Ice Hotels

The Bears and Elephants read 'Connected 1 2006'.  The Connected series contain journals that combine Science, Technology and Maths with Literacy.  We read the article, 'Ice Hotels'.  To finish our reading contract, we tried making a model of an ice hotel.  The two reading groups competed against each other to make the best ice hotel.

We sprinkled salt on the ice cubes to make them stick together.  The salt made the surface of the ice melt faster, so that, when you pressed two salty surfaces together, they joined.  This was very useful, practical science to know when building!

By the end of the day, the ice hotels had melted.  Then we had a competition to see how long you could leave your hands in the icy water.  After several rounds, Green was found to be the ultimate winner, but Charlize was a close second.

Blake Inspire of Teachers

In week 1, one of the most enjoyable things to do is to share what we have been doing in the school holidays. Some people stayed in Auckland, while some people visited other places in New Zealand, or even other countries around the world.

Mrs Bear was lucky enough to be selected for the Blake Inspire for Teachers programme.  Blake Inspire runs programmes designed to inspire the next generation of New Zealand's leaders, adventurers and environmentalists (that's the students in Room 18!)  Their programmes inspire people to care for the environment and prepare them to lead environmental change.

"Sir Peter Blake wanted to reach every classroom in New Zealand to inspire our rangatahi to protect the environment. Blake Inspire for Teachers is a new way of achieving this. By teaching the teachers and developing both their knowledge and confidence so they can integrate environmental education into their own school programmes means we’re reaching more and more children", explained Jame Gibson, CEO of Blake Inspire.

Newspaper article:

Teachers chosen for first Blake Inspire programme

During the week, Mrs Bear and 29 other teachers from around New Zealand, as well as world leading scientists, visited companies initiating sustainable changes and took part in many field studies, both in the bush and in marine environments.  Here we are monitoring life in rock pools in the Hauraki Gulf.

Over the next few weeks, Mrs Bear will be working hard to make everyone in Room 18 more environmentally aware.  We will start in Room 18, then we will move to the Weka Team and then other classes in the school.  This will mean more time connecting with Nature and bringing scientific ideas into our daily lives. that will support our environment.

Going to the Moon

The year 2019 is the 20th anniversary of the Man landing on the Moon.  Room 18 decided to celebrate this by making a photo booth where we could take moon landing photos. 

Taylor and Caesar painted sides of the box black to emulate space, and added constellations of silver stars once it was well coated and dry.  They painted the base grey and added crunched up tinfoil for moon rocks and craters.  Then we were ready to go!

Different groups of people designed and made rockets to land on our Moon base.  Here are some of our most successful launches.

Our recounts about the Lloyd Elsmore trip

Many of us shared our stories about our trip to Lloyd Elsmore at our PPPs.  At the end of term, we illustrated these recounts using water colours (which seemed appropriate for stories about water safety!)  Here is a preview, but you can read them all on the WRITING page.

Going to Hawaii

To end the winter term, Room 18 decided that they wanted to get away from Auckland's cold, windy weather and go somewhere warm so, on the last day of school, we went to . . . Hawaii!

People brought appropriate luggage for the plane trip - togs, towels, shorts, summer tops, buckets and spades, blow up floaties, sunglasses and lots of picnic food.

To set the mood, everyone painted a picture of Hawaii - we had waves, pineapples, coconuts, palm trees, swim suits and much more to hang around the room.  Next, we set the temperature up to high and got changed into our beach gear.  Everyone was presented with a flower lei and there were plenty of sun hats to go round.  We danced the hula, paddled in the sea and ate our picnic.  It was a great way to end the winter term - roll on summer!

We could hear the water gently lapping on the shore.

Everyone used water colours to make a beachy picture for the wall.

The weather in Waikiki was perfect!

Time to relax!

Ready for a swim.

Dancing the hulal

Picnic time!

And WHAT a picnic it was!

Luckily, the eruption from Kilauea was too remote on the Big Island of Hawaii, so it did not spoil our fun.

CBS Market Day

On Thursday, Cockle Bay had a market day.  During the week, Year 3-6 classes made and advertised their products for sale while Year 1-2 classes made the CBS currency.  People worked for money during the week doing classroom jobs, so that by the time Market Day came round, everyone had $5 of CBS money to spend.

 First, Room 18 had to make product to sell at our stall.  We researched butterflies on line, and after some discussion, decided to make colourful butterflies.  We incorporated all sort of bright colours, using clothes pegs for the bodies, pipe cleaners for antennae, tiny jewels for the eyes, and lollies into see through bags for the wings.  We had to make the butterfly wings symmetrical, so that there were the same mix of colours in both wings.  By the time we had finished, we had made 92 butterflies.

We cut pipe cleaners into quarters, and then threaded them through the bead head to make antennae. Next we had to glue two tiny jewels on as eyes.  There were lots of lovely bright colours to choose from.

We used hot glue guns to stick everything in place securely.

Everyone made 4 butterflies each.  These butterflies are waiting for their wings!

When the butterflies were finished, we concentrated on advertising.  We made posters as brightly coloured as the butterflies themselves.  Some people used jovis and others, water colour paints.  We displayed our posters around the school and also sent people to every single classroom to tell them about our wares.

On Thursday, we were ready to load our butterflies onto our stall, which was in the hall.  Some people stayed to serve customers, while others went to check out the other stalls and spend their money.  After people had bought one thing, they came back to Room 18's stall and swapped roles, so that everyone had a chance to serve and buy.

Show time!  Business was very brisk,  lots of people came to buy butterflies.  The butterflies were $1 each and we had made 92.  How much money did we collect?  When we looked at our expenses ($70), we did not make much profit.  If we sold them again, we would charge $2 each.  When we looked around the market at other goods for sale, this would have been a fair price, and we would have got a better return on our investment.

Everyone enjoyed looking round the market and finding things to buy.   There was a fabulous range of goods and services to choose from.  Here are some happy shoppers from Room 18 with their purchases.

Matariki Stars

The end of term is a good time to finish unfinished things - and that is just what we did with our Matariki stars.  We didn't have time for these in Term 1 when we made and tested our Matariki bird kites and telescopes.  But now, at last, our stars are hanging down from the ceiling, watching over us.

First, we had to colour the star.

Then we had to add tassels, beads and feathers.

Here is a finished star - you can see more in the VISUAL ART page or hanging in the classaroom.

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Epic

Everyone is enjoying Epic.  It is a digital library where you can read books and comics or watch videos.  Some people read at SSR (silent sustained reading) time after morning tea, and others at home.

Art Expo

The Art Expo was in the hall at the same time, so that you could see art from all around the school after your PPP.  We also had time to visit the art expo in school time.

This year, the theme was famous New Zealand artists with a focus on traditional Maori art.  In Room 18, we studied Colin Mc Cahon.  We looked particularly at his earlier work which featured trees in his garden.  We emulated his style to paint trees in Cockle Bay School.  When we walked around the school to look at them closely, we were surprised by how many different shaped trees we found, and how many different shades of green we found in the foliage.  You can see all our tree paintings on the VISUAL ART page.

Here are two of our paintings - you can see all of Room 18's art work on the VISUAL ART page.