The Botanical Gardens

Hi all! Wow! what a great (but tiring) week.  We had the trip and parent conferences on Monday and our Celebration Assembly today.  Unfortunately at the Garden's my class was the one that got split so  I only got pictures of the group I was with. Here you see Kalush, Sean and Delilah all planting their seedlings.  This was part of the Education programme at the Gardens.

Well done to the whole of Room 3 who acted out  "The Little Brown Seed"  at our celebration today.  Delilah read it superbly and our rain (Cohen and Sean) and our rainbows (Brodie and Mia) did a great job.  Our seeds were marvelous as well.

I also want to publish some very good writing that was done about compost (yes compost!) following our trip. Keegan, Seth and Evie did a great job of reading these out today.  Angelina was unfortunately sick.




Creepy Crawlies!

These are the things that you can put in a compost pile: Paper, horse and cow poo, green leaves, dry leaves and sticks.

Creepy crawlies love compost like ceterpedes, spiders, and beetles. They nibble and much on the rotting leaves.  Some of the bugs eat the compost and some of them eat each other. Compost piles turn out to be rich humus for our plants and weeds. 

By Keegan

Heat Rising

The compost pile has steam coming off it because it gets quite hot.  You can put lots of things in a compost pile - even a tea bag.  Dead leaves and horse poo can go in too.  There are centipedes and spiders and worms in the compost. All of the bugs work together.  They all help to make the compost.  We put the junk in and we get compost that helps our plants to grow.  By Seth

Centipedes -Yuck!

We can put sheep and cow poo in the compost pile and sticks and leaves are great too.  In a compost pile you might find some slaters, worms and centipedes. Yuck! They munch on garbage and some eat even eat each other.  The compost helps the flowers to grow.  By Evie

Creeping centipedes!

Compost can have lots of different insects in it like slaters,beetles and spiders. It is made of leaves sticks and garden garbage.  Centipedes creep and crawl around everywhere.  The compost helps your plants to grow. By Angelina

Today's the day we have the Teddy bear's Picnic....

We're going on a bear hunt.......I'm not scared!

We have been practising our best bear singing, our best bear acting and our best bear writing.  Have a look at this great bear writing.......

Wheels Day

Hi people.  This week have included some of the photos from our wheels day.  The children had great fun. Thank you to the parent help that came along.

Upcoming Events :
Monday 28 Nov Morning Walk (In afternoon -safety visit from police)
December 1  Drum Show
December 2 Teddy Bear Picnic
December 5 Botanical Garden Trip

                                                     Stop and walk across the Pedestrian Crossing.

 Thinking! Checking!

Determination!

 Fun at the parade!

Fireworks!

Hi! These videos were directed, acted out  and videoed by the  clever Room 3 children.  I think there is some clever use of sound.  I love Brodi's firework scream. (I meant to post this blog about a week ago - and thought I had lost it.  Just found it under drafts!) Please also have a look at the 'Talking about our writing' blog. Some great comments from the children here.
Thanks to the person who wrote the comment! It really is good to know that people are looking at what we are doing.

Talking about our writing

We have been learning about kiwis and their predators.  Today we wrote about why we should save the kiwi.

Speeches

Hi! Hopefully all of the children have bee practising their speeches at home.  Last Friday they had an opportunity during our' 'buddy class' sharing time to read these to their buddies.

Remember you are all welcome to come a watch the speeches from 2:20pm on the 15th.  Have a look at some of the practising

Poems and drama

We have been having a lot of fun acting out poems.  I love this little video.

The children have started having turns videoing with the 'bloggie'. They are finding they have to overcome problems like fitting everyone in and moving the camera slowly.  This one was videoed by me but beautifully read by Angelina.  I hope to post some videoed by the children in the near future.  'Bloggies' really are a fantastically easy tool for us all to use.

Seeds! Seeds! Seeds!

As you probably would have heard if you have a child in Room 3, we have all planted bean seeds.  Miss Groome was horrified to hear today that Room 10s seeds were sprouting faster than ours.  They planted theirs straight into soil while we had ours firstly on cotton wool.

Anyway I am sure ours will overtake theirs soon.  we will keep an eye on the situation.  We are doing a lot of work on writing with a purpose at the moment.  We did two days writing on seed dispersal.  The first day we wrote little information reports.  On the second day we wrote poetry on seed dispersal.

Have a look at these!


The seed breaks free.  It spins and spins.  It looks like a helicopter. It dances in the wind.  Now it falls to the ground.  Then the wind catches it and it is flying again.  It slows down. Not flying, now it is falling.  It was on the ground.  It found a new place to live. BY MIA


The sun warms all the dandelion seeds.  They pull from the dandelion and dance.  They spin high in the sky.  They race each other. They race each other fast.  They circle around.  They fall like tired zebras after a long run.  They fall quietly to the ground,.  BY KEEGAN


The see breaks free and it is dancing in the air.  It swishes and dives.  t looks like someone parachuting.  It almost touches the ground 'Swoosh'! Up it goes again. By EVIE


The seed goes up in the sky.  It spins around in the wind.  It looks like a helicopter. It falls to the ground.
  By CHLOE


The seed is in the wind.  It spins in a circle.  It is blowing to the ground and the sunlight is on the seed.
BY SEAN

The Blue Whale

Had some excellent writing on this today.  Our goal today was to write two pieces of information about one thing on the Blue whale, for example, two things about size, BEFORE moving on to the next thing  . It was tricky for them but I think by the end of today they were getting the hang of it.  We will keep this as a class goal as we focus our purpose on 'informing' our audience

Have a look at these and our videos below on some of the drama/ poetry we have done.


Did you know that the Blue Whale is bigger than the biggest dinosaur and heavier than 25 elephants or 115 giraffes? His heart is as big as a car and he is 30 metres long.  


The big Blue Whale eats krill.  The krill make the water pinky.  The big Blue whale has no teeth but baleen plates.  He pushes the water out but the krill stays in.  The blue whale breathes out of his two blowholes. It breathes air. It can stay under water for a long time.
BY KEEGAN  




The big Blue Whale is 30 metres long and it is heavier than 25 elephants.  The whale eats krill with baleen plates. The krill make the water pink.  It blows water out of the blow hole and it breathes air.  
BY BRODI




The Blue Whale glides through the water very fast.  It is one of the fastest swimmer in the ocean.  The big Blue Whale is the heaviest creature living in the ocean. It is heavier than 25 elephants.
BY ANGELINA




The big Blue Whale is the biggest animal in the world.  It is thirty metres long and it is heavier than 115 giraffes. It blows air out of its blowhole.
By DELILAH 

Drama and Inquiry

As part of our reading programme we have been doing some drama this week.  As you probably have heard Room 3 have planted seeds. We are eagerly awaiting the day when we arrive at school to find they have sprouted.  In these clips Room 3 act out a poem about a little brown seed. The children (and Miss Groome) are learning about  how to use a bloggie to capture this.  While the finer points of this are still a bit of a mystery, we are learning together.

This morning we watched a video about the sailfish.  The sailfish work together to push the smaller fish into groups so they can eat them.  Have a look at the hungry Sailfish in Room 3.

Cup Cake day -Decorating cupcakes

Cup Cake day

We had great fun and raised about $300 for the SPCA

Work in Room 3

Hi all! Time is just flying by this term. We are getting ready for the SPCA cupcake day next Monday.  We are going to be decorating, then selling the cupcakes with all of the money going to the SPCA.  Will post some pictures of this at a later date.

We have ducklings and mother ducks all over the school.  We did some writing on this - our focus was to use some powerful verbs to show how the ducks move.  Here are some of the stories.


The ducks zig zag to the school.  They flap their feathers to the class.  They scamper into the class.They eat Miss Groome's lunch, nearly.  I stopped them so Miss Groome could have her lunch and morning tea.   By Keegan


The duck is eating my bread.  She is naughty.  She quacked at me and she flapped her wings.   By Natalie


The Mummy duck looks after the baby ducks.  They zigzag back to the Mummy duck and she moves this way and that way.  She flaps her wings. By Kaleb


The mother duck likes to keep the little ducklings warm under her wings.  She lets the ducklings go and she flaps her wings when she wants them to come back.  By Chloe

Wonderful Writing!

A big 'Hello' to any grandparents who keep an eye on our blog.  Apologies for the little delay since our last post. This week again, some of the great writing we have been doing.  There are some talented children in this class! I will post some more stories later in the week.

THE CLEAN UP
I am stuffing the clothes under the bed.  I tip toe out of my room.  I run outside.  Mum peeked outside.  "Come inside and stay for ninety nine minutes" said Mum.
By Evie.

Miss Groome said " What a great story Evie.  I love the words you have used like stuffing, peeked and tip -toe.


A BEE DANCE
The forager bee goes to look for flowers.  She goes back to tell the other bees.  It does a bee dance.  It wiggles and waggles.  It shakes its bottom.  The bees go to the flowers.  They go bbzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
By Angelina

Miss Groome said "What a lot of information you have given us! You have used some great vocabulary!"


THE SWEETEST SUGAR
The ants find some sugar.  The ants find some more sugar.  The ants find so mush sugar. They pick up the sugar and take it to the larvae.

Miss Groome said "I can hear your voice as I read this Sean.  The last sentence brings it all together nicely."




THE BALL KEEPS ROLLING.......
I was playing basketball with Angelina.and the ball rolled away but the coach said "FREEZE!" The ball kept on going.  I didn't get the ball.  It was rolling very fast.

Miss Groome said "You have used some really good detail to describe this moment in time."


A SPECIAL BEE
The bee that goes and gets the honey that is very delicious, is special. She gets some nectar.  She wiggles her bottom that way and this way to tell the bees where to go.  As they go they make this sound bzzzzzzzzzzz.

Miss Groome said "Wow Keegan! What a special story. You have though about your audience and used some great language.  You have also given us a lot of information about this special bee!" 

Save Our Planet

Hi people!

We had a great end of term show. A huge thank you to all the parents who helped with costumes and to those who helped their child to learn lines.  It is a very brave thing for five year olds to act and speak in front of others and I think they all did an exceptional job. Here are a few photos from the dress rehearsal.

Writing

For writing this Thursday we watched a video of a rocket taking off and then wrote about this.  Children were encouraged to write about the detail of the takeoff.  Here are a few great pieces of writing.

I am flying in the rocket.  The flames take me up.  By Jacob C

Fire shoots out of the rocket.  Little pieces of flame fall down the rocket.  The rocket powers up into space.  It is going to the moon.  By Angelina

I saw the fire come out of the back.  I saw ash dropping down up in space. I saw orange fire coming from space.  By Seth

Word Work

After writing (every day except Fridays) Room 3 does 'word work' .  We sit in a circle with our word cards, white boards, pens and dusters.  We brainstorm words that start with/ have at the end of them, a sound of the day.  We then clap the number of syllables in these words.  We practise writing some of the 'high frequency' words (words that we commonly use like: the, me, my, like, etc) We also practice writing words that rhyme and we identify the pattern that creates this rhyme.

Day and Night

In Room 3 we have been learning a bit about the planets and reasons for Day and Night.  We acted out the earth spinning around the sun.  Here are some of our pictures.




Jacob C and Ali

 Mia and Evie

Cohen and Chloe 

Sean and Brodi

Lili and Natalie

Keegan and Jacob

Seth and Kaleb

Rudi and Carlos

           Fourah and Delilah

Writing

Here are a few pieces of writing  from this week that I enjoyed.  I hope you enjoy them too.

FAST RUNNER
My mum was running with me.  "You are a turtle," I said.  I went past her.  By Kaleb

A BAD DREAM
I was a stuffed bear. A boy said "Here is a bear. I love you bear." I felt scared. I tried to get out.  I couldn't move. By Keegan

A GOOD BIRTHDAY
I am having my birthday outside at night.  I have to open my Michael Jackson statue.  I tear off the paper.
By Mia

CELEBRATING A BIRTHDY
I jump out of bed and run down the stairs.  I say "It's my birthday! Wake up Mum!" By Cohen

GREAT PETS
My pets are good.  I feed them at four oclock.  They lick me.  I laugh! It tickles me.  They chase me.          By Seth

BEACH FUN
I went to the beach.  I swan in the waves. I went through the waves and surfed up the waves.  By Evie

BIRTHDAY FORGOTTEN?
It was my birthday.  I said  "It is my birthday Mum.  Did you forget it is my birthday?" Silly Mum.  I had a present.  Mum didn't forget after all.  By Angelina

BIRTHDAY
I ran down the stairs.  I said "Mum, wake up because it is my birthday." I blew out the candles.  I said "This is fun".  By Delilah

BEACH TRIP
I went on a trip to the beach.  I saw a crab.  The crab nipped me with his claws.  I saw a fish swim around the rocks.  By Carlos

Hi Blog followers! PMP photos!

 Hello people. Well we have had another busy week.  Here are some photos from PMP this morning.  It was great to get out and do this in the hall  -especially as it was a wet play time.  It was great to burn up some energy.

Mia, Sean, Evie, Kaleb and Kalush practise their balance at P.M.P.

Lili crawls through the tunnel. Cohen looks out from beyond.









Keegan on the Moon hopper

Hmmm...improving the memory.  Children are  given a sequence of cards to remember and then recall. Chloe gives this a go.

Natalie and Rudi throwing at a target. 

 

Carlos -fun on the Moon hopper.

Seth in the tunnel.

Catching and throwing - Brodi

Balance - Kaleb and Kalush 

Writing (Hello blog followers!)

We spend a lot of time on writing in Room 3.  We do it every morning rain, hail or shine.  At this level it is about learning to write independently but equally as important, children realising that they have a voice and ideas worth sharing.

Even at this age we encourage children to 'show' rather then 'tell'.  An example of this might be instead of   "I felt mad" -(tell)                            "I stomped my feet and frowned" - (show).

 They are also encouraged to provide quite specific detail about one moment, so rather than
"I went on the swing.  I went home."    
We want  
"I swung up high.  I kicked my legs backwards and forwards.


Here is some writing from Room 3 about Autumn.

I am playing in the leaves.  I jump in the leaves and they dance and swirl.  By Brodi

I watched the leaves float to the ground.  They blew in my face.   By Cohen
The wind blows the leaves to the ground. I grab them in the sky.   By Chloe
I like the leaves.  They swirl all around us. They fall  right down to the ground.  By Evie
I like the leaves.  They sway in the wind.  By Mia

Autumn leaves float down in the Autumn.  I dance with them. We catch them with our hands. By Keegan

Buddy Reading - Keegan

Buddy Reading - Jacob

Reading Buddies

Hi! Thanks to those of you who have checked out our blog.  This week for our Friday celebration we were Buddy reading with Room 4.  First we paired up, then they read us a story before we read to them.  It was great fun. 

We have also had some out- of- season visitors of a feathery kind.  We have had six ducklings (and their mother), sleeping at our classroom door.  I hope to include pictures of our feathery friends next time. 

STARDOME

Last week we visited the Stardome.  The weather was terrible but we all had a great time inside.  We have been learning about the Sun.  We watched an incredible movie about the Sun. It relation to some of the other stars in the sky The Sun is quite small but we all know it is much, much bigger than the Earth.  We are starting to realise just how small the world is.

Welcome!

Welcome to Room 3's first blog.  We will look to regularly put 'blogs' on here.  Please feel free to make comments about our work and photos on here.  All comments will be read first by the teacher  and then posted.  It is a great tool for everyone to keep in touch with what is happening in our classroom.