Merry Christmas!

This year has been a fantastic year! We have achieved a lot and have really enjoyed having a classroom blog for the first time! We hope you have a great holiday and will see you back here, with a new class, at the same address next year! Thank you to all of those people who have taken the time to check out our blog and leave comments. Happy holidays.

The Fruits of our Labour

This afternoon, we opened up a shop outside A1 to sell our garden produce to parents and students. We really enjoyed harvesting our garden and selling what we have worked so hard to grow! The sale was a huge success - we sold everything!

Caring for Pets

Every Friday, A4 go to the library for ICT with Mrs Clark. This term their inquiry topic was pets. Their task was to find and present information about caring for a goldfish.  Then, they had to present their findings by creating a slide using Powerpoint.



The Great Garden Sale!

Look at how much our garden has grown!

On Wednesday afternoon, we are holding a fruit and vegetable sale. Here are some of the things that have been growing in our garden!



A yellow courgette



lettuce




radishes



strawberries



cos lettuce

Come along to A block on Wednesday afterschool to buy some delicious fruit and vegetables. All of the money raised will go towards our classroom pets.

Junior Sports Day

On Friday morning, the junior school had a special sports day. Here are some photos from the day.

Here are some of us talking about our favourite part of the sports day.

Papatoetoe East's Annual School Concert

On Wednesday and Thursday of this week, the juniors and seniors held their annual school concerts! Here are the highlights.

Here are the highlights from the Senior School Concert.

18 Sleeps Until Christmas!

We are very excited about Christmas in A4! We have spent a lot of time discussing what presents we would like. Today Hemakshi, Makaveli and Theodore wrote letters to Santa. 

The Octopus

We love reading non-fiction books in A4, especially stories about animals. Last week, the Penguins reading group read a book called The Octopus. Here is a video of what they learnt.

And the winner is...

On Wednesday afternoon, Papatoetoe East held its annual East Idol competition! Gabrielle came 1st with her amazing rendition of Ave Maria. Nick came 2nd and Zian and Brasilia came 3rd.

Tania getting ready for
her performance

The MCs Dimitrius and Miss Nola
get the crowd ready for the show

Here are the winners! Well done guys!

To see highlights of the concert, check out C1's Blog where Miss Lamb has some great photos and video clips of the show!

Strawberry Thief!

Our plants are growing so fast! We are starting to see a lot of strawberries. On Tuesday, we saw our first big red strawberry. But when we went back later to have a look, it was gone! 



Our strawberries growing

The broken stalk where
the strawberry was stolen!

Here are stories about the strawberry thief written by Osama, Eli and Hayzel. Eli and Osama think the new kittens will keep the strawberry thief away! This is Osama's first video!

Our Special Visitors!

We really wanted the new school kittens to come and visit our class. So we decided to write letters to convince Mrs Compston to let the kittens come to A4. Here is Loveday's letter. Can you hear Loveday using a persuasive voice?

Here are some photos of the kittens in A4.

Tofa Soifua Nanas!

Today was Nana's last day at Papatoetoe East School. She is flying back to Room 8 in Springston, Christchurch tomorrow. So A3 and A4 decided to have a farewell party for Nanas. Here is a video of the party!

Here are some stories that Alofa, Rani and Sen Nay Pow wrote about Nanas leaving.

Enjoying Our Garden

We have been enjoying these warm, sunny afternoons. Today some of the children spent some time in our garden. Look at how much it has grown in just over a month!

We watered the plants

We tasted some spinach

We tried some lettuce

More tasting...

We gave Stu some
cabbage

And of course Chester
 got some too!

Hello Osama!

Osama has just started in Room A4. He turned 5 in March and has come to Papatoetoe East from another school. He enjoys building with the mathematics equipment.

Nana's night at Hayzel's house

Nanas went to Hayzel's house for the night! He had so much fun and Hayzel wrote a story in Nana's book about what they got up to!

If you want to know what Wally has been doing in Christchurch with Room 8, click on the link on the right-hand side of this blog. Their blog is called Springston Explorers.

Skype No.2!

 We skyped with the Springston Explorers again on Monday morning. Wally is having a great time. Room 8 sang us a fantastic song and we got to ask each other more questions. Check out this video.

After we skyped, some of the children decided to write stories in Nana's special book.

One Fine Day

Here is a video of our museum trip on Wednesday, the 17th of November. A big thank you to the parents and caregivers that came along to help with supervision.

Amazing Apes!

After the arrival of Nanas, we decided we wanted to know more about apes. The Ladybugs reading group have read books about chimpanzees and orangutans. Here is a video of the Ladybugs sharing what they learnt.

Do you know any facts about chimpanzees or orangutans that would like to share? Please leave a comment, we would love to know more.

Joshua's name suggestions

Joshua is getting very good at writing stories all by himself! He was very determined to record his story and share it on the blog. Well done Joshua, we are very proud of you!

Auckland Museum

On Wednesday, we went to the museum and Nanas came too. It was a very hot day and when we got back to school we were exhausted. But Sharon decided to write a story about her day!

Nanas on the bus

Nanas looking at dinosaur bones

Watch this space for more museum pictures!

Feline Frenzy

The kittens have arrived at Papatoetoe East! Aren't they cute? They are sisters. We went to visit them today. They are living next to Mrs Compston's office.

Here are some stories about the kittens by Eli, Mihi, Theodore and Ayush. 

What do you think their names should be? Leave us a comment.

Springston Skype!

Then we saw Wally with Room 8
and they could see Nanas with us

A3 and A4 skyped the Springston Explorers today and we saw Wally!

We waited for the
phone to ring

We asked Room 8
some questions...

and they asked us
questions too.

We have not skyped with another school before and it was very exciting. We were worried that Wally might have been in an earthquake, but he was fine. Room 8 were holding Wally very carefully and we could see that Wally was having a great time.

What Happened Next?

Did you see this picture in the NZ Herald this week? We couldn't stop talking about what happened to the baby elephant.

Sharon and Maleeha wrote stories about what they thought happened next.

What do you think might have happened? Leave a comment.

Nanas has landed!

Nanas arrived from Christchurch this morning along with letters from his class.

The package arrives

Nanas is revealed!

Nanas meets Stu

Nanas checks out A4

We decided to write letters to Nanas to introduce ourselves. Here is a video of Amy, Eli and Hayden reading their letters.

Welcome to A4 Avish

Avish is the newest member of A4.

Avish loves to play outside on the slide. He has a brother in Year 4 named Ayush.

Wally's Vacation

Today Wally is going to Christchurch!! He is going to visit our blogging buddies The Springston Explorers. They are also sending A3 and A4 a package and we can't wait to see what is in it! We wrote a lot of letters today and sent them with Wally. 



Wally getting ready



Wally in his package



 

Eli looking at the Springston
Explorers blog

Loveday posting her letter



 

Here is a video of some of the letters we wrote to the Springston Explorers.

If you want to look at the Springston Explorers blog, click on the link below:

http://springstonexplorers.blogspot.com/

Spring Garden Update

We have been very busy in our new garden. We have planted beans, spinach, strawberries, tomatoes, corn, lettuce and marigolds to keep the insects away. If you have time, come down to
A4 and have a closer look.

Saal Mubarak

Diwali is the Indian Festival of Lights that marks the beginning of the Indian new year. To celebrate Diwali, we created rangoli patterns and made coconut barfi.

Rani was very excited about Diwali. Here she is talking about her experience.

Do you have a Diwali experience you would like to share? Leave us a comment.

Firework Safety

Tonight it is Guy Fawkes Night! Yesterday, A4 wrote stories about being safe around fireworks and we came up with some important safety rules.

What is it?

On Monday, the Frogs reading group read a book called Tails and Claws. It is a puzzle story. So the Frogs had a go at making their own puzzle stories. Can you guess their animal?

The Rabbit who got his Wires Crossed!

You guessed it! Stu has been up to more mischief. He has been eating A3 and A4's telephone wire. We were very worried about what our principal would say when he found out. So we wrote letters to Mr Gilbert and made a video. Sorry Mr Gilbert.

Freaky Friday

It will be Halloween on Sunday! Today we made masks, got dressed up and made treats. We had a lot of fun!

Strawberries

Today we planted some strawberries in our new garden bed!

 First, we dug holes.

Another strawberry plant
ready for planting.

Here is one of the
strawberry plants.

We put the plants
in the holes.

 ... and gave them some
special food

 Lastly, we watered the plants...

Here is a story by Loveday. Listen carefully to find out what creature might try to eat our strawberries!