Monday, December 15, 2008

Looking After Our Garden

For the last two weeks Room 7 have been looking after the garden. Mrs Kelly has helped us to learn all about how to look after our school garden. We have had to water the plants, take out any weeds and be responsible leaders in the garden at lunchtime and playtime. Some of our plants have grown really tall so we had to tie then to bamboo stakes so that they don’t fall over. We took out the celery and planted beetroot, cabbage, lettuce, tree tomatoes and passionfruit in its place. The kids in our school are lucky because they get to take home some of the vegetables that we have grown. We learnt to take off the lateral branches on the tomato plants so that more tomatoes will grow on the plants. A few days this week it was raining so we didn’t water the garden but we did still have to water the plants in the hot house. To remove plants you need to squeeze the sides and take the vegetable out gently. Part of our job is to put the fruit scraps in the worm farm and then once a week we put the worm juice on the plants that are inside our school so they get stronger.

By Tyson, Emmeline, Sharon and Brandon

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Look at what we found out about Vincent Van Gogh

Did you know…
Are you aware…
Not many people know…
As strange as it may seem…
Have you ever heard…

These are all ‘hooks’ that help to capture the reader’s interest by making our writing more exciting. We learnt about the life of the famous painter Vincent Van Gogh and have used some hooks to retell facts we learnt.


This is what Kylie found out:

• Not many people know that Vincent Van Gogh had two brothers and three sisters.

• Are you aware Vincent Van Gogh was 15 when he left school.

• Did you know Vincent Van Gogh only signed his paintings as Vincent because he thought people would find it hard to say his last name.


This is what Cisco found out:

• Are you aware that Vincent Van Gogh painted 879 paintings in 10 years.

• As strange as it may seem Vincent Van Gogh cut off his left earlobe.

• Did you know that Vincent Van Gogh’s first famous painting was the “Potato Eaters’.


This is what Codey found out:

• Not many people know that Vincent Van Gogh didn’t wake up for 3 days after he cut his earlobe.

• Did you know that Vincent Van Gogh died after he shot himself.

• Are you aware that Vincent Van Gogh’s favourite painting was called ‘Starry Night’.


This is what Amir found out:

• Are you aware that Vincent Van Gogh was born in 1853 in Holland on March 30.

• As strange as it may seem Vincent Van Gogh cut off his left earlobe.

• Not many people know that Vincent Van Gogh grew up in a village.

Monday, November 17, 2008

The Great Fire of London by Jayde

On September 2nd 1666 there was a great big fire in London. It started after a little spark from the oven in a bakery in Pudding Lane landed on some straw and the firewood near by went up in flames. London was ‘tinder dry’ as it had been a long hot summer.

The fire was huge and very, very hot. It travelled though Pudding Lane and grew higher and higher until it spread to all of London. Did you know there where no fire engines in 1666. The trained bands who were like firemen had to use leather buckets, fire hooks, squirts to try to stop the fire.

King Charles ii gave the people of London hope. He helped fight the fire for 30 hours with no sleep and gave gold coins [guineas] to the people who he saw helping.

Four days later when the city had burnt down, the new homeless people set up tents like a camping ground at Moorfields. Are you aware that 100,000 homes and 87 churches were destroyed. Families, who before slept in beds in houses, now slept in the tents while they helped rebuild their city.

Monday, August 18, 2008

Beijing 2008

Friday was the first day of the Olympics in Beijing, in China. I was holding the flag of NZ. Our team had to wait for two hours before we could go into the stadium. It was boiling. Finally we got to go into the stadium. I was part of the rowing team. When I walked in I was holding our flag, I felt proud and I knew Mum would be proud. I saw exploding fireworks and shining lights that said ‘Welcome to Beijing’. I saw people cheering, clapping, yelling, singing, shouting and dancing. They were having so much fun. I saw the man who ran with the Olympic flame high up in the air. It’s hard to believe there were ninety one thousand people inside the stadium watching me.

By Viliami

Olympic Memories

8 minutes past 8 on the 8th day of 8th month 2008

The noise was deafening but I didn’t care because I was in the stadium. I felt very, very excited suddenly I saw the Olympic torch getting passed around. It got passed to the last person and he ran around up high in the stadium. That man must have been boiling hot and also proud of being the last man to carry the torch. I could smell gunpowder. I saw bright lights and I thought I would go blind. It was like the greatest Olympic day of my life. I could hear people singing while I watched their show. We had to watch people performing until the countries came in to the stadium. It was so loud because people were clapping and having fun. I was really lucky to get a ticket to watch the opening ceremony.

By Hayden

Friday, June 20, 2008

Our Whare Wananga

Whare Wananga by Lika

At the Whare Wananga we had a fantastic time. We did some exciting activities like poi, harakeke and mau rakau, which is movement with a stick. My favourite activity was mau rakau because I enjoyed the movement, it was much easier than I thought. When we ate dinner everyone was saying how wonderful the food was. My favourite food was chop suey and potato bake. I couldn’t stop eating it because it was so scrumptious. After we finished our activities we got ready for bed and Miss Hansell told us a story before we all fell asleep. The next morning we had a delicious breakfast of eggs and spaghetti. When we finished our food we sat down and had a korero with Miss Hansell about what we did and about what we found exciting at the Whare Wananga. I thought it was the activities because they were heaps of fun. At the end Whaea Whetu helped us finish our koru carvings before we went back to class.

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

William - My Special Tree

My Special Tree By Levi

I like my Nana’s tree. It is her feijoa tree.
It is at the back of her garden. I like the feijoa tree because I like climbing it and eating the feijoas off the tree. It is humungous and the branches are thick and hard. I like to climb it and pick fruit off the thick and strong tree. It tastes sour and sweet and juicy and best of all yummy.

My Special Tree By William

Four years ago when we were living in Mt Wellington, I had an enormous tree growing at the back of my house. It was a guava tree and it had heaps of red and green coloured fruit growing on it. My brothers and I built a big tree house on the top of the tree. Everyday I would go outside and climb into my tree house to watch the beautiful sun set with all my other friends, but then we moved. I just sat inside my tree house and cried. The last time I climbed tree I could smell its beautiful green leaves and I could feel the hard rough thick bark under my hands and feet. When we hopped in the car I looked back at all those years I had climbed that beautiful tree. When we were backing out of the driveway my fiends came running and were asking me if they could have my tree. I said yes then I started to weep. We were off. Now every time we go to church I see that tree and it looks just the same.