Jane Buxton

Today, author Jane Buxton visited our school. She told us about her writing and read some of her own books to us. The first one she read was a great book called "Harry's Hair". There were lots of laughs as she read it. She also read a new book called "A Very Good Lunch" and one of her big books called "Stepping Stones". We asked her lots of questions about writing. She told us that she was about 6 or 7 years old when she knew that she wanted to be a writer! I think that we might have some budding young writers in our own class.

Solubility Stuff!

Last week we went home and asked what the word "solubility" meant. Lots of children did some research and some even did experiments at home. We found out that if something is "soluble" it means that it will dissolve in water.  Today we tested the solubility of six different subtances. We used our own experiences, and our knowledge of solids, liquids and gases to make predictions. Here is what we thought:
Sand - is not soluble
Salt - is soluble
Sugar - is soluble
Cornflour - is soluble
Honey - is not soluble
Lego - is not soluble.
Next we tested each substance in cold water, then hot water. Here were our results

All of our predictions were correct except for honey. Everyone was surprised when the honey dissolved so quickly in hot water. We decided that it worked better in hot water, because it made the honey soften so then the particles could dissolve easily.

Certificate Winners - Week 8

Room 16's super stars last week were:
Palm: Achievement in reading
Chloe: Values award
Well done to you both.

Super Writers

This week two fantastic members of our class went to writing extension with Mrs Howison. Their aim was to paint pictures using words. They have both chosen a colour and written wonderful poems about that colour in the world around them. Well done Jake and Oliver.

The sky is blue shining in the atmosphere
Water is blue bubbling in your mouth.
Windows are blue shivering in the sun.
A screen is blue,
Waiting, excited to be used.
The ocean is blue with the fish
Leaping in the sea.
The smurfs trotting around their village.
Aqua, navy, turquoise.
By Oliver



Blue
Blue pens writing
Planets floating around in the atmosphere
Night skies with dazzling stars.
Blue slides coming from steep places.
Blue buildings almost touching the sky.
Blue birds fluttering.
Tears pouring from blue eyes.
Shimmering oceans filled with water life creatures.  
By Jake

Post Earthquake Creativity

Here is a clip to lighten the mood a little bit. You have to love how times like these bring out the creativity in so many people!

St John Safe Kids

When St Johns visited our school we learned that we need to know our full address and phone number in case of an emergency. Here are the fantastic people in Room 16 who already know this information. They all recieved a St John Safe Kids certificate. A few people were away today, and some people are going to learn their information over the weekend. I will post a photo of those children once they get their certificate.

Certificate Celebrations

Last week our Room 16 superstars were:
Caitlin - Achievement in handwriting.
Te -Achievement in PE.
Niamh B - Values award.
Congratulations, you have made us proud.
There will be no Week 7 certificates due to the short week.

And we hit 2000!!!!

Well done everyone. 2000 page views. We went from 1000 to 2000 in just 6 weeks. Let's see how soon we can hit 3000.

An Unfortunate Event

 

 There has been some bad news following yesterday's quake. Gizmo the frog (who was Room 2's frog last year and has been living at my house this year) got squashed by his wee house. He is now buried in my back yard. He was a frog just like Sophie (Room 15's frog). We think he was a Southern Bell Frog. Now I have a container with no pet in it. We could use it for a class pet. If you have an idea for a good class pet that could go in a frog tank then leave a comment, or let me know when we get back to school. Hopefully we will be back on Thursday.

Well Done Everyone

Once again you all did the right thing in today's aftershocks. You stayed calm and  helped eachother out while you waited to be picked up. Thanks to the parents and caregivers for arriving so quickly and helping out with other children as well as your own. School will be closed tomorrow. Keep an eye on the school website for updates. Stay safe. Love Miss A.

Certificate Celebration

From now on the winners of class certificates will be celebrated on the blog instead of the school newsletter.
Our Week 5 winners are:
Values: Max Ansell
Heart of Achievement:Oliver Smith
Congratulations on your efforts boys.
The person who was recieving the achievement certificate this week was away. It will be handed out next week instead.

Balloon Blow-Up

Last week we mixed baking soda and vinegar in a bottle with a balloon on the top and watched the balloon blow up from the carbon dioxide that's produced. Some of the class wanted to know what would happen if we added more vinegar, so we tested this the next day. We put 1 cup of vinegar in a bottle, 2 cups in the next bottle and 3 cups in the last bottle. We added the same amount of baking soda to each one. The balloon on top of the 3-cup bottle popped off and the mixture flowed out of the top of the bottle. The other 2 balloons stayed on, with the 2-cup balloon getting the biggest. This told us that more vinegar = more carbon dioxide. This is another experiement that is easy and fun to try at home.

The Oobleck Trail!!

We had a visit from our buddy class (Room 27) this afternoon. We had re-generated our oobleck from yesterday so we took turns playing with it outside. Oobleck is a crazy mixture that looks and behaves like a liquid, but when you pick it up it feels like a solid. This is the oobleck trail that was left when the bell rang!!

This is the kind of mess that good fun makes. If you want to make some oobleck at home, here are some instructions that we wrote for writing this week:

How to Make Oobleck

You will need:

• Cornflour
• Water
• Food Colouring
• A large container

What to do:

1. First, put 6 cups of cornflour into the container.
2. Next, add 2 cups of water.
3. After that add 1 capful of food colouring.
4. Then stir it all up.
5. Finally, enjoy playing with it.

This recipe makes plenty of oobleck so you may want to halve it for use at home. Try adding more cornflour or more water and see what happens. Have fun!

Year 2 Sing-A-Long

Today the year 2 team had our sing-a-long to farewell the old hall. We invited our buddy classes and lots of family and friends came as well. All the children welcomed our guests with one of our school waiata - Anei Ra te Kura. After that each class had a turn on the stage singing 2 songs on their own. To finish the concert we all sang some of our favourite songs together. It was fantastic to see so many people in the audience. Thank you for coming. Here is a video of our two songs. The children can be proud of themselves for doing such a great job on stage.