Animal Tracking with Mr Priest

On Thursday we had Mr Priest in Room 9. First we sang some songs in maori and then learnt a little about wetas and sang a little song about wetas. Then we continued on with our animal tracking tunnels from last week. Everyone in Room 9 put in an outstanding effort and got the job done. Then we walked down to the Enviro Centre and set up our animal tracking tunnels. I’m sure we all enjoyed having Mr Priest coming in and teaching us. Thanks Mr Priest!

Photographs and writing by Brodie.

On Thursday 26 February, Mr Priest came into our class (Rm 9) and showed us some weta's in a glass box. After that we got into groups of 2-5 people and made animal tunnels for the Enviro Centre. The tunnels give us information of what animals are down in the Enviro Centre.

First we got ready with our equipment - wood, foam, plastic, paper clips, paper, ink, peanut butter, stapler, tape and big real estate signs. Mr Priest explained how to make the tunnels and then we got started.

We got our signs and measured the sign with a vivid and marked it. Then we got a ruler and dented along the sign. We folded the sign into a tunnel and taped it till it was strong. Then we got the wood, foam and the plastic to see if it was the right length then stapled it on to the wood.

We put the plastic under the foam so the ink would not soak into the wood. Then we painted the ink on and stapled the paper clips to the wood at each corner. We wrote our names on the paper and slipped it under the paper clips.  We put some peanut butter on the ink and slid the wood into the tunnel.

Then we put them under bushes in the Enviro Centre and maybe over night some animals, like hedgehogs or rats, might crawl up the tunnel and eat the peanut butter. Their feet get wet from the ink and when they walk out the other side they leave footprints of ink. You can then figure out what animals footprints they are and what type of animals visit or live in the Enviro Centre.

Written by Kate

On Thursday the 26th Mr Priest came into our class and finished off our animal tracking traps.

He also brought 3 wetas from his garden!!All the traps are finished now.We set them out in the

school enviro centre and left them there.I hope we will go have a look at the traps next week to

see what prints we got.Some of you might not know how we get the prints but I'm going to tell you .each group got a piece of wood from Mr Priest and made a square or triangle tunnel out of some card board.In the middle of the wood we stapled on a piece of thik fabric with a plastic sheet underneath so the ink wouldn't run out .Then in each corner we stapled on a paper clip.We soaked the fabric with ink and put the paper under the paperclips in the very middle of the fabric. We put on peanut butter. We slid the wood and every thing else on top, in to the square tunnel and put it into the enviro Center next. Now we're waiting for an animal to walk in one end, then have some peanut butter and then walk out the other end to leave a foot print.

By Juraj

Room 9 Class School Councillors 2015

 

 

Some rm9 pupils told the class why they wanted to be a school class school council member yesterday. The class wanted to know the following:

 

• Why do you want to be a class council member?
• What qualities do you have that will make you a good choice?
• talking to others
• thinking of ideas
• listening to others ideas
• negotiator
• communication skills
• What evidence or proof do you have to back up your points?

 

We all voted for who we wanted representing our class. Congratulations to Angela and Isaac who are the 2015 room 9 class councillors. Lily and Jago will be representing room 9 as a school councillor if Angela and Isaac are unavailable.

Buddy Time

Room 9 pupils spend some time each week with their buddy from room 4. Last week we were working on a spelling activity together.

Maths Whizz

Maths Whizz

Oakura School has signed up for a year with Maths Whizz, an online maths tutor. Click on the link above to learn more about the website.

All year 3-6 pupils have a log in password and will do an online assessment so that the activities are at the right level for each pupil.

To be able to use your own device to access Maths Whizz, read the following information given by the Maths Whizz administrators.

For optimum performance please ensure that you have the most updated FLASH player and are using an updated Internet Browser – Google Chrome is recommended.

iPAD – if you wish to use Maths-Whizz on the iPad then go Puffin Academy and search for Maths-Whizz and login through Puffin Academy.

 

Swimming - Backstroke arm and turning technique

Room 9 are all fantastic swimmers! We have been practicing our backstroke arm technique. We are also learning how to turn against the wall. Have a look at this Olympic swimmer to get some tips.

Turning technique:

Another backstroke turn tutorial:

New Gmail Accounts

The year 5&6 pupils now all have their own gmail accounts.

You can easily work out your friend's email addesses.

All addresses follow the same format...

first name (lower case), followed by the first letter of surname (lower case), followed by the last two numbers of the year born (e.g 06), followed by @oakura.school.nz

An example would be louiseb81@oakura.school.nz (this isn't a real email address).

To access your gmail account, go to google and click on sign in (top right hand corner of the screen).

Happy emailing! 

Rocket! Ordering Numbers Fun

Room 9 have been working on our understanding of place value. Today we were comparing and ordering 2 digit and decimal numbers. We played the rocket game against a buddy. Ask a room 9 pupil to show you how to play or click on the link below to find out how to play. 

Try it yourself! 

Rocket Maths

Microgrom Surf Competition

Congratulations Ruby on a great result at the Microgrom surf competition. 

More information to come from Ruby.

Studyladder

Room 9 will be using Studyladder, an online learning tool, as part of our reading and maths learning. Click on this link to access the website. Studyladder. There is also a link on the right hand side of our blog page for easy access. All pupils will have their own password to access the tasks. Have fun.

 

Weet-Bix TRYathlon competition

Isla and Sula (Room 4) won some fun prizes and a free entry into this year's Weet-Bix TRYathlon in today's assembly. Congratulations Isla and Sula!

IXL maths

We are learning to identify the value of each digit in large numbers.
We used IXL to practice. Have a go by clicking on the link below.
IXL maths

Parts of Speech

Room 9 are learning to use adverbs and adjectives in their writing to make it interesting to the reader.

We add adverbs to verbs.
We add adjectives to nouns.

But what are verbs and nouns?

Adjective detectives - find the adjectives game.

Verbs and adverbs game...



Adverbs and adjectives fun

Beach Clean - 11.02.15

Check out the photos of our Beach Clean day.

More details coming from a Room 9 pupil.

School values

At Oakura School, we value:

RESPECT

PERSEVERANCE

and

HONESTY.

Today we looked closely at our school values and identified what it would look like, sound like and feel like at Oakura School.

 

We also created some role plays to represent one or two of the school values.

The rest of the class were given the challenge of identifying the school value.

Classroom orientation - 3.2.15

On Tuesday, we used a bird's eye view of the classroom to find different items in the classroom. We now know where everything lives!

Human Knot - 3.2.15

Room 9 were given the human knot challenge on the first day of school. It was a lot of fun. This required good communication, perseverance and teamwork to succeed. These were the steps we followed:

•       Stand in a circle.

•       Each person holds out right hand and grasps another person’s hand as if shaking it (not the person next to you).

•       All do the same with the left hand (not the same person as your right hand or the person next to you).

•       Untangle yourselves into a single circle without releasing hands!



Watch this short video to remind you of the importance of choosing strong passwords for when you are accessing the internet. The year 5 pupils will be asked to create a password to access their new google account. The year 6 pupils already have one set up.

Steps:
1. Go to google.
2. Click on mail (top right hand corner)
3. Type in given email address and current password given to you at school
4. Click on arrow next to email address (top right hand corner)
5. Click on account.
6. Scroll down to password.
7. Click on password.
8. Follow instructions to reset password.