New Zealand Olympians!

Today was exciting for Ilam school children as we waited outside school to cheer and support the athletes from New Zealand that went to the Olympics in London. It was a beautiful, clear, sunny day. We waved New Zealand flags and blow up sticks in support as they passed us on their tour buses.

Here is a poem about the Olympics written by Caitlin Brown:

Twinkling eyes and a mysterious smile,

lining up to run a mile.

Breathing in and breathing out,

people walking all about.

Looking out from side to side,

if you don't win at least you tried.

Standing on the winner's block,

hearing the ticking of the clock.

Puffing cheeks

and sweating neck,

I've won a gold medal,

now that's a start.

John's Rabbits

Today, John's mother brought his baby rabbits to school. John is responsible for looking after them. Each day he cleans out their cage, changes their water and feeds them. It's best for them to eat a variety of vegetables and they enjoy  cabbage, lettuce and carrots among other things. They also need to be left out of their cage for an hour each day for exercise and of course they need alot of care and affection.

Medal Making

What, with the London Olympics about to start, we have been getting into the swing of things and learning about the ancient ones. We've also each adopted a country that we are going to track during the Olympics. This week, we are making medals from plaster of paris then engraving them with our own ancient or modern designs. For homework, we need to find a ribbon with colours that relate to our adopted country.

Spooning plaster of paris into our molds

Sanding our medals

Scraping the designs using a nail

Finished medals

Based on the women's "Heria Olympics" in ancient Greece with symbol in the middle representing the Goddess Hera, Queen of the gods. The blue and white ribbon is based on the modern Greek flag. The blue represents the blue in the waves and the white, the foam crests.

 

Cabbage Harvest

Harvesting our vegetables

On Wednesday 20 June,  Room 3 children harvested the cabbages we'd grown. We peeled the leaves off and washed away the slugs. Each of us took some home that night. Some children steamed their cabbage, some sauteed theirs.

We all agreed that they were really good for us because they were organic and freshly picked meaning they had a high nutritional content.

Butterfly Art

We've  just completed a unit of art. We based it on New Zealand and Tropical Butterflies. We learnt sketching techniques such a stippling, shading, cross hatching, whispering lines and shouting lines. After that we practised observational sketching of butterflies. Then we used grids to focus on size, proportion and symmetry. Next we practised blending with warm and cool colours and lightening colours using white paint.

Check out  some of the amazing artworks...

Harry - Species name: Mer Papillon 

John - Species name: Rainbow Butterfly

Holly - Species name: Rainbow Meadows

Danbie - Species name: La lumiere bleu de papillon

Jessie F - Species name: Arcobaleno Butterfly

Sara - Species name: Red Rose Butterfly

Georgie - Species name: Cynthia Aquilonaris

Anusha - Species name: Turquesa mariposa

Jason T - Species name: Black Ocean Breeze

Jason C - Species name: Blue Morpho

Raymond - Species name: Sun Dance Butterfly

Scott - Species name: Fire Fleck

Caitlin Brown - Species name: Emerald Apricot Butterfly

Jessie O - Species name: Colorido fruta farfella

Levi - Species name: Blue Sun

Jiayi - Species name: Morado Azul Butterfly

George - Species name: Karate Butterfly

Hannah - Species name: Roasado Pearl

Caitlin Brackley - Species name: Rainbow Crystals

Boris - Species name: Multi Ray Striker

Andrew - Species name: Neurus lole pysche

Jason Ye

 Ethan

Tama

Planting Vegies

Room 3 have started their vegie patch. We weeded, dug lime into the soil (cabbages like it) and then planted cabbages and lettuces.