Today we headed down to the south end of Takapuna Beach and set off on a long coastal walk around the bays to Milford reserve. When we arrived at Milford we sat down for a well earned rest. After lunch we had a play and then got creating some very cool sandcastles. Have a look at some pics from the day!!
Today the Tipa team had a great start to their outdoor education with a day at the bush behind the school.
We spent a block in the the bush walk behind the field where we drew sketches of wild life, leaf rubbings and collected samples on a bush necklace.
We also spent another block in the bush behind the houses on Miro Miro street.
In this section of bush we helped our buddies complete blind fold walks and we looked at the forest canopy by doing mirror walks. We loved the peace and quiet in the bush and had a great day in our own bush backyard!!
Thanks Mrs Aiken for organising the day.
Have a look at how Jade and Gareth have followed our success criteria and tried to MIB their writing by improving the verbs in the writing or using adjectives and language features like similes.
The play station game- By Gareth
I zoomed up the stairs to my room and slammed the door. "Don't slam the door please!" shouted my dad. "Sorry!" I replied in a squeaky mouse voice. Then I turned on the play station and jumped back on my coach and grabbed the remote. I clicked on one of the people on the screen and it went completely dark like a dragons cave. Two blocks came up in one of the corners showing your battle life. My colour was red and his was blue. I got two cards, and they connected and made a new card called "Two headed thunder dragon". It had 2800 power points. It was the strongest card have ever made.
Then he put a card down. "I wonder what that is?" I whispered. He clicked on my card and my card lit up in flames. He destroyed it because his card was worth 3000 power points. It was called "Blue eyes white dragon."
Robot wars! By Jade
"Jade, come down stairs and play robots!" Tyler called from down stairs. I rushed down. I have not played robots in a while. I got handed a remote from my dad. The screen shot on as fast as lightening. I sat on the soft sofa. "Are you ready to play?" said a man. It was coming from the screen. I was the smart green robot.
Our first game was getting goals from other robots. When Tyler was goal keep, no one got a goal. It was my last goal.. I went for the green, Tyler missed it! "Wow!" Green is very useful!
Over the term each student in Room 16 has shared their "Identity" through showing several items that represent themselves in an "Identity bag". Here are some photos of us sharing our identity bags.
For Reading in Room 16 we are learning to use several different strategies to understand what we read. (As you probably know from reading the earlier post). After reading the text together in our reading groups, we are also learning to extend our thinking independently by using Blooms taxonomy thinking activities.
When we have finished reading our text we have to answer different questions and complete several tasks to demonstrate our understanding and application to the text. The thinking level activities are organised under these headings:
Knowledge- What are the facts?- I can remember what I read
Comprehension- What did it all mean?- I understand what I read
Application- How can I apply that?- I can use what I have read in a different way
Analysis- What does that really mean?- I can look closely at what I've read
Evaluation- What do I think about that? I can make judgements about what I've read
Synthesis/Creating- What new thing/idea can I create? I can combine and create new ideas with the information I've read
Over the next few weeks we'll keep you posted with some good examples of our independent reading activity thinking!!!
We have been learning to write interesting recounts this term. Here are two super recounts. These people remembered to include similes and adjectives and tried to improve their verbs in their writing. See if you can spot any other language features.
The Cricket game: By Gauri R
There I was far from home in a big, big field. It was my brother's cricket game. The grass was as soft as a feather. My brother was forth in his team in battin
g. When he was waiting for his turn in batting he practiced his batting. It was not long until it was his turn. My whole family was amazed that everyone was getting out except my brother. The wind whistled as fast as a lion zooming. I tried to make a mini umbrella out of sticks. The game for four hours! I was sad because he lost. There were a lot of people playing cricket.
The Weet bix Triathalon: By 
Amber B
There I was waiting for my turn. I was waiting for ages! Finally it was my turn. I swam a swim which was out 5 metres from the shore and 100m metres long. Then I zoomed to my bike. There were so many bikes, it was like a sea of bikes. Finally I found my bike, I was so pleased. So I hopped on my bike and raced to the end of the track, but there was a big hill. I made it! Then I went for the run. I scrambled around two times for the run. I was very tired. Finally I finished the Triathalon and received my medal. I was exhausted, but triumphant!!!
Heh everyone! In less than two weeks time we've got our Outdoor Education week! We're going to be exploring our bush backyard, walking the coastal walk between Takapuna and Milford, and having fun a school doing heaps of team building games and then.... sleeping over in the school hall!! It's going to be sooooo much fun. So before then, make sure you've got all your forms back, and your mum's and dad's coming along too. Next week notes will be coming home about each day with information about what to bring etc... Till then, here are some pictures of some of the sights you might see!!
This year we will be learning a number of Reading Strategies.
Reading strategies help us to achieve understanding, (comprehension) of the text. The Reading strategies we will be focusing on this year are:
Yeah it's GPK day! Today we couldn't wait till 
after play, when we would be able to go to the Tipa rooms to play with lego, watch a movie, sing, draw or play with dolls and action figures. We piled into the rooms we had chosen and had a great time with our friends. GPK day is a great way to celebrate the fact that we have been making good choices in our learning 
and behaviour and following UHPS values. Well done everyone!
Today the Tipa team came together all dressed in red and black to support our friends in Christchurch. We jumped and jammed and had heaps of fun. We also brought our donations to give to the people of Christchurch. The final total raised was over $1,200!!!
The children of Room 16 are really sad about the Christchurch earthquake, and would like to say to all of you in Canterbury- we hope you are OK and that you manage to stay safe and get back to normal soon. We are thinking of you all:)
