The Rainmakers - Story Pyramids

Our shared book last week was called The Rainmakers by Ben Brown.  We really enjoyed the story about a Pukeko who wants to make her swamp more beautiful by stealing a rainbow.  The Keas are the guardians of the rainbows and when they find one missing they go on a mission to find it.  

We did a story pyramid to summarise the story.  A story pyramid has 8 lines with one word on the first line, two on the second line...all the way to eight on the last line.

We hope you enjoy them!

The Rainmakers - Our Story Pyramids on PhotoPeach

The Sound Collector

Our poem this week is called The Sound Collector.  It is about a sound collector who takes all the sounds away.

Check out this link.  It is a rythym created with sounds of New Zealand joy.  Maybe Room 16 can make their own rythym and poems?  Watch this space...

http://www.sharethejoy.co.nz/

Matariki is on the 4th of June!

On Tuesday the Maori Enrichment children went on a trip to the museum to learn about Matariki.  Matariki is the Maori New Year.  It signifies the beginning of winter and is a time of harvest and celebration.  The children learnt some Maori games that keep the tinana (body), ngakau (heart) and roro (brain) active and healthy.  They also made some Porotiti (a spinning wind instrument) and a koruru (a mask face).  If you wake up early (really early) on Saturday morning you will see the 7 stars of Matariki in the sky!

 

A visit from the Water Care Lady!

 After lunch on Thursday Sally, the Water Care lady came to talk to us about water.  She talked to us about all sorts of things to do with waste water.  We learnt about where water goes once we have used it, how it is cleaned, and the bacteria and bugs that live in water.   On Monday we visited the Pakuranga Stream and got some samples of water.  We found some bugs like damsel flies, blood worms and snails in the water.  

Here is a movie and slideshow from the visits:

The Red Shoes by LT, CC, RD, JZ, SB

The Starfish reading group are learning how to retell a story in their own words.  They used Kidpix and Comic Life to retell The Red Shoes by Jill Eggleton.

COOL water cycle song

Rock Festival By CD

I have been making rock animals and people.  I got this idea from a googly idea book because I saw some shells with googly eyes and this gave me the idea to make googly eyed rocks.

What you need:

A rock

Googly eyes

Glue

Glitter

Paint

What to do:

First you peel off the paper on the googly eyes and stick on the rock.  Then use paint to decorate your rock.  You could make a mouth etc.  Spread glue where you want the glitter to go on your rock and sprinkle over the glitter. 

If you want to make a car for your rock you need a box that is big enough for your rock.  Then you can make it whatever type of car you would like and decorate it.