End of the Year

This is it! We have reached the end of 2014. 

Many of the children in  Room 13 have been together for two years. Some have been in Room 13 since they started school when they were five! Ms Jones is feeling a bit sad thinking about saying goodbye. It's been such a great class. 

We are going to mark the end of our time together with a shared lunch tomorrow (Thursday) at Ms Jones's house.

But meanwhile, here is some of the scary and exciting stories we have written this week, using our imagination about haunted houses and ghosts.

 

 

 

We made clay pots. That was great fun:

Here they are drying on the shelf.

Freshly made pots.

After they were fired at Cathy's place, we painted them.

What sort of bird is this?

Dugan came to school the other day with a bird he'd found on the road. It had been hit by a car.
But it wasn't a common bird. It was big, and speckled. We wondered what species it was.
Dugan thought it was a New Zealand native falcon. We looked at the native birds we know of and wondered if it really is a falcon.

It has beautiful patterned wings.

It has yellow feet and a hooked beak.

It has strong feet and long sharp claws.

Here is a poster of a morepork, or Ruru.
We thought the bird looked a lot like this.
Perhaps it is a Ruru?

Here is what we wrote about the bird:

Dugan found a falcon on his way to school. We got to touch it. It's claws were sharp and its beak was pointy. I wonder if it is a morepork?
Noah.

Today Dugan found a dead falcon. Ms Jones showed us. She showed the beak. When you look at the eyes they don't look alive.
Maria

It has spots all over. The beak looks really sharp.
Kaila

It's feathers were really soft. We saw its sharp claws and it has a sharp beak. It feels like a teddy bear. It looks like a morepork.
Zaria

Dugan found a dead falcon. He brought it to school to show us the bird. It's feathers are soft. It's neck is broken. It's claws are sharp. It's eyes shrunk.
Jade

Today I touched a dead falcon. I have not seen or touched a dead bird before.
Deacon

Raglan trip

We had a brilliant day at Raglan last week with Room 16.

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We went to Wainui (or Ngaranui)  beach and walked down the hill to the sea.

We looked at the black sand and learned that it is black because it is made from iron.
It is volcanic.
The iron sand  probably came from Mount Taranaki. when it erupted many centuries ago.
It has drifted all the way up the coast to Raglan.

The iron sand is never still. It will probably keep drifting further up the west coast of New Zealand.

We found shells, and stones and many interesting things on the beach. 

Miss Scott and Mrs M, our Masters student teachers came with us.

The iron sand sticks to our skin.

This piece of driftwood spent a long time in the sea. It is covered with barnacles.

The sand collects in big dunes then after a storm washes back into the sea.
The sand is  constantly moving.
We might even end up playing in the same sand next year in Auckland!

It was great fun playing in the creek.

We made rivers and canals.

There was a sandcastle competition.

Everyone enjoyed finding things to decorate their sandcastles.

We learned how important it is to look after our beaches and dispose of our rubbish carefully so it doesn't end up in the sea, where sea creatures might eat it thinking it might be food.
We picked up all the rubbish we found amongst the seaweed and shells.

Each sandcastle had to include something from the sea, something from the land and something man-made.

This one was made by Luke and his mother. It won an award for the best scultural use of materials on the beach.

After the beach we went back to Raglan and had hot chips.

Then we got to play in the playground by the chip shop before getting into the bus and returning to school.

It was a tiring day. ....
But lots of fun!

October the birthday month

Phew, its been a month of birthdays in Room 13. Devon, Carmelo, Zaria, Blair, Taine, Roxy and Ms Jones all celebrated their birthdays.

Ms Jones came to school on her birthday riding her brand new bicycle.

We decided it would be a great object to sketch. Here is the bike, and some of our sketches.