Busting a Gut!

 

A huge congratulations to Giles, Conal and Sam D for competing as a team in the Gutbusta kids adventure race. It looks like you had a blast!
What great team work, I am proud of you!

Holidays!

Dear Families,

The children of Room 12 have had a jam packed full term. Two things stand out - namely our fabulous, freezing camp, as well as our celebratory Red Carpet Event. Both of these highlighted the unique specialness of the children of Room 12. I am extremely proud of them.

Over the holidays they have a couple of tasks to begin. The first is to decide on a topic for their speech and begin writing this. A notice came home about this today. Secondly, each child has decided on a focus for their science inquiry. I am really excited by the breadth of ideas that the children have around this - making volcanoes, finding out about the Galapagos Islands, human evolution, how music and gravity effect plant growth, researching DNA, making condensation, oil spills. It is great when children can discover new and unique areas of interest. In the holidays, the children are required to begin their experiment and / or research. They have notes to remind them how to write it up. Some may quickly complete their experiments while others may take weeks to do.

I have been very impressed by how many children are racing along on their wide reading challenge - I am confident that the first child to complete their GOLD award will be from R12!

Thank you for your support of your children's learning in these areas. Enjoy your holidays together, I am off to Nelson to visit my parents so I am sure that Daniel will be well spoiled!

Take care of each other,
Tamara Saxon.

R12 Garden

Check out Giles' peas, our beans and lettuce.

We should be able to make a R12 salad together soon-ish. Well done garden leaders for watering, thinning and keeping an eye on our plants.

Learning Heroes

Room 12 have a number of learning heroes who are taking great pride in completing some of their homework options. Holly presented her homemade speakers to hook up to an IPad. Evelyn made an IPod case out of material. Rosie, Molly and Evelyn made a movie together using IMovie. Giles has grown peas and recently transplanted them into our school garden.

Keep it up team, it is fantastic to see your exciting learning happening everywhere!

Ms Saxon.

Science Fair Adventures

After Anna Chapman inspired us with science teaching last week, there is a great website that Room 12 children may want to get experiment ideas from to base their mini science fair projects on.

http://www.sciencefairadventure.com/

Some holiday science activities may be great fun!

Spring Outside

This morning we sat outside in the sun, under the trees and composed poems about spring. Some children found it really difficult to be outside, while others thrived..
Check out the quality of some of the writing below.

Molly
When the purple pink blossoms pirouette in the soft, warm breeze
Lambs frolic in the lush emerald fields
When the birds start to chirp a melody chorus
Trees adorn into their silky leaves as they turn their heads to the sunlight
The sense of happiness embraces the land
Spring paints a portrait for us.

 

Evie

Relief snakes through the rusted grass

Love blossoms adorn the trees

A tinge of pink runs through the one who smelt the rose.

The white skirt flows over the brightest flowers.

The sun caresses the silk petals dancing on the wind.

Lambs frolic under the sapphire sky.

New life. 

Conal

Embracing the land

Warmth fills life with joy

Banishing winter

Fed up with darkness.

The sun scorching the petals

Creeping up their backs

Letting them rise

Releasing their joy.

Children frolicking in the heat

Blossoms holding their trees

Like a never-ending friendship.

Spring has arrived.

Madoka

A blossom blooms

Adorning the bare trees

Opening a path of new life

A calm aroma

Drifts in the breeze.

Refreshing our souls

Bringing a tear to my eye

A petal pirouettes.

The sound of birds

Fill my heart

Leaving me with joy

And nothing else.

Nature has a power

Something that can only be felt

Only with a pure, true heart.

Luci

The icy chill discintegrates

And a stream of golden warmth blooms

Kowhai warms the peaceful trees

As blossom adorns botanical gardens.

A smile appears on a child's face

And sends happiness to others

Freshly mown grass's aroma drifts through

The sunlight.

Butterflys dart through the open sky

Crickets leap from leaf to leaf

Daffodils rise

The sun creeps up their lush green spine.

Evelyn

Leaves transform from dusty brown to an emerald green

Wilting flowers turn and rise

Shadows stretch across the sun-kissed ground

Waves lap over a beach spiraled with spring treasures.

Smiles quickly spread across children's faces

As the sun comes from her hiding place

Laughing buzzes around the lambs, frolicking in the grass

The wind whispers

"Spring, spring."

Catherine

A blanket of warmth caresses the new born

Lambs frolic through the wilting flowers

As an aroma lingers above.

The dim grey clouds disappear

And become sapphire blue

The bird's voice forces the winter's wind

To cower.

Daffodils awaken capturing the sun's rays

This is the beginning of a new life.

Red Carpet Event

Room 12's Red Carpet Event was a raging success. I love that it was totally owned by the children; from the presentations, to the decorating, to the catering! It was wonderful to see so many family members in attendance, your support means the world to your children, thank you.

Daniel's favourite part was eating the crackers and he particularly enjoyed the movie!

Room 12, you gave me goosebumps of pride - congratulations!

Ms Saxon.

Tuhuru, Baxter and Lyndon performing in front of our VIPs.

Max and Oliver discussing the plan for the tribe

Holly - our narrator

Leighton, Sam, Sam and Giles perform their entertaining drama 

Lydia, Evie and Madoka performing

Rosie, Alisha, Luci and Ella

America's Cup

Great excitement is hitting Room 12 - Tony Simpson is a regular visitor at 8am to catch the action on the big screen!! We are hoping that tomorrow morning we may have something to celebrate - that would coincide nicely with our Red Carpet Event.

 

South Learning Centre

This morning Room 12 traveled to the South Learning Centre (part of the South Library) to do a short course about Cyber Safety. We talked about what it meant to be safe online and to be a positive cyber citizen. Things like not giving out personal details, communicating respectfully, telling an adult if you are concerned about anything, not writing anything to someone that you would not want to say to their face.
The children put their ideas into Glogster, a poster programme.

I love taking Room 12 out of our school because (without exception) the other adults always comment on their unique specialness. It makes me exceptionally proud of these young people.

Wide Reading Awards

The children of Room 12 have brought home information on our Wide Reading Awards as part of their homework. I hope that all children will attempt to improve their reading by taking part in this challenge.
Who will be the first from R12 to earn a gold award?!

WHY WIDE READING AWARDS?

The aim of these reading awards is to:

·      Recognise and reward you for the reading you do

·      Introduce you to a variety of literature/story types

·      Foster a love of reading

You can read books from the ideas in this booklet, the lists on Access-it or choose your own titles.  If you are reading your own books as part of these awards you need to show them to your teacher to make sure they are suitable.  ALL books read, no matter where from, need to be at an appropriate level for YOUR reading ability.

Genres used in these awards are:

·      Short Stories

·      New Zealand Authors

·      Classics and Modern Classics

·      Fantasy and Science Fiction

·      Historical

·      War Stories

·      Non-fiction and Biography

·      Adventure and Mystery

HINT:

To find lists on Access-it at home visit school webpage (www.stmartins.school.nz), go to learning, then library and click on visit library website.  On the left side, under search, you will find a reading lists option; the wide reading lists are here.  You can also reserve titles, posts reviews etc here.

AWARD LEVELS

BRONZE wide reading award

1 book from 4 genres (see list)

TOTAL  =  4 books

                                           Keep reading for your ……..

SILVER wide reading award

1 book from 6 genres (see list)

Can include titles from your BRONZE award

TOTAL = 6 books

                                           Keep reading for your ……..

GOLD wide reading award

1 book from all 8 genres (see list)

Can include titles from your SILVER award

                                           ---- appear on our “Wall of Fame”

+ prize

 

Visiting Scientist

This afternoon Dr Anna Chapman (Sam's mum!) visited R12 as our resident scientist to teach us all in her area of expertise. We love it when parents come in to help and share our learning with us.

She talked about

• transpiration (plant perspiration)
• CO2 (energy)
• photosynthesis
• plants getting energy from the sun and releasing H2O as a gas
• hypotheses
• control

We began with a simple experiment looking at the environmental effects on plants. We measured weights of plants and will repeat this again in 24hrs to see how much water the plants have lost through transpiration.

We are getting the hang of being REAL scientists because we love asking lots of questions!

Dr Chapman helped us understand how to write up a proper record of experiments, these usually go in a lab book.

17/9/2013     TRANSPIRATION EXPERIMENT

Aims:  - To determine water loss in Primula plants / To investigate how much water Primula plants lose.
            - To determine the effects of light, darkness, wind and humidity on Primula plants.

Hypotheses: - The plant in the light will lose more water
                      - The plant in the dark will lose less water
                      - The plant in the wind will lose more water
                      - The plant in the humid conditions will lose less water 

Method:
Materials: 5 Primula plants
                 water
                 light
                 cupboard
                 fan
                 plastic bag
                spray bottle
                scales

1. Weigh and record weight in grams (g) and millilitres (ml)     (1g = 1ml)
2. Set up our variables a) darkness, plant placed in closed cupboard

                                          b) light, plant placed in front of light
                                          c) wind, plant placed in front of fan
                                          d) humidity, plant placed in plastic bag sprayed with H2O
                                          e) control, plant placed away from other environmental conditions, in a                                          neutral location

Our plant under the light

Wind

 Darkened cupboard (once Ms Saxon closes the door!)

Results:
Condition        Weight (g)
                         t=0 (hr)     t=23(hr)     H2O loss (ml)

Control             548            509              39

Light               542              502              40

Darkness         569              530              39

Wind * 7hrs    548             499              49

Humidity         564             563               1


We have set these plants up overnight and will re-visit them tomorrow and re-weigh.

Wednesday
The plants gave up a few odd results. We were surprised that the Primula in the light (which looked really dried out!) had only lost the same amount of water as the control and dark plants. We thought the plant in humidity didn't lose much water because it had a moist environment that it was in.

The children now graphed the results on a bar graph. 

Conclusions:  
 1. The plant placed in humidity lost only 1ml of water. 
2. The plant placed in the wind lost more water than the control. 
We predict that if the plant had been in the wind for 23hours it would have lost even more water. 

3. We expected that the plant placed in the light to lose more water than the control and the plant in the dark to lose less, but they lost the same amount. We think this is because the pots were too small. 

A huge thanks to Dr Chapman, we love having parents coming in to share their expertise with us. Anna has offered to come in regularly next term and do 'cool' science experiments with Room 12 - we are very excited!!!

Red Carpet Update

So far we have received 30 RSVPs!
We have two hosts, a narrator, paparazzi, waiters and waitresses, interviewers.

Are you going to be part of this event?

Friday 20th, 11.30-12.30.

Garden Update

This morning our garden leaders visited our wee plot of land to be greeted by sprouting plants!

These are our carrots, they will need thinning out soon.

These are our tall dwarf beans!

This is Fred...

Our corn, lettuce and basil are still too small to be photographed.

Camp Writers

Check out some of today's poems - can you tell they are linked to camp?

Sam C

Not only the mist engulfing the point of the mountain,

Not only the birds singing along the lines of the dawn chorus,

Not only the steam rising off the thermal water,

Not only the crescent moon gently tiptoeing up the sky's starry back,

Not only the delighted cries of the heroic tree climber,

Not only the cowering souls, resting in the graveyard. 

 

Max
Not only the leaves waltzing in tune
Not only the lonesome bird singing - can fly
Not only the magical mist gently conquering the hilltops - can die
No, not only.

If only the sun didn't guide the world
If only he didn't burn my skin
If only the rain didn't dampen my soul
If only.

When only the birds survive the war
When only the weeds can be seen
When only the people can rule the land
Only then will we understand
Only then can we heal the scars
Only then.

Evie

Not only the sun reigning down on the water

Mystifying the forest

Not only the secret hidden inside us all

Locked away

Not only the wind freezing the shivering leaves

Lifeless

Not only the daffodil crying out in despair

Nothing

Not only the frost betraying the colour of the grass

Enemy

Not only the steam rising from the heated water

Not only the sky bursting through the night blanket

Not only.

Madoka

Not only the sky

Not only one cloud 

Not only one bird

But only one destiny.

Blue clouds hover

In the mystery scented sky

And the golden mother awakens

A warm graceful crimson flower

Beautifully ruling the sky.

Not only the dawn chorus

Not only happiness

Not only the snowflakes

Longing for adventure.

Not only the flower petals pirouette

Not only the leaves wave

Not only my heart shivers

Not only the salty water trickles down my cheek

Something more important.

The sky is there

Connecting

Every smile

Every feeling

Every life.

The golden door opens

Leading to a brand new journey. 

Evelyn

Not only the dusty mist blocking the snow covered hills

Not only the sun adorning the hill with a crimson cloak

Not only the rushing stream flowing rapidly along the track

Not only the grass dancing in the rhythm of the wind

Not only the trees sheltering us from the crying sky

Not only the birds singing to the rising sun

Not only the stars guiding us like lanterns.

Camp

Our fabulous camp last week had so many highlights, I know I won't remember them all! I could not have been more proud of every one of the children of Room 12 - they showed exceptional resilience (yes, the weather was awful!), wonderful co-operation (often with people they wouldn't normally choose to work with), great initiative, and above all happiness, the smiles on their faces at times were priceless.
We didn't modify any of the activities due to weather, the children just put up with the wet and cold. Some went off-road mountain biking for the first time, most climbed higher than they ever had before (three girls in Room 12 got to the top of the highest tree!), many played a game of adapted rugby totally initiated by the children, controlled by the children, with all playing wonderfully together.
The head instructor of Activity Hanmer asked if these children were part of a 'special class'. He couldn't get over their ability to work together and listen to each other.
I can't say enough about these children, they truly are special.

Thanks for giving me so many wonderful highlights in Hanmer.
Ms Saxon.

The A Team raising the flag after completing Mission Impossible!

Mountain biking

The A Team heading along the mountain biking track

The blue girls preparing to climb trees

Fabulous co-operative skills on show at all times

Conal returns from a muddy mountain bike ride

On top of a misty Conical Hill

Ella climbing high

Evie showing great climbing form

Leighton on his way up. He was AMAZING at off road mountain biking!

Madoka ready to ride

What a group of posers!

What a fabulous camp!!