The Talking Stick by Dot Meharry

Today, we had a special visitor in Room 14. Mr Greaves (Karamea's Dad) read us a story called The Talking Stick by Dot Meharry. It's about a boy called Hohepa who makes a talking stick for his whanau because they are forgetting the old ways.

We learnt that the Te Reo word for talking stick is Tokotoko. Tokotoko help people to tell their stories.

Mr Greaves explained the word whakapapa. We learnt that whakapapa is who we are and where we come from.

Mr Greaves is an artist - he showed us some special Maori symbols. He explained to us that the symbols we choose to draw on  our talking stick share our story, who we are. Harlem came up with a wonderful idea of decorating our talking sticks with shells - we will do this over the next few weeks.

We know its important that everyone has a chance to share their ideas so we are going to use the talking sticks in class to help us share our stories.

Cahlia working on her tokotoko

Harlem and Zack drawing and talking about their tokotoko designs

Karamea and Ayden 

Balloon Rockets

Today we made balloon rockets to learn about forces. We learnt that as the air is pushed out of the back of the balloon, it pushes the balloon forwards along the string.

We had so much fun!

The classroom erupted with laughter and squeals as Jack and Jordan released their balloon rocket

Charlie ready to let his balloon rocket go

Ayden and Keagan working together to explore whether the balloon will travel upwards along the string.

Try this experiment at home, its really simple. All you need is 

• a balloon
• cellotape
• a straw
• string

Amazing Tree Houses

We are learning to use adjectives to make the reader feel excited about our stories.

We know adjectives are describing or wow words.

Check out what these clever authors wrote;

Author Charlie wrote:

Wow! Look, there is an invisible tree house high up in the tree which is in the dark forest. “How do we get up though?” I asked. Look, there is a short staircase that leads to a bridge. No one can see it and no one can see you because it is magical, they can only see the woods. There is a password and if you get it wrong two times an alarm will go on outside then security guards will run in and might shoot you with their paint ball guns and it really hurts. The password is 8434 5678107, you have to do that and they you say a word password, it is because. The tree hut has three rooms and the walls and the roof are made out of glass but very strong glass that can not break. The floor is made out of strong blue wood. My bedroom has heaps of toys and a huge star bed that has a Ben 10 cover.

Suddenly, there was a puff of smoke and I started to spring out from the tree house. I saw a button pop up on the bridge so I pushed it down then a sign popped up. It said beware the angry witch is coming. I sprinted back inside and hid under my bed and after 2 minutes a boy fairy came under my bed then he told me a secret. He said, “Jump out the window and wait until the witch goes in the tree hut and I will steal her witches broom and you can zoom back home.” When I got home I wished school could finish at writing time so I could me my fairy friend again and have another adventure.

Author Ayden wrote:

In a long stretchy path you will see a secret hideout that looks like a silver rain drop that looks like a flower that wants to gobble you up. When you get to the tree house you’ve got to say the password. The password is 808. If you get it wrong three times a foot with a shiny shoe will kick you into a trap.

The floor is creaky because it is old wood. It has missing pieces so you will need to be careful. You will see a square table with goodies and presents that are tiny and enormous from Santa. I gave Santa cookies with some beer. He ate all of the chocolate chip cookies and he drank all of the bubbly beer. Then he went to Zack’s house. Suddenly, my tree house started to move and shake like an earthquake. I looked out of the window and there was a huge dinosaur trying to destroy my house. When he gave up trying to destroy my house I spotted my house down the road so I sprinted back for lunch at my Nana’s house.

Author Ethan wrote:

In the tall trees I am the owner of all tree houses. I am not letting anybody in them except Riley. I am going to put some tape on the staircase. It is going to say don’t come in please! When we come in we will hear music. We will dance to it. There will be beds. We will sleep together. In the middle of the night we heard stomping feet then ROAR! ROAR! ROAR! went the monster. We shivered and then BANG! CRASH! the wind blew trees down. We hid under my bed then the monster went away.

Author Dom wrote:

My invisible house is in the dark forest. It is invisible because it is camouflaged like a tree with windows and a door. I peeked through the tiny key hole. I saw a giant chocolate cake on the table. I twisted the door handle. Suddenly, I heard something coming, it sound like a witch. I sprinted through the door into the dark forest. I heard the witch coming after me so I sprinted faster until I spotted my house along the road!

Author Caitlin wrote:

Hiding away in the amazing Redwoods is a fluffy strawy nest. It has a twirling staircase that leads to my bedroom and I have some tweeting birds perched on my pink window sill. I have a magic jewelry box that takes me to the top of the clouds so I can see my ginger fluffy guinea pigs. My hut is very stable because it is ties with bits of strong rope. My bed is very fluffy because it is made out of cotton balls. There are pink concrete walls in every room and red wooden floor boards. There is a special green button next to the door that brings down the massive flat screen TV and in front of the TV is a snugly couch made out of birds feathers.

Suddenly, there was a sparkle of silver light. Wow, Butterfly the butterfly fairy shot out of a cup. I couldn't believe my eyes. Butterfly turned me into a beautiful fairy and we both flew to fairyland. When we got to fairyland we fluttered to the fairy fields to help the green grass grow.

Fair Testing

We are exploring how force creates movement. To finish off our car and ramp activities we tested if height affects how far a car travels off a ramp. To make sure the test was fair we used the same car each time and did the test on the same floor.

We decided it wouldn't be fair if we did one test on the carpet and then moved to the lino because the car will go faster on the lino because the lino is slippery so there is less friction.

Our question: Does the height of the ramp affect how far the car travels?

We all tried putting 1 block then 3 blocks under the ramp to see what happened. Then each group could decide the number of blocks they used.

We discovered that 3 blocks makes the car travel further than 1 block and 9 blocks makes the car go even further. When we tried 10 blocks we discovered the car hits the floor really fast and then slows down so it doesn't travel very far - 10 blocks is too high!

Area

In maths we are learning about area. We know that area is the space something covers.

Today, we taped out an area on the mat and explored how many of us could fit inside the area. We had two shapes, a big square and a long rectangle. We discovered that even though the rectangle looked bigger we fitted in less people because it was narrower than the square. The rectangle had less area.

We had a little gap and found Chimp fitted perfectly (which was pretty fair considering he is part of our Room 14 learning whanau) !

We noticed Ruby's feet were outside the area so she wiggled up to make sure her feet were inside the area. We know measuring accurately is important!

This weeks PRIDE recipient

This week our PRIDE award went to Jack. Jack received his PRIDE award for being a self managing learner. 

You are a great model of Parkvale PRIDE. Tino pai a Jack!

Sports Pals

During lunch time senior sports pals hold games on Paki's Paddock. Classes play against each other. Each time we have played ALL of Room 14 have worked together as a team. We played dodgeball against other classes in Kowhai and Manuka hubs and we won. We got presented with the trophy at today's school assembly.

Tino pai Room 14 !

Learning about centimetres

We are learning how to measure accurately. We know accurate means we start measuring at the beginning of an object and stop at the end and we have no gaps. The Fraction Frogs used 1cm cubes to measure how long their name is.

Check out this great work by Cloe and Jack

Would you rather...?

We have been learning to start our writing with a question. Our next step is to start and end our writing with a question. We have also been learning to use conjunctions or joining words. We know that joining words glue our ideas together. 

Check out what these clever authors wrote about animal adventures.....

Author Caitlin wrote:

Would you rather have a speedy leopard that can run as fast as a rocket ship or a super bouncy jaguar? I would rather have a super bouncy jaguar because I can bounce up and down on the trampoline with her. I can hop onto her back and hold onto her fluffy white fur when my leopard bounces us into space to the moon. We will find a huge hole in the moon and we will get our moon boards and click our feet into the straps then slip into the hole.

Author Riley wrote:

Would you rather have a fluffy black puppy or a fluffy ginger kitten? I would like a fluffy ginger kitten because they purr like this purrrrrrrrrrrrrr and they make adorable faces at people. Their fur feels like a lion’s mane. Their eyes sparkle in the bright sun. If my fluffy ginger kitten was enormous with little steps then I would be able to climb to the tippy top. We would go to America, the hottest place in the universe. We could dance and drink fizzy all day and Ginger could drink milk all day too. We could paint pictures together.

Author Balin wrote:

Would you rather have a bouncy kangaroo or a cheeky monkey? I would rather a cheeky monkey because when my dad goes to work my monkey will put a bucket of water on the top of the door and when Dad shuts the door the water will fall on him. I would be in a basketball team with my monkey. He would swing on the hoop to take lots of slam dunks so we could win the finals of the NBA. At the end the cameras would flash at me and I would be on TV.

Tug o War

Today, we played a game of tug o war to explore how friction helps us to move. We played tug o war on the grass and in the school hall. We tried it outside on the grass (with shoes on) and with just socks on in the hall. We discovered that we moved more on the slippery hall fall, especially when we had socks on!

Grass and shoes = more friction.   Shiny floor and socks = less friction so we move more.

Friction Ramps

Today in maths we used our car ramps to measure how far a car travelled. We used 3 different ramps to explore how friction can make a car travel a short or long distance.

We used a slippery ramp, a smooth ramp and a rough ramp.
The slippery ramp was covered in tinfoil. The smooth ramp was painted and the rough ramp was covered in sand.

Our question: Which ramp will make the car go the furthest?

We discovered the slippery ramp made the car go faster and travel the longest distance. The rough ramp made the car go slowler down the ramp and travel the shortest distance.

We concluded that when the car goes on the rough ramp there is more friction.

Hannah, Payton and Charlie measuring how far the car travelled on the smooth ramp

Caitlin, Jasmine, Ethan and Ayden measuring how far the car travelled on the slippery ramp

Jack trialling the rough ramp

Friction

As part of our learning about forces and movement we are exploring friction.

We know friction is created when two things rub together. Today, we rubbed our hands together and discovered that our hands felt smooth. The faster and harder we rubbed the hotter our hands got. Next, we rubbed liquid soap on our hands and discovered our hands became slippery and it was easier to rub them together. Lastly, we sprinkled salt on our hands. We discovered the salt was rough. The salt made it hard to rub our hands together.

Karamea and Riley with slippery soapy hands

Rebekah 

Zack rubbing his slippery hands together

Keagan feeling the rough salt 

Dom

Amazing Monsters

We have been very busy being creative. We are learning how to use texture to make our creations look real. Texture makes art interesting to touch.

We created texture on our monsters by using different materials; coconut and tissue paper to make bumpy areas and silver paper, felt and paint to make smooth areas.

Guinea Pigs

Today, we were super lucky because Hannah and her dad, Mr Woods, brought in Kowhai and Rosie to visit us. So we didn't scare our visitors, we had to sit very quietly, use whispering voices and be very gentle when we patted them. 

Kowhai

Author Riley wrote:

Fluffy guinea pigs! They are adorable. They looked spiky and fluffy. I felt like a robber. I wanted to steal them. Their names are Rosie and Kowhai. They were nervous because they were shivering. Their skin was ginger and black. My favourite one was Kowhai because Kowhai had pointy nails that looked like a knife. When Kowhai looked at me she said, tkktkktkk.

Author Jordan wrote:

Hannah and Mr Woods brought their gorgeous guinea pigs to school. Their names are Kowhai and Rosie. They are very cute! If I would be able to hold one it would be very soft and cuddly. We couldn’t hold one because they would be scared. We patted them with two fingers. We didn’t pat with five fingers because we would have scared them. We are like giants to the guinea pigs. Kowhai was going squeak squeak when she was nibbling a carrot.

Author Jasmine wrote:

Wow! The guinea pigs came today. Their names are Kowhai and Rosie. I almost fainted because they were so cute! I wanted to keep them. They look spiky. There were dark brown and white. Hannah picked up the guinea pig and she got guinea pig hair all over her Parkvale School jumper. Kowhai was shivering. Rosie was shivering slowly because everyone was staring at her. They chattered to us. They said, “squeak squeak,” and twitched their noses.