Practising for Athletics

We learnt to run fast by using the power of our elbows! Maihi and Shalom were super fast. "We had to sprint like a cheetah," said Cohan.

"It was fun doing long jump because it felt like I was flying in the air. I got fourth at our athletics. I was really happy about that." -Zara.

I had a very long jump and I felt proud of myself for jumping that far. I came fourth on Athletics Day too. I went to Counties for high jump and short sprints. On Athletics Day Mr Melrose whispered in my ear, 'Try and imagine it in your head you getting over the jump." And I made it. I gave Mr Melrose a big smile and a high five. -Maihi

I loved doing long jump. I practised hard to do it and thought I would be able to jump pretty far. I tried my best on Athletics Day. - Connar

"It was fun doing the long jump. When you jump in the pit the sawdust feels nice and smooth. You have to do a big sprint before you jump. If you don't do a run up you can't jump high or long."- Brooke

Code Club

EA Networks sponsored students to take part in a computer code club at Ashburton College on Thursday 15 th October, after school.  Riley from our class went and a student from each of the other Senior classes.

Riley said that it was the first time he had done coding. He made a singer sing, a drum make music and created a stage as a backdrop. He had to put all the coding in the right order or it didn't work. He listened to one of the speakers talk about Christchurch teenagers who created an App that Apple bought. They made a lot of money.

We learnt how to use the program 'Scratch' at home too. We are going to be tutors for our Code Club at school. 

Riley is looking forward to seeing the newspaper with the photo of the Code Club at College.

Descriptive Writing

We have been creating interesting sentences that describe setting. We are trying to use words that we haven't used very often and that make it easy for the reader to imagine where we are.

I crossed the rough mountain path and avoided the hard bitten river. - Riley.

I crossed the prehistoric mountain path and avoided the soundless river. - Anastasia.

I crossed the unstable mountain path and avoided the bottomless river. - Maddy.

I crossed the sandiest mountain path and avoided the frantic river. - Maihi.

I crossed the freezing mountain path and avoided the horrifying river. - Koby.

Having Fun with Tennis

We learnt how to have tennis ball races on the faces of the tennis raquet. We hit the ball over the net so our friend could catch it in the cone. It was a lot of fun seeing how many bounces we could get up to before we had to chase the ball.

Skiing on Mt Hutt

We started off the day with a ski lesson. It was a beautiful sunny day.











Kelly was taking lots of photos. It was such a warm perfect day that Anastasia was able to take her jacket off. It was awesome that her Nana was able to go on our trip.

Byron thought it very new to stop on a snowboard. He couldn't put his feet in the snowboard properly because he hadn't tried it before. Byron enjoyed seeing two kea, one was on top of the bus and one was on the ground near the play area.

Cohan, Dion, Miss Ovens, Jamie and Aleisha were learning how to do 'the pizza' stop. It stops you from going too fast.

It was such a beautiful day looking down from the top of the magic carpet. We noticed that Jacinta from Room 6 got very good at going down this on her own.

Cohan's dad gave lots of helpful advice during the day. He is a pretty amazing skier.

James is very happy because he didn't run Mrs C over.  He was able to steer and stop all by himself. 

When I was sliding down the snow got deeper near the end. The snow was soft because noone had been on it yet. I slid down about five times. Jayden

Lucy, Ruby, James and I were trying to race, but I started to slide down so I got to the end first. I liked knowing how to stop and turn so I didn't crash into anyone. -Jayden.

Kelly is still taking photos. She even managed to get in some skiing time. Our day was a whole lot of fun because she had organised it so well.

Brooke and Mia were learning to stop. This is quite important on a tall slippery mountain. Brooke and Mia were suprised at how hot it was.

Mia was very brave. She challenged herself to ski high on the mountain and did a great job.

We all really enjoyed our day. It was such perfect weather. The snow was soft and dry and everyone was friendly and helpful. Mrs C noticed a few people eating the snow.

Print Making Begins

We have created our polystyrene prints. First we had to draw 4 designs and then choose the one we liked the most. It  had to be suited to creating an easy to see print. Zara chose an octopus and Brooke used what she had learnt from our drawing unit to create a landscape. We learnt to carefully put the ink on our block and then use a dry roller to make sure all of the paper was covered. We worked hard to keep the edges of our print clean. 

We are proud of our efforts.

Our next task is to create cardboard block prints.

Evie going to School

Evie is a Japanese Spitz dog. She is 4 months old and belongs to Joshua's family. Evie has white fluffy hair and Koby thinks she looks really cool. Evie is making good friends at school.

 We hope she visits us often.

Josh and Evie are very good friends.  "She looks like a fluffy ball," said Maihi.  Mia told us that after she patted Evie her hands smelled nice.  Connar said that Evie liked to get patted backwards. Zara could tell that Evie didn't want to leave Josh.

Evie is getting training. She can sit when she is given the command with just hand signals.
She is learning to lie down with just a hand signal too.
Even though she is a quiet dog, her family is teaching her to stop barking at strangers when they are walking past.

Konnichiwa Our visit from Japan

We had a lot of fun when some students from Japan visited our school. We met for a special assembly and we sung a waiata.  They sang two songs with actions. One of the students conducted.
Some of the students met with Room 9 and Room 10. They taught us how to shoot balloons with a gun made from chopsticks and rubber bands. Then they gave us prizes!

After that they gave us all a heavy balloon with some water in it that we used as a yoyo.  It was cool because they made things for us.  We made them some origami windmills, with paper and glitter in Hampstead School colours.

James's Dragon

I learnt to draw this dragon when Mrs Crossen showed me how to copy ideas from a how to draw sheet.  This was my first try. I was quite amazed because I had never drawn a dragon that good before. I think drawing is cool. I am going to learn how to draw a bugatti veyron. I have a lot of pictures on my ipod of them. My favourite is a silver one. I also have a picture on my wall of one.

Artist James

Swiper says Hello

I liked bringing Swiper to school because he has never been to school before. This was his first day.

He's a friendly dog. He is a labrador and he loves to meet people and get patted. His favourite toy is his duck. It makes a noise when he bites it. 

by Maddy

Swiper was relaxed and friendly when he met us.

A lot of us wanted to get the chance to pat him and say thank you for coming.

Gymnastics in our Classroom

First we did a gymnastics walk across the room. We had to be relaxed while holding our bodies straight. Koby remembered we had to have our arms straight by our ears and our fingers together for the Releve walk.  After that we did a walk and hop while staying balanced. It was funny because it was called Walk and Hop. 

Brooke thought it was fun because we got to go in pairs and take turns. Riley thought it was fun to watch because everyone was walking and hopping.

Science with Shadows

We had to cut the shoe boxes to let enough light to see the shadow theatre. We used baking paper and created our characters out of paper, cardboard and straws. It was important we didn't cut the characters the wrong way.  

 We learnt that when something is in the way of the sun then on the other side of the object there will be a shadow. We had to actually find a spot where there was enough light to see our character's shadows.

We showed our plays to other people in our class. Todd thought that it was very funny, the play looked like a comedy. 

 Maddy liked using the shadows to make the play. Mary thought it was funny because our comedy was really funny. It was called Mumma Mia.

Milly the Explorer

Jayden tells us that Anastasia's dog, named Milly, is a Lhasa Apso.  Zara likes it when Milly visits our school. Sabastyan wishes that Anastasia would bring Milly to school every day. She is a very cute dog.

Milly is taking time to say "Have a great day at school!", to her best friend.  Mary thinks Milly is a very happy dog. Koby thinks Milly is a great dog because she is careful with people. Braydon agrees. Anastasia knows Milly is very friendly and she follows her everywhere. She licks a lot. Mrs C thinks she is a very well behaved puppy and loves to see her at school. Josh would like a dog just like her because he thinks she is so adorable.

Congratulations Amelia

What Room 14 said about Amelia's Story (Click this Link)

Bald Eagle Acrostic poem

When I wrote this acrostic poem I had to search up facts on Google Chrome. This helped me to find words that started with the letters of Bald Eagle. I didn't know Bald Eagles were endangered.
James

Beak as sharp as claws
Amazing sites it goes
Legend claws
Deadly as a tiger club

Eyes like a tally scoop
Above your eye sites
Glides as fasst as a plane. 56-70km/h
Length 30-34 inch
Endangered

Amelia's Holiday Adventure

Taking Off

Whoosh, the sound of the roaring engines on the plane was deafening and the force of the plane moving forward on the runway pushed me back into my seat. I clutched the armrest of my seat because I was surprised and scared as I wasn’t expecting it to be so fast or so powerful.

Then I looked out of the small curved window and saw a blur as we sped past the airport buildings and the motionless planes parked there. The next thing I knew I was on a big lean backwards because the nose and the front wheels of the plane were pointed up in the air while the back wheels and tail were not, we were taking off! Ever so suddenly the other plane wheels lifted off the ground and we started to climb high towards the light blue sky.

I felt light headed with a queasy tummy because I was afraid the plane was going to crash with the nose of the plane still pointed so much higher up than the tail. 

As we climbed higher and higher I heard the dull roar of the engines and I looked out of the window at the city below. There were lots of cars moving around on the road and they looked like multi coloured ants running around! Still higher and higher we climbed then ever so slowly the plane started to turn and straighten up and fly steadily towards its destination.

As I listened to the quite humming of the engines I looked out of the window, down past the fluffy white clouds at the snow covered mountains far below us.

I felt happy and excited because I was flying. I couldn’t believe that I had been though my very first take off and it was AWESOME! Though this was only the start of my journey I wondered where my adventures would lead me to next.

By Amelia Swan     

Our Acrostic Poetry

Mary has created a very interesting acrostic poem. She used ideas from her reading group book to help her gain information about the ants.

Fighting like Mexican mustangs

Invincible ants

Ravenous  for sugar.

Eager for adventure.

Attracting other ants

Nagging other ants to get out of the way.

Throwing tantrums at predators.

Scheming a plan to get food.

We are Proud of our Work

Cohan worked hard to make his handwriting look just like the text on the page.

Xanita and Mia gave their absolute best during our Cross Country.

De-lyna and James followed instructions carefully and supported each other when making headbands from flax during weaving.

Joshua, Koby and De-lyna were careful to share their quality ideas neatly in their books.

How We Like to Play

Jayden and James love to climb up high so they can see what the staff are having for morning tea.

Koby joins the queue so he can be an Ace at table tennis.

Todd and Koby show our new student, Justine, how they work as a team to reach for goals.

Rose is just hanging around waiting for the bell to go.

Shalom shows us that she knows that Maths is all about parallel lines and balance.

Proud to be pink to show our support for anti-bullying

We had fun finding our pink clothes and creating amazing pink hats, putting on our stunning pink wigs to show that we know how to just be what we want to.

Mrs C always tells us we are a caring class that knows how to treat others with kindness and respect.

Rugby skills with Jason

Maddy thought that learning how to hold a rugby ball properly was good.

Byron learnt how to pass - two hands on the ball and look at the person you are going to throw to.

Rose found it difficult to make the ball go round her waist because she wasn't used to it.

Mary thought it was hard to run with the ball on top of our heads because some people lost their balance.
Connar thought it was fun and easy because he pretended to be a shark swimming in the deep blue sea.

Having fun with Maths budgets

Byron wanted to buy baby clothes, juice, chocolate, chips, wine for Mrs C, and that would be all of his $50.

Amelia had $1000. Her favourite three items are: flower covered car seats, some fake skulls and an air compressor. She thought they would be very useful for Halloween night.

Riley spent $50 on cat food, fizzy drink, a phone at a bargain price, and 1kg of mushrooms. 

Todd had $500. He wanted an X box, a wifi hotspot, a wall charger, and an external drive. He wasn't as hungry as Byron and Riley's cat. 

 Jayden had $50. He dreamed about getting some chicken, some wine for his lucky mum, pasta, a burger and some toilet cleaner.

De-lyna wanted to help people out by buying Nappy pants in case a parent visiting the school needed some for their child.

For $500 Brooke bought a Paddington DVD, a phone cover for her mum and a pair of black leather shoes for going out in. Zara thought she would be able to buy  new slippers, a Mrs Brown's Boys DVD for her dad, a music DVD for her mum and a smoothie from a fast food outlet for $50.

James thought this kind of maths was fun because he was 'shopping' with his friends and they got heaps of things. Mia liked the challenge of finding things for a budget. Koby thought it was cool to work out the things he could buy after he had earned real money when he went wood chopping.

Our Thoughts about ANZAC Day

Byron thinks ANZAC Day is a sad day because it's about soldiers who passed.
Sabastyan said he thought it would be very sad if your brother or sister got killed.

Maddy knows it's a sad day to remember all about all the soldiers who died.

Amelia is going to the dawn parade in Ashburton. She said that sometimes your feet get numb from standing still.

Brooke is going to the Dawn Parade with her mum to remember the soldiers that went to war.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow.

The dead soldiers are talking in this poem. They died and were buried in Flanders feilds. The feilds got bombed really bad!     New Zealanders and Australians fought there.
Brooke Jayden Maihi Rose Zara

Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori

The poem is about how the soldiers felt about war. They didn't like it at all. It makes us feel sad because they had to walk through mud and other terrible things. Soldiers fought and died. We learnt to say some Latin too.

Amelia Mary Riley Todd

For the Fallen

They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning we will remember them.

Our poem was about remembering the soldiers who went to war and also didn't come back. Our group thinks it's sad because we know about people who didn't come back. A man who had been a teacher at Hampstead didn't come back.

Anastasia James Maddy De-lyna Cohan

We read Harry and the Anzac Poppy and The Anzac Puppy. 

Harry's great granddad went to war and wrote letters to his daughter. She read the letters to Harry. Her father was wounded and then a few days later was killed. They got a letter saying he was killed.

Xanita and Joshua

The Puppy story is sad because Lucy gave away her puppy. Sam a soldier saved the puppy and called it Freda. Freda was a hero. She killed a lot of rats. Shalyn and Byron

We got facts about World War 1

480 000 Allied troops took part in the war. Over  200 000 were killed or wounded. Koby and Shalom

We read a book called Lest We Forget. It was about how we remember soldiers from lots of wars at the Dawn Parade on Anzac Day. Mia and Connar

We made a wreath by each making a poppy. We drew crosses and made them into the number one hundred. 

Zara put our wreath by the Roll of Honour during our special assembly for Anzac Day.