CRYSTAL GROWING In Room 15 three girls in the pukekos reading group read an article about growing crystals. We had the idea to make our own.To start we chose three products: Epsom salts, Sea salt and sugar.First we found an old pencil and some string and a paperclip. Then we knotted the string over the pencil and the other over to the papercilp .Then we got 3 jars and dissolved the salt, sugar and epsom salts in boiling water. We put the pencil over the jar and made sure the paperclip was in the water and that the jars were in a warm place. After a couple of weeks they hadn’t starteed to grow. After 3 more they looked a bitt more like crystals. This is what they look like now: By ELLA

Visitors from NMIT - slideshows

Tree planting at the Glen

On Tuesday 25 June Room 15 went tree planting at the Glen Reserve. We met up with Ecom and there were 4 or 5 men with high visibility jackets on.
The main man was teaching us how to plant trees. We had to dig a block of earth up with our shovels then dig the hole a bit deeper and place the tree in the hole. If the hole was deep enough we would bang the pot with the tree in it  against the shovel and it would pop out.
After all that we would place the plant back in and cover in the hole around the plant with dirt.
We spent about 2 hours doing that and I planted 15 plants.
by Jack

Groovy Graphs

In Statistics we have been learning how to gather data accurately and display it in a graph. We wanted to find out what were some of Room 15's favourite things. First we decided on our question and what categories we would have. Then we recorded our results on a tally chart. We entered our data into an online graphing programme.
We chose pie, bar, column and line graphs to display our information.

Crazy Hair Day

Room15 organised a Crazy Hair Day to raise money for the senior ski trip. Check out some of our crazy styles.

A Trip to the Theatre

 A Trip to the Theatre 

When I went to London with my dad we went to see the Lion King play at the Lyceum theatre. I decided to go with my best friend Uma. We walked in to the theatre and went up a scroll of stairs. When we got to the top we found our seats.Then the show started it was SO unexpected! All the costumes were WOW - there was an elephant, zebras, lions, and birds and 1000s more! It felt like my eyes were going to pop!!! At the end I wanted to see it all over again!! I had LOTS of fun!

By Scarlet

Netball By Laycee

This season  our school netball teams are very lucky to have  two really good coaches.There are two teams, the year 5 team and the year 6 team. Year 5s do coaching on a Tuesday and games on a Wednesday. The year 6 team does coaching on a Wednesday  and games on a Saturday. I’m in the year 5 team. We’re called the Golden Ferns and we have a pink netball. I think we’re doing really well that's why I think you should join your school netball team. 

What Is Netball?

Netball is a fun sport that has 7 positions to be played and you have to try and get a ball  in a hoop. GS means goal shoot, GA means  goal attack, C means centre, WD means wing defence, WA means wing attack and GD means goal defence. There are 5 NZ teams.

Rules

1.Half of a whole game is 7 minutes and you have a 1 minute break at half time.

2. There are always 2 subs in case someone gets hurt.

3. When you catch the ball you aren’t allowed to step only pivot.

4. When you catch the ball you are only allowed to hold the ball for  

   3 seconds.   

The Blue Guru Show

                               

    BLUE GURU    by Isha

On Monday the 17th June 2013 C.T. S  went  to  watch a catchy, cultural  dance by some people  named Parvyn and  Josh. Their show was called the BLUE GURU. The show was a Indian show.The part of India they came from was Punjab. (Punjab is my home country.) Some of the types of dances were: kathic, bell dancing, bangara and others .  Parvyn also taught us some steps and dances and did my favourite song Jahoy! Josh showed us some of the instruments like Sitar and Tabla drums.The Sitar is like a guitar but has 16 strings and a hollow circular bit. The circular bit was made out of a Gourd.(A Gourd is kind of like a pumpkin.)The clothes Parvyn was wearing was called a Punjabi suit.
 A guru is a messenger of god just like Jesus. There are 11 gurus, the tenth guru called 
Guru Gobind Singh Ji thought the eleventh guru should be a book and that's what happened. The book is the Sukmani Sahib. It is carried to the Golden Temple in Amritsar at 2.00 am every morning and taken back at 12.00pm at night. It is read by people and told while music is playing on the tabla and the harmonium. Amritsar is also called the Lake of Nectar!                                                                                  

It was extremly awesome and fantastic fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



                                                 
                                                   BLUE GURU    BY STELLA



On Monday 17.6.13 Blue Guru came to our school. Parvyn and Josh were their names. Parvyn danced and Josh talked, played the tabla drums and played the sitar. I liked it because we got to learn moves but what I didn't like was that some people got to stand up and do the moves and the rest had to sit down while doing the moves. But it was still awesome!!! Parvyn was wearing a blue and red top and red puffy pants. she also wore lots of bangles. Parvyn explained what a story dance is. It is when you do story moves in a dance. At the end we danced to a song called Jahoy. It was really fun!

Blue Guru  by Christopher.

Boom da boom boom! On Monday the 17th of June, the whole school went to the hall to see the Blue Guru show. The presenters names were Josh and Parvyn. Parvyn had 100 bells strapped on to each ankle. She could tap her feet up to 10 times a second! They  both knew music language. Josh could do music language REALLY FAST! He was pro on the drums and she was pro at dancing! Josh played drums that were called tabla drums. I think that they are the only type of drums in the world that have different tunes! They are made in Africa and have a black spot in the very middle. Josh had a guitar called a Sitar. A Sitar is made out of a type of pumpkin called gourd. A Sitar has 18 strings. ( I hope and think!) The end!

Blue Guru

Monday 17 June 2013 Blue Guru came and sung Indian songs.

A man named Josh played the tabla drums. They were talking about Indian language. Bollywood is Musical movies. Josh explained about the drums. Parvyn sung Indian songs. The school did a story dance - it was fun. Josh played the sitar. It was cool. Parvin had 100 bells on each of her feet.Their noise was loud it sounded like she had a microphone on the bells. It was amazing.Her clothes were red and blue Indian clothes. The clothes were cool. I think Blue Guru was great.

by Josh

ROMAN MACHINES

ROMAN MACHINES 

On Tuesday our class went to the Roman machines at the museum.We learnt about the history of the Romans as well as the machines.There were cranes,water wheels and military machines. The one most interesting to me was the gladiators. They were kept in cells below the arena. Then they would suit up in armour and and be and be brought out into the colosseum.They would either fight another gladiator or a lion,tiger or panther. More than 80 thousand people could fit in the colosseum! If a gladiator survived for 5 years they would be set free normally be coming rich. The colosseum still stands today as one of the most common tourist attractions in the world!

by Fergus

The catapault

On Tuesday 4th of June, Room 15 went to the Nelson Museum and looked at the Ancient Roman exhibition.  We split into groups and explored.  We all had lots of fun.  My favorite machine was a giant cage in which animals (such as lions and tigers) were kept.  Slaves would rotate some wheels and move the cage up or down.  When the cage was at the right level the doors would open and the animals would attack and fight gladiators.  The modern elevator originated from this machine.

By Laura

Post hole borer

Pulleys

Gladiators

Rolling tower

Odometer

Colosseum

Abacus

Researching and summarising

In Room 15 we have been learning how to find information and use key words to write a summary. We each chose a topic that we were interested in.

The Terror Bird -by Finn

The terror bird was one of the biggest and fiercest birds that ever walked the earth. Its scientific name is Phorusrhacos. It lived in South America.

The Royal Navy by Jasper 

In World War 2 the Royal Navy had a fleet of 160 ships. One of the most famous ships was HMS Hood. It was sunk by the Bismarck. Of the 1,418 crew only three men survived.

Oceans of Fish by Emily

Hiding beneath the ocean there are ghost nets. They disappear and they appear again.The cycle of ghost nets is sinking then rising then it begins again. When a ghost net catches dolphins, seals, fish and seabirds it soon gets too heavy and then it sinks to the bottom, then they rot away.

New volcanoes erupting underwater can affect sea life. They produce hot lava and gases that can be poisonous.

CHALLENGER 2 by Fergus

The Challenger 2 is Britain’s main battle tank .

It is armed with stabilized guns. The gun is kept steady and 

pointed at its target even when the tank turns or drives 

over rough ground. It can carry 4 soldiers and weighs 62.5 tons.

The Boston Marathon Bombing by Eva

The Boston marathon was held on April  the 15 2013. Bombs exploded at 2.49pm. Five people died and 264 got injured and one of the people that died was a police officer.The Boston Marathon was a huge Marathon and lots of people were involved in it. The people that set the bombs where two young brothers and one of them got shot because he was very guilty. The suspect was Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. The bombing went off in Boylson St, west of Copley Square, Boston, USA. The weapons were 2 presser cooker bombs made into improvised explosive devices  and a stolen pistol. Do you know anything about the Boston Marathon?      

Terrible Twin Towers Disaster

I have been researching about the twin towers for draft writing. Room 15 were learning how to pick a subject and write a summary about it. First we had to ask ourselves a few questions about our subject, then we went on you tube and wikipedia to find out the information. Here is what I found out.

The Twin Towers were constructed 1998 in lower Manhattan, New York city, USA. They were 102 metres tall and contained 22 floors, and 13.4 million square feet and cost $2,300,000,000 to build. They were the biggest towers in New York city. They were destroyed 8:48:40 AM September 11 2001 in the September 11 attacks. Al-Qaeda hijacked 2 Boeing 767 jets which resulted in 2753 deaths and 6000 or more injured!

By Jack

Room 15 Goes Gardening

Room 15 went in groups to the school garden this term. 

We were picking carrots that were many different shapes and sizes.

We made some delicious carrot juice. We also added some apple quarters to it. 

Carrot juice is finished. The results: Yum!!! :-)

by Madison and Stella

Mr. Spence

For the next 3 weeks we will have a student teacher working with Room 15 and checking out some of the cool things that Clifton Terrace School has to offer. His name is Mike Spence and he is from the University of Canterbury's College of Education. Mike is a big basketball fan, loves music, rugby, kayaking and is a keen fisherman and whitebaiter (during the correct months). Alongside teaching, Mike will also be running some lunchtime activities focused on ball skills and learning new games that involve team work and a "can do" attitude.

Rest in Peace Bubbles

Goodbye Bubbles, you were such a friendly, trusting mouse. We will miss you.

Our Place, Our School

This term we are getting to know our school environment and the people and other living things who share it. We went up to Nature's Way to sketch the noisy insects that live in our school grounds. Male cicadas make a loud clicking noise by vibrating the membranes on their abdomens.  We can hear them from our classroom.











Here are some of our sketches.