Team 24

Book Week

2010-11-21T12:29:00.000-08:00

Athletics Day 2010

2010-11-01T02:19:00.000-07:00

Here is a video made by Dominic of our fabulous Athletics day last Wednesday. Our class did really well achieving some great personal results and a number of students are off to represent the school this week at zones.

Hanmer Springs Forest Camp

2010-10-31T01:12:00.000-07:00

In week 2 of this term we headed up to Hanmer Springs for 3 days of fun, adventure and teamwork at the Hanmer Springs Forest Camp. Room 22, 23 and 24 all went together with their teachers plus Mr McKenzie and lots of great parent helpers.

We were split into 6 tribes to rotate around all the cool acitivites. There was orienteering, mountain biking, Conical Hill walk and hot pools, rock climbing, mission Impossible and Games/Free time at camp. Here are some pictures of these activities.....

The first evening after dinner we played Spotlight which was a lot of fun. On the second evening we all went down to the hot pools for a nice relaxing swim........

Jim did all the cooking and the parents and teachers helped serve it up and did the dishes for us, weren't we spoilt! We had 4-5 kids in each bunk room and some of us got a lot more sleep than others. It was a great camp and we were lucky to get fine weather - not like the 3 days of rain we got at Wainui last year!

Cullen's Earthquake Photos

2010-10-20T13:39:00.000-07:00

Last Week Cullen brought some earthquake photos taken in the Pines Beach district where he lives.

Liquefaction & Sewrage

Ruined Roads

Adventure Based Learning

2010-10-20T13:13:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday the thirteenth of October a group of girls in their last year of High School came to our class to play fun games with us because it teaches us how to work in a team and it teaches them to work well with kids.

Some of the games were 'Chuck-the-Chicken' where (as it says in the name) you have to chuck the chicken away from the other team. Another game is 'Human Knot' where we tangle our arms up and we have to work together to untangle our arms.

Blowing up baloons

'Drop-the-Sheet'

'Human Knot'

Long Jumping!!

2010-10-14T02:24:00.000-07:00

We have been preparing for our upcoming Athletics day. Today was long jump. Check out some skillful jumping styles. . . . . . .

Earthquake art

2010-10-14T02:20:00.000-07:00

Here are some of our finished pieces of art.

ART with Rhondda Greig

2010-10-03T02:27:00.000-07:00

During the last week of term 3 Room 24 were very privileged to have famous New Zealand artist Rhondda Greig visit. Rhondda was once a pupil of St Albans Primary School and after the recent earthquake she decided she would like to work with the present students to create some art work to reflect the children's personal thoughts and experiences of the big quake.

Rhondda shared her paintings and drawings with us, showing us the detailed process she goes through from first sketch ideas to published books. You can see many of Rhondda's fabulous art works on her website www.rhonddagreig.com

After viewing Rhondda's work we discussed the the sounds, feelings and colours that they associated with the 7.1 magnitude earthquake. We came up with ideas such as ' like a train crashing through the house' and 'it sounded like a thousand jets flying over my house.'

Rhondda also showed us many different techniques to experiment with using the paint and pastels .

The class set to work creating a mixture of artworks using oil pastel, chalk pastel, paint and paper cut outs. The art wok took many attempts to get to a final stage with Rhondda giving each class member plenty of ideas and tips to create something they could be really proud of.

Check back here soon to see some photos of our finished work.

Commonwealth Games Day

2010-09-26T01:16:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday Room 1 and 24 teamed up to represent 'ENGLAND' at our School Commonwealth Games Day. We had already met together a couple of times to organise wearing our team colours of red and white, to recite our team song 'Oh when the Saints' and to paint flags and banners. Team leaders, Emily and Ben were chosen and both classes were split into an A and B team.

At the opening ceremony we proudly chanted our way round the court and sung our team song loudly, then onto the competition. It was great fun participating in all the activities especially the tug of war and the obstacle course. As well as getting points for winning each event we were awarded points for demonstrating respect, manaakitanga and fun.

ENGLAND did extremely well in all areas and came 1st place so Miss Tuxford and Miss Lythgoe were very very proud of all the kids in Rooms 1 and 24.

ICT Presentations

2010-09-25T01:34:00.000-07:00

This term we have worked so hard researching our chosen mammals and writing reports then producing an imovie or video clip with the information we discovered. It has been a great process and we all learnt so much - lots about mammals, lots about time management and team work and most of all lots of ICT skills.

Check out a couple of our finished presentations.......

This imovie presentation was made by Connor N and Tom

This imovie was put together by Satori, Jordyn, Jackson, Emily and Te Iwa

This video documentary was made and presented by Olivia, Aimee and Bridget

Week 9 Summary

2010-09-19T14:38:00.000-07:00

The first week back at school after the earthquake has been busy as usual. It's been great to be back with friends sharing stories and experiences from the previous week. The majority of us were so lucky to escape with out any major damage to our home or its contents. But our thoughts are very much with Bridget and Harlen and their respective families who suffered a great deal of loss and damage in the quake and its nasty aftershocks. We hope life can return to normal for you as soon as possible.

We have practiced our earthquake drills and although many aftershocks took place during school this week it made us realise just how well built and safe our new classroom is, as we barely felt most of them.

Cole bought along his pet guinea pigs, Mohawk and Elvis. We were very happy to meet them but we don't think they shared the feelings! Elvis tried desperately to escape the circle of students keen to meet him! Thanks Cole, it great to see you learning how to take care of pets.

On Wednesday of Week 10 we will be taking part in the School wide Commonwealth games day. As part of this topic we did some sports silhouette art. We chose a sport from the Delhi Olympics website and copied it 4 times in a grid. Then coloured it in with pastels using bright contrasting colours. We are representing England for the school games day so please find all the red and white gear you have at home and come along dressed to get be a 'POM' for the day.

EARTHQUAKE

2010-09-07T16:52:00.000-07:00

Hi Team 24

I have been thinking of you all such a lot over the last few days and wondering how you are. I hope that you and your families are ok and didn't suffer too much damage in the big quake. It has been a very scary time. My girls and I are fine, though rather nervous still! I just wish these after shocks would stop!

I have been into school and the classroom is fine, just chairs and books all over the floor but we have tidied it all up. The field is a bit of a mess! It will be nice to get back to school next week and see you all and try to get our lives back to normal.

Take care over the next few days and try to enjoy this extra time off! My girls and I are watching lots of DVDs and enjoying lots of board games and sleep overs in the lounge together!

Big hugs

Miss Lythgoe

Week 7 Summary - Tie Dye

2010-09-02T17:26:00.000-07:00

CHECK OUT OUR AMAZING PILLOWCASES

During Week 7 we have been doing tie-dye with pillow cases and painting on fabric as part of our Antarctica study.

The first step is choosing which design of tie dye you want to do.

We all chose our designs, some scrunching their pillowcase up and some making circles or using pegs to make stripes.

Aimee used a fan fold and pegs to end up with a striped tie dye

Te Iwa tied lots of little circles

Next we had to choose an Antarctica animal, a penguin or a whale to paint onto a small piece of calico fabric.

Jordyn paints her penguin

Ben adds some background detail to his penguin picture

Then we put our designs in the blue dye and waited for the dye to soak in.

Emily gives the dye a stir to ensure it covers everyone's pillowcases evenly

Hanging the pillow cases out on our balcony to dry

When the pillowcases had dried we needed to iron them and also the fabric painted picutres needed to be ironed for 2 minutes to seal the paint. Our animal paintings were then sewed on with the help of Miss Lythgoe's Mum and Ben's Mum.

Jackson enjoyed ironing so much he wants to do all the ironing at home Mum!

Connor is another keen contender for weekly ironing duties!

Trish helped Heke complete his pillowcase by sewing the whale painting on

Josh waits patiently as Kate sews on his painting

Here are some examples:

Aimee's,Emily's and Renee's Tie-dye

Heke's Tie-Dye

Written by Connor N

Antarctica penguin clip

2010-09-01T19:28:00.000-07:00

Check out this cute clip of the penguins in Antarctica......

Week 6 Summary

2010-08-29T01:15:00.000-07:00

This week Josh managed to break his arm whilst doing some fancy moves on the bars. He is the second Rm 24 student to do this! Hope you are feeling better soon Josh.

Emily, Satori, Connor, Connor, Bridget and Te Iwa enjoyed 3 PE extension sessions with Mr McKenzie. We are looking forward to them teaching us the new frisbee game they learnt.

This week we have completed our calendar art - make sure you come and see it in the school office and place your orders for cards, calendars and diaries.

We have been working really hard on transferring our non fiction mammal reports into scripts for an oral report using ICT. Some of us have chosen to make a documentary style tv show and others are making imovies with voice overs. We are working in groups and hope to be finished next week so look out for these great pieces of work in our blog soon.

In art this week we completed some fantastic scrafitto work, drawing our head and shoulders first then using pastel to colour it. This was then covered in a thin coating of black paint. When it was dry we scratched the paint away using a pin, carefully ruling thin lines in various directions to reveal out faces. We are really proud of our work.

On Friday we took part in the coin trail for Daffodil day. Not many of us appear to have a great deal of yellow clothing but we were happy to contribute to such a great cause and after a quick discussion discovered that nearly all of us have had someone close to us affected by cancer. It was brilliant to hear later in the day that just over $700 was raised. It was awesome to see Satori and Connor performing their Jump Jam routine too, looking good boys!

Runathon Fundraiser

2010-08-22T02:03:00.000-07:00

Our fundraiser for Camp was a great success with all students who participated running their little hearts out! It was a cold winter's day but that didn't stop them giving 100% effort. It was great to see the students encouraging each other as they ran around the course again and again and again! Be proud of yourselves and the superb effort you all gave. We are all looking forward to camp so much and it's great that the majority of you were able to reduce the cost of this through your fundraising efforts.

Here is a video of the event

Week 5 Summary

2010-08-19T18:30:00.000-07:00

We have had a busy week in Rm 24. Most of us have now completed our written mammal reports on the laptops and these are displayed in the classroom. We are now working on presenting this new knowledge orally in the form of an imovie or video.

On Tuesday we were meant to have our run-athon but the weather was so bad it was postponed till Thursday. We all ran really well and have raised lots of money to bring the cost of camp down.

We have continued to work on our penguins made from plastic bottles. We have finished painting them and stuck on the eyes and beaks etc

We were really disappointed that our final day of winter sport at Hagley park was cancelled but it has been a good week working on our reports and penguins

Written by Renee

Drama Fun

2010-08-14T01:09:00.000-07:00

Team 24 love drama. Lately we have enjoyed playing both Park Bench and Taxi. Both games provide an opportunity for 'thinking on your feet' - Fantastic for confidence, oral language and always guaranteed to give us a laugh. This clip shows the kids playing Taxi where we set up a car and have 3 passengers seated. A driver starts off a conversation which then indicates to the passengers which type of vehicle he/she is driving (could be a police car, pizza delivery, boy racers, taxi, tour bus, mum driving kids home from school and the list goes on....) We have a line of 'drivers ready to go and after 30-40 seconds the next driver in line yells out 'Taxi' This means the present driver has to get out and the new driver begins a new conversation hopefully changing the scene completely. Check out a wee selection of last weeks efforts at 'Taxi'

Our Mihi

2010-08-14T00:44:00.000-07:00

As part of our Maori Language programme we have learnt a basic mihi and presented it to the class. While we struggled with a few of the correct pronouciations we did a pretty awesome job overall. Here are a selection of the students who were brave enough to be filmed for the blog.

Week 4 Summary

2010-08-13T22:12:00.000-07:00

This week has been as busy as always. I am finding it hard to keep updating this blog so am handing the job over to my PA! One of our classroom jobs each week is PA. They take the absence book over each morning, answer the phone and do any other notices that I may need them to do. Now their job will include a blog update in the form of a summary of the week's happenings in Room 24. This one for week 4 will give them all an idea of what I would like......

Our Reading focus has been non fiction and the written focus is report writing so we havechosen a mammal each and are presently researching information to complete a written report on this mammal. They kids have spent time on the laptops this week and are getting much better at note taking and transferring this in to their own words. We had to have discussions on plagiarism!

Once the written reports are completed we will be making imovies with voice overs and video documentaries on our mammals as part of our ICT programme and oral language.

Heke, Josh and Josh hard at work

We can't all have a laptop all the time - amazing what you can find

out from books too!

We have been making great progress with our papier mache penguins. All a little sick of it now actually and ready to paint! After 4 layers of newspaper we were able to cut out and attach cardboard feet, flippers and a beak. Then a final layer of newsprint was added to make the paint application easier.

Thanks for drinking all that fizzy! The first layers go on....

Layers 3 and 4.....

beak, feet and flippers attached - Bridget's ready

to paint on Monday

With Friday's sport cancelled it was time to start on our Annual Calendars for the PTA. These make wonderful Christmas gifts and this year diaries and greeting cards will also be on sale. We had a class discussion on the 'theme' for this year. Hmmm... very mixed ideas - so we came up with quite a 'mixed' design! You can look forward to viewing your child's masterpiece in a few weeks time! Here is a little selection of the first step - taking photos.......

Our Inquiry into Antarctica is coming along. It has been fascinating tracking the temperature at the South Pole compared with Christchurch and viewing a couple of video clips of the the researchers down in Antarctica coping in the extreme weather. We have looked at the early explorers and the hardships they faced. Next week we will discover more closely NZ's link to the area and the role we play there. After exploring the different jobs people from NZ do in Antarctica I will be asking the kids to apply for a position. Should be interesting...

The girls completing a timeline of early explorers with a little help from Google

Goodbye Ji-Yeong

2010-08-13T22:07:00.000-07:00

We had to say goodbye to our Korean student teacher on Thursday. It was great having Ji-Yeong with us for 2 weeks and we enjoyed learning how to write our names in Korean. Ji-Yeong gave us all some Korean sweets when she left. We hope she will email is when she returns to Korea next week.

Korean Topic

2010-08-11T14:05:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday Ji-Yeong taught us a little bit about Korea. She showed us where Korea was on a map.

And we saw South Korea's capital Seoul photo.

She also showed us what kind of food people eat in Korea.

This is called 'Bi bim bap'

We talked about Korean traditional clothes called 'Han bok'

And we talked about Korean alphabet called 'Han gul'

We got to colour in the Korean flag called 'Tae geuk gi'

The white background symbolizes peace. The red and blue circle means creation of the universe. The four groups of bars around the circle symbolize heaven,earth,water and fire.

We have really enjoyed having Ji-Yeong in our class for the last two weeks. We wish her all the best for her future teaching career. Good luck Ji-Yeong

Written by Olivia

Welcome Ji-Yeong

2010-08-02T02:32:00.000-07:00

This morning St Albans School welcomed 3 student teachers from Korea. They are all second year students studying at University to become Elementary school teachers. Team 24 are delighted to host Ji-Yeong Park for the next two weeks.

We started the day with a powhiri in Room 11 which you can see a short movie from below. Ji-Yeong was very brave in taking part and singing in Korean for us. We hope she will have time to teach us about some Korean culture and traditions.

Welcome Ji-Yeong, it is so nice to have you in Room 24 with us!

Amazing Bread Art - written by Cullen

2010-07-18T15:38:00.000-07:00

Did you know you can make art out of bread? It's true - by following these simple steps.

In our class we decided to make bread art, first we cut shapes out of bread then we painted

them with pva glue then let them dry over night.

After they had dried we painted the other side the same.

Then when that was dry we painted one side with yellow,orange,red,green,etc.

Of course in the making of all this we did joke around a little bit.

Finally we painted the other side and let them dry.

Our Poetry Collection

2010-06-22T16:01:00.001-07:00

Over the last few weeks we have been studying and learning how to write poetry in many different forms. The best of these are being published by each student in their own Poetry Collection which will then be in the book corner for others to read and also be shared with our buddy class.

Here is a sample of some our best work.

Mood Poems

Happiness by Emily

Happiness is yellow
It tastes like a mango smoothie
It smells like freshly made bread
Happiness looks like the glistening water of the sea
The sound of fresh water trickling from a waterfall
Happiness is delightful

Confusion by Connor N

Confusion is all the colours racing towards you
It tastes like broccoli and tomato sauce
Confusion smells like petrol running up your nose
It looks like an illusion
The sounds of a menacing scream pulsing in your ear
Confusion worries me

Energetic by Connor D

Energy is green
It tastes like lime Powerade
And smells like cold air as it chills your throat
Energy looks like a glass of fizzy as it buzzes
Energy sounds like people puffing as they run
Energy is chasing the ball to the other end of the pitch to score a goal
Energy excites me

Happiness by Corben

Happiness is red

It tastes like steamy popcorn

and smells like fresh spring air

Happiness looks like smiling faces

The sound of laughing kids

Happiness makes me smile

Anger by Tom

Anger is a deep blood red
It tastes just like hot chilli sauce
And smells like burning rubber
It looks like rippling fire
It sounds like a wolf howling at the moon
Anger annoys me

Sadness by Dominic

Sadness is blue
It tastes like cold ice blocks
And tastes like frozen chips
Sadness looks like an empty house
And the sound of distant crying
Sadness makes me wrectched

Comparison Poetry

Waterfall by Renee

A waterfall is a cheetah
chasing its prey
It rushes down and down, hitting everything in it's way
It slams to the bottom, pouncing on it's dinner
Breath taking and perfect
through every hour of the day
It beats all with it's beauty and power
It goes so fast it's almost like it's flying
Never lying down or being lazy
It's always active as it zooms past,
So fast.

Earthquake by Harlen

The earthquake is a saber tooth tiger
The two pointy teeth and the muscular body
is enough to make the tectonic plates shiver.

Jumping sky high, running on the richter scale
shaking the ground with every stomp
Bang! Bam! Kablamo!

Cracking the ground
roaring loudly, making people wonder -
'Will I live or will I die?'

Gnawing and roaring
This is the power of the Saber Tooth Tiger

The Volcano by Connor N

The volcano is a dragon
Slowly waking
Flying around
Bursting out fire
with lava roars and tonnes of smoke
into the village below
The roar is menacing
As loud as thunder

The dragon is exhausted,
has used up all it's power
The dragon sleeps
Never to be heard of again.

Haiku

Winter by Olivia

Cold lonely season

Snow slowly falling to ground

Rain frozen to ice

Deep Sea by Alex

Dark and intriguing

Mystical,lively creatures

Dangerous waters

Sound Poetry

Nature by Bridget

The native birds are singing their haunting songs

Above the noise of my approaching companions I can hear the wind rustling

The canopy above making the tress creak and groan as if whispering to me, trying to tell me something

There is a creek that turns into a gushing waterfall

The noise is deafening but beautiful.

The Beach by Jackson

Waves crashing on the sand

Seagulls screeching at the food

People chatting as they swim

Motor boats zooming by

Echoes bouncing off the cave walls

Fish jumping in the water

and divers splashing in the sea

Cayden's Art for Mr McKenzie

2010-06-21T16:20:00.000-07:00

Cayden has spent hours completing another door sign, this time for Deputy Principal, Mr McKenzie. Cayden is proud of his finished work and especially liked his idea of placing different sports balls all over the background as he knows Mr McKenzie loves his sport!

Team 24 do Jump Jam!

2010-06-21T15:59:00.000-07:00

These cold rainy winter days can make it difficult to get out for fitness so Team 24 like to take a 'brain break' with a few jump jam tracks. It doesn't take long to quickly rearrange the furniture and we are set to get the heart rates pumping and have a few laughs at our amazing coordination and singing skills (or lack of!) ....... check it out....

Poetry Contest

2010-06-20T02:10:00.000-07:00

Last week the class recited their chosen poems to the class. There was a real mixture of poems chosen and it made for great show. Mr McKenzie was our judge.

Congratulations to Connor N, Bridget, Emily, Harlen and Nadun who have made it though to the finals for the Year 5 and 6 Poetry Competition. We look forward to watching you over at English Park on Thursday.

I aim to get video clips of the students doing their poems up here on the blog asap. Just a few technical hiccups at the moment!

Heart Jam

2010-06-07T03:18:00.000-07:00

Finally the weather improved and we got to participate in the National Heart Jam day raising money for children through out NZ who suffer heart problems. We decked ourselves from head to toe in RED and enjoyed some great Jump jam tracks with the whole school. We also enjoyed seeing Connor N and Satori perform their Jump Jam A team routine 'Camp Rock'

Check out the photos......

Art for The Principal

2010-05-23T19:42:00.000-07:00

Our Room 24 resident artist, Cayden Scott was asked by Mrs Warren to make a door sign for her new office. Cayden is a very talented drawer and enjoys sketching and shading a variety of things. He likes cartoon drawing . He designed a fantastic picture with amazing lettering that is now proudly displayed upstairs to let everyone know exactly where Mrs Warren can be found.

Mr McKenzie is looking forward to getting his door sign in the next week or so.

Way to go Cayden - we are so proud of you!

Our City Uncovered trip

2010-05-23T16:05:00.000-07:00

On the 3rd of May our class went into the city for our Big Day Out Scavenger hunt.

Our groups each had a parent helper.

We all enjoyed Our City Uncovered trip, it was a great experience.

For most of us it was the first or second time looking at all the beautiful buildings.

We started off at the Provincial Building with our teacher for the day, Ben. He got us thinking about the role of the City Council. Then we went exploring our wonderful city. At each stop we had to listen to some information and talk about the building or site that we were at. Some of these places were, the Art Centre, the Bridge of Remembrance, Victoria Square, the Cathedral, Antigua boat shed and Rhododendron Island.

After lunch we spent the afternoon designing a city of our own. In groups we had to think about key aspects of a city such as water supply, sewage, electricity, emergency services etc and we could also add some exciting things of our own such as theme parks, museums and movie theatres.

Sadly after our trip we had to go back to school.

Thank you for all the very helpful volunteer parents and all the people who helped organise our trip.

You can see some photos of our day here......

By Rosie

A little bit of fun - Simon's cat

2010-05-18T18:52:00.000-07:00

Cycle Safety

2010-05-18T18:36:00.000-07:00

Over the last two weeks the Year 6 students have been involved in the City Council's cycle safety programme. Room 24 had Kris, John, Mike, Jenn, Richard, Sarah and Jeff as instructors. They checked that our helmets fitted correctly and checked our bikes. They also told us about the road signs and the rules of intersections.

The first two sessions we biked on the school grounds learning to apply these rules and to control our bikes safely. Then at the next two sessions we went out on the roads around school. We did right and left hand turns, stop and give way signs, kerb ride outs and biking at roundabouts.

We also got to have a bike ride around a park.

At the end we were tested and received a certificate to say that we are now competent bike riders and are safe to use the road. Well most of us are!

By Heke

House Day

2010-05-05T15:08:00.000-07:00

Last Friday afternoon we had heaps of fun participating in the School HOUSE DAY. It is so great to see all the kids wearing their house colours and having fun together with students from all age groups. The events for the afternoon were - Relays, Singing, Jump Jam and Live Art!

Check out some pics from the day........

Kahurangi create a WAVE!
Kowhai's LIGHTNING BOLT
A SHAMROCK from Kakariki
Heke gives a piggy back ride in the relays
Some of the Kakariki boys are such great singers they got to lead 'Mama Mia'
Kahurangi's Jump Jam session
Corben wheels his human wheelbarrow at the relay event
A beautiful red HEART - live art made by WHERO

Great Books for Year 6

2010-05-04T15:57:00.000-07:00

Over the next few weeks we will be presenting our favourite Fiction and Non Fiction books to the class. Our aim is to come up with a list of FABULOUS BOOKS for Year 6 kids to enjoy. Keep checking this blog page as our list grows........

Running Wild

by Michael Morpurgo

Will and his mum are on a holiday and Will is having fun on a elephant ride down the beach. But when a tsunami comes the elephant runs in to the jungle and doesn't stop......

Reviewed by Renee

The Famous Five -Treasure Island

by Enid Blyton

Famous five is a series of books that involve four children and a dog who go off on lots of adventures involved with treasure,villians,mysteries and lots of trouble.

Reviewed by Satori

Go Ahead, Secret Seven

By Enid Blyton

This story is about seven kids and their dog,Scamper. The kids have lots of adventures and in this story they go looking for some thieves who are stealing pure bred dogs. But the thieves catch 6 of the kids and lock them in cages. Lucikly Scamper and George save them.

Reviewed by Tom

The 39 Clues - The Vipers Nest.

By Peter Lerangis.

The 39 Clues is a series which involves 2 kids called Amy & Dan. They have to search all around the world for clues. Once they find all the clues a special power is given to them, although they are not the only ones searching for it... Join Amy and Dan in their quest to find the 39 clues.

You might like this book if you like adventure and mysterious type books, with just a hint of cruelty.

This is book seven of the full series.

Reviewed by Connor Nisbet.

Zac Power

H.I.Larry

Zac power is a book about a boy that works for G.I.B. It is a spy company and Zac does all the missions and his techy brother does all the computer work and supplies the gadgets for Zac. In this book its about Zac not knowing his enemy and he meets agent Cougar. He takes Zac to the mystery base where all the agents are stuck in the laundry room. They find a big ship with a laser gun that will destroy the world and at the end Zac finds out that his enemy is his clone.

There are four mega missions

reveiwed by Connor Dunick.

The Black Tattoo

By Sam Enthoven

This story is about 2 boys who randomly get taken by this guy named Nick and they get taken to an old theater where they meet Esme and Raymond. Thats where they take a test to decide the fate of the world. Then later on in the story they take a real scary adventure to a deadly place HELL

Reviewed By Josh R

Percy Jackson and the Titans Curse

By Rick Riordan

This book is about a boy called Percy Jackson who has to save the world from a half lion and half human. I enjoy this book because it has action in it.

Reviewed by Heke

The Subtle Knife

By Philip Pullman

The second novel in Philip Pullmans epic trilogy . The first book is The Golden Compass, after that it is The Subtle Knife and the third is The Amber Spyglass. The Subtle Knife is about Will and Lyra and Will's fate is strangely linked with Lyra"s. Together they must find a powerful secret object which people from many worlds would kill to possess.

Reviewed by Dominic

The Famous Five Survival Guide

By Enid Blyton

This story is about 4 kids and their dog who are staying at their uncle's house, little do they know there is a big mystery to be solved. But it's up to the reader to solve the royal dragon of Siam mystery. This book includes their attempt to crack the code and tips on solving and finding clues with useful info about surviving outdoors.

Reviewed By Bridget

Stay Out Of The Basement

R.L.Stine

Dr.Brewer is doing a little plant-testing in his basement. Nothing harmless really. But Margaret and Casey Brewer are worried about their father. Especillay when they meet some of the plants he is growing down there. Their father is becoming all weedy and well planty I guess. It is part of their fathers HARMLESS experiments or has the basement turned into another little shop of horror?

Reviewed by Olivia

Asterix in Corsica

By Rene Goscinny

Asterix and Obelix are off on another trip into Roman Terrirtory. Before they go they fight their way to victory 'Roman vs Gaul!' AS a result of winning they get their magic potion and they're on their way.

Reviewed by Corben

My Sister The Vampire-Switched

By Sienna Mercer

Olivia Abbot , a teenage girl moves away from Malibu to go to Franklin Grove.

While she is there she meets her long lost twin , Ivy ,they become the best of friends.

Ivy and Olivia seem to switch a lot because if they get each other into something then they have to get out of it.

Ivy has a secret , but it won't stop the girls from getting to know each other.

After all , blood is thicker than water and it's certainly tastier.

Reviewed by Jordyn

My Sister Jodie

By Jacqueline Wilson

Sisters Jodie and Pearl's parents get new jobs at the posh Melchester College and the sisters

have to now start a new life. Usually it's Jodie who is the leader but now it's Pearl who is getting all the friends and Jodie seems to be getting into more and more trouble.

Pearl doesn't think she needs Jodie anymore but Jodie needs her.When the fireworks night comes around a tragic event occurs, Pearl then realizes quite how much she does need her big sister...

Reviewed by Emily

The Whale Rider

By Witi Ihimaera

The Whale Rider is about a girl called Kahu.

Her grandfather is caught up with the the problems

facing the tribe. He does not think that Kahu could take over his

job of leader of the tribe. Out of ten I would give this book a 8.

Reviewed by Te Iwa

Gorilla City

by David Fickling

Gorilla City is about a eight year old boy that goes for an adventure. But he gets lost and has been trying to get home for FOUR HUNDRED YEARS!!!!!!! In this book you can learn to speak GORILLA! This is his first journal. My friend recommended this book to me and I think you would enjoy it too.

Reviewed by Ben

THE wizard ,the ugly and the book of shame.

By PABLO BERNASCO

Leitmeritz the wizard solves every one's problems with the help of his red book of spells.

but he cant help his assistant, Ugly. One day when the wizard was away,

Ugly asks the Red book of spells to make him handsome.

Read this book to find out what happens.

Reviewed by Nadun

Goosebumps - Into the Jaws of Doom

by R.L.STINE

Talk about a jaw breaker!

This novel is so scary, so mind bending, it will leave you with goosebumps.

It is a bout a boy who gets lost on a school trip to the museum and has to find his way

out! Read this book to find it how it ends. there are 20 different spooky endings

reviewed by Cullen

Captain Underpants and the Preposterous Plight of the Purple Potty People

by Dav Pilkey

One foolish attempt to use the purple potty two times in a row sends George Beard and

Harold Hutchins to an opposite dimension. For instance, mean people are nice people - you get the idea.

George and Harold have evil clones so "what will we do?" They must rely on the one the only person to be known to toilet paper his own house ..... Captain Underpants!

Reviewed by Harlen

Skypoint (Torchwood)

by Phil Ford

Skypoint is about an apartment building that is haunted by a see-through monster that can fly through walls. The monster's boss lives in the apartment on the top of the building.

The main characters are; Gwen Cooper/Williams, Jack Harckness, Owen Harper, Toshiko Sato, and Ianto Jones.

Torchwood is a sci-fi series about a group of people who deal with strange murders, mostly by aliens.

Review by Joshua D

Artemis Fowl

by Eoin Colfer

The book Artemis Fowl is also a series. It is about a 12 year old boy who has his own butler that does almost anything he asks. One day they find this fairy book and learn all about the fairies and everyone else under the ground. Artemis Fowl is a science fiction book. It is all about fairies and trolls etc.

Reviewed by Jackson

Seekers

by Erin Hunter

The book Seekers is a series about three young bears called

Kallik [polar bear], Toklo[grizzly bear], Lusa[black bear].

They are guided by the Pathway star that shines in the sky.

This is the first of the series called The Quest Begins.

Oka, Toklo's mum abandoned him because of her other son Tobi[a week bear] dies,

then she went to the bear bowl next to Lusa, who is asked to find her son Toklo in the wild and say she was sorry.

Kallik is the Polar bear that watched her mother be perished, while her brother is seperated by the melting ice.

The next book is called The Great Bear Lake Erin Hunters 2nd book for the series.

Reviewed by Rosie.

James and the Giant Peach

by Roald Dahl and illustrated by Quentin Blake

This book is about a boy who lives down by the beach. His parents go to the London Zoo and get killed by a rhino. So he has to live with his horrible aunts. A man gives him seeds but James drops them. Then a peach grows to the size of a 2 story house and he goes on an anventure with these giant bugs.

Reviewed by Cayden

The BFG

By Roald Dahl

This book is about a BFG (big friendly giant) who puts nice dreams in the kids minds. Then a little girl, Sophie, sees him one night. The BFG has to take her away back to giant country where they eat little kids for breakfast. But Sophie and the BFG become best friends and they set out to rid the world of mean giants.

Reviewed by Cole

Famous Five

By Enid Blyton

This book is about four kids and a dog. They go to a island were there is ingots and they buy the island.

Reviewed by Aimee

Individual Pursuit Finals

2010-04-29T02:30:00.000-07:00

What an amazing day today, watching our classmates compete for the top 4 in their Year groups in the Cycling Individual Pursuit Finals. I am so proud to say that our 4 top cyclists competing all had outstanding results. In the Year 6 Girls Olivia came 3rd overall and Emily won 1st place. In the boys race, Connor N and Satori were competing against each other for the top 2. It was very close race and we were so impressed at Connor even taking part considering he has a broken collar bone! Well Done Satori coming in 2nd, meaning Connor is the Yr 6 boys champ for 2010.

It was also great to have members of the NZ mens track cycling team at school to help us out.

What a week of sport it's been. GO team 24! You're awesome!

Our Cricket Champs

2010-04-29T02:16:00.000-07:00

We are so proud of our 3 amazing cricketers, Te Iwa, Emily and Bridget. At last weeks finals the girls contributed to the teams superb win against Cotswold. Becoming the Canterbury Primary School Champs for 2010 was outstanding enough but as part of their reward/prize the girls spent yesterday afternoon training with 4 members of the NZ White Ferns. They were also joined by Serena and Camilla from What Now TV and were filmed during the training session.

The girls came back to school buzzing today with lots of stories to share and plenty of Milo goodies to show! We can't wait to see you all on What Now this weekend!!

Congratulations to you 3 and the rest of the team. Awesome effort!

Our school cross country

2010-04-28T16:49:00.000-07:00

I think that we all did really well at the cross country

imovie made by Heke and Josh R

Our New Classroom

2010-04-26T03:24:00.000-07:00

Got to love this balcony! The class love being out

here for silent reading. It will get lots of use

in the warmer months.
Hard at work in the beautiful new classroom!

Through the double doors is the shared art space

and to the right is my very own little office! Yay!

The data projector is up for easy everyday use,

we have great storage cupboards behind the whiteboards

and the view out the balcony doors is proving to be

quite a distraction - I had to move the mat area

to the back of the classroom after two days!
Oh, such angels!
Hi Mum and Dad, Aunty, Nan etc etc

We are loving our new classroom.
The new building and Room 24 hanging out

on their balcony!

The Senior TRYathlon

2010-03-28T01:18:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago we competed in our Senior Tryathlon with great results. It was fantastic day and one that will now become an annual event. We had great results with several students placing in the top ten for both the Yr 6 boys and girls races. Check out a video of the race day

Topic -Our Inquiry

2010-03-27T13:12:00.000-07:00

This term we have individually researched a country or city to discover

'How would my life be different if I grew up in ............?'

Back in Week 2 of this term we discussed the differences our environment can have on our upbringing and looked at a few examples. The children then had time to browse through a large amount of books and decide which area of the world they would like to explore. We had places such as the Amazon, Rwanda, Jamiaca, Sweden, Mexico and Kenya chosen.

Over the next few weeks they decided on questions, researched, took notes and made decisions on our to present their work. They also had to come up with a conclusion on where they would prefer to grow up, NZ or their chosen country.

Now in Week 8-9 it has been time to share their new knowledge with the class. They were assessed by one of their peers and by their teacher. It has been a fascinating time, learning about so many different areas of the world and just how it would be to live as a child in that country. Almost all concluded that life in NZ is just about perfect, though we may now have a few students with a great desire to travel in the future!

Bridget and Te Iwa use the laptops to research

Costa Rica and Jamaica

It looks like chaos but....here is Rosie, Aimee,

Jayde and Renee putting their posters together.

Proud of their efforts and so they should be...

Harlen - Afghanistan

Olivia - France

Josh R - Kenya

Dominic - Samoa

We had power points, speeches, homemade videos, booklets and posters.

Connor N - Madagascar

Dragos - Romania

Cullen - Rwanda

Tom - Amazon

More proud researchers with their finished work

Renee - Hawaii

Ben - Amazon

Connor D - Jamaica

Jordyn - Sweden

Cayden - Amazon

Corben - Mexico

Computer Tricks!

2010-03-27T12:55:00.000-07:00

We have been learning to 'Green screen' and use 'Instant Alpha' on the laptops. This is fantastic tool that allows you to put yourself in a picture of any background you wish. It is easy to use and we found it a lot of fun. Our first attempts were to put ourselves in a scene from the country we have been researching for this terms Inquiry projects. Check out a couple or examples....

Aimee discovers the beautiful beaches in Fiji

Corben outside a Mexican School

Satori checks out a stunning waterfall in Iceland

Josh R up close and personal with the zebras in Kenya

Girls Cricket

2010-03-24T13:25:00.000-07:00

Yesterday the girls cricket team played in the quarter finals against Burwood. The score was 114-17 to St Albans! What a hiding! They now move through to the semi finals tomorrow. Check out the photos of our Room 23 cricket stars - Te Iwa, Bridget and Emily.

Jump Jam

2010-03-24T01:53:00.000-07:00

Jump Jam has become a very popular option for our daily fitness. Sometimes we have the opportunity to lead the other classes. Recently Satori, Josh R, Cole, Connor N and Connor D showed us their Jump Jam talents performing the moves/sequence to 'In the Navy and 'I like to Move it'
Jump Jam auditions were held this week and I was really pleased to see lots of our class head along and give it a go. Good Luck you guys!

Buddy Time with Rm 15

2010-03-22T01:18:00.000-07:00

Each week we meet with our Year 3 Buddy class. On Fridays we help them with their spelling testing and during the week we may get together to read, share our writing or teach each other a game.

Senior BIG DAY OUT

2010-03-15T02:29:00.000-07:00

Today we had our BDO at QEII. This term it was a celebration of our efforts with swimming both at school and Aquagym. Also as a reward for the hard work and enthusiasm displayed in our new classes for 2010. We had so much fun and just loved the hydro slides. Even Miss Lythgoe and Miss Woods had races down the hydro slides. BIG kids at heart we are!

Here is a slideshow of us enjoying our time out from school.....

Class Swimming

2010-03-15T01:19:00.000-07:00

Check out the kids making the most of the heated pool. It has been wonderful to be able to continue lessons so late into the term thanks to the new heating system. The kids have loved heading off to the pool each day and most have made some great progress. We are looking forward to putting these skills to the test in our TRYathlon this week.

Swimming Champs

2010-03-15T01:13:00.001-07:00

Our Swimming Champs! Satori, Emily, Alex, Jayde, Olivia, Te Iwa and Connor proudly show off their certificates from the recent Senior Swimming Sports held at Jellie Park. Awesome effort you guys, we are proud of you!

School Swimming

2010-03-08T19:07:00.000-08:00

Jackson and Sam enjoying FREETIME after swimming

lots of lengths!
Josh D has an impressive noodle style
Josh R shows us how to swim breaststroke
Dominic, Connor N and Bridget all set to

race in Backstroke

Satori - our champion swimmer!

Art Time

2010-03-04T15:10:00.000-08:00

Heke's Nan, Lee, is a talented artist who offered to come in and work with us. We are working through a process with her to complete a wooden wall hanging. Lee carves and cuts out the wood and then paints her designs, often adding all sorts of materials to finish her art off. Lee brought in many of the pieces of art she is presently working on and we thought they were amazing. She has given us a lot of inspiration to complete our own wall hangings.
First we had to doodle to find our 'inner shape' this was then drawn onto a square shape of wood which Lee took home and cut out for us. We have designed our wall hangings to reflect things we like and are painting them in our favourite colours. When this is completed we will be adding feathers, shells, leaves , wool etc that we have gathered to complete them.
We will put some more pictures up as we head towards our finished product.

Meet Team 23

2010-03-03T17:11:00.000-08:00

Here is our class. We have 28 fabulous Year 6 students, 19 boys and 9 girls. Our teacher is miss Lythgoe