Pinatas

As part of our Celebrations Inquiry, Room 1 have learned about Piñata’s. Here is Cathy's information:

The Piñata’s History

The piñata idea originated from China. In China people would break tiny clay pots with seeds in it to welcome spring.  It is also played in Greenland to welcome summer. Mexico and America play the game on birthdays. By Cathy

We made our own piñata from boxes and paper mache. We worked hard with our creative brains and come up with amazing designs.

White Christmas

This morning Room 1 & 11 made White Christmas slice. After it had time to set, we all had a few pieces to eat and it was delicious! We got to take some home to share with our whanau. We have a copy of the recipe, so we can make some at home!

Speech Marks

Hi Room 1, the next step in using correct punctuation in your Written Language is to use speech punctuation correctly. Click here for the Blendspace on speech marks that you will be using this week.

Room 1 have Green Fingers

Over the last few weeks Room 1 has grown seedlings from New World Little Garden seedling packs. Once the seedlings sprouted we had to decide on what we would do next.
We researched to answer the questions, How will we pot our vegetable seedlings? What do we need?
We found out what the different vegetables need for growing, the different size container that is needed and how the seedlings should be planted etc.
We researched where to buy buckets, tubs and vegetable potting mix. Mrs Poole bought what we needed and we have had fun planting and collecting sicks for the signs we made.

Geometry Town

We have been exploring and making 3D shapes, describing their faces, edges and vertices (corners).
In groups, Room 1 have planned and begun to make a Geometry Town. Everyone is enjoying the process. Here are some photos of the work in progress.

Buddy Challenge Time

Today with our buddy class we did the marshmallow and spaghetti challenge.
The challenge was to make a tall tower which had to stand by itself.
During the challenge we used Growth Mindset thinking because we challenged ourselves, had the right attitude and showed lots of perseverance.
At the end of the challenge some of the groups understood that to fail is the first step in learning something new because as you can see by the photos some of the towers failed!
We had loads of fun!

Tread Lightly Learning

After our session with the Tread Lightly Caravan we brainstormed all our new learning.

• Put soft plastic rubbish (plastic bags, chip packets etc) in a soft plastic rubbish bin found in the supermarket or The Warehouse
• Cell phones in the landfills do not break down and can last more than 100 years
• A cell phone has poison in it and if it breaks down in a landfill then the poison goes into the soil, sea and rivers
• Hard plastic bottles can be made into clothes - polyester
• Cell phones are made with gold, silver, copper, iron, plastic, tin
• An old old cell phone can be given to Spark or Vodafone so they can recycle it
• We can all take shorter showers because it will save energy
• LED lights take less energy than other lights and are also a lot brighter
• Turn the tap off while you brush your teeth
• If we keep using more energy than we need we will need more Earths but we only have one!
• Phone companies and factories make their products and intend them to break or not last long so we buy more
• Electricity is the same as solar power - it makes things work like lights
• Some materials can make other things like - tin cans make paper clips, soft plastic makes plastic timber, hard plastic makes polyester for clothes, glass jars can make other glass jars
• Glass is made from sand
• Wash your clothes in cold water
• Solar power is from the sun
• Use the washing line instead of the drier
• When you have takeaways keep the plastic boxes and reuse or recycle them
• Recycle using your green bin
• We may have 78 cell phones in our lifetime if we change them every year
• Plastic is made from oil
• Don’t litter because the sea, lakes, rivers get all the rubbish that goes down the drains and some animals think it is food and then they either get sick, die or have to live with plastic ties in their mouths or on their body
• There are two different types of plastic - soft and hard
• Wash your car on the grass so soapy water doesn’t go out to the sea through the drains

Tread Lightly Caravan

Today we had a visit from the Tread Lightly Caravan to make us aware how some of our everyday life style choices have environmental consequences which are not sustainable.
By doing some fun activities we learned how we can make some small changes in our daily lives that will reduce the impact that our activities can have on the environment.
Room 1 are all inspired to live more environmentally responsible lifestyles and are eager to share their new learning with their families/whanau at home!

Poetry

Today we had a visit from the amazing and very talented Judi Billcliff from Rainbow Poetry.
Judi is a poet and has published three books. She performed some of her hilarious poems during her visit. She had some people to help her perform, Mr Mac made an awesome Granny!
Thanks Judi for the laughs and the inspiration to write poems.

School Cross Country

Here are photos of Room 1 participating in the School Cross Country held last Friday.
Although a few of us were not looking forward to the day, we all tried our best and were proud of ourselves for finishing. Congratulations to Zaina, Doreen and Callum who have been chosen for the Sunnyhills Interschool Cross Country team.

Ghostbusters

Here is our dance from Senior School Assembly today. We were so fabulous we have been invited to perform at Whole School Assembly next Friday!

Senior School Assembly

Here are photos from today's assembly. Well done Room 1, you were all awesome.

Fudge

After reading the poem Fudge! we made fudge with our buddy class.
We co-cooperatively worked together in groups to bring in the ingredients and to make a batch of fudge. We were allowed to taste the condensed milk and have a lick of the spoon and bowl! After the fudge had been left to set in the fridge, it was cut up into pieces. We tried a few pieces and took some home, it was yum!

Olympic Mascots

Here is the Padlet to type the facts that you find about the Olympic Mascots for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from the Rio 2016 website.

Olympic Games Rio de Janeiro Brazil

We watched the video below to spark ideas for our Olympic inquiry. We discussed what different kinds of animals are in the video and why. We saw a sloth, crocodiles, jaguar, anteater, and panther and found out that these are a few of the animals found in the Amazon Rainforest. Did you know about 60% of the forest is found  in Brazil where the Olympics are being held.

Quality Comments

Today Room 7 came to help us remember how to make a quality comment on a blog.
We had lots of fun learning with each other. Have a look on our blog at all the comments we made today. Our next steps are to make a comment on another class blog.
Thanks Room 7 for coming and sharing your knowledge with us.

Remember;

• open with a specific compliment
• add something you may know about the post
• make a connection
• end with a question to get a conversation going
• proofread your comment before publishing

Holiday Packages

Today the Senior School held the Sunnyhills 2016 Holiday Package Expo in the hall.
We displayed our country's holiday package on a table, they all looked amazing as we have put in a lot of hard work over the past few weeks. We also dressed up in national costumes or in the colours of our country's flag.
We took turns to view all the other classes displays and used our Hills Bills voucher to purchase the holiday package that we would like to go on.

Te Wiki o te Reo Maori - Maori Language Week

Room 1 will be learning this waiata during te wiki o te reo Maori. Remember to practice Room 1!

Strike Performance Group

On Thursday three members of the Strike Performance Group come to school to play for us. 

The three members played different types of drums, percussion instruments and a marimba. 

Thank you to our parents for paying so we could attend, we all loved the performance, and a big thank you to Mrs Dowden for her organisation.

Matariki Posters