Hanmer Springs

Reporting from Hanmer!!
The snow is very close on the hills, it is slightly above zero, the children of Rooms 11 & 12 are loving it!
Yesterday each group did one activity of

• Conical Hill walk
• Chill time
• Mission Impossible
• Tree climbing
• Mountain biking

Many were cold and wet but showed great enthusiasm and stickability. This was rewarded with a warm play and relax in the pools.
Last night the children were shattered and went to bed after an interesting and true / false story about bears, fish and death in Canada by Matthew.
This morning's start was a little earlier than Ms Saxon may have liked, I'm sure tomorrow will be a little calmer!
Our children and wonderful parent helpers are working so well together, everyone is a pleasure to be around.

Stay warm!
Ms Saxon.

In breaking news - Holly got to the very top of extreme tree climbing! Congrats Holly, very proud of you!
Breaking news Part II - In the A Team, Evelyn, Lainy and Molly all got the top of Extreme!!! Wahoo!

Terrific Tuesday

This morning we were visited by literacy expert Murray Gadd. Mr Gadd's job is to travel around NZ educating teachers to teach reading and writing more effectively. He was blown away by Room 12 - showing writing abilities that he usually observes in high schools.
I couldn't have been more proud of our children - very excited and hyped up about going to camp tomorrow, but holding it together amazingly to impress such an expert.
Here are some snippets of their writing today, I'm sure you will be equally impressed.

Ms Saxon.

Room 12's Red Carpet Event

The students of Room 12 are very excited to today bring you home an invitation to an extra special event. We would like to invite parents and other special people along to a celebration of some of our learning. Room 12 are very proud of the work they have done alongside their myth writing and would love to share it with you.
The details of the event are evolving and children will be fully involved in the planning process after camp.
Set this date aside!

Thanks to Madoka and Tuhuru for the invitation design.

Room 12’s Red Carpet Event

Date: September 20^th

Time: 11:30-12:30

You are invited to Room 12's first ever Red Carpet Event.                                                      Please come along and see some of the amazing learning that the Room 12 Champions have done.                                                                                                                                       RSVP to tamaras@stmartins.school.nz

Camp Week

The time has come - camp week is here!
After our amazingly warm winter, the weather forecast for camp is looking cold and wet... Please ensure your children have lots of layers of clothing to wear - polypropylene is perfect! Gloves, hat and, of course, that all important waterproof raincoat.
If we are lucky we may even get snow for a snow fight!!!
I can't wait, see you Wednesday.
Ms Saxon.

Explanation Writing

At the moment in Room 12 we are writing explanations that explain how or why something happens. We wrote together about the water cycle - come in and check out our super shared writing if you have time.
We have been doing research into science topics like global warming, volcanoes, earthquakes, tectonic plates, coral reefs, gravity, solar system, the brain, Siberian Tigers, elephants, chameleons, red panda, tornadoes, giraffes, poison dart frogs, polar bears, dolphins and Banks Peninsula.
Over the next few weeks we will be writing our explanations and including definition, process and conclusion. We also have to try to use lots of fancy scientific words. Each of us has our own goal to try to achieve.
Ask us how we are doing.

More Maths

"Here is a picture to show how knowledge of geometry can be used to
enhance a person's performance in sport.

On a rugby field, when the halfback passes to the centre (red arrow)
and the centre gets tackled (yellow arrow), the flanker who has run
from in front of the halfback runs to the tackle (green arrow).   It
creates a triangle.  For the flanker, following the green arrow is
faster than following the red and yellow arrows.

Sam C"

What impressive use of your maths skills Sam, keep it up!

Maths Challenges

Max has been building a city out of 3D shapes as part of a maths challenge. He chose to use lego as he has lots of it at home. Max's city has a stadium, a tower, an observatory, a museum, cinema and highway. Check it out in the pic below.

Max then used Action Movie FX on his mum's Ipad touch to make the following clips.
Congratulations Max on transferring your outstanding maths knowledge to such an awesome task!