Athletics Day Term 4

Yesterday we had Athletics Day at school and students split into their hapū groups for the day. Students were decked out in the hapū colours in crazy outfits from tutus to different coloured face paint. After getting into our groups we went onto the field for eight rotations of different events. There were so many and it was so hot we might have forgotten some of them but here's a few: javelin toss, shotput, three-legged races, long jump and sack races. Everyone had lots of water to drink and remembered sunscreen and hats as the day was so hot.

After lunch we came back out to finish off a few rotations and end with a students versus staff relay race. It was such a fun day and a great way to spend time with all the teachers, staff and students in the school. We want to say a big thanks to all parents and whānau who came to cheer us on and help out!

As we've written this blog and other classroom blogs we try to keep the five "W's" while we brainstorm: Who, What, When, Where and Why. After editing what we'd written so far we realised we hadn't written anything for the "why" of Athletics Day. Students weren't sure at first why we have the day but as we started to discussing some great ideas came long and there were a range of responses. Tayla said,  "to be active."  Niko said, "to have fun!" Savannah said, "to try our best." Emma said that "we have it to see what we can accomplish."

*This blog was written collaboratively by Koru 3 students and Miss Van Hart

SCAPE Art Field Trip

Today our class went on a field trip to Christchurch to view a sculpture called Vaka 'A Hina. Before we went we learned that the sculpture was inspired by a Tongan myth about a woman named Hina who travels on her vaka (boat or vessel) to the moon. After Miss Van Hart told us the story we had a go at creating what we thought the art might look like on Sketches School. Part of the story talks about Hina first travelling on a rainbow to the sun, a favourite feature in many of our sketches.

Koru 3 students storytelling inspired artwork

After we learned about Hina, we also read about Rona and the moon from te ao Māori, Sina and the moon from Samoa and watched an artistic version of Hina and the moon from Hawai'i. Today we met our tour guide Sonya from SCAPE Art who told us about the artwork and we got to walk around and touch the sculpture which is 16m tall! When you looked up towards the top, the clouds were moving quickly in the sky and made it seem like the sculpture was swaying in the wind.

After that we were off to Tūranga to make our own artwork. We created our own print versions of the sculpture using ink and different shapes. We also saw a few murals in town through the Plain Sight app, which animates the murals with augmented reality. Miss Sharp showed us this earlier in the week and it was awesome to see in person! It was an awesome creative day for Koru 3!

Year 6 Chisnallwood Taster Day

On Wednesday the Year 6's from our school went to Chisnallwood Intermediate School for a Taster Day. A taster day is when you visit a new school and experience what they have to offer. There were two other schools there, Linwood Ave. and St. James and we all took turns rotating around to different classes.

First, our group listened to Chisnallwood's many different music groups and the other schools rotated to different classrooms. There was a jazz band, choir, orchestra, a rock band, an Irish band and many unique instruments. Our favourite instruments were the violins, saxophones, the cello and the bass.

Next, we had a sausage sizzle for lunch which also included, juice boxes, chips and fruit. After lunch we were split into eight different groups. Each of the groups went to various classes and experienced interesting activities. Some of the classrooms included: ICT, art, woodwork, sport, and a science lab. Those of us in the ICT class learned coding, robotics and learnt binary code. In the woodwork shop we made keychains and had to use drills and a heating gun.

Some of our highlights from this trip were: learning to use a drill for the first time and hearing different instruments we hadn't heard before. We're all very excited (but still a little nervous) about going to intermediate next year!

*This blog was written collaboratively with help from Jaelah, Jaide, Candice and Holden.

Storytelling Science

This term we've been learning about water through our story, Wondrous Water. We've also been conducting science experiments with water based on what we're learning.

First we started our science experiment with some jars that were filled with dye coloured water and some that were empty. Next, Ms. Van Hart placed rolled up paper towels connecting each jar to the one beside it. Then we wrote our observations of the experiment so far and what we thought would happen next. After that, we waited patiently to see what occurred overnight. We were so excited at the end of the day to see that the coloured dye had transferred from one jar to the next through the paper towels, just a like a train travelling on the train tracks. The blue and yellow dye mixed together in the middle jar to make an aqua colour.

We learned about using science vocabulary to describe what we see. Our highlight was taking part in a science experiment was fun! Our challenge was knowing what important observations to write down and what to leave out.

This blog post was written collaboratively and enthusiastically with a small group of Koru 3 students including, Alyesha, Niko, Emma and Darius.

End of Term 2 - Celebrating Matariki

Celebrating Matariki

At the end of this term we celebrated Matariki in many different ways. One way was to plan a Matariki breakfast. We started by choosing five food items that we would choose for breakfast items. We had to plan to cook for 10-20 people and our budget was $30 or less. After we made our list of items, we thought about the quantity we would need. Next we went onto the Countdown online shopping site (which was linked in a post in our Google Classroom) to research the cost of our food items. We used the research we found to decide if our original list fit with our budget or if we needed to adjust it. It was hard to make some decisions based on the price and what we wanted to cook.

At the end to celebrate we had a real Matariki brunch! We had pikelets with cinnamon brown sugar, icing sugar and lemon and a berry sauce. Emma even brought in some lollies too. We thought it was delicious, especially the sweetness of the sugar and the sourness of the berries.

These are some of our other highlights from Term 2:
Making stop motion videos
Going to the morning program
Getting to make clay and art
Personal Reading Time and reading our Class Novel
Matariki art colouring in, using a spirograph to make stars and poi
Spending time together as a class

Stay tuned for more news from Koru 3  in Term 3!

Personification Writing

In Koru 3 we have been working on personification writing. We have chosen every objects in the classroom that we are bringing to life, like a keyboard, door or chair. The first task was to choose an object and take a photo of it on our iPads. Next, we edited our photos to make it look like a human face and give it personality. After that we had to brainstorm ideas for our character and what descriptive language we would use to describe them. We chose between creating an interview of our character or a moment in time. When we finished our writing we were able to go onto Chatterpix and create a voice for our character. This part was so much fun getting to act as our object and be a bit silly. In our writing we worked on using descriptive language to give the audience an idea of our character's personality. Next week we'll be publishing our writing and some of us might even make our stories into iMovie trailers!

*This blog was written collaboratively with all students in Koru 3.

Family Reporting Night

During our exhibition night in Koru 3 we took on leadership roles by showing our families around our classroom. The week before we prepared by making a list of our classwork and items we wanted to share with our families. Then we practiced by role-playing with a buddy. We showed them our work, what we are passionate about and most interested in. Some of our favourite things in our classroom that we shared were: Taco/Sombrero/Chili of the Week awards, our Curiosity Kete and Box of Gratitude, our pepeha and our maths equations and other work on the walls. We liked showing our families around because we got to show off what we've been doing all year. Harriet shared that she and her family had fun and shared lots of laughter during exhibition night.

*This blog was written collaboratively by Harriet, Felicity, Jaide and Ms. Van Hart.