BIG DAY IN!!!!!

It was the perfect day in, starting with decorating our own biccies to sports on the field, water play in the sandpit then wheels on the courtyard! We then had a parachute with water balloons and finished the day with a DVD: The Lorax which tied into our Inquiry topic this term about what we can do to stop animals becoming endangered. 

We have some tired but very happy kids in Room 8 and one very proud teacher! My room 8 children are stars!!!!

VIP Morning Tea today....

Thank you!

We are so very lucky in Room 8 to have wonderful parents who love to help out in our room. A HUGE thank you to those parents who are coming in each week to help with lessons. We really appreciate all you do for us. 

Here are some of the lovely ladies who help us: Julie, Kirsten and Sue. A special thank you to two ladies who weren't able to make it: Lois and Natalie. Thanks for all you do!! 

Ehara taku toa, he takitahi, he toa takitini

Our success is not mine alone, but all of ours together working as one.

Te Reo Maori and Sign Language we are learning this week

We are learning how to introduce ourselves, "My name is....." in te reo Maori and in New Zealand Sign Language. 

In te reo Maori: Ko _________ toku ingoa. 

In NZSL:

 My

 name 

We have also found a NZ sign language app for iPad so we will be learning more signs each day! Check it out as it is a FREE download

Our trip to the Zoo!

"Mrs Pearce is taking us to the Zoo tomorrow, 

Zoo tomorrow!"

Well, it wasn't just me taking the lovely Room 8 to the Zoo, we had super help from the lovely Mrs K, Mrs H and Mrs S. We also got to share our trip with Room 2 and Room 3. What a fantastic day!!!!

We enjoyed walking around the zoo and spotting the animals moving around their enclosures. We listened intently as John from Auckland Zoo talked to us about mammals and why some of them are becoming endangered or even extinct. 

We were tired at the end of the day! What a wonderful day out. Thank you very much to our lovely parent helpers, zoo staff and bus driver, Mrs Howell and Ms Lowans. 

We LOVE Happy Hour!

Happy Hour is such a special time in Room 8 as we play with our friends and share our toys. 

Our special visit to kindy for Halloween

We had such a fun spooky time visiting Botany Downs kindergarten last Thursday for Halloween. We watched as Bronwyn made a Jack-o-lantern before our eyes and we even got to sing along and dance with our friends at the kindy. 

Thank you so very much for inviting us, Botany Kindy! We LOVED coming to see you all. 

Look who won a Road safety certificate in our room this week!

Well done, Z S-B! You were caught being "Road Smart". 

This term we are learning about Endangered animals and what we can do to help them. We have a visit planned to Auckland Zoo and we are excited about that. We are excited to see the animals. We love animals in Room 8!

Sign Language this week

The sign language we are learning this week is how to say Good Morning. We need to add the sign language for "good" (we learnt this last week) in front of the morning sign. 

Have a look at the link below to see a video of how we say, "Morning" in sign. 


http://nzsl.vuw.ac.nz/signs/3111 

Please practice this at home with your whanau and try saying "Good morning" in sign when you wake up. You can also greet me in this way during the roll.

Keep up your fantastic signing!!!!

Assembly this week! Week 6.

Just a notice to let you know that we are on Assembly this Friday at 9.05am, sharp!

We are all very excited and will be bringing home our lines to practice at home, as well as school. 

See you all on Friday :) 

Mr J came to our room today!

Mr J made a special visit to Botany Downs Primary today. He came to visit us in Room 8 and read us 3 stories. 

He read my story, "Good night, Sleep tight" ZSB
I feel really happy that he read to us NK
He read the story I chose EM
I love Mr J MP
Mr J is the best KS
I was really excited CB
My Mum came in too EW
Thank you Mr J AT

How many children does it take to make 100?

We had a question in Room 8. We knew that we could make 10 with our hands but when Ms P asked, "Show me 100," the children laughed! "We can't do that," they said. 

So we came up with the question, "How many children would it take to make 100?"

We found out that it takes 10 children, each holding up their 10 fingers. Great skip counting in tens, Room 8!

There's a crocodile in Room 8!!!!!!

Today, we were lucky enough to have Lois (EW's Mum) come in to read us a story from their home, South Africa. 

It is a story about how the crocodile got his skin. Lois brought us all pictures of the animals faces we had to glue onto plates so we all be could be a part of the story. 

Who was the crocodile in our story? None other than Ms Pearce herself! The shiny gold colour is to represent the crocodile's beautiful skin before she became vain and got her scaly, bumpy skin. 

We had a fantastic time being a part of a play and listening to Lois read to us. We also had fun dancing to our new favourite tune - Imvubu the happy hippo. You can see the video here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yPBt7gSLj0

The Sign Language we are learning this week...

We are learning how to say, "How are you?" in Sign Language and Maori. 



In Maori, we say, "Kei te pehea koe?" which means how are you? 

Remember to practice both at home with your family. Maybe you could teach both to them too?

If you would like to know more about New Zealand Sign Language, this is a really good website!

http://nzsl.vuw.ac.nz/

Welcome back to Term 3!

What a fantastic start to Term 3, which saw Room 8 creating a costume out of newspaper to begin our Wearable Art Inquiry unit this term. 

It is going to be an exciting term for Room 8 with lots of creating, inventing, painting, modelling and designing happening. 

Welcome to our new class members and their whanau. You have both settled in so well to school!

Homework
This Term we will have spelling and maths homework which will be going home, along with the Jolly Phonics and reading homework. Homework is important to complete each night as it reinforces the learning that is happening in the classroom.

Happy Holidays!

What a fantastic Term 2! We learnt a lot this Term: changes in the kitchen, slow and fast beats in Music, expanded our basic word knowledge, skip counted to 20 in 2's, 5's and 10's, learnt new Jolly Phonics sounds and learnt how we can be awesome friends, and much more. 

We hope you all have a fantastic holiday. We cannot wait to hear all your wonderful stories from your time with your whanau. 

See you on the 29th of July, all ready for Term 3!

P.S: We hope that Cheeky Monkey behaves for LG who has him this holidays. Well done, LG!

Maori Language Week

Kia ora whanau, 

It is Maori Language week, Te wiki o te reo Maori, this week so we will be learning even more Maori words to help us describe the world around us. 

Please ask us what word we have learnt today and what it means, then we can all learn this wonderful New Zealand language together and celebrate it. 

Ka pai. 

Look who has Agent P this week!!!!

AK received Agent P this week for playing nicely and responsibly in the playground. Well done, AK! We are all super proud of you in Room 8. 

Excellent eggs....

Wow! We loved making eggs. We were lucky again to have Mrs K to come and help us find out how eggs can be used in the kitchen. Mrs K even brought in her Mum, all the way from Australia to help us!

 We learnt about scrambled eggs, poached eggs, fried eggs and we even saw meringues being made! We got to try them the next day. Yum yum!

We learnt what heat can do to eggs. We also got to crack an egg in a plate ourselves, we all had a go!

We even had a visitor who came in to try the meringue mix for us to make sure it tasted ok.... Thanks, Mr T!

Popping popcorn

It was yummy in our tummies. Pop! Pop! MP
Yummy popcorn in my tummy. ZS-B
I like popcorn in my tummy. SS
The popcorn was crunchy and yummy in my tummy tum tum. KS
Yummy in my tummy. EM

We had such a lovely time and we were VERY lucky to have Mrs K with us to teach us about how corn kernels become popcorn. Thank you Mrs K! We loved eating the popcorn and we even got to have a taste of honey and butter popcorn. Yum yum. 

Cheeky Monkey's Weekend with CR

Me and Cheeky Monkey having cuddles with Tigger. CR

Cheeky Monkey's weekend

I came on a Easter egg hunt with Shrek and Balioo. EW

Introducing Cheeky Monkey....

Kia ora, 
My name is Cheeky Monkey and I am Cuddle Monkey's little cousin. I go home with one lucky person each weekend to share in the neat things that they get up to! 
In my blue book that comes with me, you can write a story, draw a picture or even take a photo of what I got up to with you and family. 
The person that I go home with on the weekend has been showing the current Botany Downs Primary school's value in class and around the school. 

Thank you 

Love Cheeky Monkey and Room 8. 

Family Fun evening..

What a wonderful turn out of our lovely Room 8 children and their lovely families. It was so great to see you all! Here are just some of the photos from our evening...

Thank you all so much for coming and being a part of our special evening at school.  

AQUA Fun Day!

Bubbly picture of CL and KM blowing bubbles!

What a fun day we all had last Friday! We got to have fun at many different water activities. Our favourites were: Drip, Drip, Pour and the Waterslide!
A big thank you to the Junior teachers who organised the activities and to Mr J for helping us set it all up. We cannot wait for next years Aqua Fun day!

Hi everyone, Cuddle Monkey from Room 8 here. Just wanted to let everyone know to wear their hats everyday to school, just like me,  so they can stay safe out there in the sun. It can get very hot!
If you see me out and about, don't forget to give me a hug! I LOVE hugs!

Love Cuddle Monkey xox

Alligator Manners - Links to our Value for the Term: Courtesy and manners

This is a video we have watched which is about good manners in the classroom. What would happen if Ms P was an Alligator? Would the Room 8 children help her know what to do?

Haere mai and Welcome to the first term of 2013 and a big welcome to all the students and family of our lovely Room 8 children.

We will be having some wonderful learning up here on our Blog and we are looking forward to sharing our learning adventures with you.