Fruit Salad with Room 13

On Thursday we had our very last buddy session with the cool kids in room 13. We decided to celebrate a great year by having a shared meal of delicious fruit salad. We also did some singing, some drawing and snacked on popcorn as we watched Christmas themed video clips. What a great morning it was! It was so lovely to watch the senior children and the junior children talking and working together. 

Here are a few photos of us!

Thank you so much Miss Baird and room 13! 

We have loved getting to know you all this year.

We grew cabbages!

Last term Room 8 decided to learn more around planting and grew cabbage seedlings in our very own school garden. Yesterday it was time... we finally got the chance to see our perfectly grown cabbages!

While we were taking out our cabbages, the boys also pulled out the bok choy, that happened to be over grown in the garden.

LJ and Jerald had a challenge to try and eat parsley from the garden and said it tasted like rotten orange!

By Savannah ans Melanie

MISS ROOT'S SPECIAL SWEETIE'S

Miss Root is a bad dentist  that loves to pretend to be a normal dentist but her true identity is she is the demon dentist and she take's out all of the kid's teeth. Do you know what she does? She gives lollies to the kid's to make their teeth rot and she tricks them by saying they are sugar free. 

That's why the whole class decided to make are very own special sweeties.

We are also learning about how persuasive writing is used in advertising, so we made some ads about our special sweeties. 
Take a look!

By Ellen

Yay! New plants!

 Room 8 finally updated our indoor classroom garden thanks to Tarita and Adam who did a great job planting these flower seedlings. It's always exciting to have plants growing in our classroom and to notice how they grow and change. We hope to have lots of flowers before the school holidays!

Beginning our bokashi bin!

Last term Mrs Mcaree asked  Room 8 for some help. She had started a homemade bokashi bin and had filled it up with food scraps but wasn't quite sure if she had done it right. She wanted us to give it a go and see what success we had so she gifted our class with our very own bokshi bin.

If you aren't sure what a bokashi bin is and how it works, this video clip explains it nicely:

After lots of research and discussion, this week we finally got the bokashi bin up and running!

 Augustina is going to monitor the bin. She will need to squash the food down occasionally, empty out the liquid and sprinkle on more bran. It is already filling up quite nicely with scraps from our lunches. We look forward to updating you (and Mrs Mcaree!) on our progress.

The bokashi bin is going to decrease the amount of rubbish going to landfill and the great thing is the compost will be great for our garden! It also makes a nice addition to the recycling system we have up and running in Room 8. Pop in and visit us so we can show you what we have been doing!

Growing Kumara!

 This term as part of our learning about recycling and caring for the environment, Room 8 decided to ty and grow kumara plants from an actual kumara.

We secured the kumara in place with tooth picks then left it in water. It was so exciting to see the roots begin to grow then watch the leaves sprout from the top.

This week we did a bit of research to find out how to plant them in the garden. Because the roots were so fully formed, we were able to gently pull off the new plants and plant them directly into the soil.

We are excited to see what happens next and we are crossing our fingers that the new plants keep growing.

Watch this space!

Making pikelets.

Room 8 celebrated the end of term four and a very busy week with a cooking competition.

The class was split into 2 teams and assigned jobs - measuring and mixing/cooking/cleaning/setting the tables. Teams were given points for their jobs and each team sent a sample up to Val in the office who was the judge.

It was great to see the teams working together to use their reading and maths skills (this required some concentration since we were doubling the recipe) and it was lovely to sit down and enjoy food together.

One of the teams got baking powder and flour mixed up...but luckily realised their mistake and scooped out 1 cup of baking powder just in time! They did end up with the fluffiest (or as Jerald said 'chubbiest') pikelets.

Nice work Room 8!
 

Buddy Time!

 WOW!!! look at room 8 and their buddy class room 13.  Don't we look like great role models?
 

  Can you spot what our friends here are reading?   

Take a good look at these amazing students!!! Don't they look nice and peaceful  together?

We enjoy spending time with our buddies!

By Tarita

It's almost show time....!

Here is room 8 painting hibiscus flowers. Don't they look so beautiful? The reason why we are painting flowers is for our culture festival and so we can decorate the hall and it can stand out when we're performing.  

By Nevaeh

Persuasive Writing - Litter in our community

On the way to the pools last week, we were sad and disappointed to see rubbish everywhere.
After all of our learning this year about the effects of littering, we sadly know where this litter could end up!

 As part of our learning about persuasive writing, we have written to our fellow citizens of Otara. We are asking people to consider the effects littering is having on our community and world. 
Check them out and tell us what you think!

Tarita

Carlito

Nevaeh

Kaz

Daffodils

Room 8 enjoying the sun on the way back from swimming today.  We think Spring might be just around the corner!