Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer

Peppa Pig's Christmas

Here are our finished toys that we made.
Aren't they great? 
Some of us had to change our designs a little bit to make our toys move better. 


Our Toys on PhotoPeach

On Friday we made our very own toys that can move. 
We had help from some super parents and grandparents who did the things that we couldn't do. 
We all had our design plans to help us. Some of us made balloon cars, boats, Jack-in the-boxes, robots and yo-yo's. We had such a lot of fun deciding what to use and how to make our toys move.

Toy Making Day on PhotoPeach

Some of us were very lucky to go to Mindlab in Petone on Monday. We got to do some fantastic things with robotics and circuits and just do some really cool things.

Mindlab - Kizoa Online Movie Maker

We made a balloon rocket!
We attached a balloon to a piece of string and let the balloon go. It was so much fun watching it whizz down the string to the other end. 
We had to change our design a little bit because sometimes it didn't work very well. 
We discovered that we needed to put quite big pieces if selotape onto the balloon or else the selotape would just come off. 
We found out that the air in the balloon created a force which pushed the balloon along the piece of string like a rocket.

On Thursday we had our school Assembly.
Here we are sharing our lovely dinosaur pictures that made.
We all got to share a new cool fact that we learned about dinosaurs.

Assembly Song

Here are the words for our Assembly song - I'm a Believer.

Today we went to Miss G's class. She showed us how to make a kite. We coloured it in first and then we attached the string.
Last of all we went outside and tested it in the wind. We had lots of fun running around with our kites. 
We wondered what makes a kite fly?
Why does it stay up in the air?


Kite Making on PhotoPeach

We had lots of fun making and playing with Rotor-Copters. They work like a mini helicopter. They were great fun to throw up in the air and watch them spin around really fast to the ground. 
We all made a big one and a little one. We wanted to find out which one was better at flying. 
We decided the little one stayed in the air longer and spun around much faster. We wondered why that would be?
Allan discovered that if you throw the little one upside down, it turns itself back up the right way. 

Rotor-Copter Fun on PhotoPeach

More Moving Toys

Some of us forgot to bring our toys to school yesterday. 
So here are some more toys that came along to school  today.
I wonder how they move?
We are learning that toys can move in different ways. 

Gabe brought a cool wooden snake.
He made it move by bending it.
The parts of the snake move because they
are cut and attached with a wire.

Eden brought a toy car.
The car moved by pushing it
which made the wheels turn.

Marissa brought a racing car.
The car moved by pushing it to
make the wheels go around.
The car had special wheels which
made the car turn.

Hayley brought a spinning top.
Her top moved by pushing AND pulling
the handle up and down to make top spin around.

Maddie brought a toy car.
Her car moved by pushing it to
make the wheels turn.

Compost Bins

We have 2 new compost bins at school. They are up behind Rimu block. Today the enviro monitors took some of the Rata children up to see what happens to the scraps from our Brain Food compost bins. Jack and Hayley went with the monitors to see what they do.
We can't wait to see what happens to all the food scraps.
How does it turn into compost?

Toy that Move

Today we brought toys to school. They had to be toys that move in some way. Here are some of the toys that we shared on middle mat.

We had so many questions about how the toys moved.
Now we want to get some old toys and take them apart to see what makes them move.

Amandeep brought a little train.
It moved by spinning the wheels and
then letting the train go.

Marissa brought a motorcycle ramp.
It worked by pulling a lever.

Alex brought Woody from Toy Story.
It moved by pulling a handle.

Lauren brought a racing car.
It moved by pulling it back and
then letting it go. It had 4 wheels.

Allan brought a plane.
It moved by shaking it first and
then letting it go. It moved on wheels.

Eva brought a toy car.
It moved by pushing it so the
wheels would turn.

Jack brought a racing car.
It moved by pulling it back and
then letting it go. It moved on 4 wheels.

Sienna brought a ballerina jewellery box.
It moved by winding it up.
It played beautiful music too.

Layla brought a doll's pram.
It moved by pushing it
so the wheels would turn.

Skipping Fun

Today we went outside onto the netball court to do some skipping.
We worked with a buddy and kept practising with the skipping ropes. It was pretty tricky but we are getting better. We know we have got to keep on trying if we want to learn how to skip.

Make a Robot

Click on this link to make your very own cool robot.

http://www.abcya.com/make_a_robot.htm

Balloon Force

Push and Pull

On Tuesday we had our first session of soccer skills.
Joel and Michael from Ole Soccer Academy came to teach us some soccer skills. It was so much fun. We got to play Stuck in the Mud, learnt some toe taps and played a game of 3 on 3 soccer. 
We can't wait till next Tuesday!!
Ole Soccer on PhotoPeach

Pretty Patterns

For Maths we are talking about patterns. Here we are exploring repeating patterns with lots of different equipment. We started off with patterns that repeat with 2 elements then we had to explore using at least 3 elements. We were singing our patterns out loud to help us check that our patterns were repeating.



Pretty Patterns - Kizoa Video Maker

What a lovely start to Term 4 we had. Here are Kauri Toru sharing some big books that made for Rata. They all did such a fantastic job of writing and illustrating their books co-operatively. 
We love the stories and look forward to having them in our classrooms. Thank you Kauri Toru.

Term 4 is here!
Welcome back everyone.
We need to remember to bring our sunhats to school EVERY day now. Even if it's cloudy or rainy in the morning, we still need to make sure we have our sunhats in our school bags. If we haven't got our sunhats, it means we have to stay under the verandahs in the shade.

Book Character Day Stories.

We all had such a fun day yesterday for our Book Character Day.

Here are some of the great stories that we wrote.

I am Anna today. I have a crown in my hair.
I have sparkles in my dress.
By Rhoswen

I dressed up as Elsa because it is Book Character Day.
We all went to the hall. We danced to the music.
The whole school watched us.
By Layla

It is dress-up day. I dressed up as Hulk.
Hulk is cool.
By Alex

I am Elsa. Elsa has Frozen powers.
The powers she has are so cool.
I like Elsa because her dress is so cool and she has
gloves so she doesn't freeze everything.
By Eden

I am in the hall. I dressed up as a witch.
I love my witch costume. I decided to wear my witch dress.
I loved the day today. I really want to go to Halloween now.
By Amber

I am Jack. He has a white shirt and red glasses.
Jack and Annie go on a lot of adventures.
On one of their adventures they go to Egypt.
By Gabe

This is the song the whole school will be singing at assembly.
We had a practice the other day. It's such a fun song!!

Book Character Day

We all had such a great day at school today. We had our Book Character Day. Everyone came along to school in the most amazing costumes. We went along to the Hall to share our costumes with the rest of the school and some mums and dads who came along as well. Each class did a little dance and showed off our terrific costumes. After that, we got to watch Mary Kippenberger (and some teachers and children), do some great drama. They acted out the stories of The 3 Little Pigs and Chicken Licken. It was so funny!

Book Character Day on PhotoPeach

Awesome Writers!

We love Writing in Rata Toru!

Here are some of our great stories that we have written.

My cat slept on my bed. Surdei came and took Sammy off my bed. I was asleep and then I woke up. I went into Blake's room and had a look if Sammy was still in there. Blake was hiding Sammy under his blankets. I couldn't see Sammy so I went back to my bed. I really wanted to have Sammy because she loves me so much and I love him too. When Mum came back from her work, Indy came on to my bed. Blake was cold. He had to have a blanket. Dane was asleep. He slept until 7 o'clock. He was being good. 

Written by Hayley

 My Nana is going to pick me up to take me to her house for dinner. I am going to McDonalds. I got a strawberry drink and chips and a packet of chicken nuggets.

Written by Maddie

 Today is the day Lauren's mum gives a prize to one of us for our daffodil pictures. I think mine will win because I put rainbows in the corners.

Written by Jethro

 Today at night we are going to soccer and I think I will be the first one to be the goalie. I like soccer. My brother Connor always sits up on the top seats.He sat up with my daddy and gran. After soccer I went in gran's car and then I went to gran's house to have gran's birthday party. There was lots of people there. I had lots of fun there.

Written by Sienna

 My Yamer was looking after me and my sister. I was very good and my mum made us some food. I went to a restaurant for a church meeting.

Written by Eva

Once upon a time there was a fairytale called Little Red Riding Hood. She had a sick granny. Little Red Riding Hood's mum said, "take this basket of food." A wolf got into grandma's pyjamas and the wolf wrapped granny up. Little Red Riding Hood's granny was very, very, very mad at the wolf! Little Red Riding Hood's dad came and smashed the wolf on the head! The wolf ran away.

Written by Allan