Frosty Morning

What a beautiful frosty morning! Outside our window, the horses look very peaceful. The cold doesn't seem to bother them. I took a photo using the iPad app Font Candy. It was my first time using it. Need to have a few more plays!

Barefoot Sevens Rugby Tournament

The brave Parkvale Hurricanes

On Thursday, the annual barefoot sevens rugby tournament was held at Akina Park and Hastings Boys' College. This is a fantastic rugby tournament, with a proud history. Future All Blacks have played back in their primary school days. The tournament is all about participation and Parkvale School showed the way with 9 teams and 90 students representing us with PRIDE. Unfortunately, the tournament has been cancelled in the past three years due to bad weather.

Sunshine was back this year. All teams and schools had a wonderful day of rugby in the sun. Three of the Parkvale teams went undefeated, while some of our teams battled hard to compete in tough pools. Our nine teams really walked the talk of Parkvale PRIDE and I was especially proud of their behaviour. We returned home with smiles on our faces.

A huge thank you to the parents who supervised and coached the teams. Without you, we could not have given 90 students the chance to play rugby in such a great setting. It was pleasing to see you all getting the respect that you deserve from our young rugby playing boys and girls.

Images of Space

Today these photos were on the all whiteboard. They stayed up there all day long. Some of us talked about them. Some of us ignored them.

At the end of the day we stuck up post-its about the photos. We are becoming curious about our topic. There is so much to explore! Which is your favourite image?

Today my friend shared this photo. It is perfect as we start to get into our own inquiry projects based on this key question:

How do stars in the universe have an impact on us?

Speaking of curiosity, today we sent postcards to the Curiosity rover on Mars. Amazing! One of the many super activities you can try on the NASA Kids Club.

The Curiosity rover investigating Mars

Happy Dogs (and a cat who thinks it's a dog)

This week's Video of the Week comes from The Writing Book team. It should bring a smile to your face. Watch it and enjoy! Then you might like to try one of these suggested writing prompts:

• A day out - recount the event from a dog's perspective 
• Review the video 
• Describe part of the clip 
• Narrative based on the video 
• Write captions /speech bubbles

That Old Washing Machine

Text type: Recount. Purpose: Entertain

WALT use different sentence starters

I know I can do this when:

• My sentences start with different words
• Capital letters to start sentences and for proper nouns
• Some short, sharp sentences
• Some complex sentences
• Speech marks for talking / new line for each talker (Taylor)
• Group sentences into paragraphs (Maia)

My key words: skip, garage, washing machine

At last it looked like my skip was arriving. A big truck started to reverse down the driveway towards our garage. On the back of the truck was a mechanical crane device and an enormous shiny orange skip. In order to get the skip off the truck, the driver had to hop out and operate the crane. “Where do you want it?” asked the driver.

“Just in front of the basketball hoop will be great,” I replied. “Do you think I will have room to get my car out?”

“Yeah, sweet as,” the driver reassured me, as he walked towards the controls on the back of his truck. To me, it was like he was operating a spaceship, the way he was using multiple buttons, pulleys and shafts to control the crane. To him, it was as easy as pie. Yet there was no doubt of the skill involved in getting the three cubic metre bin to sail through the air and land on the perfect spot. Did I mention how narrow my driveway is?

I thanked him for such a great job and just like that, the truck was gone. Left on the driveway was this huge orange skip. It was just waiting to be filled. Timidly, I opened the garage. It was a rubbish dump sprinkled with precious items such as my bike. Staring back at me was the stubborn broken washing machine. There was a battle looming. I strode up to it. Then, very slowly, I moved it side to side, closer to the skip. Eventually, it was time to lift the beast. With all my might I heaved it into the air. I had lifted it close to the ledge of the skip, but it still wasn't high enough. For a split second, I thought the weight might be too much and I would collapse in a heap. As though I had transformed into a weightlifter, I gave one last determined effort and lifted the washing machine up above the skip. Bang! It crashed down into the skip with a satisfying metallic clunk.

There would be smaller battles to come, as I filled the skip. I shouldn't really mention the panic that seized me into action, as the driver reversed down the driveway to pick up the skip and I hadn't quite cleared the garage yet. Nevermind the stuck TV, when I just had to pull it so hard that the power cord ripped out of the set. The driver had it right when he said “that’ll do it”. Forget about the extra rubbish that might have found a temporary home in the skip - I managed to clear it up anyway. Yes, the real story was that I fought that old washing machine and I won.

Sheena Cameron's Sentence Opener Ladder

Energy Transfer Through Balls

Nga Rakau Nui have a rotation on Wednesday: Te Hui Nui. I get to take a science activity. After last week's experiment was an enjoyably messy failure, this week I decided to keep it simple.

This fun experiment is all about energy transfer. You could easily try it at home. I found it through Science Kids.

The young scientists videoed themselves conducting the experiment. Here are the results. Watch carefully, you might be amazed!



Bouncing Balls from Kieren Moriarty on Vimeo.

What is Matariki?

Created with Padlet

Today we had a shared reading of the short information text, Matariki by Moira Wairama. Our Padlet shows what we now know about Matariki after reading this text. Many of us would like to find out more.

Om Nom Nom

Know Your Meme: Om Nom Nom from Rocketboom on Vimeo.

From Wonderopolis:

Have You Ever Wondered?

• What is an Internet meme?
• Who creates Internet memes?
• What does meme mean?

Wonder: "You are beautiful no matter what they say"

We just finished reading Part Three of Wonder. Each part of the book written by R.J. Palacio is told from the perspective of a different character. We love the character Summer, because of the way she respects and has fun with August.

At the start of each part of the book is a quote. This quote is from Christina Aguilera's song "Beautiful". We have enjoyed listening to the song before and after reading this part of the book. It makes us think about respecting others. It is as August would say, "cool beans".

Planets, Stars and the Solar System

This is a great explanation of stars, planets and the solar system from the Science Learning Hub. You can watch their other videos exploring space here.

We are learning to explore, investigate, question and develop explanations. 

Key Question for our inquiry:

How do stars in the universe have an impact on us?

Outside Our Window

Outside our window we have a lovely view. Lately, our literacy groups have been writing hard or interesting words on the windows. I wonder if it will wash off.

Good readers notice words. They especially notice words they don't know the meaning of. They know it is important to find out the meaning of these words. The words in the window are from the Jedi Knights. What might they have been reading about?

Holiday Creation

Look what Cameron, Heith and Jerome created in the holidays. Can you guess what it is and what it is for?

Thanks to Mrs H for making this wonderful opportunity happen!