Buddy Class Picnic

On Wednesday 19 November, Room 6 and Room 14 went to Victoria Park as part of our Buddy Class. We have been meeting each week all year to play games, share reading, make fun art creations and organise our end of year picnic. Room 14 organised the day by preparing everyone's lunches, organising the bus to and from Victoria Park and also the running of the day.  We were treated to games, a Scavenger Hunt and even some treats at the end of the day.

Here is a cool Video to sum up our day:

Our Buddy Class Picnic

Science Week - You, Me and UV

This week at Merrin School it has been Science Week. Room 6 have been looking at how the Sun can use UV to harm us.

We have been learning the importance of keeping ourselves safe from the UV Rays by:
1. Wearing a Sunhat
2. Putting on Sunblock
3. Covering our body with suitable clothing
4. Wearing Sunglasses
5. Having suitable footwear on our feet

We also made some Bracelets using UV beads so we could see how they glow in the sun. Our Buddy Class joined us in our celebration of this on Friday.

Writing Instructions

How to get ready for a day at the beach

In Room 6 we have been learning about how to write instructions for getting ready for the beach. The children had to think about what they needed and what order we would have to do things. Here are some samples of what we came up with...

By Hayden

By Ethan

By Lucy

Japanese Origami

On Thursday, we had a visit from Maho, a visiting Japanese teacher, who showed us some origami.  

She had made  a crane, a ninja, some ninja stars, a boat and a medal. 

Have a look at how to make a Samurai's helmet. The children loved making it.

Getting Ready for Term 4

I hope you have all had a fantastic holiday and recharged your batteries for a very busy last term. Term 4 will be super busy with swimming and athletics and other exciting events and learning planned.

This term we will be working on:

Writing - Procedural writing - instructions. This will align with our Inquiry this term.

Reading - Building up a better knowledge of the text by being able to inference and retell the story in our own words.

Math - starting with algebra for 2 weeks. Then we will be continuing with our number knowledge and extending our basic facts to using more than one strategy to answer an equation.

Inquiry/Science - You, Me and UV for five weeks. This is going to be very exciting for the children as we move into the warmer season.

Swimming - This begins on the 31 October for 2 weeks. A notice will go home in the first week of term. Room 6 will be going from 8:45am-10:15pm each day with Room 14.

Athletics is rebooked for Tuesday 2nd December. Our syndicate will be practicing before this starting week 5. I will keep you informed of these closer to the time.

Remember it is compulsory to wear a sunhat in Term 4. There have been some left in the cloakroom so if you have lost yours, please look there first.

I look forward to seeing all of you again in Term 4.
Miss Gallagher

The Junior Stars Assembly

Room 6 were the hosts of the end of term Assembly today. Miss Gallagher was so proud of how everyone spoke clearly and loudly into the microphone as well as their very special dance.

Check out the Room 6 Ferocious Animals Dance:

The Junior Stars were also very lucky to see the Year 2/3 Dance Group. Thank you to Mrs H and her wonderful efforts in teaching the children this dance:

To end the assembly we had a celebration for all the classes - a video of their achievements and activities during the second half of the term:

Thank you to all the fabulous parents who came and joined us for this celebration. Have a safe and restful holidays. We will see you all next term all refreshed and excited to do some more learning.

Ms D-R shows the children Perseverance

Ms D-R was given a challenge by another principal......  Ms D-R showed the children how to display our values goal we have been working on over the past few weeks - Perseverance..... 



Check out what happened:

WALA Performance

We were very lucky to have a WALA performance on Friday. These guys were fantastic at the drums, singing and dancing!!

Meet the Group 

There were many different drums to see

They were very passionate
about their music 

They encourages children to
come up and try the dances

Even the teachers had a go!

We loved their bright clothing

The smiles were wonderful

 Thank you Ms D-R for organising another wonderful performance for the school. We love having people visit and show us their exceptional talents.

Orana Park

We had a fantastic day at Orana Park on Wednesday. We have waited for a very long time to be able to go out there.  Check out what we got to see on our youtube clip....

Room 6 at Orana Park

We hope you enjoy watching our great day out.

Oliver and his Rugby Trophy

Today Oliver showed Room 6 his new Rugby Trophy that he got.

He was chosen for the Under 6 Green Team Most Improved Player of the Year.

Oliver plays for Burnside Rugby Club and was very proud.

How do we keep our playground safe?

In Room six we are learning to become Ipad Savvy....

In writing we have been using the Ipads to write Pic Collages about keeping our beautiful playground safe.

First we brainstormed what we thought 'Keeping the Playground Safe' LOOKED LIKE.

Next we went into the playground with the Ipads and took some photos to show this.

Lastly we made a Pic Collage using the photos and adding our own words.

Have a look at what we came up with...

Did you know that there are a lot of steps needed to make a Pic Collage?

 Did you know that Pic Collage is a free downloadable app for both Apple and Android devices?

Adding text to the Pic Collage is easy because there is an automatic spell check to help you.

Well done Room Six. These look awesome and show some great ideas for keeping the playground safe.

This weeks Goal...Perseverance

We were very lucky to have some visitors to our Value's Assembly this morning.....

Zane and Degge - Entertainer's Delight!!

Our Value for the next two weeks is 

PERSEVERANCE

Have a talk at home about what you think this is and how you show it in your house.

During Whetu Time on Wednesday we also watched a clip about a Kiwi and how it showed Perseverance:

Daffodil Day

Today we made daffodils to celebrate Daffodil Day. Daffodil Day is the Cancer Society's annual flagship event and one of the most important fundraising and awareness campaigns in the country. As well as providing an opportunity to raise awareness of cancer in New Zealand, Daffodil Day is a major funding source for the Cancer Society. The Cancer Society are regarded as one of the country's most trusted charities in New Zealand.

Did you know:

The daffodil is one of the first flowers of spring, whose bright yellow blooms remind us of the joys the new season will bring. It represents the hope there is for the 1 in 3 New Zealanders affected by cancer.

The donations we receive go towards vital scientific research into the causes and treatment of all types of cancer, as well as providing a wide range of support services, information, health promotion and education programmes to reduce cancer risk, awareness campaigns and programmes for people affected by cancer.

Shared Reading

Room 5 and Room 6 have been working collaboratively in reading, writing and maths over the past 2 1/2 terms. Each week either Mrs H or Miss Gallagher take the beginning of the each lesson. This week, Miss Gallagher was on Shared Reading. We have been reading a book called "Hot". It has some very interesting facts in it on how animals react in the heat and what their bodies do to keep them cool.

Father's Day Breakfast

On Wednesday we had a wonderful Father's Day Breakfast with lots of Dad's. All the Junior Teachers were on cooking duty and did an amazing job at cooking Bacon, Eggs, Sausages, Toast and serving juice and hot beverages.

Thank you to the Dad's that came and enjoyed the breakfast. Here are some photo's of the morning:

Value's Goal for this week

Our Value's Goal for the past two weeks has been about showing Empathy to others. During our Whetu Time we have been looking at ways to show empathy and what empathy really means. Check out what we learnt on Sesame Street:

Room 5 Assembly

On Friday Room Five led the Junior Stars Assembly.  We were so amazed by how marvellous the children are in the Junior Stars. Mrs H made a great clip for us to watch. Check it out and see what you think:

Room 5 Whetu Time

We would love to hear your comments on how well the students have been doing this term.

Miss Moon gives us a Farewell Message

On Friday we had a special assembly to farewell our 3 Korean Students who were visiting us from Gongju University in Korea.  The Girls were Ji Eun in Room 5, Sunny Moon in Room 6 and Soojin in Room 8. They made a beautiful movie for us as a thanks to everyone. We will miss their wonderful help and gorgeous art work.

Check it out:

Farewell from the Korean Students

We hope they have had safe travel back to Korea and they finish their studies successfully.

Korean Flowers with Miss Moon

In Room 6 we were treated with some Korean Culture today when Miss Moon, our Student Teacher taught us how to make paper flowers.

Check out our video of what we did...

Paint and Paste at Discovery

During Discovery today, Room 6 had Paint and Paste. We made some paintings for the children at Ronald McDonald House as well as some of the local Rest Homes.

We were also very fortunate to have Miss Moon show us some Korean pictures that we were able to colour and then add glitter too.

Felix with his picture