Cross Country

Cross Country

****REMINDER!****

Remember that our school Cross Country is on TUESDAY, your first day back at school next week.

• You may wear your PE gear to school but bring your uniform in case your PE gear gets wet due to rain or muddy if you fall over.
• School polar fleece or jersey. 
• Track pants to keep warm (blue or black if you have them)
• Running shoes.
• Spare pair of socks (any socks) 
• Drink Bottle.
• Snacks. We will be back at school for lunch but bring plenty of snacks.
• Your school hat.

                                          See you on Tuesday! Have a fabulous holiday break!

Mini Fossil Rocks

Today we made some fossil rocks using sand, flour, salt, water, dirt and Plaster of Paris.  Kimberly and Lawson mixed the ingredients into a smooth mixture that was like cookie dough.  Some people thought it looked good enough to eat!  Eww!!  Then we got a lump each to form around our plastic dinosaur toys.  We shaped the mixture to look like rocks and left them on the windowsill to dry for a few days.  When they are dry, we will excavate the dinosaurs using our fossil tool kits.  We have to make a mini booklet about the dinosaur we discover inside.

By Mrs Trolle

JAVA Dance group

 On Wednesday a Wellington dance group came to Salisbury School to perform a show. It was quite an interesting show. The group that came to perform to us had 1 boy and 3 girls. There were 2 penguins, 1 albatross and 1 sea lion. After the show the dancers taught us some moves. It was very fun!

By Finlay and Joshua

Fossil Hunting Kits

For our inquiry topic, Kotuku class are learning about fossils. Keruru and Kotuku will be going to the Richmond Hills to (hopefully) find fossils. To find the fossils we will need some equipment, so we all had to make a fossil kit out of household items. We had to bring them back to school by Tuesday. Lots of people had really cool hammers and massive chisels. People also made tools out of paper clips. We will also be doing other fossil activities such as taking chocolate chips out of biscuits and digging out toys out of the sandpit. It will be very fun!  :) by Josh and Finlay

Sam's awesome fossil kit.

Lot of interesting tools!

Mikayla's fossil kit.

Ben's fossil kit.

Planet Dinosaur

There are some great clips about dinosaurs that you could watch on Planet Dinosaur by the BBC.  The link is below . . .

Planet Dinosaur

Visit to the Museum

Today our class went to The Nelson Museum. The person to teach us about fossils was John. He was also the person to teach us about Nelson's history and he was the "old time teacher." We were at the bottom level, the New Zealand History part. First he told us about fossils and the meaning of the time periods like the Cambrian etc. Next our group went with Maree to look at the fossils at the front of the exhibition. Some of the fossils were 400 million years old! After that we went with Mrs Hill to study which fossil was which. We had to get a piece of paper that says what type of fossil you have and match it up with the all of the fossils below. Soon after that we went with Mrs Lewis to learn how a fossil is formed. There were cards below that we put in order of how a fossil is formed. It was very easy. We also went with Mrs Scott, we drew pictures of ancient creatures. Most of the people in my group drew Icthyosaurs.

By Ceanna and Jacob

Mary Anning's 215th Birthday!

Today is Mary Anning's 215th Birthday.  She was a very amazing fossil expert. People believe the saying, "She sells seashells by the seashore" was created when Mary was selling seashells with her Dad by the beach.
By Jacob

Bones of the Biggest Dinosaur to Walk the Earth Discovered!

Thank you to Jonty and Benjamin for sending me a link about the bones of the biggest dinosaur to walk the Earth being found in Argentina.  Click the link below to watch the TVNZ news video about the discovery.

http://tvnz.co.nz/world-news/bones-biggest-dinosaur-discovered-video-5974856

Zumba!

We had Zumba on Friday morning with Sally.  It was great fun and everyone got dancing!  It was high energy and we were huffing and puffing by the time we got back to school :)

Reflection Journals

On Friday we began writing in our Reflection Journals.  Each Friday we will reflect on our week and write about what we have learned and things we are grateful for in our lives.  We are also collecting up inspirational quotes to put in our journals.  Our journal writing is personal, but we can share it with the class or Mrs Trolle if we want to.

Museum Visit this Week!

Get your thinking caps on because we're off to the Nelson Museum this week to ask lots of fossil questions.  We will have an geologist from the Museum to show us around and to share his expert knowledge.

Here is a fun song that Miss Hampson found for you to listen to and learn some information . . . Fossil Rock Anthem!

New Zealand Sign Language Week

During week 1 our class had been talking about the 3 official languages of New Zealand (English, Maori and NZ Sign Language).  Kotuku class enjoy learning Maori language each week and expressed an interest in learning NZ sign language as well.  This week is actually NZ Sign Language week and so it is the perfect time for us to begin learning this official language and to use it in our classroom.

Watch the following video about Amber and what her life has been like being deaf.  Click on the website links and see if you can learn some NZ Sign Language that you can show your family or classmates this week.

Amber's Story







Deaf.co.nz

New Zealand Sign Language Week

Typing Skills

For those of you who want to develop your typing skills, Joshua showed me a great link with games using keyboard skills.  It is called BBC Dance Mat Typing.  Click on the link below, or you can find it on our website links (under Topic).

By Mrs T

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/typing/

Fossil Title Page

On Monday Kotuku class started a new topic Memory Bones.  We started making a title page in our topic book.  When everybody has finished, Mrs Trolle will judge the best title page and the winner will get a prize. We have decorated them with pictures of fossils and historic things.

By Hannah J. and Hannah S.