Celebrating culture and success - by Leilani

Our group has celebrated three cultures in our film. We will show our dances in Samoa, Tongan and Maori. This video was made by our team work and facing challenges.

On The Road Again! - by Robati

Running is not allowed on the road.

On the road we always walk

Also when you're walking if someone hold their hand so they won’t run off.

Don’t just walk if you not patient for cars.

Parents always have to be your supervisor if you are with them.

And if you are not with a parent, make sure you look to your left and right.

To keep safe you have to: stop, look and listen.

Road Patrol is quite hard when you get nervous near the road

Or if you're used to the road you can do it easy

Look always - don’t stare at nothing - keep turning your head left to right.

How will reading change your life?

Henry entertained us at our Duffy role model assembly at Tamaki Primary School this afternoon with his hilarious stories about reading at the library when he was a kid. The first book that he can remember reading at the library was Where the wild things are and by the time he was a teenager he was reading Shakespeare - which led him to drama school.  Henry says that reading changed his life!

Robati was excited to receive a Goosebumps book from Henry. It'll be hard for Robati to put that down until he's finished!

Facing challenge and challenging faces

After making different 3D shapes with sticks, straws and blutak, we looked at 3D shapes from a different perspective. We cut out the nets of hexagonal and triangular prisms and then had to figure out how to glue the net to create the shape. A few people challenged themselves to make an icosahedron from a net: twenty triangular faces took a lot of effort to glue into shape!

Frosted curls and a golden star

Despite today being the shortest day of 2016, we finally replanted our Room 10 garden! We read the information labels, planned our plot and measured the distance between each plant. Lots of digging, lots of earth and lots of smiles as we watched our garden take shape. We will water and watch to see how our native grasses and other plants grow. The coprosma, Golden Star, reminds us of Matariki.

A Celebration For Parents - by Robati

After school I went to the road and I saw my mum. She was waiting in the car for me to go home. When I came to her, I told her to come and visit my class to get my new chromebook so she followed me.

When we arrived at my class, I showed her my google drive, class site, class blog and one of my favourite pieces of writing. She read my writing and she was laughing. 

I showed her a form with some questions that she had to do on my chromebook. When she had done it, I could take it home after she had signed a form for Mrs Buchanan.  I showed her why I wanted to take my chromebook home in a video. Fiona, Yayleen and my mum were laughing when they saw the video.  I had to show them what I had to do so she knows what I am learning. Also she could even learn from me what I have done.

I enjoyed eating the snacks with cheese and crackers. The cheese was tasty with the crackers.

Weather wins 1-0

Although the sun was shining, the Year 5/6 soccer team were feeling a little sad this morning because the interschool tournament was cancelled for the second time due to the weather.  The weather forecast was spot on, though, as the wind and rain did arrive in the middle of the morning.

Rhyming Family Poem

Robati did an awesome job checking out the Screencastify Chrome extension today.  He found it much simpler to use than Snagit - and we had no technical hitches!  Here he reads his humorous rhyming family poem created during free-choice writing yesterday.

3, 2, 1 ... Welcome to our Duffy Role Model!

We welcomed a Duffy role model to a special assembly yesterday afternoon. Ravinder works as a researcher at Maori TV, a sports writer and has presented a boxing event on Sky TV. She is also a netball coach and a mum. It was inspiring when she told us about all the reading and learning she loves to do as part of her work.  As she presented some learners with Duffy books, she mentioned that she still has all the Duffy books she was given at school!  Ka mau te wehi!

Keep your eye on the ball!

Last week our Year 4, 5 and 6 students travelled by bus to St Kentigern College in Pakuranga for a PE session with some senior students from St Kents. As well as running, throwing and catching team games in the gym, a few students, including Bella, enjoyed learning some tennis skills.  Such concentration!

Cybersmart Driving: Dum Dee Dum

Our Cybersmart learning focus at the moment is learning to write quality blog comments. Back at school after our visit to the movies on Wednesday, it was time to put our learning into practice:

 There was also a spontaneous reflection on Room 9's film ...

Down the back of the chair!

This afternoon Room 10 were excited to host senior syndicate assembly to share what we learnt and created during our Book Week.  Did you know that the New Zealand author, Margaret Mahy, had over 200 books published for children and young adults?  As well as sharing this and other interesting facts in a quiz, we read her hilarious poem, Down The Back Of The Chair.  Our artwork will be displayed in the library once we have pulled out everything that hides down the back of the chair!