Learning about the Computer and Ipad's

During Cybersmart this week, Frank didn't have his iPad. Instead he learnt about the binary code. Frank learnt to record his name using the symbols in binary code. Didn't he do well

Author's Visit

Today we were lucky enough to have a visit from an author (Karyn Wilson) and an illustrator (Jessica Waters). They read us their two books which were called Kereru's BBQ and Peka and Koro: Friends of the Forest. We learnt some things about the animals in the stories. We learned:

• There are two types of bats in New Zealand that are endangered. 
• They live in a roost and 1,000 bats can live in one tree.
• New Zealand has a giant snail that is carnivorous (it eats worms and other snails).

After they read us the books, they talked us through the writing and illustrating process, and told us that it took 9 months to write each book from first thought to publishing. 

Trip to Nga Hau e Wha September 2019

He Tangata

Today our school celebrated earning enough "Thank - you ticket" by going on a trip to He Tangata Marae.

We caught the bus early this morning and traveled over to Nga Hau E Wha. We were welcomed on to the Marae with a Powhiri and then watched some amazing stories of Maui.
We learnt about Poi, Haka and the History of the He Aoraki Whare.

While we enjoyed out morning tea, their Kapa Haka group performed for us. It was an amazing experience for us and we thoroughly enjoyed it.

Sell It

For writing for the last couple of weeks of term, Miss McLeod's and Miss Bannan's writing groups have been working on a 'Sell It'. Sell it, is where we had to choose an item that nobody would necessarily want to buy, and write a script to persuade viewers to buy the item then film an advertisement. When we were filming we learned that we had to keep persevering through this as it takes more than one filming session to get it right!

Here are some of the completed advertisements.

te reo Māori - Classroom Conversations

This term we have been learning about classroom objects in te reo Māori. After brainstorming some different classroom objects (e.g. clock, pencil, book), we learned the Māori names for these. Then we learned some phrases that we could use in the classroom (e.g. "Kei hea taku pene rākau?" = Where is my pencil?). To show what we have learned, we created slides showing people having classroom conversations in te reo Māori. Here are some of our slides:

Heroes of the Week

Well done to our Heroes of the Week! Last Friday Cody, Mia and Brooklyn were pulled out of our Hero nomination box. They were nominated by their classmates for showing the People Powers of Play and Make Their Day. Cody, Mia and Brooklyn got to get a prize and a treat from our reward boxes, and their photos will stay up on the wall until the end of this week.

South Hornby School Walk-a-thon

On Thursday afternoon, at South Hornby School, we had a walkathon to raise money for our PTA.

We were allowed to dress up in bright colours and after lunch we met together and begun the walkathon. We all walked for about 45 minutes and tried to do as many laps as we could. Our teachers walked with us and some of them had silly string which they sprayed on us- it was really funny.

Throughout the walkathon there were obstacles for us to go through as well like hoops to crawl through, hurdles, tyres, cones and a net to crawl under.

We all had lots of fun and were really lucky it was a nice and warm day. What do you do at your school to raise money for your PTA?

Science- Oobleck

This term for inquiry we have had a focus on science and have been doing rotations working through The Water Cycle, Chemical Reactions and an ART component.

This group today made oobleck. We found out that when water is mixed with cornflour it reacts and makes a change. It looked like a liquid...until we touched it and tried to pick it up or mix it- it went solid.

The Water Cycle

This term science has been our inquiry focus. As part of our inquiry, we have been learning about the water cycle. We have learned that the water on Earth is reused again and again. First, the sun heats up the water on Earth and it turns into water vapour and rises up into the sky (this is called evaporation). Next, the water vapour turns back into water drops when it is high in the sky, and mixes with gases and dust to make clouds (this is called condensation). Then, the clouds get too heavy and rain, snow or sleet falls down back to the ground (this is called precipitation).

We made water cycle bags to see the water cycle working close up. We drew pictures on a plastic bag, then we put some water in the bag (and added a bit of blue food colouring). We taped them to the window where they would get the heat of the sun. The water evaporated and created water droplets on the side of the bag, like clouds. Then the water at the top of the bag got too heavy and started sliding down the bag, like rain.

Our Favourite Time of Day

This week in writing we have been recounting our favourite time of day.
We could choose between the morning, the middle of the day, evening or night time. We were challenged to use describing words to create a picture in our readers head, and include senses like see, hear and smell.

Here are a few examples of our writing.

Whats you favourite time of the day?

Information Report Writing

This term, Miss McLeod's and Miss Bannan's literacy groups have been learning about animals, linking to our science.
In reading we have read about heaps of different animals and in writing we wrote information reports about a sea animal of our choice. We published in two different formats (the ones below or a brochure). The ones below all have the animal popping out in 3D.

Here are some of our finished information reports.

Sharks
By Ghetto

Sea Crabs
By Connor

Whales
By Patrik

Awesome Stingrays
By Tovie

Jolly Jellyfish
By Taylor

Talented Turtles
By Ella-Pearl

Animal Habitat Dioramas

Last week Miss Bannan and Miss McLeod's reading groups worked together to create animal habitat dioramas. We have been reading about lots of different animals, including sea animals, pond animals and endangered animals, and we wanted to make something to show what we have learned. They were heaps of fun to make! Here is a slideshow of our animal habitat dioramas.

                      

Hero Assembly

This morning Team Toi Toi hosted Hero Assembly. We had fun learning a new makaton song and sharing it with the school. 

Here is our song, we hope you enjoy.

What song do you think we should learn next?

Year 3 Cybersmart

On Monday the year 3 students had their session with Miss Morgan for Cyber-smart.
She tested our listening skills. We had to follow a set of instructions to create a picture. Then we wrote a small story about our picture. We used what we have been learning about explain Everything to create our pictures and stories.

Here are a couple of examples.
Do you think you can have an educated guess at what the instructions were to create the picture?

Heroes of the Week

Every Friday morning we draw our 'Heroes of the Week', who are nominated by their classmates for showing their South Hornby People Powers (Be There, Make Their Day, Choose Your Attitude and Play). Our Heroes for the Week are; Briana, Eliza and Kaisa. Well done!

A Visit from Gemma McCaw

Last week, the Year 4-6's were lucky enough to have a visit from Olympic Ambassador, Gemma McCaw.

Gemma McCaw has been to the Olympics for New Zealand, playing hockey.

She talked to us about respect, perseverance and friendship and how these are important values.

Gemma also talked to us about how success is never straight-forward or an easy road.

And how there are no shortcuts to any place worth going.

Here are 10 things that require no effort- we agree!

Hero of The Week

Every Friday we have Hero of the Week.

Throughout the week the children get to nominate someone that they have spotted showing their People Powers. We have to write on the nomination ticket which People Power they were showing to deserve the nomination. Our People Powers are: Be There, Play, Choose Your Attitude, and Make Their Day.
Once we've written on the nomination ticket we put it inside our Hero of the Week box and this gets drawn out on a Friday.
On a Friday we need to shake the box and then we draw out 3 lucky people to become our Heroes. These 3 people get their photos taken and we put the photos on the wall to celebrate for next week. They also get to choose something out of the prize box.

Here are some of the people who have been nominated so far.

                                        Raquel                        Mikayla .                 Kihi Boy

                                          Bailee                          Zara                      Tovie

What do you do to celebrate your heroes in your learning space?

Science- Colourful Rain

Hi everyone!

We have been continuing our scientific learning. Miss McLeod's class has been doing chemical reactions and this week we did an experiment called colourful rain.

To do this experiment you will need:
500ml of water
150ml vegetable oil
food colouring (we found blue, red and green work well)
wooden spoon
large glass jar
small glass jar

We doubled the water to make a bigger volume.

Here is the experiment-
1. pour the oil into your small glass jar.
2. add some drops of food colouring to the oil
3. stir the oil and food colouring vigorously
4. pour the oil mixture into the water
5. observe


Here is a video of what happened in our experiment once we had poured the oil into the water.

The oil sits on top of the water because their different properties prevent them from mixing together. The Food colouring only mixes with the water and when it falls through it looks like colourful rain.

Probability with M&Ms

Today we used M&Ms to help us learn about probability. We talked about what colours might be in the bag, then we answered some chance questions, such as "what is the chance that you will find a Kit Kat in your bag?". We had to use words such as; certain, impossible, likely and unlikely, to answer these questions. Lastly we tipped our bag of M&Ms out and counted the colours to see if our predictions were correct. Finally, we got to eat our M&Ms! It was a fun maths session. Here are some photos of Cadie, Frank and Cody doing their maths work.

Science- Chemical Reactions

Our focus for our inquiry this term is science and interactions. 

With Miss McLeod we have been learning about interactions through chemical reactions. 

Our first experiment that we did was called "Milk on the Move" although it is known by lots of different names. 

We followed the scientific method below so that we could think like scientists.

Here is Sophia's completed scientific method.

Here are some photos of what happened when we added dishwashing liquid to the milk and food colouring. When we added the dishwashing liquid the food colouring started moving all by itself and made really cool patterns. 

Have you done this experiment before? What happened when you did it?