Room Five's 2007 Blog

Nelson Arts Festival

2007-11-02T08:58:00.000+13:00

A couple of weeks age there was the Nelson Arts Festival. The mask parade was the opening event. Our class went down to Square to see the sculptures in the park. There were lots of beautiful sculptures but one of them was one you could add new parts to. It was an exhibiton of little houses made by Josie Cachemaille. She invited people to make more houses so it would look like a model of Nelson. Patric decided to make a house at home and put it in the exhibition.
Click here to read Patric's writing about it.

Chrissie Ward Visits Room 5

2007-10-24T19:15:00.000+13:00

Chrissie Ward came to visit us today. She knows lots about New Zealand animals and has written a book called "Curious Kiwi Creatures." Somehow Chrissie heard that we are growing swan plants to help provide food for monarch caterpillars. She told us lots of interesting facts about monarch butterflies but there were some questions that even Chrissie couldn't answer. She told us about the
Monarch Butterfly NZ Trust. Click to find out more

The Trust organises research groups to find out the answers to some of the questions we asked. It started up in a place called Butterfly Bay in 2002. There had aways been lots of butterflies there because it was a wintering over place for them but one day the people there noticed that there were only about 20 monarchs left so they decided to start a group to help them survive. Chrissie also gave us some pamphlets to put with our swan plants when we sell them at our school Gala on November 11. She asked how many plants we have grown and we haven't even counted them. I'll bet there are more than 100 though!

Music with Brigitte

2007-10-18T14:55:00.001+13:00

Music with Brigitte

2007-10-18T11:44:00.000+13:00

Today room 5 had a music session in the art hall. We were put into groups of four and given hand-made instruments. They were all different instruments. There was newspaper with a plastic-bag, straws with containers full of water, house tools, beer bottles full of different amounts of water with metal dingers, butter pots full of pasta with rubber bands over the top, and the last instruments were paper plates cellotaped together full of rice. We had to make as many different sounds as we could by using them in different ways. We worked out what those sounds were like in real life. For example my group made a cricket sound with the straws.
Next we read a poem and played our sounds at the right place. I think music is fun.

The Mask Parade

2007-10-15T17:50:00.001+13:00

The opening event of the Nelson Arts Festival is always the Mask Parade. This year our school entered. The theme was a "Sparkling, Sustainable Future." We decided to have a clean river down the centre. The Totara Syndicate, (year 5 and 6) made masks of river creatures and were threaded through the river. Along the edges and behind the river there was a native forest of pohutakawa and kowhai trees made by the Kahikatea syndicate, (year 3 and 4). The Year 0 and 1 children were tuis flying around in the forest. At the front of the parade there were the recyclers who also played the chime bars for our music. Along the outside Room 7 people were wearing box masks and sandwich boards. They gave out flyers about the three Rs, Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. We had our first parade at school to practice. We were so good in the big parade and we sang all the way. We won the Best School and the Supreme Awards. It was a once in a lifetime experience.

Bedazzled

2007-10-09T17:45:00.000+13:00

Bedazzled

2007-10-09T12:21:00.000+13:00

There's an exhibition called Bedazzled at the Nelson Provincial Museum. It's all about mirrors and how they work. We went there today to see it. There were concave, convex and plane mirrors.
We used the Alphabet Thinkers' Key to help us remember some of the things we saw there.

First Day Back

2007-10-08T16:22:00.000+13:00

What a great Good News Assembly it was for us today! Sean was awarded the achievers' cup for being the person who was the best learner in our syndicate last term. Dr Potaka presented Tom with an achiever's cerificate for his wonderful homework writing. Julia,Brittany and Evie were presented with certificates for their excellent explanations telling about cleaning teeth.
Click here to read Julia's writing.
Click here to read Brittany's writing.
Click here to read Evie's writing.
Last of all our whole class was given a certificate for honesty. What a wonderful start to a new term.

Jump Jam

2007-09-21T14:40:00.000+12:00

Our whole schoool is getting fit by doing some Jump Jam exercises. So far we know four different songs and we will be learning more next term. If you would like to join in with us , we will be Jumping and Jamming at 9 o'clock each morning. It's fun!

Our writing

2007-09-21T14:34:00.000+12:00

We have started a new blog site where we are publishing our writing. Nearly everyone has published a personal recount about our last term holidays. Viv did that for us to start us off. Now we are learning to post our own writing with photos of our art work. If you would like to read our writing, click on the link to our writing blog. Some eople have already put their poems on and the rest will do theirs next term.

Our Science Fair

2007-09-04T12:30:00.000+12:00

It was our science fair today and we learnt lots of interesting things from the investigations.
I liked the Silverade v Coke one because it was interesting.
Thomas and Tom.
I liked the energy one because I didn't know that Powerade would be the best.
Felix.
I liked Bria's Bubblegum one because it was unusual.
Rosa.
I liked the mouldy bread onesbecause I didn't know that white bread went mouldy first.
Flynn.
I liked the paper dart one because I thought the smaller one would go farthest and it did.
alex, Max and Patric.
I liked the one about which sugar makes the best biscuits because I like sugar.
phereyn

Camp Week

2007-08-27T16:56:00.000+12:00

We are getting ready to go on camp this week. Our class is going to Teapot Valley with Room 3 and Rooom 9. We go on Thursday and come home on Friday. There's a concert on Thursday night and groups have been practising their acts.

Today we did some team building activities so we could:
Get to know each other,
Practise co-operating so we can do that at camp,
Get along with each other,
Get confident with each other.

We played a game on the adventure playground. The stones were pirahanas and we had to use magic carpets to get our group across the "dangerous lake." We had 3 carpets to each group and four people in each group so we had to help each other across. We could choose any path we wanted to. All groups succeeded in getting across more than three different ways. It was great fun!

It Makes Me Want to Jump, Dance & Move About

2007-08-22T16:35:00.000+12:00

We had a trip to the suter Gallery today to see an exhibition of paintings by Kate Walker. Esther, the teacher at the gallery explained that the artist had returned from USA to Nelson and her paintings showed the contrast of life in Nelson to life in USA. Esther had organised a dance and movement area for us to use so we could respond to the paintings. She taught us about cannoning in dance which is when one person copies the person next to them and each person keps the pattern going. A mexican wave is an example of cannoning. Each group chose a painting and created a dance using ideas in their painting. The dances had body sculptures and cannons. It was great fun.

Keeping Ourselves Safe

2007-08-17T16:21:00.000+12:00

We have been learning about keeping safe. Constable John taught us some of the things we need to do. At the end of the topic we made posters to remind us about the things we can do to keep safe.

Nelson Central Cross Country

2007-08-16T10:19:00.000+12:00

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Yesterday we had our cross country run event. We had an early lunch before walked up to the Botanics in our class groups. The first thing we did was walk the track so that we knew where to run. Next we lined up in our age groups and waited for our turn to run. In our class we had 7 year old girls and boys, 8 year old girls and boys, 9 year old girls and boys and people who entered the open 2 lap race. No-one from our Syndicate is old enough to enter the Interschool Cross Country. We will have to wait until next year for that. It was a fun day for everyone.

Sad News for Room 5

2007-07-20T15:09:00.000+12:00

Our classmate Laegh is leaving us today. He will be going to Richmond school because he is moving to a new house. He has been a good friend to Chris and was in the same soccer team as Thomas. Those boys will miss him! We had our first shared lunch for the year to farewell Laegh. We ate lots of delicious food. All the best at your new school Laegh!

Why don't You Go and Plant a Native Plant Now!

2007-06-29T15:13:00.000+12:00

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We have had a very busy last week of the term. We have been presenting our plant research in short movies and at last they are all finished. We had a wonderful morning yesterday where we pretended to be working models in a plant museum. Parents and classes came to be our audience. We each wore a sticker on our knees and sat just like a statue on our chairs. Whenever anyone pressed the sticker, we came to life, climbed up and gave our speech. The speeches were made from our research and an argument we had each written to persuade others to plant native trees. We convinced lots of people to take a native plant away and plant it. Some people said their speeches more than forty times. Viv gave us an iceblock when the plant Museum closed because our throats were very tired.

The Shortest Day

2007-06-21T18:12:00.000+12:00

Lots of people in our class have been sick this week and we think it might be because it is Winter. It is the shortest day of the year today.
Every day when we mark our register we think about Patric who is in Italy. We think he is probably asleep at that time but we know when he wakes up it will be lovely and hot. We love hearing from him when he sends comments to our blog!
We started our series of music sessions today and we were remembering about the elements of music. We concentrated on beat and pitch today. It was fun!

The First Video

2007-06-14T15:57:00.000+12:00

We are learning to use our new voice recorder to record our research on native plants.

Click on play below to view the first video that Thomas made using his recorded speech.

Our hebe plants have grown!

2007-06-11T16:27:00.000+12:00

Quite a few weeks ago we took cuttings of hebe plants from plants growing around our school and planted them in river sand. We decided to check if they had grown roots and some of them have. It was time to plant them in potting mix because they probably need some nutrients now to help them grow. We used masks when we opened the pottin g mix because the spores are dangerous. Now we have twenty-five little hebe plants and a few cuttings that are still growing roots.
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Thinkers' Keys

2007-05-31T09:22:00.000+12:00

We have been thinking about how we would like our world to be in the future and we used The Alphabet Key to help us.
These are the best of our ideas.
A Active children,
B Biodiversity and beautiful blue whales,
C Colonies of seals and clean cities,
D Droughtless for different animals,
E Exciting animals,
F Forests of native plants,
G Giant Pandas for ever,
H Healthy, happy people,
I Interesting inventions,
J Just great in wildlife,
K Keeping chemicals in control,
L Litter free,
M Many magnificent monarch butterflies,
N Native plants,
O Old and in balance like the olden days, organised people,
P People taking care of old people, Peaceful people,
Q Quiet, no noisy cars,
R Reusable things being used again,
S Sustainable,
T Teaching people to keep our world tidy,
U Undoing the damage of the past,
V Vegies growing in the garden,
W Wacking free! No hitting,
X eXciting places for children to enjoy,
Y Young fruit trees growing,
Z Zebras not endangered.

Reusing Paper

2007-05-31T09:00:00.000+12:00

Last night I was doing origami and I did the wrong fold. I was about to put it in the rubbish but I remembered what Sarah said and I remembered that big pile of rubbish. Then I decided that I could reuse the paper another time so I pressed the paper flat and put a pile of books on top of it. In the morning when I took the books off, I discovered that the paper was flat. I used it again for the same origami thing but I didn't make a mistake again. Now I have made a beautiful crane from a reused piece of paper

WHAT A LOAD OF RUBBISH

2007-05-30T13:53:00.000+12:00

Today we had a rubbish audit. Our caretaker Doug saved ALL of our school rubbish from yesterday. Sarah from the Nelson City Council laid it out in the hall. People from Room 6 helped her to sort it into piles; food scraps, paper, cardboard, plastic and other things. We were surprised at some of the things that were there. Someone had even thrown out two books and some scissors. We had quite a lot of paper so we decided to start reusing what is good paper and recycle any paper that is used on both sides.

Misty Monarch

2007-05-24T14:29:00.000+12:00

A few weeks ago Hannah gave us a monarch caterpillar.We didn't know whether it was a boy or a girl so we called it Misty which could be a long name for Miss or a short name for Mister. Once Misty got fat he or she spun a silken strand and hung upside down. It hung like a hook for a long time then eventually the skin hardened and it became a shiny, greeen chrysalis with golden dots on it. Three days ago, on Tuesday, we noticed that the chryslis was a very dark black and we could start to see the wing pattern. We hoped that it would hatch out that day but it didn't. On Wednesday morning when we came to school, Misty was hanging from the swan plant, drying her wings. We knew she was a girl because the big white spots at the bottom of the wings, near the body are only on boys and Misty didn't have them. At the end of the day we put her onto a hebe flower to have a drink of nectar before we let her go free. Just before she left us, she flew around and landed on Phereyn and Elliot because Elliot's shirt had lots of bright flowers. We are all glad we let her go free.

Tom Saves a Life

2007-05-18T17:44:00.000+12:00

This story tells how Tom saved a kitten's life.
We found Billie in a stoat trap. She was very skinny. We put her in a high box outside at night, hoping her mother would come back to get her. In the morning we found her back in the trap. After feeding her we put her in the box again. When we came home after school she was back in the trap.
We all begged to keep her so we did. We think it's a feral cat because we live in the Maitai Valley. The vet thinks she was dumped in the valley because she is quite friendly. She looks like a five week old kitten but she is probably eight weeks old.
Well done Tom for saving Billy's life. She's lucky to have you.

Nikau Gardens

2007-05-08T16:56:00.000+12:00

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NIKAU GARDENS PLANT NURSERY

2007-05-08T09:32:00.000+12:00

We went to Nikau gardens to learn about native plants and how to grow them. The nursery owner, Mike Crawford told us how to grow plants from seed but that if you want and exact copy of the plant you need to take a cutting.The most interesting thing we found out was about the trees that look dead when they are young and change when they grow tall. Trees like the kahikatea and the lancewood do this.people
think they grew like this to trick moa. Moa didn't like eating dead plants so they could survive until they were taller than the moa. Then they could change and look alive.

Keeping monarchs sustainable

2007-05-01T09:58:00.000+12:00

We want to grow swan plants for monarch butterflies to lay their eggs on.
First we collected seeds from a swan plant. We also used seeds from a packet.
We sprinkled the seeds on trays of seedmix.
Then we sprinkled more seed mix over the seeds to bury them.
Now we have to wait and see what happens.

Anzac Day

2007-04-27T13:19:00.000+12:00

We remembered our family members and others on Anzac Day.
We wrote stories about World War 1, World War 2, the Korean War and the war in Vietnam.
Patric brought his grandfather's uniform for us to see.
Thomas brought some army badges in a special tin.
Max brought a letter from one of the ANZAC soldiers at Gallipoli. It told what it was like in the trenches.
Callum brought a copy of a letter thanking his great grandfather for helping one of the soldiers when he was injured.
Sean made a model gas mask and showed photos of the trench he had dug in his garden at home.

Remembering

2007-04-27T13:00:00.000+12:00

2007-04-04T12:38:00.000+12:00

2007-04-04T12:14:00.000+12:00

We have worked really hard on these portraits of Viv. Viv is holding a rose and an olive branch with some unripened olives growing on it to show what she likes. We have also been learning to make comments using art words.

I like the way Patric has painted Viv's profile because that's what he could see.
By Rosa.

I like the way Evie mixed a darker skin colour for Viv's lips instead of using red.
By Julia.

I like the way Sean painted detail on the flower so it looked like it was popping out.
By Laegh.

I like the way Isaac painted Viv so you can see all of her. I like the size of it.
By Thomas.

Cable Bay - Rocky Shore Trip

2007-03-30T09:37:00.000+12:00

On Wednesday we went to Cable Bay to see the creatures that live on the rocky shore. We saw hermit crabs, spiny star fish and cushion stars, and we even found some fish. Some of us made mini Marine Reserves there so we could collect creatures to look at.
By Patric.

Cable Bay Trip

2007-03-29T16:30:00.000+12:00

How we learn.

2007-03-23T16:08:00.000+12:00

This week we have been thinking about being responsible for our learning. We found out the ways we learn best then we answered some questions:
How do I see myself?
How do others see me?

Painting Portraits

2007-03-20T20:58:00.000+12:00

We have been working on portraits in Art. We have drawn a few portraits now and you can see them in the background. Last week we started painting a portrait of Viv.

Walking on Wednesdays

2007-03-20T20:31:00.000+12:00

We have been celebrating walking to school on Wednesdays. It's fun because there are people dressed up as clowns and there are pipers playing as we walk down Nile Street. Last week we carried balloons and it looked lovely.

Welcome

2007-03-20T15:00:00.000+12:00

Welcome to Room Five's very first blog. We are a class of 30 year 3 and Year 4 children; 18 boys and 12 girls. We are in Room Five at Nelson Central School, Nelson, New Zealand. Our teacher's name is Viv. We will be adding to this blog throughout the year so we can share our learning and celebrate our achievements with you. We hope you enjoy finding out what we have been doing.