Splash Planet

On Wednesday the 12th of December, Team 1 were lucky enough to go to Splash Planet in Hastings.  This was made possible by donations from Scanpower, MCI and Lloyd, Dodsonand Pringle.  Thank you to Mrs. Heald for organising this.  We were also lucky that  Miss Hutchings's  brother is the manager.
We left school at 9.00 a.m.  When we got to Splash Planet a man came and talked to us about the rules.  Then we had some morning tea.  We got changed into our togs and were allowed to swim in  two of the pools - the mushroom pool and the pirate pool.  It was a cloudy day and some people got quite cold.  We got changed to have lunch and then we were lucky enough to have a ride on the train.  Everyone enjoyed their day.

Growing and Gardening

For our unit for this term we are studying gardening and growing which will then lead into a study on 5+ a day and fruit and vegetables.

In the first week of term we read the big book called, "The Sunflower Tree," and did paintings of sunflowers and wrote stories about these.  Feel free to come in and look at the children's great work.  We also planted some giant sunflower seeds.










We read the book, "The Great Bean Race," and are trying different ways of looking after them to find out what grows best. Some of the seeds are in normal soil and some in seed-raising mix, some are getting watered and some aren't, some are in the daylight and some in the dark.
We have  also planted some rocket, cucumber, lettuce and tomato seeds.

Clay

For the first part of the term our art topic is modelling. We used clay to make some little pinch pots. Here are our attempts:

Cricket

On Wednesday the 17th of October, South School had some visitors from Manawatu Cricket. They came to teach us some ball skills and to encourage us to play Have-A-Go Cricket. Cricket starts on Thursday the 25th of October at the Upper Domain.

Tararua Library Visit

As we are not able to visit our school library, on Friday Room 2 walked down to the Tararua Library. Nikki Price, the childrens librarian, read us two stories and then we had a look at some books. The children who already belong to the library were allowed to bring their library card to school so they could issue a book. All other children, were given an enrolement form and some brochures about the library. It would be great if parents could complete these forms and return them to the Taraua Library before our visit in two weeks time.

Fractions

For the first two weeks of Term 4 we are learning about fractions.  We are learning to cut shapes in half and a quarter, colour a half and a quarter of a shape, draw the other half of a shape and read and write 1/2 and a 1/4. We are also learning how to find half of the objects in a set.
One of the activities we did to find half of a number was to use pegboards and pegs with a rubber band.

Car Safety With Constable Kendrick

On Wednesday the 29th of September Constable Kendrick came back to talk to us about Car Safety.



Here is Grace's Story:
I went in the front of the car.  It was Constable Kendrick's car.  It was fun because you wouldn't usually go in the car when you were not naughty.

New Zealand ShakeOut

On Wednesday the 26th of September at 9.26 a.m. Dannevirke South School took part in the New Zealand Wide Earthquake Drill.  We had to remember to

DROP, COVER and  HOLD.

 

 

These are some of our stories:

 

Today we did Earthquake Safety.  We drop, cover and hold.  We took the chairs out.  We didn't throw them out.  I went under the yellow table. by Luca

 

 

I did the ShakeUp with Mrs. McNair when Mrs. Bone was away.  I had to go under the tables.  We went outside.   by Bradley

 

 

 

 

 

Our S.P.C.A. Inquiry Unit Concludes With Gifts For The S.P.C.A.

In class we made some toys for the dogs and cats.  We used the internet to research what we could make and what we needed.  We used socks, string, plastic bags, tinfoil and bells to make our toys. We got into groups to decide what we wanted to make. 

 

 

 

We put our toys into the box with our other donations that we gave Jo.

 

Jo was really impressed with all the things we had gathered for the S.P.C.A.  We even got our photo in the paper!

Bus Safety with Constable Kendrick

On Monday the 24th of September we went for a bus ride with Constable Kendrick.  We went up to the High School and got off the bus, crossed the road and got on the bus again. We learnt how to get on and off a bus safely and when we are on the bus to either put our bags on our laps or under the seats.  Now we know what to do when we are going on a bus.

"Stepping Out" with Constable Kendrick.

For the last two weeks of term we are learning about Road Safety through the Stepping Out programme.  The aim of the programme is to encourage and assist children to behave in a safe way as pedestrians or passengers in a traffic environment.  Constable Kendrick has come to help us with the kerb drill and is coming back to help us with patrols and wardens and bus safety.

Room 2's New Classroom

Due to our classroom being deemed as unsafe, we have moved into the hall. Room 14 and Room 3 are also in the hall. We have some dividers now and are still hopeful of some carpet. The children have all adapted very well to the changes and look on it as a bit of an adventure!

                     

Team One's Discovery Day on the 31st of August 2012

Last Friday Team One had another Discovery Day. Room 1 had been studying the letter "i" so the activities were dress-ups and musical instruments, yoghurt ice-cream, insects and igloos. Room 14 had been studying the letter "v" so the activities were making a volcano, painting violets, making vultures and playing with vehicles. In Room 2 we had been studying the "gr" blend. The activities were planting seeds to grow, making origami and clothes peg grasshoppers, putting grated cheese on grainy bread and grilling it and playing "Grab the Bean Bag." Room 3 had a pet theme and you could make pet poppoids, pet puppets, dog biscuits, a fish and a kennel for a dog. We all had to try and do two manipulative activities to show at the end.

Our Trip to the S.P.C.A.

On Wednesday the 29th of September Room 2 walked to the S.P.C.A. We went as part of our Inquiry Unit. Jo talked to us about what they do at the S.P.C.A. and then showed us around. They are expecting to get a lot of cats soon but only have two there at the moment plus her cat Fleur who was visiting.
Here are some of the stories we wrote.
"I patted the cat. She is soft. My Mum came there too. We walked there because it was a sunny day. I felt happy because I liked the animals." by Grace
"I went to the S.P.C.A. I liked the S.P.C.a. because they had so many puppies. I like the puppies." by Dion
"We went to the S.P.C.A. We walked all the way there. When we got there it was noisy. There was a cat caled Fleur. Jo said she was just having a visit. She doesn't have a bed. I really enjoyed the dog." by Kayan

Team 1's Cupcake Day for the S.P.C.A.

As part of our Inquiry Unit on Pets and the S.P.C.A. Team 1 had a Cupcake Day for the S.P.C.A. The teachers in Team 1 made cupcakes and the children paid $1 to buy a cupcake. The teachers also made cupcakes for the staff to buy. We will take the money to the S.P.C.A. when we go later in the week.

Joy Watson - Visiting Author.

Last term we did an author study on three authors. One of these authors was Joy Watson. She lives in Havelock North. When we were doing our author study we talked to Joy Watson using a polycom conference. On August the 27th Joy Watson came to visit our school.

She told us about her family. She has nine children altogether - seven daughters, two sons and twenty eight grandchildren.

Joy Watson has had fifteen books published - five of these are about Grandpa. All of these books are still available to buy. Some of her other books that she had with her were,"Just in Case," "Zita the Zebra'" and "Pets." She told us that she writes stories because she likes reading stories. She also talked about having an idea and how it can be true or made up. She read us a Camel story. Matua gave her some flowers and Joshua said thank you and gave her one of Mrs. E's famous cakes. We really enjoyed her visit and wish she could have read a whole story but she had to go onto Team 2.

Our Maths Discovery Day

On Friday the 17th of August Team 1 had a Maths Discovery Day to coincide with New Zealand Maths Week. All of the activities involved Maths in some way. In Room 2 the activities were Guess the number of Beans (the answer was 112 so well done Matua!), triangular puzzles, time activities, tangrams, calculators, cooking, dominoes and maths games. Some of the activities the other three classes had were weighing, estimating, target throwing, Interactive Whiteboard activities, geometrical patterns and symmetry activities. We had to complete an activity in three different classrooms. A big thank you has to go to Mr. Dunn and the Room 15 students who helped us with the activities. It was great to see the big children helping the little children.

Each day of the week we did the daily challenges off the website and on Friday afternoon we went to the Computer Suite to play some of the maths games.

Everyone enjoyed Maths Week and had lots of fun.