MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM ALL IN ROOM 13!

Helen and everybody in Room 13 would like to wish all of our friends and family a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Have a safe and relaxing holiday and we look forward to catching up in 2009.

Ka kite ano.

END OF YEAR CELEBRATION

Kahikatea Syndicate had a Chinese New Year festival for our end of year celebrations. For our Inquiry learning this term we have been looking at different cultural celebrations and how they have changed. We chose to have a Chinese dragon parade and shared traditional food to communicate our learning with family and friends.
We had a fantastic evening with lots of yummy food, a wonderful parade and some VERY loud fireworks.
A big thank you to everyone involved - it was a great celebration!

SHAPE POEMS

Room 13 are studying Poetry this term.

Here are some examples of our Concrete (Shape) Poems using ALLITERATION and SIMILES.

Beautiful butterfly
Flying as fast as a plane in a bright blue sky.
She bobs in the breeze like a beautiful blossom
Then floats onto a flower in my backyard.
By Baimon

Glides in the pale moonlight,
Flies in the air high as the stars.
Glittering wings waving in the cool wind
As beautiful as a rainbow.
Dances in the pale white snow.
By Emily

Penguins are as cold as an icy ice block.
Cool and icy.
Cosy like icy wool.
Comfortable as a cosy chimpanzee.
Cold and soft like my cat.
By Paige

Diving deep into the sea,
Dancing in the darkness.
Flipping like a dolphin and bending like a snake.
Attacking whales one by one.
By Max




You can read more by clicking on the link to Room 13's writing 2008 OR you come into Room 13 and read them here - they look much better when you read them with the artwork!

LUCKY ROOM 13!

ADDING TO THE SOCIAL SKILLS T-CHART
DEMONSTRATING TESSELLATIONS IN MATHS

Room 13 are very lucky to have a new learning tool in our classroom. We have just had an interactive whiteboard installed and we are having LOTS of fun with our learning! We are looking forward to discovering more ways of using this every day.

SUTER ART GALLERY: Full Spectrum

Max guesses the colour
Using 'cool' and 'warm' colours

Discussing the colour wheel



Room 13 have been on our last visit to the Suter Art Gallery for 2008. We went to see "Full Spectrum". We learnt about the colour wheel, warm and cool colours and emotions of colours. It was another fantastic exhibition.

We would like to say a huge THANK YOU to Esther for all of the wonderful work she has done with us this year!

Dear Esther,

Thank you for inviting us to the Suter Art Gallery. My favourite exhibition was the Full Spectrum (colour wheel). I like the colour wheel because we could colour in lots and lots of pictures of art. My mum made one too.

I also liked the Arum display with memory flowers because we could make our own colourful memory flower with plastic bags. I hope we can come again next year.

From Emily

Dear Esther,

Thank you so much for teaching us about art and stuff at the Suter Art Gallery. My favourite exhibition was Arum. It was a very pretty visit. Making the memory flowers was lots of fun.

I also liked Toss Woollaston because I liked the blind sketching. Mine came out really scribbly but it was lots of fun. I also liked sketching the people. I hope I can come again next year and see the next best exhibition.

From Josephine

FIREWORKS!

Fireworks look like snakes falling from the sky.
Fireworks sound like screaming on Halloween.
Fireworks taste like extra hot chilli powder.
Fireworks smell like rotten gunpowder.

Frankie

FIREWORKS
Look like big sprinkles going everywhere.
Sound like a volcano about to erupt.
Taste like smoked salmon.
Smell like smoke going everywhere.

Mia

I think fireworks should be banned. I think this because the noise hurts dogs’ ears and animals get scared. Some people do silly things like put fireworks in ducks mouths. Fireworks can cause fires if they are let off near dry grass. In public some people let off fireworks and don’t pick up the rubbish. That is bad because it makes a mess. That is why I think fireworks should be banned.

Isobel

I think fireworks should not be banned. I think this because if people used the fireworks properly people would not get hurt. The people who like fireworks to celebrate special occasions should be able to go somewhere to let them off. Fireworks are used to celebrate Chinese New Year. In China many years ago there was a monster called Nian so they let fireworks off to scare away Nian. This is special. That is why fireworks should be allowed.

Mia

CELEBRATION HATS

Kahikatea Syndicate's Inquiry topic this term is 'Let's Celebrate!' To Set the Scene for our Inquiry learning we had this task:

Design and create a hat to wear at a celebration. You will need to explain where and when you would wear your hat.

We had a lot of fun planning, creating and decorating our hats. Then we showed them to the other classes in Kahikatea Syndicate.

BODY IN ACTION: NELSON MUSEUM

Te Huringa: Turning Points

Room 13 have been on another fabulous trip to the Suter Art Gallery to see the ‘Te Huringa: Turning Points’ exhibition. We made a shield that shows the people, places and things that are important in our lives.

Mana-a-iwi: Mana of the people
Mana whenua: Mana of the land
Taonga: Treasures – all that is valued.

Thanks Esther and all of our wonderful parents!

DIANA NOONAN VISITS NELSON CENTRAL

Today Diana Noonan came to Nelson Central School to read us lots of stories. She read us:
The Dazzling Miss Dynamo
Trees are for Everyone
Fat Cat Tompkin
Porridge
Giant Stew
Soda bread

Diana Noonan writes about her life and her home. She gave us some tips like:
* Write everyday to become ‘writer fit’
* If something happens you should write it down.

Emily, Paige and Carleigh

Diana Noonan came to talk to our school. First she showed us her teddy then she showed us lots of books of ‘The Best Loved Bear’. After that she read us some stories. Two of the stories were ‘Trees Belong to Everyone’ and ‘Fat Cat Tompkin’. Next she answered some questions.

Josephine, Baimon, Mia

Today I met Diana Noonan and I found out that she writes books that are published in lots of different languages like ‘The Best loved Bear’ and ‘The Best Dressed Bear’. We found out she is a vegetarian. She read us ‘Fat Cat Tompkin’ ,‘Trees belong to Everyone’ and ‘Giant Stew’.

Jonti, Callum, Daniel

TEAPOT VALLEY CAMP

Room 13 had a wonderful time at camp - a fantastic start to Term 4. A huge thank you to all of the parents that made this camp possible. Please take the time to look at some of the photos of our adventures! Thanks to Isobel and Aimee for making a great slideshow.

Dear Paul,
Thank you for taking us to camp and thank you for staying at camp too. My favourite activity was the mini jeep because it goes really fast. My other favourite activity was the trampoline because it is so powerful and I jumped so high. The very hard thing about camp was the confidence course but everything else was fun.
From Daniel

Dear Dad,
Thank you for taking me to camp at Teapot Valley. It was really fun. I hope you had a great time at camp. One of my favourite activities was the mini jeep, I was really good at it. When I jumped into the pool it was freezing so I got out and had a warm shower. After dinner we had the camp concert and I liked it. I can't wait until next year.
From Louie

SEE OUR WRITING BLOG FOR MORE LETTERS!

SPRING IS HERE!

Signs of Spring are everywhere at Nelson Central School. Here are some things we have seen recently:

A Monarch butterfly

Cute ducklings

Isobel's gorgeous lamb 'PIP' came for a visit. As part of our Inquiry topic this term we have been investigating Imports and Exports, looking closely at New Zealand wool. Pip gave us all a chance to experience some wool up close!

SPRING POEMS: COUPLETS

Have you ever seen a new leaf?

Pale green, cool coloured, brand new.

Wicked!

By Lochie

Have you ever seen a lamb?

Bleating baby, soft sheep, sweet white.

Wonderful.

By Isobel

Have you ever seen a foal?

Beautiful creature, trotting madly, spectacular baby.

Outstanding.

By Frankie

ULURU AND FRIENDS

Room 13 have been reading some lovely letters from Miss S's class in Australia. They are looking after our friend Kiki Kiwi and seem to be having some great adventures. We have written some stories and letters about Uluru for our Australian friends to read.

You can read these by clicking on the link to 'Room 13's writing 2008' .

We hope to hear back from Miss S's class soon!

OLYMPIC CHAMPION VISITS

Lynley shows us her Bronze medal

Lochie tries the medal on

Emily and Uluru

Rooms 13, 1 and 3 were very lucky to have a visit from Lynley Coventry (nee Hannen). Lynley won a Bronze medal at the 1988 Olympics Games in Seoul, Korea. Lynley and Nikki Payne won the medal for rowing in the Coxless pair 2000m race. We were all allowed to hold the medal - it was quite big and VERY heavy.

Lynley told us all about how she got to be an Olympic champion and reminded us that:
WE CAN ALL ACHIEVE IF WE AIM HIGH!

Ki runga rawa tamariki.

SUTER ART GALLERY: ARUM

Even Uluru had a go at making a flower!
Aiden made a flower for his Uncle

Room 13 have been on another fantastic visit to the Suter Art Gallery. We went to see Anne Rush's exhibition called 'ARUM'. It is an amazing sight! The space is all white, including the floor, walls, furniture and Takaka stones on the floor. There are lots of white Arum lilies that Anne Rush has made form paper mache. The exhibition is about MEMORIES and we all thought about somebody or something that we missed in our lives. We made a memory flower of our own and placed it on the wall outside the Suter Art Gallery.


Thanks again to Esther and all of the wonderful parents that make these trips happen.

THE WILD STORM

The storm looked like trees swaying in the wind, toppling over on the ground.
The storm sounded like wind rattling on my windows.
The storm made me feel like monsters were attacking.
By Callum

The storm sounded like somebody drumming on
the roof with a hammer.
The storm looked like fat trees cracking when they rip.
The storm felt like raindrops blowing away in
the far distance.

By Emily

The storm looked like the wind blowing trees,
swaying trees and rivers flooding.
The storm sounded like rattling windows and rain in the trees.
The storm felt like leaves hitting me.

By Omar

The storm looked like twisting raindrops falling from the sky out of nowhere.
The storm felt like very strong raindrops dripping on my head.
The storm sounded like raindrops crashing on the roof and the fire making a rattling noise.

By Max