You've Got the Power!

The highlight of this week - or even this term - was a return visit to Awahono School by magician, El Gregoe. El Gregoe astounded us with his incredible illusions, magic tricks and skill as a ventriloquist, assisted by his collection of stunning tropical birds (including a blue macaw named Zazu), his dinosaur puppet named Seymore and a little grey guinea pig named Harviana. 
El Gregoe had some important messages about bullying and how to deal with it. One of his messages was to use your WITS: Walk away, Ignore it, Talk to someone, say Stop.  He also reminded us to always treat others the way we would like to be treated.

Visit from Jenny Sommervell

Today we were fortunate to have Jenny Sommervell in our school reading two of her picture books, The Day Dad Blew Up the Cowshed and The Eel Hunt. We  learned lots about how Jenny gets her ideas from real experiences and stories from childhood, and she also told us about her writing process. It takes a long time and a lot of effort to get a book to the publishing stage! Jenny told us that the most important thing is to get the story right first, then to think about choosing the right words to use. She also told us how important it is to have the characters encountering lots of problems because that is what makes the story interesting.  This is known as "torturing the characters"!

Symmetry

Room 5 worked in groups to draw and cut out shapes that were symmetrical. First we folded a square of paper in half, then we drew lines with a ruler to make different straight sided shapes with three sides, four sides and more than four sides. We cut in from the fold, so when the shape was cut out we could unfold the shape. The fold line went down the middle of the shape, and each side of the shape was exactly the same as the other side. The fold line is the line of symmetry. It divides the shape exactly in half.
We grouped our shapes according to how many sides there were. Here are some pictures of the finished work. Everyone had to explain what they were learning on their individual blog. They needed to explain the task and say a line of symmetry is.

Please visit individual blogs and give us feedback on how successfully you think we have explained our learning.

Fraction Art

In Room 5 we have started this term by working on fractions in our maths. We decided to do some art work using fractions.  We cut out circles in different colours, then we folded the circles into halves, quarters, eighths and sixteenths and use the fraction pieces to create an underwater collage.
Here are some pictures of us working on our collages. Have a look at our individual blogs to see our fraction creations!

Awahono School Fun Run

As you can see from these photographs, Room 5 had a great time at the school Fun Run last Friday.
The course included a number of obstacles to go over, under and through. The goal for Room 5 students was to run at least three times around the course, but many people exceeded that goal with some managing a whopping ten laps!
Everyone dressed in their house colours and after lunch the senior students ran games for the rest of the school.

Midland Line Cross Country

Years 4 - 8 took part in the Midland Line Cross Country at Kumara last Monday.  Everyone made a fantastic effort and seven people from Room 5 qualified for West Coast Cross Country which is this Wednesday. Have a look at our individual blogs where we describe our experience of cross country, and you'll also see some more pictures.Good luck Jake, Miro, SophieB, Leah, SophieW, Solly and Isabel at West Coast Cross Country!

Room 5 Portraits