Homework and Movies - Notices for Parents

29.06.2015

Happy Matariki to all the whānau of Room 3!

This week students are expected to complete all work given to them in Google Classroom, on their blogs and on any paper in class. If they do not complete their tasks in their books they will be sent home with them. Please check their bags each night to make sure they complete any work given to them in there (if there isn't a workbook in there then that means they've completed their work). Please send their books back to school the next day with them. Thanks for your help with this.

Further to this, today they were given the task of posting something about their days learning on their blog and also commenting on the story ending on our class blog here. If you check your child's blog and the class blog you can see the students who have completed these tasks.

I have discussed with the Principal how I'd like to show the students the movie 'A Series of Unfortunate Events', on Friday, to follow up on our reading of the first book in this series. If anyone would wish for their child to not watch this movie could you please make contact with me by Wednesday at the latest, thanks.

As part of our movie watching and end of term celebration we will be having a pajama day on Friday. Please make sure that even though the students in Room 3 are able to come in pajamas, that they are still suitably dressed for the weather and have shoes and socks for outdoor activities. Thanks again.

Acid Rain experiment

We have been performing a whole class experiment based on the effects of acid rain. We got 3 punnet's of plants. One punnet we watered with tap water, the second with tap water that contained a small amount of acid (vinegar) and the third punnet with a lot of vinegar. Here's what they looked like after 1.5 days. What do you think this means?

A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket

We have just finished reading this book as a class. We read it right to the end even though we knew the ending was not going to be a happy one.

*SPOILER ALERT FOR THOSE WHO HAVEN'T READ IT YET*

We've come to the end where the Baudelaire orphans are being whisked away from Justice Strauss in a car, to a destination and new home they know nothing about. Here is the last sentence in the book:

"The car drove farther and farther away, until Justice Strauss was merely a speck in the darkness, and it seemed to the children that they were moving in an aberrant - the word "aberrant" here means "very, very wrong and causing much grief" - direction."

What do you think happens next in the story of the children? Can you follow up this ending and tell us what you think happens next? 

Ecology

We are thinking about ECOLOGY. We are trying to come up with some ideas/examples of ecology. Here's some ideas we've had so far:

Created with Padlet

South Wairarapa Cross Country

We are so proud of all our runners who competed at the South Wairarapa Cross Country event yesterday at Kahutara. Well done to those who are going through to the Regionals in Wellington (there are 14 students from our school going this year) and to all of you have laid it all out on the course. We are proud of you all!

Here are a few photo's taken by Anika's Dad (Andrew Stewart) on the day:

Anika coming on to the finish.

Charlie charging out strongly.

Winky and Conall begin their battle to the end.

Asha toughing it out all the way.

Ecology and Water

We are kicking off our Science unit by looking at WATER!!!

First we had to decide what on earth 'Ecology' was. We took some guesses (and some risks with our guesses):

It's the bits in black

After doing a bit of our own thinking Mrs Rutene shared with us an official definition: Ecology is the scientific analysis of interactions between organisms and their environment. We think this means:
"what lives in the water" (Hamish)
"creatures and the water, trees and plants" (Ella)
"Organisms are living things. The environment is the trees and the river and things around us. So like we interact with the river by drinking from it and playing in it and we cut down trees to build houses, so those are interactions between us and the environment." (Sophie)

Mrs Rutene reminded us we'd focussed on how people access and make decisions about the Ruamahanga and Swimming Pools during Term 1; and how we've been looking at who we are as Gladstone kids during our dance unit. This helped us to think about the way we as organisms interact with water in our environment:

We answered some questions for the Whaitua Trust about what we know about rivers and water in our area/lives.

Here are the top three things we think are most important for using water for:

A Series of Unfortunate Events

We have been reading this book as a whole class. It's a classic. Today we read a part that said:

"It is very useful, when one is young, to learn the difference between "literally" and "figuratively." If something happens literally, it actually happens; if something happen figuratively, it feels like it's happening. If you are literally jumping for joy, for instance, it means you are leaping in the air because you are very happy. If you are figuratively jumping for joy, it means you are so happy that you could jump for joy, but are saving your energy for other matters." (A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket)

We tried to come up with some examples of our own. Can you think of any examples of things happening literally or figuratively?

World Environment Day

Yesterday was World Environment Day. I found some samba reggae drumming at Wellington Zoo. What did you do to celebrate?

Cross Country is ON!

Morena koutou,

The day is dawning and it's a beauty. Cross Country is on! Don't forget your tshirt, lunch and water.