things it can camouflage itself in. Mrs David kindly brought in some crickets and spiders that her daughters and nephew had found. She also brought in a container, ferns, wood and dirt to make a rather impressive enclosure. Thanks Mrs David, your daughters and nephew. Just look at the new enclosure.


On Friday morning we found a slater and a cockroach in our classroom - so added them to the praying mantis enclosure and wondered if we would get a chance to see a praying mantis eat an insect...........

Well we did - can you imagine the excitement when the praying mantis caught and began to eat a cricket.


Watch the videos of the praying mantis eating the cricket.

Snails and caterpillars

Another week has whizzed by and it's been another interesting week. We started by recallling all the facts we could remember about snails. We did this by doing an oral language activity called 'the web'. We rolled a piece of string to each other and each of us shared a fact about a snail. When we had finished we had made a web and we placed a ' sock snail' in the middle.



We then wrote an information report about a snail. Using the computer programme KidPix everyone put labels on the snail they had photographed using the class camera. These photos will be placed at the bottom of the information reports.


At the end of the week we set to, to make sock snails with the help of our student teacher Mrs David who has joined us for four weeks. We looked at the sock snail that Mrs Rennie-Younger had made - and it became very clear that the snail was quite incorrect - it clearly did not have a foot and it only had 2 long tentacles when it needed 4, two long tentacles for looking and two short tentacles for smelling and tasting.


It's great to see how our knowledge of snails has grown. Just look at our sock snails - a great opportunity to reinforce our learning.


We have started to look at caterpillar's and have a caterpillar in our classroom that Finlay brought in last week. We have found some more food for it to eat and its is busy eating, eating and eating. We have found out that caterpillars
- emerge out of an egg
- the first thing they eat is their egg shell
- are insects
- have 6 true legs. The other legs are used by the caterpillar to move around.

We have watched this video of a caterpillar eating its egg shell - it's just fascinating.


For art we have looked at the very hungry caterpillar and looked at the techniques used by Eric Carle. We watched a video of Eric talking about the techniques he used.


We drew a caterpillar- and used a vivid marker to outline it. Next week we will start to paint pieces of paper ready to collage our rather unique caterpillars. Look out for these in the weeks to come.



Anthony brought in a little book he had made about The very hungry caterpillar. His pictures are simply spectacular. (click on the image to enlarge it) Look out for Anthony retelling the story later in the week.

The boat by Nancy

Nancy drew this picture on Kidpix and wrote about it. Listen to her read her sentence.

The bee by Miahi

Listen to Mihai read his story about a bee. He drew his bee on KidPix

A living thing by Taylor

Listen to Taylor read his explanation of a living thing.

A minibeast by Anthony

Listen to Anthony read his definition of a minibeast. Well done Anthony.

Minibeasts by Kenneth

Listen to Kenneth read his explanation of a minibeast.

Living and not living things by Isabel

Listen to Isabel explain her understanding of the difference between things that are living and not living.

Snail word search

Can you find the words in the word search

Make Your Own Word Search

Escaping snails!

Having snails in our classroom has been a lot of fun and we have learnt a very interesting fact about snails. We knew they like to eat at night time but they didn't want the food we had in the container they liked to escape.
Tuesday morning we discovered that the snails could and would eat the paper we had used to cover them


No matter what we covered the snails with they pushed their way out. Over the week we found snails in various places in our classroom
* under the chairs
* in the cupboard
* in the insect books we had on display on the table


We even found one in a headphone which was a long way away from the table where we had the snails - fancy that.


As we headed home on Friday - Mrs Rennie-Younger released the snails so they could explore our school grounds!
I wonder what next week will bring - when we look at caterpillars!!!

Snails, snails and more snails

This week we had a chance to look at a minibeast in some depth - the good old garden snail.


We looked at it very closely - taking the opportunity to sketch it.



We learnt about the parts of a snail and used a mimio activity to reinforce our learning.




We watched this video of a snail eating lettuce - a chance to see the snail's tongue with it's thousands and thousands of small sharp teeth munching it's way through a piece of lettuce.


We found out a lot of facts about snails and used a Y chart to organise our information


We looked at our snail sketches to draw a much bigger snail. We then used a black vivid and dye to make our snails colourful. Play the movie to see all of our wonderful art work.




Some of us drew a snail on KidPix making sure we drew tentacles, eyes, the foot and the breathing hole.


Next week we will write a report on a snail - using the information we have learnt. Look out for us reading these reports in the weeks to come.

Minibeasts

Here are the last of the wonderful minibeats we have drawn on KidPix. Look out for our definitions of a minibeast next week.

Living and not living things by Eunji

We have been learning about things that are living and not living. Listen to Eunji read her explanation of the difference between the two.

Swimming by Sharlene

We have been enjoying swimming in our school pool. Listen to Sharlene's story.

Living and not living things by Terina

Listen to Terina reading the explanation she wrote about the difference between things that are living and not living.