Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Symbaloo

We have developed a class symbaloo account to save our favourite websites. The children can access this from home (or anywhere) by going to:
www.symbaloo.com
The username is: room11@rops.school.nz
The children should know the password. Check with Miss McClue if you have forgotten.

The tiles are colour coded.
Red - reading
Green - maths
Blue - topic
White - school websites (e.g. our blog)
Black - general

We hope this will be useful to us and we will keep adding new great websites as we find them.

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Arts Rotation - Weaving

This term as part of our inquiry into how we can express ourselves the year 2 classes are having a rotation of the arts. Our first activity was visiting Room 10 and learning about weaving. In week 1 the children learned how to make fish and windmills. The second week was when they wove puti puti (flowers). It is tradition to give away the first puti puti you make. Although ours are currently on display in the classroom. Have a look at photos of some of the children making their puti puti.

When the Wind Blows

When the wind blows
dogs bark, hats scatter.
When the wind blows
teeth chatter, frogs leap.
When the wind blows
ducks flap, flowers flop.
When the wind blows
doors crash, doors slam.
When the wind blows
dogs race, hair tangles.
When the wind blows
cars zoom, waves roar.
When the wind blows
birds soar, horses neigh.
When the wind blows
inside is a haven
outside is a battle.

By Sparkly

Friday, August 12, 2011

Recrafting

In writing we have been talking about 're-crafting' our sentences to make them more interesting. We can do this by using powerful verbs, adjectives and adverbs.

Here are some sentences we changed together as a class.

The frog sat on a leaf.
The speckled green frog leaped carefully on a slippery leaf.
Sophie walked to the park.
Sophie strolled slowly down to the dangerous park.
The washing hung on the line.
The damp washing flung and swayed noisily in the fierce gale.

Monday, August 8, 2011

Winter Poems

Today we did some environmental writing. We wrote about winter. Read some of our fabulous poems!

July
Rain is shooting stars dripping down our window.
Rain swivels down your bumpy roof.
I sit next to the toasty fire and my teeth chatter.
Lightning flickers like a light going off an on.
jstar

July
Raining is like shooting bullets making terrible puddles.
Lightning is like missiles destroying our city.
I feel delightful when I cozily sit next to the boiling hot fire like a dragon is blowing the fire for us.
rocky

August
Gale force winds whooshing through the trees.
Heavy rain dashes on the hard concrete.
Lightning flashes in the night time sky.
I feel gloomy when the lightning flashes.
firestorm

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Term 3 Learning

This is some of what we will be learning this term in Room 11. It will be another busy term!

Our school wide concept is: 'Express Yourself'

We will be exploring :
How we can express ourselves in positive ways through the arts (dance, drama, music and visual art). The Year 2 classes will be rotating through the various rooms to explore these different aspects. We will also be learning Folk Dancing on Mondays and Tuesdays. In Week 9 there will be an Arts Festival Week where you can view our Folk Dancing and various art expressions. More details to follow later.

Writing:
In writing we will be looking at 3 point plans (to help us start paragraphing), alliteration, simile and metaphor. We will also continue to use powerful verbs, adjectives, adverbs, onomatopoeia, dialogue and staccato sentences. These skills are reinforced through our personal recounts and cameo writing. In Transactional Writing we will focus on writing instructions. 

Mathematics:
Number: addition and subtraction, number knowledge, basic facts (Weeks 1-8)
Students who are stage 4 and above will complete 2 weeks of multiplication and division also.
Measurement: length and area (Weeks 9-10)

Some of the Events this Term include:
Sausage Sizzles - 15 & 29 August, 12 & 26 September
Book Week - 15 to 19 August
Room 10 & 11 Assembly - 9 September
Disco - 16th September
3 way conferences - 20 & 22 September
Art Festival - 28 to 30 September
Art Auction - 30 September