UHPS Room16 2011

Our Inquiry focus for Term 4
is Patterns.

We made some 2D shape, geometric patterns showing reflective or rotational symmetry.

We love Jump Jam in Room 16.
Here we are jamming and jumping and getting fit too! To our friends in Linlithgow, Scotland: Jump Jam is an aeorbics programme for kids!

In Room 16 we have been writing poems. Today we wrote some cinquains. A Cinquain is a 5 line poem with specific language features on each line:
Line 1- Noun
Line 2- 2 adjectives
Line 3- 3 verbs
Line 4- adverrbs or adverb phrase
Line 5- Noun (synonym)

Here are some of our cinquains:

Earth
Great, Ancient,
Turning, Orbiting, Spinning
Like a spinning top
Planet By Keita T

Sheep
Large, Fluffy
Eating, Sleeping, Walking
Boring like a pillow
Lamb By Logan K

Kitten
Cute, Soft
Running, Licking, Playing
Fun, Playful, Cuddly, Loveable
Cat By Natasha A

Puppies
Cuddly, Hairy,
Drinking, Eating, Jumping
Happy, Cheerful, Playful, Loving
Dogs By Liri H


Rainbows
Colourful, Sparkly,
Appearing, Disappearing, Shining
Shimmery in the sky
Reflection By Nadia L


Kitten
Tiny, Cute,
Running, Eating, Playing
Playful, Happy, Cuddly, Loveable
Cat By Ben M


Molly
Tiny, Hairy,
Catching, Lazing, Purring
Catching lots of birds
Cat By Daniel W

It has been another exciting weekend. This week in our recounts we have tried to include lots of language features to make our writing more interesting. See if you can spot the similes, alliteration, metaphors, adverbs, onomatopoeias and adjectives.

Guy Fawkes- By Gareth M
In the cold dark night. I saw exploding golden fireworks like a leprechaun pot of gold. The firework was a asteroid going to space but exploding half way there like a volcano's lava. I felt excited like I had eaten all of the candy in the whole world. Bang!! One of the fireworks went off- that was one of the biggest ever! Then it was silent. I smelt the last piece of smoke. It was over, but I'm waiting for tomorrow.

Guy forks day-by Pyper N
Smash fizzle bang! The fire works went in the dark blue sky.The fire works looked like fancy dancers dancing in the sky. It made me feel joyful and amazing. After a little while we did sparklers. It made me feel like I was the fire work although I am not a fire work . When I looked up the night was nearly over so we did the last firework and it faded in the night blue sky.

Today we did athletics practice. We lined up outside the hall. Then Mrs Millett showed us how to do the high jump. It was fun! For Athletics we are practising our running, jumping and throwing skills.

Here are a few photos of children in the Tipa team at Athletics.

Today is a very special day for the Indian culture because it is Diwali the festival of light. It happens every year on the new moon. We have some special foods that are called sweet meat here are a few examples of the food that Indians eat on Diwali day:suger balls, lamingtins and chocolate biscuits. Indians wear Punjabi's, saris and lagers. For decorations ladies and girls wear a special Indian dot on there forehead. Ladies wear a red dot and girls wear a black dot or a colourful dot. Some people also make sweetmeat and give them away to other people they know. Sometimes in India people make sweetmeat and before they eat it they pray to god with it and then they eat it.

By Gauri, Natasha, Prinisha and Sherise

In the holidays Kieran's mum woke him early with some exciting news. A package had arrived for him. "What is it?" I asked. He couldn't wait to open the big box. Inside he found lots of colouring and stationery prizes. On the side of the box was a letter that told Kieran that he had won a colouring competition! "Wow! Kieran shouted. He had a great time in the holidays using all of his cool new colouring things!!!

By Kieran!!

Yeah it's pajama day! We are so excited because it is also G.P.K day (which is: growing positive kiwis). For some people they get to have a sausage. Here some photos of us in our pajamas.
By Amber and Pyper


cool pics eh!
PS: please comment!!!

On Friday UHPS had it's third annual Prep Market day. Room 16 loved the day, and we all bought heaps of cool products and enjoyed many fun experiences. Thanks TIOS for putting on such a great event for us!!! Here we are enjoying the fun in the sun!!

We have had a great term of Gymnastics. We learnt to use a range of pieces of equipment while moving, balancing and rotating in our rhythmic gymnastics sessions with "North Shore Rythmic Gymnastics". We have also learnt how to tumble and balance on our heads correctly with Mrs Pittman. Thanks to our fantastic gym teachers- we had lots of fun learning new routines and skills!

Watch the movie to see us in our gymnastics sessions this term:

In week 6 we had a really exciting surprise! Two police helicopters landed on our school field. Here are some recounts about the experience.

The Helicopter- By Stani

Frrrrr..Frrrrr.. "The helicopter is landing!" I shouted. Just as the flying sand flew in my face 4 men slipped down the rope they they were all dressed in black.
Josh shouting and stared at the helicopter. It was coming two times. At the first time I was thinking where will it land? and where did it come from.The helicopter was turning in the air. The black men were packing up the rope in the bag.

The police are coming! -By Sam

Yay! Today we had visitors at school- it was a helicopter.When it was over us it was loud and like a wind cyclone with it's propeller.
It landed with it's landers and black people out. Two minutes later the helicopter came back. "Oh no are they going to shoot us!" but they didn't,they just took the people away. It was awesome!-and it went over my house.

Published by Amber Bevan.

The photos speak for themselves!

Mr and Mrs Millett had a great time in the UK, and they saw lots and lots of old buildings and castles! They also went to the Edinburgh festival where Peter read his Boy Zero books to international audiences. It was exciting to meet some well known authors including Andy Stanton, ("You're a bad man Mr Gum"), and Phillip Adagh, ("The Fall of Fergal"). They also had the pleasure of visiting two primary schools in Linlithgow, Scotland. Here are some photos from their journeys!

Maybe Room 16 can set up some pen friends with the kids in Scotland!

This term we have been writing character descriptions. We have been practising using language features like similes and adjectives to enhance our writing. Here are some samples of descriptions of "General Pandemonium" from Peter Millett's books, "Boy Zero Wannabe Hero!"

General Pandemonium is an evil mad man who wants to take over the world with all his weird creations!! His nose is like a elephant trunk. His evil creations fail all the time. The pointy stick up bits in his hair are like twigs. He has swirly eyeballs. It looks like he's hypnotised. He's got chunks of snot up his nose. He's also pretty hip and a show off too. His chin is like a fat sword. His teeth are little bricks. HE want to destroy Boy Zero and take over the world! By Rebeccca

General Pandemonium is a strange show off and a greedy rock star! His ears are like monkey's ears and he has a sharp, pointy nose like a sword fish or a needle. He is an evil, plotting master and a greedy evil genius. His hair is like devil's horns and he fights "Boy Zero" until he would win. He is a fiery volcano burning villages down and he is a hypnotizing, brain-washing master mind. He is very tempered and has a puppy called "Miffy Whiffy" By Gareth

General Pandemonium has a difficult name. The General is un-calm about almost everything. General Pandemonium has big googly eyes that stare blankly at the outside world. General Pandemonium also shows off to everyone. He tries to take over the world with evil plans like making a pop song that turns people into break dancing zombies. Even though the General is a super villian he loves poodles! He doesn't think about what he says so when he is finished he realises he shouldn't have said that! The general has a nose as long and as pointy as a parrots beak. Wicked ideas come pouring out of his evil mind.General Pandemonium is always hungry for fame!! By Nadia

General Pandemonium has brain washing eyes like he has just been knocked by a tennis ball. The evil man is trying to take over the earth with his vicious plans. All his plans are failures. His long nose is a base ball bat. His cruel mouth spreads across the universe. He is a volcano that erupts every second with plans. His chin is like a lazer that is about to fire. What is he going to do next? He is always silly x 3000. By James

Today in our Inquiry lesson we talked about all of the communities we belong to, and how we connected to each community. We started by exploring our local communities and then expanded out to regional, national and global communities! Watch this movie to find out about how we are connected to these communities!

Here are our exciting weekend recounts. Today we focused on including as many language features as we could into our weekend recount. When we had written about our personal experience we highlighted any examples of adjectives, similes, metaphors, alliteration and onomatopoeia in the work. See if you can spot the language features in these two recounts!

The trampoline. By Joshua Still

Boing, boing, boing! I was happy like a bumble bee. I felt dizzy. I was on the trampoline. I was super dizzy!

I could hear birds singing and clanging springs. I looked out and saw a car and a garden that looked like a jungle. I wanted to get off. So I did!

The TV Shoot. By Jade Petry

"Wake up Jade! Wake up!" cried Tyler, jumping up and down. I got dressed and ran downstairs, a whole movie crew was sitting at the table. After I ate we started filming. "Scene five, take one!" I said. Then CLAP! went the clapper and I dashed away out of the camera. "Good job!" said Tyler, flapping her arms like a bird that has gone crazy.

We sneaked over to the living room. We were like mice trying to get cheese. "Cut!" yelled Simon, the director breaking the silence. The scene was finished and my mum asked someone, "So you want a real cup of tea this time?". I laughed and said, "Next scene!"

Tyler, the crew and me marched outside and started the scene. The leaves were little claws on the driveway. The dog barked in one scene and we all giggled at the end. Finally Simon said, "That's enough for one day!

It's great to be back after the holidays! We all had a busy time, some traveled overseas, and some stayed back home. Here are this weeks picks of holiday adventures!!

The best holiday ever! - By Prinisha N

"I'm having the best holiday ever in my lifetime!" my mum said. "Do you want to go and watch a movie?" I said, "OK!"

We went to the Event cinema in Albany. The mall was busy but we were lucky to get parking quite close. We watched KungFu Panda 2 in 2D. I got a flake, fanta and popcorn to eat. My favourite characters are Po the panda and Tigeress. After the movie we went to McDonalds for lunch. I ordered a HappyMeal with a toy. I was given "Tigeress"- my favourite character!

After lunch we did shopping. My mum bought some clothes for my sister and I. I saw a pink woollen jumper and I said, "Mum, can I have this jumper?" "OK, you can have it", said mum. My mum also brought a pretty dress for my little sister. We were tired when we got home. We played scrabble at home. My mum is rally good at scrabble, she won the game. I also made some good words. "Well done!" she said.

I had the best time ever!

The Pool- By Liri Jonas

I was running to go on the little diving board. I went on it at again and again and again, until I told my mum that I'm going on the big diving board. So I went on the big diving board. Once when I dived I hurt my tummy and once I moved my teeth.

Then my brother said, "Let's go to the slides!" So we went on the slides. It was like a big hole that you go in. The slide was very fun!

At the start my mum bought me goggles. I was very lucky because my mum had said, "Not today, we will buy your goggles some where else."

We all reflected about our learning in Term 2. We had to complete self evaluative sentences. Here are a few of our reflections- we hope you enjoy listening to them. You might like to leave us a comment:)

It's the holidays again! Over the next couple of weeks you might be really busy with your family and friends. If you have some time and want something to do, here's a couple of ideas:

Writing- Write a CHARACTER DESCRIPTION. Describe a character (mum, SpongeBob, Cinderella, Mrs Millett) in detail- what they look like, sound like and act like. Use lots of adjectives and maybe even similes and metaphors too.

You may want to include the following in your description:

2. At least eight adjectives (Use a thesaurus to find colorful adjectives.)

3. A major goal of your character.

4. at least two similes

5. a physical description

6. tell character's likes, dislikes, some actions, etc.

7. What does your character wear, or carry around?

8. Your character's greatest strength.

9. Your character's greatest weakness.

Today we had our Tipa team Poetry Finals. Prinisha, Kieran and Natasha did themselves proud along with 15 other children from the middle school. It was a great event, and all children performed well. Congratulations to all place getters and especially to our very own Natasha for coming second place! The results for the Poetry Finals were as follows:

1. Vincent Janse Van Rensberg
2. Natasha Alijabar
3. Olivia Cowie and Arnay Maharaj

Until next year...

Yesterday, these two super swimming stars competed in an exciting Flippaball final and achieved a first place for their grade!!! They have had a great season being unbeaten in their games. Well done girls...till next year!!

In Week 9 Upper Harbour put on an exciting Variety Show. Each class excelled themsleves by performing an exciting dance, music, cultural or drama.

Our class joined with our buddy class, (Room 4) to start night two's evening. We learnt and performed 4 Maori songs: "Haere mai, Kapo kapo ringa ringa, a Fruit Salad haka and E rere taku poi."

Here we are in our Maori culture headbands, and performing in the hall.

We have finished all of our poetry recitals and after a very hard decision we have decided that Kieran, Natasha and Prinisha will be going through to the finals next week. Well done to Jade and Ben who were in our top five!! Well done to everyone for a great effort with your oral language!! Can't wait to see how our finalists go next week- Good luck!

Watch these great poems from 8 more children in Room 16.

Have a listen to some more of our fantastic poetry recitals!!

This week we had our Room 16 Poetry recitals. Everyone in Room 16 had to learn and recite an entertaining poem to the class. Our poems were marked by our peers who were looking for good poem choice, expression, voice clarity and body language. In Week 11 our three finalists will compete against the rest of the children in the Tipa team in the Poetry Finals. Good luck everyone!!
Here is a sample of our poetry recitals!!

On Wednesday Room 16 went to "Big Ups!" It was a great day, and we had heaps of fun doing practical movement (physics) activities. We experienced several forces including GRAVITY, BALANCED and UNBALANCED FORCES, FRICTION, PRESSURE and PUSH and PULL!! Watch our movie to see what we got up to at "Big Ups!"

This year at UHPS we have started thinking about our learning and thinking using using SOLO Taxonomy.
SOLO stands for:
Structure
O bserved
L earning
O utcomes
We have looked at different levels of thinking outcomes that we move through as we learn to learn. Each level represents a greater level or depth of thinking and understanding in the given topic.If we don't know anything about the topic we say that our thinking outcome is: PRESTRUCTURAL
If we know one relevant thing about the topic we say that our thinking outcome is: UNISTRUCTURAL
If we know more than one thing about the topic we say that out thinking outcome is: MULTISTRUCTURAL
If we know many things about the topic and can explain relationships between the items we say that our thinking outcome is: RELATIONAL
If we know many things about the topic and can make connections within the subject and also beyond it, making predictions or generalisations our thinking outcome is: EXTENDED ABSTRACT.

Watch this space to find out how we "learn to learn" by investigating our thinking using SOLO taxonomy.

SOLO DIARY:
FRIDAY 17th June

Today Mrs Millett gave us a brainstorming sheet and asked us to write down in pencil everything we knew about the story, "Goldilocks and the three bears." We listed around our brainstorm lots of facts including "goldilocks ate the porridge", "there were three bears: mother, father, baby." At this stage of the task we all achieved a Multistructural thinking outcome as we could list a lot of facts about the story.

Next Mrs Millett gave us a question to think about. She asked us: What are some of the aspects about the ways the bears live that tell us that this is not a real life situation? We answered this question using a blue pen. Some of our ideas included, "The bears in the story could talk". At this stage in the task we achieved a Relational thinking outcome as we were having to relate the story to real life.

Last week we had our Cross Country run. It was a very exciting day, and we all ran our feet out!! Here are some of our favourite recounts about the event.

The Cross Country Race. By Sherise Naidoo
Running up and down with stomping feet everywhere. People were shouting, "Go... go...go...!" I couldn't take the noise- my ears hurt!
When suddenly, "Go!", and I whispered to myself, "Who was that!". Mr Shore said again, "7 year old girls please come up."
As soon as everyone was ready, Mr Shore told us we where to start and he held up something weird. "One, two, three..BANG!"
I started step by step running up and down. As I went down the nature trail I heard the gravel going crackle, crunch, crackle, crunch. I was going to Lady Phoenix reserve. I was puffed, but I kept going. It was very tiring. As I saw the finish line, I was faster.
I got there, but I was too late because only fifteen people made it into the finals.. and I was seventeenth! I was amazed with myself. "Wow!" I said.

CROSS COUNTRY By Rebecca Evans
There I was sitting in a line with the rest of the 8 year old girls. My heart was pounding. I was nervous. Soon it was our turn. The 8 year old girls stepped on the starting line. In my mind I said, "I can't believe it's the cross country." "Bang"! the clapper yelled.
I zoomed off my feet. I could feel the wind blowing in my face. By now I was up the nature trail. I could hear the crunching of the little rocks and the leaves brushing on my ankles. I went through "Lady Phoenix Reserve." I was as hot as the sun when I got out.
I knew that I was a couple of seconds away from the finish line so I sped up the nature trail and zoomed to the finish line. "Yay!" I said as I passed the finish line. I came 10th. I thought I might be going to Interschool! I had the best time ever!The Cross Country By Sam Compton
There I was at the cross country, in rows of children and the beautiful air. Three minutes later when it was the girls turn the boys cheered for the girls.
When it was our turn and then something banged! I ran as fast as I could and when I got to the finish line, I came 15th! Wow, I was fast.
And some girls shouted, "Go, go, go!" When I was running, I was proud.

What great recounts! And it was a really fun day too. Thanks Mr Shore for organizing the Cross Country.