Crazy Day Now Thursday

CRAZY DAY NEXT WEDNESDAY

Hunting Mosquitoes

Last week Room 3 kids had lots of fun observing the MILLIONS of mosquito larvae and pupae in the school swimming pool. We read a book about mosquitoes and this is what we learnt. ...

Did you know that mosquitoes lay their eggs on water in groups called RAFTS?

Mosquito larvae are also known as 'WRIGGLERS' because they wriggle through the water.

Mosquito pupae are called TUMBLERS. They breathe underwater through long tubes that poke up to the surface of the water. These are called TRUMPETS.

Do you know why mosquito bites are itchy?  The female pokes a long needle-like proboscis into your skin. Her saliva mixes with your blood. This caused a chemical reaction and make you itchy.

Did you know only the FEMALE mosquitoes bite?  And it's only the females that make that high whining sound.

Insects invade Room 3

There's an insect invasion happening in Room 3!  We are learning about insects and our class have been collecting creepy crawlies found alive (or dead).

We make sure we look after our live insects by feeding them and taking them home in the weekend so they're looked after.

"Insects have an exoskeleton which is a hard protective covering over it's body" - Jewel

"All insects have 6 legs and 3 body parts" - Maia

"The 3 main body parts are the head, thorax and abdomen" - Isabella L

"Most insects go through 4 stages of metamorphosis, - egg, larva, pupa, adult" - Brooke M

"Ticks aren't insects" - Shelby

"The wings and legs are attached to the thorax" - Brooke K


Here are some photos!

Gala!

We had SO much fun at the school gala on Saturday. There were heaps of cool things to buy, eat and do. We will be writing about our favourite parts of the day in class today.

Here are some photos ...

Shot Put

We are doing Athletics for PE until the end of term.  Today we practised shot put.

We are learning to PUSH the ball with a straight arm, not THROW like a tennis ball.

Here are some photos ...

Remember to bring shorts and a T-shirt to school every day. We are practising sprints, long jump, high jump, discus, and shot put.

Buddy Class

Room 3's buddy class is Room 8. Some of our children have been visiting our 'little buddies' to help them with their learning activities. Sometimes the children pop into our class to have a 'big buddy' listen to them read.

Last Friday, our buddy class taught us a couple of dances.

We are looking forward to doing more fun activities with our buddy class this year!

Senior Swimming Sports

Yesterday we had the Senior Swimming Sports at the Makino Pool. We were very lucky with the weather. It was warm and sunny and the water was just right.

It was very exciting for us Year 4's because it was our FIRST swimming sports event in the BIG pool!
Here are some photos of our afternoon ...

Spelling Buddies

Every Friday morning, we 'buddy up' with our Learning Buddy. We test each other on the list of words we've been practising at home and school.

We feel so PROUD when we get these words right.

Special Visitors

Today we had two special visitors to Room 3 ...  Mrs Howie and her baby Jack!
We all think Jack is very cute. He is 5 weeks old now and still has a lot of  hair.
Mrs Howie is very proud of him. It was so great to finally meet the 'bump' from Mrs Howie's tummy.

Moss's Bug

Today one of our students brought a bug that he found. He wrote about it today and wanted to post it on our class blog.

This is Moss's story ...

Goodbye Harold

On Friday, all of Halcombe School kids went to the hall to say goodbye to Tim and Harold.
Tim turned on some 'Star Wars' music, and everyone laughed when Harold came out and had a pretend light saber battle with Tim. In the end, they didn't actually fight! They hugged each other!

We've learnt a lot about what makes us good learners and how the food we eat affects our learning. We are working on being good friends to each other.

Here's our last photo of Harold and Tim...

Life Education

Today we started our Life Education programme. We will be learning about what it means to be a good friend, have good self-esteem and how to relate better with others.

We met Tim and Harold in the Life Education caravan and had lots of fun learning about what things help us to come to school ready to learn ... a good sleep, a good breakfast, having had some exercise and having people who care for us and love us.

We will be seeing Tim and Harold again every Monday and Wednesday afternoon. We can't wait!

Friday Fun Day

Today was Friday Fun Day in the pool. We had loads of fun creating a whirlpool, dog paddling in it, then trying to swim against the flow!  We had noodle races and did an obstacle course where we had to dive over and swim under noodles.

These activities are great for building our water confidence, trying new skills (dolphin dives today), and just to enjoy being in the water.

Here are some photos ...

Learning Maths Games

Today in Maths, we learnt how to play a variety of different Maths games that involved addition and subtraction. Playing Maths games helps us practice basic facts and to get quicker and more accurate.
And it's fun learning with a buddy!

Welcome To Room 3

It's our second day back at school and Room 3 kids are happy to be back!
Here were are ...

We are looking forward to sharing all the exciting fun things we do this year and to show you what we're learning.

We LOVE your friendly feedback, so please feel free to leave a comment.


REMINDER ...
KIDS - BRING YOUR TOGS TO SCHOOL EVERY DAY

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Well, the day has come .... the last day of school!
We wish everyone a very merry Christmas and happy holidays.

See you all next year!

Athletics Training

Over the past week, we've been out in the crazy wind, practising athletic skills.
Today we were practising throwing the discus. Luckily the wind was helping push the discus into the air!

Room 3 Camp

Last week Room 3 kids had our school camp! We went to Te Manawa Museum to construct and battle robots. We had a sleep over at school then went to the Manawatu Gorge to do the Tawa Loop Track.
It was loads of fun. We played lots of fun games in the hall and had fish and chips for tea. For some of us, it was the first time sleeping over somewhere different, and it was exciting sleeping in the class overnight.
Here are some photos of our 2 day camp ...

Thanks so much to our wonderful parent helpers ..
Mr Iwikau, Miss Allen, Mrs Moses, Miss McLaughlin, Mr Rutherford, Mr Stace, Talk Talk, and to Mrs Newman and Miss White for helping out with our breakfast/lunch on Friday.

We really appreciate it!

Technology - Making Coasters

Room 3 have just finished their technology project - To design and create a coaster that will ..
1. Be waterproof
2. Be strong
3. Be heat resistant
4. Not scratch the table
5. Look good

First we had to work our what would be a good material to make our coasters with. After a process of elimination of bad ideas, we decided 5mm MDF would fit the criteria above.

We had to draw our designs, including what materials would be needed, what the back would be like and to show colours paints/vivids we would use.

Some Room 6 children helped us in the woodwork room to cut edges of the wood, then we had to sand the rough edges.

We had to coat the wood with special primer so that our paint colours wouldn't seep into the wood.

Finally ... we got to draw and paint our designs. Some printed pictures from the internet. We HAD to follow our plans. Sometimes we had to change our design, because we realised things didn't work out as we planned...

We glued felt circles on the back so that they wouldn't scratch or stick to the table.

At last, we sprayed our coasters with a varnish to waterproof them.
Our coasters look amazing... Here are some photos of our technology process ...

Check out our coasters!

Pet Day

Today was Pet Day!  The back field was filled with lambs, calves, goats, dogs - not to mention cats, rabbits, pigs, chooks and birds.

Room 3 children were proud of the rural-themed artwork they've been working so hard on over the past two weeks. Here are some photos of our day ...

School Disco

Friday night was our school disco. The juniors kicked the night off at 5.30pm and got straight into some serious grooves. We had lots of fun. Miss Jeynes had fun dancing with children from different classes too! Here are some photos of our night ...

Cross Country Practice

This week we've been putting lots of effort into our training for cross country. We have been running along the shingle road just outside of school.
Today we had a practice run of the cross country course. It was great running through the mud and working out how to get through the creek without falling into it!

We're hoping the weather will be perfect for this Friday's cross country...

School Disco next Friday

PET DAY

I hope you all had a great holiday. Now we're back into Term 4 full swing!
Pet Day is fast approaching - Week 3 - Wednesday 26th October.

Room 3 will be creating some wonderful pieces of art ... a paper flower garden and pet rocks. All materials will be provided at school. We look forward to showing off our art.

See you at Pet Day!

A Wheely Fun Day

Today the Student Council ran another Wheels Day.  Despite a few raindrops and puddles, we all got to have a zoom around the school on our scooters, drift bikes, roller blades and wheely shoes.

Then for lunch it was a sausage and a spider drink. YUM!!!! Sorry parents for the muddy clothes!

At the start of the day, the whole school went to the hall to show off our groovy dance moves that we've been practising for the past few weeks.
 Check these out ...

Thanks Student Council for this fun event.

Reminder about Wheels/Spider/Sausages

Dancing With Our Little Buddies

Today we got together with our buddy class - Room 8. They taught us a dance called The King Of Spain Goes Marching.

We each had turns dancing with  our younger buddies and had lots of fun.
Thanks Room 8 kids for showing us this dance! We're looking forward to our next buddy class session.

Wheels Day/Fun Day Coming Up

Fabric Fun

Room 3 kids are learning all about Fabric & Fibre. We have been learning to identify different fabrics, and test out and compare their properties. For example, how stretchy is the fabric? Is it absorbent? Does it fray easily? Does it bounce back after you squeeze it? etc.

We worked in small groups and had fun, ripping, cutting, squeezing fabrics.

We've learnt that fabrics are constructed in 4 main ways: weaved,(like cotton shirts)  knitted/looped (like woolen jerseys or stretchy cotton T-shirts)   or are 'non-woven' which are NOT made from thread.  (Like polar fleece)

Today we practiced weaving flax. We needed to work with a buddy because one person had to hold down the ends of the flax while the other weaved .. under, over, under, over.  Then we swapped over to give our buddy a turn.

Our flax weaving looks awesome, even though it's not quite finished.   Here are some photos ...