Thursday, March 6, 2014

Term 1, Week 5, 6 March 2014

Today Olivia, Hannah and Kate are away playing cricket.

Last Saturday was the first of March, which is the official first day of autumn. It's still hot in the day, but it's getting cold in the mornings and at night. "The sun is lower in the morning", said Nathan, "and it is in my eyes when I ride my bike to school." (Mrs Vincent added, "Try driving  a car with the sun in your eyes!" )

Last Friday was ice block day. We could order ice blocks and Magnums from in front of Huia 2. Magnums were $3, Calippos  and chocolate Paddle Pops were $2.00,  and lemonade ice blocs were $1.00. The queue went to the end of Poutama. "It would have been much shorter if people realised there were two lines," said Corey.

We are starting to get ready to prepare for our science fair which will be later in the year.  We are also creating a can crusher to reduce the amount of space waste takes up. We are working on establishing our own blogs, and we have been learning about digital citizenship which means knowing about cyber  safety. In reading, we have been learning to scan to locate key words to help us answer questions and understand what we are reading. We did a test on instructional writing to make the best  ice cream sundae in the world.  We had to instructions  on how to do this, but we haven't made the ice cream sundae yet.

For homework we have a project called Ten Days to Make a Difference. We have to choose a local situation and we have to write a plan to work out how we can make a difference to this situation. Some of the things we are going to make a difference with are:
- pollution (Nathan by picking up rubbish around Manurewa)
- global warming (Matthew and Redhriane by using eco-friendly light bulbs and by not using as much electricity)
- saving power (Sean by turning off all the appliances in his house that aren't being used)
- recycling (Corey and Ronan by recycling paper, plastics and clothing  not used at home)
- hole in the ozone (Adam by not using cans like Lynx)


Today we  watched a video of an orchestra play Flight of the Bumble Bee by Rimsky Korsakov, a Russian composer (1844 - 1908). We also saw a few comedy versions of it and did a quiz on the new information we learnt.

Who wrote Flight of the Bumblebee?
What was his nationality?
What changed the prince into a bumble bee?
Why was the prince changed into a bumblebee?

In English skills we learnt when to use I and me.
 I  is used when it is the subject of a verb.

David and I went to school.  (verb - went)
Ronan and I shared our lunch. (verb - shared) 
I'm sorry that Breanna  and I left your computer on the bus.  (verb - left) 
We tried to find the way, but Jessica and I took the wrong path. (verb - took)
When in doubt, leave out the other person, and hear what it sounds like:
(David and) I went to school.
(Ronan and) I shared ...
(Breanna and) I left ...
(Jessica and I) took ...
Me is the object of a sentence 
Me, us, you, him, her, and they are all objects of sentences. 
They are used when they are object of a verb or preposition.

Aaron and Jonothan chased Caleb and me around the yard. (verb - chased)
The teacher thanked Alisha and me for tidying her desk. (verb - thanked)
John went to school with Jerry and me. (preposition - with)
Jerry shared his his lunch with John and me. (preposition - with)
Andrew lent his computer to Emma and me. (preposition - to)
Sally gave directions to Susan and me. (preposition - to) 
When in doubt, leave out the other person, and hear what it sounds like:
Aaron and Jonothan chased (Caleb and) me...
The teacher thanked (Alisha and) me ...
John went to school with (Jerry and) me.
Jerry shared his his lunch with (John and) me.
Andrew  lent his computer to (Emma and) me. 
Sally gave directions to (Susan and) me.
 Mrs Vincent's favourite quote of the week:
Unsure of origin of this.

Our tongue twister today was: Irish wrist watches and was won by Ebony again. 

We also learnt that some words can be proper nouns when used as a title, but common nouns when used in other contexts, such as:

 - Later this year Prince William will visit New Zealand.  

- The magic swan turned the exiled prince into a bumble bee so he could fly over his country to  see what was  happening. (The story behind Flight of the Bumblebee). 

- The first English person to visit New Zealand was Captain Cook. 

- The house captains were announced at assembly last week.

- Some Maori chiefs did not think they needed a governor from England to make laws for them. 

- Robert Fitzroy was the second governor of New Zealand after Governor William Hobson. 




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