Collaborative problem solving

Today we were put into random groups and given the task to build the tallest free standing structure using only newspaper and 1m of tape. Parinaz, Emily and Jade were the most successful! They spent a lot of time working on the base before building up which proved to be a perfect strategy!

End of term

Out of this world, our new unit. We researched what the planets looked like and sketched and coloured our own solar systems. 

Reading our PPP letters. Thank you for the lovely letters you wrote to your children about their recent PPPs. The children thoroughly enjoyed reading them. 

End of term boys' picnic. Today the boys had their classroom picnic complete with animated videos and computer games. 

Happy birthday to Tobey!!

Extra reason for Tobey to celebrate today. He was awarded the CBS celebration award for our class for consistently demonstrating the CBS core values. Well done Tobey!

Maths - position

We designed houses by drawing and writing a description of the plan. We then traded books with a friend and built a house using their plan. We are master builders and designers!

#Gallipoli

This week we compared forms of communication between 1915 and 2015. We discussed how difficult it would have been to keep in touch with our loved ones if we were in Gallipoli in 1915. We talked about all the many ways we can communicate now, most of which are instant communication, no matter where in the world we are. We imagined what it would have been like if the soldiers could have communicated like we can now.  We wrote Tweets from the Trenches and created Instagram pictures from Gallipoli as if we were there in 1915.

Anzac Day

This week we are learning a lot about Anzac Day as we look ahead to celebrating the 100th anniversary on Saturday. Everyone is bringing something to share that they have seen or heard about Anzac Day.

Jordan brought in a huge book full of photos and facts. He also brought some Anzac biscuits for us to share. Parinaz found some interesting information in the newspaper. James shared some fascinating facts that he discovered. Josh brought in some photos of his dad's trip to Gallipoli.

Easter Eggs

We had a lot of fun dyeing Easter eggs with our buddies today. We used wax crayons to draw designs on our eggs and then we dipped them in dye to create colourful Easter eggs. 

 

Science Experiments

Ben brought a great experiment into class to share with us today. It was called a lava lamp. He used water, oil, glitter and salt in a jar. When the salt was added to the oil and water mixture the 'lava' sank and then rose again. It was a great experiment about the density of liquids. Thanks for sharing Ben!

We also did an experiment to test our reflexes. We had to see how fast or slow we could catch a meter stick as gravity pulled it down through our opening and closing hands. 

Our Art This Term

In Term One we have completed two pieces of artwork. The first one was to sketch our team bird, the kakapo. We also had to sketch a background of New Zealand native plants and then colour it with pastels. Once we were finished, and had cut and mounted it for presentation, we had to self assess it against our success criteria. We are very proud of our finished work. 

Our second piece of art was a tiki or marae for our new theme, Mana Te Ao. First we had to find a picture on the internet that we wanted to draw. Next we saved the image to a Google doc so that we would be able to find the same image again. We then sketched our image making sure to add detail. We coloured using pastels, colouring pencils or jovies, depending on which would work best for our drawing. We printed off our original image to mount alongside our finished artwork. Our next step will be to self assess our work against the success criteria that we came up with for our project. 

James, MacKenzie and Andy are very proud to have their work on display in the school entrance. 

Congratulations!

In our team assembly this week Tony, Parinaz and Liam received certificates for their excellent attitude towards learning. Keep up the great work!!

Happy birthday Parinaz

Today is Parinaz's 9th birthday!!! Happy birthday!!!

Our Fabulous First Week!

What a super week we have had starting our learning journey together in this, our penultimate year at Cockle Bay School!  One of the first things we've done this week is learn what 'penultimate' means.  Ask us to see if we can remember and use it in a sentence.

We spent time this week talking about what is important to take along with us on our learning journey this year.  We talked about how everywhere we go on our journey we leave footprints.  We are making our own learning journey pathway display in our classroom.

Here we are working together brainstorming what we know about the Cockle Bay 4Cs


Our Ready Steady Go learning wall is off to a great start filled with our shared ideas.

One of the definite highlights of our week was the welcoming of our class pets - 17 tadpoles!  One has already turned into a frog and we are having fun feeding him with a record of 9 flies given to him in one day!  This is a picture of our first frog and his first fly.  They sat like this for about an hour before the frog zipped out his tongue and ate the fly!  Juliet was the lucky one who saw it happen.

Our class writing wall has our first quick write activity on display.  Make sure to stop by often to read what we've been working on.