Wow!  What a day Room 3 had today!  We had a visit from El Grego the magician about cyber-bullying and what a visit it was!  Your children were absolutely memorised watching him do things like make real live birds disappear then reappear, have bunches of flowers appear from 'inside' a cloth and so on.  In fact I'm not going to tell you what else he did ... have your child tell you when you look at the photos together :)

The highlight for us in Room 3 was when Hayley was brought up to help El Grego.  You did such an amazing job Hayley and we are sooo proud of you :)

This last magic trick had us stumped!  As you can see by the photos, El Grego put the beautiful bird into the box and then disassembled the box piece by piece until only the bottom was left.  There was just one problem .... what happened to the bird?????????????????

The older children looking after Room 3 at lunchtime had all sorts of theories ... including that the bird was perched behind him on his back or that it crawled up his sleeve .... what do you think?

Later on during Literacy,  our sound of the day was 'i'.  One of the activities today for the children to choose from as part of their self-directed learning programme, was the play dough.  I just loved all the chatting, making and sounding of the 'i' sound while they were playing.  It was awesome!!!!

Your children are loving being able to choose the activities that they want to do in order to learn and practice their letter sounds, basic words and practice their reading.  The classroom is just humming :)

Wow!  Another week has flown past already!  Today we had a lovely mass to celebrate the Baptism of some of our children but it was just so special for us in Room 3 as Tandia was baptised.  What a wonderful occasion for us all - well done Tandia, we are very proud of you.

Throughout this week we have been having lots of children having their school visits.  By the end of Week 1, Term 4, we are going to have 12 children so our wonderful class is growing very quickly.  On Wednesday, Lily had her second visit with her Dad and one of our reading groups was reading the book "Making a Big Sandcastle" so Lily's Dad took them out to make a sandcastle.  Check out the awesome job they did!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and I'll see you all on Monday.

SCIENCE ALIVE VISIT

Hello everyone, today Rooms 1 and 3 had our visit from Science Alive and it was FANTASTIC!!!!

In class, we have been studying 'Forces' and how we need to push/pull/twist things in order to make them move.  We have also looked at how gravity keeps us on the ground and how friction affects movement.

Today we had 4 different learning stations ..

The first station (and a very popular one too!) was using magnets and showing how magnets either attract or repel objects.

The second station was all about identifying how objects move.

Another station was talking about gravitational forces ....

And the final discussion showed how different surfaces cause friction and so can affect how fast/slow an object moves.  

All in all, it was a wonderful session - thank Science Alive!!!

Good afternoon everyone.  I hope you are having a wonderful weekend!  This week Science Alive is visiting the Rutherford Team in relation to our current 'Forces' unit.  They are going to be working in Room 3 for these 2 days so we are going to be working in the teacher workroom which is next to Room 1.  In the morning before school, we will take over everything we need so your child will be able to go straight there on Tuesday morning.

See you then :)

Wow!  I can't believe it is Friday tomorrow already!  The week has just flown past!  We have had lots of children visiting this week in preparation for starting school very soon and the children in Rooms 1 and 3 have really enjoyed meeting them all and spending time with them.

On Tuesday we had our second MOVEMPROVE session.  Here are a few photos of your children.

 Tandia is using the beam.

 Ben is dribbling a ball.

 Conor has done a backwards somersault on the bar.

Grady is doing a backwards handstand up the wall.

Grady is loving the beam!

We have been continuing our procedural writing unit where we have been writing, in sequence, how to do particular tasks using the words FIRST, NEXT, THEN and FINALLY.  Today we made honey sandwiches .....

See you all in the morning :)

Wow!  What an amazing day we had today at the Marae at Hillmorton High School.  Room 3 went with Rooms 1, 5, 6 and 12 and we were all split into 4 groups.  I was with Conor and Tandia's group.  I know your children would have told you all about it but here are a few photos from our very special day ....

After we were welcomed onto the Marae, presented our Koha and sang "E te Ariki", we had some morning tea together. 

Next we were off to learn how to use rakau ....

and poi.  I love this shot of Tandia - she looks so excited!!!

Conor was really good at using poi!!

After lunch, Matua taught us a haka and then he asked Tandia to help lead us in it.

Finally we learnt about taiaha.  The Hillmorton girls who were our leaders taught us what they were used for and how tapu they are if they leave the Marae.

Remember tomorrow is MOVEMPROVE so your child only needs to wear their sports uniform to school.

I hope you have a great night :)