Karearea in training

What a surprise when I came back after lunch to see Ellah and Kaiyo tucking into Billionaire Boy! Our karearea love reading!

Year 4 Camp!

Here are the photos from Year 4 camp! We had a great time! Thanks to camp parents Murray, Christina and Kerri. If you would like a copy of any of the photos, please let me know with an email address and I'll send them through. If you click on the photos you will see a bigger version of them. Thanks Mr B

Room One's Hairy Maclary story!

We hope you enjoy our retell of Lyney Dodd's famous Hairy Maclary story! We loved having Lynley visit and teach us about rhyming, rythym and funny names. So we thought we'd have a go at inventing our own Lynley Dodd characters! We hope you enjoy them!

Hi folks! Check out Room One's amazing retell of the battle of Le Quesnoy from World War 1. It was a battle that occurred just one week before the end of the war and resulted in 137 NZ soldiers dying to free the French town from German soldiers. Le Quesnoy's citizens maintain a strong link with New Zealand and remember the sacrifices our soldiers made to free their town every year on ANZAC day.

Our day in the trenches.

Welcome back to term 2! We have been learning about the ANZAC's and finding out about the history of our own families and other New Zealand soldiers at war. Thank you all for sharing so much of your families pasts. On Friday we had a morning 'in the trenches at Gallipoli.' We listened to sound effects from war as we imagined what it would be like to be there. We ate dry crackers for food and tap water for drink. We wrote letters home and there were rats and all sorts of creepie crawlies in the trenches! Then we went to battle. It was sad to see some of our friends get injured or pass away. We held a moment of silence for them. It was a good way for the kids to experience the sadness of war.

Our Koru Art

Since Waitangi Day we have been learning about making lovely koru patterns to create some exciting art! We finally finished our last piece last week. The kids could choose between creating art where they didn't take their pen off the page, or some art where they based their koru around a centre line or trunk! We hope you enjoy the amazing difference in the art they all produced.

EOTC Week!!!!

Hi Folks,
We've had a terrific time on EOTC Week! Here are some links to photos of some of the activities!
Check them out and show Mum or Dad the fun we had!

Leif's Fundraising Adventure!

We have a lot of very special kids in Room One, and Leif is certainly one of them. Check out his AMAZING fundraising effort!
Follow the link below to see how he is raising funds for Cystic Fibrosis research. Make sure you check out the song video that inspired him to help people with Cystic Fibrosis.

"At first I wanted to donate some money to help them but then Mum had an idea to run to raise money for them."

Leif's Fundraiser

Welcome to Room One in 2015!!!

Welcome to Room 1!!!
We are gonna have a lot of fun and do lots of fantastic learning in 2015!

Can't wait to work with you kids AND parents to help create a successful year of learning!
Parents, feel free to come and visit. I have an open door policy but tend to be a touch busier before school in the mornings, rather than after school. Either way, come and see me!!
Alistair Banks

Homework!
 We will be starting homework next week! To start the year I want our kids to focus solely on the reading and basic times tables facts. I will give your child a reading log to fill out Monday-Thursday night. They will keep this in their homework book and bring to school on Friday for me to check their reading. They will practise times tables each school night and be tested on Friday at school. If they get 2 tests right in a row and feel like they have mastered their times tables they will move onto the next one.
The other homework they will do is Spirit of Clyde. I will send home the tasks that they can choose from via their clear file. Children will use their clear file to show me via photos and a small write up how each task went etc. 

Room One's Class Movies!

Well after what can only be described as an epic undertaking, we have finished our four different movies! Each movie retells 'The Legend of Lake Wakatipu' as told to us by Whaea Maryanne back in term three.
The children each chose a way to retell the movie using different types of media. There was a LOT to organise. Costumes, script, settings, backgrounds, movement, narration, editing....the list goes on. But we finally finished them!
We hope you like them as much as we did making them!
Cheers Room One and Mr Banks

Legend Movie

Lego Movie

Play Doh movie

Puppet movie

Year 4 Camp!

Hi Folks!
We had a wonderful time at year 4 camp. I received lots of great comments about how friendly and well behaved our year 4's were, and also about how well they got on with each other! They were a treat to take away!
Big thanks to Lisa, Nathan and Shaun our parent helpers who made my job very easy.

We hope you all enjoy the photos, and if you want a copy of any of them then email me at alistairb@clyde.school.nz

MOVIE MAKING!!!!!

SORRY FOR THE LONG GAP BETWEEN POSTS!!

We have been flat out making movies!!!

Whaea Maryanne taught us the legend of Lake Wakatipu and told us that there isn't really a good online version of the legend. We got our heads together and brainstormed ways we could recreate the movies.
We then decided on creating four different types of movie. - PLAY DO, LEGO MOVIE, PUPPET SHOW AND A REAL MOVIE!!
The children then chose what movie they would like to make and we got started. YOU are going to be invited to the PREMIER!!! STAY TUNED!!

Room 1's plays!!

Thank you so much to all the parents who made the effort to come and see our class plays. The kids did a super job and I hope you went away entertained! I can honestly say that through all the practices over the weeks, you saw the best performances that they have done! I hope to have video clips of the plays up on the blog next week.

Here are a few comments the kids made about the experience.

'I liked Leif's play, it was funny. The little kids cracked up, I did too." - Saxon

'When it was my turn to go on the stage I had butterflies in my tummy.' - Emily

'Maria did a supermodel pose, which made Phoebe and me laugh, I was so embarrassed, but so happy Mum and Dad had made it.' - Madison

'My Mum said 'well done.'I was so nervous at the start.' - Mackenzie

'I think that being first was important, to do well so people watch and listen properly.' - Troy

'When I was doing the play I felt a little bit sick, not a lot, a little bit. It was a good experience for all of us' - Arlia

'I wasn't nervous at all because I'm a true actress!' - Phoebe

'After the play my Mum said that I was great. Now I am not nervous if I do any other plays." - Connor 

'When I went on stage and said my lines, my nerves were gone. I felt when I said my lines like nobody was there.' - Emma

'After my play I was very happy with myself. It was the best experience in the world.' - Peyton

'The experience was fantastic and I liked the big crowd, it gave me support.' - Ben

'When I walked up on the stage my tummy didn't feel so good. When it was over I felt so happy.' - Theon

'I was a bit nervous when I was doing my play but after I was definitely proud.' - Finn

'In the middle of the play it was fun. Everyone did a good job.' - Trey

'The grannies probably thought it was excellent. And it was a bit scary because Mum was there!' - Sam 

'When it was our go I felt fine because it was friends and family or people I know, not just strangers.' - Tayla

'It's all over now but it was super fun, delightfully scary!' - Maria

'When I was on the stage I felt good. At the end I was proud of myself.' - Leif

'When I was watching the first play it felt like I didn't know my lines, but when it was my line it all came back to me.' - Chloe

'When I was getting dressed I felt all excited until I saw the massive big crowd!' - Aidan

'When I got up on stage I felt like I was going to explode into a million pieces, that is what freaked me out the most.' - Poppy

'The best thing I liked was performing and working together to do the props.' - Jed

'Positive words were just spilling out of my mouth like running water, but in my head negative kind of took over. All I was thinking was OMG, what if I forgot my words! When I got on stage I just went with the flow' Vanessa

'I was so nervous that my heart was thumping like mad, till I actually started to get brave. Then when it was finished I was so proud of myself.' - Kartier

Welcome To Term Three!!!

Hi folks! it's been great to have the kids smiley faces back in Room One.
We look forward to seeing you at all sorts of school events this term. We have speeches, crosscountry, swimming and of course our class plays coming up!
Below is a slideshow of the superb Fifty-five feathers pastel art we created at the end of term two. We read a book called 'Fifty-five feathers' about a gecko who was getting cold in winter so pukeko helped him keep warm by collecting feathers from NZ native birds!
The last ten feathers came from the now extinct huia. The children developed a special bond with this beautiful bird from a book we read recently called 'Project Huia.' Needless to say the kids are keen for scientific technology to hurry up so we can use DNA from current huia specimen to help recreate them!
Anyway we hope you enjoy the art as much as we enjoyed making it!

Blinding us with science!!!

We have been finding out about displacement in Room One.
First we found out how many drops of water we could fit on a 10 cent piece. It was heaps more than we thought!!!

Then we created a hypothesis about how many paper clips we could fit in a full cup of water. We guessed between 4 and 60. Amazingly we fitted 300!!! The surface of the water in  the cup was bulging up!

The next day we tried all sorts of different objects. Marbles, plastic counters, dice and felt pen lids. We decided that the bigger the space an object takes up the more displacement occurs and the higher the water rises.

We also found out that water has a skin. If you carefully sat a plastic counter on the top it would float! We are going to learn about how it has a skin or surface soon!

WELCOME BACK TO TERM 2!!! It's great to be back in Room one! I have had a BIG cleanout finally and with the new furniture we now have, Room one looks awesome. Parents, feel free to come and have a look! Thank you for your efforts in reducing our class rubbish!
You may remember after a three week count we had 55 chip packets. 6 weeks later we are down to 19 over the last 3 weeks. We are now adopting a zero lunch rubbish policy at school so our kids will be taking all their lunch rubbish home each day to try and reduce our school rubbish bill. We learned that if we have one less skip at school we will save about $400 for the school. That will buy us 8 new lily pad cushions for our class!
We are also doing ice skating and swimming this term! Please keep looking in the school newsletter for details. Thanks Alistair

Our Awesome Sketches!

Finally we have finished our sketching unit. The children have chosen their two favourite sketches from their 'art portfolio.' Trust me there are plenty of other good sketches where these came from!

After the unit finished the children had this to say about their efforts...

Sketching lines was hard cause you had to keep lifting the pencil - Jed

I need to get better at doing bricks - Sam

I liked doing Mr B's hat, it was a nice shape - Chloe

I found the art unit relaxing and it really made my mind think - Vanessa

I found the car in front of the Post Office the hardest thing - Poppy

I liked the fun photos and buildings - plus getting you thinking - Madison

Lodge Dunstan was my favourite because of the light and dark parts - Jack

It shows you need to try your best - Leif

I liked my Newspaper Building, the detail was great - Connor

My favourite is the tree because I like the shading - Peyton

I think I am good at the shaping/perspective - Tayla

My favourite sketch is Dunstan House because I like the bricks - Kiahn

I like the tree because I really like the branches and stump because it had good proportion - Arlia

I liked shading because you got to see it come to life with light and dark - Emily

I liked getting better and seeing how other people were going - Phoebe

I liked Lodge Dunstan. Why?, because I like the building and size of it - Saxon

The Church turned out how I wanted to be - Kartier

I liked the unit because I didn't know I was good at art. I have got better at size and shading - Theon

I like me because it looks just like me - Mackenzie

The thing I like about art is it's fun and good for your eye concentration - Emma

My car in front of the Post Office looked like a mini monster truck! - Aidan

My strengths are shading anad getting the building in the right place - Trey

Mine are sketching the lines and shading in the object that I'm drawing - Ben

The best part was learning about sketching and only draw what you can see - Maria

My box sketch was the best because it was awesome - Finn

The best part was that we got to draw some old buildings - Troy.


Feel free to come and see the art in Room 1 and in the school foyer.

Our Enviroschools investigation!

For the last three weeks Room One have been collecting chip packets and other small packages that we have in our lunchboxes. After three weeks we collected 55 packets. Since there are 26 of us in our class we thought this wasn't too bad, only 3 or 4 per day.
We found out that it costs the school if we have more rubbish at school ,so we talked about what we could do to make less rubbish. We talked about different options....


Buy a big bag and put chips into zip bags which we can recycle - Madison

Put any packets we use back into lunch boxes to take home - Chloe

Put some loose chips into a lunchbox chip compartment - Jack

Pack healthier lunches without bags of stuff - Madison

Use a clip shut container - Emma

Limit your chips to once a week - Emma

Use paper bags - Mr B.


We are now going to see how many chip packets we end up collecting over the next three weeks! We hope it is a lot less! You might like to comment below on what you are going to do to help us improve our rubbish collection problem! Thanks Room 1 and Mr B!

SKETCHING TREES!

Hi folks! Here's a sneak preview of our observation drawing project. You are gonna love the results!

Flat Top Hill walk!

Today we walked 10 KM!!!! It was a nice warm day to walk from Butcher's Dam to Flat Top Hill. We got great view of the Clutha, saw a red back spider! and had lunch near the lake edge. There was some pretty awesome stone skimming going on, as well as finding a few yabbies!
We hope you enjoy the pics!