Bridge Building

Fridays are Mrs Lord days and we love Fridays! Mrs Lord always has a tremendous hands on science or technology lesson planned and we learn so much.....

We had to make a bridge that could span between two chairs and and then our bridge had to be strong enough to balance a cup on it. An additional challenge was to see how many cubes we could put in the cup and still have the bridge balanced between the two chairs.

Merepeka and Emily used a lot of tape in their design.

Daniel and Harvey really thought about the structure of their bridge.

Walter and Oliver also went for the plenty of tape approach.

Nicholas and Scott used a lot of sticks and made sure they were stuck together really well.

Polly and Sahara's bridge was quite flexible.

Caleb and Oscar had a very interesting design idea.

Neakau and Lucas worked very neatly.

Success!

Still working on that design.

This is why Neakau's and Lucas's bridge was so successful - look at the support they put in place under their bridge.

Mmmm...back to the drawing board boys...

Yes! It worked.

What a fun lesson. Some bridges worked first time and others had to be looked at again to work out what could be done to make them stronger. What a lot of learning going on.

A special visitor

Today at library time we had a special visitor from St John's Ambulance. Kirsty had some really useful things to tell us about looking out for danger. We learnt all about keeping ourselves safe at home around some of the everyday things we find there and around things like fire and poisons. We played a really terrific game called 'Spot the Danger!'.

Tick Tock

We have been looking at time. Yesterday we drew clocks on the playground with chalk and we showed the time using small sticks and big sticks for the small hands and the big hands of the clocks. Today we coloured in our own clocks and used them for telling the time in class (a much warmer activity than yesterday's!). If you would like to know more about the things we have been studying for time check out our Maths Skills Page.

Super Star Printers today...

Sophie, Nicholas, Sahara and Bella are our Super Star Printers today. Sophie and Bella are working on remembering finger spaces and they did a really good job of that today. Nicholas was just super neat today and Sahara was too. Well done Busy Bees!

Sailor the Puffer Fish

Sailor the Puffer fish visited Outram School today, with his friend Chris. We had a lot of fun learning facts about asthma.

We learnt that using a spacer with an inhaler is good for adults as well as children because more of the medicine gets into your lungs that way.

We learnt that between each use the inhaler should be shaken. One squeeze of the inhaler into the spacer should be followed by six big puffs.

We learnt that if someone has an asthma emergency that we should get someone to stay with the person to keep them calm and tell them that help is on the way. Then we should run for help. The person coming to help should bring the inhaler or take the child to their inhaler (by carrying them) if this is quicker.

The triggers for asthma are smoke, fur, cold, virus, pollen, dust mites. Here are some of our lovely juniors holding up the triggers so we can help Chris sing a song about them.

I think we all learnt a lot today.

El Gregoe

We got our week off to another great start with a visit from El Gregoe and his magic show.

El Gregoe makes birds appear out of nowhere!

He really had the crowd going.

He had us up and hopping...

and crying with laughter, using Angus one of our seniors, as a ventriloquist's dummy!

We loved his dinosaur puppet.

The trick he did with Luke, from Room 4, was quite something...

He was balanced between two chairs...

..then El Gregoe took one of the chairs away and Luke stayed in the air  with just his head balanced on a chair. We were amazed!

El Gregoe had an important message for us too and talked about treating each other with respect and kindness. He said that if we came across any bullying we should use our WITS. WITS stands for:

• Walk away from the trouble
• Ignore the bully - don't let the bully see they are bothering you
• Tell someone like a parent, a friend or a teacher
• Stop - tell the bully firmly to stop what they are doing

Thanks El Gregoe that is some good advice, oh and a terrific show too! 

Letter Home Week 8

Dear Room 3 Friends

I wanted to touch base with you all as the term is rushing by; hard to believe that we are in Week 8 already.

The class have adjusted very well to having a new teacher and some new routines to boot and we are ticking along quite nicely. The Wednesday to Wednesday homework routine seems to be working well and having Library Day on Wednesday means that we only have the one significant day to remember.

I have been blogging much of our Room 3 Learning Adventures and have been putting some extra information on there too including some profiles of our Senior Student Buddies from Year 7 & 8. Please feel free to pass on the blog address to friends and family who do not live close by and feel free to add comments. The blog address is https://room3busybee.blogspot.co.nz/

If anyone has concerns small or large,  or if you need to check in with me about anything I am happy to make myself available before or after school. You can contact me on julieg@outram.school.nz Hope you enjoy the rest of our wonderfully crisp Winter term and that the holidays, when they come, are restful and reviving.

Julie Grace

What is happening at lunch time?

So what is there to do at lunch time at Outram School.....? Well there is always a bit of tree climbingng,

More Busy Bees in the trees.

What a great place to be!

But what else is there? Well everyone is welcome in the library - you can curl up with a book, play one of Mrs B's board games or do a bit of sketching.

What's going on here? 

Ted and Luke, two of our Year 8 boys, are busy at Robotics club. This is something for any budding Room 3 robotics enthusiasts to look forward to when they get to Year 4 and beyond.

Here Ted and Luke are working on a Mindstorm Segway that they have built and programmed themselves.

Matariki in Room 3

mch.govt.nz

Matariki is celebrated by some iwi this year on the 15th June (some iwi may wait till the rising of the next full moon or the dawn of the next new moon to celebrate). The date for Matariki changes from year to year.

We are learning about Matariki this week in Room 3 by looking at some of the Matariki myths and stories, creating some art work, writing poems and decorating our class room.

Matariki means 'Little Eyes' and it is the Maori name for the constellation of stars also known as Pleiades. Matariki is also the name for the star at the centre of this contsellation with the surrounding stars being named Tupu-ā-nuku, Tupu-ā-rangi, Waitī, Waitā, Waipunā-ā-rangi and Ururangi. There are many different myths and stories surrounding this constellation within Maori culture and in cultures around the world.

Traditionally Matariki was a time to celebrate the harvest (particular birds and fish are easily harvested at this time of year) and to celebrate the beginning of the new year. It is still a time for family gatherings, feasts and story telling. 

A visit from The PlayHouse Theatre Company

This week got off to a fantastic start today with a visit from The PlayHouse Theatre Company. They were putting on a show called 'Robin Red Riding Hood'.

There was singing,

and dancing,

and lots of laughing!

there was even Big Bad Wolf!

When we went back to class we shared some news. This jumper that Lucas is wearing was knitted by Lucas's Mum and Lucas. Lucas knit the arms and it is pretty perfect! Well done - what a great Mother-son project. 

We wrote some stories about the play.

This is Oscar's story.

This is Oliver's story.

Library Time in the Allen Centre

As well as being homework day, Wednesday is our Library Day. We love our time in the Allen Centre with Mrs Bremner. We have free choice time where we can draw...

Choose books...

and learn really interesting new things. At the moment we are learning about brains; this is a neuron.

We made our own neurons from pipe cleaners, straws and pompoms.

Here they are!