Thursday 15th September 2011

Matai having been working on their imaginary budgets this morning for maths. We had some 50% of and 25% off sales. They had $200 dollars to spend in a range of catalogues with a buddy. It was great to see the children using their maths in a real life context. They are now able to identify that a quarter is the same as 0.25 or 25% and that half is the same as 50% or 0.5 as a decimal. 

Also Matai children who will presenting their speeches in front of the school tomorrow are:

Jack - Dairy farming

Jamie, Scott - Homework should be illegal

Tonia - Caged animals is cruel

We wish them all the best, as we know they are a bit nervous about presenting in front of their peers and the judges. If parents want to come along they will be presenting between 9am - 10.15am.

Wednesday 14 September 2011

Yesterday things started really positively with our sales for the school disco on Friday. Matai and Tawhai teams are organising the school disco as part of their fundraising efforts for Camp Bannockburn at the end of the term. We are busy making decorations, organising music, working out the costing and doing all the other behind the scene work.

Here is Scott and Jack selling their tickets in the office yesterday:

We also were really lucky to have Grant come into our school and do lots of fast paced touch activities. It was so impressive to see and hear all the positive and supportive comments that Matai were making to each other. Lots of the class are now highly motivated to start playing touch this season. Check out these pics:

Today is the big day of the speech competition for our class and Totara. All the children are a bit nervous about standing up and presenting their speeches but with the hard work done in terms of writing them we know everyone will be fine!

Novel Studies

All children in Matai have been reading novels for our reading programme. They have been working extremely hard at completing a range of activities to show their understanding of what they have read. Here are some children in the Matai room showing off some of their hard work:

Larissa with her Fantastic Mr Fox book cover

Daymon and his Hatchet book cover.

Helga with her new book cover for Boy Overboard.

Ella with her Boy Overboard cover.

Kirsty showing her setting page for the novel Holes.

Danielle's great cover for Boy Overboard.

Jeremy showing the difference between his cover and the actual cover to Hatchet.

Pop Fountain Science Experiment

To start off our kitchen chemistry unit we carried out an experiment called 'Pop Fountain'. This is our experiment...

Question: What will happen to the fizzy drink when mints are added?

Hypothesis: We think the mints will mix with the coke and it will fizz and froth up and explode. There will be big bubbles at the bottom of the bottle. So we think carbon dioxide will cause pressure and ozze coke over the sides.

Equipment:

1.5 litre Coke bottle

9 mints

2 pieces of card

Method:

1. Take the lid off the bottle of coke.

2. Put the card over the bottle neck

3. Roll up the tube of card and tput over the neck of the bottle

4. Put the mints into the tube

5. Pull the card away slowly so the mints drop into the bottle. RUN!

Investigation Results:

When we put the mentos into the coke the it erupted causing foam to spew up out of the bottle. The reason for this is coca cola contains carbon dioxide gas that has been forced into the liquid under pressure. When you unscrew the lid, it releases the pressure and the carbon dioxide forms bubbles. When we added the mentos it helped the bubbles escape so quickly that the erupted out of the bottle in foam.

Check out these pictures:

Getting ready for the mentos to go into the coke....

Getting ready to run!

The audience waiting in anticipation....

Look at what happens!

Screen Printing T-Shirts

Here is our finished products: Read below to find out how we did our amazing screen prints.

In term one and two we learnt how to print using a variety of mediums such as creating printing blocks with PVA glue and indenting meat trays. This term Mrs McLachlan gave the Matai team some t-shirts and we thought it would be a great idea to screen print these. Mrs Suangoon taught us the tricks of the trade and before we knew it we were cutting out designs with craft knives, using rollers to apply ink to our prints, and ironing our t-shirts to heat set them. Here are some pictures of the end of the process. Everyone is so happy with their efforts. Well done Matai team!

Anna heat setting her t-shirt

Tonia using a paint brush to colour in the eyes on her cartoon face.

Kirsty ironing.

Jeremy doing a great job at ironing.

Look at that concentration Danielle!

Boys can iron too - go Daymon!

Wednesday 7 September 2011

Where have the days gone? The last couple of days have seemed to have flown by in the Matai classroom. We have finished our screen printing of t-shirts. And it is safe to say some children have learnt the art of ironing in the process. So Mums, Dads and Grandparents get out the ironing and get your kids to do it!

We have also finished another argument at writing time titled "There should be no age limit on the drivers license in New Zealand". This created quite the debate and it would be fair to say most students had strong points of view that this idea would be completely ridiculous. Thank goodness to that! Students have started brainstorming and writing their own speeches now on the topic of their choice. Next week the students will be presenting these to each other in class.

Matai have also been so happy that the weather is starting to work with us; we have been out and about playing 'Jackpot' for our small ball skills. We are learning how to catch those difficult balls that come flying out of the sky.  Some other exciting things that we are learning about is how to write and carry out scientific experiments. I hope you are all having fun at home creating some chemistry in the kitchen.

Today we also had time to pull out the recorders in the hope to learn some music; these instruments have travelled home - so sorry about the noise. I hope the children sound in tune!

Friday 2nd September

We have had such an action packed today. As you are all aware the children have been working hard on completing their narratives. Most of the children have now got these completed and should be very impressed with their efforts. Also we have been busy screen printing t-shirts today. Jack was an awesome teacher and assistant to everyone in this process. They look great! Big thumbs up to Larissa who received a principal's award for her screen printing and Scott for all his hard work in all areas of the curriculum. He is truly shinning as a leader in our class and school. Well done to Helga and Scott from the Matai team who have made it through to the Otago cross country champs. We will keep you posted on how they go. Best of luck you two!