Our boat

Every Friday morning when we publish our work orally the rest of the class work very quietly in our classroom. Usually we are involved in one or two of the following things - finishing art work, making insects, drawing images on KidPix, using the mimio board, playing with our class toy cars and constructing the most interesting things with the blocks. Our latest block creation has been a class boat - one that many of us could sit inside.

Watch the video below of us in our boat as we proudly announced that we had made the boat.

When asked where this boat could take them ....... they replied to......
* butterfly land where you could see the most amazing butterflies
* candy land where you could eat everything you saw
* Disneyland
* to a land of interesting minibeasts.

A beautiful butterfly

On the last Monday of the school term an exciting thing happened in Room2. We arrived at school to find that a butterfly had emerged from its chrysalis over the weekend and was busy drying its wings. Once everyone had arrived at school we took some time to observe our beautiful butterfly. We then took it outside to watch it fly away. We know that our beautiful butterfly is a female (girl) beacause she didn't have the black spots on her back wings.

The praying mantis

Mrs David our student teacher taught us a lot about the praying mantis. She showed us this utube video.



As a class we made a describe map about the praying mantis and from this we wrote about it. To consolidate our learning we put labels on a diagram of a praying mantis using an activity on the mimio board. This diagram will be placed at the end of our published piece of writing about the praying mantis. Next term we hope to record some of us reading our information reports.

Weekly update

Week 11 marked the end of our first term of the 2011 school year. It has been a very action packed term. As we headed off for a two week break we took a little break from our study on minibeasts and looked at how we could be firewise.
We looked at .......
* the importance of smoke detectors in our homes
* what to do if we woke and heard the beep, beep of a smoke detector
* the importance of keeping down low and getting out FAST
* the importance of having a safe meeting place outside where the family would meet if there was ever a fire in the house
* the importance of not stopping to collect favourite toys or clothes
* only ringing 111 in an emergency


We read a shared book about how a family was firewise and we used a mimio activity to retell the story.




We also had a visit from the firemen from the Takapuna fire station. They showed us a smoke detector and we spotted one in our classroom. They also showed us a video of how quickly a small fire can grow into a much bigger fire.




As they talked to us all of sudden they had to dash away to a call out. When they returned we looked at their fire engine. Do you know what the firemen keep in their pockets? We do - their gloves - can you see them in the photo below.



As we headed off on our holiday we took a book about being Firewise home to share with our families as it is important for all of us to be FIrewise - adults and children alike.

The life cycle of the butterfly

Over the past few weeks we have been drawing the life cycle of the butterfly on KidPix.
Pia


Isabel


Finlay


Now we have completed our images and we will over time use these images to explain the life cycle. We started with Jayden and a lot of us are keen to have a turn. Look out for these recordings in the weeks to follow.

Weekly update

This week we have compared the butterfly with the moth. We read a book that told us a lot of facts about the smilarities and differences between a butterfly and a moth. As we read the book we made a T chart on the whiteboard.



We used the mimio board to reinforce our learning.



Some of us also used a Venn Diagram to show the similarities and differences.


Next week we will draw a moth and butterfly on KidPix to show you all what we have learnt.

We finished the caterpillars we had been making with Mrs David our student teacher. At our junior school assembly we showed our caterpillars and recited a caterpillar poem. It goes like this. Caterpillar, caterpillar crawling on the wall. Caterpillar, caterpillar crawl, crawl, crawl.


Friday was Mrs David's last day and we thanked her for all the work she has down with us over the past four weeks.

Table tennis

Last week we had a session learning about touch rugby, this week we had a session learning about table tennis. Below are some fun filled video's of our session. Enjoy

Here we are learning to balance the ball on our rackets.


Here is Anthony concentrating as he balances the table tennis ball on his racket.




Here is Finlay hitting the ball into the basket - success is wonderful.

Grandparents day

A big thank you to all the grandparents and special friends who joined us in room two on Wednesday.

Weekly update

This week we have continued to learn about the life cycle of the butterfly and used a mimio activity to reinforce our learning. When our Grandparents and special friends joined us at school on Wednesday, together we made a life cycle mobile.

It was a real treat to have our grandparents at school and we used the opportunity to show them how to complete the mimio activity on the life cycle. We were the experts and had to show our grandparents how to use the mimio pen.



Watch this video of the photos taken of our Grandparents and special friends using the mimio board



This week - one of our munching, crunching caterpillars finally decided to hang from a leaf - unfortunately it never made a 'j' only a 'l' and it died.



Finlay's Nana heard of our very sad story and kindly brought in a chrysalis for us - everyone was very excited. We just have to remember to look with our eyes and not to touch the chrysalis.



Near the end of the week - another one of our munching, crunching caterpillars decided to hang from a leaf - and we all gave it firm instructions that it had to make a j and not a l. Well I'm pleased to report it did make a J and made itself a chrysalis.



We have worked out that all going well it should hatch just before we go on holiday in two weeks time.

We have continued to work on our 'Eric Carle' inspired collage caterpillars. They are quite time consuming - but we think they will look fantastic when they are finished. The photo below is of Eunji's caterpillar under construction.

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

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.

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.

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.

Using a define map

This week we looked at what a minibeast is. We started by looking at a powerpoint that explained what a minibeast is.



We then talked about what we had learnt and collected our information on a define map.



We found out some very interesting facts like
- minibeasts are all small
- minibeasts don't have a spine
- minibeasts have a skeleton on the outside of their body that protects them
- some minibeasts have 0 legs while others have more than 14 legs.

We drew a minibeast using the computer programme KidPix.


We used our new found knowledge to write about minibeasts.



All in all It's been a great week of learning in room 2.
Next week we are going to look at sorting minibeasts according to the number of legs they have using this mimio activity -



We will also be looking at a minibeast that doesn't have any legs - the good old garden snail. So if you are out in the garden this weekend look out for a snail and bring it to school for us to look at and draw.