Differentiation

There are many ways that we like to learn and many ways we like to show what we have been learning.

Over the last few weeks we have had opportunities to work on our figurative language through poetry. In truth we don't all yet understand what the term figurative language means yet, but we do know that it makes our writing sound better and there have been some beautiful examples of this published on student blogs lately.

We then got to choose how we wanted to present our work. We have to think about what works for us? How do we like to share? Here are some of the choices we've made:

Sophie is using code to programme her own animation!

There's a team who are creating models.

Lorenzo is has shared his skills in model building with the team

Hamish has written and produced an argument about who the best surfer is.

Ella has illustrated her poem using Storybird.

Asha is turning her poem into a piece of art work.

Joel has produced a video featuring his poem.

Who knew poetry would be so popular!

Lorenzo is working hard publishing his poem using a Zentangle pattern

People are made of places. They carry with thembones, blood, anger and happiness. The sound of Lego Simpsons blocks clicking together.

How buildings are built by people that built them; like the smell of hot chocolates nice warm enjoyed by the people who built the buildings, or the almost-not-smell of houses in rows and concrete in lines, nature on grass and hills on farms and houses on farms; or the smell of factories that make lego, and the hot offices; or the smell of a cold lemon drink on a hot day, when I jump in a cold pool and cool down .

Where I come from, people carry places in their minds, acres of farm land on hills and grass; I drive places in the car on a hot day wanting a ice cream; an old and broken house, in need of paint, with cows going into the stockyards where cows circle about, mooing aimlessly; battered car in the field, behind which grass and daffodils grow.

by Lorenzo

Sharing ideas helped these boys develop some great pieces of poetry

People are made of places. They carry with them blood, bones and anger or the atmosphere of anger, sadness, joy and fear and how people run from them, like the smell of car gas, rubber, pant and smoke or the almost-not-smell of apples in the tree. Nature, the sheep eat green juicy grass. The trees swinging in the wide and the leaves blew off the tree and slowly fell down to ground. Like a Rock slips off a cliff and tumble to the ground; or the smell of chocolate factories maybe, small, lonely offices; or the smell of meat when we eat Barney’s ribs in town.

Where I come from, people carry places in their minds, acres of food; the smell of delicious cake cooking in the oven; the cottage, old, in need of paint, with a pen where hens and chickens circle about, clucking aimlessly; battered old utes behind which weeds grow.

by Conall

Matinee

We have all been practising hard and now the show is about to happen! Tomorrow's Matinee (Tuesday 1pm) still has a few tickets left if you get in quick first thing tomorrow morning.

The evening shows, 7pm both Wednesday and Thursday, have sold out. All children who are playing a main part are to be at school by 6pm. Other students please arrive by 6.30pm and go straight to your classrooms (seniors to Library).
The show is scheduled to finish around 8.15pm and all students must have been collected by 8.30pm on these nights.

Thanks again and see you all at the show!

Athletics

Well done to all the students who participated so well in yesterday's CCC Athletics. We are proud of everyone!

Thanks again to all the parents who came along and helped with supervision. The whole day ran smoothly because of your support.

Asha G nailing her quoits throw

Sophie flying over the long jump pit

Phoebe launching herself into the pit

Anika propelling herself through the air

"Look at my face! I bet her in that one." - Asha

Thank you to Andrew Stewart for the amazing photos!!

Black Out

Today we are all about the All Black's!!

Charlie has created a bar graph (for Statistics) showing who scored the most conversions at the RWC

Asha, Ella and Rachel are creating All Black's art works.

Foster and Joel are using their measurement skills to create art works depicting game play.

Conall and Winky have written a persuasive arguments in favour of this quote from Richie McCaw:

I agree with Richie Mccaw because he works really hard at rugby. If you don’t train really hard you will lose games. If you don’t practice passing you will drop the ball in a game and lose possession in rugby.

by Conall

I agree with Richie Mccaw because the amount of practice he does is not magic. He has been going to training with the All Blacks for 14 years so he wins turnovers and tackles +everything else.

by Winky

Onomatopoeia

This week for literacy, we have been learning about Onomatopoeia: what it means and how to use it to enhance our writing.

Students were asked to produce an artefact that showed this. They have loved coming up with all sorts of ways of showing this. Here are some examples:

SWSWAG Hui

Nau Mai Haere Mai

All Gladstone School students and whānanu are invited to the SWSWAG (Super Whānau South Wairarapa Advisory Group) Hui next Tuesday 27th October, 5.15 - 7.30pm. This Super Whānau Group has been set up to build and strengthen partnerships between whānau (families), schools, Ngati Kahungunu Iwi and community, to discuss ways forward for all children growing up and learning in the South Wairarapa. There is a special focus on Māori students achievement, however all whānau and students benefit from these partnerships.

The programme for the evening is as follows:

5:15 PM: Gather at the marae

5: 30 PM: The powhiri will begin

Following the powhiri we will have a korero from the Haukainga (the people of the marae)

Kai (food) and Kapahaka will come after the korero.

Please RSVP to micaela@gladstone1.school.nz by the end of today if you are keen to come along. Hau Ariki is a beautiful marae with an interesting history - and it's always nice to eat good food with other families from the South Wairarapa.

Wairarapa REAP Schools Kapa Haka Festival 2015

Wairarapa REAP Schools Kapa Haka Festival 2015 will be hosted by Masterton Intermediate School on Thursday 22^nd October at the Masterton Town Hall, Masterton starting with a powhiri at 8.30am. All parents and whānau are welcome to come and support. Out of courtesy to the performers there will be no admission during individual school performances. Please ensure you are there at least five minutes before your school’s performance time. There will be food available to purchase on the day. Parking is limited outside the Town Hall, and there are parking meters so please be aware of this.

Gladstone School is scheduled to perform at 9.45am.

Masterton Intermediate School will be selling food, sausages $2 and bacon & egg sandwiches for $3, bottled water will also be for sale.

The festival will be videoed and there will be photographers there on the day. 

* If your child is part of the kapa haka group for Gladstone School and you have had no notices come home can you please contact Micaela Rutene immediately (it appears some notices have gone astray).

Scarecrow making is on!

Thanks to all the parents who came to help.

The beginnings of a burly farmer.

Good team work!

Stuffing the body for a surprise scarecrow

Term 4 - Welcome back

Kia ora whānau,

Welcome back into the final term of the year. We have started with a bang in Room 3 last week including:

• Footsteps Dance coming in a teaching us some moves to this song released way back in the year 2000 (before any of these kids were even born!)

Maybe you can convince your child to show you what they've learned so far!

• We took part in the nationwide Shake Out drill to get everyone thinking about how to keep themselves safe during an earthquake. This fit nicely with our Health and PE focus of identifying risks and thinking about what to do to keep everyone safe in any event. Check out this website and have a talk to your child about how that might work at your home, at sports training and other places you frequently visit. 
• Gladstone School Pet Day was a beauty. It was a great mixture of sunshine, animals and families. Congratulations to all of the participants and a big thank you to everyone who helped set it up, work during it and pack down at the end.

This coming week: 

• Please keep an eye in your child's bag for the class newsletter, long term plan and weekly schedule.
• Scarecrow making will be taking place on the tennis courts first session tomorrow (Monday) morning.
• Footsteps Dance will be back on Tuesday morning to help us with our dance performance for the School Production again (this will continue weekly up until the school production week)
• REAP Primary Schools Kapa Haka Festival at Masterton Town Hall on Thursday 22nd from 8.30am - 4.30pm (pop in and check it out!). Our school will be performing at 9.45am.

Cutting some shapes

We have been working on our knowledge of shapes, especially plane shapes (no not the Airbus ones!) this morning Oscar helped run a lesson where a porowhita (circle) who we'd helped shape change into a tapatoru (triangle) now wanted to shape change again into a taparara (trapezium). 

Angus and Anika working out if the angles on a trapezium could help them to know if any sides were parallel.

We had to work out what the features or attributes were of each shape and then find a way to check if our shape matched that.

Natasha and Ella finding out how to shape-change their tapatoru into a taparara.

What do you think of our taparara/trapezium's?

Oscar leading the class in shape sorting

There was lots of discussion around what 'parallel' means. What do you think it means?

Mau Rakau update

Today we took some time-lapse videos of our Mau Rakau practice. We have been learning to hear the calls in Te Reo Maori and to have discipline (in handling our rakau) so that we look after each other.

This is a game we play to help us know which direction to go in:

Hockey Winners

Massive congratulations to Gladstone School's two hockey teams (Y5/6 and Y7/8) who competed in the South Wairarapa Hockey Tournament today at Clareville.

Both teams took out top honours and are the winners in their categories. Great sportmanship and skill from both teams!

What does Self-worth mean?

We have been looking at ways we can build self-worth in ourselves and others, while playing sports. Here are some of the ideas we had today after our PE session:

Created with Padlet

What an adventure!!

This could end up being a long post, but bear/bare (never sure which one that's supposed to be) with us!

Today was EPIC! So for those of you who weren't there for the actual action, here's some virtual action for you:

First up we visited the Island Bay Marine Education Centre

Everyone getting into the 'touch tanks', Octopus and very sad Blue Cod :(

More exploring, the Headquarters, and Shark eggs!

Clockwise from top left: Summer's sells seashells by the seashore; dead seal on beach, Island Bay beach foraging; Blue-bottle jellyfish

There was a LOT to see and do here. We found out some interesting things about how living things 'adapt' to their environment. The phrase 'adaptation' came up quite a few times throughout the day.

Next we headed off to Carlucciland, which is an amazing sculptural mini-golf course that was and is being adapted using recycled and repurposed metal, concrete, stone and other assortments that people have decided to discard. They have changed a hillside environment and created an amazing place for everyone to enjoy.

Just a tiny portion of the sculptures and creations that can be found here

Gladstone School representing on the course

After a game of golf and some lunch we headed off to Wellington Zoo where we learned more about how living things adapt to their particular environments and how they each have a 'niche', whether it be prey, predator, protector...(what other roles do you think there are for living things to play?)

Ostrich, Giraffe, Pelican and Tuatara

We will spend the next few days putting together a video montage for you to watch too, so keep an eye on our blog and ask us lots of questions.

Science continued...

After the success of Room 3's Science presentations we are continuing with our Scientific investigations. Today we took a few daffodils and tried to work out what would happen if we put them in coloured water. Here's what happened after one school day:

Is this what you expected?

It's like someone coloured them in a bit!

These ones didn't like the taste of coloured water so much

Update regarding our Class Trip

Kia ora whanau, just a follow up from yesterday’s email regarding the change in our class camp:

- the day trip will be this coming Tuesday 8th September

- as this will just be a day-trip, it is not necessary to hold the family information meetings on Friday afternoon, so these are now cancelled.

Here is the notice again, for anyone who missed it:

1st September 2015

Kia ora whānau,

Due to unforseen circumstances there have had to be changes made to Camp Eco­Warriors. This will no longer be an overnight camp but with your support I am hoping we can still make it over to Wellington for a big day­trip (Tuesday 8th September) with the following schedule:

Scenario 1 ­ Fine Weather	Scenario 2 ­ Wet Weather
08:15 Depart Gladstone School 10:00 Island Bay Marine Education Centre  (1.5 hour programme) 11.30 Lunch (Fish and Chips at Island Bay Park ­ provided) 12.30 Carlucciland Mini­Golf/Art Centre 2:00 Wellington Zoo (2 hours) 4:00 Travel back to Gladstone (arrive back about 5.30pm)	08:15 Depart Gladstone School 10:00 Island Bay Marine Education Centre (1.5 hour programme) 12.00 Lunch and Play at Junglerama in Newtown (lunch provided) 2:00 Wellington Zoo (2 hours) 4:00 Travel back to Gladstone (arrive back about 5.30pm)

The cost of this day trip will be $50 which includes lunch (please provide your child with morning and afternoon tea and a full water bottle). For those who have paid the full camp fee, we can reimburse you the difference, or place the difference against your school account. Please advise below which you would prefer.

If you have not yet paid, could you please do so tomorrow to ensure we have the money available to go ahead with these plans. Thanks.

Even though our plans have had to change I hope that the activities listed above are enjoyed by the students and will help to strengthen their in­class learning about Ecology. If you are a parent supervisor for camp, could you please confirm with me that you are still available to support this

day­trip? I apologise if this has proved an inconvenience for you. I appreciate your help and support with events like this.

Nga mihi mahana,

Micaela Rutene 

Room 3 Teacher, Gladstone School

My name:

My child’s name:

Eco­Warriors Day Trip

(Please choose one option below)
I have paid my fees and would like to be reimbursed the difference in cost Yes

I have paid my fees and would like the difference put against my school account Yes 

Micaela Rutene

Gladstone School

micaela@gladstone1.school.nz

Mau Rakau

Yesterday we started our Mau Rakau learning at Hurunui-o-rangi Marae. We had a great time learning self-discipline and self-worth through combat training.

Hurunui-o-rangi Marae

Working out which foot to step forward with. How beautiful is this setting though!

Discipline

Striking

Learning about shapes

This morning we have been learning more about plane shapes. Because we like to move around we did this with lengths of string and bodies. Check out our time lapse and then see our individual blogs for more information:

Science Fair Fun

We've been loving all the different Science Inquiries that are happening in Room 3 at the moment. There are plants and seeds and bird feeders and crystals and eggs and all sorts being experimented on.

Today we all got excited about the catapult that Angus and his Dad made, for Angus and Hamish's experiment:

Can you hear Hamish talking about what their hyporthesis was? Do you think they proved or disproved their hypothesis?

Maths Problems

So much has been happening in Room 3. Here are some little tasters from the students own blogs:

Today Room 3 joined up with Room 6 again to try and solve a maths puzzle. This one mixed finding sums with equilateral triangles and if the students wanted to get really tricksy, they could use reflective and rotational symmetry to help solve them. Asha has given some examples on her blog here and Anika has described her process here.

We've also been exploring time with Ms Julius when she was in our classroom. We got to create a piece of art based on time. Summer has a good example of it here on her blog.

We have a class focus on spelling this term and last week Billy worked hard on knowing his 3-letter blends. He's made a blog post about it here.

Some of the students have been learning how to create QR Codes to share information. We've been using them to summarise articles and stories we've been using in reading. Here's one that Sophie made. If you don't have a QR code reader they're easy to download for free from the app store.

Forms and paperwork

This is a reminder to all the parents/whānau of Room 3 to make sure that you've signed and returned forms for the following:
* Football Tournament
* Camp
* Mau Rakau

Please have these in to me tomorrow (Friday) if possible. Monday at the latest. Thanks for your help.

Football Tournament - Important message

Kia ora whānau,

An important message regarding the South Wairarapa Football Tournament. There is an amendment in dates from the first form that was sent out. The Tournament will be held on Friday 14th August only. This is due to the Kuranui College open day taking place on the Wednesday and Year 8 students (from all South Wairarapa Schools) having the opportunity to attend that. If it does not go ahead on that Friday there is no postponement date.

If you have sent your form in indicating that you are able to help out on the Friday then YES we do need you.

Thanks again

Celebrating people in our classroom

Here are some examples of fantastic learning from members of Room 3. We like to think that learning can happen at any time and in any place, so all of this did not happen in the classroom but their skills and knowledge has all come back to us:

Anika and Summer

This is a stop-motion movie that Summer and Anika made in the school holidays. We are inspired and want to try this in class. They can be our experts!

Rachel's Kowhaiwhai Art

My painting is about my family and how they make me feel. It is a kowhaiwhai piece of art. I got to go to Featherston School, on a REAP course, and we got to learn about kowhaiwhai and create our own.

Modern Learning Environments

We thought you might like a little window into how our modern classroom operates during the day. Research tells us that students are more engaged in their learning when they get to 'drive' it with good support from their teachers and their families.

"When I have my headphones on I have music playing and blocks out the other noise. It helps me to concentrate on my work." Asha

"I like that we can do stories together on the computers (shared google doc). It makes it easier." - Rachel
"I like working together and how plan our day and choose what we do. If I want to finish something I can do it at another time." - Eva
"I can plan my own day and I can choose when to do my reading, writing and maths. I like writing the best." - Ella

Ollie, Phoebe and Winky working on a reading task together.
"I am painting a butterfly to put on the lake on the wall, that we did. We read a story about a frog on the lake and we thought it would be cool to make our own lake." - Ollie

This maths group planned (themselves) to met up at this time and work collaboratively on a task set for them. They are using their computers to record their work and using materials and discussing with each other.
"I just like it that I have someone to work with and that helps me to work it out." - Charlie