Gingerbread House Demolished.

After lunch, we demolished our gingerbread house, instead of eating our usual brain food.  There was very little left after only five minutes of nibbling.

Next stop:  Year Four. 
All the very best to everyone in Room 18.

Christmas Shared Lunch

Room 18 had a shared Christmas lunch on the last Wednesday of the school year.  There was a fabulous variety of party food, thanks to the parents.  We also were able to wear our Christmas cracker hats instead of sun hats at lunch time if we wanted, just for that day.

 

Weka Water Fight

Water fights are just about the only kind of fighting that is allowed at Cockle Bay School, and then it is just once a year!  Room 18 challenged Room 1, then Room 2 and lastly Room 3.  At the end we could roam anywhere on the field shooting whoever we liked, including the teachers!

The armoury.

Gingerbread House Mark II (the eating kind)

The next day we decided to make a much smaller gingerbread house, one we could eat!  We used tin cans to stabilise the four corners of the house, and then glued on the two roof sections using thick sugar icing.  Decorating the house with lollies was the most enjoyable part, and everyone had a go.
Kate O brought a milk chocolate cow for the garden.  The cow had lolly mushrooms and m&m flowers to eat.  (This was before Kate ate the actual cow itself!)

Ken made the icing.

We colour coded the lollies. 

Mathew S helped to erect the walls, 

Ayan and Grace tiled a section of the roof.

Our gingerbread house, complete with chimney.

Kate's cow making herself at home in the garden.

Gingerbread House

Room 18 made a big gingerbread house for Christmas.  First we painted the big cardboard box Mrs Bear's new dishwasher came in.  We used several coats of brown paint to cover all the signage on the box.  Mr Want loaned us a big stanley knife to cut a door that could open and shut.  Next we attached candy canes to the outside walls using wire.  We glued all kinds of lolly wrappers to the walls as well.  Then it was time to make the solar light.  We filled a water bottle with water and stuck in through the roof, so that half was on top of the roof catching the sunlight, and half was inside lighting the inside of the gingerbread house.  People who live in shanty towns with no electricity use this technology to light their homes as well.

We left our gingerbread house outside by our library so that we could share it with other children as a kind of Christmas present to the Cockle Bay.  Here are some Year 1 and 2 people taking a look at Morning Tea.

Maui and the Fish

Our last piece of Visual Art we have been doing in Room 18 has been of Maui to illustrate our re-tellings of the famous Maori myth, Maui and the Fish.  You can read all our narratives on the Writing page, but here is a sample:

Here is  the re-telling of "The Fish of Maui" by Kaleb.

Letters to our favourite toys

When we had our the Weka open morning, we were writing a letter to our favourite toy.  Now that these letters are published, you can read them on the Writing page.  Here is one for you to enjoy:

A letter to Vera from her old friend, Catise

My Dad descriptions

Many families read the descriptions of our Dad on Room 18's classroom window at the FAM-tastic Night, but you can also read them on our class blog on the Writing page.  Here is a sample to get you going!

Brooke's Dad

Maui and the Fish

In Room 18, we have been learning about myths and fairy tales.  We are doing plays about Little Red Riding Hood and re-telling the Maori myth, Maui and the Fish.  We have been tracing and painting pictures of Maui to illustrate the re-telling of the myth we have been doing in Writing.

Term 4 Swimming

In December, it is warm enough to have Term 4 swimming.  Room 18 goes swimming every Monday before morning tea.  We have a combination of free play and novelty races.

Snow storm at Cockle Bay

Oh, oh, temperatures plunged as a freak snow storm hit Cockle Bay.  As we shivered, we asked the question, "Could it have been something to do with Science Club?"

Mufti with a "C'

For mufti this term, everyone could dress as someone or something that starts with 'C'.  Next year we will be having the next Cockle Bay Carnival, so it was good to be reminded of the importance of 'C'!

Not so silly photoshoot.

Pretty silly photo shoot

Get Wise with Money

ASB came to Cockle Bay to teach us about money.  We call this Financial Literacy.   One of the things we did was a role play about EFPOS, and how you can use your own money to credit and debit your EFPOS card.

Wheels Day

On Wheels Day, everyone is allowed to bring something with wheels to play on at morning tea and lunchtime.  In Room 18, we brought bikes, scooters, remote controlled vehicles, wheelies and meeowsies.  As with the culture parade, Room 18 did Statistical Maths to find out how many people people had brought what.

A special thank you to our class councillors who made Wheels Day posters and also helped to supervise riders on the day.

The CBS Culture Parade

It is interesting to discover how many different ethnicities we have at Cockle Bay School.  Students come from a vast number of different countries.  To celebrate this, it was decided to have a Culture Parade.  Everyone, students and teachers, could come to school dressed in ways to demonstrate country.  After we had shared our cultures in our classrooms, the whole school had a parade around the filed before morning tea.

Later on, in Maths we did cultural statistics.  We collected our data, displayed on a bar chart as well as a pice chart, and then wrote sensible sentences about what we could see.

The CBS Robot Challenge

To finish the Robots Rule theme, every class completed a robot challenge.  The robot challenge in Room 18 was to design and build a robot that could carry a Christmas card to a buddy.  We worked in small groups, and used recycled materials from home, simple circuit equipment such as battery packs, motors, buzzers, fans and leads.  Some people also used conductive play dough and LED lights,

After we had designed, built and tested our robots, we were able to walk around the school and visit other classes to see what they had done.

Robot Demonstration

We were very lucky in Rooms 18 and 19, because we were the only people in the whole school who had a robot demonstration.  Mr McCloughen brought a robot from his factory and set it up in Room 18  to show us how it worked.  

Through questions and answers, we found out that more and more robots are being used in different industries to do all sorts repetitive dangerous or difficult jobs that help humans, such as lifting heavy boxes and fitting precise fixtures in place over, and over and over again.  

The hard part for humans is to make computer programmes that are precise enough to instruct the robot exactly what to do.  It was interesting to think that robots can work all night in the dark and can send a text to their human supervisor on their mobile phone if they have a technical problem.  

After his demonstration, some people were able to have a go at instructing it themselves.  

Electrical Circuits

In our theme, Robots Rule, was have been learning about electrical circuits and robotics.  We have been learning that circuits need to be closed so that the electrical charge can flow.

We made our own simple electrical circuits using the components from Brain Box and squidgy circuits, where you use conductive play dough instead of electrical wire.