End Of Year

We had just had a wonderful day at the beach, playing in the playground, trying out the skate park and creating sand castles.

Tomorrow Thursday we are having a celebration love made with as many sustainable foods as possible. We are also going to share what we have been doing this term for our topic. In the afternoon we will be showing our puppet plays about Sustainable Energy use. We will also show our brochures about saving water and using solar energy.

Daisy

We have a new member of Room 8. Daisy is her name. She has been steadily munching on our swan plant and is presently in a chrysalis metamorphosising into a beautiful monarch butterfly. Brittney is responsible for her welfare.

Week Five In Room 8

This week we have the excitement of performing our sustainability rap on Wednesday afternoon at 1:30. Mums, Dads, anyone who can make it are very welcome. We will be performing in the Bluestone Hall.

Mrs Richards has sent a note home asking for help with costumes. As we want to dress as rap artists we will need a pair of jeans or baggy pants and a cap or bandana. We should be ok for t-shirts. We are allowed to wear sunglasses (not expensive ones) to help us look cool. We are to bring our costumes in a named plastic bag for the Tuesday dress rehearsal.

When we went to the Rocky Shore

Rocky Shore

On Monday we went to the Rocky Shore. I was glad and lucky. We went at 9:30. We went to the beach at Washdyke. There was some rubbish, some bad rubbish but there were parents with us at the beach in case we find bad rubbish and the parents had to put it in their bag.

We went in the morning and came back in the afternoon.

By Logan Galbraith

My Totally awesome Weekend

Do you know what? I had a totally awesome weekend! It all started off when I had to go to swimming lessons. When I got in the pool it was really, really (x1000) cold! After swimming lessons were over we went to a fair and I saw my Nana Bub! I was really lucky because I got to buy some of my nana’s lollies! Plus I bought a shell. Then we went to about 6 garage sales. I bought an awesome vintage car that has a pencil sharpener welded to the back! Plus my dad got a new radio for five dollars! Now, where was I? Oh! I forgot to tell you about Friday! Well, on Friday I read a couple of books from a new exciting series! Now to Sunday! First we went up to the market and Ruby got two very, very, very awesome cat toys. But the bad bit was that Dad got a piece of track that didn’t work. Poor Dad! After that Dad got my slot car track from the garage. Awesome! I’m super rapt!!!! I can’t wait until the next holidays!!!!

By Leroy Dunn

Room 8 News

On Tuesday we will be having the Team Explorer Athletics Sports. Our children have worked very hard for the past weeks preparing for this event. We welcome all parents, grandparents, family and friends to come and enjoy our sports experiences. Feel free to bring a picnic lunch to share with your child.

Please make sure the children have sunblock and a drink for this event.

Thanks

Janet Richards

Rugby, Aliens and Knights

It was the future. The aliens and the knights were investigating for a castle to exist in. The aliens and the knights found the same castle so the knights said, “let’s have a game of rugby. If I win then I get the castle. If you win then you get the castle.” So they did.

The knights got the first try. They got another try and then another one. The knights won so they got the castle.

But you would not believe how they did it. The knights had lots of tackles so did the aliens. The knights had 65 tries and the aliens 10 tries. The castle was $650,046 and they thought that was a lot. So the knights chief thought and said, “Meeting everybody. Meeting everybody. Let’s be unselfish to the aliens and share.” The knight’s thought that’s a great idea. So the knights and the aliens lived happily ever after.

Sustainability with our buddies.

We worked with our buddies talking about how solar cooking might be good or bad.

Save Energy

Make sure you defrost your freezer and turn appliances off. Hot water should be 50 degrees. Turn off your lights when you're not home. Dry your clothes in the sun instead of in driers. Use cold water to wash your clothes. Use energy saving light bulbs.

By Emma Dromgool.

Save Energy

Turn the lights off when you're not using them and heaters too. Don't leave too much ice in the fridge or it will use too much energy. Turn the temperature down on the heater so it will not waste energy.

Save Energy

Use the sun more because when you use hair driers you waste power.Dry your clothes on the line. The sun keeps you warm. When you leave a room turn the light off.

By Lilly Jolly

Solar Energy

The sun gives energy to the whole earth for us to live. If we had no sun energy we would not be living on earth right now! Do you know that the sun takes only 8 minutes to travel to earth? It's true you know! The sun would probably take lots of earths inside.

By Riley Mullings

A New Term: Going For Gold.

Dear Parents and Caregivers

Welcome to Term 4. We hope you have all had a great holiday.

Just like the athletes at the Commonwealth Games we are trying to go for "Gold" by using excellence in what we do. We will be putting lots of excellent work in our celebration journals this term and posting it here on our class web site. Enjoy our efforts.

We learnt heaps last term about sustainability, and how the Earth is in our hands. Our goal this term is an action that will make a difference

Clay Animals

Team Beat

Today we had such an awesome experience. We had the opportunity to join the Team Beat performers on drums.

Team Explorer on another adventure

Smelly socks just like dads! Well blow me away, that was weird!

On Monday 13 of September, Team Explorer went exploring, well, not really because..TeamExplorer travelled on a bus to the Rocky Shore. I felt excited, also cheerful that we were going to the Rocky Shore.

We were in teams. I was with Georgia, Courtney, Keith and a parent helper. We had to clean up the Rocky Shore and do all the activities in just two hours! We cleaned up rubbish like smokers, shoes, paper, and clothes. It all smelled! Uh weird, because I could smell rotten fish!

After that of course, we did our activities. We had to name five pieces of rubbish, say if the tide was in or out, and draw something we thought was an interesting thing we saw. Well actually the last thing was that we had to make a logo. We made the Bluestone School logo.

I loved the bit about about the logo. It was awesome!

We all liked the shells at the beach.

So now we come to the end.

PLEASE HELP THE ROCKY SHORE LIKE WE DID!!!!!!!!!!!!

by Jessica Townshend

Earthquake

Oh'll, what a terrible carnival ride! No wonder it was free!!!! On the 4th of September 2010 there was a massive earthquake. When it happened it shook everyone's bed. (but not mine, it was my couch actually.) It felt like I was surfing on a huge wave at the sea. So when it happened mum got to report it on the radio, and millions of people phoned in to the radio because they wondered what was going on. I felt really scared and unsafe. The earthquake was very vicious so thats why some buildings collapsed in Christchurch and some (not many) people were injured. My house almost collapsed because we have some cracks that cover the whole house. Some are even inside and in bedrooms. When earthquake attacked a part of my bedroom roof fell off. The earthquake hit very close to Timaru.

By Peta O'BRIEN

Earthquake Hit Timaru

I was very frightened when the earthquake hit us on Saturday night. In Christchurch their houses broke when the earthquake started. When the earthquake started my Dad's house was still standing.

By Logan Galbraith

Earthquake

I was so frightened. The whole house was shaking. It is so good the whole family is alright. Christchurch got in the middle of it. The earthquake was 7.1 on the Richter Scale. That's big. It is good no one died from it. Some families are still frightened because there are big aftershocks. Some families have gone to the North Island to stay for a while. The house is still good. We are all safe. No roads are crashed in Timaru. Christchurch is destroyed. All of the roads are crashed. My Dad has to go to Christchurch to help them out but he is coming home to see us tonight. Me and Mum are so glad that he is coming home. We haven't seen him in ages.

By Jack MacPherson

Not Fish Head Soup

We are hard at work, cutting, shredding and chopping the vegetables.

Verbs and nouns in our recipe.

Fish Head Soup, Not

In reading we have been reading a Shared Book called Fish Head Soup. We have done a lot of work about this story learning how to find the main idea, think inferentially about the characters, and consider cause and effect. Our next step was to follow instructions to make some soup that was not fish head soup. As we followed the recipe we underlined all the verbs and showed with graphics on a mini poster what the action is, and which noun matches which verb.

We also made some yummy soup, which even had vegetables from Mrs Richard's garden. Lilly's mum very kindly brought us some yummy bread.

Pup...Collin

My dog pup always used to play with me. He used to play with me on the trampoline. I loved him but now I am sad because he died last night and I am really unhappy.

from Brittney

Earthquake Safety

In an earthquake roll beside your bed and pull as many blankets as you can if you are in your bed, if not go under a table or under a doorway. If you are in a car slow down. If I was in a car I would tell the drive to stop in a safe place.

By Deon Miller

In earthquakes.....

Get under a table or chair.

Have supplies like a first aid kit, food, water, torches and special stuff just in case.

If in bed roll out and put as many pillows and blankets over you as you can.

By Georgia Ducker

We are learning to etch designs onto clay sculptures and to add texture by joining coils of different thickness to create interesting designs. After we have learnt the skills of clay we will create a personal cloak sculpture. How exciting is that! We will get to use the new Bluestone kiln.

Room 7 & 8 Creating Clay Sculpture

Team Explorer visit to Timaru Recycling Centre

Drunk Skipper

Do you know about that stupid drunk boat driver? It all happened in Timaru. I live in Timaru so I am pretty scared. I do not know how a drunk person could drive a boat. He probably did it to scare everybody. Heaps of people are very, very disappointed and cross. It could make a very big emergency.

By Renee Tomkinson.

We are learning to state our opinion about news events.

Why plastic or can't we use something else?

Can we use something other than plastic? Oh no, plastic is killing animals like birds, turtles, fish, and lot of other animals. Some animals help us with our planet.

Plastic can kill lots of things. They take thousands of years to rot which doesn't help because, well I don't know but you should.

I know you don't want to buy tinfoil but I will tell you something that may convince you to buy it. You can always reuse tinfoil if you wash it. If tinfoil doesn't work, why not paper. If you wrap it around your sandwiches they won't rot away.

By Jessica Townshend

Plastic! Plastic!

Oh no! Plastic is the worst thing to be used. It hurts the planet, animals and the oceans. Dd you know every day we kill an animal by using plastic. Have you seen the pile of plastic in the ocean. You do know fish think its food and then eat it. Then they die. I'm not using plastic any more.

Georgia Ducker

Animals Eating Plastic

How would you like it if one of your favourite animals died by plastic. You wouldn't would you, so don't buy plastic, buy tinfoil and paper and then your favourite animals won't die.

By James Millar

We are learning in our Health Topic all about "Keeping Our Selves Safe"

Keeping Safe

Today Constable Hocking came to our class. I learnt to say what people are doing to you but I also need to say stop before you say something else. I learnt that there are different touches and if people do touches you don't like you tell them.

By Jack McPherson

Plastica

I think those people who made the boat out of plastic bottles are smart and brave. the people are smart because they are thinking about recycling. I would be scared if I was on that boat because there was a wave 30 metres long. They were scared the boat was going to break. Lucky them! The boat didn't break and they went out to the Pacific Ocean. I like there thinking. I think the world should recycle.

By Emma Dromgool

Lilly's Diary

In the weekend on Sunday, mum and me went to Church. Mum helped in kid's church. Then I went home and I played dolls with Aurora. It was lunch time and i went for a nanna nap.

Today is paki (sunny). I am going to Jessica's house and Jessica is my best friend. I played dolls and we had some cake. We played ball tag and I  went home.

The Crocodile And The Big Ginormous Elephant

Once upon a time there was an elephant and a crocodile. The crocodile had plans. Little kids came along but before the kids went on the crocodile slide, an enormous big fat elephant came out of the jungle and he was sprinting. The elephant yelled and told the kids to run away. The elephant went to sit on the crocodile's head. After that the elephant went to eat some nuts and the alligator went to the swamp and sat in it. In the night the alligator was riri, (angry) for some reason and he was still angry the next night. He woke everyone up because the elephant didn't let the crunch kids. The next day he had another plan. He pretended to be a step on a person's front door and it was near midnight. He was getting rather hungry. Some more elephants came and had turns sitting on the crocodile. He got squashed so he never ate a child again.

By Zek Spurr Ross

Leroy's Weekend

Today the weather is pai.(good)

In the holiday my dad went hunting for a Tar. He was gone for four days but he didn't shoot anything. While he was away, lots of mornings rain came down."Holy Hockey Sticks! Our little water trough was full to the brim and started to overflow. When dad was coming back home the road was covered with snow! In the morning today Jack Frost must have came because the water in the water trough has frozen to ice. After school, my sister, Ruby has to go to gym. At gym I don't have anything to play with so it is quite boring. But if Dad comes home, I can play play station! I can't wait! The game that I'm going to play is Hot Wheels. It's going to be fun as! I'm so excited! It's just if dad doesn't come home, I don't get to play play station. Well, I'd better cross my fingers.

Alligator Frenzy

In our room we have been exploring alligators big time!

It all started when we read a shared book called Mrs O'Malley's Surprise. She had a shocking alligator problem and this got us wondering about alligators and crocodiles. Before long we were on a fact finding mission to discover how the characteristics and lifestyles of  alligators and crocodiles are different. If you ask us, we can tell you how to tell the difference.

Next the alligators invaded our story writing and now alligator stories are being written by many children. We hope you like Tama Parker and Logan Galbraith's stories. They got inspiration for their stories from Quenton Blake's "The Enormous Crocodile. 

We are not finished yet! Mrs Richards is presently putting lots of work up for a reading display. Some of our facts and questions are on some 3d alligators. Come and have a nosey!!!

Other work is being stuck in our Celebration Books to take home very soon.

One website we will look at even has alligator cake. Now wouldn't that be fun to do? Maths and reading all in one!

Alligator Rescue

Once upon a time I was at a park by a swamp. The alligators broke the fence when I was playing on the swing. Then I went down the tunnel slide. The alligators were waiting down the tunnel slide for me. They were hiding. Their eyes I see. They snapped their teeth. I was frightened. Then I climbed backwards up the slide. Then I phoned 111 to get the fire-brigrade to take the alligators away to the swamp again and to mend the fence so I can play safely.

Logan Galbraith

The Day An Alligator Popped My Tyre

Once upon a time there was a boy. He went to New Orleans. He went to the BMX track. An alligator went past and he went on the jump. The boy went down the hill and he went up the hill. Pop! "Ow! My tyre has popped,"said the boy. He ran to his mum. He yelled, "Mum....Mum. I saw an alligator. "What do you want me to do?" said Mum. "Can we go home now," said the boy. "OK, we will. said Mum.

They sped off home safe. They won't go back to that BMX again.

By Tama Parker

What A Disaster

What a disaster! There's been an oil spill in America. It is a disaster for America. Some of the birds and fish might die. Some people might loose their jobs because some people have jobs as fishermen and go out to sea and catch fish.

By Emma Drongool

The Oil Spill In America

Oh no.

Guess what? There has been an oil spill  in America. How sad. The cool fish and birds might die. What a disater. How terrible.  Lots of people might lose their jobs. Maybe other sea life might die too. I am anxious. I am like the saddest person in the world because I like birds and fish.

By Jack McPherson

My Weekend with Dad

I went to  the beach in  the weekend .  Then  dad and I went to aunties . We had tea there .We had pork and mince stew as well. The next day we went the park and I played on the swings. Then we went home. I washed Dad's car. I got $20.  I watched TV upstairs after that.

By Zek Spurr Ross

                                

My Weekend

I went to the tackle bullrush. There was Deon, Riley and Josh.  Deon and Riley all got to the other side. Josh and I didn't get tackled. But me and Josh didn't get past on the second round. I tried to be Josh's body guard. We got tackled then we tried to get Deon out. I tackled Riley and he was all right to stand up and tackle other dudes.

By Timothy Sorenson

Rugby on Saturday

In the weekend I played rugby. We versed Temuka. We won. I got two tries. Jack got 5 tries. Josh got one try. The score was 55-10 to us. It was so much fun. There was someone half the size of me and I tripped him to the ground. At the end of the game I was happy. We kept on tackling people when the hooker was going to pass the ball. We did not kick the ball in the game. My finger got stood on with metal sprigs. Josh got kicked in the eye. I think we will win every game. We might loose one I don't know. I will have to play every game to find out.

By Deon Miller

Diary writing in Room 8

We are trying very hard to use punctuation well in our writing and make our stories interesting for an audience. 

Here is Riley's story.

On Sunday Dion my friend came to my house. We had great fun because Dion and me went to the park and the dairy. On Saturday I got to see him again because I play rugby for his team. We played turnover. We won. The score was 5 to 10.

By Riley Mullings

My Best Day Ever

On Saturday it was the best day ever. Do you know why? I got to play soccer. I felt excited. We won the soccer game. It was 4 points to us and 3 to them. In the second half I was goally. I saved about 30 goals. I  got 2 goals. It was fun. I felt rapt. I went down the wing a lot. It was our first game of the season. We have turns at all of the positions. We had a big get together after the game. I had McDonalds for lunch. It was beautiful.

By Jack McPherson

Would you believe Mrs Richards couldn't get back to school because the Iceland volcano erupted again and stopped all the planes. It did mean she got some extra cuddles with Maida her new grandaughter.

The Volcanic Eruption in Iceland

Wow we have some amazing writers in Room 8!!!!!!!!!!!

Today in writing we read about the eruption and used a "Thinkers Key " to help us stretch our thinking processes.

We used the Personal Key today. After we heard about the eruption we had to write explaining:

• How we feel about the eruption.
• What is our real own opinion about what happened.
• What would we do if we were in this situation.
• How would it affect our life.

Here is Dryden Thomson's story.

OH, NO! Do you know what happened on the other side of the world? There has been a volcano that has erupted in Iceland. That was horrible. People were stranded at the airport. That would not be really good. All of the countries have heard it on the news.

They will not think it is good. I think this is horrible for the people that live in Iceland.

If I lived in Iceland when the volcano erupted I would feel terrible.

I do feel terrible about Iceland right now. I don't feel good. I feel sad. I think they will be worried about their country.

My Awesome Trip to Australia

Awesome! I went to Australia. I went to Water World and Dream world. I went with my family. I went on the big drop. It felt really weird, because we were up 31 stores high .At Water World there was a green slide. It dropped, but it was not as big as the drop. My favourite ride was the red and orange one because you had air pumps that push you up. You are on a four people slide or a two people slide or, a one. 

by Deon Miller.

Monarch Butterfies

What do we know already about monarch butterflies?

They eat swan plant leaves. They turn into a chrysalis. They turn into a butterfly.

They are an insect. They can fly. They are sticky.

They sit on plants. They do poos. They will die if you pick them up.

They have wings to fly. When they hatch the chrysalis is black. They come out on sunny days. When they first hatch they can't fly. They are shy. They don't like noise. They are beautiful.

They can come and sit on you. They don't like wind.

They don't like hail. They don't like snow. They are orange.

Renee Tomkinson

Butterfly News

In Room 8 we have got a caterpillar  called Molly. She was so little when we got her, but now she is BIG. She is a special caterpillar to me because she is one of my own 12 caterpillars and all of my others have got eaten by scary birds. We had 3 other caterpillars on our swan plant, but they turned into a butterfly.  Abbey and Mariah took some photos of the first butterfly that we had.

Mariah has a lot of caterpillars at her house. Some are nearly butterflies. She told me She has got about 20 caterpillars at home. My caterpillars are getting bigger all the time. But they have not eaten that much. I think they are super caterpillars. They are like 9 centimetres long. One day they will grow up like their mum butterfly. I always look every day to see how BIG  she has grown. 

By Brittney McDowell

The Power of One

Today Bluestone School went to the hall to watch a bullying show. It was very interesting. I learnt to tell a teacher if someone is bullying you. I would not feel good If I was bullying someone or watching someone fighting. I would be embarrassed because a teacher might see. Then we would get in the Black Book. It would not be funny I have never been in the Black Book before.

Renee Tomkinson.

Dog on the Bay

Dogs are allowed on the bay if they are trained. I have a dog too. We take it for walks on the Bay. You have to have a mum with you and you have to pick up the poo. I even pick up the poo too.

By Lilly Jolly

Our Writing

In writing this week we looked at the issue on the front page of the Timaru Herald dogs being allowed on the Bay. Some children wrote to express their opinion. We also worked hard on our "Comic Life" title pages for our celebration journals.

This coming week we will continue our measurement topic looking at mass and length.

Our afternoons will be very busy as we begin our swimming instruction.

On Tuesday we will see a show called the Power Of One which focuses on bullying and strategies to deal with bullies.

Dogs on the Bay

I love dogs walking on the beach because they can run around and have a swim. I don't like dogs on the beach because the owners don't pick up the poo. I think you can help by picking up the poo. It is good for dogs to have a run. I think you can let the dog and the owners go on the weekends so the people on the beach can not get bitten but if they are real trained they can go any day.

by Jack MacPherson

Dogs on the Bay

I don't think dogs are allowed down on the Bay because they do droppings everywhere. The good point is they get a good daily walk.

By Leroy Dunn

No Dogs Or Some Dogs?

I think dogs should be allowed on the beach mostly every day except Fridays because little kids might be scared of dogs. Even teenagers might be scared. If anybody goes down the beach with their dog make sure they have a lead on their dog so the the dogs don't pounce on anybody.

By Jessica Townshend

Dogs on the Bay

Dogs on the Bay

Hi, my name is Brittney. I'm going to tell you about dogs on the Bay.I think dogs might have to have leashes on them because they might bite. They should not be allowed to take them on Mondays. You can go to the beach on Mondays if you are scared of dogs. Dogs can only go on the beach for six days because we don't want kids to be bitten.

By Brittney McDowell

Monach Butterflies

We have enjoyed the emerging of two beautiful butterflies this week. We set them free outside. We now have a baby caterpillar busily eating the swan plant.

Last week Mrs Richards became a nana. She is very excited. So is Mr Richards. This is little Maida their wee British grandaughter.

Week 6 already!! Thank you very much for the great work at Parent Interviews. 

Thank you too, to the Fathers and Grandfathers who came to our "breakfast." It was awesome getting to chat to you all.

 Thank you to all our helpers for our museum and library visit. It was great. Do come and look at the photos on the Team Explorer doors.

This week in reading our shared book will be James K Baxter's "The Ships" If you want to follow this up, look out for his children's poems and share them with your child. He was one of our most celebrated New Zealand poets.

This week in Maths we will continue to look at Mass and Weight.

 At home this week we want you to find objects that when combined have a mass of 100 grams. Put them in the ziplock bag and bring them to school to put in our 100 gram display.

Maths

This week we will compare the weight of objects using soft drink "see-saws" At home you might like to make your own "see-saw" then use it to compare the weights of small objects. Make a see-saw using a soft-drink can, a shoe box lid and some tape. Stop the soft drink can from rolling by fixing it to the table with a piece of plastercine. Use a narrow box lid (or cut a larger one in half). See if your child can balance the lid on the can when it is empty. Provide your child with small objects (paper clips, beans, coins) to see if they can find combinations that balance. Use the cars and animals to see if you can find things that make the see-saw balance. We will also begin to look at standard measurement units. Look at the grocery items in your cupboards and draw their attention to the symbols for grams and kilos. Look around the house for things about a kilo, more than a kilo and less than a kilo.

I Found A Key...

By Zek Spurr-Ross

I  have   a  key   to  a  house.   The house looks like a jungle because it has big trees and long grass around the house.

Writing: A favourite character

 Piper Rocks

Let me tell you about my favorite person, Piper. She is at Bluestone School in Room 10. She lives in Raymond Street. I like her because she's really fun to play with. Sometimes I ring her up if she is allowed to. If she's  allowed to I am excited because I get to show her all my stuff. If it is a hot day we could go in the swimming pool. At school I always play with her. Some of her friends play with me as well. Her friends are Meadow and Stevie. 

By Renee

Citizenship

As we find out about being citizens we are investigating what the rights and responsibilities of being a citizen are. Today we grouped some pictures showing possible  wants and needs and justified our choices. Here is some of our work, and here we are walking in our groups.

Maui Catches The Sun

Room 8 were so impressed with the mural being created at the end of the field that they decided to create their own Maui mural. Mrs Richards was delighted with their great creation. It was even better than her best imagining. What a lot of creative artists we have in Room 8. We hope you like our work too!

We have had a very busy week. In writing we have been learning how to plan and write stories using the Bluestone writing process on our new interactive board. It is great. We have also had Constable Hocking at Bluestone teaching us about finding a safe place to cross roads. In Maths we are learning to tell the time to the quarter hour

Welcome to Room 8 2010

We have a great class. There are 27 children.

Already we have been very busy creating an awesome mural just like the huge one being painted on the Big Field.