A fantastic Term 1

Room 19 is located in the computer suite and is made up of 27 awesome students.

We have had a terrific start to 2017 with an exciting first term!!

We have done so many cool things it's hard to know where to begin...

ART

We have been looking at palm trees painted by Paul Gauguin and during our day in the art room, we made our own designs. Using paint brushes and sponges we create our own palm trees with different textures and styles. It was fun seeing how just a tiny dab of paint on a sponge could make a beautiful cloud or a grassy hill.

 

PACIFICA SHOWCASE

Each year level chose a different Pacific island to study. The Year 4 team chose French Polynesia aka. Tahiti! We learnt a lot about Tahiti including the importance of the tattoos they wear and stories from Tahiti.

But the most fun came preparing for the Pacifica Showcase. We spent a few weeks practicing songs and dances from Tahiti to share with our friends and family. Then came the time that we got to make our own grass skirts to wear on the day. It was so much fun getting to tie the strands of the skirt together and watch an amazing piece of clothing come together. Needless to say, when the time came to perform we looked and sounded incredible.

The Olympics are coming!

The Olympics are starting on August 5th (Rio time, in NZ it starts on Saturday, August 6th)!

At PCS we will be celebrating by having our own Olympics Day. It will be on Friday August 5th (NZ time) and will begin with a torch ceremony just like the real thing.

As part of our unit on the Olympics each class has adopted a country. Room 19 has adopted Finland. We have done some research at school and this is also part of our homework this week. Ask us what we know about Finland and help us find out more. There are a few interesting surprise facts.

Class Trip

It's the end of term this week and our trip to Arataki is planned for the very last day. Thank you to the parents that have said they can help again. Hopefully the weather is good this time!

A couple of things to note:

• It gets cold in the forest, so please make sure your children bring a jumper. 
• The children should wear a comfortable pair of sneakers for the walk rather than gumboots.

Spelling City, Mathletics, Study Ladder

This is just a quick reminder to parents that in addition to the homework sheet that goes home each week, the students have access to the following websites to help with their home learning. The links for the sites are in the links list on the top right-hand side of this page.

Spelling City 

The spelling words for the week are listed here by Monday afternoon every week. Each child knows their spelling group, so they know which list they are doing. Spelling City has many free activities to help the children practice their spelling.

Mathletics

Every child has a subscription to this website, which allows them to practice what they have been learning in maths at school.

Studyladder

The children have their own login for this site, where they can view videos explaining concepts and practice what they have learned.

Term 2

It's term 2 and we are all excited and working hard in our new room.

There have been a lot of changes over the holidays. The Room 16 and 18 classrooms have moved to the field and our old classroom is gone! We're looking forward to seeing the new building being constructed in the coming months.

The topics we'll be looking at this term are Sustainability and Explorers. We have a related class trip scheduled later in the term.

Creature Teacher - The School Rules Blues

This term we read a book called Creature Teacher. It was full of interesting language, jokes and crazy events that made it a hit with the whole class.

As part of the story, a group of students made a song called The School Rules Blues, and we all enjoyed singing the snippets of lyrics in the book. We wanted to sing the whole song but it was fragmented and incomplete.

So today, we created a full set of lyrics and made the song. Some of the lyrics are from the book and some are lyrics we made up as a class.

Have a listen and see what you think!

The School Rules Blues

Lyrics:

I got the school rules blues,

I'm in trouble again.

I got a creature for a teacher,

And it's driving me insane,

He's not a normal teacher

He's trying to climb up the drain.

We got the school rules blues,

I'm in trouble again,

I got a creature for a teacher,

He's got a crazy brain

We can't let him out of our sight

And he's going to get blamed

We got the school rules blues,

Every boy and every girl,

We got a brand new teacher,

He's really out of this world

He glows like a firework

And transforms in a swirl.

The End of Term 1

Today is the last day of term 1. We had a great term and had fun.

Our move to the ICT suite went very well. We are so excited to be in our new class!

Remember, the next term begins on Monday, the 2nd of May.

Have a fun and safe break!

We're Moving!

That's right, on Friday this week we are moving to the ICT Suite to prepare for the new building to go up.

The ICT suite is next to the library near the flagpole. If you are unsure where this is, feel free to ask!