December Fun.

This is what huhu bugs grow from.

We went to the Gardens on the 3rd December for two reasons.  Firstly we helped at the Gardens and did out duty by having a bush walk to find out about birds and insects, filling up bags with duck food and pulling out all the weeds by the tress.  Secondly we had a practice for our Proms in the Park which is on tonight.  We also saw a giant pine cone, played in the playground and had our lunch there.

We have been doing a lot of practice for our Proms in the Park.  We are very excited about it.  We can all wear something red or green for

Fun for everyone!

Christmas.  We've painted our saxophones and trumpets for our item.  Some of us are playing shakers and bells.  Our song is "Santa Claus is coming to Town".  We can have a picnic tea there before we sing.

The Learning Centre is going well.  They are putting joists and dwangs in so the floor will be there soon.  We go up the stairwell to see what they have done.  We can't see the mud anymore because they put black plastic on the ground.


On Friday we take home our reports and our Time to Shine books, so look out for them.
Next Wednesday is our last day.  There will be a bouncy castle and a tug of war competition.  There will be an Assembly on that day.

November Already!

Wow, time has gone very fast.  On Mr Edghill's last day here, Mrs Phillips showed us how to make sushi.  We had chicken and salmon sushi.  Most of us thought it was yummy.
It has been a bit noisy since the new Learning Centre has been started.  We have been looking at the work through the stairwell windows.  We have seen lots of trucks, cranes and diggers going past our windows.
Vansh has come back from a long holiday in India.  He had lots of fun.
Mrs Phillips has been away a lot this term and she has been missing us.  First Mr Phillips had an operation on his eye, then Mr Phillips' Dad died.  Mrs Phillips has also been going to the Sports days with the bigger children. 

Term 4 Has Begun.

It is term 4, a sunhat term.  We need to remember to have a sunhat in our desks every day.

We all had a great time in the holidays.  We went away, to birthdays, skiing, to the pool, to the movies, to Lazer Force, to Inflatable World, on train trips and to the Salt Water Pool.

Mr Edghill has been teaching us about Japan.  He has been there and he likes it.  Also some children from our school are there at the moment and we have seen their blog.  Last term we made tanuki masks with Mr Edghill.  We also made teru teru bozu, because they bring good weather.  Mr Edghill finishes at the end of next week.  We will miss him.

After he goes it will be Labour Weekend.  We get the Monday off to remind us about how long Mums and Dads and children used to have to work a long, long time ago.

Mrs Phillips said we will be learning about the Sun and how it affects us after Labour Weekend.

The new value of the term is Duty and we are starting to learn about it.

Sports Day was great fun! The sun shone and it was warm.

Our Six Wearable Arts Creations.

End of Winter News.

Friday was a great Fancy Friday.  People dressed up in all sorts of costumes as you can see in the photos below.
We are very pleased to welcome a new boy.  His name is Murphy and he has settled very well into Room 16.  Today we also welcome Mr Edghill as our new College teacher.  We are looking forward to working with him.
Y3's have completed their Oral presentations.  Thank you to Lucy O. and Sasha for representing Room 16.
Our new topic will be about Wearable Art.  There will be a notice going home about it.

Fancy Friday was Funtastic!

Cross Country Day.

A bright sunny day for it.

 The cross country was on Tuesday.  Most of us did our PB - personal best.  Mrs Phillips was very proud of us and we were proud of ourselves.  You got a number on your hand.  If it was a 1, 2, or 3you will get a certificate in Assembly next week.  The Y2's only had to do one lap but the Y3's had to do two laps.  It was exciting, epic, cool, fantastic and magnificent.

We have almost finished our Commonwealth Games topic.  New Zealand won 45 medals.  Next time the Games will be on the Gold Coast in Australia in 4 years.

Great running boys.

At Assembly on Friday we watched the girls 
do Aerobics.  They won a competition.
In Maths we are learning about Time and Clocks.

Today we have College Teachers coming to do Maths with us and then they will come back again to work with us in two weeks.

Electives start again on Friday and we know which one we are in.  For Cultural Swap we are going to Miss Cassidy and Art.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Who can you pass now?

Look at those hay bales!

                         

Term 3 Already Wow!

Last week was Read-a-thon week and we had to read as much as we could and get sponsors to pay us.  On Friday we had Pyjama Day.  Mrs Phillips was so busy and had so much fun she forgot to take the photos!!  We looked: amazing, tired, epic, awesome, cool, sleepy, fantastic, great and magnificent in our PJ's and Onesies.  Mrs Phillips wore her big, long, apricot dressing gown.  Many of us also wore our slippers.  We had lots of bedtime stories and some children brought their favourite books and toys to share.  It made lots of us very sleepy especially at the end of the day and Mrs Phillips said "Good Night Room 16!"
Our new topic is about the Commonwealth Games and each morning we look at the number of medals we have won.  We are watching the 17 different sports results.  This morning we had 21 medals.
In Maths we are talking about left and right and turns. It is called Transformation.
We have been training for the Cross Country by running laps at school.  Many of us are nearly ready to get the 100 Lap Certificate.  The day has been postponed until next Tuesday, 5th August.  See the Newsletter for the race times.
Last week Mr Weepers came and taught us about Circle Time and Bubble time.  We think they are both a good idea and are using them a lot.
At Storytime we are publishing our holiday stories.  You can come in and read them.
In the holidays lots of seats and steps and a tree have been taken out out ready for the new Learning Centre to be started soon - we hope!

There's Something A Bit Fishy Going On Here!

Room 16 and Room 17 draw the fish.

What does the shape and colours of the fish tell you about them?

So that's what the inside of a salmon looks like!

Look at the eyes and the colours and the shape of this fish.  What is it?

Do these sea creatures have the things you need to be called a fish?

Matariki Cloak

Last Friday R16 and r17 spent the afternoon together talking about Matariki.  Do you like this great cloak we made?  It is outside our rooms in the corridor.
Our fish topic is just about finished.  Tibs will go home this week.  Thank you to the Orchiston family for sharing him with us.  We made fish with weaving just before Miss Penwarden left us.  We have finished our fish books and they will go into our Time to Shine books.
Yesterday we had a lock down practice. We all went into Mrs Phillips' Office and she read us a book.  When Mr Galloway came to tell us it was safe he couldn't find us.  He thought we were in the library corner.
This Friday it is Ice Skating night.  There will be a disco ball, lights, food for tea, dressed up characters and prizes for the colouring contest.  We are looking forward to it!
Our Learning Detectives came yesterday to tell us about the Read-a-thon.  There will be packs going home soon.  We need to get sponsors in the holidays.  We read next term and give the money to the school to buy books for the new library.
The lovely Rosa is finally back from her holiday.  We are very pleased to see her and she has grown heaps taller.  We are all very jealous of the fun things she has done and places she has been.

Kate Rice Visits Us to Talk About Our Fish Topic.

Kate asks us what would happen if there were no phytoplankton or seaweed left in the sea.

Making a food web was very tricky because so many things ate the same food.

Remember Monday 2nd June is a holiday for the Queen's Birthday.

The Fonterra day with the Highlanders was: magnificent, amazing, fantastic, epic, fabulous, lots of fun, cool, great and super.  We didn't have pizza, we had Pitta Pit instead.  We also had the two big milk tankers.
On Monday is was icy and snowy so we got a holiday.  On Tuesday it was still icy so we had a late start.  We hope all our Mums and Dads have seen the newsletter with the information about what to do when it is snowy.  It is also on the school website if you missed the newsletter this week. Come and see me or other staff if you want more information.
Electives start today (Friday 30th May). Yeah! We are all looking forward to them and feeling very excited - we call it tino nanawe in Maori!
We really liked getting a comment on our blog from Rosa.  She told us she had been to Disneyland and was now in Italy.  We were going to email her back but don't have an address.  If you read this Rosa, send Mrs Phillips an address.  We hope you are still having fun, we do miss you.
Our fish topic is going well.  Tibs is still here and Mrs King made fish with us last week.
On Tuesday a show came to school.  It was called Rap-unzel.  We thought it was amazing and hilarious.
Mrs Phillips had another great time listening to us read.  She has turned the five reading groups into four.  She thought our reading was incredible but we still need to work on our comprehension to answer all the questions.

Fonterra and Highlanders Assembly Last week

This is very funny, isn't is?

Leo's Goldfish Visits

 Leo had help from his Dad and his brother to bring in his goldfish for a visit.  It is so old they cannot remember his name so we called him Goldie.  He has a much bigger tank at home but he liked this tank for the day and we put him beside Tibs who is still here.
We are enjoying having Miss Penwarden in our class.  She is here for four weeks.  She is very helpful, kind and nice.
The Fonterra milk people are going to give us free lunch this Friday.  We are getting milk, pizza and fruit.  The Highlanders, the Mayor and the

T.V. people are all coming too.  We will have a competition to see how fast we can fold milk cartons. 
There are more clubs and activities at lunchtimes this term.  We particularly like Mrs King's choir and Construction Club.
Electives will be starting soon.  We were able to choose three things from a list.  We will find out our groups soon.  It is very exciting.
For Cultural swap we are going to Room10 with Mrs Spencer and we do Drama.  You sometimes have to talk, act without talking, or move around.

Have you met Tibs yet?

Toby's family have let Tibs the goldfish come to Room 16 for a holiday.  We are enjoying watching him swim around in his bowl.

Term 2 Already!

We all had a great holiday.  We went to the movies, to the pool, to the beach, to the park, out of Dunedin, to visit family and friends, to places like the Art Gallery, the pool, the Gardens, the Museum, the Ice Skating Rink, the shops, played all kinds of games or slept in!
We have a very nice boy called Giac in our class.  Phoenix will not be back as he is now living in Auckland.
Mrs Phillips moved our desks in the holidays and put up the "Shut-the-daurus" to remind us to keep the doors closed so we don't get cold.
We have a new topic.  It is about "Fish".  If you have any information you can share with us about it, please let Mrs Phillips know.
Our new College Teacher, Miss Penwarden, starts tomorrow.

Holiday Time Soon. Yeah!

Easter will begin on Friday when we are on holiday.   On Sunday it is the chocolate day!
Last Friday was International Day.  We dressed up in our national costumes or colours from our country.  Lots of our class are from New Zealand so we mostly wore black and white.  At Maori Mrs Yeoman taught us the Maori names for the countries.  We had a parade just before lunch.
This week you can buy a poppy for ANZAC Day which is in the holidays.
Last Friday it was our last time at Maori with Mrs Yeoman so we had a Maori team singing time.
Two Fridays ago is was the Disco.  It was: amazing, epic, fun, loud, magnificent, awesome, smokey, great, exciting, fantastic and brilliant!

Assembly Aces!

 Last Friday Room 16 were on the stage at Assembly.  We thought it was fun, exciting, epic, amazing, loud, awesome, great, some of us were shy, and magnificent.  Mrs Phillips is very very proud of us!
Here is the food pyramid we showed and talked about and some of the Art gallery pictures that we also showed.  Lots of children chose to speak and had a turn at the microphone.
Last Monday we had a holiday for Otago Anniversary Day.
Cultural Swap has started and we go to Room 9 to learn Italian with Mrs Woods.
We have finished Healthy Eating with Richard and Harold the giraffe and are now doing the Keeping Ourselves Safe Programme with Constable Sommerfield.  We have learned a lot so far.
Our lovely College Teachers take reading groups, read stories and take fitness with us and we are teaching them how to be teachers.  Next week they will each take a maths group.

 Swimming started last Tuesday and goes until this Thursday. 
On most wet days we get a bus and on dry days we walk. 
We go at playtime so we have our healthy snack and morning tea together during reading time.  We get back at lunchtime.
We are lucky to have parent helpers to come with us.

Swimming is: fun, hard, lots of arm strokes, time when we work in three groups, sometimes diving

learning to kick your legs, learning to kick on your side and learning lots of other new things.

We have three new College teachers for this term.  They will come on Tuesday mornings.
We met Mrs Tunoka and Mr Williams last week and will also meet Mr Straight this week.

We have changed reading groups because Mrs Phillips had everyone read to her last week.  Mrs McAuslan came to look after us.

On Adventure and Camp week we didn't have Assembly because the Y5's and 6's were away so there was Assembly last week and this week.  It was also very quiet in the playground when they were away and we liked that.

Art Gallery Fun

Drawing Ourselves

Yellow Forest

We are good artists.

Last Monday we went to the Art Gallery.
We had a great time looking at all the pieces of art, even playing in some of it.
We were able to run through the Yellow Forest and bounce on the Mountain of Doom.
In the classroom we made our own Art Gallery with us in front of the pictures. Come into R16 to see our pictures.
Thank you to John for having us and thank you very much to the mums and grandmas who came with us.

On Friday last week and Monday this week we went to the Life Education trailer to visit Richard and Harold.
We talked about the food pyramid and which foods to eat lots or some or a little of.
We know you need a variety of foods.
Harold showed us Jocko's party.

There have been some visitors to our class.
Mr Pye and Mr Foster came to learn about being a teacher.  They were still very keen after a day in R16.
Mrs King came when Mrs Phillips went to teacher meetings.
Mrs Stowell and Mrs McAuslan were teaching in R17 and came to say "hi" to us.

Mrs Phillips reminds mums and dads to read the R16 booklet and ask the children or email her if you need to know more.
Can the swimming helpers return the notices by Thursday so Mrs Phillips can put out a list on Friday?

Welcome to Room 16 in 2014.

We have been busy already in our new classroom. 

In our photos we are working on booklets about ourselves and our families, and sorting for statistics in Mathematics.

Last week we had class and individual photos taken.  You will be able to purchase these as soon as they arrive.

We decorated the name tags for our desks.

We have been for walks around the school and are learning where all the new places to play are.  We did find it was hard to hear the bell when you are at the top of the adventure playground so we have to watch and listen carefully at the end of break times.  We went to the Office to see where the notices go and where you go if you are sick or hurt.  We met Mrs Duke, Mrs McNeill and Mrs Young.

At Assembly Mr Galloway reminded us of how to behave and taught us the Respect Song for our value of the term.

Dates for this term to remember:

17th Feb: Art Gallery trip - notice sent home last week
20th Feb: Meet the teacher night - see school newsletter for details
4th-13th Mar: swimming - in pool 11.30 - 12noon, help notice soon
24th Mar: Otago Anniversary Day - holiday
26th & 27th Mar: Learning Commitment interviews - see school newsletter for details
17th April: end of the term