Room 6 Bell Block School

Clean As Inquiry

2010-09-23T20:19:00.000-07:00

Room 6 was visited by the Health Nurse to learn more about the importance of washing our hands. We experimented by washing our hands with a variety soap and water combinations. To test how effective our efforts were we viewed our hands under ultra-violet light. Any bacteria that had been left behind showed up as white spots. We were surprised that our hands were not as clean as we thought! The Health Nurse gave us some tips for giving our hands a really good wash: Sing Happy Birthday to ourselves 20 times and remember to wash our palms, the backs of our hands and in between our fingers. It is also important to scrub our finger nails.

Newspaper Article - Rowan's Summary

2010-06-14T22:28:00.000-07:00

During oral language time we have been looking closely at newspaper articles. We have been learning about:-

*How to find the main ideas in these articles
*How to summaries these main ideas into our own words
*Topical vocabulary and what these new words mean
*Key words and how these help us.

We have done lots of practice on all of these things and have summarised a couple of articles together as a whole class. Rowan took on the challenge of writing his own summary. Mrs Peters was super impressed! What do you think?

There is a very serious disease called Parvovirus spreading across the country that effects dogs. It can be spread easily by footwear, clothing and flies. This is one of the most lethal viruses that dogs can catch but a simple vaccination for your dog could save its life! You can get your dog vaccinated at the your local vet for just $45.00. You wouldn't want to be a dog that isn't vaccinated when this disease is around.

Two puppies have already died from the disease and three are sick with it. If they are not vaccinated they die a slow, cruel and painful death but if they are vaccinated they have a better chance of living even though the virus can can in the dog for up to 8 weeks.

The dogs that get Parvovirus suffer from vomiting and diarrhoea. They will have a 60% survival chance if they are taken to the vet straight away. So if you love your dog go and get it vaccinated against Parvovirus straight away.

By Rowan Slater

Wharenui Creations

2010-05-11T16:51:00.000-07:00

We had two weeks to put on our green thinking hats and design and make a 3 dimensional wharenui.

We could make our wharenui out of anything and we got to apply what we had learnt from our Marae visit.

Last Thursday the middle team held an Exhibition where all our amazing creations went on display. Our parents, teachers and school mates were super impressed with our finished products. We all feel really proud of ourselves too.

koruru Art

2010-05-11T16:40:00.001-07:00

The Koruru

The Koruru is the carved face at the apex of the wharenui. It represents the face of our ancestors.

The koruru watches down over the tangata whenua (people of the marae) and the manuhiri (visitiors).

The koruru is a source of mana (pride) of the building and the tribe.

Our Goals

When we did our own Koruru, our goal was to blend colours.

We tried hard to select similar colours and to blend carefully so you couldn't see lines where the different colours met.

Koruru Art

2010-05-11T13:37:00.000-07:00

Take a look at these Koruru art examples. We are really proud of our efforts and worked hard to try and achieve our goal.

Introducing Room 6

2010-02-08T10:40:00.000-08:00

Kia Ora! Introducing Room 6.

We are a group of 27 wonderful children who look forward to the year ahead. Already we are off to a great start to our year and many of us have already made new friends. Our teacher really likes they way we work together as a team and how we encourage each other.

Keep checking out our blog throughout the year to see what we get up.

Home Reading

2010-01-28T20:03:00.000-08:00

Thank you to all those parents who support their child's learning by listening to them read every night. Thank you also for signing their Reading Logs and ensuring these are brought back to school each day with their reader. This time and effort is much appreciated.

At school we are focusing on:-

* Reading to punctuation
by...
-pausing briefly at commas and having a longer pause at full stops

* Using expression when we read
by...
-using a different 'talking voice' when characters speak in the text
-accentuating words when we see a !
-making our voices bolder and slightly louder when we come across words that are written in bold

* Read fluently
by...
-reading at a consistent pace throughout (without needing to stop and start)
-reading with confidence

* Independently decoding words we are unsure of
by...
-looking at the beginning, middle and end sounds in words
-chunking up words into parts by using our prior knowledge of blends and letter sounds
-asking ourselves if that word makes sense - if not going back and having another go
-re-reading the whole sentence again once we have worked it out

* Comprehending (understanding) what we have read
by...
-working out (or clarifying) the meaning of any new vocabulary
-talking about what we have read
-identifying and discussing the setting and characters (our current area of focus)
-using our Thinking Hats to explore the text from lots of different angles
-answering a variety of questions
-applying our understanding by completing a follow up task about an issue / theme / language feature from the text.

Room 6 enjoys reading. They look forward to our daily Big Book and poems as this is the perfect time to practise and showcase the skills we have been working on.

Keep up the great reading Room 6 and thanks again parents for your support.

Mrs Peters

Home Reading

2009-07-28T00:32:00.000-07:00

A special thank you to all those parents who continue to support their child's learning by listening to them read every night. Thank you also for signing their Reading Logs and ensuring these are brought back to school each day with their reader. This time and effort is much appreciated.

I'm sure you too have noticed (and are excited about) the improvements children have made in their reading.

At school we have been focusing on:-

* Reading to punctuation
by...
-pausing briefly at commas and having a longer pause at full stops

* Using expression when we read
by...
-using a different 'talking voice' when characters speak in the text
-accentuating words when we see a !
-making our voices bolder and slightly louder when we come across words that are written in bold

* Read fluently
by...
-reading at a consistent pace throughout (without needing to stop and start)
-reading with confidence

* Independently decoding words we are unsure of
by...
-looking at the beginning, middle and end sounds in words
-chunking up words into parts by using our prior knowledge of blends and letter sounds
-asking ourselves if that word makes sense - if not going back and having another go
-re-reading the whole sentence again once we have worked it out

* Comprehending (understanding) what we have read
by...
-working out (or clarifying) the meaning of any new vocabulary
-talking about what we have read
-identifying and discussing the setting and characters (our current area of focus)
-using our Thinking Hats to explore the text from lots of different angles
-answering a variety of questions
-applying our understanding by completing a follow up task about an issue / theme / language feature from the text.

Room 6 all really enjoy reading. They look forward to our daily Big Book and poems as this is the perfect time to showcase all the skills they have mastered.

Keep up the great reading Room 6 and thanks again to those wonderful parents who listen to their children read each night.

Mrs Peters