Brain Breaks

Parents and families, you may begin to hear  stories this week of a strange creature called Squeaky Laroo and your children doing yoga, dancing and quizzes at school.  This is part of a new "Brain Break" activity time we are using in the classroom.  Our class has signed up to a website called, "GoNoodle"which allows us to choose a Class Captain/avatar (Squeaky Laroo) and complete short activities.  So far we have done some energizing activities and some calming activities including some stretching and relaxing breathing.  We also used the website to do some fun skip counting this morning in maths.  It is fast becoming a favourite part of the day, and is really engaging the students as you can see from the photos below of a yoga activity we all did with a little bit of help from a Spanish speaking monkey!

ANZAC Day

This week we are spending some time in class learning about ANZAC day and New Zealand's role in World War One.  We have read some stories, listened and watched "The Last Post" being played and we will also be doing some writing about ANZAC Day.  This afternoon we have created some poppy art using dye, pastels, collage and poppy seeds.  Some of this art will go up on our ANZAC Day display and some will be put up on the window to remind us over the next week about the meaning of the day.

Here is our finished classroom display:

Happy Easter

Wishing you all a very happy, healthy and safe Easter.  

Enjoy the holidays and we will see you back at school ready for another term on

Monday 20th April

Collaboration

Our Inquiry topic this term has been Collaboration.  This week the students have created posters or Powerpoint presentations to show their understanding of Collaboration, and to present some of the things they have learned and the activities they have done surrounding the topic.  Here is a selection of their work.

Bowen's Powerpoint

Max's Powerpoint

Mufti Day Fun

Everyone was in high spirits today for the end of term and Mufti day.  During an extended morning tea there was a bake sale and lots of activities for the students to take part in.  These ranged from face painting, dancing, shooting hoops, football and vaulting to throwing wet sponges at the Year 6's, guessing the number of jellybeans in a jar and seeing how long you could keep your hand in a bucket of ice!  Below is a small sample of how Room 19 spent their money and enjoyed their morning tea.

Bunny Crafts

Yesterday the students made bunnies out of plates, pipe cleaners, googly eyes, pom poms, paper and pastels.  Lots of fun was had deciding on which colour to use to decorate, where to stick the whiskers and whether to attempt to make a body and concertina arms and legs.  Judging takes place later today when everyone has had the chance to finish, but they are all looking good so far!

Easter Maths Challenge

On Wednesday I set the class a maths challenge.  In groups of 3 the students had to answer questions at different stations around the class - all Easter themed.  There were questions on measurement, statistics, division, addition and money.  The bonus question was to estimate how many chocolates were in the jar.  The students had lots of fun collaborating and trying to solve the problems.  When time was up we discussed each question and worked out the answer as a whole class.  Two groups ended up with the same number of correct answers which meant it all came down to our bonus question - the chocolates in the jar.  Each group was given the chance to change their original answer with guesses of 46 and 52 being decided upon.  Then we all skip counted in two's and discovered there were 63 chocolates.  Jade, Skye and Mollie were the lucky winners and got to eat the Easter egg that everyone had measured as their prize.