Another two terms have flown by!

Since the
beginning of Term Two, we have trained and
competed in the school
Cross Country and the
Interschool competition
too (Well done to Maia
and Sascha!), we have been involved in
Rippa Rugby sessions (including some
injuries!) and visited The Mind Lab to
conclude our Term Two topic on Inventions.
Phewf! Not forgetting testing in June,
mid-year reports going home and
finally Parent interviews which saw
Term Two come to an end.

Term Three has been a busy one
possibly the most action packed yet!

In Reading this term we have learnt about the strategies, Retelling and Paraphrasing,
Summarisation, Scanning and Skimming and Self-Monitoring. These are more strategies we can use
when we read. The main aim of using reading strategies is to help us understand what we read, which
makes reading much more fun! Next term we will be combining all the strategies (multi-strategy) to
further help us in all areas of our reading.

In Writing this term we have again been busy! Our books are bursting to the brim and Miss C-C has
been taking books home to do some late night reading, as it is that good! We started the term with
some scene descriptions some beautiful pieces on Antarctica and the bridge that really paint a
picture in the readers mind our main focus for descriptive writing. We also described haunted
houses which were so good they were scary (they also made the school newsletter too!). We then
moved on to character descriptions which were lots of fun as we described a family member using
similes! We had Dads like Sky Towers, Mums with smiles like the curve of a banana and brothers
as super as a superhero. We have such clever writers in Room 17. We then moved on to looking at
narratives and creating our own. We even co-wrote narratives where we wrote parts and then
passed our books around for others to write the rest. You can read these multi-authored stories in
our reading corner, in the classroom. You can also read some of our narratives that we turned into e-
books, using the app storyrobe, on our blog under the writing tab.

We learnt that similes, metaphors, homonyms, homophones, editing and learning to use a Dictionary
are all parts of grammar that we need to understand and then can use to improve our writing. We
also had another look at prefixes and suffixes and learnt about compound and complex sentence
writing using as an explanation (ask us to teach you, Mum and Dad!).

In Maths we started the term by looking closely at Patterns and Relationships. We learnt to draw the
next shape in a pattern sequence, see how the pattern continues from one shape to the next and
draw up a table of values to help identify and explain patterns. By the end of this unit, we were all so
quick at finding patterns and this was great to see. We looked at Fractions and spent some time
making equivalent fractions playing one of our favourite (but challenging) games on the smartboard
Tortoise and the Hare. This term, Miss C-C also introduced Precision Maths. Some of us are
Tutors and others are Tutees. This is quick, focussed testing on a single times table a week. We
have worked on 3x and 4x facts so far and the scores are improving significantly. We have spent the
rest of the term revising Addition and Subtraction strategies and learning new ones.

In Topic we looked at Out of this World a topic study on Space. This was such a fun topic and we
learnt a lot!! We rounded this topic off by visiting Stardome where we clarified the things we learnt
and also found out some new facts too. The Stardome has an amazing room where you can lounge
back and look at the night sky and watch movies too. We enjoyed the interactive displays and the
noisy bus ride across the bridge. Thank you to the parents that came and thank you also to the many
that offered to help Miss C-C is very lucky to have so much support. We ended our topic by
celebrating Space with a Space Day and an out of this world shared lunch (see some pictures of the
action below).
In Te Reo this term we have been focussing on A word a Week Te Kupu o te Wiki and had so much
fun using these words in everyday conversation -we will carry this on next term too. We have also
been learning about Kai/Food vocab for fruit (hua rakau) and vocab for vegetables (hua whenua)
with Ms Von Sturmer coming in to grow our understanding and teach us about protocols/tikanga
she even helped us create a big book/pukapuka (pop in to Room 17 to have a read of this, its very
funny!). Emily Wells was a prize winner in the Maori Language Week competition this year with her
entry to be a courier driver when she is older.
In Art this term we had great fun creating our Safari themed calendar art, constellation and planet
art but I think the favourite was indeed creating our own flip animation books and
stop animation films you can find these movies all on our blog
@ http://thezebraatemyhomework.blogspot.co.nz/

There have also been other events happening in and around the school that have made it such a busy
one. Winter sports finished (Miss C-Cs year 6 netball team came 3
rd
in
their grade!), Room 17 got five more iPads, middle syndicate classes got to
attend Takapuna Grammar School (TGS) for fun and games with some year
10 students and the school show, Aladdin was
rehearsed and presented at The Rose Centre in
weeks 9 and 10. Well done to our future
actresses who starred in the show Katie
Young, Kaedee White, Mia Harvey and
Natalie Wilson. They were brilliant and it
was lovely to see these girls excel in yet another
area of the curriculum. We have been lucky to see performances
from the Bellbirds (senior choir), the Junior Choir and the Ukelele
group, this term, which several Room 17 students are involved in.

We would also like to welcome Jessica and Maria who joined us halfway
through the term in the same week! The boys in Room 17 are starting
to think its a girls only classroom. Jessica has joined us from Spain
and Maria joins us from Korea.

There is no doubt that Term Four is going to be just as busy as Term Three - just a little bit shorter!
As you know, you can always keep up to date with what we have been up to by checking out the blog or
popping in and having a look around. It is safe to say Miss C-C is a very proud teacher and is so
impressed with the effort and enthusiasm in which the children in Room 17 put into all that they do.
Our Best Always achieved!

TGS Sports Sessions


Maria
Jessica
Natalie, as part
of the chorus.
Space Day Action!

The out of this world costumes!

Creating and experimenting with paper bag balloon
rockets


Whilst watching Room 13 launch some rockets, we
also met with the school for a fire drill Mrs Sykes
accidentally left the oven on grill in the staffroom
and the play dough turned to charcoalopps!