Tonight!

Tonight we are going to the Lincoln hall for our final assembly and our parents will be there to watch us. We are singing songs and giving out shiny trophies to the people who have done well. They have won their events or come second or third and been good role models.

By Lachie.

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays 6

Happy Holidays 6

Happy Holidays 5

Happy Holidays 4

Happy Holidays 3

Happy Holidays 2

Happy Holidays 1

Sunshine Online

With the summer holidays coming up, I know many of you will be thinking about a holiday pack of reading books to have at home, to make sure your 'little ray of sunshine' doesn't forget all the important skills they have learned this year. To help us out, Sunshine Books have offered a free trial to New Zealand parents and teachers to access their digital learning space at http://www.sunshineonline.co.nz where you can find lots of e-books and activities at just the right level to keep the kids on-track over the summer.
This login and password is valid until 28 January 2014:
Login: sunshine2013
Password: newzealand

To find out more about the phenomenon of 'summer slide' and why continuing to practice reading over the holidays is important - click this link.

Letters from Lower Hutt!

Earlier this week we received letters in the mail. They were from Room 3 at Dyer Street School in Lower Hutt (Wellington). The children there are learning about earthquakes and wanted to ask us some questions.

There are 24 children in Room 3 at Dyer Street and some of them even had the same names as us! They have two Ella's, and Isaac and a Mackenzie in their class too.
Here we are reading their letters:

Some of the questions they asked:
Does Christchurch have more earthquakes than Wellington? 
Does Christchurch have less earthquakes than Wellington? 
Do you have very big earthquakes?
What do you do in an earthquake?
How do earthquakes happen? 
Do we 'Drop, Cover and Hold' in an earthquake?
Why do people 'Drop, Cover and Hold'? 
Do you know about tectonic plates?
When do you know when earthquakes will happen? 
Did your classroom windows break?
Do you feel scared? 
Do dogs bark before earthquakes? 

From Arshaq, Isaac, Sio, Alex, Kane, Seth, Allison, Leah, Zane, Alyssa, Levi-Blue, Millie, Ashlee, Moses, Caleb, Mackenzie, Ella, Nyra, Ella, Rebecca, Fekita, Riley, Gabe and Ryan.

When we did some research to answer their questions we found out that Christchurch has had 12,800 earthquakes in the last 3 years! Here is a map that shows all of them:

We sent photos of us practising our 'Drop, Cover, Hold' too. We do this to keep ourselves safe. We can Drop, Cover, Hold' under a desk or in a doorway. We can also Drop and Cover like a turtle if we are in an open space, like the playing field, and there is nothing to hold on to.

We really liked receiving letters in the mail and tried to answer as many of their questions as we could.
Thank you for your letters Room 3 and good luck with your earthquake research! We hope you get our letters soon.
From Room 3 at Springston School.

Glorious Gardening!

On Wednesday we went to the Secret Garden with Room 6. It was fantastic. It was a beautiful day for pulling weeds, checking out the new 'bug hotel' and eating broad beans fresh from the pod!

Poetry Pride

Magnificent Molly entered her poems in a recent poetry competition (which it turned out wasn't open to individual entries). Her poems impressed judge Paula Green so much that she published them on her poetry blog "NZ Poetry Box". Check them out by clicking the link below!
Super proud of you Molly!

Pet Day

Room 3 Pet Day 2013 on PhotoPeach

Pirate Adventure Writing

One fine day on the ocean, Princess Pirate was kidnapped by Mr Googley-eyes from her pirate ship, the Kingdom. Princess Pirate was kind and beautiful and married to King Jolly. King Jolly had a chicken called Jet. Jet saw Mr Googley-eyes kidnap Princess Pirate so he flew after the jet-boat as fast as his fluffy wings could fly. Unfortunately the jet-boat was too fast for Jet and he lost sight of them. Jet looked around for a safe place to rest. He landed on an island with a cave. Inside the cave lived Batman!
Jet begged Batman to help him save Princess Pirate. He clucked and clucked and pecked at Batman's feet. To get away from Jet's sharp beak Batman got in his Bat-plane and flew away. Jet the chicken got in the Bat-plane too, because he thought Batman was helping him rescue the princess.
Batman flew over Mr Googley-eyes jet-boat. Jet the chicken jumped up and started flapping in Batman's face. Batman couldn't see. Batman accidentally pushed the button that released the escape ladder.
Princess Pirate could see Batman's plane from the jet-boat and thought he had dropped the ladder to rescue her. So, she kicked Mr Googley-eyes overboard and grabbed the ladder.
Batman was very grumpy with Jet the chicken and Princess Pirate catching a ride on his Bat-plane, so he took them back to the Kingdom and dropped them off. King Jolly was upset that Batman didn't stay for the party to celebrate his brave rescue of Princess Pirate, so sent Batman some chocolate cake in the mail.
Unfortunately, Batman was allergic to eggs.
By Keala, Isaac, Jed and Ollie.

Time for a laugh!

Q: Why did the cow cross the road?
A: To get to the moo-vies!

Q: What happens when a smurf and a cow cross the road?
A: Blue cheese!

Q: When Batman’s mum was calling him for dinner, what did she say? 
A: Din-ner din-ner din-ner din-ner, din-ner din-ner din-ner din-ner Batman!

Jokes shared with you by Tessa!

Our Seed Experiment!

Check out our science experiment movie on Springston Tube!

Dragonvale and Hayday apps reviews

This is Dragonvale. You buy dragons and breed them and buy them habitats. You can get air dragons, fire and blue fire dragons.
In Hayday there are pigs, cows, sheep, chickens, dogs, horses, cats and you get them houses. It is a farming game.
By Jed and Ollie.

Cricket

A man, called James, came to Springston School today and he taught us about cricket. First, he showed us how you catch. You make a basket with your hands and when you catch the ball in the basket, you close it and tuck it into your chest. We had throw the ball and then quickly touch the ground and clap before catching it again. James showed us how to how to hit the ball with the cricket bat. You use the flat side of the bat and hit it. By Isaac.

Thank You

Recently I received a lovely email informing me that a parent in Room 3 has nominated me as an 'Inspiring Teacher'! WOW! This really means a lot and I feel very proud to have made such a positive impression in my first year of full-time teaching.  You can read the nomination here. Each morning I look forward to seeing 23 smiling faces and know that there is going to be lots of fun, excitement, and energy as we go about our learning.
I would like to acknowledge that it is great to be part of the innovative and inspiring teaching team at Springston. It is the children and families of Room 3 make my day at 'work' fantastic - so thank you for helping me become an 'Inspiring Teacher' this year.