Term Four

Term 4 has arrived and we are going to have a busy term. We have a Production, Swimming and are looking at Simple Circuits. Call back and visit us to see what we are up to.

The All Blacks won the 2011 World Cup. Well done!!! What an amazing result!

Continents

We are learning about the Continents of the world.

Continents are large areas of land. There are seven continents on Earth now: Europe, Africa, Asia, North America, South America, Australia and Antarctica.

Play these games to make sure you know these.

National Anthem of NZ

Today we sang the NZ national anthem in both Maori and English. We plan to sing it heaps over the term. It is called 'God of Nations'. Here is some information about our national anthem.

Thomas Bracken wrote his poem in the early 1870s, and offered a prize of 10 guineas for the best musical setting. This was won by Otago schoolteacher John Joseph Woods. In 1940, on the recommendation of the NZ Centennial Council, the Government declared God Defend New Zealand to be the National Hymn, and bought the copyright. In 1977, with the Queen’s consent, God Defend New Zealand was given equal status with God Save the Queen as one of New Zealand’s national anthems.

NZ Flag

The New Zealand Flag is New Zealand’s national symbol. Its royal blue background represents the blue sea and sky surrounding us, and the stars of the Southern Cross signify our place in the South Pacific Ocean. The Union Flag recognises our historical foundations and that New Zealand was once a British colony and dominion

Mapping NZ

We have been mapping this week. We put the host cities of the World Cup onto a map and then added some important geographical features. Today we began looking at the provinces where the Webb Ellis cup is going on the road trip. We looked at Northland, Auckland, Hawkes Bay and Bay of Plenty. We think it is important to know about our own country. Tomorrow we will look at Taranaki, Manawatu, Waikato and Wellington. As part of this study we are looking at main cities, things to do, main geographical features and the provinces rugby colours. We also learnt about using key words when searching for information on the internet using Google. Also, we revised capital letters for names of places. Presentation was very important and most of us are getting very good at presenting our work neatly.

Responsibility

Responsibility means doing what needs to be done to take care of yourself, your family, your friends, and the greater community. Being responsible means that others can rely on you, that you follow through on your promises.

We need to learn to act responsibly and this might involve doing something difficult--like handing your homefun in on time or giving up your own time to help the family. Responsibility can also take strength, such as, saying no to tings you know you shouldn't do.

The Wind

There is a place where the raw polar winds blow, bitter and raging.
The trees stand tall next to me grasping their bony long roots into the freezing, snowy ground.

Still, I stroll through the isolated land when a gust of wind strong and whirling, hits my face bitterly ,chilling me to the bone.
The misty winds pick up the clouds which gather in groups, turning darker than ever, raging their tempers.

The snowy icy ground below my feet crackles like the fire.

By Olive Pujol (aged 8 years) R16

Trophy for the Rugby World Cup

Webb Ellis Cup

• Made in 1906 in Garrard's workshop
• Silver and gilded in gold
• 2 cast scroll handles
• 38 cm tall
• Not made originally for Rugby World Cup
• Named after William Webb Ellis (the inventor of rugby football)
• NZ All Blacks first team to win it
• South Africa currently hold it
• 4 nations have won the cup (NZ (once), England (once), Australia (twice) and
South Africa (twice)

Snow Days

Wanaka Primary was shut for two days because of snow.

The All Blacks

The All Blacks are the NZ men's national rugby team. In NZ rugby is considered to be a national sport. The NZ rugby team are one of the most successful sporting teams of all time. After first playing in 1884, they maintain a 75% winning record and throughout their history have only been beaten by five teams. They are also the only international rugby union team to have a winning record against every test nation they have played.

Haka

The Rugby World Cup will see the All Blacks perform the haka 'Ka Mate' which has been performed at many great rugby matches and official functions since 1906 until 2005 when the All Blacks introduced a new haka 'Kapa O Pango'. Te Rauparaha, a tribal war leader composed 'Ka Mate' as a celebration of life over death after escaping his enemies. Translated from Maori to English, the main art of the haka declares

Ka mate! Ka mate! Ka ora! Ka ora! I die! I die! I live! I live!
Ka mate! Ka mate! Ka ora! Ka ora! I die! I die! I live! I live!
Tenei te tangata puhuru huru This is the hairy man
Nana nei i tiki mai Who fetched the Sun
Whakawhiti te ra And caused it to shine again
A upa ... ne! ka upa ... ne! One upward step! Another upward step!
A upane kaupane whiti te ra! An upward step, another.. the Sun shines!!

Right Here Right Now by the Feelers

The marketing song for the Rugby World Cup in NZ 2011

Kiwiana

We asked the question, What is culture?
This a definition we liked ...
All the knowledge and values shared by a society
Everything a group of people think, how they behave, and what they produce that is passed on to future generations.

We wrote and drew the things that were important to us in our own cultural wheel. We then got together, in groups of three and talked about similarities and difference between our wheels.

After that we drew things that make us 'Kiwis' and discussed 'Kiwiana. We pasted them onto a chart.

The Oxford N.Z. Dictionary defines kiwiana as “Any of the many 'collectable', items redolent of New Zealand life and culture."

Go to Kiwiana Town to see some of the things that are important to us as KIWIS.







We then completed a cultural wheel that reflects the things that are important to us as New Zealanders.

Flags and Symbols

What is a flag?
A piece of cloth, usually rectangular, of distinctive colour and design, used as a symbol, standard, signal, or emblem

What is a symbol?
A shape or sign used to represent something such as an organisation
such as the Silver Fern)

What is a logo?
A symbol or other small design adopted by an organisation to identify its products, uniform, vehicles and to go on stationery (such as Wanaka Primary School logo)

After completing our kiwiana work, we webbed ideas about what
Wanaka Primary Schoolwiana and Wanaka communityana might look like.

Over the next two days we plan to design a flag or symbol that would represent either our school culture or the Wanaka community culture.

History of Rugby and the Rugby Ball

Rugby and Rugby Balls
This week in reading, the Lollipops group read a new school journal. In it they read an article called 'The First Rugby Ball'. Here are some of the facts they found. They recorded facts on a rugby ball shape and displayed on a group chart.

- Rugby school developed Rugby football from football and played this game according to Rugby rules

- Until 1870, rugby was played with a near spherical ball with an inner-tube made of a pig's bladder!

- William Webb Ellis was a schoolboy at Rugby School, who, bored with the slow pace of a football game, picked up the ball and ran with it, and created the game of rugby. Webb Ellis is the person the World Cup is named after.

- Richard Lindon started making rugby balls for Rugby School out of hand stitched four-panel, leather casings and pigs’ bladders.

- The rugby ball's distinctive shape is supposedly due to the pig’s bladder
Early balls were more plum-shaped than oval.

- The balls varied in size in the beginning depending upon how large the pig’s bladder was.

Ruggerland

Go to Ruggerland and play the games. You might like to join the club too. Make sure you have lots of adventures there!!






Listen to the music on the ruggerland jukebox. We are going to learn them this term.

Rugby World Cup

Watch this promotional video 'You Gotta Be There'. We can't be there at each game but we will be there educationally because we are doing an inquiry unit on the 2011 World Cup.

Fractions

Fraction Games to play (there are lots and lots) ...











Try this Fraction tutorial.

Fractions

In Room 16 we are learning about Fractions. We wia>ll be folding, cutting and sharing all sorts of things into halves, quarters, thirds, fifths,sixths and more!
Watch this video that explains fractions:

Antonym Synonym Word Game

Today we played this games to help reinforce synoyms and antonyms. The children asked me to put it on the blog to play at home.

Length BBC Game

Convert units of length on this BBC game (3 levels)

Emma's Saturn Powerpoint

Saturn emma

View more presentations from annie.mccambridge

Olives Jupiter Powerpoint

Olive jupiter power point

View more presentations from annie.mccambridge

Technology Photo Frames from Term One

Solar System Word Cloud

Cara's Power Point on Germs

Length and Area Games

Find the area and perimeter of shapes







Catch the biggest fish








Choose the correct length in centimetres







Go to the length part and practice your measuring

Solar System Suduko

Play Solar System Suduko. It's fun and gets you thinking!

E Mail From a Planet

Today we imagined that we were visiting one of the planets. We had to send an email to our family and friends to tell them about our experience. We had to include a “photo” that we took while visiting the planet.

Our address in the Universe

WALT... understand that the Universe is a huge place
... write our address in the Universe
... design a Planet stamp to put on your envelope

(Your name)
7 Ironside Drive
Wanaka
Central Otago
South Island
New Zealand
Southern Hemisphere
The Earth
The Solar System
The Milky Way Galaxy
The Local Group
The Local Supercluster
The Universe

How big is the universe? For a long time, people believed the universe was infinitely big and it went on forever in every direction. Today, we know that is not true. The universe does end somewhere very far way. But the end is so far away that our regular measurement units are no longer useful to measure it.
The distance from Wanaka to Auckland is 997.58 kilometres.
The distance from the Earth to the moon is 356,000 kilometres.
The distance from the Earth to the Sun is 150,000,000 kilometres .
The distance to even the nearest star is more than 40,000,000,000,000 kilometres.
You can see that our regular units of distance don't work for the size of the universe.

Instead, astronomers use a unit of distance called the light-year
One light-year is the distance that light travels in one year: one light-year is equal to 9,458,000,000,000 kilometres. Using this new unit makes astronomical distances easier to express. The nearest star is 4.3 light-years away. (Remember that the star is still the same distance away, whether we express it as 40,000,000,000,000 kilometres or 4.3 light-years).

WOW!

Arguments

We have been writing arguments. The big idea is to persuade our audience of our view point. We have been considering the both sides of an argument before making our own point of view. We will share some later this week.
Here are some of our topics
• Why should people have pets?
• How can we get rid of pollution?
• Cats make great pets
• Milk or sweets
• Sesame Street is a great watch
• Why is war bad?
• Exercising daily is important
• Fizzy drink should be in our school fountains
• Uniforms should e worn at all schools

Our Success Criteria
L2
•Gives 3 - 4 ideas with some supporting evidence
•Attempts to use paragraphs to sequence ideas
•Uses framework for an argument – Introduction, ideas for and against and conclusion
•Uses compound and trying to use complex sentences
•Uses some persuasive/emotive language which appeals to audience e.g. love, strongly agree/disagree
•Sentences sound right and make sense
•Uses capital letters, full stops independently & commas, exclamation marks with support
•Using variety of joining words e.g. because, so, therefore
•Samples words in the margin

L3
•Presents more than 4 ideas which are backed up with supporting evidence
•Uses syllables when spelling and checks using the dictionary
•Sequences ideas using paragraphs
•Uses framework for an argument – Introduction, ideas for and against and conclusion
•Can use a variety of sentences (compound & complex)– simple sentences for impact
•Uses persuasive/emotive language to make the argument more powerful
•Sentences grammatically correct
•Uses capital letters, full stops, commas, exclamation marks with increasing independence

Star Lab

We had Star Lab ( the portable planetarium) at school last week. Will, the educator from Otago Museum, told us lots about the sun, the phases of the moon, the life cycle of stars and constellations including Greek and Maori tales. We all learnt heaps! Lots of great questions were asked too.

Music Performances

Space Lunch Game

Refresh your skills and knowledge about healthy eating.

Play this Game and Learn

Play this game and learn about the Solar System

Planet Sizes

Click on the graphic to see the planet sizes.

Multiplication Thinkboards

The Haunted House

One dark and stormy night my friend and I were walking along Shadow Lane when all of a sudden, we had been swallowed by a bunch of dark trees. A while later, we came up to a black mansion guarded by a gloomy chain link fence. I felt like screaming but no words came out. Bits of cracked window glass were dangling from slimy green moss. Peeling black paint was clinging onto a dried wooden door. Knocking on it would have been one of the last things I wanted to do. I turned around and realised that my friend had fainted. Sparky lightning screeched down from the gloomy dark sky. This was my worst nightmare!

Lamp lights flashed calling me inside, SUDDENLY! The door creaked open and the steps lifted me INSIDE!!! There I stood in front of a green crackling fire. All of a sudden it started laughing at me. Lanterns started swaying. SLAM! I looked over my shoulder. The door had slammed shut.

Out of the corner of my eye, right there in the corner stood a broom ‘yes’, I thought. I was going to put the fire out with it but… as I touched the broom it lifted me high into the air…Then dropped me. I ran to the door and opened it, but before I could step out of the room the broomstick whistled to me and lifted me high into the air again and right out of the room.
"HELP", I yelled could this night get any worse!

Yet again, I was standing before a howling corridor with cob webs in every corner. I looked up and the lights in the attic were flashing on and off. Crackling music was coming from up that ladder. Before I knew it, my legs had taken me halfway up the ladder, even though my head was thinking the exact opposite way to go. Popping my head up the trapdoor, funky music wafted through my insides and I found myself dancing to the enchanted music. Suddenly the music stopped and several ghosts came out of the middle of nowhere. They swayed through and around me, as if protecting something.
“OH NO!" I cried.
I found myself run straight out the door and into the misty outside air.
Breakfast was what I wanted after this terrible spooky night.

The Haunted House

I knew it. the house was in the newspaper. i glanced up and strolled out of the house.
Mum yelled, “WHERE ARE you going?”
“Oh” I gasped. out”, and I shut the door behind me. I stared to rain and clouds filled the sky. I looked at my watch it was 8:00. I galloped down Drunken Lane and in the corner of my eye, Isaw it. I gasped in horror.

I stood there, shivering under the shelter of the house. I walked a few paces away. spiders were crawling the crackling glass. There was peeling paint. I walked in. The door creaked opened and shut with a bang. I stared at the painting on the wall. It had a knife sticking into it. Blood dripped from the knife. The lights were flicking on and off in the attic. There was a chair sitting near the roaring fire and a shadow came out of it.

I went stiff. He pointed a dirty, smelly, old finger at me. I screamed, but no sound came out. The shadow said “We have been expecting you “. He flew at me with red blood shot eyes. Suddenly he grabbed a sythe and pointed it at me. I took a go at the door, but it was locked. I was cornered. I keep banging at the door but still it would not open. I stared at death. the only escape was the attic. He gave a shot at me with his sythe. I dodged it and headed to the attic with a sigh of relief.

As I was running up the creaky stairs, a cackling started. I dared to go up but I had to because death was following me up the stairs. I could not believe my eyes. A dozen red–eyed skeletons filled the room. I twisted my head round like a squeaky bolt. I was face to face with death. His warm horrible breath was filled with rage. The skeltons started a death chant. Death was walking towards me. The skeletons were banging their feet. Death was wheeling in on me!. A guillotine!
"Come, come put your head in THE GUILLOTINE."
I dived into a nearby duct an ran out of the house. the chanting of the skeletons rolled through my mind rapidly.

The Haunted House

Chapter One
I was in Blood Vein Street. A block fell behind me. I gasped! My eyes shrieked open. There was a burnt house. An owl was scratching the paint and then something screamed.
Chapter Two
I ran to the door. The door creaked open! I looked. I stared. They stared back. Ghosts were watching me. Then as quick as lightning one of those boxes you go in when you’re dead suddenly opened. I opened my eyes.
Chapter Three
I was in a blood stream! I found a paddle so I paddled as fast as I could. A steep waterfall came up and the blood stream ended in mid-air.

Play Planet Games

Make A Planet






Planet Sliding Puzzle






Shape Match










Memory






Hangman