Candle Making Experts

Hot wax! Hot wax! Hot wax!

It was time to make good choices and listen carefully, so we would not get burned while we were making candles.

We were bursting with excitement as Mrs Adams was checking the role. Once the board will filled in we could head off up to the Picton Community Hall, next to the Creche.

Mr McCoy was waiting for us when we got there. We had met Mr McCoy once before when he taught us to make bread. He is from Bradshaw Park and he is helping us learn about our topic this term - Our Place in History.
We learned that when people first came to New Zealand there was no electricity so they had no lights. Instead they had candles. They were made from animal fat (which was very smelly) or beeswax (which smelled much nicer). Back then there were no candle making factories so people made the candles in their home. If they didn't have very much money they would only have one candle per night for the whole house. It usually went anywhere the Mum went, because she is always the one doing the work.

We learned about the difference between dipping and casting candles.













Then we got to make our own dipped candle.

It was great fun, and we all were very careful and made good decisions. That's why no-one got burned and we all came home with lovely colourful candles which we made with our own hands.

Old McDonald came to school

We were very lucky to have a group of travelling performers come to visit Picton School.

The children from Waikawa Bay School, Koromiko School and St Joseph's School came to our hall to watch the production of 'Old McDonald's Farm'.

Here is Callum's recount of the show:

Old Mc Donald had been searching and searching for his dog Jip.

We could see him but Old McDonald couldn't find him.

Finally they found each other and Jip gave Old McDonald a big hug!

It was very dry at Old McDonald's farm. There had been no rain for a long time. The news people (below) forecast the weather and said that today there would be no rain again at Old McDonald's farm. Oh dear!

Farmer Jane wanted Old McDonald's farm. She had a big strong dog called Cyber.

Cyber got the Bionic Bouncing Bunny so that Farmer Jane could take over Old McDonald's Farm

Chip went and spoke to the cows to see if they could help.

They did help! They took Chip to a warehouse where there was a Bionic Bouncing Bunny Catcher......just what Chip needed!

After they caught the Bionic Bouncing Bunny, Farmer Jane was defeated and had to leave with Cyber.

Then!!!!! It rained at Old Mc Donald's Farm.

Descriptive Writing

We have been learning to write descriptions about 'Our Place by the Sea'.

We are describing different types of living things which live in the sea, using lots of adjectives.

Our trip to the Foreshore

As part of our term 2 topic - Our Place by the Sea - we went on an excursion to the Foreshore.

The children from room 6 and 8 came with us and we were lucky to have lots of help from Mum's and Dad's too.

We left school in the morning and walked in groups to Shelly Beach.

When we got there, Mrs Holdaway put a stick in the sand so we could see how far the tide went out while we were there.

We went looking around for some rockpools and we found some sea anemones that we could touch......(carefully of course).

We collected all sorts of interesting things. Some of us even made necklaces from shells we found.

We made sandcastles, made rock sculptures and had lots of fun.

One of our great rock sculptures made by Emily, Beth and Ryan

Luke and Lucas with their rock sculpture

Our Creations

At the beginning of term 2, we learned that our topic was - Our Place by the Sea.

Our homework for the first week was to design a piece of artwork of any kind we wanted. It had to be about the sea and/or sea animals. We had to use recycled materials like, old toilet rolls, old tins, newspaper, plastic or anything else we could think of.

We could make models or a poster, draw a picture or construct something.


Here are some of our creations:

Lucas created a diarama of an underwater scene

Aliyah created a papermache whale

Hannah created a great diarama

Abby's very crusty crab

This is some of our wonderful work

Term 2 - Here's what we're up to....

Our Inquiry learning topic this term is....

Our home by the sea

Picton is a small seaside town at the very top of the south island. It is in the Marlborough Sounds and everyone who lives here likes living by the sea.

Keep coming back to see our updates on what we are learning about our home by the sea.

See you soon!

Stepping Out

We have been learning about keeping ourselves safe in traffic.

We can be:
- passengers (that means riding along in a car or bus)
or
- pedestrians, (that means walking along the road side.

Constable Rob Dekker came to help us learn about:
- the different parts of the road
- crossing the road safely
- how to handle dangerous situations
- how to be responsible in vehicles
- how to get help on or near the road
- following the instructions of the school safety teams

Constable Rob Dekker comes to our school lots to help us learn about keeping ourselves safe in all different situations. He helps us learn about riding bikes too.

Thanks for your help Constable Rob!

Our Holidays

We have been learning to write recounts. We wrote about something we did during the school holidays. Here are three of the best stories and illustrations.

Christmas by Ella Andrews

For Christmas I got 24 presents.

My favourite present was the Wizard of Oz watch. On the watch there is a picture of Dorothy and their is ruby red slippers hanging from the watch.

When we had Christmas lunch our friend Paul came over to have it too. Hazel didn't eat her lunch so she got told off. Our next door neighbour gave us Bubble mix! Our friend Paul watched us blow bubbles everywhere.

My mum gave me 15 presents.

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Whatamango by Emily Overend

Dad is going hungting and Mum said we are going to Whatamango Bay. We got there about 7.00pm and had frittata with baked beans for tea. Then we went to bed at about 10.00pm.

In the morning we got up and had breakfast. After breakfast we got into our swimming togs and jumped into the stream. It was freezing!

Mum said, "I am going out to the sea." So we went with mum. Mum and Kate went snorkling, but Alice and I went up the streams exploring. Then we tipped the biscuit because it was getting heavier. Then our Nanna and Pop came so we got out and had lunch. Nanna came swimming with us but Pop didn't come with us. We found lots of cockles.

When Nanna and Pop left, Mum said we have to stay in the shade for a bit, so I stayed in the shade. Then we had dinner.

After dinner Chloe asked if I wanted to play tag. I said yes. Kate and Alice helped mum and then they came and played. Chloe was in for tag alot. Then Chloe came to our camp and had a milo with us. After we had finished our mile we brushed our teeth and went to bed.

When we woke it was really windy so we decided to have breakfast and pack everything up into the cover and went home.

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Movies by Sophie Overend (yes we're cousins)

Well! It all started when I was tidying my room.

Mum came in and said "If you tidy your room in time you can go to the movies and see Alvin and the Chipmunks the Squeakwal." Luckily, I finished just in time and could go to the movies.

When we got there Mum parked the car and went in. Mum gave our tickets to the man and we dashed in!

When it finished I really wanted to see it again.

Recycled Creations

As part of our topic 'Caring for our environment' we have been working on some projects which use objects which we would have been going to throw away.

Every year Queen Charlotte College holds a big competition called 'Wearable Dezigns'. This year, Jackie, our librarian put in her entry. She called it 'Rotational Splendour'.

Caring for our environment

Our topic this term is

'Caring for our Environment'.

We have been learning about how we can recycle our things to reduce the amount of rubbish we create.

We decided to save our lunch food scraps from our lunch and recycle them into compost.

Each class in our school has a bucket, into which we put all our old food scraps from lunch. Then we take them over to the garden and put our scraps into the Bokashi Bin.

"Once we've put the food scraps in, we put in some Bokashi sawdust, it is full of microorganisms which help to eat up the scraps and turn it into good suff for the garden" said Toby.


Mrs Overend shows us how to grow food in our school garden.
























The dirt in our garden is full of worms "they help to make the soil better" said Sophie.

Our Duffy Star

At Picton School, we are lucky to be a Duffy School. That mean's we are part of a nationwide programme which helps to get great books into the homes of the children so they have more opportunities to learn to read.

A couple of times a year, the children get to make their own selection from a range of books that they can then keep for their very own.

Last week we had a special Duffy Assembly, which meant that a special guest came to our assembly and presented a special award to some of the children in the school in recognition of their hard work and doing their personal best.

This time the Marlborough Mayor, Alistair Sowman, came to make the presentations. We got to see his "Mayoral Chains" and some of the children even got to try them on!

At this assembly, Tom was awarded a special Duffy Book for improved reading and writing.

CONGRATULATIONS TOM!

Our visit to the Dental Clinic

We have been learning about people who help us in the community. Dentists help us look after our teeth and mouths. We went to visit the dental nurse, then came back and wrote some acrostic poems.

Brush your teeth two times a day

Right thing for healthy snacks

Use water or milk to drink

She told us our teeth are stronger than our bones

Helps us look after our teeth

By Emily

Brush your teeth every day

Rush to brush

Use tooth paste with flouride

Shiny teeth

Hidden bugs in your teeth

By Billie

Teeth are tougher than your bones

Eat healthy snacks

Estelle is our dentist teacher

Teeth fall out others come in

Help your teeth by brushing

By Qwade

Teeth are alive

Estelle is our dental nurse

Elephants don't brush their teeth

Teeth are stronger than bones

Healthy teeth need brushing daily

By Daniel

Our Awesome Assembly

Today it was Room 7's assembly. Thank you to the parents who attended. The children really enjoy presenting to an audience, especially if they have someone special to them, watching.

We sang a fun song about having a bad hair day. We read some of our silly "sh" sentences and also had a group read a play together.

We reminded everyone that we need to wash our hands reguarly so that we don't spread or catch any of the nasty illnesses that are around at the moment.
Here are some photos of our assembly.

Harold the Giraffe

Harold the Giraffe from Life Education Trust visited our school last week. We learned about Our Bodies, Our Personalities and how we are all very different but in some ways the same. We had a great time learning in the Mobile Classroom.

We have been painting pictures of ourselves. Our artwork needed to be bright, bold and eyecatching. It was important to fill the whole page.

We also made clay pots. We started with a ball of clay and had to mould it into a pot shape. Then we left it for a few days to dry. Once it was dry we painted a base colour onto it. We left it to dry then painted a pattern with different colours. Then when the paint had dried we glued glitter onto our pots to make them sparkle. We are amazing artists!!!!

Welcome to Room 7's Fancy Blogsite

We are a wee class of 21 year 2 and 3 students.We have just had two new students join our class so we wish them a very warm welcome. Our teacher is Mrs Adams. We are learning about Keeping Ourselves safe this term. We talk alot in our class about making good choices, respecting ourselves and others and acheiving our A1 personal best.We hope you have time to pop into R7 and see our amazing work and talk to us about the things we are learning about.

Welcome

Hi Room 7
Welcome to your blogging journey
Jocelyn
0272466651
jocelyn.mackay@xtra.co.nz