Last posting for 2011

Go to the parish website to view our last Kea class assembly for 2011. There are two videos there at the moment showing the first and last part of our assembly. What a fabulous class of fun hardworking students Kea has been.

Kea's Fantastic 2011

Happy Harvesting

A couple of weeks ago Kea class harvested our garden. We dug up Bright Lights and cabbages. We dug them up with a fork or a trowel.

Jacob and I were buddies for digging out our cabbages. We thought that our cabbage was a big mama. It was as big as a cow’s belly. Sapphire’s Bright Lights was the biggest in the garden. Jono’s cabbage was the biggest in the garden. Ours was second biggest. Tim’s was the smallest Bright Light.

Afterwards we washed them, dried them, cut them and ate them. When we made them there were lots of ingredients that we could use. There was luncheon, apple, tomato sauce, carrots and lots more.
Sam S.
A couple of weeks ago guess what our class did? We harvested our garden! Sam was my buddy for harvesting. When we got to our garden I couldn’t believe how humungous all our cabbages and Bright Lights were.

Next Mrs Bryant handed out some forks (not table forks, gardening forks) and some trowels. Luckily, Sam and I got the fork first, so we started digging underneath the roots so we could cut it afterwards. When we finished digging it up Sam complained “This is one big momma, I can’t lift it!” So I decided to help Sam lift the cabbage. I thought it was as heavy as a boulder. Soon we went back to class to eat the cabbages and Bright Lights/ Swiss Chard/ silver beet.

Sam and I and everyone else cut off the stalk. After that we made our cabbage into a wrap We had a selection of: alfalfa, grated apple, grated cheese and tomato.

Finally I ate it and it was delicious. I thought it was a good idea to harvest our garden.
Jacob

Amazing Wednesdays

Every Wednesday Kea class has Variation Thinker’s Key. It is when we think of many different ideas about something. Variation stands for different or changed. We try to get a new high score each time. This week we thought of things that always go round. Most of them were about planets, but also second clock hands and the asteroid belt.

Last week we did how many different ways we can say a greeting. 

Our highest score is 44. We all thought it great fun and an exciting learning experience.

First Holy Communion

Hooks to Begin Our Writing

	James		How far did I go?
	Sam S		“Weeee,” Blake thought.
	Jonty		“I thought that I was going to win the race but I didn’t,” said Jono.
	Blake		“I am going to win the race,” yelled Lily.
	Seb		“That’s my favourite,” said Tim.
	Margeaux		“I really want to get further than last time,” yelled Ruby.
	Finn		Run. Run. Run.
	John		“My legs are buried in sand,” giggled Ruby.
	Megan		“How long is it until the 9 year olds race?” I asked my Dad who was helping out with the athletics.
	Tim		“Go Lily go,” yelled the whole school.
	Sapphire		Did I do well?
	Lily		Logan thought “I am going to win the race.”
	Ruby		Jump. Jump. Jump
	Jacob		Wow! Did I beat my record?
	Dylan		“We are going to have a good time at long jump.”
	Ceanna		“Great job Ruby,” I yelled.

Direct Speech in our Writing

	Megan		“First we will practise with noodles,” Mrs McQuillan called to us.
	Lily		Mrs McQuillan said, “Have a duck beak”.
	Viennah		Lily shouted, “You have big straight arms.”
	Logan R		Lily yelled, “Your helicopter arms look like sharp knives”.
	Seb		“Nice straight arms,” said Samuel.
	Logan S		I announced, “My arms are the straightest.”
	Imogen		“Helicopter arms, bend low to high, clock hands and go!” shouted Mrs McQuillan.
	Samuel		Sapphire thought, “I’m going to throw the discus as far as I can”.
	Matthew		Seb muttered, “This is too hard”.
	Zach		“Mine will go further than yours,” yelled Sapphire.
	John		Margeaux whispered, “I wonder how far my discus will go?”
	Jacob		“Hurry up,” grumbled Tim.
	Dylan		Dylan exclaimed, “My throw was near yours!”
	Lauren		“Not so good,” laughed Lauren.
	James		“This is fantastic,” yelled James.

Learning About Writing

Making Our Writing More Interesting

This term our class has been learning ways to make our writing more interesting.

We have learnt many different ways but first I’m going to explain direct speech. Direct speech is recording exactly what someone said such as: “Hello Megan,” Mrs Bryant said to me when I entered the class in the morning.

Direct speech needs five different things: speech marks at the top of the beginning and the end of what the person has said, a capital letter for the first thing that they’ve said, the name of the person who said the thing you have written, a capital for their name and a powerful verb that describes how they said it.

Another thing we have been learning about is onomatopoeia. I already know what you’ll be thinking. What is onomatopoeia? Well simple to answer. Onomatopoeia is something that sounds like what it means such as swoosh and rustle.

The last thing I would like to share in my writing is similes. We have found over ten already in the “BFG” by Roald Dahl, and we haven’t even finished the book. I’ve done it again. I’ve forgotten to explain what similes are. Similes are comparing one thing with another such as, he watched the ball like an eagle watches his prey, or his cheeks blew up like huge ripe tomatoes.

Add all these things to your writing and your writing can become much, much more interesting, the same as all of ours’.

I’ve enjoyed writing this term a lot. Most of us have improved our writing a lot just by adding these things.

By Megan

Kea Scientists

On Monday in the afternoon Kea class did a scientific experiment to see if eggs can float in water. First we wrote our question then our prediction. Immediately after that we wrote the materials. We had salt, glasses, eggs and water. We tested the eggs with normal water. 15 people said it would float and 11 said it would sink including me. For our conclusion we wrote eggs don’t float in water. The next part was with dissolved salt. The egg floated. It was still floating on Tuesday. Even two days later it was still floating. We had a great time.
Matthew

Our class did fair testing. We were scientists for that bit of the day. Our class experimented to find out if an egg would float in water and in salty water. We predicted what we thought might happen. Logan R and James got to put the eggs in. My prediction was that the egg would sink in water and float in hot salty water and in just salty water. I got all my predictions right.
Sam S

On Monday we did fair testing. In the cold water it sunk. Some people thought it was going to float but it actually sunk. In the cup that had hot water and salt the egg floated.
Holly

We thought about if the egg will float in the water or if it will sink in the water. I thought the egg would sink. It sunk in the water. It floated with salt in the water.
Viennah

Another Construction Challenge

Yesterday we did Construction Thinker’s Key. Mrs Bryant gave us another challenge. Our challenge was to make a mouse mask. It was as much fun as a mouse eating cheese. We had to have big ears, whiskers, a roundish pointy nose, buck-teeth and eye holes to see out of. Jono was my buddy. I didn’t get it finished because it was a bit too hard. I was still on my draft when it was time to stop.
Logan R
I had to finish the mouse mask in one day. Ceanna was helping me. I was helping Ceanna make her mask.
Jonty

Richmond Street Parade

 

Boom! Boom! Boom! We could hear motorbikes driving past. Clickety clack, clickety clack, we could hear feet walking past. Oh no, it struck us. We were RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF A PARADE!!! Suddenly I heard my feet walking for some reason and then boom. I felt a flag in my hand and then I started yelling “USA, all the way”. Then it actually struck us. I was really really in a parade. I felt a smile on my face. Yay, I was in a parade. We walked down Queen St, Richmond, New Zealand and then into Sundial Square. After that my class finished and we all went back to school.

Ruby

On Monday we did a parade and we saw a brass tuba and a leader in the front of the band. We saw two army trucks and lots of motorbikes. We saw lots of USA flags and we chanted “USA, all the way”. We had fun in the Queen St parade.

Lily 

 

Yay, yay, hooray. That’s the sound that I heard on Monday. Here I was at Sundial Sq in my blue shirt just about to go on Queen St for the parade. When we got there lots of people were on the side of the road cheering.  We shouted out “USA all the way”. Once we got to the end there was a band playing. We got our pictures taken with our flags in the air.

John

The Queen St audience cheered for us at the Support USA Parade. At school my class made colourful red, blue and white USA flags. While the parade was happening my class said “USA, all the way”. There were other schools too. There were vehicles behind the schools. Logan R had his face painted. My whole school walked down the middle of Queen St. When the parade was finished there was a brass band.

Zach

Kea Assembly

 

Last Friday Kea class presented assembly. Dylan did all the electronic things. First Tim introduced the assembly. I read for Ceanna because she was a little bit late. The Orcas shared some Reading work with the school. After that the Panthers shared their posters. Kea sang a song called Where Did You Get That Hat. For that we made hats out of recycled things.

Ruby stood up and announced “Now we are going to sing Two Legged Mice”. After that Mr Dorman said some words. Everybody listened as carefully as a robber. I loved it. Well I reckon everyone liked it.

Margeaux

Last Friday Kea class had the best assembly ever. People had to be on time because if they weren’t on time they would miss out. We did cool songs but some of us were scared and stood like sausages. Dylan helped by playing the music for Where Did You Get That Hat. All of us made hats out of recycled materials like boxes, paper and cardboard. Orcas and Panthers talked about what they had been learning. Panthers were talking about an earthquake and showing posters.

I think Kea class assembly was the coolest, best, most wonderful fun assembly ever in the whole school.

Logan S

Kea class had an assembly and the whole class had hats. My hat had chocolate wrappers on the top. I had string to keep the hat on my head.

Blake

Most Valuable Player

On Saturday I won a trophy at prize giving at our Waimea Old Boy’s Rugby Club. I felt proud of myself. My trophy looks like me playing rugby. It says Waimea White Under 8 MVP Finlay Waters. I get to keep this trophy for my life. I got this trophy because I was working hard in rugby.

After prize giving we went to Blake’s house. Marshall and I gave a gift to my Dad and Blake’s Dad. They got a pocket knife and some fudge. Our whole rugby team went to Blake’s house to celebrate the end of our rugby.

Finlay

Construction Thinker's Key

Yesterday the 21st of September guess what our class did for Construction Thinker’s Key … We were challenged to make lunchboxes in pairs with only one A3 piece of card and 1 metre of sellotape that would fit an apple and a sandwich in it. First we found out who our buddies were then drew the design on our jotter pads. My buddy was Finn. Next we made a draft lunchbox and tried to fit the apple and sandwich in it. After that we showed Mrs Bryant our draft and worked out if we could get it out of the A3 card. If it met the challenge we took a piece of card to get started on our good copy. Then we drew our shape on the card we cut it out and taped it together. Once our lunchboxes had been constructed we decorated them with things like pictures, scraps of paper and even stickers if we owned some. When we had finished decorating our lunchboxes they looked as beautiful as princesses so Mrs Bryant took some photos of the finished good copies with the draft together with the apple and sandwich inside the good box to put the photos on the class blog and here they are!
    -Megan

Our Rubbish Free School

We are trying to have rubbish free lunches. Last Friday we had 15 rubbish free lunches. Now we have 20 rubbish free lunches. Before we were trying to have rubbish free lunches the school looked bad but now it looks better. We are aiming to get all of the school to have rubbish free lunches. Lots of us have no glad wrap. We use plastic containers.
  

We are doing this because Mr Dorman told us that animals like giant whales and little fish are dying. Our country will look really crowded with rubbish if we don’t stop using glad wrap and dropping fizzy bottles all over the land. 

Jono

Muffin made locally

Yummy food

Lunch is good

Using containers

No Nana, no rubbish

Containers instead of gladwrap

Homemade cake

Bees love lunch

Old rubbish doesn’t disappear quickly

eXcited Kea class, no rubbish

Sapphire

Our Book Fair

This week at Saint Paul’s School we have a Book Fair in the Junior Roost. It is on for a week. We can see it with our class or in the morning or the afternoon. There are lots of good books in the fair and there are some toys like a wand with a hand rubber on it. Today I might buy a book from it. My favourite books there are Diary of the Wimpy Kid and Stars of the All Blacks. We have a class Wish List there. Did you know anyone like our Mum, Dad, grandmas, granddads, aunties, brothers and sisters can come. It is sad because on Friday this week it ends.
     -Finn

The Book Fair has galaxies of books like an elephant having lunch. It’s got every book that you like. For example Club Penguin, Toy Story, Beast Quest and more. We’ve got Wish Lists of books we want. If you come you can be blasted to bits like a rocket launcher blowing up a car. The Book Fair is awesome. Once you buy a book you get a free bookmark. If you buy one for the library you will be helpful and also you will get a bookmark. You might even buy two or three or four. If you buy books we can get more books. Simple. There’s a lot more so come to the Book Fair and get new and awesome books. It’s in the Junior Roost.
    -Matthew

Thinker's Key

Every Wednesday Kea class does Thinker’s Key. The one we are doing is the Disadvantages Thinker’s Key. What we do is Mrs Bryant chooses a subject then we think of some problems and solutions to the problems. I try hard at getting lots of problems and solutions. I always participate.
We all try to participate in the Thinker’s Key. It helps me a lot in reading, writing and maths. The last subject we did was about a factory close to your home. We thought up 18 problems and got lots of solutions. Mrs Bryant said “It unlocks your thinking and makes you think faster”. I think she’s right about it all.
It is very interesting. I always look forward to Wednesdays.
Imogen

Keeping New Zealand Beautiful

Plants

Money

A lady called Holly came to visit our class to talk about saving our money. First she talked about money from other countries in the world which is called currencies. Money from South Africa is called rands and money from India is called rupees. She told us about eftpos cards and that having one is like taking our money round with us. It’s important to spend money on what you need before what you want. It’s important to save up money for when you need it.
At the end of her visit she picked out people to act out shop keepers and cash machines. She pretended to buy something and then come to a shop with no eftpos and went to a cash machine but had run out of money in her account. We enjoyed Holly’s visit. It was great.

Hats

The Craziest Hat I’ve Ever Seen
My hat is red and black and it has a sword through it. Whenever someone sees me they get confused because it looks as if a sword has gone through my head. I just laugh and laugh and they run away scared. It is made out of metal and steel and it hurts because it’s uncomfortable. I look crazy and funny at the same time. My hat is heavy and it makes me fall over and people laugh at me.
  -Samuel

The hat is wacky, crazy, tall and 3D. It has got joker cards glued on the sides of the hat. When you wear it, it’s light and uncomfortable because it’s made from thick paper. On top of the hat there is a fan that spins around. On the bottom of the brim there are playing cards. The sides have a swirly gold pattern. It is the wackiest hat I have ever seen because it’s funny.
  -James

New Library Carpet

Kea class thinks the new carpet in the library is:

Colourful As red as fire Fun Warm Hot Bright Furry Comfy Terrific Cosy Wonderful Lovely Amazing Delightful Fuzzy Very soft A strong colour

Margeaux Zach Dylan Lauren Ruby John Sapphire Sam S. Ceanna Finn Hannah Holly Seb Logan R. Samuel Lily Matthew

School Powhiri and Mass

This week the school went to mass. Matt did the call and we did a haka with actions up at the front. We were silent at the start, loud in the middle and silent at the end. When we were doing the haka the new people came up the aisle slowly. We also sang songs.The powhiri was to welcome the younger children to our school. The younger children got a buddy and a certificate. Some of the children had already started school and some were at kindy. The student council shared breathe with most of the new people. There were readings. Tim got to read one of the prayers. Some people read from the Bible.

Truss Bridge Building

Last term Kea class learnt about bridges in Topic. We built a Truss bridge out of Popsicle sticks. First we got some newspaper and did the sides then let them dry. Once we had done both sides we got some more Popsicle sticks and put them together (that was the hard part). When it was dry it sometimes stuck to the newspaper. Immediately my one fell down so I tried to put them together. Eventually I did it. I was amazed at it. They were very fragile and delicate so we had to be very gentle with them. Finally we had finished them. I felt glad we had finished them and proud of how well I did.

Drawbridges

 

On Wednesday Kea made some draw bridges. Kea class was busy. First Mrs Bryant explained how to make the drawbridge. The first thing you have to do is draw an oblong then you draw an “n”. Then you draw four circles. Finally you put the string in the four circles.

When I made a drawbridge I was amazed because my bridge looked like a real drawbridge.

Lauren

On Wednesday we made draw bridges. When we first started they wiggled like they were snakes stuck in a hole. We needed string, a cereal box each, a pencil and scissors. It was lots of fun making draw bridges- they all turned out great.

Ceanna

 

Student led Conferences

 Last Wednesday our class did student led conferences. First we showed our parents round our spectacular classroom. Next we explained what we have been learning this year. After that we showed our parents our portfolios and we showed the achievements that we have mastered. Then Mrs Bryant talked to our parents about the progress that we have made. Finally our parents wrote a comment in the comment book and received a conference letter. I thought my parents were very impressed with my work.

Hockey

Last term Kea class practised our hockey on the junior court. We learnt a tip from our coach to dribble the ball (sphere) with the flat side of the stick. Our coach said that we had to curve our hockey stick to make the ball go to the side. The hockey stick feels smooth on the flat side and bumpy on the other side. My class loves it because it makes our tummies feel funny.

French Cricket

On Friday Kea had sport on the court. We played French Cricket.  I was as straight as a stick. And Seb was as quick as a cheetah. Jono was in our team as well as Finn. I tied with Jono two times. Jono and I both won. We all thought it was awesome because it was different.

Digging up the lettuces

This week our class dug out most of our lettuces. We left some in the garden because we had enough to eat.

Cleaning

Mrs Hill helped us to wash the lettuce before we ate them and to clean up at the end.

Eating lettuce

The best part had finally come. It was time to eat the lettuces in wraps with marmite and cheese. Yummy.

Harvesting

Yum. Lots of lovely big, green, sweet lettuces for Kea class to eat.

We dug under the lettuces to pull them up and shook the dirt back into the garden. We cut the roots off so we could eat the lettuce leaves.

We dug under the lettuces to pull them up and shook the dirt back into the garden. We cut the roots off so we could eat the lettuce leaves.

Purple Passion Day

Choosing a good Council Member for 2011

 

Kea class voted for the School Council member. The most votes were for John Noble. He will need to  listen well, speak clearly, be responsible, say the class’ ideas, be patient and have good ideas himself. We decided that he would do all of these things. Good luck John.

Tennis Thursday

Every week we do tennis. This week we played Kings and Queens with our rackets. The idea is to hit the ball over the net into the right part of the court so that the Queen can hit it back. Every week we practise Around the World to help us with our balance skills. We also played Ammo to help our throwing skills. It was fun.

Class weaving

Last week we did paper weaving. We used long strips of paper to go over and under. Maori used this technique to make clothes, bags and mats.

The colours used were green, blue and yellow.

I was surprised how well I did it. I felt proud of our paper weaving. It was so much fun to do. I think the whole class liked weaving. I was star struck. It was amazing.

At the end it looked like checker boards on the wall.  Visit our classroom to see what it’s like.

Kea Ball Skills

We are practising our ball skills and games. The skills we are concentrating on are: looking at the ball, catching the ball with our hands, not our arms and pulling the ball into our body.

Growing lettuces

It was a sunny day when we planted the lettuces. We used a trowel to dig the hole and then put compost in the hole to improve the soil. We put plastic tubes around the plants to stop the birds eating our lettuces.

We watered the plants lightly.

We had to pull the weeds out of the ground.

It was lots of fun looking after the plants.

Practising Haka

Kea looks tough today! We are in Takahe classroom practising our school haka.  It was fun practising with Mr Philips because he shows us how to do the moves. Mr Dorman taught us the words.

The whole school is doing the haka. I’m sure we are going to be great on the day.

Kowhaiwhai

Last Friday the Middle School Syndicate did some Maori art work called Kowhaiwhai with Cindy. 

We did some sewing of patterns that told stories.

We drew patterns then cut them out and glued them to black paper to make a story about New Zealand and the early settlers.

Early settlers

This morning our class went to the museum to learn about the early European settlers. First we went into a room that had a penny-farthing. It has one huge wheel and one little wheel. Then we went on a ship. By Jacob

I was amazed at how small the beds were and how the people had to sleep together. The rich people went to sleep in good beds but the poor people had  to be all squashed together in one bed. It would feel weird to be on a big ship with lots of people because we would be all cramped into each other. By Jono, James and Hannah

The rich people could take more things than the others. By Sebastian

They had cats to eat the rats and mice. By Logan R

From the Ash Wednesday Liturgy 2011

This is a great Ash Wednesday. I think Mrs Bryant did really well on the keyboard with the band.
  -by Dylan

Kea Class on Ash Wednesday

Kea Class on Ash Wednesday on PhotoPeach