Our Weekend News

Brooklyn went to his Nan's place.  They did some experiments.  They were making things and turned them into jelly but not the jelly that you eat.  After a movie and dinner he went back home.  

Hori went to a farm and they did some shearing.  He also went to the beach at Kawhia and stayed the night.  Hori caught some fish with his fishing rod.   

Charlee went to her Dad's place.  She bought a colourful bird, it was a pukeko.  Charlee also found a starfish at the beach at Kaiawa.  It was missing a leg, they put it back into the sea.  Te Heruika said that the leg would grow back when it is in the water.

Harley went to the farm to ride on his yellow four wheeler motorbike.  They went to his Dad's friends, then to his Mum's place and then back to his Dad's house.

Upside Down Day

Today in Room 1 we had an upside down day.  We usually do Maths, Reading and Writing before lunch but today we have spent the morning doing Art. 
Our Takahe pictures are now finished but our class was a MESS!!!!!
This afternoon we have to do Maths and Reading and Handwriting.

We enjoyed our upside down day.

Adding Widgets

We have added some widgets to our blog so that people from other countries can learn about us.
We added a translator so people who do not speak English can read our blog.
We also added a clock so that people would know what the time is.  We are still learning to tell the time but we are pretty good at o'clock and half past now.
We have also added our cyber pet "Taki".  Taki is a Takahe chick.  Takahe are Endangered and are native to New Zealand.  The adult birds are very colourful but their chicks are black and fluffy.

Cinderella Pictures

Check out our September "Cinderella" post.  A slide show has now been added.

Student Blog Challenge #2

This weekend Mrs Chrystall caught up with some of the Student Blog Challenges that we missed during the holidays.  The first one was creating an avatar. 

This is Mrs Chrystall's new avatar.  She is wearing a Nike cap because we have to wear hats outside during Terms 1 and 4 to protect ourselves from the sun.  The Nike symbol also looks a bit like a Silver Fern which is worn by our top sports people and especially the Commonwealth Games Gold Medal winning New Zealand Silver Ferns Netball team.

In Term 2 this year we used Hero Factory.  Check out our avatars.

Wednesday's News

Harley was in his go-kart with his sister Sativa.  It has a battery that makes it go.

Charlee and her cousin Tori looked for spider eggs.  They found two each and put them in a container.  The spiders have come out of their eggs.  They are little, wee black spiders.

Te Heruika shared Richards news.  Richard went to Harley's place and played on his go-kart with Sativa.

Tumahuki ate a piece of chocolate cake and then went to his Aunty's.  He played with his cousins toys.

Brae went on his go-kart.  He rode it in the paddock.

Mrs Chrystall thought she heard some birds in our classroom but there weren't any there.  She thinks they might be nesting outside our class.  Brooklyn thinks the sound might have been Charlee writing on the red card with a whiteboard marker.  This is a mystery.  Who is right?

More Holiday News

Jimi went to his Nana and Poppa's in the holidays.  They went duck shooting and rabbit shooting.  The caught a duck and a rabbit.  They got a .22 and shot a wooden target.

Trevor Jack went to his Aunty's and his Nan's.  He watched The Sponge Bob Movie at his Aunty's granny flat. 

Legend played his play station.  He went to his Nan's house.  His cousins came.  Legend had his skateboard and went skateboarding.  Portia and Legend went for a walk with his Aunty and Nan and they got fish 'n chips.

Brae went to the Te Awamutu Pools.  He went on the hydro-slide and into the spa.  He went with his Dad and little brother Kalyx.

Birthdays

Jimi turned 6 in the holidays.  He got two guns from Te Heruika, a water pistol from Jake, and a lego truck from Brae.  They had fun driving the go-kart and the four wheeler.

Harley is new to our class.  He turned five yesterday.  He had a pirate cake and he was being a pirate.

Brooklyn had a birthday today.  He turned five and is starting school tomorrow.

We like having birthdays.

Our Holiday News

Shayden played Touch.  You use a rugby ball and try to get a "try".  The other team has to touch you.  If they touch you then you have to hand the ball over.

Hori went to Peter S's to kill a cow.  It had a dead calf in it.  His Dad got him a KX25 from the motorbike shop.

Ngapera went to her Aunties and her cousins place.  They went to McDonald's and the Warehouse.  She got some new shoes.  They are pink sandals.

Brae went to Jimi's party.  Brae drove the go-kart and had some cake.  It had spiders on the cake and Brae got to take a toy spider home.  

  

Why you should visit our blog

This post is for Challenge 1 in the September 2010 challenge.

We are a class of 5 and 6 year olds who are learning how to blog.  You should visit our blog because we write posts about what we are learning in class and include pictures and slideshows.  We also like checking out other class blogs and leaving comments.  In Term 3 we found out about Magnets and performed "Cinderella".  In Term 4 we are finding out about what we need to do to help Endangered Species, especially the Takahe which was thought to be Extinct. 

Cinderella

Today we did a play about Cinderella.  Mrs Ormsby played the piano.  We only had one step sister because we only have four girls in our class. 
The fairy godmother had a little helper called Buttons. Buttons is a really good dancer.  He danced so fast that all the photos were blurred.

Cinderella came to the ball on a scooter.  During the ball scene our gentlemen had to dance with stiff looking ladies. 
Justus was the reader. Room 7 and Room 8 came and watched us.  Mums, Dads, and Koros came too.  Emma, from the newspaper, watched us too.  It was cool.
On Tuesday the Kindergarten children and some people from Beattie Homes came to watch us.
Have you done a play? 

Image by Cool Text: Free Logos and Buttons - Create An Image Just Like This We have had 1000 visitors since we started our blog in July.  We love blogging and really like it when people comment on our posts.  
So if you are reading this, please leave us a comment.

September Blogging Challenge

Room 1 has begun our September Blogging Challenge.  We will click on the Better Blogging Challenge Badge on our right hand side to find out what we need to do.

Ruben the Bear

Today we had Ruben the Bear visit.  He taught us about Road Safety.  
Click on Ruben to see a cool effect.

Christchurch Earthquake Appeal

On Friday we had a sausage sizzle to raise money for the people in Christchurch.  There was a 7.1 earthquake which tore houses down.  When we looked at the pictures we thought it looked like a bomb had hit the city.
The cars got crushed.  The houses got cracked and the farms had big trenches in them. 

Duffy Came to Visit

Duffy came to visit us.  He was awesome.  Duffy loves to read but he doesn't know what he wants to do when he grows up.

He played the "Occupation Exploration" game and Duffy got Trevor Jack, Legend and Rhyanh to spin the wheel.

We learnt nine big words.  They were information, application, comprehension, communication, concentration, coordination, relaxation, appreciation and imagination.


It was funny when they said "Open the box".
We laughed when the man said "Don't chuck it again" but Duffy threw the piece of wood anyway.
Duffy also went "Wwwwooooooooo!"

Golden Time Trip

We went on a Golden Time Trip. We went to Hamilton to watch Shrek Forever After, we had McDonalds for lunch, and we went to Sky City to play a game of Ten Pin Bowling.
It was awesome.

Wordle

We wrote stories and Mrs Chrystall made them into wordles.



Now we can see how many different words we used.



We can also see which words we used the most. They are the biggest words.



Go to our class wiki to see the rest of our wordles.

http://otoprim1.wikispaces.com/Wordle

COPS Cross Country

Sativa and Freddy went to our interschool Cross Country competition.

Sativa finished 4th and Freddy finished 8th.











Congratulations Sativa and Freddy.

OPS Cross Country

We like cross country. We ran fast at cross country. It isn't about winning, it's about having fun, getting fit, and doing your best.

ZooBurst Book - this is so cool.

We have been writing narrative stories and we made them into books. Our teacher saw a ZooBurst book on another class blog so she turned Justus' book into an animated book. We think these books are really cool.

Our UFO Ball and How it Works

We have a UFO ball in our class.  When Mrs Chrystall gave it to us we were amazed and didn't know how it worked.  We asked lots of questions about it.

We really wanted to know what it looked like inside so Mrs Chrystall carefully cut away some of the plastic.  Before she did this we had to PREDICT what it would have inside.  We thought it would be a circuit with a battery, wires, a bulb and a buzzer. 

We can now see inside our UFO ball and it still works.  We were right about it having a circuit but we were surprised at how the circuit looked.  We learnt a new word too - soldering.  Soldering is when the metal is melted onto the circuit board to connect the wires.

More Magnets and Electricity

We had fun finding the answers to some of our questions.

Brae and Yawden designed a fair test to find out How many layers of bubble wrap does a magnet work through?

They put a magnet on one side of the bubble wrap and a paper clip on the other side of the bubble wrap.
The magnet held the paperclip through three layers of bubble wrap but it didn’t work through four layers.

Jimi and Ngapera designed a fair test to find out How thick does the wood have to be before the magnet stops working?

They put a magnet on one side of the wood and a paper clip on the other side of the wood. They kept adding layers of wood until they could not pick up the paper clip.
The magnet picked the paperclip up through two layers of wood. This was 7mm thick.

Will we get the same results for these tests if we use a different magnet?  Are some magnets stronger than others?

Richard and Justus quickly worked out How do you make the buzzer work?

They worked together to make a complete circuit using a cell (battery), wires and a buzzer.
They had a lot of fun making the buzzer work but some people found the loud buzzing annoying.

Charlee and Sativa found out How do you make the buzzer work?

They made a complete circuit using two AA cells (batteries), wires and a buzzer.
Their buzzer made a quieter sound than Richard and Justus’ buzzer. They swapped cells and this made the girls buzzer louder. We think the square cell is more powerful and that is why the buzzer was louder when we used it.

Te Heruika and Freddy designed a fair test to find out What happens when you use two bulbs and one cell (battery)?

They made a circuit using two bulbs, wires and one cell. Then they shifted the wires to make a complete circuit with only one bulb and one cell.

They found out that the bulbs were dimmer in the circuit which had two bulbs in it compared to the bulbs in the circuit that had just one bulb in it.

How many bulbs will the cell light up at the same time?  Is there another way to connect the bulbs in the circuit so they don't get dimmer?

Peter and Portia knew what a circuit was so they had to find out How do you make a circuit with one bulb and two cells (batteries)?

They knew that a circuit had to be complete before the bulb would light. They made the bulb glow by using cells, wires, a bulb holder and a bulb.

Mrs Chrystall showed Peter how to make a complete circuit without using the bulb holder. 

We looked at the inside of the bulb.  We could see a squiggly piece of wire that connected the two metal prongs.  We noticed that it is this wire that glows.

Why does the squiggly wire glow?

We found the answer to a lot of our questions but now we have more questions we want to find the answers too.  Learning is FUN!!!!

What makes something magnetic?

We already knew that lots of metal things are magnetic but some metal things are not magnetic.

We designed a fair test to find out "What is in the metal that makes things magnetic?"

We had two container lids of sand.  The black sand was from Kawhia and the other sand is river sand from our school sandpit.

The containers were the same size even though they don't look it in this picture.

Mrs Chrystall covered the sand with a paper towel but she wouldn't tell us why.  (At the end she showed us how the sand stuck to the magnet and was really hard to get off.)

When we used the circular magnet on the river sand it only picked up a little sand.  We noticed that it was the black bits.

The circular magnet picked up a lot more of the Kawhia sand.  We also noticed that the Kawhia sand was still a little wet.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

  
We did the test (experiment) again using a bar magnet instead of a circular magnet.
 
The bar magnet only picked up a little of the river sand.  All the pieces were black.
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
The bar magnet picked up a lot more of the black sand from Kawhia.
 
We also noticed that the end of the bar magnet picked up a lot more sand than the middle of the magnet.
 
 
 
 
 
 

  
It was easy to see that the black sand was magnetic. 

Mrs Chrystall told us that the black sand has a thing called iron in it and it is the iron in the metal that makes things magnetic.
 
 
 
 
 
 

We now know that it is "iron" that makes things magnetic.
 
 
 
 
 
 

Our Magnetism and Electricity Questions

Mrs Chrystall set up some activities for us to try.  We had a lot of fun but there were also a lot of things we wanted to find out.  Here are our questions we want to find the answers to.

Justus, Osyris and Portia want to know "How do you make the bulbs light up?"

Peter wants to know "How does electricity work?"

Justus and Peter want to know "How does a magnet work?"

We know that lots of things that are metal are magnetic but some metal things are not magnetic.  We want to know "What is in the metal that makes things magnetic?"

We know that plastic, wood, clothing (material) and glass is not magnetic.

Portia wants to know "How does the magnet make the paper clip move through the bubble wrap?"

We keep hearing this word "circuit" so we want to know "what is a circuit?"

Justus wants to know "How do you do the activities and quizzes on the computer?"

Portia wants to know "How do you match them together to make them work?"

This website has big words like "conductor" and "insulator" on it so we want to know "What are conductors and insulators?"

We have found out that magnets work through bubble wrap but we want to know "How many layers of bubble wrap can our magnet work through?"

We found out that magnets can work through wood so now we want to know "How thick does the wood have to be before the magnet stops working?"

Osyris and Portia want to know "How do you make the buzzer go?"

Jimi wants to know "Why does the buzzer need cords?"

Justus wants to know "Why are there different types of buzzers?" and "Why do we need to use buzzers?"

Some of us made a complete circuit using a cell (battery), wires and a bulb.  We made the bulb light up.  But "What would happen if we used two cells (batteries) and one bulb?" or "What would happen if we used one cell (battery) and two bulbs?"

We had fun with Tiber's magnets.  They are oval magnets and when you throw them in the air close to each other they join together, spin around and make a rattling sound.

Sativa wants to know "Why do magnets go away from each other?"

We have this cool UFO ball although we don't know why it is called an Unidentified Flying Object when it does not fly and we know it is a ball.

Yawden, Justus and Osyris want to know "How does the UFO ball work?"

Portia wants to know "Why does the UFO light up?"

Jimi wants to know "What is in the UFO ball to make it work?"

Osyris wants to know "Why doesn't the UFO ball work when you push it with only one hand?"

Room 1 stood in a circle holding hands while Mrs Chrystall touched one metal piece and Sativa touched the other metal piece.  We made the UFO ball light shine and buzzer sound.  Now Mrs Chrystall wants to know "Will the UFO ball work with everyone in the school joined together?"

We are going to find out the answers to our questions and then we will post our answers.

Construction at the Swimming Pool

The concrete truck drove past our classroom door and went to the swimming pool.

Stones and concrete came out of the truck down a slide.

The concrete went into the wheelbarrow and the men took it to the holes where the poles were.

There were two different sized poles.

The men poured the concrete into the holes.

They needed lots of concrete.

The man used a pole to push the concrete down into the hole and get all the air bubbles out.