Term 3, Week 1

Welcome back everyone to the first week of term 3, I hope that you all had a very safe, restful and enjoyable break :) We are excited to welcome a new teacher to our classroom this term, Miss Nardia Giraud, who will be teaching and learning with us over the next five weeks.

This term we begin our new science unit, Forever Now, looking at the ways in which energy from the sun is transferred and transformed through material world (chemical) reactions here on earth. In Room 3 we’re going to start by exploring what a scientist is and does, and find the scientist inside ourselves! We’ll also be looking at a very dramatic combustion experiment this week as a school, to get us energised about our new topic!

As the term progresses, Room 3 will explore photosynthesis, the way in which plants use the sun’s energy to power a chemical reaction that makes glucose (sugar) and oxygen out of water and carbon dioxide. Then we’ll look at how animals – like ourselves! - consume plant sugars (and other animals!), and how we digest and metabolise our food through a new series of reactions. We’ll be keeping it simple, but we look forward to developing our understanding of the world around us, and participating in some simple investigations to check out our ideas :)

Also this term, we will be firming up our ideas around place value as we move on to explore the idea of money, honing up our painting skills (this week we’re looking at blending black and white to create a grey scale showing shades of light and dark), practising our gymnastic, tennis and swimming skills, making some music, and expanding our ideas around te reo and tikanga maori as we continue with kapa haka and te ao kori.

Two reminders this week - please get those learning journals back asap so that we can start filling them up with amazing new learning samples, and also, please note that our three way conferences are coming up next week – get in quick to book the time you want!  

Cultural dress ups day

Room 3 really enjoyed sharing costumes and items from our own and others' cultures on our special cultural day at the end of Term 2. We had items from Japan, China, America, India, England, Italy, Australia and New Zealand, not to mention lots of items from our more local cultural communities - such as Otago/Dunedin and Nelson/Stoke, and many more costumes reflecting our own ideas about identity - fairies, pirates, superheroes, rugby players ....

We really enjoyed sharing our French folk song and dance, "sur le pont d'Avignon" with our friends in Room 11, and they taught us a few new words in sign language - a happy day for us all :)

Edible gardens visit

A huge thanks to Caleb (our blogger), Tayla and Java (our photographer) who came to visit us today to talk about the edible gardens. We learned about how they prepared the soil for planting, planted out beans and garlic, and laid out stakes and pea straw to help the new seeds and seedlings to grow. We saw the tyres where the seed potatoes will grow, and we learned that Caleb planted a secret potato SOMEWHERE in the garden! Shhhhhh...

We also learned about looking after the garden. Here are some of our thoughts about the visit

Mia "I like the potato plant because it was funny in the tyre"

Jesse "Caleb planted the potato"

Saskia "I liked it when Caleb planted the potato"

Abby "I like tree planting"

Jayden "I want a potato"

Lucia "I love gardening because it is fun"

Hunter "Gardening is fun because my favourite colour is green"

Mikaela "I like the garden because it was pretty"

Sofie "I can't wait to eat the beans"

Keziah "I can't wait until the beans have grown"

Paytn "Caleb helped us learn"

Maya "I can not wait until I can eat the beans"

Tayla "I like to plant garlic to put on bread"

Cade "I planted some flowers and they got dead"

Jade "I like the chicken bones and a dog likes vegetables"

Joseph "I like Caleb's secret potato"

Leon "I like the potato plant"

Daniella "I grew a vegetable it was good"

Evonne "I like the potato that Caleb grew"

Matthew "I like when Caleb planted the potato"

Tree planting

Room 3 had a great time tree planting today among the worms and the mud :)

A HUGE thank you to Mikaela's Mum Carissa and Paytn's Mum Keela for their help in shepherding us to and from the reserve, digging holes, wrestling tough plants from their pots, and keeping us busy! We could not have managed without your support :)

Term 2, Week 10

Here it is, the final week of Term 2 and we’re all looking forward to our holidays! Before we leap ahead though, once again a big thank you also to Mrs Eades and to Mr Neal for the time they shared with us in Room 3. We look forward to welcoming back Mr Neal in October when he completes a second placement in Room 3. Our final student for the year, Miss Nardia Giraud, will begin with us in Week 1 of Term 3, and will be with us for five weeks - we are very lucky to be getting so much extra support with our learning! 

The learning journals and reports were sent out last week and were a tribute to the hard work and creativity of all of you – tino pai rawe Room 3, you guys are amazing! Enjoy sharing your journals at home, but please remember to bring them back to school before the end of term so that they are ready to be updated once again in Term 3 :)

Things to remember this week in Room 3 include our tree planting trip on Monday morning (hoping to see lots of you there!) and our cultural dress up day on Friday. We can’t wait to look at each other’s costumes or treasures from home! Remember that your “culture” is what you decide it is – it doesn’t have to be an ethnic theme, you can choose anything that is very important to your identity :) As a class, we’ll be looking a little at French culture and langauge this time (we might even learn a song and a dance!) to share with a buddy class on Friday, as well as continuing our focus on te reo and tikanga maori. We also look forward to our edible garden session with the Enviroteam on Tuesday (and a DVD!), and to gymnastics and kapa haka.

Enjoy the final week of Term 2 – it’s been an awesome learning curve!