We Survived Awesome Camp Makahika!

Over the past week the Tararua Team went to Camp Makahika. It was a real challenge but we survived!

Everyone who went to Makahika in Room 8 did the amazing flying fox. It was 170meters long over the river and half of the camp!
We all were able to get wrist bands for the activities that were really challenging.

The High ropes were quite scary because they were twice the size of a 2 story house. You had to climb up and jump off.

When it was Kiriana's turn to go abseiling she found it really scary. About half way up Doug the monster in the abseiling wall caught her shoe and she had to work real hard to get it free. When it was the All-Stars turn we solved this problem by getting Jordan B. to kick the wall.

On the first night Mr Sloan was silly enough to go for a walk in the dark with bare feet. He ended up standing on and kicking a hedgehog.

One of the coolest things of camp was the bush walk and a sleep over in the bush. We went on a really long walk where we learnt how to light fires and make bivouacs. It was really long with heaps of river crossings and MUD! At the end we had to stay at a camp where there was a long drop that really, really, really, STANK!

The Camp was totally awesome!

4000 Hits!

Wow. We did it! 4000 people have wanted to read about what we have done this year!

Our Cool 5-Steps!

Today during reading we were learning to ask questions to help us understand the text better. We were looking at a 'cool' text from CSI (Comprehension Strategy Instruction) about the 5steps scientists use.

Once we read the text we followed the steps they were:

1)Make Observations
We asked a the question what will happen if we sprinkle salt on ice?

2) Form a Hypothesis
We made the prediction that we thought the ice would melt quicker with the salt.

3) Preform the Task
Take 2 saucers of frozen water. Sprinkle table salt on 1 saucer of frozen water.

4) Record the results
We saw the ice melted quicker without salt
we saw the ice with salt stick together
The ice with salt was spikey and lumpy. Like frost on an ice-block or in the morning in winter.

Salt

No Salt

Salt

No Salt

5) Draw a conclusion
The salt helps keep the ice cold and take longer to melt. Our hypothesis was wrong.


The Activity was really enjoyable. As we read we had some questions and they were:

• Do these steps apply to all scientists?
• Why do they use these 5?
• What would happen if we didn't use one?

Another question we have after our experiment was why did the salt do this to the ice?


Maybe you can help us answer these.

The Brick Wall

Today we used the brick wall key to break down the idea that you can't buy anything without money.

Here were our solutions:

• Steal or rob
  
• Inherit through a will
• Barter and Trade
  
• Share
• Give stuff away and receive stuff
  
• Win in competitions
• Christmas, Birthdays, weddings, celebrations
  
• Invent, create, make, grow and build stuff
  
• Beg
• Work for goods
• Find
• Hunting

What can you think of?

Lamb & Calf Day!

It was Lamb and Calf day today and we had sooo much fun!

We had some competitions in class for making the best garden crafts. The winners were:
- vegetable sculpture
1) Caitlin 2) Tom 3) Paige
- Tray Landscape
1) Tiana 2) Paul 3) Abi
- Buttonholes and corsages
1) Abi 2) Raquel 3) Tom
- Grass Heads.
1)Abi 2) Paige

Check them out!

From our class Jannah Participated with her lamb Richie in the Lamb Showing. Richie is named after her 2nd favourite All Black.

She and Richie came 1st in Leading and 4th in Calling.

Artist Study

Over the last couple of weeks we have been studying Lauren Child. Checkout some of our work!

WALT: Crate a piece of art in the style of Lauren Child for our calendars.

Criteria:
- Have a clear foreground, centre, background
- Use a variety of textures
- Use photos of real things
- Use our own illustrations

$$Welcome Back$$

Wow Term 4

This Term we are making Money! Our big question really is how do we make money in a market day later in the term? Every Greenie we earn will be cashed in at the end of term for a Tararua Dollar.

Some Initial Wonderings we have are:

Who made money?
Why was it invented?
What do tax payers do?
Who are tax payers?
Where did the first tax payer come from?
Why do things cost money?
How does a credit card work?
What is a mortgage?
What is GST and why did it go up?

Check out this Video:

Bored This Holidays?

Check out these ideas for things to do.
(just let me know how they went)

If you have something else you could suggest post them.
Or post your own recipes.

Check this out!

Make your own gloop at home!

Ingredients:
1 cup cornstarch
a small amount of water

Add water slowly to cornstarch until the goop drips from the spoon.
The mixture will seem hard until you try to pick it up then it slides
between your fingers. If it is to liquidy add a little more cornstarch.
If the white is too boring for you add some food coloring!

Energy in Food

energy in food

See more presentations by MrSloan | Upload your own PowerPoint presentations

JumpJam

This term we found scratches on our jumpjam DVD. As a class we decided to solve the problem by creating our own Jumpjam routines. Here is what we came up with.

WALT: create an aerobic dance (Jumpjam) routine for the rest of the school.
Criteria:
- Easy to learn
- Uses arm and leg actions
- Makes you sweat
- Is fun to do

We love Jumpjam in Room 8 as a fun and effective way to keep fit. What activities do you enjoy doing to keep fit?

Last week we used our knowledge of energy in food to create an eating plan for one day.

WALT: Synthesise our knowledge of energy in food to create a eating plan for a day.

Criteria:

- Use a variety of foods

- Record the number of kilojoules in each.

- Add up all of their levels to be within 8,000 - 10,000 kilojoules

Nutrients

WALT: recognise why and how we eat vitamins
- ID different vitamins
- ID where vitamins come from
- ID what vitamins do

Which is your favourite vitamin?
What lunch time meal would be an excellent source of vitamins?

Ashhurst School Carving

Our Carving is very special to Ashhurst School.

Why do you think it was made in 1990?

Why do you think this carving is special to Ashhurst School?

Speeches!!!

This term we are presenting speeches. We need to think of topics based around the theme of choices. Can you help us out?

Our Wonderings!

This Term we are studying our Amazing Machince and what keeps it in top gear. Here are some of our wonderings. Do you have anything you are wondering about that might help guide our inquiry?

Healthy Living

What we think we need to do and avoid doing to stay healthy.

Things to do on the top.
Things to avoid on the bottom.

Click here for full screen version

Do you agree with all of these ideas?
Are there somethings which are harder to do or avoid than others?

Effective Inquiry

Checkout what we think we think the inquiry process looks like.

Click here for full screen version

This just in...

What should the newspaper headline for this picture be?

Tui Explanation

WALT: Write effective explanations

Success Criteria:

• Use a plan with a description, information, and summary
• Not use the first person
• Add detail to support our ideas
• Use specific scientific words
• Use the present tense
• Make our sentences make sense

Blog Writing

What is this poor animal thinking????

Explanation Report

WALT: plan and write an explanation
Criteria:
1. Title
2. Identifying statement
3. Explanation sequence
4. Summary

Anthony wrote this explanation of a hose.
What do you think he did well?
What could he work on next time?

Some of our maths

We have been working on subtraction at the moment in maths. Here's what Liam and Paige are working on...

What strategies do you use to subtract numbers???

Our Wonderings continued!

We have been thinking really hard about what to investigate this term these are some of our ideas. What questions do you have about these topics that will help us research?

River Pollution
Ozone Layer
Oil Spills
Mining in NZ
Trees being cut down (forestry)
Rubbish
Global Warming
Animal Habitats
Why plants are the way they are (evolution)

The Substitute

WALT: Identify and use a range of oral language features to convey meaning and engage listener interest including: volume, pace, mood and tone.

We have been studying poetry in reading check out what Abi, Maddi, Emily, and Brianna read today. How do you think they did?

Wonderings

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We are wondering about our world and it being beautiful

"What keeps our world beautiful?"

We are trying to think of things to research and investigate
during our inquiry.

What questions do you think we could research to explore our beautiful world?

?????????????????????????????????????????

Dance in Room 8

Last session in dance we read the poem below and performed an interpretive dance.

A Song of the Woods
by Winifred Sackville Stoner, Jr.

"My leaves are turning crimson," the giant oak tree said,

"It's almost time these children should seek their winter's bed,

But how they still cling to me and gleam with crimson hue, 

They truly are more lovely than cirrus clouds of blue.

"And now throughout the forest - list! hear their voices ring,

But 'tis in tones of sadness and sighing they now sing -

'Alas! 'tis gone, fair summer, and winter's reign is near,

He cruelly strips the forest of all her summer cheer

By killing all her lovely leaves and likewise flowers gay 

And driving all her fairy folk to homes of far away.'"

We were focusing on time and energy in our dances

WALT: explore time and energy in dance
We will know we have achieved this when we...
Use the movement of our bodies which is soft and gentle
Use the speed of our bodies which is slow and peaceful

Today we focused on space!

WALT: explore space in dance
We will know we have achieved when we...
- Use a the levels for effect
- Are aware of and create a focus for the audience
Plan and use a clear directions in our dance.
Check this out!

Blogging!

Wow a lot of people have been blogging. It is great to see! Today we discussed how to make great blog comments. This is what we decided:

WALT identify and use good blog comments

Give feedback to the post

Let people know who you are (if allowed)

Only be positive and constructive (no put downs)

Talk about the post not random stuff.

Stay on the learning topic

Ask lots of questions

Today we went down to the Domain to have a look around. We saw lots of different things. Some things were beautiful and some things were ugly!

When you go for walks what types of things do you find beautiful or ugly?

Here were ours...

Term 2

This Term Room 8 is studying the science in inquiry and are investigating:

'What Keeps Our World Beautiful?'

It will be an exciting term and we are all looking forward to discovering our beautiful world.

Room 8's First Blog

Wow how exciting for Room 8. I wonder how many people will read and reply to this blog at home????