Charli's forest cake

Today, Charli brought in a cake that she had made, it had realistic chocolate bark, mushrooms on the sides, and a bird resting on the top.

Isn't Charli a good cake-decorator?

Our weaving art

Today, we have started on some weaving art. It is really cool to make, as well as to look at some finished examples.Before colouring (or dying) you have to draw an outline to your masterpiece. Then, go around making those lines thicker with vivid. Dying or colouring in is easy, just look at this art!!!

These are the options to colour in, we can use hot and cold colours. We are doing either do hot colours for the koru or cold colours. It's the same for the backround. After that we are ready for weaving.Before sticking skewers in we have to cut thin strips so the paper will look like this. 

Then we can stick the skewers into the slots. Here are some with the sticks.

Look at our amazing masterpieces! Aren't they fabulous? 

They have token us all day to finish them

City Of Ember

This year, we are also reading a book called City Of Ember. It is about a girl named Lina, and a boy called Doon. They are slowly uncovering the secrets of Ember. And, to tell the truth, there are many tiny secrets of Ember. There are other characters, too.Granny, Mrs Murdo, Looper, Lizzie, Poppy, the mayor, and the guards.

The City of Ember was built for a last refuge for the human race. Two hundred years later, supplies are  running low and terrifying blackouts are sweeping through the streets,. It's only a matter of time before the lights go out and never come back on again. When Lina finds part of a secret message, she's sure it holds a clue that will save Ember. She enlists her friend Doon, and together they explore long-forgotten parts of their dying city as they race to solve the mystery. If they succeed, they will have to convince everyone to follow them into danger. But if they fail? The lights will burn out and the darkness will close in forever. It says in the blurb.

Blogmasters - Aston and Ashton

Hi, my name is Aston. I love bunnies, and cute puppies and kitties and ponies. My favourite colour is red. I think of Ashton as a nice guy with blonde hair and plates. 

Hi my name is Ashton and I have 2 kittens,Topsie and Mazie they are about 2 months old. Mazie is a white tabby, and Topsie is a domestic short hair. My favourite colour is blue.

We are this week's blogmasters.

Matariki

Today we have been learning about Matariki. Matariki is a cluster of Seven stars that appear in the night sky around now.  These stars are also known as the seven sisters.

These stars symbolize the start of the maori new year. At this time people do Kapahaka, and friends and family meet together. Some of the stars form a sort of square shape in the night sky.

On our maunga, in the background, you can see some of the seven stars glittering with colour.
   
These stars appear on most of these maunga. These stars have really used amazing affects, they look almost real! The seven sisters are celebrated all around the world and they have many myths from many countries.

World's Worst Children 2

This week, we have been listening to a bit of pod 9's book: World's Worst Children 2, written by David Walliams. The stories in this book are not only funny, but also masterpieces of writing. 

Whenever a simile (a word including as or like) comes along, we all say "Similile!" And do the same with onamatopoeia. Mr Nicolas makes funny accents for Raj the newsagent, too. We all love these stories. 

After all this, I truly do believe that David Walliams is the next Roald Dahl.

[Ashton]I love reading David Walliams books they are bestsellers and my favourite books. My favourite one is worlds worst children 1 and 2. I hope there is going to be a third worlds worst children.

SSR - Sustain Silent Reading

This year, we are doing SSR, it is silent reading after morning tea. We read chapter books. Now we have "HELL" pizza cards, when you read seven books, you get a free pizza!
 

Reading and writing

This week, pod 10 has been doing some reading, and then writing down all about the story they have read. This is a silent activity that helps us focus and understand the text.

The stories that we are reading are from school journals, mainly on level two.  You can also talk with a  partner to help you, and so you can help them.
Look at us reading!


Our plan is called a story pyramid.  You write the name of the main character on the top, two words describing the main character, three words describing the setting, four words describing the problem under that, five words describing some of the start of the story, six words describing what happened next, seven words describing what happened after that and eight words describing the solution to the problem.

With a plan like this, we surely are set up for success!

Our creation - maunga art

This term, we have also been doing our own maunga art - created by one person. These were again made by chalk and pastel. Although, this time, we had to draw a real maunga - instead of a fiction one.

These maunga have used a range of different colours, and many unique designs, one of which has a river running down from the eyes. The backgrounds of these maunga were either night or day; some even had one rising, and the other setting!
Some maunga that people had used were Taranaki, Hurupaki, Parahaki and Mania.

These maunga were once again inspired from the illustrations in the book:
"Battle Of The Mountains."

Miss Tobin

Miss Tobin, our learner teacher in pod 10, is a really nice person. She reads us "Stig Of The Dump," and is teaching us about line symmetry. Miss Tobin is amazing beyond words. She helps us make the learning experience much better, and much more fun.
Miss Tobin is one of the best learner teachers we have ever had.

Kowhaiwhai patterns

This week we have been making kowhaiwhai patterns, for our math about line symmetry.
We first fold our template paper in half.
Next, we draw half of our template.
Then, we turn the paper over, push it on the the window and trace the lines used for the other half.
Soon, we unfold the paper, and glue it onto a piece of card.
later, we cut out our shape n the card. We have now made our template.


The fun part now begins!  We trace the template on a bigger strip of paper in different ways.
Here are some of our patterns:


These kowhaiwhai patterns have either been reflected, translated or rotated. Some of these patterns show stories. The one above me (made by Kayla) means all of Kayla's whanau. Each end represents a family member of hers. The colours we have used are white, red and black.

Our Maunga Art

Through the past few weeks, Pod 10, 8 and 9 have been doing maunga art using chalk and pastel  These maunga are truly masterpieces. These maunga can be seen on the walls of the school hall.

We worked in groups of 3.  First we had to 'tutu' and try different ways to make maori designs. Then we used chalk to draw the outlines and details to form the maunga's face.


Next, we talked together in our groups about the shapes; would they be bold, smudged or even thin?

Soon we were all starting to colour in our shapes on the face of our maunga. We talked about what colours to use in our group.









Soon, we were colouring in all of the background, and moving on to doing the sky.









After a while, we had a break to show all of our maunga, and walk around to take a look.
Look at our finished maunga! don't they look wonderful!
Now we are planning for our maunga legend stories.

Look at us writing! These stories are going great!!