Rubbish Walk

We are learning about the importance of keeping Te Moana clean. it starts with our immediate environment. If we keep our school clean of rubbish then it won't be carried down the drains or by the wind down to Te Puna Beach.

Inspired by Derek Redmond

Our class watched a video of Derek Redmond running his 400metre race in the 1992 Olympics.  Here is some writing we did in response to this video. we tried to vary sentence beginnings and include some complex sentences which include more than one idea. See the Derek Redmond video and Rise song in the Olympic page on our blog.

Derek Redmond, from England, went to the Olympics and ran in the 400 metre race in 1992. It was held in Barcelona. Derek was actually the favourite to win.

Derek Redmond was pumped and of course he was nervous and excited. Derek was determined to win. He had to warm up . he did this by jumping up and down, looking at the other competitors.

Derek was coming fourth but then a very sad thing happened. He was 250 metres to the finish line but then he snapped his hamstring. Derek grabbed the back of his leg and fell to the ground in pain. He started crying. Derek put his hand on his face but then he got up to finish the race because that was what he came to the Olympics for. But his dad came running to him and helped him finish the race - it was a miracle. Derek’s dad put his hand around Derek. Dad quietly said “we will finish the race together”. So as they were running officials were saying to dad “ you cannot help , get back in the stand” But he told the officials to go away. Finally they finished the race together.

I will never forget Derek Redmond. He was my hero. I will never give up and I will do my best just like he did. Hopefully no-one will give up. Never fall - always rise. Listen to the Katy Perry Olympic song RISE, I think it suits Derek Redmond. I hope Derek inspires you like he inspires me.

Simone

Olympic Scavenger Hunt

Today we started our learning about the Olympic Games by doing a scavenger hunt. The children had  a list of questions each. The corresponding answers were hidden around the classroom. They had to hunt around the classroom to find the answers without letting the other kids know if they found one. Some children were very clever at casually walking past a clue and reading it out of the corner of the eye. Others were so excited they almost screamed when they discovered an answer, which caused a stampede of children rushing to find it too. A fun way to learn simple facts about the Olympics.

Silent shuffle

We did a silent card shuffle activity. In groups we had to put a list of transport forms such as skateboard, hot air balloon, train, rocket etc in order from slowest to fastest. We were not allowed to speak to each other so had to find other ways to communicate. we then rotated around the other groups to see how they had ordered their lists. We then went back to our own list and could finally speak and change our list if we wanted to. We had to think critically about our decisions and argue our points to the rest of the group.

Paper Planes

As part of our home learning we had to make a paper plane that would fly the furthest distance.
These are the results.

Completed Bike Art

Here are some of the completed pieces of Bike Art. See the earlier post to check if we have managed to replicate the original work. Let us know what you think in the comments.

Bike Art

We have been busy creating art based on parts of a bike

Step 1 - take a photo of only one part of a bike
Step 2 - print photo of the bike onto the back of a map
Step 3 - carefully cut out the bike and glue onto a plain white sheet of paper
Step 4 - paint

Here are some photos of the process we have been going through

 

 

 

What we are hoping they will look like in the end. I think we are doing well.

 

ANZAC Art

The background to the art was a portion of a journal story about WW1. we placed wavy brown and black lines over the articles. The children thought these represented the hills of Gallipoli, trenches, sadness, death, and dirt.

The poppies were made from heart shapes and represent the love for the soldiers and our country. the red is a stronger colour than the black.

ANZAC Day

We have been learning about ANZAC day this week - where Gallipoli is, when it happened, how we landed at the wrong beach, why we were in Turkey, reasons for the great loss of life etc.
There are links to some good videos in the 'Topic' page of this blog - Flanders Field poem, Maori Battalion article, song re why we have a minute's silence etc.
If you have any stories about some of your family members who were involved in any wars, or have any memories to share of visiting any war graves overseas, or have been to Gallipoli, or have been to a parade before etc please share them with us in the comment section below.
Thank you

We have made a connection today via email with Lloyd Burr, an ex pupil who is now a political reporter for Mediaworks - (Radio Live and TV3 news), who is currently at Gallipoli. We will be asking him questions over the next few days about his experiences. Here is a link to one of his reports where he talks about his relatives who were in the war.

Lloyd Burr radio interview

Very Good Website with 3D re-ennactment of Gallipoli

Click on the photo below to link to an article on Sunlive

Land yachts

Wonderful Water Wheels

 We saw some Wonderful Water Wheels work today. This was a Home Learning project that both children and adults enjoyed.

A water wheel is a hydropower system; a machine for extracting power from the flow of water. Water wheels and hydropower was widely used in the Middle Ages, powering most industry in Europe, along with the windmill. The most common use of the water wheel was to mill flour in gristmills, but other uses included foundry work and machining, and pounding linen for use in paper.