Summer Holidays

We are away for the summer holidays so please check back in February to meet the new 2013 room 12 students! Happy New Year!

Lucy's Toy Story

Barbie Rescue

Our topic this term has been called "Toy Story." We've made up a story about some toys that is sure to please everyone - it involves action, adventure, and romance.

Writing Together 1

Here we are during a Writing lesson. We are thinking and re-thinking our ideas in order to write the best possible sentence.

Writing Together 2

Here we are in a Writing lesson. We are thinking and re-thinking our vocabulary and details to make sure that we come up with the best possible sentence.

Writing Together 3

Here we are during a writing lesson! We are thinking about our ideas and re-thinking our ideas...so that we can write the best possible sentence.

Escape to Freedom

Louis has written a creative little story about a mischievous boy who enjoys swimming down at the Pt. England beach.  Hope you enjoy!

The sun wrapped the earth with it's warm tentacles. Little Tommy and his grandma were at the beach. Little Tommy had lots of hobbies but out of all of them he loved the beach. Unfortunately Tommy had to wait for 20 minutes after devouring an entire basket of food - man can he eat for a little six year old!! He couldn't wait any longer. He plotted to escape this terrible horror and be set free. Well, when his grandma was too busy sunbathing, Little Tommy had an opportunity to escape. Tiptoeing, Tommy sneaked away but knew that sooner or later his grandma would find out!

Mabel's Three Wishes

Sunshine shone through the windows into Mabel's eyes and awoke her from her deep sleep. It was time for her to get dressed and be off to the library. Mabel is a girl who loves books and wouldn't dare miss a second at the library.

Off went Mabel to the library. She was reaching for a book when suddenly smoke rose around her and a genie appeared before her. The genie granted her three wishes. Mabel was filled with joy in her heart but also sad because she didn't know what to wish for. Mabel thought and thought and then had an idea. Since she wasn't popular, she wished to be popular. Second of all, she wished that she was so pretty that people would fall in love with her as Mrs. Barks is falling in love with Tom Cruise.

The final wish was the last one she would ever have. She wished to be rich. So the wish came true. Her house was transformed into a gold house. It was the most special thing that happened to her. Mabel lived happily ever after.

Lily Learns To Swim

We had to write a story to go with a picture of children playing at a beach, and this is what Sean came up with. Pay close attention to the rich vocabulary he uses to describe things!!

On a hot, sunny day, kids were running like a flash into the water. The sand was soft like a puppy. Children were making beautiful sand castles with amazing, unbroken shells.

A girl named Lily was scared of the water. Her friend came along and asked, "Would you like me to teach you how to swim?" Lily replied, "Yes." Suddenly Lily knew how to swim and she was terrific at doing back-stroke!

Lily was like a marvelous mermaid zooming along the water Her parents were wowed that their daughter could swim. Lily and her parents thanked Lily's friend. She was no longer frightened of the water and she achieved her goal to swim.

My Poor Foot - What's the story?

Leave us your story to go with this picture - a sentence, paragraph, or complete story!

Swimming With Lions? Good Idea??

YAY!!! Mrs. Barks showed us how to use goanimate.com and here is a quick little movie that we made together as a class....just to try it out!

Good idea?

At the Google Conference,  Mrs. Barks also learned about Blabberize. This is her first attempt ... and once again we can't wait for her to show us how to do it!!!

Click here to see what the cats are saying.

Sailing The Seven Seas

Mrs. Barks went to a Google Conference over the school break and one of the applications she learned about was called "goanimate." She had a play with it and put together this short little movie...we hope that she gets time very soon to teach us how to use it!!

Cat and Squirrel - What's the story?

Please leave us YOUR story to go with this photo! Check out the "What's Your Story?" page listed on the top right hand side of our blog to read more stories and to add your own!

Macaroni and Cheese

Brooklyn and Sohel worked together with Mrs. Barks to write a story to go with the picture of Brooklyn and his lunch.


Mmmmm...macaroni and cheese....my favourite meal. Sometimes I like to order it from the tuck shop at school for my lunch. I opened the dish, ready for a delicious snack and the cheesy aroma filled the air. My mouth began to water. As quickly as I could, I gobbled it up...it was magnificent.

Move Over Dancing Queen....Here Comes Collin

Lunch time is one of my favourite times of the day ...except for today because I had to do push-ups. Push-ups are fairly easy to do....unless you have to do 25 without stopping!!!  You might be wondering why I was doing this instead of sitting nicely enjoying my delicious sandwich. Well, I decided to take my lunch and dance around the bay. My teacher wasn't as impressed with my dancing skills as I was...so she made me do pushups.

Barbie Girls

One of the students in Team 3 - from room 10, made a video showing the team 3 teacher's Barbie presentation at our term 4 assembly. We hope that you enjoy!

Introduction to Barbie from Team 3 PES on Vimeo.

Lovestruck Barbies from Team 3 PES on Vimeo.

Did You Know...

Michael was so inspired by our immersion assembly and the topic for the term...Toy Story...that he went home that very night and started researching some toy facts. Listen to what he has already discovered.

Tornado at our Playground

Ava and Lucy made a short video to show how we play on the Tornado at our playground.

Toy Story Immersion Assembly

Team 3 Barbies!

Today was the first day of Term 4 and the teachers at our school dressed up and put on a show to tell us about our next topic...which is called Toy Story! As you can see in the photos, our teacher and all the team 3 teachers are dressed up as different Barbies. Not only did they look gorgeous and glamorous, but they also taught us some interesting and fun facts about Barbie dolls,

Khaia's High Jump Animation

Sohel's Long Jump Animation

Zane's Tennis Animation

Tevita's Boxing Animation

Shaitairn's Fencing Animation

Shaitarn is new to Pt. England School so this was his very first Hyperstudio animation! Well done Shaitarn!!

Ariana's Olympic Animation

Tai's Olympic Animation

Enyahlee's Dressage Event

Trip To Australia

Flying to Australia might be exciting...but getting off the plane and exploring the country is even better!  We discovered two of our favourite amusement parks called Movie World and Wet 'n Wild.

At Move World, the fear-fall is the most amazing roller coasters except for the Scooby-Doo ride. Do you know how scary it is?  Well, if we must tell you, the Scooby-doo ride is in fact so scary that we almost cried!  You go around upside down and side to side. WARNING - if you ever get to go to Movie World, do not, we repeat...do not go on the Scooby-doo ride!

If you ever get a chance to go to the Gold Coast, please beg your mum to take you to Wet 'n Wild. They have fantastic rides like the Aqua Racer. You start at the top and zoom your way to the Aqua pool.

We decided that when we grow up, we are going to open up our own amusement park. We hope you get a chance to see it!!

Jordan's Boxing Animation

Sky Tower

In the center of Auckland city, there is a tower...but not just any ordinary tower...it is the tallest free standing structure in the southern hemisphere!

I wish that the Sky Tower was my home because it has a rotating restaurant. I would enjoy eating all the food I wanted!

Did you know that you can bungee jump off the tower and reach speeds up to 53 mph? I want to jump because I would feel like Super Man flying. When I would jump, I would say, "This is the best day of my life!"

A Bit About Our Culture

G.I. Takeaways...Yum Yum!!

In The Mood For Fun

Tevita and Shaitarn worked with Mrs. Barks to write a story about Rainbow's End. Hope you enjoy it!


If you are in the mood for fun, Rainbows End is a great place to gol It is an amusement park full of spectacular rides and food bars.

When your stomach rumbles, head over to the nearest food stall and grab an icy cold glass of soda, some crunchy, salty chips and a juicy hot dog with ketchup. If you are well behaved, your mum might buy you a big, fluffy, ball of candy floss.

The fear fall ride is the worst place after that big lunch. Once you are buckled into the seat, the ride begins to move slowly up to the top......which is a LONG way up. Just when you feel safe and relaxed...it suddenly drops like Zeus's lightning bolt from the heavens. You think that you will crash but it stops just in time!

After that day, you won't be naughty because you will want your parents to take you again next week!

Louis's Basketball Animation

They'll Be Back

Once upon a time, there were some silly seagulls who loved to spend their days hunting for left over scraps of food from children's lunches. Sometimes they would argue and fight over crusts of bread. The noise they made was irritating and annoying to the children and teachers who were trying to work. Children in room 12 decided to stop this nonsense by running after then and scaring them away. If these students are lucky...the birds will not return. However, we all know that seagulls never give up and we all know they'll be back!!

Theseus and the Minotaur

Lucy challenged herself to write an exciting retelling of Theseus and the Minotaur. She hasn't quite finished but here is what she has so far! I love all of the delicious vocabulary she used and how she kept me entertained.  I can't wait to read the ending!


Theseus and the Minotaur

Children for dinner? Ridiculous!....or not? In Ancient Greece, there lived a king named King Minos. He was very wealthy, but now and then he would get bored. When this happened, he would set sail to challenge King Aegeus, who lived in Athens, to a war. King Aegeus begged not to fight and instead said that he would give him 14 children to feed his Minotaur. Of course King Minos could't say "no."

Theseus, strong and mighty, knew that his father, King Aegeus, had made a horrible decision. Early one morning, Theseus set off in search of the labyrinth that housed the beast. When they arrived, he saw the most wonderful sight...Princess Ariadne, King Minos's daughter. The princess fell in love with his handsome good looks. She offered to help him in his quest to kill the minotaur. Princess Ariadne handed Theseus a ball of string to let out behind him so he could find his way out of the labyrinth, and a sword to slay the beast.

Slithering Snake Covered Head

WOW!!! These boys worked with their teacher and another staff member to retell the story of Medusa. Together they thought of "brainy" and "delicious" vocabulary to use in their sentences. Well done boys!!

King Polydectes sent Perseus on a deadly mission to search for the terrifying Medusa. He wanted Medusa's slimey, slithering, snake covered head.

Perseus, in his winged sandals, flew to Medusa's lair. Carefully he tiptoed into the cave and searched for the snake haired gorgon. When he discovered her, he slowly raised his sword and with a mighty blow sliced off her head.

He emerged excitedly from the cave with Medusa's head. He raced across the sky like an eagle to rescue his mum. He pulled the gorgon's head out of his golden satchel. the moment King Polydectes' eyes gazed upon Medusa's head, he instantly turned to stone.

Get Ready, Here I Come

At the Olympic sport day, I was taking part in an obstacle course. Here I am with the ball, ready to go next!

Drop, Cover, Hold

Over 1 million New Zealanders participated in an earthquake drill yesterday! If the ground starts to shake...remember...Drop, Cover, and Hold. Drop to the ground, get under a table or desk for cover, and hold onto the legs of the table or desk so that it doesn't move away with the movement of the floor. If you can't get underneath something, drop to the ground away from any objects that might fall on top of you and cover your head with your arms. If there is a doorway, you could stand under it for some protection .

Learning With Technology

What a fantastic school we have! We love going to Pt. England School because we get to use different kinds of technology.


When we learn something new, we make an animation about it. We draw pictures in Hyperstudio and put them into imovie. After this, we record our voices, add music, and then turn it all into a movie for our blog.

A couple of weeks ago we were so excited when we were given two ipads to use in our classroom. We   take photos and videos and write stories to go with them. These are emailed to our teacher. We also read and listen to online stories when we finish our work.

We really love using technology to help us learn.
               

Ariana and Khaia Visit The Art Gallery

Hopping into the car was so exciting because it was my first time going to the Auckland Art Gallery.If  you ever come to NZ I'd LOVE to take you there!

The frist part of the  gallery we entered was so amazing it blew my sock's off! I loved the beautiful artwork that the artists from around the world had created.

There were so many creations that artists had made but one of them stood out to me. It was a gigantic puffy flower hanging from the ceiling. It opened and closed like a book that's being read. I wonder how the creator made it?

Next time when it's my birthday,  I will beg and plead with my parents to take me to the art gallery so my friend's can explore the art with me. When I grow up I hope to make inspiring art of my own to go on the gallery walls.

Distance Races at Olympics

Archery at the Olympics

Teachers Having Fun Too

The teachers were getting a little restless...it is difficult following kids around all day and watching them have fun. So we decided to let them have a turn!

Olympic Sport Day

Last Thursday was not an ordinary Thursday...it was extraordinary! The students at our school were divided into teams named after various countries, and participated in an Olympic sport day!! Here you can see us enjoying the parachute...let's face it...you're never too old to play with a parachute!

Poor Khaia

You are thinking to yourself....."What in the world has happened to this poor girl?" Well, we wondered the same thing when she showed up to school Monday morning. It's sort of a funny story. Khaia was playing netball Thursday after school and she ended up falling and breaking one arm...she came to school Friday because she is tough as! Then if you can believe it, she showed up a few days later with both arms broken!!! The doctors didn't realise at first that she had broken both of her arms.  We were happy to help her out when one arm was in a cast...but now with two arms not working properly....our teacher says we have to treat her like a princess...and do EVERYTHING for her!!!

Rowana's Drawing

My name is Marilyn and I'm talking to Rowana about her drawing. We've been learning about greetings in different languages and Rowana is drawing a picture from Samoa to go with the Samoan greeting.

At The Library

Today Stevenson was teaching Lucy how to use our ipad while we were visiting the library.

Cute Kid

Today at our school we had an Olympic Sports day to celebrate the end of our term. I was the official photographer for team Spain. Here is a picture I took on our ipad of one of the little year 1 girls who did an awesome job during the spoon race. She had to carry a tennis ball on a spoon without dropping it.

Simon's Olympic Animation

Marilyn's Olympic Animation

Sean's Olympic Animation

Tommy Wilson

Tommy Wilson, who is a 'Professional Dreamer,' has written several books for kids. He came to speak at our school assembly and read one of his stories to us....it was fabulous! Tommy wanted us to remember the following things:

- War and Violence is Dumb

- Smile at 10 People Everyday

- Forgive Others

- Everyone has a Gift

Deadly Mission

Ronn is sharing part of his story about Medusa on our new iPads....hope you enjoy!

Boxing

Turned Into Stone

Enyahlee recorded part of her story about Medusa on one of our new ipads.

Olympic Diving

Lucy's goal was to try and add lots of movement to her animation. I think that she did an AMAZING job! Well done Lucy.

Don't Gaze Into Medusa's Eyes

Rowana is sharing what she has written about the story of Medusa. This is her first time recording onto our flash new iPads. Hope you enjoy.

Deadly Quest

In our room, we are practicing writing detailed sentences with "delicious" vocabulary. Sean worked really, really hard to put together the following story. Hope you enjoy!!!

Love is a powerful thing and King Polydectes was consumed with love for Danae. Daily she refused his offer for marriage. King Polydectes realised with Perseus out of the way, Danae would be forced to accept his proposal.

Perseus was sent on a deadly quest to go get the gorgon Medusa's head. If he succeeded, Perseus would get his beautiful mother back with him.

Cautiously, Perseus stepped into the ferocious gorgon's secret lair. He saw all the mighty warriors that suffered from the eyes of Medusa and had been turned to stone. Perseus found Medusa with the reflection from the shield that the gods gave him. Also with the sword the gods gave him, he fiercely severed her grotesque face that was covered with masses of hissing snakes.

Successfully, Perseus emerged from Medusa's secret lair. He shot above the menacing, stormy clouds with Medusa's head. King Polydectes had no idea how Perseus succeeded. Medusa's gaze still had the power to turn people to stone and when King Polydectes looked into her eyes, he instantly turned to stone from head to toe.

Theseus and the Minotaur Movie

Olympics Weightlifting

Olympics 2012 Long Jump

Gaze Into My Eyes

Stevenson had a bit of fun putting his own face into the background picture of Medusa's head. Check back later for some of our writings which will retell the story of Medusa!

Rainy Day

Jordan, Tai, and Louis went to spend some time in Room 13 today where they learned to create a movie on an iPad using SonicPics.

Special Interview With Princess Ariadne

As you can see, we filmed this on the same day as the Special Interview With King Aegeus....and our lighting wasn't good enough for the green screen effect to work. Oh well! Ariana and Lucy had too much fun...we just had to post it. Once again you'll have to imagine that a castle is in the background. Thanks Stevenson for doing the filming for us!

Special Interview With King Aegeus

Grrrrrrr.....it is so frustrating when the lighting isn't right and the green screen effect doesn't work the way it should!!! Oh well, the boys had fun so we decided to post it anyways.....just pretend that there is a picture of the Parthenon in the background!! Here is Sean interviewing King Aegeus (Taimana) while Stevenson films.

Brave Theseus

What kind of eveil king would feed children to a minotaur? Kids menu or should I say kids on the menu.

One day when King Minos went to battle with King Aegeus, King Aegeus cried to him, "Please let's make a deal. Instead of battling, I will give you 7 boys and 7 girls every nine years to feed your minotaur." King Minos agreed.

The muscular, handsome Prince Theseus knew that his dad, King Aegeus, had made the wrong decision. So he went on a quest to find the labyrinth and destroy the minotaur.

When he arrived in Crete, Prince Theseus saw a charming, beautiful princess named Ariadne. She was madly in love with him. "Hello. Do you need help?" she said sweetly. "Yes." he replied. "You have to make me a promise. If I help you, then you have to sail away with me so others can admire my great beauty." Prince Theseus was not prepared properly to battle a minotaur so Ariadne gave him a sword to slice off the evil beast's head and she gave him a ball of thread so he could lay it out behind him and find his way out of the scary maze.

It was pitch black as he entered the labyrinth. He saw the minotaur and quickly chopped off it's head.

Theseus felt happy because he had been brave in destroying the minotaur and the children would no longer be sacrificed to the horrible beast.

Courageous As A Lion

Fighting the Horrible Beast

In the land of Ancient Greece, lived a horrible beast called a Minotaur. In that country was a mighty kingdom with a king who was also mighty and powerful. There was just one problem...the king always got bored. Oops I almost forgot ...I haven't told you the name of the king yet...his name was King Minos. Now back to the story... so King Minos told his men to grab their weapons and get ready to fight with the Athenians. Once they got to Athens, King Aegeus ran on to the beach and cried out to the king of Crete, "Please don't battle with us. Instead you can take fourteen children to feed to your minotaur." King Minos agreed.

Once Prince Theseus, who was King Aegeus's son, heard this, he immediately galloped like a race horse to his father and wanted to put an end to this madness. Bright and early the next morning, Prince Theseus set off on his quest to find and kill the minotaur. his father ran down to where the boat was and called out, "Son, the sails are black, but if you succeed you must put a white sail on."

With a bump, the boat landed on the sand. Up ahead there was a princess - a beautiful, stunning princess. Her name was Princess Ariadne. That night Princess Ariadne wrote a note to Theseus about her great beauty and to make a deal. The deal was if the Princess helped the Prince slay the horrible beast, he would promise to take her away with him so that others could admire her. So Prince Theseus agreed. The next morning, Theseus met the Princess outside the Labyrinth where she was waiting for him with a ball of string and a sword.

The next thing you knew, Prince Theseus stepped into the maze and there in front of him was the beast! The minotaur was furious...he wanted revenge. Prince Theseus destroyed the beast and sailed back to Athens. On the way, he dropped Princess Ariadne off on a small island...after all...a deal's a deal.

We Love Our New Dictionaries!

Last week those of us in year 4 were visited by some people from the Pakuranga Rotary Club. We love it when the "Rotary Club" comes to visit because it means that it is that time of year when we get our ...very own dictionary!!! We could hardly wait to get back to our classrooms to start learning new words and find the definitions of words that we come across in our reading books. What makes our dictionaries extra special is that they are written in language that kids can understand and they have pictures! We plan to leave our dictionaries at school for the rest of this year so that we can use them regularly.

Thank you to all the people from the Pakuranga Rotary Club who raised funds to buy these for us. You've made us feel very special with your generosity.

Zane has been learning a bit about Greek Mythology. Here is one paragraph that he worked hard on to add detail and make it interesting for an audience.

Long ago, King Minos, an evil king, was so rich that he had everything he wanted...even a vicious human eating pet. Every time he was bored, he said, "Let's set sail and fight the Athenians." One day the fighting Kings were down at the beach and King Aegeus made a terrible deal with King Minos. He promised to send 14 kids to Crete to feed the minotaur if King Minos would stop battling with him.

Come Back and Fight Like A Man!!

On the first day of term, I was sprinting to school so I wouldn't miss any of the term's assembly. I got there in time to watch all of it but the best was Light's Out Lavakula challenging Boogaloo Barks to a boxing match. They tapped gloves and Lights Out Lavakula's arm grabbed Mr. Barks's neck and she punched his tummy four times. With her finishing move, she hooked his jaw and made him fly off the stage. Lights Out cried, "Come back and fight like a Man!" But Boogaloo Barks was crying in the corner.

Ugly Creature

Jessica is working on adding detail to her sentences. Here's a story she wrote about Prince Theseus from a Greek Myth we've been reading.

Theseus was unhappy because his father made a bad decision One morning Prince Theseus hurried away to destroy the evil Minotaur. When Princess Ariadne looked at him, she was deeply and madly in love with him. He didn't have any weapons so she offered him a ball of string and a sword. If he let out the string behind him, he would find his way out of the Labyrinth. Ariadne made a deal with him. She really wanted Prince Theseus to whisk her away so others could admire her. Theseus, brave and strong as a rhino, entered into the maze searching for the nasty, stinky, ugly creature. Immediately he found the minotaur. Slowly reaching down, he grabbed his sword and sliced off it's head.

Ancient Greece

Ronn is practicing writing sentences which add details about his characters.

Free image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Ancient Greek mythology tells us King Minos, a wealthy and powerful man, would sail to Athens and take some kids to feed to his terrible Minotaur.

Lights Out and Boogaloo

I sprinted to school because I knew my day would be off to a fabulous start! Teachers dress up and perform or show us movies to introduce our new topic.

Galloping like a horse, Lights out Lavakula ran to the front of the stage. Lights Out looked fierce as ever. She wanted to fight. Mrs. Barks introduced Boogaloo, who was Mr. Barks, to Lights Out and as soon as they bumped gloves, Lights Out was as strong as a tiger. She punched Boogaloo like a boxing bag. Finally she gave him a blow to the chin and he flew off the stage. Booglaloo ran back to his seat crying like a little baby that fell off his bike.

We knew they were joking because Mrs. Lavakula wouldn't hurt a flea.

Part 2 of Theseus and the Minotaur

Hi everyone, we read the Greek myth about Theseus and the Minotaur. We've decided to retell it in our own words. Yesterday we wrote our first paragraph individually, and today we wrote paragraph two all together! We had a lot of fun....as you'll soon see. Check back later for the whole story.

Prince Theseus, strong and brave, knew that his father had made a terrible decision to send children away to the horrible Minotaur. He decided to put an end to the madness and slay the monster. Early one morning, Theseus set sail for Crete to search for the Labyrinth which was home to the vicious beast. Once he arrived on the sandy shores, he saw the most beautiful princess in the whole wide world. She instantly fell deeply and madly in love with him. She couldn’t help herself ...he was so dreamy with his muscular physique and rugged good looks. She cried out, “ Oh darling you are so magnificent!” Princess Ariadne offered to help him with his quest if he would whisk her away to a new land where the people could admire her great beauty. Since Prince Theseus had come unprepared for a battle, the princess offered him a ball of string to let out behind him so he could find his way out of the maze, and a sword to slice off the evil creature’s head.

Don't Worry

Van Gogh's Sunflowers - Yum!

What's Hiding In Your Mattress?

Mona Lisa's Secret

Don't Be Afraid

Stealing Picasso's Bird

Tale of Despereaux

Celebrating Cats

Van Gogh's Wild Emotions

Outside Van Gogh's Window

Van Gogh's Starry Night

Abstract Art With Collin

Here we are again working on our movie making skills! This time we decided to teach you how to blow paint to make abstract art.

Van Gogh's Ear

We filmed our first video of Van Gogh's severed ear a couple of weeks ago. Since that time, we've watched our video and had discussions about how we could improve our skills. We also listened to Mrs. Burt who had some good advice. We decided to re-film our video and we are sure you'll agree that while we are not new....we are improved!

Our Time With Miss Hart

Miss Hart is an American student who came to NZ to learn about our school and how we learn. We had fun shooting a video with her, working on artwork together, and improving our writing skills. We hope that someday she comes back and stays with us longer!

Don't Venture Out Alone

Enyahlee enjoyed writing about the Velvet Worm. Her teacher helped her with the final edit.

Never again will I venture out alone into the dark night by myself because Velvet Worms might sneak up to me. They live in wet forests in NZ. They are creepy and strange, and if you can believe it....they've been on earth for about 540 million years!

The Velvet Worm is long like a centipede and it has fat, stumpy legs. It's body is bumpy and looks like a person covered in goosebumps on a cold day. Long, sensitive antennae stick out from it's head.

Nearly blind, it has to use it's feelers when searching for food. It attacks it's prey by shooting out yucky glue from two nozzles with immobilizes the insect. Inside it's moth are concealed weapons...FANGS! Slowly the worm eats the newly captured creature.

Want To Freak Out Your Little Brother?

This is a story that Marilyn wrote after watching a video about Velvet Worms. Her teacher helped her with the final edit.

If you have a little brother and you want to freak him out, then the wet forests of New Zealand are the place for you! When you look around, you just might find the creepiest, strangest worm. It is the Velvet Worm.

I discovered that a velvet worm is covered in little bumps. It reminds me of a chilly day when goosebumps popped up all over my arm. I expected it to slither like a snake but it looks similar to a caterpillar because it has short, stubby legs.

When the Velvet worm attacks it's prey, it's nozzles shoot out sticky glue like a gun shoots out bullets. The creature is surrounded and trapped. The worm shows no mercy. Quickly it brings out it's sharp fangs and makes the bug into a yummy milkshake. Once satisfied, off goes the worm to find it's next meal.

I will never, ever go into the rain forests of New Zealand alone. I hate Velvet Worms!!!

Naughty Cat

Bad Kitty

Lucy's Silly Cat

The Severed Ear

Another first from the students in room 12!! This talented group of kidlets filmed, directed, and edited this show stopping performance independently.....this means.....they did this ALL BY THEMSELVES!!!!

Meet Miss Hart

We have a special guest helping out in our room for a few days....and she is all the way from the USA - Miss Hart! A small group of children took her for a little tour of our school and had some questions for her. This video was put together COMPLETELY by the students!! They did the filming, the editing, the music, EVERYTHING without the help of an adult. We are sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo excited.

Crazy Dancer

Primary Colours

It was finally team 5's turn to present their lesson at our immersion assembly. Mr Barks sprinted to the front of the hall to talk about primary colours. He was wearing funny and colourful clothes.

The primary colour that Mr. Barks talked about first was red. He said, "Red makes me feel so angry." His eyes grew dark as coal and his body began to shake with anger. I felt terrified!

Yellow was the next colour. He said, "Yellow makes me feel like turning on some music and dancing!" He started to do a crazy boogie and his arms and legs looked like an octopus's tentacles shaking around like it had been electrocuted!

Next was blue and Mr. Barks said that blue makes him sad. Teardrops poured from his eyes and he slowly staggered over to Ms. Wild. She because she is such a lovely woman, she wrapped her arms around Mr. Barks and comforted him.

A Magnificent Lesson

At the Art Alive Assembly, I was waiting patiently for team five's item. I looked around and all of a sudden, Mr Barks leaped off his seat and galloped like a race horse to the front of the stage. I started to laugh because he had unusual, and colourful clothes on. I found out that he was going to talk about primary colours.

As Mr. Barks slowly slipped on a red glove, I saw his eyes grow dark and his face became furious like a cloudy and stormy sky. His voice got deeper too. He stomped up the stairs and we could feel the earth shake like a giant walking past us, and then he disappeared behind the corner. I wondered what would happen next. A moment later, I heard a scream and it sounded like someone was having a thorn pulled out of their foot.

Yellow was the next colour. Mr Barks had a chicken hat and found out that there were yellow feet on it. "Phew!" That is lucky because yellow makes Mr. Barks happy, and when he's happy - it makes him want to dance. Suddenly music blasted out from the speakers and then he started to do a funky dance. He was wobbling his hands and feet around like an octopus.

The last colour was blue. Mr. Barks said that blue made him sad and before we knew it...he started to cry! Then he started to weep. He staggered over to Ms. Wild, who is a very kind woman, and she stood up and tried to calm him down as if he were a baby awakened from a nightmare.

It was a magnificent lesson and now I have knowledge stuck in my head about the primary colours.

Michael's Birthday

Put Rubbish In The Right Bin

Untitled from Team 3 PES on Vimeo.

A Little Bit About Ancient Egypt

Mummy Maker
Neferchichi
School Liason

A Little Bit About Bats

Sleepless Night

I had a sleepless night because I was dreaming about pink scrumptious cupcakes. My tummy tingled with excitement - it rumbled and grumbled. I couldn't wait until sunrise. Hopefully I would get to school in time.

I smothered light chocolate icing on top of the smooth white cupcake. I sprinkled on little candy pebbles.

I sank my teeth into the sweet, moist, fluffy cupcake. I munched the pebbles between my teeth and it felt like I had an outrageous flavour party on my tongue!

I wondered if I would get sick if I ate more?

Melting in my Mouth

Last night I had a sleepless night because all I could think of was cupcakes with vanilla icing and rainbow sprinkles. I couldn't wait for tomorrow - I was so excited!

I dove into the smooth, creamy, chocolate icing. An idea popped into my head to spread it carefully so it would be lovely looking. I shook the bottle of rainbow sprinkles and out came too many! The last thing I put on my cupcake was pink icing. It looked gorgeous!

I peeled off the wrapper and took a bite...it felt like candy floss melting in my mouth.

I felt so happy because the cupcake was marvelous and I hoped my mum would let me make some at home.

Sinking Into The Water

Zane has been working hard to write interesting paragraphs that create a picture in the reader's head. Here are his first two in his story about his swimming experience.


Our school signed us up to the G.I. Pools to have swimming lessons with trained instructors. Lucky for us it is only two minutes away.

I was about to hop right in but first I tested it with my foot to check the temperature. Slowly I slid into the warm water like a fat lazy seal and said, "Aaaaaaah."

Making Cupcakes

On a lovely day, I could not wait to get to school because Mrs. Barks said, "We are going to make cup cakes."

I spread delicious icing on my cup cake and shook a few sprinkles on it too. After that, we went outside and I enjoyed a yummy cupcake!

Getting To Know Enyahlee

Royal Jelly For A Queen

Getting to Know Zane

Put Your Rubbish In The Right Bin

We decided to make a fun little music video about putting rubbish in the right bin. Hope you enjoy it!

Getting To Know Stevenson

Getting To Know Brooklyn

My Mum Was Not Delighted

Aidan Horse Riding

Every week Aidan gets to go horse riding on a horse named Abbey. Listen to him tell you about the commands that he has to give to get Abbey to walk and stop.

Paper Airplanes

Our teacher said that we needed to review writing "recounts" - which is just a fancy shmancy word for writing about something that we have done... So we decided to have a little paper airplane flying competition in the Hall. Later, back in class, we put together our "recount"and worked really hard to think of ways to tell our story to keep an audience...which is YOU....interested! Our teacher makes us work waaaaaaaaaaay to hard...our brains usually hurt by the time we are finished!

One drizzly, windy morning, I arrived at school and was shocked when Mrs. Barks announced, "We are going to make paper planes today." I thought it was odd, but soon learned that we were having a competition.

It was only my second attempt at building a paper plane so I had to be very careful folding it. I was nervous and hoped that mine would fly straight as an arrow and win!

I stepped up to the start line, quickly reached for my plane and shot it into the air. It soared like a magnificent eagle and i was so proud. However, it soon began to wobble and then plummeted to the ground like a fat chicken!

Luckily for me, I still managed to win the race. Hopefully my luck continues and I wing future competitions.

Cooperation

We went to the Hall to play a cooperation game. Our teacher told us that we had to get our team and the chairs from one side of the Hall to the other without anyone touching the floor. There weren't enough chairs for each person to sit on one of their own. We quickly figured out that we would have to stand, squeezing more than one person onto a chair, and then pass a chair from the end of the row to add it onto the front so that we could move forward. It took A LOT of cooperation!!!

Writing For An Audience

Maysun worked with some friends and his teacher to edit his paragraph. We wanted to add details and vocabulary that would keep an audience interested!

Writing Paragraphs

Khaia, Lucy, and Taimana each wrote a paragraph about their walk to school. Then they got a small group of friends and the teacher to help them "re-think" their sentences. After brainstorming different ways to add details and stronger vocabulary....this is the finished product.

All For One And One For All

Here we are back again for 2012 - same old school, same old room, same old teacher (well not THAT old), new bunch of fantastic, intelligent, good looking, creative kids!! We have jumped straight into our lessons and look forward to sharing our learning online this year.

We started the year discussing the differences between "Rights" and "Responsibilities." We all have the right to a good education. We believe that in order for ALL of us to get a good education, we have a responsibility to ourselves and to each other. Our motto is - "All for one and one for all." Each one of us needs to focus on our learning so that others can focus on their learning, and ... others need to focus on their learning so that each one of us can focus on our learning.