Mine Crafting

Today we had so much fun building a mine in the sandpit. It took heaps of helpful hands to create this amazing structure.

Look at what we made

A couple of weeks ago a few people shared what they had made for news. Below are some photos of their handy work.

Madhav made a periscope because he enjoys finding out about spys and secret missions.

Phoebe, Tegan and Brooke made maths board games to help practice their maths knowledge.

Christiaan borrowed a book from our school library and he used it to create a paper mâché island.

Great work everyone.

Working Together

This week we played with the parachute and what fun we all had. Everyone had realized that to have the best fun we needed to work together. We can't wait to get out there to do it all again.

What did you enjoy about playing with the parachute?

Visiting Orakei Marae

Last week three of the year two classes visited the Orakei Marae. We were interested to learn about the amazing patterns, designs and structural work that makes up a Marae. To start the day we were welcomed onto the Marae by the tangata whenua (people of the land) in a Powhari. Everybody enjoyed learning about Maori culture. Then we learnt to do the haka and the story behind it all. After that we walked around the gardens and orchard to give us some ideas that we might like to use in our own gardens and orchard. It was interesting that their orchard was so different from our own. Following that we went back to the whare nui to study the carvings and beautiful art work that were inside.

It was a great day of learning and it was exciting to take part in another culture's traditions and history.

What did you learn on our trip?

 

5+ a day

On Thursday our school supported the 5+ a day week by dressing up in our favourite fruit or vegetable. The catch was that the costumes also had to be in our house colours. There were some interesting fruit and veggies wandering around. Here are some outstanding examples and the winner from the junior side, Preston from our class. He dressed up in as a fantastic banana. Congratulations to all those who participated. We also collected tinned cans of fruit and veg for the less fortunate. Overall it was a successful day.

Beyond Green Gold Award

Last week Meadowbank School hosted special visitors from the Enviro Schools organisation. They came to our school so we could all share the fantastic learning we have done over the last few years, in and about the Environment. It was a awesome day because everyone had a chance to show how they have been involved in making our school and our communities a better place to learn and live in.

We started the day with a Powhari in the hall to welcome our guests. The Kapa Haka group did a fantastic job supporting Mr Ayson, who spoke to the guests. After the Powhari the Year 6's shared a snippet from their production. After this everyone went back to their classrooms so that we could start the day.

At the end of the day we received the exciting news that Meadowbank School achieved the Beyond Green Gold Award.

Well done to everyone for all the hard work that you have put in and the amazing learning you have achieved.

Meadowbank School on Breakfast

This morning we had the wonderful privilege of having Sam from TV One film the weather section live at our school. So many children were lucky to be on TV and share what makes our school such a special place to be apart of.

 

Mother Earth Competition

Vote for the Year 5s

The Mother Earth Reward Programme recognises Enviroschools that are making an outstanding contribution to the promotion of healthy eating within the community and there's three $2500 prizes up for grabs. 

So get behind our school and cast your vote by clicking on the link above. 

Building Towers

On Friday we had a super challenge to see which team could build the tallest free standing bridge with only four pieces of paper, a sheet of newspaper, cello tape and glue. Everyone had to work together to come up with a solution that would solve this problem. Some groups discussed various options while others jumped straight into the building process. In the end each group created their own unique structures. Here is a video of us all working together.

Happy Holidays

Have a safe and happy holiday. 

Keep in touch by sharing what you're getting up to over the holidays.

 

Ready, Set, Go!!!

Today we had our annual cross country race. Throughout this term we have been practicing nearly everyday and each day we were better prepared for the actual event.

The morning was filled with great excitement. There were many parents, grandparents and sibling who had come to watch us all run the cross country race. It was so much fun and everyone had a great day.

Did you enjoy the cross country? 

Chinese Moon Festival

Today we learnt about the Chinese Moon Festival which takes place on the 15th day of the 8th month in the lunar calendar. This year the Moon Festival will be on the 30th of September. It is also known as the Mid-Autumn Festival because chinese people celebrate this special occassion in Autumn when the moon is the brightest, roundest and biggest.

Ms Ko also taught us how and why chinese people celebrate this festival. At the end of our lesson we each made a paper lantern which is used during the festival.

Watch the clip below and share what you learnt about this festival.



Year 6 Production

A few weeks ago the Year 6 students presented an outstanding production about protecting our oceans. They worked hard and we were amazed by their talent. Some of the performers were from our buddy class and we enjoyed watching them share their learning with us.

Great job Year 6's!!!

What was your favourite about the production?

Art Exhibition

These are our beautiful seasonal trees which we completed for the Art Exhibition. Our paintings are inspired by the amazing trees in our school environment. Each season is represented through our art work and we tried to show this by adapting the back ground or thinking about how trees change each season. It was an exciting experience because we learnt different painting techniques to help us communicate our ideas.

We hope you enjoy our paintings.

View PhotatoBug Slideshow

Communication by Hannah

Hannah's grandma found a book at her local library which had loads of fascinating facts and information about our topic, Communication. We had a brief look through the book and found some ideas that we had already discovered but many other ideas we had not.

If you can remember some of the amazing ideas we read about please share them here. If you have other ideas about communication please share these as well. 

Keeping ourself safe

We had a visit from Constable Paul. Firstly he told us how to identify a police person by their blue uniform.

We then learnt what we should do and know if we were lost. It is important to know our address and telephone number so a responsible person can help us contact our parents. Constable Paul told us this is a good secret which we should only share with someone we know and trust.

What else have you learnt from our visit with Constable Paul.

Chinese calligraphy

For Mandarin lessons today we had special guests come in to teach us how to do Chinese calligraphy. The instructor taught us how to write the number characters as well as the name for China which literally means 'Middle Kingdom'.

It was really tricky holding the writing brush but we gave it our best effort.

Thank you for coming in to teach us more about Chinese culture.

Author visit

What a surprise this morning we had a visit by a kiwi author who rewrites some famous fairytales with a kiwi twist. Some people were lucky to be able to help Chris Gurney retell some of her stories. It was also interesting learning about how books are written and how long it takes before it is published.

You can check out Chris Gurney's website to find out about her books. http://www.chris-gurney.com/ 

What have you learnt about publishing books?