Poetry competition

Congratulations to Connor and Louis who have won prizes in the "Water and us" poetry competition run by the Rotorua District Council. The Environmental Education officer Mrs Quirk came into class today and awarded the boys their prizes.

Prizegiving

Today was prizegiving and lots of people won certificates and trophies. (By Sarah)

Kapahaka

Last Friday the Kapahaka group performed for the whole school. (Sio)

Swimming today

Today we brought our flotation divices to school to see if they could float.Most of them floated but some of the fell apart or sunk.

And guess what, Mrs B. fell in the pool- funny!!!

Swimming in Room 9

We have been working hard to improve our swimming, here Sam is practising his breastroke. Thanks Margo for all your help with our swimming.

Are these your socks?

These socks have been living in our class for a few days and we can't find the owner. Do you know where they belong?

Sophies new clothes

My Gran went to London and got me some t-shirts, I am wearing my favourite t-shirt.
by Sophie

Room 9 musicians

Today Sophie showed our class a new piece of music she has been learning and then Tamaku also played a piece she knows. We have added a link to this online keyboard further down the blog in our websites.

Patricks limerick.

Style: Limerick
Topic: Batman

There was a man who fought crime,
Then would watch him self on prime.
His name was batman,
Not fatman or catman,
Not satman or atman
I hate the name fatman.

Then he saw a bad person on prime,
So he went to fight crime,
But it wasn’t the right time.
Batman was ready,
To save the girls teddy.

So batman went home,
To listen to his music tone,
He has a bat car,
He goes for a drink at the bar,
In his bat car he travels far.

He likes to fly,
But not in the sky,
He wears a good tie,
He likes to say bye, bye.

Wheels day

Today we all brought our wheels to school for goldentime, it was really fun.
As you can see today we had a mufti day, it was different seeing each other not in school uniform.

Walht use our past knowledge to predict

We used what we already knew to predict which objects would float or sink.

Tamaku's recount

"Are we all ready?" Mum said as we finished packing. The clock had just struck three,that was when we had to leave for the airport to go to Rarotonga.

Firstly,we got in the car to leave for the airport,it took us a long time, minutes after that I moaned to my dad the driver, "Are we there yet?" "NO!" my dad shouted.

Finally,we had arrived at the airport, Alex and I were just having fun outside with the trolley and mum and dad were in the airport paying for the tickets.

After that we got our tickets and were ready to go on the plane. We were all on the plane,I was feeling pretty excited,me and my dad got a portable dvd player with some movies,I watched Mr Beans holiday it was pretty funny and my dad watched fantastic 4 silver surfer. After my movie was finished I joined with my dad and watched his movie,then I fell asleep.ZZZ,suddenly I opened my eyes and we had arrived to Rarotonga.

Exam certificates

Natalie and Hamish both received certificated for participating in the NSW Maths test earlier in the year. Well done you two.

Adding groups of numbers to ten

When adding we use number bonds to ten.
For example...
2,4,7,3,8,6,
Could be 2 and 8,4 and 6, 7 and 3 to total 30

Finding humuor.

This term we are learning about water saftey and for homework we had to make up a joke about water saftey.

Here are some examples:
Only a dummy would smoke and choke only a dummy wouldn't learn to float.Sam

In which direction does a chicken swim? Cluck-wise.Sebastian

"Doctor, Doctor. My friend is drowning." "Well say ah." "arrrgghhhh."Anna

Posted by Luisa and Anna.

Natalie's picnic recount

Walht write a personal recount.

“Yipee!” I said, it was Friday afternoon the day of the middle school picnic and all of the middle school classes where there. We all sat at the far side of field waiting to start the tug-of-war.

Firstly ,we came to the far end of the field . We put out the picnic blankets and had a snack before the tug-of-war started. When it started Miss. Cameron began to do face painting and we where up against room8 and we won!

Then the other classes had their turns and then it was our turn and we where up against room7 this time. As we where pulling we all fell over and we had lost the game it didn’t matter though, we still all had a wonderful time.

After that it was time to pack-up and go back to class. Next week for golden time I would want to have a pet day or have a treasure with clues. Cause last time we had a treasure hunt it was really fun.

Write a personal recounts

"Heave!!" screamed Mr James.It was the middle school tug o war challenge on friday.We were up against room8 first on the feild.I was full of gas and ready to battle. from sam.

Think flexibly

This term we are learning our topic work through the habits of the mind.
Posted by Louis.

Water safety

Stop and think
walht be safe in and around the water
Here are a selection of out things to stop and think about before going in and around water.
*make a checklist
*tell someone where you are going
*swim in between the flags
*check the water depth before diving in
*swim with someone else
* wear togs whcih won't weigh you down
*check the weather report
Typed by Luisa

Middle school picnic

Today for goldentime all middle school had a picnic and a game of tug of war and Connor got hit by the rope. I felt great pulling the rope to victory. By Sam and Connor

Back in room9

Room9 back with our thinking caps on.

Swimming

Today we started our swimming lessons for Term 4. Although it was a bit cold our school pool is nice and warm so most of us had fun.

Term 4 reminders

Hi de hi Room 9 bloggers!
I hope you have all had a great holiday and are looking forward to what will be a busy and exciting term four at St Mary'a Catholic School.
Remember to wear your summer uniform on Monday and make sure you have your stationary ready to go - including a good supply of pencils.
See you on Monday ;-) Mr James.

Week 10 learning

"Today we were doing work on our cool activboard and we were uploading images onto it" Luisa.
" I have been learning to write stories about fishing." Sio
" We have been learning about multiplication and division and how they are related to each other." Jonas.
Photos uploaded by Patrick - our star blogger!

Natalies riding success.

I won a first place for most promising rider, a second place for best paced and
mannerd, another second place for jumping and fourth place for best rider over jumps.

Thinking things

We think it would be cool if we had pictures above our head to show what we are thinking about.

Teddybears picnic.

Unfortunately it rained so we had our picnic inside.

Comparatives and superlatives - Smartwords group 4.

"Hungry-hungriest" Mr James
"Angry-angrier-angriest" Allie
"Happy-happier-happiest" PATRICK
"grey-greier-greyiest"Vince
"Sorry-Sorrier-Sorriest"Allie
"grumpy-grumpier-grumpiest"Natalie

Less than, greater than

> greater than < less than = equal to.

Interschool cross country

Yesterday Patrick, Hamish, Sam and Anna competed in the interschool cross country in the forest. Thanks to Patrick's Mum for these photos.

We believe that Jesus...

"is the saviour" SAM, "is Gods son."Oliver, " loves and cares for us" Sophie,
" will always help us when times are tough."PATRICK, "

Compound words

butterfly, railway ,rainbow, seaweed, anyway,everything,everybody, everywhere,shoelace, lumberjack, eastward, dropping, seventeen, twentyone, nightfall,
nitwit, sunrise, proofread, bulldozer, fourtyfour, subway, today, carnot st, cannot,can't, chainsaw, toothbrush, toothpaste, thinking.
Can you find the longest compound word?

Dragonflies reading activity

We have been working on making a photostory project about the cross country. Sorry about the few spelling mistakes - Patrick.

Codebreaker

Today we were playing Codebreaker on the computers. It was tough to break the code - "I nearly got it!" Ronan
The link to codebreaker is at the bottom of our blog.

changing y to ies

fly-flies, fry- fries, cry-cries, nursery-nurseries

Amazing animal alliteration

"Ten troublesome tuis tumbling in the tree."Sam I am.

Family of facts

Did you know:
4 + 8 = 12
so 8 + 4 = 12
so 12- 8 = 4
so 12- 4 = 8.
We can use our known facts to help solve other problems.

Miss Cullen's last day.

Today we said goodbye to Miss Cullen , we played some more funny and interesting games. Thanks for being in our class Miss Cullen we loved having you and look forwad to seeing you again.

Compound Words

Today we learnt about compound words. For example:
something,policeman
toothbrush,lightbulb
blindfold,hosepipe
layout, letterbox, lunchbox
fishtank...

How many more can you come up with?

here, hare, hair, hear

"I'm going to be here tomorrow. Sebastian."
"Look at that hare with long ears! Grant."
"Why haven't you got any hair on your head?" Hamish.
"I have great hearing so I can hear everything." Louis.

What we learnt today.

We learnt that...

even+even=even 2+4=6
odd+odd=even 3+3=6
odd+even=odd 4+11=15

Verbs are doing words...
pecking, running, waddling, laying, spinning, kicking, walking, rumbling, jumping, sleeping, racing.

What verbs could you use to describe how a native animal moves?

Learning is fun in Room9.

Maths week has started and we have been busy earning our points. Room 9 is a busy learning zone at the moment with all of us working towards achieving our goals.

Our responsibilities to saving our endangered species

"Keep the rivers and lakes clean because the animals need to drink clean water." - Sarah.
"Stop deforestation because it is destroying the Kiwi's native habitat." - Vince.
"Stop littering so the kakapo can have a clean habitat." - Anna.
"Put up signs which help keep dogs out of kiwi zones, the dogs kill the kiwis." - Jonas.
"Put your dog through the kiwi aversion training." - Allie.

Having fun learning in Room 9

Here is a sample of what we have been doing in Rooom 9 over the last week.

NZ Maths week

NZ Maths week begins on Monday. Our class are all registered and ready to begin.
Click on the link in our websites section at the bottom of the page to join in the fun.
Good luck Room 9!

Homophones

Can you pick the homophones in these sentences?

Anna - I was the only one who won.
Patrick - Dear Mum can you let me have a deer.
Kararaina - I said hi to a person who was up high.
Tamaku - I'll go see if I'll be sailing out to sea.
Allie - I ate my pear while buying a new pair of shoes.

School cross country

Today we had our school cross country in the Redwoods. All our training paid off and we did very well.
Some results:
Sam - 3rd 8 yr old boys
Anna - 3rd 8yr old girls
Arohanui - 3rd 7yr old girls
Oliver - 3rd 7yr old boys.

Friday activities

Today during fitness Miss Cullen ran with us, we beat her.
For Goldentime we played playstation and other electronic games.

By Sam.

Tidy Tens

When I am adding two numbers I try to make a tidy ten.
So 7 + 4 becomes 10 + 1 = 11
This helps me add numbers which are easier.
By Rahul

What does endangered mean?

Threatened-nearly endangered (Kiwi)
Endangered-some left (Takahe)
Extinct-none left (Moa)

By Ronan

Learning in Room 9

Our new teacher Miss Cullen with us.

Persuasive writing

This week we are writing persuasive letters.
Our success criteria is to have an audience and clearly state our position.
Some example of this are:
Caregivers-To do more fun things.
Teachers-Not so much writing in class.
Parents-not to give me too many lollies.
Mr James - Let me sit by my friends.
By Luisa

Fitness is a good idea on a frosty morning.

Although not everyone would agree I want to say that doing fitness on a frosty morning is a good idea. When we are finished I am nice and warm and feel great.

I have several reasons for saying this.The first is that you can compete against your friends and try to beat every else at the same time,when you beat a couple of people you feel like a champion.

Secondley, running on a frosty morning is a good way to try to beat your last score and also get strong bones. It also helps to keep you fit and it is fun when you run with your friends. It can also give you energy for the next day.

Furthermore you should go really fast around the last lap and get your energy gone so when you are finished you are tired. This helps you have to have achieved something special.

I think I have shown that running on a frosty morning is a good idea.

Written by Sam.

Miss Cullen

Kia ora
My name is Miss Cullen and I am a 3rd year student teacher with the University of Canterbury. I will be in Room 9 for the next 5 weeks and have thoroughly enjoyed my first week with the wonderful students and fantastic Mr. James. This is my last of 3 years of university study. I am looking forward to being a member of the room 9 learning community and hope I can leave you all with some memorable learning experiences!

Apollo 11 by Anna

I went to the stardome (space center)in Auckland to learn about apollo 11 (spaceship).
It was the 40th anniversary of when Apollo 11 blasted off and then landed on the moon.
I learnt that there's no oxygen on the moon because there are no trees and you would feel really light on the moon.
Buzz and Neil walked on the moon while Mike was orbiting in the spaceship. When Buzz went on the moon he said, "One small step for a man and one giant leap for mankind."

Welcome to term three

Today we learnt heaps.
Today Ants reading group learnt about endangered species.
Everybody learnt about halves and quarters,we know that a whole is divided into equal parts to form fractions.

For our topic this term we are learning about endangered species.

Typed by Tamaku.

Happy holidays

I hope all of Room 9 are having a fantastic holiday. On Monday we welcome Miss Cullen to our class for the first five weeks of Term 3.
Our topic focus for Term 3 will be endangered species and how we can help them survive.
Question? Can you name any endangered New Zealand species? Bring your answers to school on Monday.
See you all on Monday!

Zombie dance.

Today for goldentime we played on the
playground and had a moon walking Competition and turned into horrible ZOMBIES.
WE LOVE YOU MICHAEL.
PATRICK AND SAMMY.

Vince and Patrick using Photostory3.

Aussie band.

It was really fun having St. Patricks school band here at our school,we got a lot of signatures.
Luisa and Tamaku had a great time seeing the band ,our favourite part was the bells!

Meeting Harold

Today we went to meet harold and Chris for life education, Chris taught us all about our heart, body and our lungs.
Did you know that we breathe in oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide.
by Sam and Patrick

Our learning today

This afternoon we have had lots of fun learning about our heart. This week we are going to meet a giraffe that teaches us about body parts.
Our veins carry blood to our heart.
Our arteries carry blood away from our heart.

Our Mt Tarawera trip

Today we continued our learning about Natural Disasters with a fantistic trip up Mt. Tarawera. We learnt about the big eruption on June 10 1886 and how the landscape has changed.

" I felt really scared going down the crater." Sophie
" I felt really excited to go on the trip and I think you should go have a look." Grant.
" I felt really scared looking over the crater and I thought I would fall in." Sarah.