Room14HES

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.

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.

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 .

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 .

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

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?

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 real

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 .

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.

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.

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?

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 .

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 .

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.

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