Luisa describes chocolate in a very sweet way

WALT - use our senses to describe food.

A Guest Speaker

Today Glenbrae school was visited by artist Graham Dodd who taught us all how to sketch.

Room 7 and the seniors were involved in the first session with Graham, which occurred in the hall this morning. Graham spoke about lots of different conventions that are used in art and sketching. The children began to colour their sketches by the end of the session, but they continued to colour them when they returned to class.

Once they had finished, the children had to write a blog post describing the different techniques that they had used for each aspect of their artwork.

Transferring our Learning

Starting our Dioramas at the art gallery

After our awesome trip to the art gallery last Thursday, Room 7 have been continuing our dioramas in class.

Painting our dioramas in class. 

 We were lucky enough to be able to take the resources that we needed back to school with us, so we could make really effective pieces for the foyer.

Adding the finishing touches

A fun trip to the Auckland Art Gallery

On Thursday 17 March the senior students of our school went to the Auckland Art Gallery to learn about symbols in art.

In the morning at school we had to organise ourselves by making sure each student had their name tags, lunches were packed in one bag and also permission slips had been signed by parents. We had a little surprise alarm go off which sent everyone off to the courts.

From the courts we were dismissed to go to the bus. The busses were green and the drivers were very prompt and kind. The bus ride to the city was interesting. We saw a lot of people going to work or returning from dropping their children to schools. The city is a very busy place with traffic jams everywhere.

When we arrived at the Auckland Art Gallery, we had to walk around the corner to the entrance where the staff were waiting for us. We were all split into our groups and we had different activities to do.

We went on a guided tour of the gallery. We looked at different types of art and we were fascinated with the Maori paintings. They were very detailed and we discussed that Goldie's paintings looked sad. Our tour guide taught us Goldie believed the Maori race were becoming extinct and the painted them as sad people.

We also went to the art studio and created some art. We all had to draw symbols which represent ourselves. Some people drew sports logos, food, music, sports and church symbols. We then used different materials to make the symbols. We did not have enough time to finish our art work so we brought them back to school with us.

At the end of the day we all assembled outside the gallery and thanked the staff for hosting us. Room 7 boarded the bus first followed by the other classes. Our day at the Auckland Art Gallery was an educational day with a lot of different activities.

Three way conference

This week our school will have our annual Three Way Conferences with our parents. It is a time for our parents to meet our teachers, discuss goals and our current achievement levels.

The Three Way Conferences will start on Wednesday 16 March from 1 pm to 8 pm. However, Mrs Tofa and Miss Stone will be holding some conferences on Tuesday as well as Wednesday and Thursday because they are attending their university class for part of Wednesday afternoon.

We encourage all parents to come and discuss the learning of your children with the teachers. 

We hope to see you there.

Artists in Room 7

As our focus this term is on visual art, Room 7 have had art every afternoon this week to finish their perspective paintings.

The boys adding some finishing touches to their work.

Some of us have really engaged in this work and have taken a real interest in this style of art, finishing a few pieces of art over this time.

The Girls mixing their paints

Justin and Danny-Joe adding detail to their artwork

Linda Kiki created this fabulous piece of art during the week. We are very proud of her efforts!

Once we are finished, this artwork will be displayed outside the staffroom for us all to enjoy.

Maths Day!

Today Room 7 completed lots of maths with Mrs Tofa, Miss Stone and our guest maths teacher Mrs Pine.

Mrs Tofa's maths group went first and completed some multiplication problems.

Next Mrs Stones group undertook an investigation about happy numbers. To identify happy learners, Miss Stones maths group needed to square a number, then add the square of each of the answers digits.

E.g. 5 x 5 = 25.
(2 x5) + (5x5) = 35.
(3x3) + (5x5) = 36.

After morning tea (and a reading lesson) Mrs Pine came back to our class and taught all of Room 7. They worked on some mental maths problems that required the students to use a range of strategies and their times table knowledge.

What fabulous mathematicians we have in Room 7!

What is fauna and flora?

Flora is the plant life occurring in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring or indigenous—native plant life. The corresponding term for animal life is fauna. Flora, fauna and other forms of life such as fungi are collectively referred to as biota.

Snag golf fun

This term we have been learning skills in the game of golf through our Kiwi Sport. It is actually called Snag Golf and it is a lot of fun. 

We have learnt how to chip, the correct posture for hitting the ball, putting the ball and following through with our strike. 

The coaches always have fun activities for us to participate in and everyone gets involved. The funniest part is when someone hits the target and has to call out SNAG really loud. When we hear the word snag we all get competitive and try to get a snag ourselves.

Here are some photos of our Snag Golf session on Tuesday.

Justin describes the tree outside our school library

It starts off with the a seed, then the roots come out. After that, the roots start to grow then the tree starts to come out.

The tree becomes brown in the inside but has mould on the outside. The tree has branches with green and yellow leaves. The yellow leaves are old and ready to fall off while the green leaves stay on for a little longer.

The tree smells as well. The smell is a refreshing smell and can also be unpleasant.

Different insects go on the tree such as crickets, spiders, flies and other insects looking for a place to hide or play.

The tree has been standing for many years. Long before I came here to this school. The leaves on the tree are still growing. They're healthy but some of the leaves are turning yellow.

The roots in the ground are growing bigger and holding the tree together. This tree gives us air and shade every year.

Can you solve these maths problems?

There were 136 players in a volleyball tournament. Each team has seven players on the court with one sub. How many teams were in the volleyball tournament?

Maara bought 120 sour lollies and she had 24 people to share them with. How many lollies would each person get?

The tree of the night

As I was standing next to the tree, it’s beautiful green and yellow leaves brushed against my skin. You can hear the little cicada humming their own lullaby. 

When you breath in it’s pure air, you feel reborn.The tree grows bigger and bigger every day.In the night the tree glows brighter than the stars connected.

The tree would often grow medicine for the sick. The medicine does not come out like you normally see it. The medicine comes as a fruit.

A flash and sparkling Nissan car

This is Mafoa's narrative writing for his homework task. 

One day my brother Thomas wanted a car because he got his licence and he was turning 18. My family had a talk and we decided he would be old enough to get a car.

My dad and my brother went to sign some papers so I looked at the car that my dad was buying for my brother it looked cool and it looked fast. When they finished signing the papers my dad gave him the keys and my brother had tears in his eyes because he was so happy.

My dad and Thomas took the car for a spin and it was really fast. My dad said the car was better than his car but my brother said "This is my car remember?". Then my dad laughed and they both laughed their way home.

When they got home everyone jumped up and said "Happy birthday Thomas" and Thomas smiled a huge smile because he was a year older and the owner of a new car.