Torbay Idol

Yesterday the Kawau team got together to hold auditions for Year 3 students who wanted to take part in our annual Torbay Idol competition.

We had 12 acts who took to the stage to show us their talents including dancing, singing, acting and playing instruments.  Ka pai to all of you for showing courage and dedication in your performances.

The teachers looked for performers who we could see had put effort into their act and had spent time perfecting their routines / songs etc.  We also picked people who entertained us and the rest of the audience.

 

The following acts have made it through to the semi-finals which will be judged on Monday lunchtime by Miss Mitschak.  Please remember costumes and music for Monday, and keep practicing!

Well done: Isla (Rm 20), Isobel / Gemma and Amy (Rm 20, 19 &8), Sienna (Rm 21)  and Sophie, Neve and Olivia (Rm 21).

Good luck, we hope to be cheering you on again in the finals next Friday!

Pumpkin Update

We had some sad news with our pumpkin growing efforts.  Unfortunately on Halloween night some people came into school and tipped out several of our pots that were growing - a bit of a mean trick.

Although Mrs Ye and I tried to re pot those seeds in the morning, it has become obvious that some of the seeds were lost as we have a few empty pots as well as ones with nice seedlings.

On a more positive note we were very lucky to have some spare New World seed kits brought in so those who's pumpkins didn't grow will be able to plant these up as a replacement.  The children will bring their pumpkins home on Friday so they have a chance to be planted and grow, as I think any actual pumpkins are a few weeks away yet and term will have ended before we see any results.

Welcome!

A huge welcome to our new student Ruby who joined us on Monday.  We're really happy to have you here Ruby, and we hope you'll enjoy spending the rest of the term in Room 20.

Zoo-tastic!

Twenty five excited children boarded a bus this morning and headed to the Zoo.  The bus was filled with excited chattering about what we would see, with anticipation about lions, tigers, elephants and giraffes.

When we arrived we were met by our fabulous Zoo educators, Frazer, John and Kirsty, and after a quick snack, we headed to Te Wao Nui to start our sessions.  We first went into the Nocturnal house where we were told about Kiwi, how they are endemic to New Zealand, and about the pests that endanger them.  We got to see a kiwi  walking around, and learnt about their tiny wings, their clever feathers and who looks after the eggs.
Next we moved into the forest, and were lucky enough to see a Kaka, Parakeets, a Tui, a Saddleback, a Kereru and a Bellbird.  Then we went into the Rotoroa Island section and learnt about the pests that damage our trees and hurt New Zealand's birds and animals - we all jumped when the possom trap was set off with a loud bang!

After morning tea we split into our groups and set off exploring.  We saw Monkeys, Tamarinds, Galapagos Tortoises, Alligators, Lemurs, Pygmy Marmosets, Parrots, Otters, Meerkats and Seals as well as having a close up encounter with one of the Tigers - and all this before lunch.

Over lunch we played on the dragon at the playground and then set off again for our final explore.  Off we went to Africa visiting the Pridelands, seeing the Giraffes, Ostriches, Zebras, Lions, Meerkats, Lovebirds, baby Tortoises, Rhino, Springbok and the elephants Burma and Anjalee.  Next we saw the Cheetahs, Baboons, Serval and the Keas before heading back again via the Seals and the Penguins to catch our bus back to school.

We had a wonderful day exploring and there were some tired children on the bus home, our pedometers were definitely working overtime today!

A huge thank you to our parents helpers, your time was greatly appreciated.

Please encourage your child to complete the home learning activity about the zoo over the next week. Enjoy the photos!


Kawau Trip to the Zoo on PhotoPeach

Ker-ching!

Today we had Tessa from ASB Moneywise come and speak to us about money.  We learnt how eftpos machines and ATM's work and where the money that we use to buy things with actually comes from.
Then we split into groups and had to go imaginary shopping with our trolleys so we could "Stop! and look for deals."  At each table the students had to decide which offer was a better deal.  For example was it better to

a)  pay $2 for a light bulb that worked for 3 months.
b)  pay $4 for a light bulb that worked for a year.
c)  pay $10 for a light bulb that worked for 2 years.

There were some great discussions going on about which were the best deals, and Tessa gave us lots of useful advice about spending our money.

Maybe next time you do the supermarket shop you'll have a good deal spotter there to help you!

 

We love our Mums (and Dads)!

On Thursday we wanted to show our Mums just how special they are to us.  We spent time thinking of all the nice things our Mums do for us, the games they play, the places they take us, the yummy food they make, reading us stories, telling jokes and being just generally awesome.

Then, when we had thought of all those things, we wrote them down so our Mums would know just how much they were loved.

A little bit of colour here and a bit of decoration there, plus a special gift, and we had what we thought would be the perfect way to make our Mums smile.

We love you Mums (and Dads)!  

Sports Crazy!

Over the last couple of weeks we have started our Athletics sessions, and we've been lucky to have some help with our footballing skills with a session with some football coaches.

During our athletics sessions we will be practicing our throwing, running and jumping skills with a variety of activity stations that we will move around.  These include shot put, relay, sack races, hurdles and "javelin".  Here are some photos from our first session.

During our football session we played lots of ball control games.  We used the side of our foot to pass our football between people's legs to free them in a variation on Stuck in the Mud, and also tried to kick away our opponents ball using our own footballs from the sideline.  We all had lots of fun.

Growing Pumpkins

This term our main writing focus is instructional writing.  Although we have done a little bit of instructional writing across the year (Pom Pom poppers and How Colby Works) this term we will be completing more instructional writing activities.

We got underway today with a brainstorm to remind us of how instructions help us (to build/ make things), where we find instructions (recipes / toys) and the structure of how to write instructions (Title, equipment needed, steps etc.)

I then explained our task... we are having a class competition to see who can grow the biggest pumpkin by the end of term.

As the students wrote up our WALT, created their own titles and wrote down the equipment needed I took each group outside to plant up their pumpkin seeds.  As a group we discussed the different steps we were taking:  putting compost into the pot, patting the compost down, adding the pumpkin seed, filling the pot up with more compost etc.  Then when the students had completed the task they labelled the pots before finishing off the work in their books.

When everyone had planted their seeds we had a group photo and then carefully positioned the pots on our outside step where they'll get plenty of sunshine and we can water them easily.

Mrs Buchanan has reserved us a vege bed in the school grounds, so when our seedlings have grown we can transfer them to give them a chance to get really big.

Later in the term we will look at some yummy pumpkin recipes and then pumpkins will be coming home for you to enjoy!

We will keep you updated with the progress of our pumpkin plants!


Planting Pumpkin Seeds on PhotoPeach

Hellos and Goodbyes

The term has seen the happy arrival of Skye, Ryan and Isabella to our class, but also a sad goodbye to Noah who has moved with his family to Palmerston North.

We will all miss Noah, but we wish him lots of fun in his new home and school.

Our class number now stands at 26, with an equal number of boys and girls!

Welcome!

Today we are lucky to have another new student join our class.  We would like to wish Isabella a very warm welcome to Torbay, and New Zealand, all the way from South Africa.

We look forward to getting to know you all over the term.

Nau mai!

When Max came to visit...

During the last week of term 3 we were very happy to have a special visitor to class for the day - Max the cockatiel.

Max is Brooklyn's pet and he was kind enough to share him with us and explain all the things Max likes to do and eat.

The students had a great day watching Max, listening to his squeaks and squawks and writing a description.

Thank you Brooklyn for sharing your amazing pet with us all!

AIA Healthy Kids Challenge

Dear Parents

You may know that our class is participating in the AIA Healthy Kids Challenge. It's a fun virtual adventure around the globe, led by rugby star Cory Jane and his special guests. We all create our own little avatars and each child will receive a free pedometer to count steps in the real world that will move our team around the online race track. As our steps move us to a new destination, we see a video of our class of avatars exploring with Cory and getting some healthy tips too.

We need your help too! We'd love you to get involved so you can support and encourage your child to get moving more often and help us get more entries into the draw to win one of 20 $1000 AIA sporting grants for our school and one of 50 Huawei tablets for our classrooms. Simply join the Parents Class Team and count your steps to help move your team around the same course as the kids. Race against other parents teams, get active with your child and have some fun along the way.

Click this link: https://register.healthykids.kiwi/SetupParent1.aspx?team_id=8698&checksum=24ADA2855575B1342290F0EC45327402

You will get an email confirming your place and letting you know what to do next. To find out more go to https://www.healthykids.kiwi and read the Parents section of the website.

Kind regards

Claire Kelly

Teacher, Room 20.

Reminder!

Hi All,

Just a reminder that Term 4 is a "hat" term.  If students don't have a hat at school they will have to play in the shade at break times.

Please ensure your child brings a hat with them to school everyday.  You may also want to either send your child to school with suntan lotion, or apply it before school.

Many thanks.

Turbo Touch Session 2

Finally some sunshine!  It was great that the sun came out today as our rescheduled Turbo Touch session, that we missed last term due to the rain, happened today and our final session will be tomorrow.

Once again the coaches put the students through their paces with a fun warm up game.  Then the girls and boys were split up and ran through a series of activities from 1 on 1 attempts to score a try, to 4 attackers / 2 defenders scenarios.

We had a great session and it was good to see the improvements as the students became more aware of the need to pass to their partner or team member, and became better at passing and catching as the session went on.

Here are some photos of the fun we all had today.

Turbo Touch Session 2 on PhotoPeach

Welcome back to Term 4

It's great to see everyone after the holidays, and especially to welcome two new students who have joined Torbay School and Room 20 this term - Skye Gillespie and Ryan Johannsen.

This term we will be completing an inquiry based around World Cultures and in particular how animals are represented in each culture.  This ties in nicely with our trip this term to Auckland Zoo, notices about the trip will come home soon.

For sports we are completing our Turbo Touch rugby sessions as well as doing athletics skills.

A Kawau Team newsletter is coming home today, as is information about an exciting event we are taking part in - the AIA Healthy Kids Challenge.

We look forward to a happy and healthy term 4!