Happy Valentine's Day!!

Happy Valentine's Day Room 8. I hope you all have a special day with your family. I'm sure this cute Valentine's Day video will make you smile.

From Miss Gentil 

A Surprise for Room 8!

This morning we discovered our chubby caterpillar had climbed up to the top of our butterfly net and turned into a chrysalis. We couldn't find our chubby caterpillar this week and thought it had escaped or died. We were pretty surprised that he had climbed up there! We wondered how he had got up so high. Ava thinks he probably wanted to do some exercise. Then he must have got tired and wanted a sleep in his chrysalis. 

This is our chubby caterpillar in his chrysalis. 

Our butterfly garden. 

By Room 8

Swim For Life

 Yesterday we went out to the pool to have our first Swim for Life lesson. We got split into two groups. One group went off with a Swim for Life teacher. We practised a huddle, a chain and a line on land in our groups. Then one group went down to the swimming pool to do some water safety activities, while the other group stayed dry and practised how to save someone if they are in danger in the water. We got to have a turn at both activities.

This is a photo of us practising a huddle before we got in the pool. 

Before we hopped into the pool we learned how to put on a life jacket. Life jackets are important because they can save your life and stop you from drowning. They also have a whistle that you can blow to get attention if you fall out of a boat or get into trouble. 

A huddle is used to keep everyone together so you don't lose anyone and to keep everyone warm. 

This is another huddle in our swimming pool. 

This is a called a chain. A chain is used so you can kick back to shore quickly, with everyone helping. 

We think this looks like a conga line! When you're in a line you have to lean back and then kick. You hold onto the person's waist in front of you. 

This is us practising how to rescue someone who is it the water. We practised using an overgrown two minute noodle, but if you were on a boat you could use a rope, an oar or a tree branch. We can't wait for our next Swim for Life lesson! 

By Lachie and Jacob

Our Class Butterfly Garden

This morning when we came into class we saw that one of the caterpillars was hanging upside down in a 'J' shape. He looked like he was ready to turn into a chrysalis. When the bell went we sat down on the mat to do the roll and notices. Soon after that someone realised that the caterpillar was changing. He was making a chrysalis around himself. Everyone went over to the butterfly garden to have a look. There were lots of gasps! I wonder how long it will take him to turn into a butterfly? 

Our butterfly garden has lots of swan plants, one chubby caterpillar, a smaller caterpillar and a chrysalis. Lots of the leaves have been chomped by the hungry caterpillars. The swan plants are planted in a large pot. Hanging over the table is a pink, bed net. When the butterflies come out of their chrysalis and are strong enough to fly we will let them go. 

By Hanna and Kyle

Only One You

Today we watched a YouTube clip called Only One You. It's a story that teaches you that everyone is special in a different way. There is only one you in the world. You only have one life so you should make the most of the time that you have in your life. After we read the story we created a fish each with patterns on it. All of our fish are special in different ways, just like us!

By Room 8

Our Class Tree-ty

Room 8 have planted a Pohutukawa tree for our class tree-ty. Our class tree-ty is an agreement about the rules in our classroom. We created our tree-ty so everyone can be happy and have a great year in Room 8.

To create our tree-ty we split up into groups and we wrote ideas on paper. Then we shared our ideas with the rest of our class on the mat. We grouped our ideas that were the same, together. Then we wrote sentences for our tree-ty that included all our ideas. Everyone signed our tree-ty to say that they agree on it.

After we did our class tree-ty we went outside and planted our little Pohutukawa tree. We all had to have a squeeze of the red, plastic pot that the Pohutukawa tree was in. We were squeezing the pot because we were trying to get the Pohutukawa tree out because it was stuck. Miss Gentil helped us pull it out. We dug a hole in the big, brown pot and then we placed the tree in the hole. Then we covered the tree roots with soil. We had a group photo with our Pohutukawa tree. Now we are going to take care of our tree, until the end of the year when we will plant it outside.

Here is our class tree-ty.

In Room 8 we...

• Be kind to everyone. 
• Always use our manners. 
• Work together as a team and help others. 
• Always aim for excellence with our learning. 
• Look after class and school equipment. 
• Be good role models by making sensible choices. 
• Have fun when we are learning! 

By Ava and Esther

Charlee holding our class Pohutukawa tree. 

Esther, the birthday girl helping to plant our Pohutukawa.

Our class photo with our Pohutukawa! 

Getting Creative with Magic Play Dough!

This morning, on the first day of school we went outside and sat underneath the tree. Miss Gentil put down the tray of magic play dough onto the grass. Then Miss Gentil explained that we needed to squish the play dough while it was in the bag. The play dough was white with either gold or silver sparkles sprinkled on top.

When we started squishing the play dough a bright colour started to squirt out of the white, sparkly play dough. We were surprised that colours starting squirting out! We mixed the colour into our play dough until there was no white play dough anymore. Once everyone had mixed their play dough we could take it out of our bag. The different colours of play dough were blue, green, red and yellow. The yellow and green play dough smelt like coconut. The blue and red play dough smelt like raspberry. Some people thought the raspberry smelt like cupcake icing or bubble gum. Miss Gentil made our play dough scented by putting baking essence into our play dough.

We had to use the play dough to create our favourite bit of our summer holiday. We enjoyed making things out of our magic play dough. Here are some photos of what we created.

By Charlee and Milly

This is what our magic play dough looked like before we squished it in the bags.

This is what our magic play dough looked like once we had mixed our colour in. 

Magic Play Dough - Kizoa Video Maker

Our Surprise in the Mail and Smarties!

We had an awesome first day back at school today! This morning we finally got to open our parcel. Inside was two pop up tents. We're going to use them for new learning spaces in our classroom. At the end of the day we also got to take our smarties home.  

All ready to open our surprise parcel. 

New pop up tents for our classroom and the deck!

Special notes and boxes of smarties from Miss Gentil.

A close up of our smarties!!