Snakes

Snakes are reptiles.  Some have spots or stripes.  When I went to Australia I got to hold a Coral snake, a corn snake and an Anaconda.  Anacondas have a hood.
All sorts of snakes are different sorts of colours like black, white, brown, orange and yellow. Snakes have really, really sharp fangs.  
All sorts of snakes can camouflage.  Snakes are really, really shy.  They like to hide in the trees, underground and in the water.
Corn snakes eat mice, birds’ eggs and sometimes they eat lizards.
Snakes can sometimes look like fallen branches from the tree.  Snakes get around to places by slithering.  Some snakes can swim under water.  Anacondas can spray venom and it can get in an animal’s eyes and it can make the animal go blind.  Snakes are really, really powerful.

Zoe  

This week we were lucky to have a visit from Orchestra Wellington.  Their leader, Chris, told us a story of the history of music, starting from the cavemen using rocks to make music.  We all laughed when the band members were pretending to bang their fingers in the rocks.  We learned about percussion instruments that you hit, and brass instruments that you blow into.  We listened to music that went fast, then slow, and quiet, then louder.  The last song was'Happy' and we all clapped along with the music.  We had a great time.

Art inspired by Aboriginal dot paintings

For more than 40 years now the Aborigines from Australia have been showing their culture by creating dot paintings that show important parts of their lives.

Commonwealth Fun Day

On Friday our Patu syndicate organised a fun day with a Commonwealth theme.  Rooms 16 and 6 were Great Britain and we made up a chant for the opening ceremony.  We also made headbands with a Union Jack design and our clothes were red, white and blue to match the flag.  The weather just held out for us to complete our opening ceremony, then we headed inside for the fun and games.
We started with the team ping-pong ball blow.  Then it was on to relays, basketball throws, beanbag shotput and lots of other fun games.  We really enjoyed our day with our buddies.

Calendar Art

In Room 16 we have been busy practising for our calendar art.  The children have really enjoyed using craft paints and different techniques to build up layers of colour on their paintings.  We have learned by our small mistakes and we are now ready to start the real calendar art.  Order forms will be sent home soon so you can order calendars or diaries in time to be sent overseas for Xmas.

Maths Evening

Our Maths Evening was held to show how we teach maths and families got to take maths information and games to play at home.  Here are some Room 16 children playing trying out some of the games. It was great to see so many of our families there to support their children's learning.

Arts Rotation

Today we went to Room 18 for our Arts rotation and Mr Searle taught us the C chord and the G chord on the ukuleles.  We played Row, row, row your boat and Old MacDonald had a farm on our ukuleles.

Making tens and ones

This week ou circles maths group are learning to show numbers by using bundles of ten sticks and single sticks for ones. Our rectangles group are doing this too, then they are adding two 2-digit numbers together and working out the answers by counting up the tens and ones that represent the numbers.

The NED show.

Today we went to the NED show.  First John told us a story.   Ned didn't want to get into the car.  Then green aliens came to get Ned.  The N stands for Never give up, the E stands for Encourage others and the D stands for Do your best.  John showed us some tricks.  He put a tissue in his mouth.  When he pulled it out of his mouth it was a coloured ribbon. He's selling yoyos to get more money so he can travel to other schools - Nicole.

Hello!

Patrick's family has this lovely cockatoo who sometimes comes to visit after school.  He was quite friendly on Friday - until he tried to eat Kharma's cardigan!