This week we had Sally come into Room 7 and teach us about water. We did a whole lot of experiments where we learnt about water. It was so much fun!
At the end of our lesson we learnt about how water has a surface. We did an experiment to show how you can effect the surface of water. It was a race with Warren and Mark. They used cardboard boats, a tray of water and a drop of dishwashing liquid. Warren's boat was the fastest on the day!
This week we celebrated Niuean language week. Room 7 created their own foufou fiti and foufou harakeke (flower headband and flax headband) We were very pleased with the results.
Friday was our culture dress day - don't we look gorgeous!
This week we did some fun writing about a tiny crusader. WE watched a story and then had to pretend that we were one of the characters. Here is the video we watched.
Harlem wrote a great piece in which he added details like speech and how he felt. Here is his story.
The tiny crusader
BANG! BANG! SMASH! Went the sound of my hammer. It felt like my hammer weighed more than a giant. It was a dark, stormy night and I was all alone in my workshop. Everyone was asleep. I felt so old, it was like I was going to die!
Suddenly one of my suits of armour I made started acting really strange. BANG went sound of the helmet as it crashed to the floor. "Aaaaaagh!" I shouted. I almost had a heart attack. I went over the helmet to investigate. I picked up the helmet and slowly opened the visor and...in the helmet was a really little mouse. It leapt out onto my big fat nose! "AAAaaaaah!" I shouted again. I could fel his sharp little claws sticking into my soft face. After he scratched me, he leapt over to my wooden table. I was super furious at that little mouse. I could see that the mouse was really scared of me because of the look on his face. Suddenly I heard a loud horn blowing across my workshop. From the roof appeared a really tiny, little man with shiny armour. He asked for my help but I said "I am no use to anyone!" He pulled out a broken sword. "I can fix that!" I said. So I picked both of them up and took them over to my work bench. The tiny crusader gave me his sword and I put it on my desk and started to forge it. After a few minutes the sword was ready. It looked like a brand new shiny sword. I handed him the sword and he was really impressed. The mouse flipped the tiny crusader onto his back and the tiny crusader blew his horn. 100 or maybe 500 little knights appeared all around me. They wanted me to fix their swords too. I was super grateful that they wanted me to fix their swords.
This was the most awesome day of my life!
As a part of our learning pathway learning on saving our forests, Room 7 went for a visit to the Arataki Visitors centre in the Waitakare ranges. We went to help an alien (really Ranger Stu) learn about forests and why they are important. Room 7 went into the forest and learnt about forest, trees and protecting them. It was a great day as we even got to go for a spaceship ride! (just pretend)
We loved the whole day even though it was probably the coldest day in Auckland! The temperature in the forest was about 4 degrees!
Here are some photos of our adventures in the forest
Our Duffy kid at assembly this week was Samson. He has been focussed and listening during our swimming lessons and is now moving up a group. Well done Samson!
Room 7 has started swimming lessons with the life guards at the Otara swimming pools. Every Thursday afternoon we power walk down to the pools. Once there we wait patiently and watch while Room 20 have their lesson. Then it is our turn!
We have learnt safe entry into the pool so we get in and then the fun begins! Room 7 is split into 3 groups, each group is with a life guard learning new skills that suit our ability. We are developing our stroke, breathing and kicking skills.
This week the Warriors reading group read a junior journal story called 'blowing a bubble'.
The story was really instructions about how to blow bubbles, make bubble blowers and make a really good bubble mixture. At the end of our lesson the kids got to experiment making bubble blowers and blowing bubbles. The rest of us could hear the giggles from inside!
This week Room 7 celebrated Cook Island Language week. We learnt new works, phrases and greetings. Faith wore her beautiful Cook Island dress on Friday and looked stunning!
We learnt to say...
Hello - Kia orana
Goodbye - aere au
How are you - pe'ea koe
I am good - meitaki au
Faith even did her pepeha in cook island
On Friday we made o'tai with Miss Williams. It was delicious!
On Thursday Room 7 started their first mindfulness class with Kerry. We learnt to describe what mindfulness is, to eat and move mindfully and to pause and breathe!
We learnt that mindfulness can help us in our life every day because it teaches us to stop, reflect and be grateful for small moments.
It was a very fun lesson. The kids had some homework to do. They need to practise mindfulness while brushing their teeth - what do they hear, feel and do.
Here is the meditation that we are practising this week.
We are learning to write for an audience and make our stories really interesting so people want to read more.
Part of our learning has been around self assessment (when we check our own writing) and peer assessment (when we check our buddy's writing)
Here is a video of Frazer and Isaac self and peer assessing
Room 7 had a great time during Maori language week. We did lots of learning and lots of laughing!
Some kids learnt their pepeha. Ata did an awesome job of leading Room 7 every day for our Karakia. We learnt to use poi while singing E rere taku poi and we got very good at using the ti rakau. Room 7 visited the Marae and even got to part of the tangata whenua when welcoming the juniors.
It the a fun week!
Last week was Samoan language week. Room 7 celebrated it by getting our experts in Room 7 to help teach us about the Samoan culture and its beautiful language. We learnt about Siapo and created a Room 7 tapa. It was a lot of fun scrunching up our paper to create the effect of the Siapo. We learnt to greet and farewell people as well as thank them. We had a healthy cooking experience where we made panikeke (we didn't deep fry them but used a donut maker instead) our poem of the week was moe moe Pepe which our girls recorded for us. Finally on Friday we dressed to impress in our cultural clothes. What a great week!
Here are some pictures of our fun week and some helpful resources
