ANZAC Day. Lest we Forget

Next week we are going to learn about ANZAC day and why we shouldn't forget after nearly 100 years.
There were a lot of heroes during the war and this is one of them.

Improving our Reading Comprehension

We have been working hard in reading this week. Some groups have been working independently with their NIE newspaper about Weird and Wonderful Plants and 2 groups have been reading with me.
The groups have been practicing skills that will improve their understanding of what they have been reading. Using the 5 w cards they have been thinking of questions to ask their group about the story and taking turns. Generating questions helps students to clarify the ideas they have read in the text. Students have been using the mini whiteboards to record their ideas and share. This also helps with their spelling fluency.
Students are also asked to make a connection with the ideas in the text . What do they know ? Have they ever.... ? Has that ever happened to them? This helps students to relate to the ideas they are going to read about .

Students are active and visual in their learning .

Swatting

Room 8 has been playing boggle this week and Mrs Chao found a website that had great games to practice our spelling. A really interesting one involved matching little squares on a grid to make a photo. Bennett thinks the photo is Zealandia. Parents have a go as its really challenging .

Check it out under the swatting links to the right of the blog.

Another pupa

On Friday we got a caterpillar from Room 15. He ate and ate and we are sure that it doubled in size in a day. On Monday it had made a pupa and was hanging off a branch of the plant. It looks healthy and strong.

Sad News

Our crazy caterpillar that made a chrysalis that fell off the plant hatched on Monday. We thought it was infected by a wasp and it was dead. What a surprise to see it hatch.

Sadly it's wings were crumpled and didn't inflate. The poor wee thing has struggled for a few days to survive. Nature will take its course and the butterfly will survive if it is meant to.

Our butterfly reminded us of the wonky butterfly movie we saw. He is beautiful inside and we love him although he isn't the most beautiful butterfly in the world. We are sad that he won't fly away and have a good life.

Another Miracle in Room 8

On Friday our butterfly hatched out of the chrysalis. It was a female and she stretched and flapped her wings all day but didn't fly away.
We put the plant in Mrs Ryan's class over the weekend so Mrs Ryan could let her free if she was flying around. On Saturday she went outside and we hope she is going to lay eggs soon.

Spider Facts

Our spider facts have been published and are attached to our spiders. The spiders were fun to make .
What did we learn?

• to listen and take notes of important facts using key words
  
• to turn these key words into our own sentences
• to publish neatly
• to display our work in a creative way

Come and see them in our class.

Information Detectives

We are nearly at the end of our butterfly study and have learned a lot about butterflies and caterpillars. Now it is time to be an information detective and find the answers to our last questions.
Students have used class and library books as well as information from the internet. They have worked together in groups helping each other and sharing information.
We wrote 3 questions and used key words, the table of contents and the index to help find our information and record our answers in sentences.

A Snake Enclosure

On Monday Laura shared her snake enclosure with the class. She carefully explained how she had made it. It was great to see that Laura had reused something that someone else might have thrown away.
Laura had a realistic toy snake called Fire Streak which lives in the enclosure. We all thought Laura was very clever to think of the idea. It shows that Laura has a wonderful and creative imagination.

Butterfly Kites

On Friday, on one of the few Wellington days without wind, we made our butterfly kites. Everyone worked hard making them colourful and bright and added backgrounds.
First we had a little lesson on the construction and we helped our buddies in Room 1 make theirs. After morning tea Room 8 got to make their own.
Mrs Chao was impressed with the independence and support students gave each other. Everyone shared and helped other people. Then a line at the door started to form and Mrs Chao got a big message that it was time to try them out. Time to go!

It was great fun but a shame it was not a windy day.

Mathletics is Exciting!

We are loving using Mathletics to improve our maths skills. A favourite activity is to go live and play other kids from around the world. Sometimes we win and sometimes we lose. Never mind as its fun. Students can build up credits to spend on upgrading their avatar. Gold bars and certificates make it really fun. Working together as a team is great too.

Keep it up Room 8!

Our Term Goals

Well done Room 8. This morning they drafted and published their goals for the rest of the term. They are now on display so we can look at them if we forget.

We have 4 weeks to work very hard towards making them happen!

Good News Bad News

Our first pupa.

The pupa that fell off the branch.

Our new little caterpillar ready to change.

The good news is that our new caterpillar has decided to make a j and turn into a pupa. Very exciting!
The bad news is that one of our pupa has fallen off the branch. We have left it on a leaf in the pot and will ask Mrs Ryan if we can save it. Will it still hatch? We are all very worried about the pupa.

Writing Buddies

Students in Room 8 are learning to support each other's writing by listening, sharing ideas and their writing. The buddies can offer suggestions to improve the writing and check if the writer has remembered all the things needed in the text. This is called a learning conversation. It is also a lot of fun to share and have an audience.

A Sock Dude Party

Yasmin, Noah, Evie and Amy bought their sock dudes to school and they all had a great time with Room 8's Nate. He loved meeting all his new friends.

A Pupa at Last!

Well it happened on Monday night, our caterpillar turned into a pupa overnight. We waited all day after it turned into a j shape but it didn't happen while we were at school.
We saw the skin split a little on it's body giving us a peep at the green pupa shell underneath during the day.
This morning there is a light green pupa hanging in on the branch and our other caterpillar has made a j as well.
We gave our runt away to Room 15 as they didn't have a caterpillar. They will take good care of it.

Meet Ratalie Portman!

Ratalie Portman popped in this morning to visit our class. Auriel has had her cute rat for 2 weeks. She was in a rat ball that she can move around the room in. She was very inquisitive and wasn't out of the ball for long as she can jump and run off. Ratalie's favourite food is peanut butter in a walnut shell.

Something Amazing in Lower Hutt

Thousands of Monarch butterflies arrived in this cedar tree in late April 2011. They were still there three weeks later so it appears they might be staying for the winter. On sunny days they spend some time feeding on the many nearby flowers, but on rainy days they tend to huddle together in large clusters high up in the tree.

Caterpillar Friday

How big are the caterpillars getting? Really big and they are stripping the leaves off part of the plant.They eat a lot of food before they turn into a pupa. They are getting ready to change.
Maybe on Monday we will see a pupa.

Buddy Sharing

We shared our caterpillars with our buddies in Room 1. They thought they were wonderful. Then we shared a little movie you might like to see as well.

Caterpillar Model Homework

This week in Room 8 students were asked to make a model of a caterpillar. They could make it from anything they liked and it could be as imaginative as they liked. We had edible caterpillars made from marshmallows , a balloon caterpillar and everything in the middle.
Well done Room 8. You made great models.