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.

Our Trip to MOTAT

Yesterday the Marvellous Meerkats went to MOTAT to explore and learn about flight.

First we went to look at the exhibits. We got to play around in a room full of fun things. We also got to learn about some video games from New Zealand.

Then we took a train to the second part of MOTAT. We saw lots of big airplanes in a massive room.

Later, we got to learn about flight from Abby. We did lots of fun activities. Flight has four forces: Lift, Drag, Thrust and Weight.

We had lots of fun at MOTAT. I can't wait to go back!

Goodbye Hazelnut and Lunar!

Hazelnut and Lunar had a great time with us, but it was time for them to move on to the next school. Before they left, they got to meet some of the other staff at Rowandale:

With Mr Vasau

With Mrs Tofilau

They also got to see a powhiri for our new teachers. Do you know what a powhiri is?

They are now on there way to Denmark. Here is a map of everywhere they've been and the next school they're going to. Can you name all of the places they've been to so far? They have travelled quite a long way.

We wish them luck on their journey. Thanks for visiting us!

Making One With Fractions

For the last two days we've been learning how to make one with different fractions. We used the iPads to take pictures of our work. Have a look at what two of our groups did today:

Using Google Slides to Show What We Read

This week, the Chimpanzees were reading the book, Wolves. They did lots of activities about the book. One of the activities was to make a slideshow about wolves. Here is the work that Sunday and J-Lynn did:

100th Day of School

Every day, we've been counting how many days it has been since the start of school. We add one popsicle stick every day and we count. When we have ten in the ones' cup, we have to make a bundle of ten and put it in the tens' cup. Today we finally had 10 tens and we had to make a bundle of 100. Can you believe we've been together for that long? Wow!

Before

Sunday with the bundle of 100

After (and the abacus showing 100)

Fluency Practice

This week some of our reading groups started filming our reading so we can practice getting better at making it sound interesting. Here are the people that filmed their reading this week. Have a listen:

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):

Samoan Language Week Challenge 1

Ordering by Long and Short

On Wednesday the Marvellous Meerkats learned about long and short.

First we each looked for one thing that was long and one thing that was short.

Next we got into our groups.

Then we put the shortest one down and the longest one down. They have to start at the same spot.

Have a look at the pictures we took:

Te Kupu o te Wiki

This week's word is moana . Do you know what that means? If you're the first Meerkat to comment with the correct answer will get 5 house points. Every other Meerkat who comments will get 2 house points. Good luck

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

Buckle Up!

This week is Road Safety Week. Every day this week at lunchtime we could go to Room 2 and get our picture taken. We had to line up with a partner. Next we buckled our seat belts. Mrs Priestly took our picture. We got some prizes for doing this. Someone will win a booster seat.  You have to be 148cm tall to not use a booster seat in a car. That's all of the Meerkats, except for Mr Davidson.

Road Safety Week: Park and Walk Day

This morning Rowandale School participated in Park and Walk Day as part of Road Safety Week. Lots of children met at the park and the church and walked to school. Mr Davidson went to the park and walked with Han, Samuel and Paris. Sunday and Alex both walked as well. We got to walk with Max the Pukeko and we got some hot chocolate as a reward for our effort. When school started we had an assembly about Road Safety Week. Have a look at us and some of the signs we had.