Favourites of 2006!

It has been an amazing year to be teaching and to be a student in Room One - we have ALL made great strides in our learning and confidence.

As the year draws to a close and our teacher Mrs Boyd goes off to work at Nelson Central School in town we have gathered a collection of our favourite posts over the year.

Thank you for visiting over the year, we hope that you'll enjoy our favourites as much as we enjoy sharing them with you! We've loved so many other students and teachers looking at our blog, commenting and emailing us with positives.

Our teacher's very first post welcoming people to our blog

Our Amazing Kidpix Future Flight designs using a photo slideshow!!

The celebratory post we made when we got 500 hits - we were also featured at ULearn and Teacher's started looking at our blog!

Our very first movie we made, hosted on You Tube and displayed on our blog

We were part of the Flat Stanley Project - this is a sample of what our Flat People did and how we recorded it so that the Flat Person's owner overseas could view it instantly!

One of the most memorable whole school assemblies we presented and how we made a detailed photo slideshow for the parents that couldn't attend

How we introduced and used a class del.icio.us (social bookmarking) account to encourage safe internet useage at home by Room One kiddies

A simple use of Comic Life in our blog - parents can click on the pic to make it bigger and print it out

Using an interactive puzzle on our blog

Presenting a shared story attractively and realistically on our blog

Communication in the School Holidays - click on the link to the webnote page too

Promoting fun literacy-based games online to be used at home for homework

Sharing technical knowledge with our parents & incorporating shared writing of instructions

Promoting extension maths Homework

Our Flickr Photos that we shared throughout the year with parents/caregivers from around the world!

ALSO DON'T FORGET TO BROWSE THE ARCHIVES ON THE RIGHT HAND SIDEBAR - you can't see all our posts on this main page!

Thanks for visiting :)

[Click here to visit Mrs B's new class blog]

Aquatic Centre & Rabbit Island Trip!

Yesterday our WHOLE SCHOOL went to the ASB Aquatic Centre in Richmond as well as Rabbit Island!

Room One had a fantastic time! We especially likes the wave pool at the Aquatic Centre and digging in the sand at Rabbit Island.

Thanks to all the parents that drove us all there! :)


You can see more photographs of our great times on our Flickr photo site: click here!!!

Phone Calls during class!

Today some of us got to use the landline phone or the cell phone to ring a special person...

We had already drafted and published our letters to Santa, so now we took the next step and rung him on his special phone line!



The phone number is:

0800 222 222

if you want to ring it yourself!!



In our letters we had to make one wish for the world, one wish for our family and we were allowed to ask Santa for two things that we would like to get for Christmas. We had a great time!

Thinking Hat Tuesday

Today our "Thinking Hat Tuesday" topic is a weird one!

"What if your ears were on the backs of your hands"

Put on your different thinking hats and think in different ways about this topic.

You might think of the idea in terms of:

Black Hat - it's weaknesses or bad points

Yellow Hat - it's strengths or good points

White Hat - the information and facts

Red Hat - your feelings about the idea

Green Hat - new or creative ideas linked to the idea

Blue Hat - thinking that would be required.

Post up your fantastic ideas ideas as a comment and don't forget to sign your name!

A Science Experiment at the Beach!

Today the whole Junior Syndicate walked down to the beach to conduct a Science Experiment!

We had to make a sand sculpture/creation at the beach, the next day we are going to come back and see the effects of EROSION on our creations.

Our aim was: to investigate the effects of water of our sand creations.

Check out the photos of the creations that each group made.

Moutere Hills Athletics Day

We had an amazing time at the Moutere Hills Athletics Day on Saturday!

Here is a bubble map that we did as a whole class: it's amazing what we can think of with all 25 brains working together!

Here is Harry's recount story of Athletics Day:

On Saturday the 11th of November it was Athletics Day. My favourite things were sprints, distance run and long jump.
I found sprints hard because I'm not that fast. I found distance run easy becasue I passed a lot of people. I found long jump hard because I can't jump that far.
Mum and Dad came to watch me.
For long jump I scored a 1. For distance run I got a 2. For sprints my time was 13-87.
Athletics day was at the Upper Moutere Domain. The whole Moutere Cluster came. Mapua school won a shield.
Athletics Day was fun!

By Harry

Super Water Science Experiments

EXPERIMENT ONE:
Whipping air into something that normally sinks

In this experiment we used an egg white. Normally the egg white sinks when put into a bowl of water.
We wanted to see if we could make the egg white float. We whipped it using a fork, putting air and bubbles into it.
The results were that most of the egg white FLOATED!
We discovered that AIR HELPS THINGS TO FLOAT!!

EXPERIMENT TWO:
Investigating the surface tension of water

In this experiment we wanted to find out about the surface tension of water.
We put a small piece of crepe paper into a bowl of water. It wriggled out and floated!
We tested if the needle would float in the water by itself but it just sunk to the bottom.
Next we gently laid a needle of top to see what would happen. Most of us thought that it would all sink down together..... BUT ..... they both floated. It was amazing!
The paper supported the needle in the water.
Check out these photos taken by Hannah!

Kelly's Kitten Story

The Kitten Who Ran Away

Once upon a time there was a girl called Anna Rose, she had a kitten called Fluffy. One night Anna Rose forgot to lock the cat flap and Fluffy ran away. The next morning Anna Rose noticed Fluffy wasn't sleeping at the end of her bed. She was so worried she searched the whole house but there was no sign of poor Fluffy. Anna Rose walked to her room and looked out her window.

Just at that moment her face lit up. There was Fluffy stuck at the very top of a tall tree with a crowd all around him and a fire engine ladder rescuing him. Anna Rose ran outside to the tree. "Fluffy!" she shouted as the man on the ladder climbed down with Fluffy in his hands. Fluffy jumped into Anna Rose's arms and started licking her face. Anna Rose took Fluffy home.

That night Fluffy was kidnapped by Scott Hamperson. In the morning Anna Rose couldn't find Fluffy again. She looked out the window, she wasn't stuck up at the very top of the tall tree. She searched the whole house once again but there was no sign of Fluffy. This time she was more worried than ever. She wasn't at the end of her bed and she wasn't in the house. "What if she's hurt?" she thought as she ran to tell her Mum. "I'll ring the police just incase she was kidnapped" Mum said.

The police asked Anna Rose all sorts of questions about Fluffy. Fluffy was by now getting taken to New York Ciry with Scott Hamperson. Scott Hamperson was goinf to a cat show.

On the boat Fluffy got out of her cage by scatching at the lock. She jumped into a canoe that was floating by. The police tracked down Scott Hamperson with their police file. Then a police boat came to get Fluffy.

Fluffy showed the police Scott Hamperson who was arrested for robbery. The police took Fluffy home to his family who lived happily ever after.

By Kelly
Photos from Google Image Search: By Kelly

Pet Day at Mapua!

Today Mapua School held Pet Day, this is only held every second year. It was a very exciting day!

Firstly in the morning we had the toy and fruit/vege creation section. It was amazing to see some of the entries that people from both the junior and senior school had brought in.

Kalani won 1st prize for the junior toy section & Tullamore won 1st prize for the junior fruit/vege creation section.... well done!

Today is Pet Day. I entered a vegetable train. It is flat, it is not put together very well. I still think it is great. I also brought two soft toys. Their names are Claire Bear and Googie. They are cute because they are my toys.
By Oscar


Today I am entering a dog. She is called Flo. She plays with me a lot. She plays with me a lot. We run around a track. Flo is orange and white. She is 6 months old.
By Josie


My chicken is called Shark. She is 2 years old. We are bringing her in a box with a lid on it so that she doesn’t get away. She is brown, red and orange.
By Tullamore

Check out some of the other action at Pet Day:

A del.icio.us Room One

Last Friday Room One went to the computer room and experienced their first taste of something truly del.icio.us!

Mrs B has set up a Room One links list on the site del.icio.us!

The great thing about this is that it is a safe list of websites that we can browse. They include everything from interactive maths and english games, actvities as well as sites that are just for fun!

You might like to bookmark our Room One Mapua del.icio.us site to your computer so you can visit and have some fun learning after school or on the weekend!

Click here to visit our Room One Mapua Del.icio.us link site... we'd also like to remind you to check out the Groovy Captain Underpants Games.... they're our favourites! More neat games and websites that are child-friendly will be added over time.

From Mrs B & Room One :)

Room One in the News!

Check out this newspaper article about Room One at the Masked Parade!

Ok, well, so the article isn't from a real newspaper....... just a bit of fun! :)

The Nelson Masked Parade

Tonight we had a fantastically colourful, exciting and fun time at the Nelson Masked Parade!

I think Room One felt a bit famous as they couldn't stop waving to people on the parade. We had a fantastic time enjoyed by all.

Many thanks to the parents that supported us by dropping their children off on time and dressed in their marvelous costumes.

Click here to download the above picture in larger size- ideal for printing & sharing with family.

Stunning Room One - Future Flight Costumes

Today we had a DRESS REHERSAL for the Masked Parade.

We all got to try on all of our costume together for the first time.

We had propellar hats, our rocket jet packs and our sparkly gold neck pieces and skirts.

We looked great; very golden and sparkly. Everyone loved our rocket jetpacks and their flames as well.

Here is an awesome slideshow Mrs B made of us dressed in our costumes!

STUNNING!

A new kid in Room One!

Today Room One got a new class member!

Kevin is brand new to Mapua School and comes from Germany. He speaks German and is just beginning to learn English. Kevin had a lot of fun playing with the boys in the playground and it seems he especially loves the computer and our may pole!

This is a map of where Germany is:

We can't wait to get to know Kevin better and to teach him some more English!

Since Kevin is such a neat child - have fun putting a photo of him together in this puzzle! Enjoy!

Many thanks to Allanah from Appleby for this neat Puzzle idea!

Day One, Term 4!

What a fantastic start to Term 4 we have had!

It is such a great feeling to have a class full of children who are excited to be back at school and who can't wait to get back into learning.

We have a big week ahead of us with the Minstrel visiting and planning for the Masked Parade on Friday. You should have got an important notice home today about times/meeting points etc for the Masked Parade - if you haven't seen it - ask your child where it is!!!


Today we learnt how to play "Around the World" to practise our times tables in Maths.
Children had to answer 2 and 5 times table questions really quickly and try to "defeat" the "challenger".

Our champions for today were:

* Tait - defeated 5 and then another 4 children!
* Oscar - who defeated 6 children
* Theo - 4 children
* Robbie & Tiana - 3 children each
* Kelly & Alex - 2 children each
* Kurtis and Harry - 1 child each
* Ackolades also to Hannah, Poppi and Nicholas who all also defeated the challenger.

Congratulations to these FANTASTIC Mathematicians!

The Room One Term 4 Newsletter will also be out tomorrow.
If you can't wait until then dowload a PDF copy NOW from here!


Hope you all had safe, relaxing holidays.
:) Rachel Boyd


Afterthought- I showed this video from You Tube with the Kids today.
They LOVED it, so here it is for your viewing pleasure....

SINGING, DANCING, GROOVING SLUGS!!!




Added note: if you choose to investigate YouTube be aware that some videos may not be suitable for children.

So what are you up to in the holidays?

Hi Room One!

I hope you have been enjoying your school holidays so far!
I have been very busy and so far haven't done anything really exciting. I've been to the Dentist (!), caught up with friends and tidied up my house!

What have you been doing in your holidays?
Tell me all about it...

You know those little yellow sticky notes I have? (post it notes)... Well we now have our own Room One online version of these, they are called Webnotes!

Click here to check out our very own Room One Webnote page and leave me a sticky note telling me what you've been up to in the holidays so far!

It's easy to do, just follow the directions on the sticky notes that I've put up so far. Just remember:
* click the disc to save your note when you've finished
* don't forget to sign your note so we know who wrote it
* only use your first name to sign your note.

Have fun and I can't wait to read all your notes!
Mrs B :)

Reflecting on Term Three!

WOW Term Three has been both a busy and productive term for both myself and Room One. On reflection, I believe it's our best term so far! The class has really gelled together well, we work independently AND as a team, children are aware of others' feelings and ALL children are actively involved in their learning.

What a great class! As a teacher, it's times like these in the holidays that you just say "WOW! my class is amazing"..... Quite honestly they make each day a joy for me!

Enjoy the photographic tribute I have put together - reflections of Room One in Term Three!


Kind regards,
Rachel Boyd
AKA Mrs B

PS Hope you're enjoying your holidays :)

Bon Voyage to Harry's Flat Stanley

Today we said BON VOYAGE to Harry's visiting Flat Stanley!

It is the last day of Term Three so we wanted to get Flat Stanley home to his school. Harry and Alex took Flat Stanley for one last trip around the school. They took him to the adventure playground and slid down the poles, gave him a ride on the may pole and even helped him up the steep climbing ramp. He sure has had a neat time at Mapua School.

In the holidays Mrs B is going to send away the book we made on iphoto with Flat Stanley and his suitcase, we hope that they enjoy reading and seeing what Flat Stanley has been up to!

Photos by Alex & Harry!

Jokes by Tait!

Tait wanted to post some JOKES on the blog to make you laugh... so here they are!

Why did the strawberry stand in the middle of the road?
>because it wanted to create a traffic jam!



Knock, knock...who's there?
Fig.
>Fig who?
Aren't you going to fig the doorbell?



What type of pencil do robbers use?
>a pistil (spelt incorrectly on purpose!
What do you get when you cross an apple tree with a pine tree?
>a pine-apple tree!

Click here to hear Tait reading his jokes on our podcast!

Another email from Maia

Today we got another email from Maia.

She sounds like she is having a neat time seeing her Dad and catching up with family.

She mentioned that she is even going to Sea World and Disneyland soon... she is very lucky!

Here is a map Mrs B made on Kidpix to show you where abouts in the world Maia is visiting.

We can't wait to see you when you get back Maia!