Cooling down in the pool!

The days have been so hot and humid lately and the children are always bursting to hop into the pool, especially after hearing all the splashing and swimming going on outside our windows.  The good thing about being right next to the school pool is that it doesn't take us long to walk there! 

We have three swimming groups in our class - Floaters (learning to float and be confident in the water), Strokers (learning and practising correct arm stroking technique), Breathers/Improvers (practising correct arm stroking technique and incorporating correct breathing technique).  

Here are some photos of the Floaters group.  They are learning to be confident in the water, float on their front and back and put their heads under the water.

Please note - our swimming sessions are on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday mornings.  If a child is not swimming for any reason they need to bring in a note.  

Visiting Author - Linda Strachan

Wow, today we had an author visiting our school.  Her name was Linda Strachan and she travelled all the way from Scotland to visit New Zealand.  The Year 3 and 4's went to hear her speak first thing this morning.  She has written over 50 books and she read us some of the books she has written.  She read a book called "What colour is love?"  We have this book in our school library and she has signed a copy for our school!  She also told us about a character she has created, Hamish McHaggis and she read one of the books he is in.  We asked lots of great questions like, "When did you start writing books?" and "How long does it take to write a book?"  She taught us some Scottish words:  

braw - good

wee - small

coorie doon - snuggle down

coo - cow

They sounded a bit strange and made us laugh.  

She told us there a lot of people involved in making a book.  There is the author, illustrator, publisher, editor, copy editor, printer, publicist, book rep, librarian, book shop owner.

Here are some pictures from the session:

Buddy Reading with Room 23

We are so lucky to have Room 23 as our buddy class.  We will be getting to know Mr Fitz and his Year 5 class over the next few weeks and doing some team building activities together.  We look forward to building a strong relationship between these children...the Year 5's will be great role models for the younger Year 3 students. 


The Dolphin and Orca reading groups are already reading with a buddy from Room 23 during SSR times after lunch to continue practising their reading skills.  Check out these pictures:    

Our Wonderings Wall

Check out our Wonderings Wall.  Any time we have a question or wonder about something we can put this on our Wondering Wall.  At the end of the day we have a look at the "wonderings" and see if we can find the answers.  Some of our "wonderings" so far have been:

"I wonder how to say 100 in Maori."

"I wonder why dolphins jump out of the water."

"I wonder who made Elm Park School."

Our First Week!

We have had a busy first week getting to know each other and establishing rules and routines in our class.  We have created our class treaty together and added our hand print to show we will abide by the rules.  We also agreed on a name for our learning class - The Room 16 Lightning Bolts!