George's Marvellous Medicine

We have been reading Roald Dahl's 'George's Marvellous Medicine'. We have completed a range of tasks around this book including: Alliteration tasks, rhyming tasks, creating our own medicine and designing a new book cover.

Our final task around this book was to create a storyboard of the main events in the book. As a class we brainstormed the key events. In groups, we drew a picture that showed our part of the book and wrote a summary of it. We then put this together to create a whole class storyboard.

We then needed to bring our storyboard to life! We had to create a short skit, create props and costumes.

Enjoy our performance of George's Marvellous Medicine.

Learning about the marae

We have been learning about the marae. We did a fun matching activity about the marae so that we could learn the correct Maori words for the different parts of the day.

We had to work together as a team to match the English word with the Maori word and  the correct photo showing this part of the day.

Drama Performance

We watched an amazing drama performance last term that taught us about some important history in New Zealand. It focused on the pink and white terraces and eruption of Mt Tarawera.

This particular performance focused on a lot of physical movement around the space, levels and voice.

It was great for our students to see a different way of presenting information and how drama can take many different forms. It was very entertaining and funny too. (One of the characters even got Miss Farrant up for a dance at the end!)

The drama group was made up of a range of students from different schools and ages who were keen to perform. I wonder if it inspired some of our students to do the same?

The Monarch Butterfly

Milla brought in a swan plant and caterpillar into the Kauri Room.

He was a very hungry caterpillar who almost at the entire plant!

Unfortunately he hatched from his cocoon overnight, but it was very exciting to see the beautiful monarch butterfly the next day.

Thank you Milla!

Basketball Skills

Some of the players from the Taranaki Mountaineers came and taught us basketball skills.

We learnt how to dribble and played some fun games.

How lucky are we, having such skilled professionals coming and teaching us!

ActivPanel

We are so lucky to this amazing ActivPanel in the Kauri Room. It is a touch screen and makes learning so engaging and tactile!

Swimming Sports

We all had a great time at the swimming sports this year. The year 3's did their swimming sports at school on March the 14th. All of the student's did a fantastic job and should be really proud of themselves. 

The year 4 student's competed in the Senior Swimming Sports at Okato Pools. This was their first time! It was a great day and they all persevered and had a lot of fun!

Even Miss Farrant and Kath got wet, when they raced the year 7 and 8 students in the teachers vs students relay!

Buddy Writing

As a part of our writing program, we have been doing buddy writing. This is a lot of fun because it means you have a buddy to come up with ideas with. The buddies both have to take turns writing and helping each other.
We all wrote a story with the sentence starter: "As  I walked through the forest I heard a noise behind me..."

We were focusing not only on the writing skills, but also the skills to work together with others by taking turns and negotiating ideas.

Come and have a look in our writing books to read our stories.

Snowflake the bunny

Today Oralee brought her bunny called Snowflake into the class. Oralee said she named her Snowflake because she is really bright white. Snowflake is so fluffy and cuddly. She is so cute and when Oralee brought her she nibbled on her carrot. When she came, she in a cute little cage it had her name on it.We had to close all the doors because the whole class got to pat her but if we didn’t close the door Snowflake could run away and that would be terrible. In snowflakes cage she got to eat carrots and lettuce.  She looked really happy eating her food. Oralee was so kind to bring snowflake into Room Kauri.

By Shayla

Writing down in the Enviro-Centre

The Enviro-Centre

One day Room Kauri went down to the Enviro-Centre. We went down there to look,hear,smell,feel and think.We were doing all those things because we were getting ideas for a poem.It was hard because bugs were hopping on us and  were distracting us while we were working.

We put all our ideas together and now we have tons of different ideas for our poems.It is really fun working down at the Envirocentre. I wish we could go down again to work.

By Miller

Waitangi Day 2017

I hope you have had a lovely, safe and happy long weekend.

In the Kauri Room we have been discussing why we get a long weekend for Waitangi Day and all about the importance of the Treaty of Waitangi. We will be exploring the importance of the treaty over the term.

What sorts of things do you and your family do on Waitangi Day?

Waitangi Day is an extremely important day for New Zealand and it is a great opportunity to discuss the treaty and what it means to you and your family. 

Last year I was lucky enough to attend a Powhiri at Waitangi, as a part of the National Literacy Conference. This was an amazing experience to be at such a significant place in our country. If you find yourself up near Paihia and Waitangi, I highly recommend a visit to Waitangi. It is an extremely beautiful and special place and the learning is invaluable!

Happy Waitangi Day everyone :)

Welcome back!

Welcome back to school for 2017. 

The Kauri Room consists of 31 fabulous and enthusiastic year 3/4 students. We will be sharing our learning on our blog and would love for you to see what we are getting up to. Please comment on our posts and tell us what you think!