Happy Birthday Max M!

We hope you have a magical birthday this year!

Only a few more years till you go to Hogwarts.

Happy Birthday Lola!

We hope you have an extra special birthday today!

What a fantastic Christmas present you were for your family!!

Happy Birthday William M

We hope you have a fantastic birthday! 

We look forward to hearing all about it in 2016!

The Plays are a Triumph!

Wow! The fabulous performances just keep coming Room 17. 

Our dress rehearsal audience made up of Year One classes loved us and then the other Year Three children enjoyed them after that.
Thank you for being so well prepared with your costumes and for knowing your line so well.
I know the Year Fours are looking forward to the experience tomorrow.

Festive Baking

Today we had a real treat because Charlie's mum Belinda came and did some christmas cooking with us. As you may remember from our other baking experiences we have special requirements. Our baking needs to be gluten, dairy and soy free and not have tree nuts in it either.
That ended up being too tricky so we had two batches of truffles:

1. gluten, soy and dairy free
2. tree nut free

I was fortunate enough to sample both varieties and they were both delicious!

Thanks Belinda!

Type 1 truffles recipe

Type 2 truffles - (without tree nuts)

Happy Birthday Olivia

Happy birthday to our own Spice Girl, Olivia!

We hope you STOP! and have a fantastic day.

Happy Birthday Leticia!

We hope you have a fantastic day!

Before Athletics!

Marissa - wiggle and giggle as we start
Josaiah - battle big chat!
Olivia - exciting education.
Max M - shaking legs, chattering teeth, everyone's getting ready to run
Millie S- nervous children reverberating
Leticia - colourful colours
Harvey - everyone is bursting with excitement
Nate - I'm exciting about sprinting
Matilda - everyone's got the nervous bug
Will - butterflies bounce in jittery tummies
Millie H-C- awesome athletics at last!
Sophie - nervous children chatter
Max A - everyone is butterfly powered
William M - everybody's ready to sprint
Lola - excited about shot put
Charlie S - children chatter
Ava - excitement bursts through all the children
William F - mighty muscles are pumping
Tahnul - super slicing scissor jumps
Violet - nervous children chattering
Cameron - focussed children ready to run!

Team Policing

Today Constable Simon Ralph (a.k.a. Charlie's dad) came and showed us the team policing van and the equipment inside it. Some dodgy characters got handcuffed and put in the back of the van.

Choir Notice

Did this notice go home with you today? Bring it back A.S.A.P. please, we might be the first with all the replies class again!

Be Selective!

The secret of a good poster is to select only the most interesting information and then to write it in the most interesting way.

For example: 

She was born in 1932 

or 

She is 83 years old

Which one gives you the quickest picture about the person?

It's the same information!

First Swim!

Swimming Pool

BUT... still bring your togs everyday in case I manage to sneak a time on days we don't have a slot.

Reading Project

For the next few weeks we are going to be creating a poster about our favourite author or illustrator. For reading each evening you should spend time finding out information about your chosen a/i or reading his or her books.

Together we decided that our posters should include:

• a title - the person's name
• information about the a/i
• a photo of the a/i
• the names of some books they have written or illustrated
• information about their books
• a website address (if they have a great website)

We can print these things out at school - you don't need to do it at home. You can get someone to email me special photos or information you need (anna.ashby@stalbans.school.nz).

It would be great if you could do some internet searching with someone at home and visit one of the City Libraries to get some of their books out.

Keep checking in at the blog to see if there are other suggestions for what you could do at home for this project.

A Blast From the Past

Rachel sent me this video last term and I filed it in a "special" place on my computer "to do later". Today I found it and thought I'd share it with you.

Thanks Rachel!

A Foxy Friday!

Fruit Leather

Reading about making paper from flax reminded me about how fun it is to make fruit leather.
How to Make Fruit Leather
 You will need:

• a tin of fruit (or a jar of preserved fruit)
• a tin opener
• a food processor
• a dehydrator
• a spoon

What to do:

1. Open the tin.
2. Tip the fruit into the food processor ( don't put in all the juice).
3. Mix it to a pulp or puree.
4. Spread the pulp evenly over a tray from the dehydrator.
5. Stack the trays on the dehydrator.
6. Turn on the dehydrator for 10-12 hours.
7. Turn off the dehydrator.
8. Peel the leather off the tray.
9. Enjoy a sweet treat!

We made some interesting discoveries when we made the fruit leather.

• We used baking paper and it fused with the fruit leather so it was very hard (almost impossible) to peel the paper off. Next time we won't use baking paper.
• We made some pineapple chips by drying thin slices of pineapple using a mesh tray, not a solid one. They were delicious!
• Now we've seen dehydrated fruit - it's shrivelled and shrunken - we know why it's important to drink plenty of water. We don't want our brains to shrivel or shrink!
• We'd like to try making some green and red leather for Christmas time.

Why don't you do some exploring about making fruit leather? 

This website tells you how to make it if you don't have a dehydrator.

Quentin Blake

Today we read the wonderful story Cockatoos by Quentin Blake. If you'd like to find out more about this amazing illustrator and author you should check out his website.
You could send someone an e-card.

Explanations

Today we learnt about how to write explanations. They are a form of transactional writing.

An explanation begins with a title which is a question. 

The next part is the introduction which tells the reader the main answer to the question.

After the introduction come some details. These give the reader a fuller answer to the question.

Finally we need to write a summary. This gives the main answer again but written in a different way. It might include some information from the details section of the writing.

Room 17 in 2012 created a pneumonic for remembering this ~ TIDES

Title - this is a question

Introduction - this is the main answer

Details - these explain or show the answer to the reader

Extra - you can add an extraordinary or surprising detail to fascinate the reader

Summary - this is the main answer written again in a different way, possibly including some information from the details.

Please go to the writing page above to find our explanations about colours.

What's Going on Underground?