Grandparents Day

On Friday Kowhai team had a Grandparents Day. We invited our grandparents to come and spend a morning with us at school. We enjoyed asking about what school was like for our grandparents and hearing their stories.

We drew funny pictures of heads, bodies and legs. We drew one part and then swapped with a grandparent.

Grandparents are cool!

Drawing our winter trees

We've had some chilly mornings lately, but it's nearly the end of winter. The big old trees at Hamilton East School are beautiful without leaves. It's a good time for drawing them while they are bare and their branches are visible.......













We went outside and sketched the trees......

After we'd practiced drawing trees,
we went back into the classroom and created pictures using sharpie pen on white paper.
Here are our finished drawings. 

Ms Jones at large

Ms Jones went to Scotland for the last three weeks of Term 2. Here are some photos of her trip.

Here is Ms Jones leaning on a special standing stone that was put there by people four thousand years ago. It is the middle of summer in Scotland but you wouldn't think so. It was freezing! 

This is an ancient bridge. Only for pedestrians with good balance!
The water in the streams is brownish black because it runs through peat.
If you google peat you will find out that it is not just a man's name.

Scotland is full of castles. This one is where Ms Jones' ancestors lived long ago. They were the Clan Buchanan, och aye.

You didn't know Fawlty Towers was in Scotland did you! Ms Jones stayed here near Loch Awe. It rained all the time and there were otters in the stream. No sign of Basil or Sybil though.

This is a gate, Scottish style.
It allows people to walk through, but not fat sheep.

They don't get much sun in Scotland. Here is a very pale fellow I met along the way in Edinburgh.

Chicken casserole

Remember those cute little fluffy chickens? 

Remember the song 'Free-range chickens'?

It has one line: "Almost too good to eat, but not quite!"

Well, we agree! Our chickens  had a very happy few months on Cathy's lifestyle block at Tamahere. But they got SO big and weren't interested in laying eggs, that we decided it was time to kill them for meat. After all, that was what they were bred for.

Ms Jones killed the chickens while Cathy stayed inside and made muffins.

Room 13 decided to make a chicken casserole.

We got vegetables, and tomato puree and herbs.

Ms Jones cut the chicken up.

The children cut up the vegetables.

 

We were very interested in the chicken carcass. Here it is with the wings and legs cut off. This hole is where the organs were,including the heart and intestines, liver and kidneys.

Mmmm  ..... carrots

Mmmmmmmm.... potatoes

 

Mmmmmm .... looking nearly ready!

We added the tomato puree

Then we mixed in herbs and olives and stirred it all up to get the juices through.

Ready to go into the oven

Food, glorious food!