Room 9 Nelson Central's Blog 2007

The Lorax Speaks for... (7)

2007-12-14T14:41:00.000+13:00

Here is Sam's "The Lorax Speaks for..." video.

Please leave him a comment if you enjoyed it :)

The Lorax Speaks for... (6)

2007-12-14T14:22:00.000+13:00

Here is Rohan and Louie's "The Lorax Speaks for..." video.

Please leave them a comment if you enjoyed it :)

The Lorax Speaks for... (5)

2007-12-14T14:20:00.001+13:00

Here is Molly and Lochie's "The Lorax Speaks for..." video.

Please leave them a comment if you enjoyed it :)

The Lorax Speaks for... (4)

2007-12-14T14:02:00.000+13:00

Here is Kyle's "The Lorax Speaks for..." video.

Please leave him a comment if you enjoyed it :)

The Lorax Speaks for... (3)

2007-12-14T13:50:00.000+13:00

Here is Joseph and Kerry's "The Lorax Speaks for..." video.

Please leave them a comment if you enjoyed it :)

The Lorax Speaks for...

2007-12-14T13:42:00.000+13:00

Here is Jonti and Thomas' "The Lorax Speaks for..." video.

Please leave them a comment if you enjoyed it :)

The Lorax Speaks for...

2007-12-14T13:34:00.000+13:00

Here is Jackson and Darcy's "The Lorax Speaks for..." video.

Please leave them a comment if you enjoyed it :)

Our Legacy Garden

2007-12-13T10:27:00.001+13:00

On Wednesday Room 9 planted a Garden!!

We had about 6 different types of plants. We planted them in a bath tub. The bath tub is on our classroom's deck.

We had lobelias, ageratum, white aylssum and dianthus for plants.We planted two plants each.

We had to wear vinyl gloves and dust masks.

First we dug a hole, then we lightly tickled the plant's roots, then we put it in the hole and put soil over the top. We had to flatten the soil around the plant.

We think the bath looks great with all the pretty plants in it.

We are going to look after it over the holidays and next year when we are in different classes, we can visit and look at our plants.

Written by Jessie, Tayla and Zoe
[Photos by Louie]

What a term!

2007-12-11T12:14:00.000+13:00

We have been reflecting today on all the cool things and cool learning we have done during Term 4 this year.

Just have a look at our mindmap (made using the free online programme Mindomo) to see what we've been up to - click on it to get a better view.

Well done to Josh, Thomas and Rohan for completing the mindmap online using all of Room 9's great ideas!

Look @ us!!

2007-12-06T14:33:00.000+13:00

Today we made some cool art using our digital photos from the start of the year (we look VERY different now!). We cut out our heads from the photos and then cut magazines out and stuck clothes and body parts on us!

They are going into our sample books as a surprise for our parents....
Shhhhh! Don't tell them! :)

Enjoy our slideshow below:

Well done to Joseph for choosing the cool "skin" called 'multicolour' for our slideshow!

Our Descriptive Poetry

2007-12-05T11:48:00.000+13:00

We have been writing descriptive poetry this term.

For the past two days we have been writing poems that compare us to other things!

Have a read of some of Zoe's wonderful writing below:

I feel as happy as an over-excited chimpanzee.

I feel as dizzy as a distracted dinosaur.

I look as silly as a circus clown.

I look as pretty as a purple petunia.

I am as crazy as a colourful cougar.

I am as skinny as a starving seagull.

I am as smart as a smiling squirrel.

I smell as sweet as a serene scent.

I smell as scrumptious as a strawberry souffle.

I smell as breezy as essence of pearl, jasmin and gardenia.

Totara Syndicate Athletics

2007-12-04T08:58:00.000+13:00

Last week we got invited to Totara Syndicate Athletics. We got to run with the 9 year old boys and girls, even thought we are only 7 years old!.

We had to run 400 meters around around a circle. Thomas came 9th for the 9 year old boys. Tayla came 8th for the 9 year old girls.

We got invited to run with Totara syndicate because we both did so well in the open 2 lap race in the cross country.

Before the race I felt nervous and sick. While I was running I felt excited. After the race I felt happy because I came 8th - Tayla

Before the race I felt good, I thought I would do well. While I was running I felt great because I was doing well. After the race I felt alright because I beat other, older kids - Thomas

Well done Thomas and Tayla!!!

Our Class Breakfast

2007-11-23T11:58:00.000+13:00

On Friday the 23rd of November 2007 Room 9 had a Kelloggs' class breakfast. We had it in Room 9 at Nelson Central School. We had to be at school early at 8:20am in the morning. The class breakfast was because we won the Primary Class section of the TVNZ Net Guide Competition.

Our classroom looked different. There were tablecloths on our tables, bowls that had cereal in them, a toaster, Viv's party cups and spoons and knives.

We got to sit at the tables wherever we liked. One table had green cups (which was all girls), one table had orange cups (which was full of boys) and the other tables had pink cups (there were only two girls at these tables).

When we walked in Room 9 smelt yummy with food. We could smell toast cooking. We felt excited, a bit nervous, shy and terrific.

For our class breakfast we had Kelloggs' Just Right cereal, milk, strawberry and passionfruit yoghurt, toast, vegemite, honey, jam, butter, juice and fruit salad.

It took us until 9:00 to eat all of our breakfast. Afterwards we felt full, wicked, fantastic and happy. Some of us were even still hungry!

Our favourite part of the class breakfast was:

Just Right cereal - Sam, Brianna, Victoria, Jaime, Zoe, Lochie, Ben, Kerry, Donovan, Kyle and Molly.
Yoghurt - Joseph and Jackson.
Toast - Josh, Thomas, Jonti, Quade, Daniel, Tayla, Rohan, Jessie, Louie and Darcy.

We had fun at our class breakfast. It was amazing and cool to be at school eating our breakfast!!

Shared story by Room 9

Check out our photos here or our 'A Whole Lot of Rubbish' site here.

Come to our Gala!

2007-11-08T09:34:00.000+13:00

Our school is having a GALA this Sunday (11th November)

It starts at 11:15 and goes until 2:30pm, it is at Nelson Central School.

We made this mindmap using Mindomo to tell you how fun our gala is going to be. Click on the picture to make it bigger.

By Jessie, Sam and Kerry

By Thomas, Molly and Rohan

Voices of the World - October

2007-11-02T12:28:00.000+13:00

October's task for Voices of the World was to sing our National Anthem and create some pictures of our country.

We had a class vote and decided we would sing the first part of the New Zealand National anthem, which is in Maori. Then we brainstormed things that were iconic to New Zealand and to us. We drew photos of them.

Our voice and pictures were then put on Animoto, which made an awesome video. We hope you enjoy it!

You can view and hear the children from other countries singing their national anthems
by clicking here !

Wild Hair Day

2007-11-01T09:51:00.000+13:00

On Friday Nelson Central School had a wild hair day. It was fundraising for Save the Children.

Nine kinds in our classroom did wild hair day. Jessie and I did have wild hair. It was amazing. Victoria, Thomas, Jackson, Kyle, Rohan, Zoe, Daniel, Tayla and Jessie did wild hair day.

Tayla put purple hairspray in her hair. Jessie put in red hairspray in her hair. Rachel had wild hair. Brett didn't have wild hair.Victoria had heaps of plats in her hair and pony tails. Thomas had food colouring in his hair. Jackson had blue paint in his hair. Kyle had spikey hair. Rohan had spikey hair too. Zoe had heaps of clips in her hair and Daniel had spikey hair.

We got this cool photo taken of us. Our $1 donation is going to Save the Children fund.

Our prizes have arrived!

2007-10-29T09:56:00.000+13:00

On Friday we finally got our prizes!!!

We got them for wining the Web Challenge. We won a destop computer, books that were called "Amazing Alphabetical Adventures", a HUGE Colour printer!!!, a Sanatarium class breakfast! and software for the computer.

We unpacked it all. We opened the books first, there was one for each of us.

Before lunch two ladies from The Nelson Mail came to take photos of us and the prizes we won. One of the ladies talked to Josh and wrote down what he said.

We are going to be in the newspaper!

By Jonti and Thomas

Bedazzled

2007-10-18T13:40:00.000+13:00

On the first day of term room 9 went to see Bedazzled at the museum. We saw convex, concave and plane mirrors.

We sat in a circle and looked at a plane mirror and a spoon. When we looked in the spoon we looked big headed and when we turned the spoon over we were upside down.

Then we looked at the mirror exhibition we saw some rotting jelly beans that looked like you could get them. We reached out to get them and our hands went straight through them, it was an illusion. There was a mirror that made you look liked you stretched. There also was a mirror that made you look like you are smaller.

By Darcy & Joseph

BubbleShare: Share photos -

Winners!

2007-10-15T09:06:00.000+13:00

On the 12th October two students representing all of Room 9 were lucky enough to go to Auckland for the prizegiving of the TVNZ Net Guide Web Challenge. We only knew that we were finalists along with Auckland Point School (also from Nelson) for the primary class category. The prizegiving was at the TVNZ Atrium building on Hobson Street right in the middle of the city.

Kerry and Josh got to meet Helen Clark (the Prime Minister of New Zealand) as well as Matt and Dayna from Studio 2. We won first prize for the Primary Class Category!! Later that night we were also on the TV1 news too!

Here are two of Josh and Kerry's stories about going to Auckland...
movie and more photos coming soon!

On Friday, Kerry, Rachel and I went to Auckland. We went there because it was a prizegiving. We came first place in our division. I met Helen Clarka and shook her hand, she said congfrtulations to me and Kerry. Matt from Studio 2 gave me his signature. I was so lucky to go to Auckland. Yippee! We won a computer and computer security software, Student 2006, hard drive and breakfast and some alphabetical adventure books. We see our prizes on Monday. By Josh

*************

On Friday I went to Auckland. I went on two planes to Auckland and one on the way back. I went to TVNZ and we found out we came first place.

By Kerry

It's ready... Voices of the World

2007-10-03T08:35:00.000+13:00

Here is the finished podcast of September's task for our collaborative project -
Voices of the World.

Press play below on the player - you will hear many different languages spoken... everybody is saying (in their native language):

"Hello, we are (school name) from (country) and you are listening to Voices of the World"

Can you hear us in amongst it all?
Any other languages you know are being spoken?

Hope you're having a great holiday... see you on Monday :)

Congratulations Room 9!

2007-09-21T21:50:00.000+12:00

WOW Room 9!

After hearing from Mr Potaka and Mr Martin from Auckland Point School today, when I got home it was indeed confirmed via a phone call that we are indeed...

FINALISTS in the Web Challenge (Class section)

If you have not talked or shown your parents our site you can visit by clicking below!

Well done to all of our photographers, writers, artists and movie makers for your fabulous contributions to the site!

Visit our fabulous
A Whole Lot of Rubbish Website!

Voices of the World - Our Contribution

2007-09-21T21:13:00.000+12:00

We are part of a cool worldwide collaborative project called "Voices of the World". This cool project will unite primary schools from all around the world using voice and sound.

Our September task was to introduce ourselves in our native language (English), in a weeks time all the voices then get joined together into a podcast where we get to hear all the school kids around the world speaking their native languages!

Click play below to listen to us!

Where is Scotland?

2007-09-19T23:10:00.000+12:00

This map shows where in the world Dundee, Scotland is.

Click and drag around the map using your mouse and see if you can find where Nelson, New Zealand is in relation to Dundee, Scotland!

Departing Nelson!

2007-09-19T20:48:00.000+12:00

Room 9 has been saying their goodbyes and getting our friend and classmate, Kia Ora Kiwi, ready to travel to Scotland!

Today we wrapped him up and included him and some surprises in a big white parcel. We left him some air holes and hope that the flight over will be ok for him. We think it may take up to two weeks for Kia Ora Kiwi to go by plane to Dundee in Scotland.

Rachel is going to take Kia Ora Kiwi to the post office and post him off on his journey after school.

We hope he has a great flight and that all the kids in Mrs Wilson's class in the Junior School at High School Dundee will love him just as much as we do!

We are being sent a new classmate from Scotland too!
When we get him/her we will use this collaborative blog to communicate with our Scottish friends!

Our Camp Reflections

2007-09-12T20:55:00.000+12:00

Last week while we were fresh back from Teapot Valley, we reflected on camp and all that we learned and the activities we enjoyed.

The year 3's got to go for two days and stay overnight and the year 2's from Room 9 came for the day.

We had to reflect and answer these question stems:

My favourite thing at camp was...
From the maze activity I learned...
Next year at camp I think...

CLICK HERE TO READ OUR REFECTIONS ON OUR
SPECIAL REFLECTION BLOG!!

Our Science Fair

2007-09-07T13:13:00.000+12:00

We did a science fair investigation to see which supermarket bag would hold the most weight. We tested a Pam’s reusable bag, a green e-co bag, a Pak n’ Save plastic bag, a New World plastic bag and a clear plastic bag.

We used 11 x 1.5L soft drink bottles. Each bottle weighed 1.5kg. We weighed each bottle and added and took water out until all the bottles weighed the same amount. Then we got two helpers to hold the bag and we put the bottles in. Another person timed it until the bag broke.

The Pam’s reusable bag won, it did not break. It lasted over 10 minutes. The green e-co bag was the second best bag. All the plastic bags were the worst for breaking. The plastic Pak n’ Save bag won out of just the plastic bags.

We think we should use the Pam’s reusable bags when we grocery shop because they hold the most weight, wont break for a long time and they are good for the environment. It saves using lots of plastic bags.

By Rohan and Jonti

Brown Toilet Paper?

2007-08-21T10:15:00.000+12:00

Today Rachel brought in some brown toilet paper. It was brand new in a brown paper packet!

First we looked at the back of the packet and had to guess what it was. Then we looked at the front of the packet and it was toilet paper!

The brand is "Safe" and it is special toilet paper because it is made of recycled clean office paper. We were surprised when the toilet paper was a brown colour.

Some of us felt disgusted, fine, sick and nice when we first saw the brown toilet paper. Some of Room 9 thought it was unclean, dirty and already used.

Once we learned that it was recycled and clean we felt fine, great, alright and nice because that toilet paper is good for the environment.

17 of us thought we would use the toilet paper. 6 of us wouldn't use the toilet paper because it is brown and looks yucky.

Shared writing by Room 9

Our Messages to Scott

2007-08-17T22:49:00.000+12:00

We recorded some messages for Scott to thank him for teaching us. We have really enjoyed having him in Room 9 for the past 5 weeks.

Check out the video below to listen to our messages:

Well done Room 9 - you thought carefully and were very articulate!

Our Buddies (and a mention of us) in the paper!

2007-08-15T18:51:00.000+12:00

Wow!

Our buddies from Room 18 at Meadowbank School were in the paper for all their fabulous work they've been doing on their blog......

and we were mentioned too!

[Click on the image below to view a larger image of the newspaper article.]

Our Hangi

2007-08-14T10:54:00.000+12:00

On Friday our school had a hangi. It was cooked at the back field. It was cooked underground. It was served on the front field.

We helped by laying out all the food on the table and putting the food into metal containers. The containers were put on the top of hot iron. They laid a wet sheet and then a sack over the containers. Then they buried the food.

The food tasted different from when cooked on a stove. Some parts were burnt but not very much. The corn tasted quite different and it was a bit mushy. We enjoyed making and eating the hangi food.

By Rohan and Joseph

(typed by Rohan, Joseph and Rachel)

Current Events from Thomas and Molly

2007-08-07T19:38:00.000+12:00

Thomas and Molly were our Current Events Reporters for Week 3.

We are learning to report on a current news article by reading and learning about it so that we can tell the rest of the class about it in our own words. Current events reporters also need to know enough about their article so that they can answer all of Room 9's questions.

Click on the badge below to be taken to our podcast page. There you can listen to Thomas' current events about a local rugby player and Molly's report on a NEW Harry Maclary book!

When Jim came to our classroom

2007-08-07T10:59:00.000+12:00

On Tuesday morning Jim came to our classroom to show us how to do science fair experiments.

We had to find out:

Will a marble roll further down a carpeted ramp or a smooth ramp?

Our class found out that a marble would go further with a smooth ramp and not with a carpeted ramp. We had these stickers to measure how far it would go. Jim told us what to do first. Then after that we changed either the weight or the size of the marble. The smallest weight one went the most far away and beat the bigger size. Afterwards we peeled the stickers off.

By Rohan and Victoria

Reading Explanations at Assembly

2007-08-06T14:19:00.000+12:00

Today some people in Room 9 got to read their explanations out at assembly. I got to take photos of them to put on the blog. Their explanations were really good.

By Kerry

Here are two of the fantastic explanations:

The Dental Nurse
The Dental Nurse is someone that cleans your teeth and checks up on them and makes fillings. Most of the time you have to wear sunglasses. They put a big yellow light in front of you and at the end they give you a sticker. It is at Nelson Central School by the office. All the time that you are there you can look at soft teddy bears. If you are going to go you have a book that someone gives you. You go every 2 or 3 months.
By Josh

The Dental Nurse
The Dental nurse is someone who helps look after your teeth. What happens is you get to lie on a bench and keep your mouth open. The interesting part is at the start you get to wait but when you wait you get some toys to play with. At the end you get a sticker, a picture or a toothbrush.
By Brianna

Where in the World is Meadowbank?

2007-08-04T19:05:00.000+12:00

We have looked at where Meadowbank School is on the map on a 2D flat plane.....but never seen it in 3D!

This fantastic movie is made by Mr Kinane who works at the senior part of Meadowbank School.

Watch it and see where in the world our Meadowbank buddies are!

And yes... before you ask..... yes Rachel really, really, really, really wants to make one of these for our school!!!! :)

Our Maori Language Week Celebration

2007-07-30T10:07:00.000+12:00

On Friday we went to the whanau classroom to do some activities. The activities were sticks, pois and strings. We did the activities because it was Maori Langauge Week. The teachers who helped were Whaea Trina and Whaea Erina. First we listened to the instructions. Then we went off to the activities in groups. We were in 3 groups. Room 15 and 16 helped us.

For the sticks we had to bang them on the floor in time to some waiata. When we used the poi we had to swing then around. For the string games we had to make something with the string. You put your hands into the other person's string and they pulled it and your hands got stuck in! Then they let our hands go free.

We thought the afternoon was fun, exciting and great. We learned how to use the sticks and how to play the string games.

Collaboratively written by Jaime, Lochie and Zoe

Our Great Idea - Interviewing Sarah

2007-07-27T12:13:00.000+12:00

Remember our great idea to save paper that we had last term??

We were interested to know if we could email some of the newsletters to the parents so that it would save paper.
Today we got to interview Sarah who is a parent from Room 11. Sarah knows LOTS about computers. She liked our idea and left us a comment on our blog last term.
We had lots of questions to ask her so we can start planning to get our idea off the ground!

Click the play button below on the player to listen to our podcast; or click on the badge to be taken to our podcast page...... leave us a comment if you like too :)

A BIG THANK YOU FROM ROOM 9 TO SARAH
FOR COMING IN TO SPEAK TO US!

The Worm Farm

2007-07-27T08:56:00.000+12:00

I made a movie to show everyone all about worms.

They eat things that we hate. They make it into compost. Their favourite thing is not all the scraps, they like eating the material too!

I took pictures of the worms and the worm farm at home then I emailed them to school. I recorded my voice talking about each picture using a digital voice recorder. Then I used MovieMaker to make the movie.

The cool thing about my movie was that I could hear my voice. Rachel, Monique and Daniel helped me to make it.

Fire @ Walter's Blufff - Current Events

2007-07-20T23:25:00.000+12:00

Today Josh and Jackson presented their newspaper articles for Current Events. Coincidentally they both brought the same article!! - so they ended up telling Room 9 about what happened together. We also got to ask them lots of questions at the end.

Well done Josh and Jackson for finding and preparing your current event to share with the class. You knew lots about the topic and were able to share it with us!

You can listen to Josh & Jackson's Current Events as a podcast below (by pressing play) or on our podcast page (click the badge).

What did we do in our holidays?

2007-07-18T11:37:00.000+12:00

On Monday when we got back we drew a bubble map to show all the many great things we got up to in our 2 weeks holidays!

Today we used Kidspiration on the computers to make a DOUBLE bubble map. We had to join with out computer buddy and see what things we did in the holidays were the same for both of us; and what things we did that were completely different! We used our bubble maps from Monday to help us.

One group had three students in their group - so they made a TRIPLE bubble map!!!.... you might be able to spot it in the slideshow below.

Use the arrow to move to the next slide; or click on the slide itself to see it larger on the Bubbleshare site.

Asking our Buddies Questions

2007-07-17T10:29:00.000+12:00

Yesterday we talked to our buddies on the computer.We asked them questions about their school. We found out what the worms eat and what worms dont like eating. Our buddies answered them.

They have different chairs from us. Their classroom is different.

By Zoe & Brianna

We're back!!

2007-07-16T21:24:00.000+12:00

We are back from holidays - ready and rearing to go for

TERM THREE!

This term we are lucky enough to have two teachers in Room 9: Rachel and Scott.

You may already know a little about Scott if you have listened to our podcast where we interviewed him here. Scott will be teaching in Room 9 with Rachel for 5 weeks... and next year Scott will have his very own class!

We will be doing lots of exciting things during Term 3... we hope you'll come along on our learning journey!

We made it!!

2007-07-10T10:17:00.000+12:00

Well Room 9.... today when I checked our blog's hit counter
we had made it to 4000 hits... well actually OVER 4000 now!

So sorry we aren't at school to see it happen and to celebrate :(

Anyway, you know what happens each 2000 hits..... so..... on our first Friday back at school we will have that class party that you deserve in the afternoon!

Exciting stuff!
See you Monday :)

Our Environmental Digi-Art

2007-06-29T22:05:00.000+12:00

Today we completed our artwork and they look fantastic!

We had to design our background using pencil, oil pastels and dye. Our background had to represent what we think a world without rubbish would look like.

To finish off our artwork we glued on some cool cut-out digital photos of us.... it's just like we are in the future in our beautiful, clean world!

Hope you enjoy your holidays Room 9... have fun and keep safe!

See you in 2 weeks time :)

[Don't forget you can check out our delicious game links if you have free time in the holidays]

Room 9 SKYPES Auckland!

2007-06-29T19:14:00.000+12:00

Yesterday, after much technical difficulty (Skype was overloaded), Room 9 got to "skype" our buddies - Room 18 @ Meadowbank School in AUCKLAND!

We used a special thing on the computer called SKYPE which lets you call people worldwide who also have skype, using your computer... for FREE! Both Room 9 and Room 18 also had webcams so this also meant we could SEE our buddies!

Watch the movie below to view the highlights!

Next term, we are going to fix our audio problem and then skype Meadowbank again to ask them all the questions we have about how they deal with rubbish, recycle and reuse things.... they are our EXPERTS!

Room 9's Special Assembly

2007-06-26T11:04:00.000+12:00

On Monday Room 9 took Kahikatea Syndicate Assembly. Unlike other classes we all got a part. Normally we have just two people take assembly. I felt patient. I got two parts. My parts were reading group 5's argument and saying "In Room 9 we have been writing arguments, have a listen". Everyone listened. We used a microphone, it was heavier than I realised. Twenty-three people are in our class.
By Joseph

Yesterday Room 9 took Kahikatea Syndicate Assembly. Evryone got a part. I felt shy. It was fun. My favourtite thing was using the microphone. We sang School is Number One. I was the second person to talk. It was really fun. We sat on chairs too.
By Jessie

On Monday Room 9 ran Kahikatea Syndicate Assembly. Everyone got a part. I felt nervous but it turned our to be ok. Everyone got a part.
By Ben

Yesterday Room 9 ran Kahikatea Syndicate Assembly. We got to sit on chairs. It was fun. I felt embarrassed but it was ok.
By Molly

When Room 9 took Kahikatea assembly. I felt fine talking to half of the school. When Darcy and I had our part a boy in Room 13 was talking. Viv noticed him and made him sit between her legs. Darcy and I were last.
At the end Rachel couldn't find Six Months in a Leaky Boat. So Jane showed Rachel how to skip tracks but the classrooms had already gone except Room14 and Room 9. So we had to listen to School is Number One.
Darcy and I were number 19 to speak. We all used the microphone. Darcy held the microphone and I held the paper with the writing on it.
By Sam

Collaborative Argument Writing

2007-06-22T12:24:00.000+12:00

This week have been collaboratively planning and writing our persuasive arguments about rubbish.

This means we work with the others in our group to combine our brainpower and plan and produce a piece of writing that we all contributed to.

We used a collaborative site called a "wiki" to do this.... we planned and wrote our arguments in groups and then other groups in our class got a chance to help us and edit our work, checking it all made sense and correcting our spelling. It was like a gigantic think-pair-share!

You can read the groups arguments by clicking on the group number below:

Group 1
Group 2
Group 3
Group 4
Group 5
Group 6
Group 7
Group 8

Once you are at the wiki you can have a look at the other group's work by clicking through the argument links in the sidebar!

Please leave us a comment if we have persuaded or convinced you :)

SC and SK Blends Movie

2007-06-21T16:04:00.000+12:00

We have been looking at the blends SC and SK.

We had to take photos of things around the school that started with either SC or SK to demonstrate our understanding. Then we used out digital voice recorder to say what each thing was that we took photos with.

This afternoon, using the data projector in Room 4, EVERY child in Room 9 had a go at dragging either the image (photo) or the sound into the timeline on Movie Maker. We also chose TWO transitions to go between each photo - they were "dissolve" and "eye".... see if you can spot them when you watch our movie.

Here is our movie about SC and SK blends...
Two of the photos don't have audio captions... do you know what the objects are?

Interviewing Scott

2007-06-20T19:07:00.000+12:00

Room 9 have been learning to interview people so we can find out the answers to our questions!

Here we interview Scott!

We will be getting to know Scott better next term when he is teaching with Rachel in our room.... we wrote lots of questions to ask him and he answered them all!

We hope you enjoy getting to know Scott; click on the badge to be taken to our podcast page where you can have a listen!

Featured students listed below:

Our Brilliant Idea!

2007-06-15T20:19:00.000+12:00

Yesterday when we watched all of the school newsletter and notices get handed out we had a brilliant idea!

We wrote a shared story in the form of an argument today to let people know our great idea. Some children then used our brand new DIGITAL VOICE RECORDER to record parts of the argument for our podcast!

Click on the podcast badge to hear our podcast - look for the "play button" once at the podcast page.

We hope that Mr Potaka, our Principal, will listen and tell us what he thinks of our idea! We wonder if we will convince him that it is a good idea for us to start investigating?

Students featured in the podcast listed below:

Our Buddies

2007-06-15T11:50:00.001+12:00

We have noticed some similarties and differences between Room 9 @ Nelson Central and Room 18 @ Meadowbank School.

These are the similarities:

they also have not many girls
we both have writing blogs
some people in Room 18 have the same names: Josh, Joseph, Thomas, Zoe and Lochlann (although we call him Lochie)
we both have year 2's in our class
we also have paper recycling
we both live in New Zealand

These are the differences:

we have year 3's also in our class
they have more children in their class than we do (they have 28 and we have 23)
we live in the South Island (in Nelson) and they live in the North Island (in Auckland)
there are different children's names in our classes
they have one more girl than us in their class (we have 7 and they have 8)

We liked seeing their video that they made for us. We have written some question we would like to ask them over the next few weeks!

THANKS ROOM 18!!

Our Meadowbank Buddies!

2007-06-14T21:24:00.000+12:00

Meadowbank School is in Auckland - we are buddying up with a really neat group of kids from Room 18 at Meadowbank - they are year 2 so are about the same age as us!

Meadowbank is an Enviro School which means they have worked really hard to put things in place and take action to look after the environment.

They have made us a video (just for us!) to show us what they have done in their school. Press play below...

You can visit their blog here - you might like to even make a comment.
(but don't forget to say where you are from!)

If you liked the video they made for us - leave them a comment here!

Games for you to Play!

2007-06-12T19:35:00.000+12:00

Hi Room 9,

I have been having fun learning to make some neat games for you to play.

These games are great as they will be fun as well as help you in your learning!

They are all based around our topic "A Whole Lot of Rubbish"

Click on the name of the game to play; when you're finished you can click "BACK" to try another game!

When you have done the Quiz above, post a comment to let us know what your score was!

Enjoy having fun while you're learning :)

From Rachel

Rubbish Detectives!

2007-06-10T16:06:00.000+12:00

Remember last week on the 7th of June; Thomas and Josh took all those photos of rubbish that they found around our school?

Well I have put the photos to music and made it into a movie! Do you know that I actually had to delete some of the photos as there was far too many?!

Well done Room 9; I can see that you are on the right track with convincing people not to drop rubbish in our school... it's great that you are working hard to reduce and eliminate our problem.

So here is the Rubbish Detectives Movie.... you can view it below.

Special thank you to our Rubbish Detective Photographers: Thomas & Josh!

Sam's Message to his Dad

2007-06-07T10:27:00.000+12:00

Sam's Dad is away for just over a week at a big conference in Seattle which is in America.

Clever Sam has used our Writing Spot blog as a way of communicating to his Dad while he is away since he doesn't have Skype and it still is quite expensive to phone... plus there is a huge time difference!

You can read Sam's post to his Dad here.

If you are wondering where in the world Seattle is: take a look at this picture.

Clever Kerry!

2007-06-05T15:07:00.000+12:00

Kerry is a very clever boy!

In the long weekend his Nana & Poppa helped him to take some photos of what he got up to....

Then he emailed them to us :)

You can read what Kerry writes about his photos on the Writing Spot Blog HERE!

Well done Kerry!

PS - click on the email link to the right (on the sidebar) if you want to do the same!!

Bye Sophie!

2007-05-31T16:31:00.000+12:00

Today was Sophie's last day visiting with Room 9!

Sophie is learning how to be a teacher and she has been visiting us every Wednesday during part of Term One and Term Two. We have liked having her around. She reads books to us and helps us with our writing. When Sophie has her own class in 3 years time we think she'll make a great teacher!

To celebrate her last day Sophie gave us a cool card and we each got a lollypop. You can read more about this on Sam's post at our Writing Spot.

Here are some photos Rachel took of us and Sophie!

The Rubbish Audit

2007-05-31T15:34:00.000+12:00

On Tuesday afternoon ALL the rubbish from EVERY bin @ Nelson Central School was taken and put into the hall.

On Wednesday the seniors went and helped sort it into 4 piles: paper, cardboard, food scraps & plastic. We could see all the rubbish that our school makes in a DAY!

At 11am we were lucky enough to visit and listen to Sarah from the Nelson City Council talk about rubbish and recycling.

Photos by our Official Photographers: Jackson & Josh - well done :)

Here are some of Room 9's fantastic recounts of the visit!

Today Room 9 went to the hall. Sarah, a lady from the council came to tell us about rubbish. I looked at the rubbish. It was on the floor. I learned about the rubbish that it goes to the recycling place or the dump. By Donovan

Today we went to the hall to see all the rubbish from the bins at Nelson Central School. We saw some paper and cardboard and plastic and food. Sarah talked to us about where rubbish goes before it goes to the dump. By Jaime

Today at school I went to a rubbish audit. A lady from the council told us about rubbish. The seniors sorted it all out on a big tarpaulin. It was in th hall. There were lots of stuff. Part of the Kahikatea syndicate went. I learned where the rubbish goes at our school. By Rohan

On this Wednesday I went to a rubbish audit. They collected up all the school's rubbish bins and put them in the school hall. It was yuck and it smelled! We got to look at the school's rubbish. By Jackson

Our Platypus Blend Activity

2007-05-25T14:51:00.000+12:00

Today we made some platypus out of paper. We had to colour in the platypus and its bill, cut them both out, fold the bill up and glue the bill on. The tricky part was gluing the bill onto the platypus. It was really fun making it. I coloured mine black, light brown, dark brown and yellow. We made the platypus because "pl" was our blend this week.

By Kyle (typed by Rachel)

Student Voices: Blogging

2007-05-23T20:20:00.000+12:00

Let US teach YOU!

Still confused about WHAT a blog is or WHY we love them?
Well listen to this! We recorded it today with Rachel.

It's going to be shared with other teachers from all over the world!
Primarily it's an AUDIO file so you'll be doing more LISTENING than LOOKING!

Enjoy.... unscripted and candid 6 & 7 year olds doing what they love best.... TALKING!

Featured students: Josh, Joseph, Lochie, Jessie, Ben, Tayla, Jonti, Darcy & Kerry.

First sticker charts finished!

2007-05-15T14:15:00.000+12:00

Today Tayla and Kerry finished their "Super Behaviour" sticker charts!

We got to go and see Dr Potaka with them. He said "Well Done!" and asked us what our whole names were. He wrote our names down so he wouldn't get mixed up with other people. He gave us another sticker.... now we have 31 on our charts!

We have been filling up our charts with stickers since the start of the term! We felt excited and happy. We are taking our charts home to put on our special boards!

By Tayla & Kerry

Tivaevae making @ The Suter Art Gallery

2007-05-09T10:16:00.000+12:00

Yesterday Room 9 went to the Suter Art Gallery to learn about and make tivaevaes.

Check out the slideshow above to see what we got up to.
Victoria has written a great story independently on our writing blog about our trip - check it out here!

Photos by Daniel & Rachel

Our Blogging Rules

2007-05-07T19:42:00.000+12:00

Today we decided as a class on OUR Room 9 Blogging Rules.

Rachel had always had rules for us and we have talked about it lots, but today we took ownership and made our OWN!

These are our rules...

We will:
Only use our FIRST name when writing
Only use SENSIBLE and KIND words
Not write any of our DETAILS - this includes phone number, address and personal email address
Be careful when putting PHOTOS on (we have permission slips signed by parents)
Ask PERMISSION when putting on other people's photos - tell them what you are going to do with the photos
Only display nice photos of other people (we don't want people to be embarrassed)
Try our hardest to get our SPELLING right
Be RESPONSIBLE when using and writing on our blog.

What do you think?

Children's Day... in Japan!

2007-05-04T15:09:00.000+12:00

This afternoon we did an activity to celebrate Children's Day which is on May 5th in JAPAN!

We found out that on this special day in Japan the children make beautiful Coi Carp Kites, dress up in special costumes (like Kimonos) and eat special celebration foods. Everyone in the family makes a coi carp to celebrate children and to teach them to be strong and hardy like the carp fish (which swims against the current in rivers). You can read more about this festival here.

Later in the afternoon, our buddies from Room 7 came over and helped us add the streamers and string. Here are some pictures of us "Flying High" with our Coi Carp kites!

Enjoy your Japanese Children's Day!

Thinking about RUBBISH!

2007-05-01T12:45:00.000+12:00

Our class' topic currently is "A Whole Lot of Rubbish"

We have started to learn about rubbish and are going to see what we can do to "take action" later in the term.

Our thinking topic today was "If we could dump our rubbish on another planet..."

We put on our different thinking hats and thought about the bad/negative points of this (Black Hat); the good/positive points (Yellow Hat) and the creative and new ideas (Green Hat) about this idea.

Put on your BLACK HAT and think of all the many reasons why this would be bad.... post your ideas as a comment below, just remember to sign your name so we know who the comment is from!

Well done Kyle for taking the photo for this post!

Our Other Blog!

2007-04-30T12:56:00.000+12:00

Room 9 is learning to type up their thoughts and opinions and post to a blog independently.... we certainly are very capable year 2 & 3 students!

We now have a WRITING SPOT blog where students will independently making postings of their own!

It is to be a special place where freedom and experimentation reign... all posts will be as the student typed them (spelling & grammar included). We hope you'll see a huge improvement in our writing over the year. Feel free to hop on over and leave us a comment :)

Anzac Day

2007-04-24T19:07:00.000+12:00

On the 25th April it is ANZAC day.

We read an ANZAC story and then worked in groups to write about why we thought ANZAC day was important. Here are what the groups thought...

We celebrate ANZAC day because people died in the war. You wear poppies to remember the soldiers.
By Thomas, Brianna, Molly & Donovan

We celebrate ANZAC day to celebrate the soldiers who gave their lives to make our country free.
By Rohan, Victoria, Kerry & Louie

We think that ANZAC day is about the soldiers who fought in the war.
By Josh, Tayla, Joseph, Quade & Daniel

We think that ANZAC day is all about the army and to remember the New Zealand and Australian soldiers.
By Zoe, Jaime, Jonti, Jackson & Lochie

We think ANZAC day is about people who died in the war. We think they maybe died in a poppy field?
By Kyle, Sam, Darcy & Jessie

We also made some great ANZAC artwork... check it out!

Thinking Hat Tuesday - if no one could read

2007-04-24T12:12:00.000+12:00

Our Thinking Hat topic today is:

If no one on Earth could read... how would life be different?

Put on your different thinking hats and type your thoughts as a comment below: we can't wait to read all your fantastic ideas.

Our first day of Term Two

2007-04-23T14:34:00.000+12:00

Today was the first day of Term Two!

Firstly we had news. We talked about the holidays. I went to Kaiteriteri. We looked for crabs.

Next we did a P.M.I activity on our holidays. My Plus was about finding a live crab. My Minus was falling over at the skating rink.I thought that having dinner at Kaiteriteri was Interesting.

By Zoe

Our Learning about Butterflies

2007-04-06T22:12:00.000+12:00

During the last week of Term our reading has been based on the fantastic Go Zone newspaper for kids that came out a while ago - "Amazing Butterflies".

We have had a great time finding out about the parts of butterflies, the life cycle of butterflies and different species of butterflies.

Today we took all our butterfly knowledge and compared and contrasted butterflies to moths. We had to consult all of our fabulous books from in the library and our go zone to check (validate) what we thought before it went on our venn diagram. (Rachel has used Kidspiration to type up our ideas for the picture here)

We learnt that moths also have a proboscis (straw like tongue) and they have a similar life cycle to butterflies too!

Look at what Lochie learned about butterflies and moths and their similarities and differences:

Our Podcast Reflections

2007-04-05T20:49:00.000+12:00

These are our thoughts about our first ever podcast (click the picture to see it bigger).
We will use our reflections to do better next time!
Stay tuned for more!

Our Favourite Places @ Nelson Central School - a podcast

2007-04-03T21:48:00.000+12:00

Today we found out what a "PODCAST" was... and some of us made one!

A podcast comes from the words "ipod" and "broadcast" - we talked about ipods being to do with music and broadcasting being to do with the news and radio - so basically talking. We listened to some taped stories and thought about how we were going to speak when our voices were recorded.

We decided our voices had to:

sound interesting
sound exciting
be loud
be not too fast
be expressive!

Last week we wrote & edited some brilliant stories about our favourite places at Nelson Central School. Today most of the class brought our stories to life by recording us reading them using the computer and a special programme called "Garageband". We then took digital photos of our buddies around the school in our favourite places!

We made a podcast using our voices, some music and the digital photos that we took.
When we put it all together it sounded amazing! When each child speaks their digital photo comes up! This is actually called a "VODCAST" as it uses video/still images.

Click on the badge below to listen to our AMAZING PODCAST... we are sure you'll love it!

Featured children on today's podcast are: Victoria, Josh, Thomas, Tayla, Jackson, Joseph, Sam, Kerry, Rowan, Jonti, Louie and Darcy. WELL DONE!

Our Trip to Cable Bay - the rocky shore!

2007-04-02T12:37:00.000+12:00

On Friday Room 9 and Room 16 went to Cable Bay to look at the rock pools.

I went with Molly and my Mum in the car. When we got there we had lunch on the rocky beach.

My favourite creatures were the sea anemone, blue crab and cushion star.

By Kerry

On Friday we went to Cable Bay. I caught some rockfish.

My favourite creatures were the crabs, the fish and the starfish.

The crabs moved fast. The starfish clung onto the rocks. The fish could go under small rocks. I caught three fish for my group.

By Lochie

On Friday Room 16 and Room 9 went to Cable Bay to see the rock pools. I went with Ben and Penny.

When we got there we had lunch. Then we went an explored the rock pools.

My favourite creature was the clingfish. It looks like a rock. The mussel was bright and the starfish clung onto me.

By Sam

On Friday Room 16 went to Cable Bay. I went in the car with Nano, Darcy, Jaime and myself.

When we got there we had lunch.

My favourite creatures were the fish because it was all slimy, the crabs because they have cool shells and the starfish because it had tentacles.

By Jonti

More photos of our Cable Bay trip are on our flickr photo page - feel free to browse, download and print these gorgeous pics!

Farewell Nicky

2007-04-01T13:12:00.000+12:00

On Thursday we had some "alone time" while Nicky was visiting another classroom.

We used our class digital camera to record short video thank you and goodbye messages for Nicky.

On Friday we shared our surprise with her in a DVD that Rachel put together. It had our videos as well as a slideshow of all the photographs Rachel has taken of Nicky teaching us. We got to choose the music that went with the DVD title page and for the slideshow... we chose "Popcorn" by Crazy Frog and The Bird Dance! We think Nicky liked her DVD a lot... and now she has something to take away with her to always remember us!

Thanks Nicky! We have really enjoyed the last 5 weeks that you have spent with us. We know that next year when you have finished your teacher training you will be a fantastic teacher for your very own class!

Enjoy the video we recorded below: press the play button in the middle of the video :)

NB: Be patient if you are on a dial-up connection, it pays to press play and make yourself a cup of tea etc until the red line has "buffered" right through the whole video. Remember also that the video's sound is not perfect as we recorded it using our digital camera. We hope you enjoy it anyway. Please post your comments below by clicking on the word "comments" underneath this posting. You can write your comment and use "anonymous" to sign in: JUST REMEMBER TO PUT YOUR NAME in the comment box so we know who it is from!

Off to the Suter Art Gallery again!

2007-03-29T12:08:00.000+12:00

Yesterday Room 9 went to the Suter Art Gallery again!

This time we viewed the "Nga Tangi o Te Tangata - Nga Reo o Te Whenua" - Songs of the People; Stories of the land exhibition.

It was set up like a real wharenui (meeting house) and we had to take our shoes off before we went in! Inside it had all of Robyn Slow's artworks which looked amazing.

We learnt lots about cool instruments made out of shells and things. The best thing about the exhibition was that it had music as well. The music told the story of the Nelson Top of the South region.

The Suter Gallery is open for free admission on Saturdays so if you want to take along your parents you can! Thanks also to the parents that came along with us - we couldn't go without you!

Oobleck!

2007-03-27T18:10:00.000+12:00

This afternoon Room 9 was lucky enough to make "oobleck" with Nicky!

Oobleck is a strange kind of solid/liquid.
When you touch it, it feels hard like a solid. When you press your finger in it is squishy like a liquid.
Sam thought it was a bit like "sinking sand". You can pick up oobleck and it becomes drippy like a liquid!
The only ingredients we used to make it was cornflour, water and green food colouring.

Here are some photos and comments from Room 9:

Today we made oobleck. It felt smooth it looked like snow it smelled salty.
By Tayla

Today we made oobleck. It felt silky, it looked like slime and it smelt like playdough.
By Zoe

Today we made oobleck. It felt like snow it smelled like nothing it was soft. It looked green.
By Josh

Today we mad oobleck. It felt like slime it looked like snow and it smelt weird.
By Jackson

Today we made oobleck. It smelt like salt, it felt like hard rocks, it looked like alien blood.
By Darcy

Captions for Room Nine!

2007-03-22T16:38:00.000+12:00

On Wednesday we had our ICT time in the computer suite with Nicky.

We had already taken photos using the digital camera with our buddy (our buddy took a photo of us and we took a photo of them). Today we used a special website to put a speech bubble onto our photo!

The picture we made is going to be the first page of our digital story about us. We had to write what our name was and how old we were in the speech bubble.

You can see what three of them turned out like below!!

The rest of the class will do their caption next week.
If we were to do ours again we would make sure we used capital letters for our name and for "I" and we would double check our spelling.

If you want to try putting a caption on your photo at home click on this link and have some fun!

Our Trip to the Suter Art Gallery

2007-03-14T13:53:00.000+13:00

Today I went to the Suter Art Gallery.

I looked at the paintings, they looked fantastic.

The paintings were so good, I couldn't choose which one was my favourite and there were so many.

It was really fun.

By Kyle

Well done Kyle for helping to upload these photos!

Our Photos: print & download them

2007-03-11T08:54:00.000+13:00

Room 9 has its very own photo site!

Whenever we take photos during class or at special events (ie. swimming carnival, class trips etc) within a few days they will be uploaded to our Flickr site.

This is GREAT for parents/caregivers/relatives as you can click on the photos to make them bigger and then print them or save them to your own computer!!

You can also view a random display of our photos near the bottom of the sidebar (to the right) on this webpage.

ENJOY - click on the screenshot below to visit - swimming carnival photos uploaded also!

Our Favourite Things!

2007-03-07T10:40:00.000+13:00

Today we had our ICT computer time in the library. We worked with our buddies on Kidspiration which was the programme that Rachel used to record all of our learning for our audio conference.

Today since our topic is "All about me" we did a mindmap of all of our favourite things!

First we wrote our names in the middle. Then we chose some pictures that were of things we liked. Underneath each picture we had write the name of our picture. We had to find 5 things we liked with our buddy or by ourselves. Then we used the pointy arrow to point to all of our pictures. Monique and Rachel printed our pictures out and helped us save them. Tayla and I printed our own pictures! By Josh

This is what two of them looked like:

Well done Josh for uploading these images for us!

Our Learning from our Audio Conference

2007-03-02T18:25:00.000+13:00

Here is the Kidspiration mindmap that we made of our learning on the LEARNZ Audio Conference.

Click on the image if you want to see it larger.

What do you think of our learning??

LEARNZ Audio Conference

2007-03-02T16:12:00.000+13:00

Today we were lucky enough to have our very first LEARNZ Audio Conference.

Our topic has been the rocky shore and marine reserves.

We used a very special phone called a polycom (in the photo it is the space-age black thing that looks really strange). It allowed our whole class to listen to our guest speaker Kara and the LEARNZ teacher Mike. It also let us speak into it so that everyone else who was listening could hear. There were two other schools that were asking questions.

We got to ask our 4 questions about the rocky shore. Victoria, Sam, Joseph and Tayla were especially chosen to ask Room 9's questions.

Some of us found it hard to listen to the answers as we had no visuals to look at but we will get better at that! After the audio conference we made a mindmap of all our learning on Kidspiration and we will post that later for you to look at!

Blend Activity - bl

2007-02-17T15:23:00.000+13:00

Today we celebrated the learning we have been doing about the blend "bl" this week by doing a blend activity. We will be doing a great, fun making activity related to our blend of the week each Friday.

We revised the sounds that "b" and "l" make and how they sound when they are all run in together to make "bl". We also started a special book called "Our Blends Book" where we will record all of our learning each week.

These were the "bl" words that we thought of...

block
blowfly
Blenheim
blossom
blanket
blunt
blackberry
blow
blue
black
blood
blob
blank
and the list goes on....

Today we made a "BLOCK", we had to follow some directions, colour, carefully cut, glue tabs and assemble our blocks. Here are some photos!

Swimming!

2007-02-10T16:58:00.000+13:00

We have started swimming each day. Room Nine goes swimming near the middle of the day, which works out well because by then we are just starting to get really hot!

At the moment we are being put into groups so that Rachel and Jane can best teach us new fabulous swimming skills!

First Day at School for 2007!

2007-02-08T16:59:00.000+13:00

Welcome to Room Nine!

I hope you all had fabulous holidays and found the time to relax and enjoy yourself! It was great to meet many of you this morning and a big thank you for having children's stationery ready to go too!

We are in for a fabulous year full of fun, laughter and LOTS of learning! We hope that you will enjoy sharing in our discoveries on this class blog which we will update regularly. During Term One I will be teaching Room Nine how to do simple posts and add their thoughts to this site. After that.... maybe they'll master some posts themselves!

A blog is short for "web log" and is like an online diary that is archived and displayed chronologically. Feel free to give this website out to family and friends (especially those overseas!). It is a great way for you and them to feel involved in your child's learning and education. You can also "Subscribe" to our blog by entering your email address into the subscription box to the right - this way you will receive an email informing you of when our blog is updated!

You may be interested to have a sneak peek at the class blog created last year with my year 2/3 students at Mapua School, we have recieved national and some international acclaim for our fabulous efforts! Having a sneak peek will let you know what our blog will end up looking like over time as we add more posts.

I hope to see most of you at our Kahihatea Syndicate "Meet the Teacher Night" next Tuesday. Until then... make sure if you're around school you come in and introduce yourself to me!!

Kind regards,
Rachel Boyd

Welcome!

2007-01-06T10:22:00.000+13:00

Welcome to Room 9's brand new blog!

We will be adding to this blog throughout the year to celebrate, share and showcase our learning with you. Keep checking back and we hope that you'll enjoy seeing what we've been up to!