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=Welcome to the Wiki of 4b = =media type="custom" key="6360401" align="right" =

Greetings to all people who have an interest in the children in room 4b at Wakaaranga School!
Wiki's are new to me and may be new to you as well so we can learn about them together. My motivation for setting up this wiki is to provide the children in my class with a place to put their great writing that can be accessed by you. In my opinion the best writing is done for a purpose and has an audience. The writing you read will be as your child has written it. Please ignore the mistakes, at times we will go back and correct the work but not always. It would be great if you could read your child's work with them and celebrate the great things they have done and maybe give them some ideas about how they could make it even better!

//Wendy Morgan (class teacher)//

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15.2.10

Guess what! Today Yusuf bought Truffles the Wuffles to school for us to look at. We were able to pat Truffles and learnt all about him. We started to write descriptive sentences on our Wiki pages.

Shelley and Lana came to visit us from the SPCA and told us interesting things about her job and how we can look after our pets.

19.2.10

This morning we had a fabulous assembly. Thanks to all the parents who came to watch and a big thank you to Kurt's mum who made all our mouse ears. Regan, Yue Duo and Lucas were fantastic presenters. Well done everyone.

22.2.10 Maddison had a big surprise when she came to school on Monday! At our assembly on Friday, which she missed, her name was drawn out of a box by Mrs Warburton and she won last years assembly animal to keep for ever! Waka Winnie is nearly the same size as her! 24.2.10 We have created some amazing crayon and dye pictures about Hairy Maclary and all his friends.

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​5.3.10 While I was absent on a course yesterday 4b with the help of Mrs Cairns and Miss Naughton made some fantastic sock puppets to go with their dog poems. The floor was littered with paper and the hot glue guns were smoking but the end results were worth all the effort. Well done everyone!

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Our trip to the Howick Historical Village
What an enjoyable day we had today at the Howick Historical Village. The sun was shining and all the children looked great in their 'olden day' clothes - thanks everyone for making such an effort to dress up and look the part for our day back in time. A big thank you also to our helpers - Mrs Soutar, Mrs Stanley (Ryan's grandma) and our American teaching students Miss Naughton and Miss Perrone, we wouldn't have had such a fantastic time without your help. Everyone was well behaved and saw lots of interesting things from New Zealand in the 1850's. Below are some pictures taken during our trip - can you see yourself?

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15.3.10
====What a big surprise the children had today! Ronald McDonald came to school and spoke to us all about road safety. He reminded us to look out for sneaky drive ways and walk smartly along the footpath and pedestrian crossing. He lost one of his red and white stripey socks because it was such a windy day and we all had to help him look for it.====



19.3.10 Making Pegdolls
Another busy afternoon in 4b. Thanks to the parents who provided material to help us make our pegdolls. A special thank you to Kurt's mum, Lenny's mum and Jimi's mum who came to help us put our pegdolls together, they were tricky to make. Luckily our buddy class (5c) came and helped as well. Miss Naughton and Miss Perrone were also great at helping us make our dolls. Don't they look terrific!

media type="custom" key="5672275" =Miss Naughton= We were all very sad that Miss Naughton had to leave our class on Friday to return to America. She has been working with us for the past 7 weeks and we have done some amazing things with her. We have really appreciated her cheerful bubby personality and her enthusiasm for teaching. We wish her a safe journey home and hope that she keeps in touch with us via this wiki.

media type="custom" key="5738657" =​ Note from Miss Naugton= Hello everyone! Before I left New Zealand I went to Queenstown and it was beautiful there. We went on a jet boat ride. It was very fast, and did lots of spins in the water. The next day, Miss Perrone and I went sky diving. I was scared, but it was a lot of fun. I made it home safely. It took 3 days of flying and waiting in airports to get there. Now I am student teaching in a year 5 class, which we call 4th grade. Next week, I will give the letters that you wrote to the students here, so these 4th grade students can write back to you. It is spring time here and it is very warm now. There is a lot of rain but we always say “April showers bring May flowers” so hopefully we will have lots of beautiful flowers next month. I hope everyone had a happy Easter! I miss you all. -Miss Naughton =Look at us learning to play hockey!= Today (Thursday 1 April) Hemmet and Danielle came to school to teach us some hockey skills. First we had a warm up and when our hearts were racing we learnt to hit and dribble the ball. Finally we had a mini game, it was a lot of fun.

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=**Welcome back to Term 2. I hope that everyone had a great break and are ready for a very busy term. You will have noticed in our syndicate newsletter that our new topic is kitchen chemistry. Remember if your child has any food allergies I need to know about please send a note to school. Last week we made popcorn and below are the steps that we took. I think everyone really enjoyed eating the popcorn more than making it! Today we made jelly, it was really easy and tasted great.**= = media type="custom" key="5957681" = =media type="custom" key="5957735" =

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The children have been lucky enough to have four soccer sessions with Ben (Mrs Clotworthy's soccer playing son) in the last two weeks. The class have really enjoyed the experience and learnt lots of new skills. It was obvious to see which children played weekend soccer but there were a few surprises in the class as well. Below are some pictures of the children in the hall being taught some skills and practicing what they had learnt.====== media type="custom" key="6255283"

**Our trip to the Auckland Museum on Monday 31 May**
Today we had a fantastic visit to the Auckland Museum to have a look around, visit the Weird and Wonderful room and do some learning about dinosaurs and fossils in the museum classroom. It would not have been such a good day without our fantastic parent helpers, so a big thank you to Lenny's mum, Kurt's mum, Jimmy's mum, Alex's mum and Yusuf's dad. Here are some pictures of what we did and saw.

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Wow! What an amazing day was had by all. Thank you to all the parents for helping your children dress up for the day - everyone in the class had a costume and they are looked fabulous. Have a look at the photos and I'm sure you will agree with me!
 * Book Character Parade Friday 4 June**

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A fabulous night was had by all the children who attended the school disco. A big thank you to the PTA for organising such a fun event. Can you find yourself or your friends in the pictures below?
 * School Disco - Friday 25 June**

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Wow! Look at this great video I found on the internet with a chameleon and a snake.
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 * 2.7.10**
 * Yesterday the Year 2 children had a very enjoyable informal concert in the music room. It was a great chance for everyone to share their talent with their friends and teachers. We also had some certificates for special people and Mrs Grantham took us for a Jump Jam to finish.**

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Our first topic for this term is Wheels. Like a wheel a marble will roll so we have designed and are making marble runs using the boxes and tubes the children have brought in. Yesterday the children had a lot of fun and a bit of frustration trying to make their plans. We will be working on our marble runs again next week. Here are some photos of the children working on their marble runs. A big thank you to Mrs Soutar who stayed and helped us put things together - she is a whizz with a hot glue gun! media type="custom" key="6593269"
 * Term 3 Week 1: Marble Runs**

Parents please read the newsletter your child brought home yesterday. Weather permitting our cross country training starts on Monday and the children are allowed to wear running shoes to school on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays when we are training. On Thursday and Friday they go back to their black school shoes. If your child is unable to run for any reason you must send a note or see me. I think fitness is a very important part of a childs health and would like to see everyone running or walking depending on their level of fitness. It is amazing to see how fit the children become if they do run each day.

The class did a great job of presenting our play "The Fun Bus" at our junior school assembly on Friday. Well done to everyone especially Lucas who was the reader, Ryan who was Mr Bigelow and Maddison who was Mrs Bigelow. Yue Duo, Regan and Yusuf were fantastic potential passengers on the bus and Logan, Alex, Imogen and Kurt were very dramatic 'cones'. The rest of the class were enthusiastic passengers on the bus.
 * Assembly Item: The Fun Bus (Friday 30 July)**

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 * Between morning tea and lunch on Friday 30 July 4b and I worked with Mr Kinane our E-learning specialist. He has taught the children how to use digital cameras and drag and drop the photos they have taken into a shared file for them to insert into their work. He took photos of the children using digital cameras and some video of their marble runs. If you connect to the link below you will see examples of both of these. It is amazing how quickly the children in the class (and I!) have picked up these skills.**
 * http://ewakawiki.wikispaces.com/Wendy**
 * What a great Wheels Day we had on Thursday 19 August. Below are some photos taken on the day.**

=﻿1.9.10= ==﻿The children had an interesting morning with Constable Painter today learning to cross the pedestrian crossing on Prince Regent Drive. The children thought it was very funny when she said that some motorists leave their brains at home! It was evident she was right watching some of the cars that drove past when we were there. Thanks to Kurt and Alex's mum who walked with us in the sunshine. Below are some photos of the children crossing the road.==

=﻿17.9.10= ==﻿This week we have read the big book of the "Three Little Pigs". We decided this afternoon to try and build 'wolf proof houses'. We all chose some building materials like the three little pigs, we could find some wood but no straw or bricks, and then we made our houses. When the houses had been built we turned into wolves and tried to blow the houses down. None of them fell down despite our best efforts so we must be better builders than the first two little pigs! Here we are trying to huff and puff and blow our houses down! Can you see Wilson, the new boy in our class who started on Monday?== media type="custom" key="6943901" =﻿Next term our topic is Our country, our classroom, our culture and we are going to be looking at all the children in the class and where they, their parents and their grandparents come from. We would love for some of the parents to come into our class and talk about themselves and where they come from. You might like to share some special clothing item, a myth or legend from your country, some photos or just some interesting information about yourself. Please don't be shy, we would love to see you.= =﻿TERM 4= Welcome back for the final term of 2010. I spent part of my holidays at a conference in Christchurch called uLearn which focusses on IT and it's use in the classroom. I have lots of great ideas to trial with my class over the next few weeks. One of the breakouts I went to was on Cool Maths Sites to use in the classroom and I have added some of these to our weblinks page so please try them, I'd love some feedback!

=﻿Week 1: Here are some of the children talking about their holiday experiences!=

Maddison:
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Yue Duo:
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=﻿Junior Cross Country 2010= ===﻿A great afternoon was had by all this afternoon when we finally had our junior cross country. I was so proud of all the children in 4b who really tried their best. Congratulations to Regan, Ben and Ryan who came 1st, 2nd and 3rd in the boys and well done to Caroline who came first for the girls (she only started in our class on Wednesday!) and to Maddison who came 3rd. What a lot of great runners we have! Here are some photos of the event.===

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Here are some videos I took of the event. The quality isn't great but if you missed the races you can get an idea of what happened.
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29.10.10
I have just tried a new webtool called animoto and used it to create a slideshow with music of the self portraits the children recently drew. Looking forward to seeing you all at the gala tomorrow, try and find me in the haunted house if you dare! media type="custom" key="7353267" =﻿Digital Stories= Since the beginning of this term the children have been working on digital stories. Initially the children brought in characters from home to write about. The best stories were developed in groups and photos were taken by the children with help from my student Miss Wake. The children used the easi speak microphone to record the voices for the stories and they were all put together in a powerpoint. Click on the stories below to view their work, it looks great and I'm really impressed with them.













=﻿Gala 2010= ===﻿What a great day at the school gala! I must admit that I didn't get to see much as I spent my time scaring people in the haunted house but it sounds like everyone who came had lots of fun and spent lots of money! Below are some photos I took in the haunted house before we pulled it down. It is now the music room again. Mrs Soutar is so amazing to have the vision to turn our ordinary music room into a spooky haunted house. Well done!===

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=﻿Grandparents/Cultural/Special Person Day at Wakaaranga - Tuesday 9 November= ===﻿Another amazing day at Wakaaranga Primary School. A big thank you to all the special people who visited our school and our classroom today to celebrate the diverse range of cultures and people who make up Wakaaranga. A special thank you to Arya's grandmother who showed us all how to make a rangoli pattern. We hope to see you all again next year.===

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Playball - Friday 19 November
Today the class had another session of Playball with their coaches. I have included some photos I took of them participating in these fun activities and three of the stories that were written about this experience.

Wow! Today my class and I did Playball and it was fun, actually it was very, very, very much fun. First we did throwing, catching and hitting the ball with our heads! Next we did basketball and to play it you have to throw the ball in the hoop which Mrs Morgan was holding. After that we played hockey with the sticks and you have to hold the stick with the clean side facing the front. Last but not least we played this cool as game and to play the game you have to run and pick up a ball and fire it into the net. Then it was morning tea. By Arya

What a great time I had today and I am going to tell you all about it. On Friday we went to Playball and we sat on the ground and waited for them to tell us where to go. First we went to Coach Phil and we played catching or headering. Next we went with Coach Jeff and we did some throwing. Then we went and did some rob the nest and hockey together with coach Orla. When we were playing rob the nest we had two groups. There were lions and tigers. The lions won the game. Last we went throwing tennis balls with Coach Charlie. By Joshua

Wow! Today it was Playball. We had so much fun. The first game we played was catch or head a ball. When I headed the ball it almost went into out of space, it was so exciting I almost faded. Then we went to basketball, I balled it into the hoop. Next we did hockey and we played rob the nest. I robbed it then we had throwing. It was so much fun. By Lucas.

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=﻿5 and 6 year old athletics sports=

Today the 5 and 6 year olds had their athletics and our roving photographers Ben and Kurt went out to capture pictures of the the event. Aren't they great photographers!
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Athletics Presentation Assembly - Thursday 2 December
This morning we had the athletics awards ceremony in the hall with the year 0 - 4 children. All the children in 4b did well on their athletics days but three of the children in the class got certificates. Regan got a second in the 6 year old boys sprint final, Caroline got first in the 6 year old girls sprint final and Ryan got a second in the 7 year old boys softball throw. Well done!



=﻿The End of 2010= It is a very wet Sunday afternoon and I'm sitting at home thinking about relaxing when it suddenly entered my head what about my 2010 wiki. This will be the last entry on this wiki but it won't be all deleted for at least a year. Wikis were new to me at the beginning of the year when I began my digital learning journey and they were also new to our school. We have decided to keep the 2010 wikis for at least a year and then make a decision about what to do about them - cyberspace is such a new concept to us all. A very big thank you to you all for being part of this journey. I have really enjoyed putting stuff on the wiki relating to my class and intend to do the same next year on my new wiki: http://waka4b2011.wikispaces.com/. I have had a great year working with a fabulous group of parents and children. I always feel sad at the end of a year saying goodbye to everyone but look forward to my new class next year and I know the children of 4b are looking forward to being year 3's in 2011. Thank you to all the supportive parents I have had this year, especially thank you to Nicky Romans and Sarah Stewart my fabulous amazing parent helpers, I hope you both realise how much I appreciated all the work you did for me and for the class, parents helpers like the both of you make teaching so much easier, there are so many little things that need doing to make a class run smoothly and extra pairs of hands are very welcome. Thank you to the other parents who have helped on trips and come to various events to support the children in the class, you are also very vital to the home-school partnership. Thank you to the parents who have listened to their children read each night, helped them with their chunk, check, cheer, with their spelling and maths homelearning sheets. Your children have made extra progress because of this support, it is vital if you want your child to suceed that you support them in their learning, believe me after teaching as long as I have I know! Children of 4b have a wonderful holiday with your family and friends, you have earned a break. I look forward to seeing you all around the school next year, don't forget to pop in and visit and say hi! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all. Mrs Wendy Morgan :)