Manatees and Dugongs...

Here are a couple of links to some information about Manatees and Dugongs for the Kiwi's and Kakapo's. I hope this helps with your research and you find lots of helpful bits of information to share with the class. http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/manatee/?source=A-to-Z http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/dugong/

Countdown to the Gala...

COUNTDOWN CLOCK WIDGET

Don't forget to check out the webpage on the School website... http://www.willowbankschool.co.nz/index.php/parents/gala

Swimming

After much anticipation, we are finally starting our swimming lessons this week (YAY!) 

We will be swimming on Tuesdays mornings at the Otara Leisure Centre. 

Please ensure that your child brings along their named togs and towels and goggles each Tuesday for the next 7 weeks.  

If you are able to assist with parent help, to supervise the children (from the side of the pool) please contact Sarah or myself. 

We look forward to a fun term of developing our basic swimming skills. 

The Garden Song

Make sure you are practising the song for this weeks assembly on Friday!

The Willowbank ShakeOut

Today at 9:26am, over 1.3 million New Zealanders took part in the New Zealand ShakeOut.  This was a nationwide earthquake drill and was a success here at Willowbank Primary.  The aim of the ShakeOut was to better prepare Kiwi's for if or when an earthquake happens.  

Room 8 has been learned that if we feel the Earth start to shake, we need to Drop, Cover and Hold!  

Here are a few photos of us during the drill... 

Reply from Whittaker's

We got a reply from the letters we wrote top Whittaker's today! The children were very excited to hear back from them and can't wait to read more about the chocolate making process from the information they have given to us.
They are also super excited about the chocolate bars they sent!

Mrs Cowan Farewell ...

Mrs Cowan is off on maternity leave soon, so we are all learning a song for her farewell assembly, its quite an appropriate song don't you think..?  :o)

Humaira's Cross Country Recount

Zaqiy's sister came and read her Cross Country recount to Room 8, her is her wonderful story.


Chirbit - Humaira's Cross Country Recount - runkey - share audio easily

Father's Day Breakfast

Dont forget about the Fathers Day Breakfast on this Friday from 7:30am- 8:30am. 
We look forward to seeing you and the kids are excited about showing you through their classroom after breakfast.
From Ms Grant (Gina) and Mrs Blong (Sarah)

Book Parade

What a great end to our 2 weeks of celebrating all things to do with books!
We had different teachers come to read to us each day as well as DEAR (drop everything and read).  There was also a pyjama evening, where we came to school in our PJs and listened to stories read to us by different teachers.
Thanks to all the parents who came along to see us parading in our costumes and to all for helping us to come up with such great outfits for the day!

Week 7, Term 3

Whats on this week...?

Tuesday it is the Willowbank School Cross Country. (Saving day is Thursday)  Please bring an old tee-shirt and/or sweatshirt, an old pair of shorts or trackpants and some sports shoes that you dont mind getting muddy.  You will also need a plastic bag to take home all of the dirty clothes! 
Friday is the famous Willowbank Father's Day Breakfast, dont forget to plan your paper plane designs for the paper plane race! 

The "Willowbank" Olympic Opening Ceremony

Room 8 represented Poland at the Willowbank Olympics.  Along with learning about Poland and the host nation for this years Olympics, we also had a great time in our team Olympic sport; soccer! 

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

In response to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, room 8 has been using Thinking Skills around Multiple Intelligences and Bloom's Taxonomy and have created some wonderful machines!  
There was an amazing amount of hard work put into these and the children were so focused and enthusiastic about this assignment!  

  

  

  Way to go boys!!!  

Dear Whittakers...

This term we have been reading Charlie and the Chocolate factory, the children decided they would like to write to Whittaker's, here are a few of the letter that they wrote...

We can't wait to get a reply! 

Book Week ...

... is coming up!  Start thinking about your favourite book character, cause we will be having a parade on Friday the 24th August!

London 2012

The children in room 8 are really enjoying learning about the Olympics and London at the moment.
We have discussed the history of the Olympics and the meaning of them as well as what the emblem and mascots stand for.
Here is a link to a great site about the London 2012 Mascots.  Have a look around, watch some videos and play some games.
 London 2012 Mascots

Olympic Soccer

The year 3s, will be playing soccer as part of our Olympic sports rotation.
Parents are welcome to come and watch the classes play and cheer us on.
The games will be on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 1:30-2:00 on the bottom court.
We look forward to seeing you there!

The Great White Man-eating Shark by Margaret Mahy.

Term 3.

Hi All, 
I hope you have had a wonderful break over the school holidays.  
Just a reminder that we start back at school for the term on TUESDAY the 17th July. 
We look forward to another great term with you!
Ms Grant and Mrs Blong. 

Mathletics

Hi kids, 
I have updated the Mathletics activities, please let me know how you get on with the new tasks. 
http://www.mathletics.co.nz/
Ms Grant! 

The Olympic Games

Here are some websites that will help you to find out some more information about the Olympics... 


The New Zealand Olympic Museum


And the NZ Olympic Site


Happy information hunting! 
:o) 

Final Term 2 Assembly.

The end of this term marks a couple of farewells to two very valuable and well loved teachers at Willowbank.  Ms Naus, is heading on her OE with her husband later in the year and Mrs Banfield and her husband are heading off to Australia the day after term ends.  We are learning a couple of songs for their farewell assemblies, please head on over to the Wiki and check them out under the Assembly Songs button. 
Assembly Songs

3 Way Conferences

Just a reminder that it is nearly time to come and see what your children have been learning this year at their 3 way conference.  
These are being held over 2 days this year on both Wednesday 20th and Thursday 21st June.  We look forward to seeing you all at one of the two days. 
To book head along to School Interviews and enter the code ANV9W.
Please note school will be finishing early on Wednesday the 20th June at 12 noon. 

Literacy Evening

 We look forward to seeing all of our parents at the Literacy Evening being held on Wednesday evening (23rd May) at 7pm in the school hall. 
 See the school newsletter or the attached link for more information.  Literacy Evening Poster

Fractions

We are learning about fractions in Maths at the moment. Take a look at this video to introduce yourself to fractions...

Writing an Explanation....

We are learning how to write explanations in room 8. This week we dissected what an explanation should have in it and wrote an explanation as a class together. We learnt that explanations need to include a title, a question or lead statement, a body answering the question in order of how it happens and a conclusion summing everything up. We also now know that an explanation is written in the 2nd (you) or 3rd (he, she, them, they, her, his, their, etc) person. And that it is written in the present tense. We cant wait to start working on writing to explain!

Because everyone loves Eric Carle

Magic School Bus Videos

A few of the children have expressed interest in watching the "Magic School Bus" videos that are on youtube. Here is the collection that I have bookmarked.

Monarch Butterflies

Monarch butterflies show

View more presentations from Gina Grant.

Birth of a Monarch

Frogs...

We will be starting report writing on frogs in week 2 and then monarch butterflies in week 3. Check out this slideshow to learn more about frogs!

Frogs.

View more PowerPoint from Gina Grant

Week 1, Term 2

Welcome back to school everyone! It was great to see all of your gorgeous smiles this week! 


 A reminder to parents that Ms Naus and her husband will be shaving their beautiful long locks at school this Friday (27th April) at 11:30am for Shave for a Cure. Unfortunately only the year 4-6 children will be attending this, but we welcome parents and the community to come along and support Annelies and Sam on the day. 

Check out their Shave for a Cure profile here:
http://www.shaveforacure.co.nz/view_group_event_profile/941  and feel free to donate to this worthy cause


Team 3 is presenting the Whole School Assembly on Friday afternoon in Week 2 (4th May) and we would love to have parents and grandparents come along to see what we have been up to in class recently.

ANZAC Biscuits

Room 8 will be making ANZAC biscuits on Friday morning. A notice will be coming home today, which must be signed and returned by Thursday. IF there are any parents that would like to help out, please send either Sarah or myself an email! Thanks, Gina.

What is ANZAC Day???

Anzac day show

View more presentations from Gina Grant.

Buddha's Day -Multicultural Festival

Hi everyone! I hope you are all having a fantastic holiday and that the Easter Bunny spoilt you! For those children that expressed interest in the Buddha Day festivities at the Fo Guang Shan Temple on Sunday 15th April, please meet Mrs Agnew at the temple in your school uniform at 8:45am. Although neither Mrs Blong nor myself are able to make it this year, it is going to be a fantastic morning where you will be able to show our community how great Willowbank School is and I am sure you will make us proud. PARENTS: More information will be made available on Saturday on the Willowbank Facebook page, but at this stage we are estimating that the children will need to be picked up at 11:30am.

Wormy Spaghetti Illustrations

Here are the illustrations to go with The Wormy Spaghetti recounts that the children in room 8 drew.

Wormy spaghetti slideshow

View more presentations from Gina Grant.

We are writing reports about Kakapo, this video might help you find some information to write about them.

What is this???

I found the coolest image today... If you work it out, dont spoil it for the others! I will reveal all on Monday when I am back at school, but in the mean time, see if you can work it out. Ask your parents if they can help you too!!! GOOD LUCK, From Miss Grant!

MORE Wormy Spaghetti Podcasts.

Here are the last of the children from Room 8's podcasts from their Wormy Spaghetti recounts... We hope you enjoy them! Please feel free to comment on these and any other posts we make and to forward the blog link onto friends and family, so they too can keep up to date with what is going on in Room 8 at Willowbank School! Zaqiy's Wormy Spaghetti
Check this out on Chirbit Brooke's Wormy Spaghetti
Check this out on Chirbit Annika's Wormy Spaghetti
Check this out on Chirbit Ayshah's Wormy Spaghetti
Check this out on Chirbit Kira's Wormy Spaghetti
Check this out on Chirbit Dylan W.'s Wormy Spaghetti
Check this out on Chirbit Kiho's Wormy Spaghetti
Check this out on Chirbit Nathan's Wormy Spaghetti
Check this out on Chirbit Shianne's Wormy Spaghetti
Check this out on Chirbit Kiara's Wormy Spaghetti
Check this out on Chirbit Ethan's Wormy Spaghetti
Check this out on Chirbit

For some fantastic Pekapeka info check this page out.. http://www.doc.govt.nz/conservation/native-animals/bats/

The Pekapeka

What is the Pekapeka? Pekapeka or bats are New Zealand’s only native land mammals. Pekapeka are found only in New Zealand, where they have been isolated from other species for millennia. There are two main kinds, the long-tailed bat (Chalinolobus) and the lesser short-tailed bat (Mystacina.) The children in room 8 are going to be starting report writing (writing to inform and explain) in week 7 and we are looking at the Pekapeka for this. It would be great to have some prior knowledge about the Pekapeka so over the weekend I will post a few interesting links for you to check out. Good luck with researching the Pekapeka! I can't wait to hear what you have learnt over the weekend on Monday morning!!!

Wormy Spaghetti Podcasts

We have been reading The Twit's by Roald Dahl in room 8 and this week the children are writing recounts about the Wormy Spaghetti chapter. A few of the children have created podcasts of their recounts on Garageband and we have uploaded them for all to hear! We hope you enjoy them! Yu Xuan's Wormy Spaghetti Recount.
Check this out on Chirbit Seerat's Wormy Spaghetti Recount.
Check this out on Chirbit Angel's Wormy Spaghetti Recount.
Check this out on Chirbit Nadia's Wormy Spaghetti Recount.
Check this out on Chirbit Dylan R.'s Wormy Spaghetti Recount.
Check this out on Chirbit Sienna's Wormy Spaghetti Recount.
Check this out on Chirbit

What Is a Leap Year?

Tomorrow we will remember the Christchurch Earthquake one year on. There will be 2 minutes silence on the field at 12:51. http://file.stuff.co.nz/stuff/12-51/

Open and closed questioning

In room 8 today we learnt about open and closed questioning… Here is what some of the children had to say about it. “A closed question is where the person responding would only be able to say yes or no or another one word answer.” From Sienna. “The open question is the best to use so you can get more information. And so you know more about the topic.” From Brooke. “If you want a bigger answer, because you don’t know much about what the person is talking about then you should ask an open ended question!” From Nadia.

Monday 20th February 2012

Today for Inquiry room 8 talked about the people who can help us with our learning. We came up with a lot of people from Willowbank that are able to support us in various way. Tomorrow we will take photo of the people and then we will create an online book all about them... Stay tuned!

Picture collage made with Smilebox

Welcome to a new initiative by the teachers of room 8 at Willowbank Primary School. Mrs. Blong (Sarah) and I, Ms. Grant (Gina) We are going to attempt a class blog this year, we hope that it is a success and are both looking forward to you as parents, students, family, friends and colleagues, contributing and supporting this! Lets see how we go... :o) A little bit of background information from the two of us... I (Gina) have been teaching for over 6 years. I have two pre-schoolers aged 4 and 2,-Gabby and Mason. I have an absolute passion for being in the classroom but also value the time I am able to spend with my children which is why I am so honoured to be able to do both. My main passions and strengths lie within Numeracy, ICT and Physical Education. Hi, Im Sarah (Mrs Blong) I also have two pre-schoolers, and again they are the same age as Ms Grants. (4 and 2 years old) I have been teaching for over a decade and prior to taking maternity leave was in a job-share position at Willowbank School, -so its great to be back. I have strengths in Literacy (having trained in reading recovery) as well as the Visual Arts. I have an absolute passion for environmental issue and am part of the Willowbank Enviro team. We both are looking forward to 2012 and the learning journey that we are about to take part in! If you havent already, please check out our wiki... We look forward to hearing from you all! G&S.