Compass making

At the moment we are learning about directions in maths. We have been using North, South, East and West to look at maps (and even find hidden pirate treasure!)

Below is a link with instructions on how to make your own compass. It is from a website called 'Jewish children', but there is nothing overtly religious on this particular page (I just liked the illustrations that went with it as they make it really easy to follow)

How to make your own magnet



Update: Thursday 2 July

Here we are in Maths class testing the compass that we made :)

Directions

We are learning about maps and giving directions in Maths.

Mrs Ware found out that some of us were still a bit confused about left and right so we went outside to practise.

She drew chalk lines on the court. Our buddy had to close their eyes and we had to tell them which way to turn, and how far to go. Then we swapped.

We figured out that we needed to be facing the same way as our buddy otherwise it was the OPPOSITE!!

Keeley and Mila

Devyn and Elai

Tylah and Grace H

Millie and Emily

Braxton and Connor L

Planetarium trip

WOW

What an awesome trip!

Van Gough

We are learning about Van Gough at the moment. This is what we have found out

- He painted with lots of little dots and lines
- He was born in Holland but lived a lot in France
- He liked to paint things with lots of colour
- His painting are a bit abstract
- He painted lots of still life (things that don't move) like sunflowers, chairs and landscapes
- He died of a gunshot wound when he was only 37
- He was VERY poor because no one liked his paintings when he was alive. Lots of people like them now!

We liked the cafe painting and the sunflowers but our favourite was 'Starry night'.

2560 × 1600 - secondmasterpiece.comWe have started painting our own versions. We practised using little dots in spirals on scrap paper. Then we did a plan in white crayon on black paper.

We have started painting our own versions. First we practised painting spirals with little dots and lines. Then we did a plan on our black paper with white crayon

The next step was to paint the sky and the stars. We are not finished yet, watch this space!

Sara

Giana

Louie

Jump Jump Fun

Every Wednesday before library we do some jump jam with Rm 13 and Mrs Miles. Check out some of our moves!

More science news!

Grace bought in her fan. It was special because she made it herself. Mrs Ware showed us how the wires made a circuit so the electricity from the battery could go around in a circle when Grace moved the switch. When the electricity could go around in a circuit then the fan worked.

Good work Grace, this is really cool!

Tree rings

Last week for science news Mrs Ware showed us a piece of wood. It was a bit different because someone had sliced across the tree.

She showed us how we could count the rings to see how old the tree was when it was cut down. We think this tree was about 13 years old.

Did you know that trees grow at different rates? Some trees take MUCH longer to grow, like Kauri trees.

Did you know that trees don't grow as fast in winter? That is the dark part of the rings inside the tree.

Matariki celebrations

Matariki is Maori New Year and is this weekend.

There are lost of FREE family events on around the Hawkes Bay including at the Sound Shell on Saturday night.

Click here for more details

Matariki Events

A moment in time

This week for writing we wrote about a moment in time. First we looked at a photo of some boys playing in water and talked lots about it. We thought of lots of different adjectives. Then we came up with some ideas and wrote them down to make a story with Mrs Ware.

We tried to use as many adjectives as we could, and some simile, and some WOW words, and some conjunctions. 

Then we had a go writing out own moment in time story using the same sentence starters. After we had finished we shared our writing with a buddy. They told us 2 things they liked about our story (2 stars) and something they wish we would add to make it even better (1 wish)

The next day we went back and made some changes. Then Mrs Ware read our stories and gave them 2 stars and a wish. 

On Thursday we chose our favourite sentence and published it to go on the wall. Come into class sometime to have a look! (more to be out up as they are finished!)

Next week we will do a new one with a different picture :)

Perimetre

We have been learning about perimetre, or measuring the outside of shapes. Mrs Ware gave us a piece of string that was 1m long and we had to make a shape with them. Here are some of the ideas we came up with.

Mind bending maths!

We've been learning about area (measuring the inside of shapes) and perimetre (measuring the outside of shapes).

Then Mrs Ware gave us a tricky problem. How many ways can you make a rectangle with a perimetre of 1m.  First we figured out that 1m was the same as 100cm. Then we used some quad paper and tried lots of different rectangles. We added up the sides to check if we were right. These are all the ones we found.

Good bye Belle

Belle has moved house and is now going to Bayview school.

We will miss you Belle, keep in touch!

Buzz Groups

We love to share about what we did in the weekend. Here we are in buzz groups.

Can you see how well we are listening?
- sitting still
- looking at the person talking
- not talking

Area

We are learning about area in maths.

Mrs Ware asked us how many people did we think would be able to stand in 1 square metre. We took a guess and then she drew a square metre on the mat with the chalk and we saw how many would fit. 9 people easy, and 15 in a squeeze.

Then we had to try and figure out how many square metres we would need for the whole class.

This is how most of us figured it out

1 sq m              +           1 sq m              +              1 sq m                             3 sq m
9 people                       9 people                           9 people              =          27 people

Visiting Scientist

On Tuesday afternoon Dr Smith came to GMS to give a talk to room 12 and 13. He is Emily Carson's uncle and is visiting Napier from his home in the USA.

He studies space and physics as part of his job at Boston University. He told us lots of cool things we didn't know about Space and the Earth's atmosphere.

- Saturn has 60 moons!
- the Earth's atmosphere has waves in it
- the moon has a tail
- Red Giants are suns that are nearly out of gas to burn
- Venus has poisonous gasses and the camera that went there had an emerald lens so it did not melt

We had lots more questions for him, maybe we can try to find out the answers ourselves! It as so great to meet a real scientists and hear about how he beacme interested in space.

Dr Smith with a picture of the waves in the Earth's atmosphere.

Lots of questions about the moon's tail.

Awesome Authors

Last week we were working on 'Show not Tell' stories.

We had to write about how we were feeling, without saying the word! We had to infer (give clues) instead by describing parts of our body and what they were doing.

See what a great job these  people did!

I woke up after a nightmare. I went to the door but it was so dark I could not see and it was really the fan. I banged my head. My eyes watered but I didn't cry. My mouth swaung completely open. My legs started to shake and I backed towards my bed. Athough it took a while I saw a bit of light. My arms reached for the handle of the door. And finally, finally it was the door.
By Matthew

Crack! My brother bounced on my favourite brush. My head banged down while I started to cry. My hands started to shake. My mouth went down. My feet just wanted to stomp. I felt like I would never get another one.
By Keeley

My eyes fluttered open as I lay in my bed and remembered my nightmare. My heart beat faster. I squeezed my eyes shut and clenched my teeth, trying to forget the dream. I but my lip while my body curled into a ball. My shoulders hunched over and I started breathing really fast. My stomach tightened and then tied into a knot. My breathing was stopping and starting and I hid my face in the pillow.
By Katie

FIFA under 20 world cup

Last Tuesday Mrs Ware took a group of Year 3 and 4 kids on a trip to Park Island.

They went to see the Under 20's soccer world cup. They had an awesome time playing a soccer game on a bouncy pitch and Connor L did really well in a goal shoot out competition for a ball.

Here is a photo of Connor with the actual trophy!

The Under 20 soccer world cup will happen in NZ next year.