Friday, May 30, 2014

Key Hole

The Kidd-li-winks used the skills they have learnt to create a door with texture. They used a special technique to create texture. Before painting the Kidd-li-winks ripped up masking tape and placed it on their paper where they wanted it to stay white. After painting they ripped off the masking tape and it helped to make their painting look like real wood. The children tried to create different kinds of wood eg. birch, rimu.

The next challenge was to create a world through the key hole. It could be anything...the Kidd-li-winks used their imaginations well.

Here are some of the worlds you can find looking through the key holes in Room 8.
Artist Max
Artist Caitlyn
Artist Emma
Artist Bella
Artist Mya
Artist Thomas
Artist Jerome
Artist Bowen
Artist Ruby
The Kidd-li-winks all worked really hard to make their worlds the very best they could be. They were all very proud of their efforts.

The authors in Room 8 are busy writing about their adventures through the key holes. Come and read some amazing adventures.

Balloon Rockets


Super Force from tracey hill on Vimeo.
Can you find my spelling mistake in the movie? Oops!
We carried out an experiment with balloon rockets.

We carefully read the instructions to set up the experiments.
Thread a straw with string.
Attach one end of the string to something.
Blow up a balloon.
Tape the straw onto the balloon.
Count down to blast off.














 We found out what happened when the balloon was filled with different amount of air.
 After we found out that the more air in the balloon the faster it travels because the force is bigger, we got to make up our own experiments.
Some things the children found out: if the force is big enough the balloon will travel upwards, if something gets in the way it will stop the force of the balloon moving, if the string isn't pulled straight there is more friction and it slows the balloon rocket down and if you have 2 balloon rockets on the same string the first one goes faster because some of the air pushes back on the second one and slows it down.

Monday, May 26, 2014

Mystery Houses

Room 8 have been working on starting their sentences in different ways. 
The Kidd-li-winks are authors. Read some of the amazing adventures.


"Wow' I said in my head when I was diving. I wondered what that beautiful thing was lying on the bottom of the ocean. Fish were surrounding the magical thing it was like an ice queens palace.The diamond looked like a chandelier diamond.

For one second I thought that it was a diamond ornament made for the ocean. There was a brown fish that looked like a piranha guarding the magical thing. Meanwhile the fish started chasing me. My flipper scraped against one of the diamonds. 

Suddenly something weird happened I turned into a piranha. I had one tail, two flippers, two eyes and sixty one scales. They showed me the revolting queen. 

The queen had two red eyes, two fangs, nine thousand scales. Within a room of dazzling diamonds there her tiaras lay. She put a tiara on and then a gown she said that she was pretty but she wasn't at all. 

When I turned around the queen noticed that I was actually a human being because one of my scales weren't brown. She chased me suddenly she stopped and started to lead me around the palace. There was a room with dazzling diamonds, with a secret door on the other side of the dazzling room. We entered the secret room there were golden crystals hanging from the ceiling.

Some how a great white shark came in with a school of sharks. We ran to the last room, we had enough time to slam the door but we didn't just slam the door we also slammed the sharks faces with the door. Then all the sharks teeth fell out. 

The queen asked me if I would like to stay. I said "No thanks". I touched the diamond and quickly swam up to the surface turning back into a human.

Written by Faith 
Faith's goal has been to break her writing up into paragraphs. Didn't she do well?

Shining through the light there was a mini diamond the colours were light blue and pearl white and it was surrounded by sea green sea weed. Finally I got to go and explore the sea. Yahoo! I saw a giat diamond house and as well a diamond door that was shining. So I swam to it and... as soon as I opened the door I saw everything. Next I saw a computer and a xbox 360 and a xbox 1. The xbox was made to control 200 fish. They could go up down left and right. So I started to control the fish. Wibble wobble the fish went into the cave. When I went to look around the place I saw a submarine. So I heard Dad yelling out loudly to me. I went into the submarine. Toot Aye! "Who is there?" shouted a lady. She had a scratchy voice. As soon as I find out who it was it actually was a man that was a doctor and a scientist. he was evil. I tried to escape but he threw me out the window. Huuuuh Huuuh I swam to the top of the sea. I could see the controlled fish!

Written by Tobias
Toby worked really hard to begin his sentences in different ways. Looks at all his different sentence starters.

"Aaaaaah!" "Max Max why did you faint at the bottom of the ocean?" "Dad dad I saw an emerald house!!" "What?" Dad and I raced to et scuba gear at he beach house. "Max do you promise you wont faint again" "I promise." We dove into the diamond freezing clear water. However the tide was going out. We began to see the diamond house more clearly. In sign language I said "I need to tell you something Dad" and I swam to the surface. I said "Did you see the fish woman?" "No what does she look like?" "Legs of a human, body of a fish, fins of a fish, arms of a human and one half of her body long ways is a skeleton." However my Dad had his emergency knife so we hid behind seaweed but the gaps in the seaweed made our faces glitter on all of the diamonds sides. "That fish women looks more than evil! She looks cruel". "When those ratbags come in we'll be ready mwoohahah" the fish woman laughed her evil laugh. "Uhh, they have barricaded the door. How are we going to get in?" "I never thought we would do this but Youch!" The door flung open. the diamonds went flying. We charged at the fish women. She had eyes on her hands. She shot purple lazer beams out of those eyes. "Dad watch out for those laser beams" I screamed. We dodged the laser. Dad threw the emergency knife at me. dad kept her busy. I found a weak spot and stabbed her. She screamed horribly and fell to the diamond floor.
Author Max 
Max has been learning to use speech marks in his writing. He did well with all the talking in this writing. 

Splish splash as the water splashed on my face. My brother said "I'm getting bored, I'm going to get out of here". When I had a swim I nearly got out until twinkle sparkle I gasped to Mum "Mum Mum I see a bright light". Mum gasped back "Go and get it. Here are some things to help you breathe under the sea." After a while there was a colossal colossal...diamond! It had a diamond door. After when I got inside a sound came from the kitchen. It was a voice calling "Emma Emma" I was terrified so I went into the kitchen but...the kitchen was red. Everything else in the diamond was blue. I was looking for the voice. I looked in the cupboards. In the largest cupboard I saw two eyes blue and red. It was a girl. She needs a bath because she smelled really really bad. Her dress was old and ranky and a a yucky brown colour. She had a name. Her name was...Bell. She had a red eye and a blue eye. Blue eye on the left and red eye on the right. She chased me out to shore and that is why I am scared of the sea.

Author Emma
Emma has been working on starting her sentences in different ways. This made her writing flow. 

"Daddy can I explore the sea?" "Ok" Ouch I stepped my foot on a glowing thing. When I stepped on top of it I thought of an idea. I could go under to get a better view of the diamond house. I saw with my big fat eye a frozen snapper in this diamond. I saw a password machine. I wondered if the password was snapper. I typed it in "Bleep blop bleep blop mi mi. You may pass". What that is unusual. Machines shouldn't talk. I wanted to get OUT because there is a lochness monster. It must have been trapped under the diamond for years. I think that I shall pull it out because I want to be a millionaire and he might want to be free, right? "Ya, I must do what I shall do". So I pulled that diamond and got what we both wanted. He was happy to be free. The diamond was pretty heavy. I gathered all of the people on the beach. I said "3,2,1 heave!". We put it on the back of a truck. This diamond could cost a fortune. We sold it to a diamond dealer. We were rich. 
Author Czar
Czar worked really hard to create an interesting ending. Isn't it a great ending?

In the distance I saw a shining sparkling thing under the water. I muttered to myself "Should I tell Mum or should I just wait?" "Umm should I tell Mum?" "Mum! Mum! Mum!, I can see a shiny sparkly thing in the water. Can I go and see what it is?" Mum said "Yes dear you can". I dived into the water. When I got there I saw a big crystal house and it was protected by sharks, dolphins, puffer fish, eels, swordfish, hammerhead sharks and turtles. It has rainbow colours all around the house. If you look closely you see little people. Finally I had to figure a way to get all of the animals to go away. I found some food for the sharks and other animals. It was some fish to give to them. They all swam away. Just then I was starting to lose my breath. However I dived back down to the diamond house. When I got there I saw a door with a password, door lock and electric door gate. I jumped over the electric door gate and found a button under a rock. I pushed it and bubble bubble bubble came out of my mouth. At last I was up to the last door. It was the pass code 19566713101113. I went into the diamond house and saw a little town with lots of little people. I found a hotel with a big sign saying 'One more bedroom for rent' so I went inside and it had everything that I needed. It was brilliant so I swam back out to ask mum if I could stay there for a few weeks. Mum answered "How can you breathe under water?" "It is protected. It has oxygen in the house". Mum asked "Where will you stay?" I said " It is a kids human sized hotel with one more room for rent and I have taken it for rent. I loved it. It has everything I need. Can I please, pretty please. When I came back I will do anything you want for as long as I have been gone." "Ok then darling" answered mum. I swam back to the hotel. 
Author Mya
Mya has been working on beginning her sentences in different ways. You can see how well she thought about this. 

Saturday, May 24, 2014

Friction

We are learning about friction. We know friction is created when 2 things rub together. 
Caitlyn and Neesha rubbing their hands together.
They felt smooth but as they rubbed faster heat was created.
Friction creates heat.  
Bowen rubbing his hands together with salt on his hands.
As you can see it is hard to rub our hands together because
the salt makes it rough.
George is explaining that the salt makes more friction
while he rubs his hands together with some difficulty.
Bailey has liquid soap on her hands and this has made her hands
slippery. There is less friction.
We had ramps that had different friction on them. We predicted what will happen when we run the cars down the different ramps.

We are learning to carry out fair tests. 
A fair test means everything needs to stay the same except for the one thing you are testing. 
We were carrying out an experiment about friction.
We could only change the friction on the ramps so the car, the height of the ramp and where we carried out our experiment had to stay the same. 




After testing all the different ramps we worked out the less friction the faster and further the car travels. The tinfoil ramps car traveled the most distance and the sand ramp traveled the least distance. 

We talked about why friction is important in many things we do everyday. 
When does friction help you? 

Friday, May 23, 2014

Sounds

We have been learning the sounds two letters together make.
 The BFG reading group have made jumping mats to learn and remember the sounds. 
They are using these sounds to help them break up words when they are reading.

The 'ou' sound like in ouch!
The 'oa' sound like in boat.
Isabella looking for the 'ai' sound.


Toby flying through the air onto the 'oa' sound.
Toby calling the sounds for Bowen to jump on.
One rule that works most of the time is, 
when two vowels go walking the first one does the talking.

The children chose one of the sounds we have been working on and created a pic collage. Knowing the sounds also help us spell many different words. 
Created by Bailey
Created by Isabella
Created by Ruby
Created by Toby

Thursday, May 22, 2014

Fair Testing

We are learning about forces.

We made ramps and let cars run down the ramps and measured how far the cars went. We changed the height of the ramp to find out if it made a difference. 
We had to keep everything else the same so it was a fair test.
We had to keep the same car and work on the same surface eg. concrete, lino, carpet. 
Isabella measuring how far the car
travelled 
Mya measuring accurately


The Ruby's testing their steepest ramp.
This car crashed every time. 


The boys worked so well together carrying
out their experiment


We found out that the steeper the ramp the further the car travels.
We also worked out if the ramp is too steep the car crashes, we thought that is why roads are not super steep for cars to drive down. 

Bowen and Logan found out the surface the car travels on changes how far the car travels.
They began their experiment on the lino and then moved to the concrete.

The car did not go as far on the concrete. The boys felt the concrete and the lino and explained to Room 8 that the bumpy concrete slowed the car down.

We learnt it was called
FRICTION 
and I think that will be our next experiment! 
Thanks boys for sharing your learning. 

Monday, May 19, 2014

Measuring Pirate Ships

The boys' measuring the height of the ship.
Our mission today was to create a pirate ship. We had some measurements we had to follow and then we could add features to the pirate ship as long as we measured them. 
We are learning to measure in meters (m) and centimeters (cm). 

We also needed to practice our working together skills.
Rana, Logan and Mya adding features
to their pirate ship. Notice how they have
labelled all their measurements.
Toby, Thomas and Jeevanjot working together to
measure the hull of their ship.
George and Teague working togther to
create their hull
The boys' deciding how long to make their mast.
Jeevanjot is looking out from the crows nest, Thomas is firing the cannon
and Toby is staring the ship. Look how huge their pirate ship is. 
George is firing the cannon and Jerome is climbing the mast.
The cannon is 1m and 50cm long.

There were amazing pirate ships measured. The photos were very difficult to take because the ships were so big. If you look on the netball courts, before it rains, you will see our ships.