Tuesday 21st June

Descriptive writing

Over the past few days, we have been looking at descriptive writing. Yesterday we had to choose an object and write a description about it without saying what exactly it was. The rest of the class then had to use these clues to guess what we were describing. We have learnt it is really important to 'show not tell' and use a lot of descriptive language to make our writing more interesting. We like to be able to paint a picture with words instead of just telling. 

Today we made a list of adjectives that could be used to describe food. We used our five senses (sight, smell, sound, touch and taste) to help us think of interesting words. Next was the fun part. We were each given a pineapple lump that we had to write a description about. It was hard to resist the urge to eat it straight away but we had to focus on the sight, smell and touch senses first. Miss Chapman was impressed with how engaged we all were with our writing. 

Check out Iara's exceptional piece of writing!

I open the packet and listen to it rustle as if I had just stood on a few sticks. I pick up one of the marvellous pieces of treasure and feel the sides, they feel smooth like a babies bottom, and the top feels lumpy like a gravel road. It smells like a ripe pineapple covered in a sweet, sugary chocolate coat. It looks like a chocolate bombed block. I put it into my mouth and taste all the beautiful flavours of chocolate smashed together with pineapple and then a splash of sugar.

George seeing what it smells like. 

Cooper's ready for the taste test.

Iara inspecting her pineapple lump to see what it feels like.

Girls enjoying their chocolates!

Thursday 16th June

Sports Activator

Yesterday we had Greer come visit again. This time she was teaching us some tips and skills about Hockey.
First we had to learn how to hold the hockey stick correctly. We had to have our left hand at the top of the hockey stick and our right hand further down. This helps us have more control. To warm up we got into a square and had to practice dribbling the ball. This was then made harder by other people trying to hit your ball out of the square. We found it very tricky especially trying to keep our own ball in as well! It was then time to practice our passing. We got into pairs and began passing the ball to each other from a short distance remembering to keep our stick down and to push the ball. This seemed easy enough until we had to spread out further and passing accurately was a bit more difficult. We played a couple of games of shark attack where we continued practising our dribbling while other people tried to knock our balls away. It was a lot of fun. Finally it was time to put all our skills to use in a game of hockey. It was a fast-paced game that ended up a draw which was a fair result.

We had great fun learning new skills that we will continue to keep working on. Check out some photos of us below!

Practising having control of our ball. 

It was hard keeping our ball in!

Practising our passing. 

Great pass Iara!

Carefully dribbling through the cones. 

Shark attack!

Watch out for George Taylor!

Tuesday 14th June

Oral Language Programme

One of the topics for our oral language programme this term is 'Teach Me'. This is where we get to share something that we would like to teach the class. People have chosen to teach dances, how to make paper planes, how to make slime and how to make different types of foods. Last week Savannah taught us how to make chocolate brownie and she even brought some along for us to sample! We all agreed it was super tasty. Today George taught us how to cook liver. It was very interesting as a lot of us had never tried liver before. Most of the class were surprised that it tasted pretty nice. We are very lucky that we get to try all these different treats!

Savannah with her delicious brownie!

George handing out his liver.

Iara and Savannah are unsure what they think of the liver. 

Tuesday 31st May

Oral Language Programme

This term we have been loving our oral language programme. Every Monday and Tuesday it is in the afternoon with Miss Ward and Wednesdays and Thursdays are in the morning with Miss Chapman. We have a range of topics including My Hero, Art Appreciation and Dreams for the future. We have noticed that we have all improved a lot with our confidence with speaking in front of the class and really enjoy getting to show our classmates things that are special to us.

Check out some photos of us doing our Oral language programme!

George showing us his duck for show and tell.

George with his duck which helped attract real ducks!

Georgia with her special jewellery box she chose for show and tell. 

For art appreciation Iara chose to create a poster 

Cooper brought along his bird Oscar for show and tell. 

Savannah showed us her trophy she won.

Maddie chose to teach the class a dance for 'Teach me'.

Thursday 26th May

Sports Activator

Today we had Greer call in again for another skills session for rippa rugby. It was great to see the sun out shining after a few days of wet and cold weather. We got straight into it with a game of seaweed where fast running and stepping were keys to winning.
Next we worked on our passing. We practiced passing from both sides focusing on using the power from our hips. We then played a fun game where we followed Greers actions until she said "ball"! Then it was a race to see who could grab the ball first. It was a lot of fun and we all showed our competitive streaks! We also spent time practicing our stepping and dodging. Then it was time to put all our skills together with a game of rippa. It was a fast paced game and we found that teamwork was an important part of winning. We look forward to using these skills next week in Balclutha at the rippa tournament.

Tuesday 24th May

Constable Rochelle and Kia Kaha!

Today Constable Rochelle came to teach us as part of the Kia Kaha - Anti Bullying programme we are doing for health. We learnt that NO bullying is acceptable. We also learnt that if we are bystanders we can be just as bad as the bully. Telling an older person or adult we trust about bullying is really important. This will let the person getting bullied, get help.

Some of the different types of bullying are physical, verbal and cyber bullying. NO bullying is acceptable and we need to do all we can to help anyone who is being bullied.

Monday 16th May

Kia Kaha Programme

We are doing the Kia Kaha - Anti Bullying Programme at school for the next few weeks. This is our health topic. This programme is taught with the help of our local Police Youth Education Officer, Constable Rochelle Gordon. Yesterday we had our first lesson and looked at how we are all different and similar. We need to accept people for who they are, just because they may look different does not mean we have the right to judge them.

After that we looked at how we are special as individuals and how our class is special. We started creating shields to show this. We still need to finish them.

Check out some photos below of us doing the similarities and differences activities with a black and white and then colour photo. The photo was the same.