Ways to Save Water

We've continued to talk about how water, our taonga, is very important and also limited.  We read stories about how people in different places get and use their water. 

We found out that although Oliver from Australia gets water in a similar way that we do in New Zealand, he is very cautious with water because he has lived through numerous droughts.  

Ori from Israel is also very cautious with water because it doesn't rain much where he's from.  He doesn't fill up the sink when he washes dishes and doesn't let the water run when he's washing himself.  

Ayana from Ethiopia has to walk an hour and a half each morning to collect water.  She has to boil her water before use to clean it.  She is unable to use a shower and instead cleans herself with a damp cloth.

We also discussed that most of the water on Earth is saltwater and some of the freshwater that does exist is not accessible.  We realised that we really need to do our part in saving water.  

In class this afternoon, we brainstormed lots of ideas of how we can help save water.

The students went home today with the challenge of trying to do something on the list they created in order to save water.  I can't wait to hear what they've done!

Maths Bingo

In maths, we have been brushing up on reading and writing numbers.  We have played Bingo to give us some practise with this skill.

Here are our Bingo boards.  Some students are learning to read and write numbers through the hundreds place, some through the thousands place, and some through the millions place!

Seaweek

An open invitation to members of the public to participate in a beach clean up and sandcastle building competition at Petone Beach.

Saturday, 8 March  12pm - 4pm

Use your artistic talent to build the best sandcastle and be in to win a hands on pasta making class from La Bella Italia worth $80.00.

Participants of the clean up will be entitled to $2 off a coffee at The Flying Bean coffee cart or a free fluffy for young children. Sandcastles will be judged at 3.30pm. 

Children under 16 must be supervised by an adult.  Make sure you bring sturdy, fully enclosed footwear and gloves if you have them, however Hutt City Council will provide gloves for those who don’t.

Location:  Petone Beach. Meet at the marquee next to the Flying Bean Coffee cart. 

Cost: FREE

Walk, School, or Cycle to School Day - Rescheduled!

Due to the weather, this has been rescheduled to next week Thursday, March 13.

Text to Text Connection Hunt

Various texts were scattered around the room today and the students went on a hunt to read through the texts and make connections.  

Mia was able to make connections between three of the texts: Ask Eddie, First Airplane Trip, and Rock Band.  In each text something was happening for the first time.

Here's Ali's connection between When Sophie Gets Angry - Really, Really Angry... and Brother or Pest?:

Here's Joanna's connection between Kate's Birthday and The Little White Lie.  She also made a connection between Brother or Pest? and When Sophie Gets Angry - Really, Really, Angry...

Making connections between texts wasn't easy!  Check out the students working hard!

Monster Match - Descriptive Writing

The students are super excited about their writing this week!  They drew a monster and now they are working on coming up with descriptive language to describe their monster.  Later this week they will use all the ideas they came up with today to write a descriptive paragraph about their monster.  Next week, the monsters will be hanging around the room and the students will have the opportunity to walk around and match the descriptive paragraph with the correct monster.  We'll let you know when they are ready so you can come in and check them out too!

Here's my monster.

Here are the ideas our class came up with to describe him on our graphic organiser.  We tried to include size, colour, shape, texture, and character traits in our descriptions.

I didn't include the pictures of the monsters because I don't want to ruin the monster match day, but here are some students' graphic organisers.  They're coming up with some great descriptions and they're really proud of their work!

Different Ways We Use Water

We brainstormed all the different ways we use water, our toanga.  I was impressed by all the different ideas the students had.  The students separated the ways they use water into three categories: everyday, often, and sometimes.

Here we are brainstorming:

We couldn't believe all the different things that we use water for in our lives.  Here's the list of ways we use water that we came up with as a class:

See if you can think of any other ways we use water!