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!

Speech Videos

Here is Indie's speech.

Here is Nicolo's speech.

Here is Matthew's Speech

Speech Finals

After hearing the last 6 of our class speeches yesterday I was faced with the difficult task of deciding who to put forward to represent Room 20 in the Speech Finals.

There were so many good choices, some students had presented their speeches confidently and clearly, some were a little shyer but had great subject matter.  It was a close call but I picked Indie, Matthew and Nicolo as our top three, with Paige and Tessa tying for fourth place.

I gave them all their speeches back and some words of advice so they could practice on Thursday night ready for the big day.

After morning tea today all the Year 3's gathered in Room 21.  Our three independent judges were Mrs Hills, Miss Haywood and Charlotte from Room 4 who was the Senior school speech winner.

There were some very interesting speeches with topics including Cats, Star Wars, Feet, and Being a Twin as well as Indie's speech on 'Tigers', Matthew's speech on 'Sharks' and Nicolo's speech on 'Why you wouldn't want to be a Gladiator'!

Indie, Nicolo and Matthew did really well speaking clearly, at a good pace, using expression and actions.

Nicolo ready to start.

Indie

Matthew

Our judges - Charlotte, Mrs Hills, Miss Haywood

   
While we waited for the judges to make their decision we went to expend some of our energy on the playground.  On our return we eagerly awaited the results..

Joint 3rd place went to Indie and Nicolo, in 2nd place was Matthew and 1st was Sophie from Room 21.

Wow, all our finalists finished in the top three - great work guys!

I am really proud of the whole class for their effort in writing their speeches and their bravery in standing up to present them.  Well done everyone - ka pai!

Matthew comes 2nd!

The Finalists

Matthew, Sophie, Indie, Nicolo

Money, Money, Money!

This week in maths we have been learning about money.  We started by brainstorming what we know about money - the notes and coins and what they are made from, how we get money, what we spend money on, where we keep money etc.

Then we talked about pocket money and surveyed our friends in class asking whether we got pocket money, whether we saved or spent it, how much we got, and whether we had to do chores to earn the money.

We have learned to identify the coins that are used in New Zealand and how we can use the different coins to make different amounts of money.  The Squares and Circles group worked with me to find all the different ways we could make $1.  Here are the ways we came up with.

Finally today I set each group a task.  They each had a different budget and a different scenario and had to come up with a menu to suit the occasion without going over.

The Triangle group had $40 to spend on food and drinks for a kids party.  The Squares group had $50 to spend on a picnic lunch for a family of 4.  The Circles group had $50 to spend on a romantic meal for 2 including a main course, pudding and dessert. The Hexagons group had $75 to spend on a family meal for 5 people, and the Diamonds group had $100 to spend on a fancy / special meal for 4 adults.

Each group was given 2 supermarket mailers, a big sheet with their scenario written on, glue sticks, scissors, a pen, and a calculator.  They had to cut out and stick on the sheet the food they wanted to include.

After 25 minutes I gathered the groups back together and we went over each menu and worked out whether they had come in on, under or over budget.  Each group did a great job and I was really impressed with how they worked together.

60th Anniversary Celebration

What a fantastic day we had on Wednesday for Torbay's 60th Anniversary celebration.  It was lovely to have some family members come and join us in the morning and watch our learning.  Then after lunch it was our special outside assembly.

The Kapa Haka, Pasifik and Fan Dance groups performed for the school as did the amazing Birthday Band.  Mrs Sandifer and Mr Baird, a former school principal, both talked about their time at Torbay and the changes that had happened over the years.

Finally we had a school photo taken by Mr Wheaton who bravely climbed up onto the roof to take the shot.

The assembly also marked the start of our Art and Writing Exhibition which is open before and after school and over the weekend between 1 and 3pm.  Do come and have a look around as there are some fantastic pieces of art and writing. We also have a room telling the story of Torbay School.