Swimsafe

Gemma made this pic collage of us at Swimsafe.

imovie trailer

At techsperx Amelia and Eva made an imovie trailer about our year at Vardon school

Bean seed experiment

Thanks to our wonderful Techsperxs Amelia and Eva who brought their knowledge back to our classroom to share with us how to use the trailer part of the imovie app we were able to make a trailer about our science experiment. Amelia and Eva taught Oliver and Saphyre how to use the programme to create the video below.

What do you like about it?
Have you ever used the trailer imovie app before?
What have you created from it?

What do plants need to grow?

This term we are looking at making things grow through hands on science. We decided that to grow plants there are certain needs and wants just like we have certain needs and wants.

Here is a song Mrs Head found about the needs of a plant. We are going to test these needs out to see if plants really NEED all five of these things.

Athletics-Learning to Throw

Today we headed out for our first bit of athletics training. It was EXTREMELY windy so we hope our balls will fly as far as they did today again tomorrow.
We learnt how to throw the ball using the correct technique here is a Pic Collage we made to show others how to throw the ball.

Techsperxs sharing apps

Today our Techsperxs Amelia and Rico shared an app that we use a lot in class (iMovie). They also heard from other classes what apps they like to use to help with their learning. They came back from Techsperxs and created a comic life (this meant using another fairly new app) to show what everyone enjoyed using. It was great to see them then layer the apps that they use all on their own.

They took a screenshot-then created a comic life-then a pic collage-then loaded it onto the blog.

Great work Amelia and Rico!

Keep NZ Beautiful

Vardon School is picking up rubbish to keep NZ clean for Keep NZ Beautiful week.  With wrap free Wednesday we couldn't find heaps and heaps which shows we are looking after our environment.

Learning to dance

This is the middle team learning to dance with a lady called Kate.  It was heaps of fun and we learnt a whole dance in half an hour.

Keep NZ Beautiful

This is Vardon School learning how to Keep NZ Beautiful and why it is important we look after the earth.

Measurement-Length

In Room 9 we are beginning to look at measurement and the different units there are for measuring length.
Here are a few different things we already know about measurement.

Created with Padlet

Created with Padlet

Created with Padlet

Created with Padlet

Using Twitter to connect with other #ksedchatnz kids

Some of Room 9 took part in the #ksedchatnz on Twitter to do with maths.
#ksedchatnz goes from 2-3 every Wednesday afternoon and is a chance to share what we have been learning and also connect with others to see what they are learning about and share new ways to learn.
This week was all about maths the prompting questions were;
1. What have you been learning about in maths?
2. Tell or explain a maths strategy you have learnt this year.
3. What are some of your favourite activities that you have done in maths this year?
4. Why is it important to learn about maths?
5. What are some of your favourite maths apps?

We started off by answering these questions ourselves and then we looked to what comments other people had made and replied to them starting conversations sometimes with people a few classrooms down from us but also with people we have never meet around NZ. It was lots of fun and we can't wait for the next one!

Next week the focus is on science.
Start thinking about how you could answer these questions. You may have to think right back to our interdependence learning in Term 1 and going to Pirongia.

1. What have you been learning about in science this year?
2. Can you share an experiement you have taken part in this year? What did you learn from it?
3. What do you like/dislike about science at school?
4. Why is it important to learn about science at school?
5. What are some of your favourite science websites, videos or activities?

Gymsport Dance Groups

Yesterday four teams from the Middle team and three Senior teams headed down to Hamilton Gymnastics Clubs. The middle cheerleaders came second, senior cheerleaders came third. The Flash Mob hip hoppers came first, Inspiring hip hoppers second and Funky hip hoppers third. The senior aerobics team came first and middle team came second. Well done to everyone who practiced hard and smiled their way through their performances.

Paarth's Special Day

Today Paarth came to school wearing a really special bracelet and had a red dot with rice on his forehead. We learnt this gives good luck and keeps him safe.

We are cashletes!

Today we had a financial personal trainer (PT) visit Room 9 to teach us about money, how to keep it safe and what we should do with it. We even found out that we can own an eftpos card when we turn eight if our parents sign for us to have one. We also learnt the difference between a credit card and an eftpos card. An eftpos card is our money but a credit card is the banks money and we have to pay it back. Just like if we borrow a pencil we have to give it back. Alex asked a great question so do we just pay that amount back? We learnt that you have a time that it must be paid back to the bank otherwise you pay interest on it. So like the pencil if you don't give that back in time you might have to give the pencil back plus a rubber or three pencils.We did some chores to earn some money and then talked about what to do with it and we decided it was best to spend some on me and save some too!

Saying our chant spend some on me and save some too!

Doing our chores to earn money.

Witi Ihimaera-imovie

Witi Ihimaera read a story called Sam Gyup Sal. They were asked to choose an app to show what they had learnt from reading the story. They choose to have another go at using imovie.

Witi Ihimeara and The Lemonade War

The Witi Ihimaera reading group finished reading their novel The Lemonade War by Jacqueline Davies. They used the imovie app on the ipad to collaboratively make a short film as an introduction blurb to encourage others to read it.
Take a look and leave a comment. Do you think you would read The Lemonade War after seeing the video?

Beatrix Potter read White Sunday

Beatrix Potter read a book called White Sunday. They were given a choice, to show how they wanted using what ever app they selected, to tell others what they have learnt and now know about White Sunday.
They choose to use Sock Puppets to show what they know. Check these out below.

Culture Roleplays

In Room 9 we are learning about culture. We have had fun pretending we are part of a different culture and the way that they greet people and what they talk about.
We had a group from Japan, Spain, Argentina and France.
Can you guess what group is from where?

After sharing our roleplays Mrs Head mixed the groups up and we were so confused some of us bowed some of us shook hands or hugged. Even a simple thing like saying hello was hard to do and we found that we offended some of our classmates without meaning to by sitting down before our hosts or talking about things they didn't like to talk about.

Dr Seuss-WALT: Ask and answer questions

Dr Seuss read A Gift for Aunty Nga. It was based on a family where some of them live in NZ and some in Rarotonga. We came up with some questions of our own.

Created with Padlet

Handwriting Hero and Printing Princess

Congratulations to our latest Handwriting Hero Oliver and Printing Princess Kayley who worked really hard to produce their best work. Trying to keep their letters the correct size and shape.

Circuits.

Room 9 are getting fit for cross country. Every Tuesday, Wednesday and most Friday mornings we head out, the whole middle team, to the netball courts to complete our circuits. We have music to get us excited about moving and we move around at the whistle to the next card. Each card has a different activitiy. There is usual one to get our heart pumping and then one to stretch out our muscles.
Mrs Orton took photos of us today and then Alex and Gemma helped her to make a pic collage of our circuits.

Pentagons are learning their four times tables.

Today the pentagons maths group were using materials to help use their two times tables to work out their four times. Check out how we made four groups of 6 and four groups of 8 to show 4x6 and 4x8 using a variety of materials.

Calling the roll in Te Reo Maaori

We have learnt to call the roll in Africians. Now we have had a go at it in Te Reo Maaori.

listen to ‘Left to my own devicesboo’ on Audioboo

Learning to write in Cambodian

Amelia went home and asked her Grandad to teach her how to write the alphabet in Cambodian. She came to school with it all written out and then taught the class how to write our own names in Cambodian. Each letter is like a detailed picture. I don't think I could write as quickly in Cambodian as I could in English.
Check out how everyones names turned out.
Can you have a go at writing your own name using the last picture?

Learning to write in Cambodian on PhotoPeach

Learning Africians

On Wednesday Faye taught Room 9 how to say 'Good Morning' and 'Good Day' in Africians.
We learn't how to say it and then called the roll using our new Africians knowledge.
Listen to us calling the morning and afternoon roll.

listen to ‘Good morning ’ on Audioboo

listen to ‘Good day’ on Audioboo

Roald Dahl-Gumboot questions

Today we read a story about Gumboots. WALT: Ask and answer questions during reading.
We have created a wallwisher of our questions that we still have about gumboots.

Created with Padlet

Maori Language Week

I am super proud of Amelia and Gina who have learnt to use Puppet Pals, on their own, to create this cute video, sharing some of their Te Reo knowledge.
Watch how they use Te Reo in everyday situations.

 

We watched an example of this and got the idea from Room 5 of Russell Street School in Palmerston North's blog. There blog is below.

http://theinsandouts.co.nz/?cat=1

Fonterra Milk in Schools

Today we got our first delivery of our tasty milk. Rico, Alex and Trinity our milk monitors went and collected our box of milk after morning tea.

Our milk monitors taught us how to fold our milk cartons so that we can recycle the boxes to make other things and to stop the milk from smelling out our school.

We discovered that on the back on the milk cartons there are different facts.
Today's facts are;
-Did you know that 40% of your body is muscle? Milk has protein to help build your muscles.
-You have about 100,000 hairs growing on your head! Milk contains protein to help hair grow and grow!
-The best dairy cows make up to 50 litres of milk a day - that's 200 glasses of milk!
-Milk's got calcium to help build strong bones - even your funnybone! It's real name is the 'humerus' ha ha!

The things we enjoyed about tasting our milk today were;
-There were different facts to read. (Gina)
-It was delicious. (Gemma)
-It was yum and I found that milk can help you grow big and strong muscles. (Tawhiao)
-That milk makes your hair grow and makes you strong. (Sarah)
-We got to find out different facts. (Amelia)
-How we folded up our cartons. (Paarth)
-I learnt that a cow can make 200 glasses of milk and it makes our bones strong and healthy. (Filipe)
-I enjoyed the freshness of the milk. (Jacob)
-They had facts about milk on the back. (Faye)
-I liked folding the cartons. (Eva)
-I enjoyed collecting the milk for the class. (Rico)
-It was yummy and salty. (Alex)
-I liked drinking it. (Ella)
-I enjoyed drinking it because it was yummy and refreshing. (Kayley)
-Folding the carton. (Paige)
-I liked drinking it. (Josh)
-I enjoyed drinking it because it was fresh. (Saphyre)
-It tasted yum. (Kaylee)
-I enjoyed collecting the milk. (Trinity)
-I liked collecting the milk as well. (Alex)
-I enjoyed how they all had different facts on the backs of them. (Oliver)

Once we had finished our delicious milk we showed off our big strong muscles.

Maori Language Week

This week is Maori Language Week.
Today we called the roll with one of our previous Maori Phrase's of the Week.
We all answered "kei konei au" which means I am here.

How have you started this week off celebrating Maori Language Week?

Trashion Show

It was our own World of Wearable Art and it was pretty WOW!
After a term spent creating designs then making prototypes to finally making our finished products some of our garments had some major reconstructing and designing throughout the process. But one thing is for sure they all turned out looking great!
Check out the video's of our Kiwiana costumes.


Make your own photo slideshow at Animoto.

Try our video maker at Animoto.

Make a video of your own at Animoto.

Try our slideshow maker at Animoto.

Try our slideshow maker at Animoto.

Make a video of your own at Animoto.

Try our slideshow maker at Animoto.

Make a video of your own at Animoto.


Try our slideshow maker at Animoto.

Can you guess what the inspiration behind each costume was?

Should McDonald's be allowed to touch up their burgers?

Watching this video shows how McDonald's make their burgers look so tasty.



1. Do you think it is right that McDonald's 'touch up' their burgers to make them look better? Why/why not?
2. Why do you think McDonald's have made this video?
3. Has it made you think any differently about McDonald's? If so how?

Quadblogging Aotearoa

We are excited to begin our NZ Quadblogging with three other classes around the country who are the same age as us. Find out where in the country these schools are based. Check out their blogs, what learning do you like the look of?

http://www.room14stclair.blogspot.co.nz/
http://oakuraroom6.blogspot.co.nz/
http://www.9plus10.blogspot.co.nz/

Room 9's Assembly

On Friday it was Room 9's turn to showcase a snapshot of our learning over the term. We all enjoyed being up on stage and our audience were great which hopefully means they enjoyed it too. We shared our writing, to dancing and making music from our bodies. We even shared one of our favourite brain breaks which we heard other classes trying later on that day.

Kiwiana Book

Amelia, Filipe and Kayley made a book using Book Creator on our class ipad. Unfortunately we couldn't get it off our ipad so we have had to make a video to show you our book. Take a read.

Kiwiana Writing Video

Kiwiana Writing Video

Gina's Glogster - Kiwiana Writing

Sarah's Glogster - Kiwiana Writing

Letters about Kiwiana

Dear Readers,

Most NZ people eat tip top Hokey Pokey ice cream and drink L&P. L&P stands for Lemon and Paeroa. Did you know L&P is a fizzy drink? Paeroa is a place in NZ where it is made. Tip top icecream is made by New Zealanders and it tastes good. There are heaps of different TipTop flavours. Our favourite is Hokey Pokey it is Vanilla icecream with small balls of Hokey Pokey in it.

From Paarth

Dear Readers,

You should visit New Zealand because you can watch the All Blacks and eat tip top icecream. The All Blacks are New Zealand’s best rugby team. Our All Black’s won the Rugby World Cup. Tip top icecream tastes very yummy. They have different flavours but Hokey Pokey is a special New Zealand flavour. It is made from vanilla icecream and little balls of hokey pokey.

From Kaylee

Dear Reader,

Most New Zealander’s eat tip top ice cream and drink Lemon and Paeroa  because they are so good.                                   L&P is a fizzy New Zealand drink. It is world famous in NZ. Tip top ice cream can came in so many different flavours but hokey pokey is the top ice cream it is made from vanilla ice cream and it has little balls of Hokey Pokey. It tastes really yummy!

From Trinity

 

Christopher's Glogster-Kiwiana Writing

Comic Life Kiwiana Writing

Here are Rico, Tawhiao and Saphyre's comic life posters about Kiwiana.

Matariki

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Skype Date to learn about Bougainville

Today Room 9 and Room 13 had a Skype date with Gina and Toby's great uncle Brent. Brent has lived in Bougainville, which is where all the money raised from the 40 hour famine is going this year. Bougainville is a small island not far from Papa New Guina. Lots of people in Room 9 have signed up to do the famine and help children in a country less fortunate than ours. Brent lives in Melbourne now so we started skyping at 11am our time which was 9am his time. It was the first time skyping for some of us and we were amazed at seeing ourselves on the TV. But we also learnt some interesting things about Bougainville.
Bougainville was named after the French explorer that discovered it.
There were a lot of differences we found between NZ and Bougainville. Over in Bougainville all the land is owned by the families and each family gets a block of land. Bougainville is a lot smaller than NZ because it is only the same size as Cape Reigna to Auckland only a tiny part of NZ. They live in bamboo houses and have mini buses to help get around, at school there are toliets but most houses have long drops. School is very different with assemblies starting at 7.15am and studytime going from 6-9pm which makes it a lot longer day than our 9am-3pm school day. There are not many teachers in Bougainville so you are lucky if you get to go to school. But if you are naughty you are kicked out. The weather is really nice in Bougainville and ranges from 20-26 degrees all year round. But there is one thing that is the same as NZ. Bougainville has beautiful beaches. Brent loved his time living in Bougainville and although the people don't have TV's, playstations, computers or ipads they are very happy people who are always smiling.
Here are a few of the things we enjoyed from yesterday;

Oliver learnt that there were lots of different kinds of orchids (a type of flower).
Amelia learnt there aren't many teachers so you are lucky if you go to school and they are poor. I enjoyed skyping to learn more about Bouginville.
Kaylee learnt that he missed his school and he helped people sell stuff. I enjoyed talking to them on skype.
Kayley learnt that the weather is not too cold and not too hot and it is just perfect. I enjoyed skyping and talking to him because we learnt a lot about Bouginville.
Alex learnt about helping other countries. I enjoyed skyping and being able to meet someone new.
Alex S learnt that the houses are made out of bamboo. I enjoyed skyping at school.
Trinity learnt in Bougainville there are volcanoes.
Ella learnt that they eat fish by fishing. I enjoyed him talking about Bougainville.
Gemma learnt that they don't have TV. I liked being able to ask him questions.
Paige learnt they have volcanoes.
Rico learnt that they have a lot of beaches and the volcanoes were really tall. I enjoyed skyping because I learnt a whole lot of stuff about Bouginville.
Eva learnt that they eat fish. I liked hearing what he did in Bougainville.
Christopher learnt that they have volcanoes. I enjoyed him telling us about Bougainville.
Jacob learnt that most people use long drop toliet. I enjoyed learning so much Bougainville.
Gina learnt that everyone in Bouginville are very happy even though they don't have much. I enjoyed getting to see my Great Uncle Brent again.
Saphyre learnt that even though it has very active volcanoes that it can still be a very pretty place. I enjoyed skyping to learn lots about Bougainville.
Filipe learnt there are two volcanoes on Bougainville and that he missed his school. I liked how he answered our questions on skype.
Tawhiao learnt that Brent cried when he left the school he taught at because he really missed his school and he enjoyed living there. And school is different if you misbehave you get kicked out. I enjoyed skyping because you can only see a certain amount of us on the camera.

Diamonds Maths Learning

We made a comic life about rounding up and compensating this is something we learnt in maths today.

Maori Phrase of the Week

Our Maori Phrase last week was I am here Kei konei au

Oral Language

Every Tuesday for oral language we work together to share our strategies when solving our given maths word problems. First we have to read the problem and decide what it is asking us to do. Then we need to share the way we would solve it looking for the quickest way to get to the answer. Next we have to explain it so that everyone in our group understands the preferred strategy. Finally we share back with the class and always make sure we say what strategy we have used eg: using our doubles.

 

 

 

 

 

100WC changes to our golf tournament story

Thanks to the teachers who have commented. We were able to improve our writing using your comments. Check out our new improved version.

It was the day of the golf tournament. I shot through the door as fast as lightning. Mum asked why I was in such a hurry. I looked back but didn’t say a thing. I reached the golf factory and dashed through the design room.

That’s when it all happened...

 I twisted the door handle to the production room. Creeeaak! My ears were hit by a horrible sizzling noise. Next thing I heard … was the ping pong of all the golf balls flying across the room! One hit a shiny red button. But instead of stopping, the chaos still went on.

 

Can you please leave a comment about what you liked about our changes. Our changes are in red.

100 Word Challenge-Golf tournament

 

 

 

It was the day of the golf tournament. I shot through the door as fast as lightning and mum asked why I was in such a hurry. I looked back but didn’t say a thing. I got to the golf factory went through one part and that’s when it all happened...

 I turned the door handle with a creak and the door opened, a horrible sizzling noise caught my ears. Next thing I heard was the ping pong of all the golf balls flying across the room. One hit a shiny red button but the chaos still went on.

 

By the Apostrophe's writing group (Amelia, Alex, Gina, Trinity)

This is our first time doing to the 100 Word Challenge. Please leave us a comment on how we can improve our storywriting. Next week we will be writing our own 100 Word Challenge stories.

Poetry Week

Last week was poetry week at Vardon School and today we enjoyed sharing our poetry and our favourite poems written by others at the Poetry Cafe. During Poetry Week we read poems, we wrote poems and we even danced to poems.
Congratulations Trinity, Gina, Rico, Eva and Paarth who all shared a poem to packed staffroom after school.

Click on our individual blogs to read some of our own poetry and listen to us reciting our favourite poem written by poets.

WOW

What an amazing time we had at the Waikato Museum gathering inspiration for our very own Vardon School Wearable Arts catwalk. We got creative with paper folding, tearing, pleating it to create different looks. We toured through the costumes of past WOW entries. There were even some fluorescent ones that glowed under the special purple lights. We enjoyed guessing what the inspiration for certain garments were and hearing about how designers would draw the ideas they have in their heads and then make models from paper before beginning to make the real thing.
We are now starting to look at our theme KIWIANA with our buddy class Room 1 to find some inspiration and first of all choose what our costume is going to be based on.
Check out our individual blogs to see what we all enjoyed most about the trip.

Place Value Songs

The Hexagons are learning about place value.
We need to know how many tens are in a number and how many ones are in a number so that we can start adding two digit numbers together.
These songs helps us remember what number represents the tens and which number represents the ones.

Design

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Room9's gym sport

On the 7th of May Room9 did Gymsport.Here is a pic collage that Amelia made.

Marmite delivery

Today our parcel arrived and everyone got their very own tube of Marmite.
Mrs Head said to put it in our bags and save it for home but most of us just couldn't wait. We licked the tube dry by the end of lunchtime.
Thanks again Sanitarium! We LOVE MARMITE.

Wow, check out who has been reading our writing!

Last month Room 9 wrote some poems about Marmite. Mrs Head sent the link to our class blog off to Sanitarium and guess what she has just got back....

 

An email from Sanitarium!!!
The email is below. Keep up the great writing Room 9.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Emily Ryan <Emily.Ryan@sanitarium.co.nz>
Date: Mon, Apr 8, 2013 at 12:36 PM
Subject: Marmite Poems!

Dear Mrs Head and all the kids in Room 9,

 

We loved reading your poems about Marmite and are very glad that you are enjoying having it back after such a long time.  Thank you for sharing your work with us - we really enjoyed reading everyone’s work.  Keep up the great writing and we hope you keep eating Marmite!  Your blog is great and the photos were awesome!

 

We've sent you a few jars so that you might be able to have another Marmite snack some time and a t-shirt for your teacher. Hopefully the will arrive soon.

 

We look forward to hearing from you again sometime!

 

All the best

The team at Sanitarium :)

 

 

Emily Ryan

Internal Communications Coordinator

P| +64 9 625 0831   m| +64 21 761 089   w| www.sanitarium.co.nz

Learning to tell the time

We are beginning to learn to tell the time.
These songs help us to remember when the big hand is at 12 it means it is _____o'clock.

Tennis lessons continued

Room 9 were back out on the courts practicing their swing today. Last week we learnt now to do our forehand this week we learnt our backhand. Check out the cool pic collage Saphyre and Amelia made.

Balloon over Vardon

On Friday the 5th of April a hot air balloon came to Vardon School we were allowed to have breakfast at school we took some photos of the balloon and made a pic collage.

Hot Air Balloon Visit

We were lucky enough to have a hot air balloon visit us this morning.
We learnt that the baskets are made out cane so that they can bend and survive the crash landings because according to aviation law every landing a hot air balloon makes is an emergency landing. Did you know the material for the creme egg balloon we saw weighs 130kg?
The pilot Andy Nicholson told us how ballooning is a team sport because you need lots of people to help you set the balloon up and they have to follow you in the car to pick you up when you land.
Have you ever wondered why we see hot air balloons in the morning? Well it's because the air is calmer at that time of day. Pilots can get around 500-600 hours flying from a hot air balloon. Now that's a lot of flying! Because if you flew for one hour every Saturday of the year that would only be 52 hours of flying in a year.
The creme egg balloon had a really cool story behind why the pilot brought it. When it was originally designed in England it was meant to be in the same of an egg. Round at the bottom getting skinner at the top. But the way it was made ended up being the opposite way round. The balloon was not wanted in England and was brought over to New Zealand to see if Cadbury (the chocolate company) wanted it. Cadbury didn't and it got sent back to England. After a few years still brand new no one wanted it and it was set to be dumped in the Bristol dump as a brand new never flown hot air balloon. At a cheaper price then normal the current pilot Andy Nicholson brought it back to New Zealand and now flys it with his crew.
Check out who got to stand in the basket.

How does your blog help you with your learning?

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Handwriting Hero and Priniting Princess

Well done to our newset Handwriting Hero and Printing Princess Tawhiao and Saphyre! They worked really hard today to form their letters correctly and neatly.

They were both so focused at handwriting time. Keep up the hard work Tawhiao and Saphyre!