Our Big Day In

Vive Le Vent

We have someone new in our class who has come all the way from France. She told us that they sing Jingle Bells too, but there are different words. We listened to it today.

Some afternoon creations...

Once we had all helped each other finish our Life Education work this afternoon, we played together in the classroom. Some of us asked Miss Cotman for the digital camera to take pictures of what we had made!

Proud boys...

"Miss Cotman we used every single block in the basket!

Can we take some photos?!"

Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy

A special piece of music for those in Room 9 who like to dance.

Red Nose Day Song

More Fire Safety

We are very interested in fire safety at the moment. This picture was made by ZA today and shows the girl waiting at the safe meeting place. The dog and cat followed her (we know it's important not to look for our pets if there is a fire!).

Earthquake Song

"Be Good Firewise People"

This fire safety image was created with our felt boards by KS and TH. The message is for us to "Be good Firewise people". Room 9 has been learning about fire safety and we now know what to do if there is a fire.

Miss Cotman's New Ring

This is a replica of Miss Cotman's new ring made by our resident class jeweller RC!

Marley in England and France

Marley has just got back from his adventures in England and France. He had a splendid time, and got to see Big Ben and the Eiffel Tower. This photo is of Marley on the Jubilee Bridge in London with the River Thames and Big Ben behind him. Miss Cotman was terrified that Marley might decide to go swimming in the Thames. She was very pleased when he didn't!

Franklin on his School Visit

Bronwyn brought Franklin to school for a school visit. He liked the news circle but wasn't very interested in reading books yet. We loved showing Franklin our classroom!

Franklin's 5th Birthday

Today we went to Botany Downs Kindergarten to celebrate Franklin's Birthday. For those of you who have never met Franklin, Franklin is a turtle! We had a wonderful time. Thank you kindergarten for inviting us!

Hey Sister!

Is that my sister I can see? It is! It's her first week at morning Kindergarten!

....What a lot of questions she had about my school day!

Room 14 Read Their Bedtime Stories

Today Room 14 read us some bedtime stories that they have been writing in class. We read them stories from our publishing folders.

Happy Days in Room 9...

Maori Cultural Evening

What a great night! We loved it all.... but a lot of the stories we wrote today mentioned what we ate for supper! Thank you to everyone for coming and supporting us!

And Then We Made More...

Look What We Made!

We are very interested in rainbows at the moment because we are learning our Maori colours. Some girls worked on these two pictures using our maths beans. Notice that the colours are in the correct order (ROYGBIV). They then took pictures of what they had made.

What a great cat!

It's Maths Week!

Today we learnt about shapes. First we played a maths game in two teams. We had to spot shapes in the classroom. The pink team won by a whisker! Then we made a "define map" on the floor. We had to decide whether a shape was "relevant" or "not relevant" to our define map's title. The first one we did was "circles", if a shape was not a circle then it was "not relevant" and went on the outside. The second define map we made was "shapes with four sides". If a shape had four sides we had to put it in the circle as it was "relevant". You can see this define map in the photo. After that we made shape pictures.... look out for them in the classroom soon!

Nine, Ten, Ring Big Ben...

One, two, buckle my shoe.

Three, four, knock at the door.

Five, six, pick up sticks.

Seven, eight, stand up straight.

Nine, ten, ring Big Ben

Harakeke and Rapiti

Today our buddy class Room 14 visited to teach us how to weave with harakeke (flax). They also brought along Smokey the rapiti (bunny rabbit). We love it when Room 14 helps us learn new things and also when they bring along their pets to share!

Making Pikopiko Paintings

Today in Room 9 we learnt about pikopiko. Pikopiko are the baby shoots of ferns. In Maori "piko" means to bend or curl. To make our pikopiko paintings we had to learn how draw a spiral. This wasn't easy, but we all tried our best and look at how well we did!

Assembly Movie

This movie shows the three Maori Waiata performed at assembly on Friday the 30th of July. The first is Tekoteko, performed by the children from Botany Downs Kindergarten. The second and third are Taniwha and AEIOU, performed by the kindergarten, Room 9 and 14 together. We rehearsed for our performance using the 'voice over the internet' program Skype. We really enjoyed working with our buddy class Room 14 and Botany Downs Kindergarten!

Museum Trip

One of our parent helpers snapped this picture on the Auckland Museum Trip!

Assembly on Friday

This is an invitation to all followers of our blog to come along to assembly this Friday at 9.10am in our school hall. Room 9 will be performing a song about friendship with our buddy class Room 14 and also singing two Maori waiata with our friends from Botany Downs Kindergarten. See you there!

Fluffy Visits Room 9

Check out the newspaper news below!

What we Know About Maori Culture at the Moment...

Before we went to the Museum we talked together about what we knew about Maori culture. There were lots of things that we knew already. A lot of us knew how to say the names for colours in Maori.

Hello Friend

On the last day of term we decided we needed a new class portrait. Of course, once we had all lined up on the bridge for our photo, we couldn't help but have a play on the playground with our friends!

Look at us Now!

And then there were 16...

smiling, happy, enthusiastic children in Room 9!

Images of Space

Thank You Botany Downs Kindergarten!

Yesterday some children from Botany Downs Kindergarten came to visit us to present us with a DVD they have made of Maori waiata. Waiata is the Maori word for song.
Today we watched some of the DVD and we sang along to the songs that we knew. We were so excited to hear some songs that we sing in Room 9 and there were even some songs that we knew from our kindergartens, daycares and playcentres! But best of all, we saw some of our friends that we have been talking to on Skype. We were so suprised when you didn't wave back....oh, that's right, you have to be on Skype to do that!

Thank you Botany Downs Kindergarten! You are all stars!

"All by Ourselves!"

MI and SP are very proud that they made this picture "All by ourselves!"

Marley Biscuits

Today OS brought Marley Biscuits to school for our morning tea.

They even have red jackets on just like Marley!

Bears in the Night

This week we are reading the story "Bears in the Night" by Stan and Jan Berenstain.

Making Aliens with Room 14

At the end of this term there is going to be a SPACE disco at our school. We are making a display for the hall with our buddy class Room 14. Watch the artists at work on this video!

Heart Jam

Another Marley visits Room 9!

Today we were very lucky to meet George and his guide dog in training called MARLEY! Yes, he is a guide dog like our Marley. Marley was very good and didn't bark once. Some children got to give him a pat and we asked George LOTS of questions about Marley and Guide Dogs. We loved having Marley visit!

Movie: The Baton Comes to School

The Commonwealth Games Baton comes to Botany Downs School

Today we were very lucky to welcome the Commonwealth Games Baton Relay to our school. The baton has been travelling all around the world since last October when the Queen placed a message on the baton that will be read when the Commonwealth Games open in India in October this year. We made flags and cheered and waved as the baton arrived. What a special day!