Blackout Day

Tomorrow (Friday) the school is holding a black out day where students are invited to wear all black to show their support for the All Blacks in the Rugby World Cup final.

The school is going to do a Haka tomorrow and send it to the team to watch so we have been busy practicing today.  Here's some of our rehearsals.

Warm Fuzzies

Last Friday we borrowed an idea from the lovely Mrs Ye and Room 18 and wrote some warm fuzzies.  Each student was given an envelope with their name on which we set out on the floor.  They were then asked to write a sentence about each of the students in the class saying something positive about about them.  This comment could be something such as "you've got a lovely smile" to "I think you're really good at reading".  The students became really engaged with the task frantically writing away and then coming up to put their message into the appropriate envelope.  At the end of the day each student got to take their envelope home and read all the comments from their classmates.

 

Sports Stars

Over the last week the Room 19 students have been continuing the sporting theme with further tennis sessions and also the first of our athletics sessions.

For athletics the students from the whole of the Kawau team were split into groups and then they rotated around different stations.  The stations included hurdles, sprints and relays, sack races, high jump and different throwing activities.

Lots of fun was had and there was a little bit of competition too!

 

In our tennis lessons this week we have progressed to learning the correct techniques for hitting forehand shots to each other across a net.  The students are really enjoying these tennis sessions and it's great to see them developing their skills.

 

Home Learning Due in 29th October

This weeks Home Learning - sheets and books will be sent home on Tuesday, apologies for them not being sent home on Friday.  

Wimbledon here we come!

Today the students in Room 19 had their first of five tennis lessons provided by Brown's Bay tennis.  Several of the students have tennis lessons at Browns Bay so were familiar with coach Matt who is taking the sessions.

He started by getting the students bouncing and catching the tennis balls on the ground and on the racquets.  The students then paired up to complete a range of other activities.

We have 2 more lessons next week and another 2 lessons in week 4.  I'm pretty sure we'll have some students rivaling Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams by the time we've finished!

Design Challenge

Today I set the students a design and build challenge.  I told them that they had to work together in groups to design and build a boat that would float on water.  The students were enthusiastic about the task, and then I told them that the only thing they could use to make their boats was blue tack.  Amid cries of, "Blue tack doesn't float!" and "Blue tack is too heavy!" I explained that they had to try lots of different designs to see if they could find one that would work.  There was also a second part to the challenge.  Once they had been able to make a floating boat they then had to add paper clips one at a time to see how many their boats would hold before sinking.  To add some incentive the winning group would each get a prize.

First the students set about drawing designs they thought might work.  Then they started building their boats.  Some groups divided the blue tack and each made a design to see which would float before then putting all their blue tack together to be able to build a bigger version of the working design.  Other students made one design together.

After about 15 minutes and several failed attempts, the first cries went up of, "It's floating" and then, "It sank!".  A little bit of industrial espionage occurred with floating designs being spied on and copied by other groups (or maybe it was a good use of initiative!), and soon there were a few floating boats.

Next the "passengers" were added, at first the boats didn't hold many - 10 and 16 being the highest numbers, but at this stage the competition was fierce.  Boats were remodelled and students realised that making sure the paperclips were spaced out across the boats and not all on one side, that making ripples, and even how gently you placed the paperclips and the boats into the water all had an effect on how soon the boats sank.

It wasn't long before suddenly boats were holding 30, 40, 50 plus passengers before sinking.  Finally we all gathered around each group and watched one final attempt at beating their own best scores.  Tiara, Saria, Mackenzie and Ellie's group was the winner with their boat holding 72 paperclips before finally sinking.

Great job Room 19 - a fantastic effort.

National Shake Out

Yesterday Torbay School took part in the National Shake Out Earthquake practice.  The class were in the middle of our spelling activities when the call came over the speaker that the drill had started.

I was really impressed with how well the students from all the Year 3 classes did the correct actions to keep themselves safe.  We waited until the all clear was given and then carried on learning our spelling words - well done everyone!


As part of the Shake Out activities we also made a map of the classroom and shaded in areas of the classroom that are the safest places to be in an earthquake, and also the most dangerous places to be in an earthquake, e.g. by the windows or where something may fall on you from above.

We also thought about what might happen if we were at home when an earthquake struck, in particular what we would need to have in our emergency kits.  The students decided that water, canned food, torches, a radio, sleeping bags, a first aid kit and toilet paper were all necessary items.

Welcome Back to term 4

Welcome back to our last term as Year 3's!

We have an exciting term ahead of us with lots of fun learning to be done and some exciting events including a trip to MOTAT and the school gala.

A newletter has gone home today with information for Kawau Team students and parents, please also remember to have a look at our Home Learning sheets when they are given to students on Friday each week as this often contains news and helpful reminders about upcoming events.

For the next 3 days students will be taking in part in the "World Education Games" and all have been given usernames and passwords that they can use to take part in activities on the Mathletics, Spellodrome and Intoscience websites.  They get to build up points and can compete against classmates, other Torbay school students and students around the world.  We will be assigning some time in class to these activities this week and encouraging students to log on, if they can, whilst at home too.

Please remind students that Term 4 is "Hat Term", and they must wear a school hat when playing outside.  Students have a couple of days grace this week but from midweek onwards no hat = playing in the shaded / covered areas at break time.

To start off our week, here are this weeks spelling words, the test is on Friday as usual.

Regards
Mrs Kelly