Room14HES

Uganda

2012-02-19T17:38:00.000+13:00

This week we completed letters introducing ourselves to the children at our sister school in Uganda. We described who we are and told them something we are proud of. Mrs Nicholson took our letters to the Post Office and posted them on Thursday. Now we can't wait to get replies.

We cannot skype them or even email them as their school is so poor it doesn't have any computers. In fact they really don't have much as you can see in the photographs below. So writing letters and using the post is the only way for us to communicate.

We would like to raise some money for the school to make things a little easier for them. All their funds currently go on feeding, clothing, and keeping the students healthy with the little left over for going to paper and pencils for their learning. They don't have desks and chairs like us, or a playground to play on at breaks. Do you have any ideas on how we could raise money? Have you done any fund raising over the web before? What has worked? We are very new to this and would love to hear of any successes you have had.

The children doing a test.

The children at a breaktime

Exciting news

2012-02-12T15:20:00.001+13:00

This week someone in our class had exciting news. Listen to what they had to say.

Sonny Bill Williams took just 2 mins 54 secs to stop Clarence Tillman.

Swimming

2012-02-10T14:10:00.000+13:00

Everyday we have swimming. We have people who are learning to get their faces wet by playing ring-a-rosie.

Some of us are learning to kick so the water bubbles.

And some of us are learning to do freestyle without splashing the water by cupping our hands.

On Fridays we get to practice our swimming by having free time. It is fun!

Today we made a whirlpool. We made it go fast and it started dragging us. Then we went the other way. It was hard because the water was pushing us back. When we finished the water was pushing us along.

Patrick and Shackleton Bear

2012-02-07T21:47:00.002+13:00

On Friday we had two very special visitors come to our school.

Shackleton and Patrick are part of a 50 crew team that are traveling for 30 days on some of the world's stormiest oceans. Look where they are going . . .

This is the boat they are going on. They leave this Friday, the 10th February to travel from Bluff to Antatctica and the sub-Antarctic Islands.

If you would like to follow Shackleton's adventures with us, you can follow him on www.ourfarsouth.org You will be able to follow their blog, leave comments, and ask questions. There is also a school competition that you can enter.

Class of 2012

2012-02-06T17:25:00.002+13:00

The school year has begun and Room 14 is happy to be back at Hamilton East School, ready to learn. This year our teacher is Mrs Nicholson. Welcome to our blog.

Class of 2012 on PhotoPeach

School Countdown for 2012

2012-01-24T20:32:00.000+13:00

Classes at Hamilton East School start on Wednesday 1st February 2012.

Myspace Countdown Clock

Anna's new blog

2012-01-24T20:29:00.000+13:00

I am teaching in a different classroom at Hamilton East School this year.

You can click here to visit my new blog.

I have loved creating this blog with Room 14 and can't wait to start a new blog with the students in Room 4.

Thank you for viewing Room 14's blog and interacting with us.

My students have learnt so much sharing their learning with the world.

Please follow me to my new blog which will be updated properly in February 2012 when school in New Zealand returns after our summer holidays.

A surprise from Denmark

2011-12-17T21:36:00.000+13:00

Our friends from 1A at Vonsild School in Denmark told us that they had sent us something in the mail. We were worried that school would end for the year before the surprise arrived.

Luckily just before we went to our final assembly for 2011 look what got delivered to our class -

We were so excited to get something all the way from Denmark.

Look what was inside - Christmas decorations, a card, a Danish flag and a map. We are very lucky to have such thoughtful blog buddies.

Anna has promised us that she will put them in her new class next year so we can come and look at them.

Thank you so much to our special friends in Denmark.

We hope you all have a Merry Christmas.

Pea Tasting

2011-12-17T21:24:00.000+13:00

We were excited to find that some of our peas we had been growing in the Kitchen Garden were ready to eat.

We ate them straight from the pod and they tasted delicious.

We were surprised they were so sweet.

Last days of school

2011-12-15T17:08:00.000+13:00

We have had a busy few days at school. We had our Amazing Race. We cleaned our desks and we had a craft day.

Craft Day
Anna found a cute idea on how to make trees and thought we should give it a go too.

We had to make a cone shape with paper. Then we cut out petals from coloured paper.

Then we had to glue all the petals onto the cone starting from the bottom and working our way up.

It took quite a long time to get all the petals onto our trees.

Take a look at our beautiful trees when we were finished.

If you want to make a tree like ours take a look at the blog post Anna found on Crate Paper Blog. It has some great tips.

The Amazing Race

2011-12-14T19:51:00.001+13:00

To celebrate learning together for a whole year we went to the Hamilton Gardens to have an amazing race.

In each garden there were tasks we needed to complete before we went to the next garden. Sometimes we needed to look carefully for something in the gardens, or we had to take a class photo. We had some great parents and families come along to help us. Lucky they had good gardening knowledge so they could give us some good hints when we got stuck!

Here are some of the photos from our Amazing Race.

Amphitheatre in the Italian Gardens Kitchen Garden

English Garden Indian Garden

Chinese Garden Egyptian Statues

Afterwards we were tired and hungry! Luckily we got to have a shared lunch back at school. Because we have been learning about lunch Around the World lots of the students shared food from their cultures. Room 14 loved trying all of the delicious food and flavours.

Dumplings, muffins, brownies Spring rolls, cupcakes

Cupcakes, cake, croissants, sandwiches, strawberries, chicken, popcorn

Curry and roti Strawberries, grapes, blueberries, Maple Syrup dip

Then....we had a sports afternoon on Putikitiki with all of Totara Team.

What was your favourite part of the day?

What is growing in your garden?

Do you have beautiful public gardens where you live?

Take a look at our photopeach to see more of our great day together.

The Amazing Race on PhotoPeach

Anna's new blog

2011-12-11T21:28:00.000+13:00

Next year I will be teaching in a different classroom at Hamilton East School.

I am also going to be teaching a different age group.

I have loved creating a blog with Room 14 and can't wait to start a new blog with the students in Room 4 next year.

Thank you for viewing Room 14's blog and interacting with us.

My students have learnt so much sharing their learning with the world.

Please follow me to my new blog which will be updated properly in February 2012 when school in New Zealand returns after our summer holidays.

Room 14's Blog Award Ceremony

2011-12-10T11:04:00.000+13:00

We were all very excited about finding out about the winners of our blog awards.

Some of use even dressed up for the occasion.

Here is a vimeo of our award ceremony.

A special thank you to Tarn for being Room 14's expert with the Flip Cam.

DK skyped in prior to the award ceremony starting to announce the winner of the Best Link Love Blog.

Room 14's Own Blog Award Ceremony

2011-12-09T11:32:00.001+13:00

Here are Room 14's Blog Award Winners as voted by the students in Room 14 -

Best Bilingual Blog

Best Class Blog

Best Use of Video

Most Helpful Blog

Quality Comments

Room 14's Own Best Blog Post

The Best Link Love Blog Award is about a blog that links its posts to other blogs and websites. Room 14 students nominated the blogs that they thought did this well.

We asked DK from CORE Education to judge the final winner for us.

Best Link Love Blog

Room 14's Own Blog Awards

2011-12-08T20:56:00.001+13:00

Room 14 got very excited about making our Edublog award nominations.

When Anna said we could make our own awards we took it very seriously.

We had to create categories for the types of awards we wanted.

We also had to then nominate blogs.

And then.....we got to vote.

Anna created a questionnaire for us using google docs so we could vote secretly.

Here are Room 14's award categories and their nominees -

Best Bilingual Blog

1A Vonsild School in Denmark

Winners Education in Greece

Best Class Blog

2KM & 2KJ

Room 16 Hamilton East School

Kids with a View

Room 11 Hamilton East School

Room 12 Hamilton East School

A Peek Inside

1A Vonsild School

Room 8 Melville Intermediate School

Best Use of Video

Room 8 Melville Intermediate School

Kids with a View

Room 16 Hamilton East School

Room 11 Hamilton East School

A Peek Inside

Most Helpful Blog

Room 8 Melville Intermediate School

Kids with a View

1A Vonsild School

A Peek Inside

Quality Comments

Room 8 Melville Intermediate School

Kids with a View

1A Vonsild School

A Peek Inside

Room 14's Own Best Blog Post

Global Taste Test

Skype Day
Our School
Tree Onions

Best Link Love Blog

Room 8 Melville Intermediate School

Room 12 Hamilton East School
2KM & 2KJ

A Peek Inside

The Best Link Love Blog Award is being judged by DK from CORE Education.

Our Garden

2011-12-08T11:50:00.000+13:00

Today we went to the Kitchen Garden to see how our plants are growing. Our garden is growing bigger and bigger. Our plants have been getting lots of sunlight and rain. Also Yusuf has been watering the plants too. We think we have looked after our garden really well.

Some of us picked some lettuce for our lunch. The trick is to pick the outside leaves.

Room 14's peas are growing around and up the bamboo so they get more sunlight. We were excited to see that the pea pods had started to grow. They grow right out of the flower.

Our zucchini is about to flower. This means very soon it will start growing zucchinis.

Two weeks ago we planted some pumpkin plants that we got from Mr Bull, our old principal. Look how they have grown!

Our school raspberry plants we got from Paper 4 Trees have started to fruit. We were lucky enough to have a little taste of them. We managed to share 2 raspberries between 15 people! They tasted delicious.

What is ready to eat in your garden?

What do you like to eat from your garden?

Edublog Awards

2011-12-06T10:29:00.001+13:00

We were so excited to hear that we made it through to the voting round of the

Edublog Awards for Best Class Blog.

We have looked at the other nominees and can't believe we are with them. We are really proud of ourselves for sharing our learning on our blog.

We would really like people to vote for us.

Here is the link to the

Edublog Awards for Best Class Blog.

Our Blog name is Room 14 HES.

The best bit is you can vote once everyday up until December 13th 2011.

It would be great if you can vote at home and also tell your family and friends.

There are lots of great blogs in different categories too. Get voting!

Today I played a trick on Room 14 and told them that the flip camera kept doing silly things and so I would need to film for a little while.....

Then I showed Room 14 the Edublog Award Shortlisted Nominations to see if the blogs we had nominated had got through.

Take a look at our vimeo to see what happened -

Our Tui

2011-12-05T19:00:00.001+13:00

Tui are a bird native to New Zealand. The little white feather looks like a pom pom. Can you see the yellow pollen on this Tui's head? They love to eat from the flowers of flax and kowhai.

We are very lucky that we have had a Tui visiting our school. Sometimes the tui interrupts our learning. He likes to sit at the very top of the redwood tree.

Today we finally got to film him. He is hard to see in the video but you can definitely hear him.

If you want to find out more about Tui you should take a look at the Department of Conservation website.

If you click on the photo it will take you to the information about Tui.

Glee Performance

2011-12-04T20:43:00.001+13:00

The Hamilton East School Glee concert was amazing

It was great to see so many families supporting the Glee group as well. There was lots of cheering which really helped the performers.

Room 14 is lucky enough to have 2 fantastic dancers in Glee. We are really proud of how well they performed.

Take a look at the vimeo of their dancing during the concert.

Lunch in Canada

2011-12-01T10:27:00.000+13:00

Mrs Daub's Dudes and Dudettes from Canada have also helped us with our Global Table.

They answered our questions and also sent us some great photos.

Where do you eat your lunch? We eat in our classroom at our desks.
Can you order lunch at your school? Yes, we can order a fast food lunch once a week and a ‘hot lunch’ twice a week. Fast food lunches are hotdogs or from restaurants like Boston Pizza, Dairy Queen, and Subway. Hot lunches are usually healthier. Some examples are lasagna, macaroni and cheese, chicken fingers, grilled cheese sandwiches, pancakes and sausages and perogies. We usually get fruit or vegetables with it and a milk or juice to drink.
What’s you favourite food to eat at lunchtime? When we bring food from home, we like sandwiches, apples, bagels, cold pizza, soup or ravioli in a thermos, fruits and vegetables and dessert snacks.
Do you eat hot or cold food at lunchtime? Our lunch is usually cold unless we order hot lunch or bring a thermos.
Do you bring your lunch from home? Yes, usually.
What’s your favourite fruit? Oranges, pineapple, peaches, apples, bananas
What’s your favourite vegetable? Broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, cucumber, tomatoes, pickles.

We were surprised that they have kiwifruit in Canada.

We also think they are lucky that they can eat chocolate at school.

Lunch in Canada looks delicious.

Thank you Mrs Daub and her Dudes and Dudettes for helping us with our learning.

Edublog Award Nominations

2011-11-30T12:13:00.000+13:00

We have loved blogging and learning from lots of other classrooms around the world so being able to nominate blogs we like for an award is great.

Room 14 has taken the nominating incredibly seriously and so after much discussion our nominees are...

Best Class Blog - 2KM and 2KJ at Leopold Primary

We enjoy looking at their blog and seeing their learning. The class culture the teachers have created with commenting and quality posts is fantastic. We really like that they ask you questions in their blog posts that get you thinking about what they have shared. We think they have interesting blog posts that use a range of tools - photos, video, web2 tools and that they link to other blogs and websites. We also love the way they celebrate their learning and events within their class and school.

Best New Blog - Room 16 at Hamilton East School
Room 16 have just started blogging this year. We are really impressed with the way they share their learning with the world. They use photos and videos to explain what they have been doing in their classroom. Room 16 has also made great connections with other classrooms through Quadblogging. They often get ideas from their blogging buddies and make posts for them.

Best Educational use of video - Room 8 at Melville Intermediate School

The students in Room 8 use video to create a window into their classroom. They often work in teams to produce the videos and we think this is a great way to work together. Not only do they show us what is happening at their school but they also teach you new things. We learnt how to do the rakau by watching one of their great videos. We have really enjoyed their Interclass Survivor Challenge and we always enjoy watching their music groups perform.

Best Free Web Tool - Skype

We love skype. We love connecting with classes around the world. It is amazing that we can talk with our friends in different countries and share our learning with them. We also use it within our school. Sometimes we read to other classes and sometimes we ring to share exciting learning.

Dylan Elise - Drumming Concert

2011-11-30T09:41:00.000+13:00

Hamilton East School had a superb concert by Dylan Elise.

Dylan is a very talented drummer.

He taught us some cool things on the drums. Dylan showed us the cow bell and how it makes different sounds. He used hot rods for drumming. Dylan also showed us Mr High Hat and could do lots of great tricks with the hot rods.

He played us a range of music - rock, latin, jazz and funk. When he played jazz music he had to use brushes.
Dylan's sister Hannah joined him playing the bass in the Michael Jackson songs.
Dylan also made the teachers dance to the rhythm of the whole school clapping and singing. It was great that we got a chance to dance too.

Take a look at the vimeo of the concert.

What part of the concert did you like the best?

HES Glee Club

2011-11-25T16:36:00.000+13:00

Did you know Hamilton East School has a Glee Club?

Today we were lucky enough to see their dress rehearsal for their concert. We were amazed. These students are so talented and we are incredibly proud of them.

Take a sneak peek at some of the songs they will sing at the concert.

Do you want to see more?

Glee Club Concert is on Thursday 1 December at 6:30pm in the

Hamilton East School Hall.

$4 Adults $2 Children

Athletics Day

2011-11-25T13:28:00.000+13:00

Today we had an Athletics Day at school.

Look at us ready to go and join in all the fun!

Anna helped at the Sack Races and filmed some of the kids doing superb jumping. Take a look -

After doing all the great activities Room 14 was exhausted and needed a rest.

Thank you to the Year 5 Energize Leaders for taking the games.

Thank you to all the teachers for making sure we had a fun filled morning.

Lunch in Athens, Greece

2011-11-23T17:40:00.000+13:00

We have made friends with a blog in Greece.

It is a bilingual blog which means it is in two languages.

We like looking at the Greek on their blog but we can't understand anything until we look at the English part.

They also took photos of their lunch for us.

Room 14 thought that their lunches looked delicious.

You should take a look at their PhotoPeach on their blog.

You can click on this photo to take you there.

Effie, their teacher also shares some helpful information about lunch in Greece.

In Greece we leave school at 2pm. We have lunch at home, where our parents or sometimes grandmothers make delicious food.

The traditional Greek dishes are pasta cooked in many different ways, fish, seafood and pulses.

We also love souvlaki or gyros. We buy it at one of the many souvlaki restaurants near our houses and it is brought to our home.

Lunch at Greenpark School, UK

2011-11-23T17:28:00.000+13:00

Our friends at Greenpark School also sent us some photos of lunch at their school.

Take a look at the PhotoPeach to see what lunch is like there.

Lunch at Greenpark School, UK on PhotoPeach

Lunch at Coal City Middle School, USA

2011-11-23T17:25:00.001+13:00

We emailed our Mystery Skype Call school and asked if they could help us with our Global Table project.

They emailed us some photos and also shared some information about their lunch time.

Today's menu offered a choice of a Tex-Mex snack (spicy cheese enveloped with a flour-based wrap) or "broiled" chicken on a bun.

It is mandated by law for schools to meet dietary requirements in the lunches. Vegetables, fruit, and milk are required.

Other choices often include ice cream, yogurt, lettuce-based salads, and cookies.

Thank you Coal City Middle School for helping us with our learning.

Global Taste Test

2011-11-22T14:00:00.001+13:00

Room 14 had a taste test of food from different countries.

We tasted danish salami on rye bread.
We also tried carrots without peeling them first.

We knew that our friends in Denmark have salami for lunch because they showed us on their blog. You should take a look at 1A Vonsild Skole's blog.

Here are some of our thoughts about the Danish Food -

- I liked tasting different food. (Makki)

- The salami tasted like garlic and I liked it. (Liz)

- The rye bread was nice and fresh. The carrots were hard to bite into. (James)

- The salami looked like a sausage but tasted like ham. (Robert)

- The carrots were crunchy. (Tremaine)

- The carrots were kind of sweet. (Lacey)

- The carrots were nice and fresh. The salami tasted a bit like sausage. (Rebecca)

We also picked some lettuce we had grown in the Kitchen Garden to have with our salami and rye bread.

Next we tasted Dulce de Leche from Argentina on crackers. It is caramelised sweetened condensed milk. We were very lucky that Anna shared her dulce de leche with us.

Here are some of our thoughts on dulce de leche -

It was sweet and I wanted more. (James)

I was impressed that it tasted like caramel. (Makki)

With my first bite it took me into a caramel cloud. (Robert)

It was like condensed milk. (Tremaine)

It melted in my mouth. (Rebecca)

I liked it so much I wanted to eat the whole jar. (Emily)

We got to try some candy from the USA.

Anna's friend Mariel, thought her children got far too much candy for Halloween so she took it away from them and sent it all the way to New Zealand! Sorry Lauryn and Raven but we loved trying it. Thank you for sharing.

Here is a vimeo of our Global Taste Test.

We really enjoyed trying new foods.

We would definitely love to do it again.

What is your favourite food from a different country?

Sparrows

2011-11-18T13:29:00.001+13:00

Our friends at a Peek inside have a problem with cheeky cockatoos at their school in Australia. The cockatoos will actually break into their lunchboxes!

Our bird problem isn't quite so bad but we do have sparrows who love an open rubbish bin.

Today Tarn and Tremaine filmed the birds having a snack from our rubbish bin at school. Take a look at what they filmed.

(Their commentary is pretty funny too because they forgot we would hear what they were saying! Oops!)

Terrific Talk

2011-11-18T10:14:00.001+13:00

What is Terrific Talk?

Terrific Talk is when we record ourselves using Photo Booth talking about a topic. We decide each day as a class what the topic will be. It is important to have thinking time before you start recording yourself speaking. We also listen to our recording from the day before so we can remember what we want to improve on.

Anna thinks it has really helped us to share our ideas with others and to realise that all our ideas are important.

Here are some brainstorms about what we think about and what we learn doing Terrific Talk

Here is a vimeo of Terrific Talk about our favourite place-

Lunch in K/1D in Australia

2011-11-16T07:58:00.001+13:00

Our friends at A peek inside blog took some photos of their lunches for us so we can see what lunch is like at their school in Australia. Their teacher Ms Dowling made the photos into a PhotoPeach for us and also added some extra information about when they eat.

We also think you should check out their blog. They are doing some great learning in K/1D. They even made an ant restaurant to find out about insects.

Take a look at their photopeach of lunchtime.
Make sure you watch the whole thing because they have a cheeky cockatoo who is a problem at lunchtime.

K/1D's Lunchboxes on PhotoPeach

A special thank you to K/1D and Ms Dowling for helping us with our learning.

Do you know where in the world these lunches are from?

2011-11-14T17:41:00.000+13:00

Anna knows some students from New Zealand who are currently overseas on an AFS exchange.

She got them to email a photo of their lunch to us.

One of the students also sent photos of their breakfast and dinner.

Photo A

Photo B

Photo C

Photo D

Photo E Photo F

Please leave us a comment with your guess about where you think the food comes from.

A big thank you to Chayla, Caroline and Brittany for emailing these photos to us.

We will write another post soon explaining what the food is and where it is from.

Origami with our Japanese Students

2011-11-14T17:04:00.000+13:00

Before the Japanese students left we learnt origami.

We made a balloon,camera and a fortune teller. One of the Japanese students made a flying crane.

The balloon was pretty difficult. But we figured out how to make it. The fun part was when we got to blow into the balloon.

Anna had a competition with one of the Japanese students Rei. The competition was to see who was better at origami. Because Rei kept on asking the other students so he took ages, and Anna won the competition.

Then we skyped Room 8 at Melville Intermediate to show them what we had made.

Did you like our origami?

Did you get some tips on how to make some origami?

Written by Georgia and Rebecca

Japanese Performance

2011-11-14T16:52:00.001+13:00

We had a performance from our Japanese students.
They performed a traditional dance from Japan. After they finished dancing they taught it to us. We didn't really get it but we had fun learning it.
Here is a vimeo of the Japanese students dancing and at the end you can see us trying to do their traditional dance.

Did you like the dance?

Written by Rebecca and Georgia

Nude Food Day

2011-11-09T14:20:00.001+13:00

Today is Nude Food Day.

Room 14 is celebrating it by not having any wrappers in their lunchboxes. Instead we are using containers or nothing.

Here is a lunchbox without wrappers. It just has a container to put the food in. We are trying to help care for the environment by having less packaging.

By Tarn and Eva

Lunch in Argentina

2011-11-08T22:04:00.000+13:00

Our friends at St Hilda's School in Buenos Aires, Argentina emailed us some fantastic photos of lunchtime at their school.
We loved seeing the different things they have for lunch. We were also really impressed that they got to have dessert.

Take a look at our PhotoPeach to see what our friends in Argentina do for lunch.

Lunch at St Hilda's on PhotoPeach

Lunch Questionnaire

2011-11-07T09:50:00.001+13:00

Can you help us find out about lunch around the world?

Please fill in this form -

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Lunch in Denmark

2011-11-06T20:11:00.001+13:00

Take a look at how our friends in 1A at Vonsild School in Denmark are helping us with our learning.

They took photos of their lunchboxes for us so we can see what they have for lunch. Take a look at their great blog to see how our lunches are the same and how they are different.

Lunch

2011-11-05T20:55:00.000+13:00

Here is a sneak peek into our lunches that we bring from home.

We also drew our lunch in kidpix and labelled it.

Take a look at our presentation about our lunches.

Japanese Skype

2011-11-03T14:50:00.002+13:00

Today we had a surprise for the Japanese students.
We skyped Room 8 at Melville Intermediate School because Mr Webb let us know that they also have students from

Ritsumeikan Keisho Junior High School

Our students talked to Takuto and Asuka who are in Room 8.
Take a look at our vimeo of the students talking to each other.

The Japanese students laughed a lot and looked very excited about talking to their friends. We found out the students at Melville Intermediate had been doing music that day. We thought it was cool to hear them speak Japanese to their friends.

We think Skype is a great way to talk to other people.

Lunchbox

2011-11-01T15:20:00.000+13:00

What did you have for lunch today?

Here are some of our lunchboxes. We pack our lunchboxes at home and bring them to school. We eat our lunch at 12:30pm before going to play. Now that it is summer we eat our lunch under the oak tree with our friends. This means we can be nice and cool in the shade.

This is what some of our lunchboxes look like after lunch. We try and have healthy lunches so our bodies are strong.

We created a wordle about the things we had for lunch today -

New Blogs to Follow

2011-10-31T16:45:00.002+13:00

Recently Anna has found some other great blogs from New Zealand for Room 14 to follow.

Here is some information about them. You can click on the name of each blog and it will take you to their blog.

View Blogs in a larger map

This blog is from Room 6 at Point England School in Auckland. The students share their fantastic stories with us. They have a photo or an illustration and then you can see the student reading their writing to you. Mrs She is so lucky to have such amazing writers and readers in her class.

Room 7 is from Vardon School in Hamilton. They share their learning in lots of different ways. It looks like Room 7 and Mrs Natusch have a lot of fun learning together.

Room 1 is from Grants Braes School in Dunedin. We really enjoyed hearing Room One's e-books. There was quite a lot of laughter from our class because the students have such great expression.

Japanese Students

2011-10-27T14:42:00.001+13:00

We have 12 students from

Ritsumeikan Keisho Junior High School

from Sapporo, Japan visiting our school.

We have learnt how to say hello in Japanese - Konnichiwa.

It's autumn in Japan at the moment. Did you know it snows in Sapporo in winter?

The students travel to school by bus or train and it takes over an hour to get there. There are over 500 students at their school.

This afternoon we went on a school tour and played a game about our school environment.

We played an alphabet game where you try and find things around the school that start with the different letters of the alphabet.

It was really important that we talked to each other. We got to know the Japanese students better.

We hope that the students have a great time visiting our school and New Zealand.

Welcome back to Term 4

2011-10-25T14:05:00.000+13:00

Here we are in the Kitchen Garden on our first day back. We are wearing sunhats because it is summer and we are being sun safe.

We checked on our class garden to see how everything is growing. Our lettuces have grown and the slugs are leaving them alone. Our pea seeds have also started growing. We planted a zucchini plant called Black Coral, that we got from Anna's Mum and Dad.

We really enjoyed making new friends around the world last term. We are looking forward to working with our buddies again this term and hopefully we will make some new connections too.

Making Connections

2011-10-19T14:37:00.000+13:00

At the moment it is school holidays in New Zealand.

I am lucky to be at a conference called Ulearn.

Today I was a presentation led by two teachers called Claire Buist and Anne Kenneally.

I had a look at a blog that Anne helps with - Room 7 at St Mary's School.

AND guess what....they had a blog post about us! Room 14!!! Isn't that cool!

Click on the screen shot of their blog post so you can take a look at what Room 7 has been up to.

End of Term Celebration

2011-10-19T14:24:00.000+13:00

On Friday 7 October (our last day of term 3) our whole school had a celebration. Each class dressed in the colours of one of the rugby teams they have been supporting during the Rugby World Cup.

Here is a vimeo showing our whole school supporting the RWC.

Can you work our what countries we have been supporting?

Here is a vimeo showing Room 14 cheering for......Georgia.

Room 14 has really enjoyed learning about all the different teams in the Rugby World Cup. We are really proud of how New Zealand has hosted the RWC too.

Good Luck to the All Blacks for the final on Sunday.

Term 3 Learning

2011-10-07T11:58:00.000+13:00

We have had a great term together and have learnt so much.

Here is a vimeo sharing what we liked about this term.

Rugby World Cup

2011-10-07T10:01:00.000+13:00

We have really enjoyed the Rugby World Cup.

We have supported lots of different teams throughout the competition. We had a day where we dressed in the colours of the different teams to show our support.

Can you guess what teams we are supporting?

We were lucky that some people in our class are from different countries with teams in the Rugby World Cup. Lita got her Fijian flag signed by some of the Fijian players.

On the last day of school every class chose a team to dress up as. Room 14 is supporting Georgia. We are wearing red and white and have painted our faces.

Here is some of our writing about the Rugby World Cup.

I am supporting the France rugby team. I like their top that they wear. They are good at passing the ball to each other. I am helping and supporting the French team by wearing the colours that are on their country flag. I also painted my face blue. I think that the Rugby World Cup is exciting. When New Zealand played France I was cheering for both teams. The score was 37-17 and the All Blacks won.

By Eva

I am supporting Australia because my cousin is from Australia. I like the team. They do nice passes to their players. I have yellow on. The game that I like is Samoa vs South Africa. The highlights is what my Mum always likes to watch.

By Makki

I am supporting Fiji and Ireland because I think they are a good team and because I want to support someone different for a change. I am supporting them by wearing their team colours on my shirt and track pants. One of my favourite games was Fiji vs Wales. It was kind of sad because Wales got 66 points and Fiji got 0.

By Tarn

I am supporting Wales because I am wearing red and white and also a daffodil. I wanted Wales to win their game. I am wearing red face paint to support Wales too. I love them getting lots of tries in the Rugby World Cup. I also like how they kick the ball up high.

By Xiomy

I am supporting Georgia because they speak another language. I think the Georgian Rugby Team are good players. I am wearing red and white for the Georgian Rugby team. I liked the game when Georgia played against Romania. It was a great game. Georgia won that game. The score was Georgia 25 and Romania 9.

By Lita

I am supporting England because my Dad is from England. I hope England wins the Rugby World Cup. My favourite game was New Zealand vs France. It was a tough game for them. I really like how France was getting into it. NZ was great at passing the ball.

By Liz

I think New Zealand is going to win the Rugby World Cup because they are a good team. I am wearing black for New Zealand. I liked watching New Zealand vs Canada. It was a good game. New Zealand is my favourite team in the Rugby World Cup.

By Ryan

I am supporting Ireland. It’s a team that speak a different language and they also speak English. I like how they speak.

By Xakiryion

I am supporting Fiji because I was born in Fiji and I lived there for 6 years. Also my whole family was born in Fiji. I am wearing white and black to support Fiji because it is in their uniform. I enjoyed watching the Rugby World Cup when Fiji played Namibia because Fiji won that game 66-0.

By Shakshi

I am supporting Argentina because Anna lived in Argentina. I’m doing this by wearing black and acting like a puma because their team is called Los Pumas. The other team I am supporting is the All Blacks because they are the New Zealand team. I’ve enjoyed the RWC but my favourite game was New Zealand vs Canada because the All Blacks won. The score was 79-15. I also like watching people getting tries. I like seeing all of the flags too.

By Lucy

I am supporting the All Blacks because they are the top of Pool A. I think they are going to win the Rugby World Cup and I am wearing black to support them. I liked watching the game All Blacks vs France. I was supporting the All Blacks because I knew they were going to win.

By Jackson.

I am supporting Ireland because me and my Mum like the Irish team. I am supporting Ireland by wearing green pants and a green hair tie. Yesterday I even drew the emblem of the Ireland team. Then I cut it out with scissors and stuck it on my shirt with cellotape. I thought it was cool when South Africa beat Wales. I also like it when Tonga beat France. I thought France would win but they didn’t. I think they were too tired. I like the tries. I wonder who will win the Webb Ellis Trophy?

By Rebecca

I am supporting Tonga because it is a good team to cheer for and because they do good things to help their team. When they play I cheer for them. I cheer for New Zealand because it is the place I was born in. The team is called the All Blacks. I like the whole team but the best All Black players I like are Richie Macaw, Dan Carter and Sonny Bill Williams. Richie Macaw is good at getting tries and Dan Carter is good at kicking the ball. Sonny Bill Williams is good at kicking and getting tries. What I like about the World Cup is watching the team players getting tries.

By Tremaine

I’m supporting NZ, Fiji, Ireland and Italy. I am supporting Fiji because that’s where I was born. Their haka always makes me laugh. I like the Rugby World Cup because all the countries are playing in the finals. All the teams are wanting to win the Webb Ellis Trophy.

By Jiuta

My favourite team that I am supporting is NZ because I am wearing black. They are my favourite team in the Rugby World Cup.

By Fontana.

I am supporting Fiji and South Africa because they are both great teams. They also wear bright colours. They both have good passers and kickers. South Africa always gets tries and goals. I am wearing green nail polish for South Africa. I am also wearing a white t.shirt and a blue jacket for Fiji. I like watching teams get tries. I like watching the ball go over the post because it looks like it’s going into the crowd.

By Tahniah

Skype Calls

2011-10-06T12:19:00.000+13:00

Here is some of our writing about our fantastic Skype Day.

Today we skyped lots of schools around the world. My favourite skype call was the Mystery Skype call. We had to ask yes or no questions to find out what school they are and where they live. Room 14 found out where they lived first. They lived in Chicago. Finally they said New Zealand and we said yes. Then they guessed Hamilton.

By Eva

We skyped lots of schools and found out more about them. My favourite call was Te Poi because I miss Whaea Linda and also because they are an Enviro School now. They made a movie that looked really really cool. Every Friday they do whole school Enviro jobs so they can be a really big Enviro school. I hope they succeed someday.

By Tarn

My favourite part of Skype Day was skyping Miss Becker’s class. It was nearly morning tea time for Miss Becker’s class. They are 6 and 7 year old. Some of them read chapter books too. They also wear uniforms. They are in Queensland, Australia. They have over 500 children in their school and it is 150 years old. They have a bus ride to school.

By Emily

My favourite skype call was Miss Becker’s class. I felt it was a decent chat. Their beach is three hours away and our beach is 45 minutes away. They play soccer just like us but not many girls play. At Hamilton East School lots of girls play soccer. Miss Becker’s class doesn’t have a swimming pool but they go on a bus to one.

By Liz

My favourite skype call was in the USA. It was fun seeing them. They had good questions. The mystery school was hard for us to find out where they were. The mystery school was in Chicago. They soon found out where we were.

By Ryan

Room 14 had a skype breakfast. Some of us came to school really really early in the morning. The first skype call was Miss Pope’s Superstars. They were more excited they us because they were jumping all around.

By Caitlin

We came to school early. Miss Becker’s class 1B are 6 and 7 years old. They play soccer like us too. They are building a new hall and library.

By Xakiryion

I love skyping the mystery school. I was extremely excited. I liked how we had to guess where they were. When they spoke their accent gave it away. We knew they were from the USA immediately. We were only allowed to ask yes or no questions. It took us some time to guess what city their school is in. We guessed Los Angeles, Miami, San Francisco. Then finally we asked Chicago. We guessed it first! YAY!!! We let them keep on guessing. They guessed New Zealand. Then they said Hamilton.

By Rebecca

I liked all the skype calls but the one I liked the best was Melville Intermediate. I finally got to meet Hannah. We got to see Veronica. We asked a lot of questions. It was a lot of fun. The call was a little fuzzy and we couldn’t hear so well either.

By Georgia.

Skype Day

2011-10-05T16:20:00.001+13:00

This morning we got to school super early.

Why would we come to school so early?

So we could Skype our friends in other classrooms across the world.

First up at 7:15am was Miss Pope's Superstars in North Carolina, USA.

We had a technical difficulty and had to change classrooms before we could talk properly. (Thanks Room 16 for letting us use your room). Miss Pope's Superstars were just about as excited as we were.

We read them a story about Taniwha and we also counted to 10 in Maori.

They counted in 10 in Spanish. They also told us about their day. After our Skype call they were going home and we were just starting our day.

Then we skyped a mystery school.

We didn't know where in the world they were and we had to ask them yes and no questions to find out where they were.

They had great Geography knowledge but they thought we were in Australia. We guessed using their accent too and we thought they were in the USA.

Where were they? In Chicago. (Actually they were in a town outside of Chicago). They finally guessed we were in New Zealand and they even got the city right! WOW! Great work Coal City Middle School.

We think they are lucky to get snow in winter. Right now it is Fall in Chicago. (Fall is what we call Autumn). We also found out they only get 30 minutes for lunchtime!

At 9:15am we skyped Te Poi School. It was great to catch up with them again. The great news is that they are now an Enviro School too. Congratulation Te Poi School. They showed us some of the work that they have done. Now every Friday they have Enviro Teams where they do jobs to help look after their school. What a great idea!

We look at Room 8 at Melville Intermediate's blog a lot. We were so excited that today we would finally get to see and talk to some of their students. We found out that their school is 47 years old and also has maori carvings like us. They have gardens outside their classrooms and a worm bin area. We also got to catch up with a student who used to go to Hamilton East School.

At 1:30pm we skyped 1B at Dalby Primary School in Queensland, Australia.

We asked each other a lot of questions. Here a few of the things we found out. Dalby is 3 hours away from a beach. (We are only 45 minutes away from a beach). They go by bus to the swimming pool. Their school is 150 years old. Over 500 students go to their school. They call fields ovals. They are going to take some photos of their school so we can get an idea of what it looks like.

Thank you so much to the classes and their fabulous teachers (Miss Pope, Mr Hitchcock, Whaea Linda, Mr Webb and Miss Becker) who helped us have such a fantastic Skype day.

Skype Breakfast

2011-10-05T16:17:00.000+13:00

So what do you do about breakfast when you get to school so early in the morning because you are skyping classrooms around the world?

You get to have breakfast at school.

After we had skyped Te Poi school at 9:15am Room 14 went to the school staffroom.

We got to have our breakfast altogether.

We got to sit in the teacher's chairs and eat our breakfast.

We had cornflakes or ricies with banana and milk.

We all had toast. We could have jam, peanut butter, honey or vegemite.

Having our breakfast so late showed us how important breakfast is. It really helps your brain and body get going. Breakfast helps you be ready to learn.

Art Visit

2011-10-04T10:07:00.001+13:00

Anna left a comment on Room 16's blog asking if Room 14 could come and look at their gorgeous artwork. Room 16 skyped us to invite us to come and visit. So this morning we walked along the deck to visit Room 16. We each had a Room 16 buddy who explained all the different artwork around their room.

Take a look at our vimeo to see the great conversations we had about their artwork.

We really liked how they used different browns in their ducks. The nests looked really effective with the cut up paper.

We also liked how they used paper and newspaper to make their faces.

They did clever things like colouring over a black and white photo of themselves in pastel.

Their artwork had a lot of detail. They also used more than one material to create their artworks.

Thank you for letting us visit you, Room 16.

A Thousand Visitors

2011-09-29T11:24:00.000+13:00

Today is a special day for Room 14 and all their lovely visitors.

Our clustrmap tells us that since June this year we have had 1,015 different visitors look at our blog.

We know that some of them come back to look at our blog again and again.

To celebrate we had hundreds and thousands biscuits.

Look how happy and proud of ourselves we are.

We really love blogging.

We think it is fantastic because we get to share our learning with lots of people around the world.

Thank you for looking at our blog.

St Hilda's College, Argentina

2011-09-28T12:14:00.001+13:00

We are connecting with two Year 4 classes in Argentina. They are from St Hilda's College in Buenos Aires. We sent them a small video introducing ourselves and a list of questions of things we would like to know about them. They emailed us some photos of their school and answered our questions. They also sent us a couple of cute videos. Here are some of the things we have found out about our friends at St Hilda's.

Here are our new friends. They have to wear a uniform.

4E is outside and 4D is in their computer suite.

We could see from the photo that 4D has been looking at our blog.

Their school day starts at 8am and goes until 4pm. The buildings at St Hilda's College look very different compared to our school. Their school is 99 years old. Hamilton East School is 139 years old.

Their school has big trees just like Hamilton East School. They speak both English and Spanish at their school but they speak Spanish at home.

They don't have a blog but their school does have a website.

This weekend Argentina is playing Georgia in the Rugby World Cup. Some of us will cheer for Argentina and some of us will cheer for Georgia. We hope it is a great game of Rugby.

Did you know that the Pumas player Mario Ledesma went to St Hilda's when he was younger?

You can learn more about "Los Pumas" (that is the name of their Rugby team) by clicking on this photo.

Meeting a Rugby Team

2011-09-26T09:54:00.000+13:00

Can you guess who these people are?

They are a rugby team.

They are wearing traditional clothes from their country.

They are playing in the Rugby World Cup.

While they are in New Zealand they are based in the Wairarapa.

They are the Georgian Rugby Team.

Do you know where in the world Georgia is?

A lot of the Georgian players play their rugby in France.

We took this photo and emailed it to our teacher's Mum who lives in Masterton.

She took it to the Georgian Rugby Team and took this photo of Irakli Machkaneli with us. He is a winger in the Georgian Rugby Team. We think it is clever we got to have our photo taken with him even though we weren't there. Irakli signed the photo for us. Anna's Mum is going to post it back to us.

You can find out more about Irakli Machkaneli by clicking on this photo.

Georgia is playing Romania on Wednesday in Palmerston North. We will be cheering for Georgia. We hope Irakli gets a try.

Our School

2011-09-22T11:33:00.001+12:00

Mrs Booth's Grade 4 class at Sherman Central School made some great comments on our blog. They asked us questions about what our school was like so we went and took some photos so we could explain it to them. We hope our photos take you on our a little tour of Hamilton East School.

This is the view from the steps to our classroom.

This is an area of our school called Middle Flat.

This is us outside our classroom.

Our classroom is in a block of three other classrooms. We are all in a team called Totara Team. The other teams in our school are called Kowhai and Kauri. All of our teams are named after native trees.

Middle flat is a fun place to play. It has lots of obstacles to play on. We like to play tag and lots of other games here. There are lots of trees and birds surrounding middle flat.

By Tahniah, Georgia, Afifah, Fabian and Yusuf.

This slide is by the redwood tree. It's a great slide because you can go really fast. We have a four square grid outside of our classroom. We play on it during morning tea and at lunch time.

By Lacey, Eva, Xakiryion and Tremaine

The Rainbow Playground is where the children in Kowhai team can play. Children in Kowhai team are 5 and 6 years old. The Kowhai sandpit is used by the Kowhai kids to make sandcastles and tunnels.

By Lacey

The courts are Up Top. Everybody is allowed to play here. We play games like netball, basketball, hockey and tennis.

By Lita, Leighton, Phillip and Jackson

This is our Kitchen Garden where we grow food for us to eat. We grow lots of vegetables, like potatoes and carrots. We always where shoes when we go into the Kitchen Garden so we don't hurt our feet on our tiles. Sometimes Dugan (our caretaker) comes and helps us plant big things. Each class has their own patch to grow plants. Classes come in one or two at a time to do their gardening. We can also go during lunchtime once a week. We have to chase away white butterflies so their caterpillars don't eat our veges.

By Lucy, Aisha, and Jiuta

Some people go on our school bus so that they can get picked up and dropped off near their home. The bus bell goes at 2:55pm so kids can get to the bus waiting area. We like going our school bus because we can talk to our friends and meet other people from our school.

By Tarn, James, Amber and Ryan.

This is our school swimming pool. It has a cover on it at the moment because we don't swim until summer time. We swim in our first term which is in February and March. When the pool is open we have class lessons. At lunchtime sometimes we go for a swim in the nice cold pool to be refreshed. We love swimming in the pool because it is so much fun.

By Lacey, Tremaine, Eva, Xakiryion, Jiuta, Lucy and Aisha

This area of our school is called Putikitiki. People like to play soccer and rugby on this field. There is also a big playground to play on. The playground has two slides, a fireman's pole, two tyre swings, a bridge and a ramp. It is a lot of fun to play on. Kids are allowed down with a teacher at lunchtimes if they are in Kauri and Totara teams.

By Tarn, James, Shakshi, Xiomy, Esitia, Amber, Ryan and Emily

The Nature Trail has a lot of native trees and a path that goes through them. There are a lot of birds, like fantails, sparrows and tuis, that like to visit the area. We have all helped plant trees in this area. We are not allowed on the Nature Trail without an adult. At the moment Anna (our teacher) and some children are working on making the area safer for us. Our Nature Trail is a beautiful place.

By Fabian, Tahniah, Georgia, Afifah, Yusuf, Caitlin, Leighton, Lita, Phillip, Jackson, Rebecca, Robert, Makki, and Fontana.

We also created a wordle about the different places around our school.

We don't wear a uniform at our school. We only wear a uniform if we are playing a sport for our school. Our school day starts at 9am and goes until 3pm. We are allowed to be at school from 8:30am. We also have before and after school care in our hall.
We hope you enjoyed the "tour" of our school.

Tips for Comments

2011-09-21T07:55:00.001+12:00

We have been discussing not only how to comment but what are the things that make a good comment.

Here are the Quality Commenting Tips we came up with.

This is also a page at the top of our blog now so you can check

Room 14's commenting tips easily.

Welcome to Quad Blogging

2011-09-19T10:30:00.000+12:00

This week is the beginning of our Quad Blogging.

This is a great way to connect with other classes around the world.

It is when you have other classes around the world that are your friends. You connect with them by looking at and commenting on their blogs. We will find out what they are learning about. We hope to also learn about their countries.

Our Quad Blogging buddies are -

Year 4, Greenpark School

Year 4, Trinity CE Lower School

Mrs Booth's Fourth Graders, Sherman Central School, USA

Hi! Quad Bloggers,

This is us - Room 14 - underneath the gateway at the front of our school.

We are excited about reading your comments on our blog.

We have thought of some questions to find out more about you -

Where do you like to play at your school?

What is your favourite subject?

What do you like to learn about?

Do you have a school uniform?

What time does your school start and finish?

Where is your school?

How many students are at your school?

How old is your school?

We look forward to hearing from you.

We love NZ

2011-09-16T11:46:00.000+12:00

This week was Conservation Week in New Zealand.

The theme was We Love New Zealand.

Today we went and hugged our Redwood tree. It is the tallest tree in our school and its trunk is massive. The Redwood tree provides shade and a home for birds.

Take a look at our vimeo of our Kidpix drawings of what we love about New Zealand.

Our school had an art competition to celebrate Conservation Week. The artwork had to show what we love about our school. Ryan and Tahniah's artwork were in the top 11. They won a marigold plant and Ryan also won a trowel to help him with his gardening.

Artwork created by Ryan.
This is our playground on Putikitiki.

Artwork created by Tahniah.

This is the trees by the Kowhai sandpit.

Skype Australia

2011-09-16T11:30:00.000+12:00

Miss Cashen's Year 5 and 6 class read us a story through Skype. We were so lucky because they actually read us two books. The first one was "Possum Magic" and the second story was "Where does Thursday go?".

After they had read us Possum Magic they asked if we had any questions.

We were too shy to speak to them.

When they read us "Where does Thursday go? they used props, like, a birthday cake hat and balloons. The rest of the class helped with sound effects.

Miss Cashen is lucky to have so many fantastic readers in her classroom. When they were reading the story they had clear voices.

We talked to them about the Rugby World Cup. We said we would cheer for the Wallabies when they play Ireland on Saturday.

Supporting other Countries

2011-09-14T14:58:00.001+12:00

During the Rugby World Cup we are supporting lots of different teams.

We saw on Kids with a View blog that they have been learning a lot about the Rugby World Cup too.

Their teacher Mrs Laburn had used an app on her iPhone called Flag Face to show the countries that the class was supporting. You should have a look at their post.

Anna thought that this was such a good idea that she downloaded the app too.

Unfortunately it doesn't have all the countries in the World Cup but luckily the students in Room 14 are supporting lots of different teams.

Can you work out what teams we are supporting?

The Shape Game

2011-09-13T14:56:00.000+12:00

After lunch today Anna read us "The Shape Game" by Anthony Browne.

We thought that the Dad's jokes in the story were funny. You have to look carefully at the illustrations because Anthony Browne is a very talented artist.

After we had read the story we tried the shape game for ourselves.

To play one person drew a shape on a piece of paper.

Then the next person has to add other drawings to make the shape into a picture.

Here are some of the finished pictures.

Eva thought this was a good game to play with someone at home.

We think so too.

Rugby World Cup

2011-09-12T11:08:00.002+12:00

We have watched a lot of Rugby this weekend. We thought that the opening ceremony was awesome. All the games have been exciting to watch. We have done quite a lot of cheering too.

The All Blacks next game is in Hamilton on Friday against Japan. They are staying in a hotel across the river from our school. We are excited that we are so close to them. We will have to keep our eyes peeled to see if we can spot the players during the week.

Take a look at our Rugby wordle we created -

Sue who works in our office and is in charge of our school bus saw Sonny Bill Williams at the supermarket!

Connecting with the World

2011-09-09T14:55:00.000+12:00

New Zealand is the host for the Rugby World Cup.

We are trying to find out as much as we can about the different countries that are involved in the Rugby World Cup.

We are lucky because we have some experts in our class. Lita, Jiuta, Phillip and Shakshi are from Fiji. Esitia is from Tonga.

Some of us have family and friends in England, Scotland, Australia, Argentina, USA, Canada and Ireland.

We have been connecting with other countries as a class.

We now have friends at Lightning Reef School in Melbourne, Australia.

Miss Pope's Superstars in North Carolina, USA.

St Hilda's School in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

We are also connecting with schools in England and the USA with our Quad Blogging.

Rugby World Cup 2011

2011-09-09T12:59:00.000+12:00

Today is the beginning of the Rugby World Cup.

Tonight New Zealand's team the All Blacks are playing against Tonga.

To celebrate we have all worn black today and some of us even painted our faces.

Go the All Blacks!

At lunchtime all of Totara Team practiced their cheering for the game tonight.

Take a look at our vimeos to see us cheering.

Totara cheering for the All Blacks from Ham East on Vimeo.

Totara cheering for Tonga from Ham East on Vimeo.

Mother Duck

2011-09-07T14:09:00.000+12:00

We are excited because Mother Duck's eggs have hatched. Anna took Room 14 up to Fairyland to have a look at the ducklings. They are so adorable. We tried to count all the ducklings but Mother Duck is very good at protecting them. We know there is at least 7 ducklings though.

If you look carefully at these photos you can see the little ducklings.

We have to be very quiet around Mother Duck so we don't scare her while she protects her ducklings. If you are quiet and still Mother Duck will pull her chest up and lift her wings a little to show you her little family. She is so proud.

Here is a vimeo of Mother Duck. A massive thank you to Madisen and Room 10 for letting us use their video footage.

Mother Duck & ducklings from Ham East on Vimeo.

Happy Father's Day

2011-09-03T16:15:00.000+12:00

This Sunday is Father's Day so Room 14 has been thinking about our dads and the other great role models we have in our life.

We created portraits in Kidpix and made them into a slideshow.

My Dad from Ham East on Vimeo.

Thanks to all our Dads for taking care of us.

We hope you have a special day.

Here are some of our stories about our Dads.

My Dad reads me bedtime stories. But sometimes my Dad does not read me bedtime stories because we are up to late at night or we took a tv show for our story. He has one brother and one sister. He sometimes plays with me. He has three children (including me). He has a moustache. He loves reading history books. He tucks me into bed. He finds teddy for me.

By Yusuf

My Dad really really likes to do sports, like running and soccer. My Dad is a really good cook. He cooks rice and chicken soup. His dinner is so so yummy. My Dad likes to tell a lot of jokes. He likes to watch tv. He likes to grow flowers at home with me. He has a big smile.

By Xiomy

My Dad likes going to other people's houses. My Dad is happy. He makes shelves. I play with Dad and Renay.

By Xakiryion

My Dad likes to play draughts with me. Sometimes I say to Dad that I will win today and he says no you aren't going to win because look the game is already over and I won. Then I say to my Dad lets play again. He says come on I will win again. When Dad turns his face away I quickly took away the counters off the board. Then I say to him look I won.

By Shakshi

My Dad plays rugby. I always cheer for Dad. On Cross Country, Dad and my two brothers came and watched me. My Dad's good at kicking. He likes watching rugby. He always makes me laugh. My Dad has three children Jonathon, Solo and me. He takes us to the lake. He is really funny because he plays tag with us.

By Lita

My Dad likes to run. My Dad cooks rice. I like my Dad.

By Fabian

My Dad has four kids and they are me, Laura, Josh and Daniel. My Dad is 40 and he does a lot of paper work. He is on the computer a lot. He mows the lawn. He does breakfast sometimes on Saturdays and Sundays. He cooks bacon and eggs and sometimes he makes pancakes and waffles. He is rude and silly. He sticks chips up his nose and puts spaghetti in his mouth and pretends he has a beard. His favourite food is lasagne.

By Emily

My Dad makes seats out of wood for us to sit on. My Dad is really nice and funny. He has big black shoes that are hard. My Dad likes lots of different colours. Dad always likes to wear a beanie, maybe to keep his head warm. My Dad is very tall and has long legs. He has hairy legs too. My Dad really loves chocolate and he loves to eat it.

By Aisha

Cross Country

2011-08-31T14:53:00.002+12:00

Today was the Hamilton East School Cross Country.

We were fabulous runners.

Here are some vimeos of the beginning of each of our races.

Year 3 Girls from Ham East on Vimeo.

Year 3 Boys from Ham East on Vimeo.

Year 4 Girls from Ham East on Vimeo.

Year 4 Boys from Ham East on Vimeo.
Thank you Madisen for filming the starting of each race for us.
Thank you Room 10 and the helpers for your great cheering.
Thank you to our parents for coming along to watch and for helping us be organised to run today.

Tui

2011-08-30T09:09:00.000+12:00

On Monday afternoon Room 14 was getting ready to blog when we heard some beautiful singing outside. Room 14 crept outside quietly and tried to see what was making the noise.

Finally we saw the tui in the Rimu tree outside Room 14.

We did take some photos but it was really hard to show how beautiful the tui is.

Here is a photo of what a tui looks like.

Environment Waikato has a project to help increase tui numbers. Click on this link if you want to find out more about tui and how you can help.

We also took a flip video of the tui. If you look carefully towards the end of the vimeo you will be able to see the tui in the tree.

Tui from Ham East on Vimeo.

We love hearing the tui sing while we are working in our classroom.

Plum Tree

2011-08-29T15:01:00.001+12:00

Today Mrs Leeson gave Hamilton East School a plum tree to plant in the Kitchen Garden.

We planted it behind the dental clinic because one day this could be a great orchard area.

Look at the roots of the plum tree.

Thankfully Dugan had dug a hole for us earlier. We put fertiliser in when we planted it. This will help it grow faster. Then we piled more soil in the hole.

Mrs Leeson had thought of everything, not only, did she have fertiliser she also had worm juice. We mixed this in with the water to help the plum tree grow stronger.

Look at gorgeous Room 14 with the new plum tree for our school.

Here is a vimeo of Room 14 helping to plant the tree.

Plum Tree from Ham East on Vimeo.

Skype Australia

2011-08-25T14:47:00.000+12:00

Today was a very exciting day for Room 14 because we skyped Miss Cashen's class in Australia. They are a Grade 5 and 6 class at Lightning Reef Primary School. Here is a link to their class blog.

Here is Room 14 waiting for it to be 1:45pm so we can ring Miss Cashen and her class in Australia. It was 11:45am in Australia. (We thought it was funny because we had finished our lunchtime and they hadn't had their lunchtime yet!)

We read them this story because its about trees that are native to New Zealand. Thanks Whaea Tash and Room 11 for suggesting this book to us.

Here are some of the photos that Robert took of our Skype session.

Here is a short video filmed by Tarn of us skyping Miss Cashen's class. They were a super audience. We are hoping that next week they skype us and read us a story.

Skype with Lightning Reef Primary School from Ham East on Vimeo.

Reflection

2011-08-25T14:30:00.001+12:00

Here is a tagxedo of the best things about today Thursday 25 August for Room 14.

Criss Cross

2011-08-24T15:41:00.000+12:00

Project Energize

Home Play Challenge

We are doing Criss Cross activities. We do these at home with our families.

This is Leap Frog.

You have to jump over the person who is on the ground. We got pretty muddy doing this - but it was so much fun!

Then we learnt how to play hopscotch. At morning tea some of us borrowed some chalk so we could draw a hopscotch near our classroom.

We practiced skipping without a rope.

(Anna forgot to bring the ropes with us!)

Wall jump Tuck jump

Can you do 5 wall jumps, 5 tuck jumps and 5 star jumps in a row?

What about 10 in a row?

How many skips can you do in a minute?

Running

2011-08-23T12:28:00.002+12:00

Wednesday 31st August is our school Cross Country day. We run a course around our school. Our class has been training during school time and some of us have been training at home too. We hope some of our parents will be able to come and watch us run.

Here are some examples of our writing about cross country.

We illustrated our writing using Kidpix.

I am training for Cross Country. I like Cross Country because it is really challenging. I think the most challenging part is the hills. I don't like it when I get the stitch. It makes it really hard to run. I didn't like cross country when I was in Kowhai team. Then I started to like cross country when I was in Room 16. I can't wait for it.

By Rebecca.

I like to train for Cross Country because it helps me get faster and fitter. When I'm running up all of the hills it makes me feel like I want to go back to sleep. I train with my puppy, Bear. He is 3 years old and is just about as tall as me.

By Caitlin

I am training really really hard for Cross Country. I like to run more than I like to jog or walk. I love feeling my heart pump really fast after running. After runs I am really puffed. Cross Country makes my legs hurt when I am walking. I will train hard enough to win the race. The reason I like to train is because I get faster and faster.

By Aisha

Listen to Leighton read his writing about Cross Country training.

We created this using SonicPics!

Cross Country

2011-08-22T15:26:00.000+12:00

Next Wednesday is our school cross country. We are training to get faster. When we get puffed we walk fast until we are ready to start running again.

Today while we were training we had a very special spectator - a fantail! It was flying so fast around us as we ran that it nearly flew straight into Eva.

Take a look at our vimeo to see us training and our little fantail friend.

Cross Country Room 14 from Ham East on Vimeo.

Constable Jo

2011-08-22T11:24:00.000+12:00

Today Constable Jo came and visited Room 14. We were learning about Keeping Ourselves Safe.

She taught us about Secrets, Tricks and Bribes. She said there are no good secrets only good surprises and bad secrets.

We looked at different cartoons and had to work out what was happening in each one. Then we had to decide whether it was a secret or a trick or a bribe.

Thanks Constable Jo for teaching us.

We are great at knowing how to keep ourselves safe.

Skype with Room 5

2011-08-19T14:48:00.000+12:00

Today we had practices at reading a story using skype. We rang Room 5 after morning tea. Anna read the story and Georgia was the camera kid. It was a bit tricky at first but she got the hang of it. Room 5 was a great audience.

After lunch Room 5 rang us. They wanted to read us a story. They read us two stories. One was The Moon and the other story was about cleaning your teeth. The readers read very clearly.

We hope we can share our reading with Room 5 again soon.

Skype Around the World

2011-08-18T09:37:00.000+12:00

Did you know next week is Australian Book Week? Room 14 is going to skype a class in Australia and read them a story.

Today we used Google Earth to see where they are. We even used street view and that was pretty cool because we could zoom right in.

We would like some help to choose a story to read to them.

Do you know a story that might tell the class something about New Zealand?

Someone Special

2011-08-16T12:27:00.000+12:00

When we came back to school after our holidays we had to create a sketch and a brainstorm about someone we had seen in our holidays. We had to think about what they looked like and things that they did. Then we wrote a story about them.

Here are three examples of our work.

My brother by Xiomy from Ham East on Vimeo.

My guinea pig Winnie was scurrying on the lawn when I noticed there was grass on her head. It was all dirty. So I put her in the sink and scrubbed her all over. She squealed like a bat so I cleaned her with the towel. Winnie is a white guinea pig with a black patch around one eye and one black ear. She likes to eat the grass that grows by Mum's bike.

By Lucy

My Mum by Eva from Ham East on Vimeo.

Our Gardens

2011-08-12T18:15:00.000+12:00

Shakshi and Tarn are learning to use a flip video. They used it to video our gardens. It was their first time filming with it and they have done a great job. We are looking forward to seeing what they film next.

Listen carefully to the birds when they are filming in the Kitchen Garden.

Our Gardens from Ham East on Vimeo.

Fruit Platter

2011-08-12T14:48:00.002+12:00

Today the Year 4's in Rooms 13 and 14 went to learn how to play golf.

The Year 3's worked with Anna.

We made a fruit platter because as part of the Home Play Challenge the character Spoke loves fruit kebabs. If you don't have kebab sticks you can make a fruit platter instead.

We had mandarins, kiwifruit, pears, apples and bananas.

We cut the fruit up or peeled it. Anna had to cut up the kiwifruit, apples and pears because they needed a sharp knife.

This is what our fruit platters looked like. Don't they look delicious!

They tasted good.

The kiwifruit was the first fruit to vanish! The bananas were very popular too.

After we had finished eating we went to the Kitchen Garden and put our fruits scraps into the compost bins.

Thank you Sonja and Anna for getting the yummy fruit for us. Maybe you could make a fruit platter at home with your family.

Mother Duck

2011-08-10T13:31:00.001+12:00

Every year the same duck comes back to our school to lay her eggs. Building a nest at a school seems like a strange thing to do.

This morning Room 14 went and visited Mother Duck in Fairyland. We had to be quiet so we didn't scare her. We wonder how many eggs she has laid in her nest?

Here are some of our stories we wrote about Mother Duck.
We drew pictures of Mother Duck using Kidpix.

As she lays her eggs snug and warm in fairyland Mother Duck is fed by Father Duck. Dugan puts a fence to stop kids from damaging her scaly feathers even though she is tucked away in the leaf litter under the fern. The sky blue eggs will hatch into ducklings soon. I hope they have a safe trip across the road.

By Lucy

Illustration by Leighton

Mother Duck is special to our school. We look after her. We think she is beautiful. I like Mother Duck. She is my favourite bird. I like her pretty feathers. I remember when she was on Putikitiki with her babies.

By Kurtis.

Illustration by Ryan

Mother Duck has had a lot of babies. Mother Duck always keeps her babies warm. She also makes her eggs warm by sitting on them. She is outside in Fairyland curling up into a ball under a tree. She has a scaly pattern of colours and feathers.

By Aisha

Illustration by Esitia

Today we went to Fairyland to see Mother Duck. She was laying with her eggs. She was resting with the egg. Father Duck always brings some food for her. If you are behind Mother Duck you have to be quiet.

By Lita

Illustration by Tremaine