Close Encounters With a Butterfly Wing

Following out visit to the Otago Museum and butterfly house, Mrs Wood showed us some close up photos of the patterns and colours in a butterfly's wing.  We used these as an inspiration for some fabulous art work.  What do you think of our interpretations?Close Encounters With a Butterfly's Wing on PhotoPeach

Yellow Poem - by Lil Hermione

Yellow is the buttercup blowing in the backyard
Yellow is the lemon falling onto the grass
Yellow is a beautiful star twinkling in the sky
Yellow is the sand blowing in the wind
Yellow is the colour of the sun shining upon the sea
Yellow makes me feel happy inside

Yellow Poem - by Maddie

Yellow is like a ripe banana sitting in my fruit bowl
Yellow is sun shining on me
Yellow is a diamond buried in the ground
Yellow makes me feel like an angel in the sky 

El Gregoe the Magician - by Ben

Ben has been working on the goal of adding adjectives and verbs to make his writing more interesting.  How many can you spot?
On Tuesday I went to a show.  It was called "You've Got The Power Show".  It was a magic show.  El Gregoe was a magician.  My favourite bit was when he showed us some cloths and then he put them in a box.  Next out came an adorable looking picture of cloths.  It was a picture of a sun with a border around it.  I really enjoyed El Gregoe's wonderful show.  

Yellow Poem - by Peter

Yellow is the flicker of the flames glowing in the dark
Yellow is the nectar in the flowers
Yellow is the sun glistening down on Earth 
Yellow is the stars twinkling in the dark
Yellow is the colour of sparkling gold
Yellow makes me happy 

Pony Rides at the School Fair - by Tia

My favourite bit at the fair was the pony ride because it was fast.  At first I was scared because I wasn't sure about it.  I was wearing the biggest helmet.  I thought I was going to fall off but I was being silly because I was wrong I didn't fall.  My pony was a big pony.  It had big eyes.  It was so loud because it had a big voice.  I had to sit on the biggest seat.  It was amazing!

The Ponies at the School Fair - by Samantha

Samantha has been learning to use verbs and adjectives in her writing to make it more interesting.  Can you spot any in this piece of writing?
When Mum was in the book shop at the school fair dad and I crept away.  I went on the baby pony.  My head was wobbling all over the place because I had the biggest helmet on like Tia.  I had Nothings sandals on and my shoes almost fell off but I managed to keep them on.  Then the ride was over and dad and I went off to find mummy.  I had an awesome day.

Our First Guest Blog Writer

Tawhiao is in room 17 at our school.  He has been working on using full stops and capital letters and making sure his sentences make sense.  When he popped into room 9 today to show us his writing, we were so proud of him that he had achieved his goals.  

Today we went to the power show.  I liked it.  It was fun.  The dog bit was fun.  The song was Who Let the Dogs Out.

More Fair Photos

More Fair Photos on PhotoPeach

Another Maths Problem For You To Try

We had a staff meeting today and we were talking about maths displays.  I thought I'd try out another type of digital maths display using tens frames as this is what we use in our class.  On the first slide, record how you would solve this problem.  Click on the 'Comment' button and if you are on a laptop with a microphone then click on the 'microphone' button and start speaking.  If you can't use a microphone click on the 'type' button and write how you would do it.  On the second slide record what the number would be if you added ten more.  It would be great if lots of viewers tried this as I would love to see if it works well.

Yellow Poem - by Alex

Alex has been working on the goal of adding verbs and adjectives to make his writing interesting.  I thought he did a fabulous job of achieving his goals in this poem.  What do you think?

Yellow is the sun striking down on the beautiful planet Earth
Yellow is daisies blooming in the sun
Yellow is paint getting stroked from a brush
Yellow makes feel happy inside

Yellow Poem - by Brylie

Brylie has been working on writing 5 complete sentences for her goal.  In the last couple of weeks Brylie has suddenly taken off with her writing and is writing heaps more.  We are so very proud of her achievements with her writing.

Yellow is a star beaming up in space
Yellow is a lemon squirting so sour juice
Yellow is the sun glittering on plants
Yellow is an autumn leaf gliding in the wind
Yellow makes me stunned inside

Red Poem - by Devon

Devon is currently working using words that paint pictures for her readers.  She is trying to choose her adjectives and verbs carefully.  What do you think of her poem?

Red is a top waiting for someone to wear it
Red is a flame of a burning camp fire
Red is c lock ding dong
Red is a drink bottle someone is slurping it up
Red makes me feel happy dancing along.

Our School Fair

On Saturday we had our school fair. These photos capture some of the wonderful times that we had, however watch this space for some of the children's impressions of it.
All the Fun at the Fair on PhotoPeach

We are learning to solve problems in a variety of different ways.  How would you solve this problems?  Click on the record button and begin speaking.

Red Poem - Written and read by Brylie

Brylie has been working on a goal of writing independently and as part of our Colour My World inquiry learning wrote a poem about the colour red.  Room 9 is very proud of Brylie as she did this on her own and we think it paints amazing pictures in our minds.  We hope you enjoy listening to her reading it.

My Favourite Thing to Do - by Zane

In writing time, Zane has been working on a goal of writing 5 sentences independently.  He has had to make sure they have capital letters, a full stop and make sense.  Zane is going to read out what he has written - we are SO proud of him achieving his goal!

Red - By Bayliss

Our class is now well under way with our inquiry topic called Colour My World.  As part of this we did a word association to do with the colours of the rainbow - e.g. what is the first thing you think of when you think of the colour red.  We then talked about how different colours make us feel differently.  We thought it would be fun to write some poems using a simple sentence structure.  Over the next few days we will post some of these up.  The following poem was written by Bayliss


Red is a strawberry ready to be eaten
Red is a balloon going side to side in the air
Red is blood dripping down the wall in a horror movie
Red is a beautiful bird gliding in the sky
Red is the eyes of a spooky black spider
Red is the colour making me cosy in my bed
Zzzzz!

Butterflies at the Museum - by Alex

Holy Moley! I couldn't believe my eyes, it was a miracle; butterflies were everywhere. I wandered up some stairs I had never seen before and at the top I saw a bridge. I slowly walked across it and I very slowly looked around then something caught my eye. It was hiding in some giant leaves. It looked like a green slug but it was gecko. Then I walked off the bridge and walked right and walked down the stairs. I went back to the start and the place looked like paradise.

Butterflies at the Musuem - By Karen

Today we went to the gardens.  There was butterflies and one landed on my head and Mrs Wood took a photo for my story.  I know butterflies like flowers and I don’t know what else.  Then a butterfly landed on my hair and its colour was black and a wee bit white.  The butterflies float everywhere.  Then I saw a big moth.  It was huge.  Then I went down to see the turtles.

By Karen – March 2011

Butterflies at the Musuem - By Ethan

Ethan has been working on a goal of writing 5 sentences and using capital letters and full stops.  This would be his best writing ever and I am very proud of not only the amount of writing that he has done but also the way he has put his sentences together.  It would be lovely if you could write him some comments to encourage him - Mrs Wood :)

Room 9 went to the butterfly museum.  When we got into the glowing bit, I was glowing, then we went through the door.  There was lots of butterflies flying around the room.  I went up the stairs and halfway across the glass bridge.  Then if you looked down there was a Tuatara.  It was green; green like slime.  It was amazing!  Wow I thought.  Then it was time to go.  Back through Discovery Worlds, then back to school.  When we got back to school, it was home time.  Then I went home.  When I got home I got out my motorbike and had a ride on it.  Then I put it back and then I dressed into my dow-back.  Then I went to taekwondo.


Butterflies - By Ethan on PhotoPeach

Walking into the Butterfly House - By Billy

Billy has been working on adding adjectives and verbs to his writing to make it more interesting to read.  He has also worked very hard on stretching out his sounds as he writes and because of this he is starting to use much bigger words - which is really exciting to see.

When I first went into the butterflies I felt a hot breeze come right at me.  When I saw lots of colour on the butterflies I was amazed.  A blue and black beautiful butterfly went straight on my hand.  There were lots of butterflies when I went into the butterflies part of the museum.  There were lots of different types and there were lots of colourful ones.  I walked up the stairs and then I went across the slippery bridge.  When I went across I saw this amazing butterfly.  It was colourful and it had purple and grey wings.  It was on a tray eating butterfly foods.  There lots of bright butterflies.  


Amazed by Butterflies - By Billy on PhotoPeach

The Fountain - By Oliver

Our class recently went to the Otago Museum to learn about colour.  When we were there we got to go inside the butterfly house.  I asked the children to write about a 'moment' rather than a whole recount of our trip.  This is Oliver's lovely piece of writing - his goal was to add adjectives to make his writing interesting - post him a comment to tell him how you think he did.


When we went to the gardens we went to this beautiful fountain.  When I touched the waterfall it felt nice and cold.  The fountain was really lovely.  The water would fly out then give way and fall down.  I wished I could have drunk the whole thing because it looked so nice.  I would like it in my back yard.  I like it more than the colourful flowers.  I wanted to stay there forever but we had to go.   




The Butterfly House Fountain on PhotoPeach

How Cool! - Marcel is in Bali

Marcel - one of our class member's in is Bali at the moment.  He sent us this letter and photo

Hi room 9,

I am having a great time in Bali.  I have been swimming every day because the weather is very hot, its always 30 degrees.

Last week we went to a Temple and I held a python which was about 4 metres long, it was very heavy! My Mum was really scared, I will send photos.

I also fed some bats which were hanging up-side-down by their feet.

It rains alot here and there are great thunder storms, they are so cool.  In the house we are staying in there is a roof garden and rice fields all around us.

Yesterday we went to the beach and I did some boogie boarding.  Next weekend we are going snorkelling.

Here are some photos of our trip yesterday.

Bye Room 9 and a special’ HI’ to Nick.

From Marcel

My Lunch Box - By Katie

I once opened my lunch box and there staring at me was humungous, hairy, jet black spider!  It’s beady red eyes staring straight at me.  I instantly dropped my lunch box in fright and raced off squealing!  I glanced back to see that the spider had crawled out and started terrorising others.  Everyone let out an ear-piercing scream!  The spider covered its ears.  I examined my lunch box and there were charcoal hairs all over the place.  The spider let out a loud hiss, which I recall must have been a call for help because in one millisecond there were a number of spiders coming out of the drains.  Someone screamed, “attack of the mad spider!”  Suddenly a humungous, fury, chalk white, cat with a pitch black patch over one eye appeared in front of me.  Her tail brushed against my skin.  It was oh so fluffy.  The spiders froze, then quick as a flash, they scurried away back into the drains – that is all of them except the one that was in my lunch box!  The cat crept forward and let out a loud hiss.  The spider let out a squeaking noise and scuttled off as if someone had chopped its leg off.  The cat walked away smartly.  Everyone clapped and cheered while someone put a daisy chain around her neck.  I didn’t want to eat from my lunch box so I snuck away as the cat pranced down the street.  I dumped the lunch box in my bag.  When I got home I emptied out the lunch box and threw it in the sink and thought about what I been through.  I was very thankful that the cat had come.  Deep in thought, I sat down on the fluffy, pink couch at the side of the room.  I let out a peaceful sigh as I ate a Gingernut cookie.  I wandered into my bedroom , hopped into  bed and lay there.  Life is so peaceful I thought as I drifted off.  

SWIMMING - BY Kayla

On Wednesday room 9 and 10 went to the swimming pool.  First we went on a bus to get there.  Then we got into groups.  Group three went into the wave pool first and group two went in swimming lessons first.  After groups we got into the pool.  My group played penguin.  Amaya won.  When group two were in the wave pool we were having a really really exciting water time.  I bet group two were having a stunning time too.  After having a good time in the pool it was time to head off so we got changed and jumped back in to the bus.  The pool the next day was amazing because we got to have a little bit of shower water.  That shower water was freezing so I swam away from it.  We took a board and set off whirling and zooming around the river.  We also did some.  We went into the lessons pool  I think I did well.  When we were in the pool waiting for a turn of backstrokes I went under the water.  After taking my swimming lessons it was time to go so we got out and went down to the girls changing room.  Then Mrs Marshall came told me how good I was at my backstrokes then I feeled good.  So then we went back on the bus and went back to school.  WE HAD FUN!

SWIMMING - By Maddie

On Monday room 9 and 10 went to Moana pool.  I was so excited about it.  First I was in the wave pool.  The vae pool was so warm.  Kayla and I where floating in the rapid river.  The rapid river was bubbling all around.  When I jumped under the water I could see feet and lots of bubbles.  I had my lesson.  I learnt new skills.  One skills was you tapped on each hand and kicked.  After we played a game of penguin.  Penguin is a game where one person shouts out some words and if they say penguin you jump in the water and swim back.  Last one back has to sit down.  It was awesome.

Room 9 Plays The Recorder

R9 Recorder from Ali Caldwell on Vimeo.