Week 4, 27th February

Today we learnt:

- the difference between it's and its 

It's Thursday today and we have Mrs Vincent. (Flynn) 
Its tail fell off. It is a cat. (Adam) 
It's actually quite hard thinking of sentences to use  the word its. (Mrs Vincent)

- proper nouns include people's names - including their initials and titles, and the names of countries, cities and place names - including specific geographical features.  

JK Rowling
Harry Potter
Justin Bieber 
Sir Edmund Hillary
Mr Fowler 
Miss A Murphy 
Mrs HK Vincent

Sweden, Spain, Syria, South Africa, Stewart Island
Manurewa, Manukau, Mount Maunganui,  Milford Sound

We also learnt that some words don't need a capital unless they are part of a place name, for example:

I live near a river. I live near the Waikato River. 
We went to the beach for a holiday. We went to Cook's Beach for a holiday.
The sea was very rough in the storm. The Tasman Sea was very rough in the storm. 
They sailed across the ocean. They sailed across the Pacific Ocean. 

We  practised enunciation and speaking clearly, and had a tongue twister competition saying:
She sells sea shells by the sea shore. 
The winners were Ebony and Thomas, and their prize was one jelly bean each. 

We talked about alliteration and made up some examples of alliteration we could use to describe features of our school: 

- creamy crocodile cake  (from last week)
- Hannah handed Sam her handy hammer in hard materials. 
- graceful green grass 
- hungry Huia 1 
- screechy, singing cicadas 
- clicking computer keyboards 
- clouds skim  and skid across the sky
- creepy crawly cockroaches
- scorching Sahara Desert (from Sean's story)

General News: 

We have house captains for the year.  From this class we have  Nathan, house captain of Tawa, and Thomas is vice-captain of Kowhai.  Flynn is vice-captain of Tawa.

We have had Kia o rahi trials, but we don;t know who has been selected yet. Kia o rahi is a big game of other games put together, such as netball, soccer, rugby, touch and basketball. 

Ice block day is tomorrow. We buy ice creams and ice blocs from the GST (Gardens Support Team). 

Water polo has started again. Nathan, Adam, David  and Olivia from Huia 1 are in the team. We have played one game, and we won against Strathallan. 

Rugby 7s have started, but the team is still being selected. 

Yesterday we had parent teacher interviews. 

We have new classrooms opening this week, so there will be a lot of changes happening.

We have new librarians; Ebony, Redhriane and Diya are librarians from Huia 1. 

Mrs Vincent's favourite quote of the week so far.  
(Observe the correct use of  it's  and the semicolon, too. )

Here is the link to  Mrs Vincent's Music Classes blog, where you can follow some of the music we also  get time to do on a Thursday afternoon as well.

Huia 1, 2014: Our First Thursday of the Year

Welcome back to the first blog for Huia,  2014.

Huia 1 is now Miss Murphy's classroom, but Mrs Vincent looks after us every Thursday afternoon while we work on our own writing skills writing our own blogs. We are working on developing and improving our writing skills, and part of this includes group writing a blog for Huia 1 each week. Well, that's the plan.

This year,  there have been quite a few changes at The Gardens School and in the Intermediates.

Last year's Year 6s are now Year 7s and last year's Year 7s are now Year 8s.  It feels good being a Year 8  because it's my last year and next year I move on to high school and it's one step closer to being an adult. (Adam)

I like doing Phat Friday* because there are subjects we haven't done before, such as Spanish, orchestra, guitar, jump jam, photography, physiology, building barbecue tables, cooking, kapa haka, Samoan,  planning for special events, and ukulele lessons. (Olivia)

I am finding the work harder and longer, especially the writing and handwriting. (Flynn) 

I am liking school a lot this year because the work is challenging, especially the maths because I am working faster. (Matthew)

I am enjoying all the new people in Year 7 because they are all so nice to me. (Sean)

We have Mr Fowler, Mrs Murray and Mrs Vincent in our class on Thursdays, and we are enjoying this because we have a variety  of teachers' opinions and personalities. (Flynn)

I have learnt how how to take apart a  weed-eater mower with Mr Fowler. I know you have to take the carburetor out first. (Nathan)

The field has changed because some of the old relocatable classrooms have been replaced by new ones, and there are  also new toilets with the new classrooms. But there's not as much space to play on the fields now; however, there is more space behind the classrooms than you would think. (Corey)

The Year 7s have more sports than they had last year. (Flynn)

I like learning science and Spanish because  it's a new opportunity. ( Olivia)

So far this year, I have met new people in my class,  and I really enjoy Huia 1 because of all the people and teachers in my class and how colourful and inviting it is. (Hannah)

I learnt we have to be careful how hard NOT to kick a soccer ball when there are people around - but it wasn't me that kicked it. (Adam)

On Thursday afternoons with Mrs Vincent,  we write a personal blog each, and we write a shared class blog. This is our first Thursday.

*phat means fantastic