Welcome to Term 1 2010 Room 17

Welcome to Room 17 and Mrs Gray's Blog for 2010.
This term the important weekly events are P.E on Monday's,Library Tuesday's and lunchtime swimming for Year 3's is on a Monday.
This Thursday is Bike to School Day which means you can bike to school with an adult.
If you wish to follow the school Winter Olympics page http://qpsphotocover.blogspot.com/ will show you Abby's Dad's photos(he is working in Vancouver covering the skating and Bob sleigh.
Homework is starting this week with reading each night, a maths sheet and some Maori place names, finding the Maori words within the place name. For example Kaikoura - Kai-food,Koura-crayfish.

How to look after our worm farms.

Our worm farm needs to be in a shady and sheltered place.
Worms need protection from the sun.
We need to put 3 capfuls of water into the worm farm every 1-2 weeks.
Shake or turn your worm farm every 2 weeks.
Feed your worms every few days. They eat as much as they weigh.
Worms don't eat much bread. They don't eat citrus fruit (oranges,lemons,mandarins,grapefruit),kiwifruit,meat,dairy products(yoghurt,butter,milk,cheese).
Worms prefer their food chopped finely.
After a few weeks you could collect the vermacast .To get it out, put holes in the bottom of your worm farm, or pour it out of the top.
The vermacast is really good for the garden.

Music

Today we had a musician who showed us different styles of flutes, mouth organs and other things which became instruments such as spoons. Room 17 were lucky enough to get to play the ukulele.

Worm Farms

Room 17 have been learning about worms and worm farms this year. We have a worm farm that we feed and look after with the other Year 3 classes. Now that we are experts on Tiger Worms we have been designing our own worm farms. Today we made small worm farms with our Enviro School facilatator. We learnt how to layer the carbons and nitrogens and what we need to do to keep these worm farms healthy. We are going to write a "How to care for our worm farm" instructions which we will post soon.

Here are some of the photos of us making our worm farms.

Term 4

Welcome back to Term 4.
This term we are spending the first 2 weeks studying time in maths. I have put some time sites below if you want to practise time at home.
http://www.teachingtime.co.uk/draggames/sthec3.html
http://www.teachingtime.co.uk/clock2/clockwordsres.html
http://classroom.jc-schools.net/basic/math-time.html
http://www.softschools.com/time/tellingtime.jsp
We have a busy term with athletics and swimming which I will keep you informed of the times and dates.

Room 17's Assembly Item

Last Friday we presented our ideas about Recycling,Reusing and Redusing Rubbish.We are hoping that our ideas will grow in the school. Here are some photos of us.

Other Sites to explore and learn

Breathing EarthThis is incredible! http://www.breathingearth.net/Hold your mouse over a country to see the population size, births and deaths and CO2 emissions.

Free Rice
For each question you get right rice is donated to the hungry people in the world. http://www.freerice.com/index.php

Spelling Sites www.spellingcity.com/

Other Sites to explore and learn

Breathing EarthThis is incredible! http://www.breathingearth.net/Hold your mouse over a country to see the population size, births and deaths and CO2 emissions.

Term 3 2009

Welcome back to Term 3. Our topics this term are Kia Kaha which covers bullying issues and we are planning to design and build a worm farm as well. Our Maths this term is focussed on fractions and I will add some websites which students could use at home to practise fractions and basic facts.
In Physical Education we are skating on a Tuesday in Week 4,5and 7. We are also going cross counrty skiing in week 8. The day is still to be confirmed. We are also doing Jump Jam at school.
I will add other information, useful websites and photos as the term progresses.

Highlights of Term 2 2009

Room 17 have been looking at rubbish in our school. We have looked at recycling and reducing our rubbish too. Room 17 visited the Recycling Depot here are some of the things we saw.
.

Potato Planting Photos

Spud in a Bucket Project

5 classrooms, Rooms 1,3,16,17 and 23 were part of the Tehuri Whenua Spud in a Bucket Project. We planted 60 potatoes in buckets with the help of Simon Williams from Wanaka Wastebusters and Ben Elms who came with the potatoes and compost and helped us plant them. The goal is to collect some of these Maori heirloom poatoes to increase New Zealand's stock of these traditional potatoes. Some of the children are looking after these plants until March when they will be ready to be harvested. A special thanks to Delta for supplying the compost.

Basic Facts

This term we are focusing on getting faster at our basic facts
There are lots of great websites to visit to have fun and at the same time getfaster at doing basic facts. Get really speedy at + and - to 10 then practise to 20.Blast the sums that come down like space invaders. Great for getting fast at addition!http://www.arcademicskillbuilders.com/games/alien/alien.html
Don't get slimed! Get fast at subtraction instead!http://www.arcademicskillbuilders.com/games/mission/mission.html
To make your own quizzes and worksheets, go to: http://themathworksheetsite.com/

Learn how to type:
http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/tuxtype/Tuxtype2-1.5.3-installer.exe?downloadYou might also be interested in TuxPaint and TuxMaths as well. Enjoy

This link takes you to NZ Maths Families. Help and support for you at home: http://www.nzmaths.co.nz/families/index.aspx
Wicked Maths: http://www.tki.org.nz/r/wick_ed/homework_help/maths/
Interactive maths activities: http://www.berghuis.co.nz/abiator/maths/intermathsindex.html

Skating

Room 17 have had 3 Monday's skating. Here are some photos of us.

Term 3 Events

Welcome back to Term 3. By now you will have received letters explaining our winter programme of 3 weeks skating and 1 week at the Snow Farm, trying cross country skiing. We will be following the Olympic Games and studying China too.
Our 3 Way Conferences are in week 3 where we will reflect on Term 2 goals and your child will set new goals for Term3-4.
Some science sites to visit for science experiments are www.sciencehack.com
and www.sciencemadesimple.com
Both these sites were useful with our experiments at the end of last term .

Middle School Show

Last week was Book Week and our class looked terrific all dressed up for Book Parade.
Here are some photos of us.

Our Middle School Show was a great success. Thank you for all the help and support that you all gave your children.
Here are some photos that I took but if anyone has better ones could they let me know and I could post these on our class page too.

Cool Maths Sites

There are lots of great websites to visit to have fun and at the same time getfaster at doing basic facts. Get really speedy at + and - to 10 then practise to 20.Blast the sums that come down like space invaders. Great for getting fast at addition!http://www.arcademicskillbuilders.com/games/alien/alien.htmlDon't get slimed! Get fast at subtraction instead!http://www.arcademicskillbuilders.com/games/mission/mission.htmlTo make your own quizzes and worksheets, go to:http://themathworksheetsite.com/

Maths Sites

If you want to find out more about how we teach numeracy, go to this site:http://fraserh.blogspot.com/2008/04/parent-numeracy-session-1_18.htmlMr Hill will be taking another session for parents soon, so keep an eye on the newsletter.This site will tell you more about the numeracy project:http://www.nzmaths.co.nz/families/index.aspx

Showtime

Week 5 is our Dance performance.
We will make our head gear at school but I will need each child to wear coloured t shirt and pants to match their character. I will send a notice home next week about this. Each child will also need to bring a small torch to school next week for our opening dance. We are practising hard and look forward to you all coming to watch this performance.

Interesting websites

I have included some websites below that may be interesting and helpful.
http://www.worldwidetelescope.org/
This is a new site where you can look at planets and constellations through NASA's telescope.
I am looking for some maths basic facts websites so that you can practise your basic facts at home.