Welcome Back!

It has been wonderful to see everybody back at school today.  It is also pleasing to know that you have all had a nice break and got rid of most of those bugs that were floating around last term.

Today we talked about The Ice Berg and how it relates to success. Everyone will  be coming home to tell you all about it in more detail this afternoon for homework.We are all ready to get into our learning with Miss Dagg this term and we can't wait to share our success with you on our blog.

Challenge: Give us all an example of a time you had to persist, make a mistake, or work extra hard in order to be successful.

Get Creative with Digi Awards

Happy Holidays everyone!
I hope you are all enjoying some rest and relaxation and have shaken off those nasty bugs that were circulating last term.
No doubt you have thought about Digi Awards and are keen to get some entries completed during the holidays. See below for more information. I can't wait to see what you all come up with!

To find out more information about the different categories and to see last years winning entries click on this link:  Matamata Digi Awards

Personification

We hope those of you that are away sick today are resting up and feeling better soon! The class is pretty quiet without you all! 

Here is a video showing some examples of personification, which is what we have learned about today. Have a go and share with us tomorrow if you are up to it :) 

The power of personification!

Even though 10 children are away, personification came out to play!!!

Today we learned that personification is when we give objects or animals human qualities. It is an exciting and fun language feature that we can use to give our writing more imagery. Check out some of our first attempts at using personification below!

The art hopped out of the wall and blasted us with colour- Damien

Noisily, the printer kissed the paper– Rowan

The door creaked and shoved me back as I tried to open it- Jas

The pegs grip on to the art, holding for dear, dear life as the last one pops- Connor

Angrily, the ball sprints away through the air- George

The leaf blower roared, shattering the classrooms glass- Cory

Lonely, the beautiful whiteboard, dressed up with amazing designs- Kevin

Powerfully, the magic printer fired out endless supply of basic fact sheets -Zac F

Lonely, the broken curtain scrapped the mouldy windows- Summer

The noisy leaf blower throws leaves off the now spotless footpath- Jordan

Slowly, the leaf blower racketed around the school grounds as it swallowed leaves- Kassia

Angrily, the curtain flew across the window, blocking the suns sight- Mikki

The magical sweets kissed me goodbye as they flew down my throat- Joe

Strongly, the yellow digger yanked out the trees in its way- Rebecca

A Friday Treat

Mrs Pickering visited again today and took the Famous Five and their specially chosen buddy to make a whole lot of deliciously tasty pizzas for us all. What a treat it was on a cool day like today! What was the occasion you ask? Well it was to celebrate a class of caring, kind and thoughtful people. We have been working hard to be a good friend and to spread sparkle statements around to build each other up. Keep it up K7 and a big thank you to Mrs Pickering!!! :) 

Challenge: What three descriptive words would you use to describe the pizza?  

Congratulations Joel!

We are pretty proud of how hard Joel works every day and all agree that he was a really good candidate to receive a Kiwanis Award today. He always tries his hardest, has wonderful manners and is always being caught doing the right thing! What a super star you are, Joel!! Well done :)

Keeping Ourselves Safe

We started our Keeping Ourselves Safe unit this week and have been talking a lot about being confident when faced with a situation that makes us feel uncomfortable. Remember to discuss and ask questions at home about what we have talked about at school, just to make sure that we are all be on the same page :)

Measurement!

These are some of the tools we use to measure time, length and weight. 

Joe  uses a metre ruler to measuring the width of the doorway

That one was too easy for you, Jaskeerat!!!

 Kev and Connor were using kitchen scales to see exactly how much maths equipment they needed to make the scale show 800g. I wonder if they can convert this to kilograms?!

Remember, the best way to learn about measurement is to do get stuck in and do it! Ask someone at home to help you practise reading different scales- this could be in the kitchen, in the workshop or even down on the farm. List the things you measure at home the comments below. I wonder who can really think outside the square!

K7's Getting Persuasive!

Persuade: (verb) To convince someone to do or think something

Our class speech competition is coming up in week 10 and yes, they are persuasive speeches once again. It has been exciting to hear about all the different topics that have been chosen so far. There is a real variety, from why NZ should change the flag, to why teacher's should run in the cross country to why we should have three day weekends! Today we brainstormed all of our ideas and will start writing them in class next week. Remember you need to have plenty of good reasons to support your argument. Doing a bit of research to find facts and figures on Teacher's Only Day will also help strengthen your ideas. 

Persuasive Monkey tries to make us belief pigs can fly, are you convinced?!

Our Solar System

Jaskeerat, Shika and Kassia have been pretty busy during their spare time lately. They have been creating this amazing Solar System model! Doesn't it look great! We have learnt lots about the Solar System and even did a rap about it too. What cool facts have you learned?? Share in the comments below!

Autumn Writing using Adverbs and Powerful Verbs!

Drifting in the Wind

Shrivelled leaves clumsily cling on for dear life as the wind yanks them roughly

The delicately crunchy leaves drift gently down into a pool of dew, waiting silently on the ground

Copper leaves cover the ground like a red velvet carpet waiting tenderly for the wind to carry them away

By Daniel

Autumn Leaves

Angrily, the leaves coasted down from the tree top to the frosty surface.

Happily, the dessert sand coloured leaf dived from the hard bark onto the land taken over by leaves.

Frightened red orange leaves hold on for sweet, sweet life, as the wind went through the trees bare bones.

The leaf gets carried to a cosy blanket to a new happy place in a grassy field.

By Joel

Have you sprinkled some sparkle statements today?

We have been learning to give and receive SPARKLE statements to help build up a friendship bank with others and to STOMP OUT put downs.

Why would you possibly want to make others feel upset and hurt, when you could say kind things that make them feel the warm fuzzies!? It doesn't make sense does it! What's even better is when you are kind and encouraging to others, YOU feel good too!! So that's double the fuzzies!

It is a good time to have a think about what this all means and how you are making sure you're helping everyone in our class sparkle and be the best that they can be. We should be dishing out sparkle statements to people every day, so please comment below and give us all some ideas of what you say to others that make them sparkle and feel the warm fuzzies too...

Leave a little SPARKLE wherever you go.... you will never be forgotten!

Kei te pehea koe?

During Te Reo, we have been learning to ask and respond to others about feelings. We all really enjoy speaking in Te Reo and lots of us are getting pretty confident. Use this poster to practise and teach your family at home! 

Kei te hiamoe, so I think it must be time for me to go home!!!

ANZAC writing

Here is just a few of our sequin poems we wrote using powerful verbs, adjectives and nouns to describe what we thought war would be like.... More ANZAC writing to come soon.  

War

Scared, lost

Wounded, crying, shooting,

Soldiers, mud, gunfire,

Died, waiting, terror,

Cold, quiet, army

Scarred

By Summer

War

Silent, injured

Screaming, dying, waiting,

Mud, poppies, Gallipoli, Last Post,

Crying, shoot, fighting,

Scars, damage

ANZAC

By Ella

Gallipoli

Fearless, heroic

Yelling Fiery Shrieking

Trenches, mud, bombs, troops

Sneaking, injured, lost

Cold, Believer

ANZAC

                                                     By Daniel

We will remember them...

Over the last few weeks we have spent lots of time discussing how thousands of men went off to fight in World War 1 and why we now have ANZAC day every year to remember and honour all the brave soldiers that served our country at war. As you all know, it has now been 100 years since the battle that happened at Gallipoli landing in 1915. Thanks to Ella, we have some pictures to show you how we remembered the soldiers in Kahikatea 7.

 We made poppies to put altogether in our class wreath

We held a small class service to lay our wreath before our special whole school assembly. Daniel and Summer read famous poems while we all remained silent and still.  

We were also lucky to make ANZAC cookies.

Please comment below to tell describe what you thought about WW1 and what you learnt about ANZAC Day...