Thursday 30 June 2016

June Calendar Challenge

Frogs are fascinating!
Did you know...There are approximately 4,740 species of frogs around the entire world. Unfortunately, about 120 amphibian species, including frogs, toads and salamanders, have disappeared since 1980.

Our poor Tabasara Robber Frog is CRITICALLY endangered. 
There are 4 at most left in the world :(

Note: Annabelle is Elsje-Lee in disguise!

Click this link to find out about NEW ZEALAND FROGS!

Monday 20 June 2016

When 2 vowels go walking...

VOWEL PAIRS

Recently a few of us realised we had forgotten which letters are vowels. We need to know which letters are vowels and which are consonants to help us with our spelling rules.

So here they are. Drum roll please...
a e i o u and sometimes y

Vowels are very special letters. 
  • They are found in every word.
  • They have a long sound and a short sound (we call these their full name and their nickname). Vowels are so clever they make a number or other sounds as well and they even swap sounds with each other sometimes.
  • They sometimes like to walk in pairs. This video is about what they do when they go walking (most of the time but not always). We just love it!


Our Kingdom Kid in June

We love this girl!


Amber's certificate says:
Amber is an all-round Kingdom Kid. She is respectful, diligent, displays integrity and is kind. Amber is the type of person you want on your team. She shows leadership. She is cooperative and fair. She is just great.

Thursday 9 June 2016

Ed. A guy who never actually says his own name.

CHUNKY MONKEY WORD ENDINGS
We have been loving the three sounds of ED over the last few weeks. We have clever tricks to work out if he says 'id', 't' or 'd'.

Here is a video we particularly like.



Some of our clever tricks!!!

Wednesday 1 June 2016

Cross country - We love mud!

Pre-mud
Spot the monkeys!


And we're off! 
A big congratulations to all but a special 'big ups' to Joshua and Annabelle who placed... sorry you will have to wait till the prize giving to find out where :)

Autumn Stories

Today we say good bye to autumn and hello to winter. To celebrate the season of autumn here are our autumn leaf stories that we wrote during the delicious season of autumn.
Autumn
Autumn leaves are crunchy and colourful. They fall so beautifully, like ballerinas in the breeze. Fluttering, twirling, dancing. They don’t make a sound when they fall down on the ground.
By Amber

Autumn leaves, they, like bird’s wings, flutter. They whisper on their way. They whirl, they twirl, they dance. They make me feel like bursting with happiness. Blazing fire. Burning lightning. They smell like black nutrients.
By Amelia

Green, yellow, red and brown. What lovely leaves. What about a purple leaf? Yes, they are perfect, too. Autumn leaves smell really good. They feel like a bite of crunchy potato chips. They look like a colourful rainbow. They make me smile.
By Annabelle

When the leaves fall in a pile I burst with joy because we can play in it. Jump, jump, I like to jump. Wow! Look at the leaves. They are very colourful. They twirl beautifully in the air. They look so pretty as they fall to the ground.
By Azaria

One day, I saw a leaf. It was outside on the ground. Then one of my friends picked it up. She took it to her classroom. She put it with the other ones. It was fun jumping in the pile of leaves. The smell of the leaves was a lot like mint. Down, down, yellow and brown. The leaves are falling over the school.
By Elsje-Lee

I love autumn leaves. They are fun. They make me smile and they are cool to play with. They look like burning leaves. They flutter around me and it makes me laugh.
By Harrison

I love all the beautiful autumn leaves. When they fall on the ground they fall like a crashing plane. They smell disgusting but their colours are stunning. They feel rough and fragile.
By Joshua

The leaves look like they are dancing around the trees to guard them so the trees will not lose any of their leaves at all. But their dance does not work. All of the leaves fall down. All the leaves have gone. The trees are sad and lonely.
By Leo

I like autumn leaves. The leaves are falling down from the tree. They smell like fire. The leaves are orange and red and lovely.
By Mele

As I fall from my tree, I fall down, down, over the town. I see some boys chatting and some piles of leaves below. I slowly land in one of them. My tree feels lonely. I am the last leaf to leave.
By Micah

I like leaves. I like autumn. Leaves on the ground look like an ocean. This one looks like a stingray and when I drop it, it flies. Autumn is filled with seas of leaves. Autumn gold is playful.
By Peter

I know that leaves change colour. Then they fall to the ground. When some leaves fall to the ground they fly. They fly in the breeze. Then they go crunch.
By Rafael

Down, down, yellow and brown. The leaves are falling in a pile. It feels like my heart will burst with happiness! The leaves smell like mint and feel soft. They look like the blazing sun. They look beautiful.
By Ruby

Leaves, leaves, our beautiful leaves. They twirl and dance and flutter around. They fly like a bird with a broken wing. They try to stay connected to the tree but the tree sadly lets them go. “Goodbye”, says the tree with a tear. “I will see you again next spring.”
By Samuel

Leaves blowing through the air. They are fun to play with. They smell like an old man’s shoe and they look like the maple leaf on the Canadian flag. The leaves are very rough.
By Sophia

The leaves change colour. They fall from the trees. Some float and drift from side to side. They are fun to play in. When we step on them they rustle. The colours of the autumn trees are yellow, orange, red and brown and that is the colours of autumn.
By Toby

Rub on the leaves one by one. Some are smooth. Some are sharp. They fall over the town. They fall like ballet dancers spinning and rocket ships crashing.
By Tristan

May Calendar Challenge

Here are all our Calendar Challenge entries except for Samuel's. He was exploring the world when we took this photo.
Our animal was a tricky one this time. There were four different birds entered that people thought it could be. Three of the options looked pretty close but the actual bird was a SECRETARY BIRD.

People got really creative this month! Annabelle made a video entry because presenting is her strength (see video below).


Rafael loves creating and one of his strengths is kindness. He loves to share, so he made little birds for us to eat!

Rafael shares his entry in our Calendar Challenge show. He used great eye contact!
Super cute! You worked hard Rafael.


It is so cool to see people using their talents.

A SPECIAL VISITOR WITH A MESSAGE

Recently we had a special visitor. When he arrived we were so quiet he did not even notice we were there. He got a bit of a fright when he did! Once he noticed us he started to tell us about his sock. It blew away in the wind and we went with him on a journey to find it!



Ronald McDonald taught us to watch out for sneaky driveways and how to cross a road.

Stop,
look

and listen
before you cross the
street.
Use your eyes
and use your ears
before you use
your feet!



It was so funny. Ronald McDonald found his sock. The sock had been on Ronald McDonald's back the whole time.