Google Expeditions!

Today, the Meerkats went to Africa, India, Cambodia, Canada, Mars, under the ocean, and a television studio. All in one day! Can you guess how we did all of that?

No, we didn't have a super fast jet airplane. We used Google Cardboard and went on a Google Expedition.

Google Cardboard is like a set of special goggles that you put a phone in. It makes everything look real, or 3D. You can turn your head and see up and down and all around. You can even zoom in to have a closer look.

Google Expeditions are pictures that people (or robots) have taken in all sorts of cool places, like Australia, the Moon, Mars and lots of other places.

We had so much fun we didn't want to stop. Even after we got dizzy from looking too much.

Please like this post (on Facebook) or write a comment so that we can win a Google Cardboard for our classroom! We want to see lots of other places!

Musical Meerkats

Today the Marvellous Meerkats had a musical performance in the hall. All of the IAs and High Flyers and lots of parents were watching us.

A few weeks ago, we started practicing. We had to keep trying and trying.

Our performance started with Dash. Dash played his xylophone in front of the whole school. They loved hearing and watching him play. Azlyn helped Dash out because Dash was scared.

Then J-Lynn started to play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and the rest of us sang along. We used a special thing called a Makey Makey that turned Bradley, George, Natalia, Alex, Paris and Sunday into a musical instrument. All J-Lynn had to do was touch them on their hands.

Next Dakshesh played the Alphabet Song and Ryley played a special song Mr Davidson wrote. They both used the same instrument made out of the children.

When we were performing, we made mistakes but we continued. Mr Davidson didn't even help us one bit. He took this video:

We want to do this in front of the whole school again because we had so much fun. Some of us got scared, but we still tried our best and were very brave.

Maori Language Week: Challenge #1

This week is Maori Language Week! Our first challenge was to learn how to say hello. But it's not as easy as you'd think. You have to say different things, depending on how many people you are talking to. We've made three ThingLinks to show you what to say, depending on how many people you are talking to (hint, click on the red bits to see them talk):

If you're talking to 1 Person:

If you're talking to 2 People

If you're talking to 3 or more People:

Basic Fact Families Part 1

Recently, we used a Stop Motion app on the iPads to make some videos showing some basic fact families. Have a look at some of the videos we made (More to come soon):

Learning About Animals

Mrs Lee came to teach us last week and she showed us some cool things we can do with Google Slides and You Tube. First, we had to pick an animal with our group and find a video about it on the You Tube Channel, All Things Animal TV. Mrs Lee showed us how to embed the video into a Google Slide, so that we could have it in our presentation. Then we wrote some facts that we found out about the animals. Have a look at some of the slides we made:

By Han, Paris and Koringoa

By Dakshesh and Soileti

   

By Bradley, Samuel & Trey

Same Length Scavenger Hunt

Yesterday, when Mr Davidson was at a maths course, we did some maths of our own. Whaea Mele gave us eight blocks. She told us to find something that had the same length as the blocks. We found pencils, felts, scissors and books.

Writing

Here is the writing that we did this week after we had put the pictures in order. Remember, we hadn't read the story before we did this. We hope you enjoy reading them.

By Han & Koringoa

By J-Lynn, Jalais & Dizaliyah

By Ryley, Asafo & Soileti

By Sunday & Paris

Making Seventeen

Slowly but surely we're getting higher and higher with our teen numbers. Here are the Pic Collages we made for 17. How many more teen numbers do we have to go?

Making Thirteen (Part II)

Here are the Pic Collages from the last two groups. We made 13 once again. Can you see all the different ways we made thirteen? Which number do you think will come next?

Making Twelve

This week we started looking at the different materials we could use to show numbers. Mr Davidson made 11 for us and we tried twelve this week. Have a look at our tries:

ANZAC Day

This week we were learning about ANZAC day. We looked at some websites and books and found out lots of information. Then we used Google Slides to make some presentations. It was our first try at both things. Have a look at some of the slides we made:

Te Kupu o te Wiki

So it's been more than two weeks since Mr Davidson has seen the Meerkats and he's a bit sad (but only a few more days to go!). This weekend you have a chance to start the term off with some house points.  On the last day of school we caught up with our words of the week. Can you tell us what they all mean? The words are: ngutu, taihoa and Aranga. First Meerkat to write what they mean will get 5 house points for EACH word. Every other Meerkat who comments will get 2 house points for EACH word.

Making Ten (Part II)

Here are the final Pic Collages of making the numbers up to 10. With everything we do, we're always trying to make them better. We've used the number words as well (Silly Mr Davidson, we should have been doing that all along) as the numbers. Have a look:

Making Nine (Part II)

Have a look at the the rest of the class making nines. We are getting amazing at this now. Only one more number to go (can you guess what it is?).

Swimming!

We are so lucky that it's still warm in March for us to go swimming. It was a beautiful and sunny day today. We took some videos of us in the pool (Thanks Miss Lines!). We were even allowed to take some turns jumping into the pool. We waited very patiently.  Have a look at our videos from today:

Making Eight (Part II)

Wow! We're getting so good at finding how to make numbers. Today the Flamingos and Finches made eight. Have a look at the wonderful work they did:

Computer Programming

Last week we started learning about computer programming. We all started a course on the chromebooks using a wonderful website called Code.org. We did a little bit of practice since then and had another go today. It was really fun because we got to do some problems with Angry Birds.

If you want to try this at home, follow the link HERE. You will need to get your secret word from Mr Davidson (send him a message from THIS page) if you want to sign in.

Making 7 (Part II)

Here is the second part of our lesson on making seven. See all the new ways we made it? We know that you don't just have to make two groups. Can you think of any that we missed?

Quality Work

By Natalia

Taking Care of the Pigs and Chickens

On Monday the Marvellous Meerkats went to see the pigs and chickens so that we could feed them and clean the poo.

First we got the shovels and the gloves from the garden shed. The shed smells stinky and disgusting. Mr Davidson said it was just dirt.

Next we went to the chickens and we fed them. We looked for eggs but there were none.

Then we gave the pigs some apples to distract them while we picked up the poo and put it in the compost in the garden.

Finally we locked the gates, put the shovels and gloves away and went back to class.

It was very hot and some of us had to go in the shade. It is important to feed the pigs and chickens so they don't die.