Gas explsion by E.F

On Friday 31 people were captured in a mine. Lots of people were worried aabout them. Gas explosions are dangerous because the explosion and the gas will kill you. The gas builds up until boom.

Pike River by E.D

Last Friday in Greymouth 29 people died in the Pike River mine because 2 large explosions (caused by gas build up) took place. 2 people survived.

the miners by A.L-B

The youngest was a 17 year old who was so excited to start work. He was supposed to start on the 19th.

Pike River by J.B

On riday there was a tragedy in Greymouth Pike River coal mine. there were two explosions, luckily 2 got out. The explosions were caused by gas build ups.

pike river by O.P

The youngest man was 17. He had to start on Monday but he was so excitied he went over to Greymouth early so he died sadly.

The miners by A.H

Lots of families were in tragedy when they found out what happened. We feel really sad.

Our miners by C.B

I hope they are proud that they have had the courage that they all had. God bless all our miners.

NZ mourns

We wanted to share how sad we are today at the loss of 29 men who died in the Pike River Mine explosion. We talked about it this morning and watched news coverage. It is so sad to think that all of those men won't be coming home. S.C said she couldn't imagine her dad not coming home. We have left a message to all the people in Greymouth and we hope that they can feel happy again some time soon. we have learnt what R.I.P means and we hope that those me do.
All of our love to Greymouth.

A BIG HELLO TO YOU MINA

One of our old classmates has sent us a message so we want to send a huge hello and lots of love to M.C-A and we hope you are having a wonderful time in China.

Te Tahawai Marae

At the end of our Inquiry topic we went to visit Te Tahawai Marae in Pakuranga. It was a wonderful afternoon where we got to learn a bit about life on a marae, its customs and traditions along with having a drink and a bikky.

This video shows us being called onto the marae. You can see the women go in first to show that we are friendly and the men follow behind. Once on the marae however it is the men who do the talking and thewomen who sit in the back.

A New Zealand Forest

We have been looking at our wonderful forests and what makes them so special. We have created our own version. We got into pairs and drew then painted trees found in NZ and then put some of our native birds and insects in there too. We hope you enjoy it.

Room 17 poetry finalists....

We have just completed our poetry competition and this year Z.M and C.R represented room 17 at the finals. Our class loves how expressive these two poems are and we hope you like them as much as we do.

NZ by A.P-M, K.H, K.B, A.L-B

NZ by A.H and E.D

NZ by K.J and L.H

Nz by O.P, I.Y, and C.B

Nz by Z.M and C.S

NZ by E.S and S.C

New Zealand in words....

The three mountains

This is a drama about how some of our mountains ended up where they are today. We worked hard on it during our reading block and recorded it to share with you. Let us know what you think.

O.P New Zealand

New Zealand have tuis.

New Zealand have 4million people.

There are 3different kiwis in New Zealand. Kiwi fruits, Kiwi birds and Kiwis (people).

SC Interesting New Zealand Facts

new zealand has the most kiwi fruit.

new zealand maori culture

k,h's awesome facts

new zealand is the only place with l and p.new zealand has 60 million sheep.

Z.M

we have 4 million people 60 million sheep.

J.K fact finder

North island was pulled out of the water like a fish.

NL New Zealand Lots of Facts

New Zealand has alot of kiwis.

Alb New Zealand facts

New zealand is the only one who has the sky tower.

JBsfacts

new zealand is the only place with kiwis.

What I know E.S

Kiwis lay the biggest egg in New zealand.

KB about new zealand

NEWZEALAND IS THE ONLY PLACE WITH HU HU BUGS.

E.D information on New zealand

new zealand is the only country that has us in it.

new zealand is the first to see the sun.

auckland has 49 volcanos.

CRs facts about discovery

New Zealand is the only place with 60 million sheep

CS facts abeat New Zealand

New Zealand had 60,000,000 sheep

JE NZ facts

The nz forest has lots of ferns.

NZ has atleast 4,000,000 people.

What I know, by O.P

New Zealand has lots of sheep.

New Zealand has tui.

New Zealand has lots of kiwis.

What I know about New zealand .By APM

New Zealand has 4,000,000 people.

What I know about New Zealand By IY

New Zealand has wakas.

When you die in cape reinga you jump off the maori spirit.

The Capital of New Zealand is Wellington.

RZ Facts About New Zealand

Captain Cook named New Zealand.

New Zealand is the only country in the world with kiwis.

Image from dailyhistory.net

End of Term

Well we have finished term 2 and wow what a busy time we have had. We hope that you have enjoyed seeing our work and hope that you will come back next term to see what we're up to. Our next topic is about how NZ is such a unique and special country full of amazing culture, food, people and creativity. It is going to be an excellent topic finished off with a marae visit which will be awesome. We will have Miss Jeffries from Salisbury University in our class for 6 weeks which will be great for all of us. Sadly we have had one of our room leave us to head off to China, so we all send a big goodbye and cuddle to M.C-A!! We will miss you but we will keep in touch here on our blog. So have a safe and happy holidays from all of us here in Room 17.
Bye for now...see you in 2 weeks....

Why is Earth just right for us..... our conclusion to ten weeks of inquiry

Welcome to Miss Jeffries

Room 17 is excited to announce that next term they are going to have an American student with them for 6 weeks. Miss Jeffries is from Salisbury University in Maryland. Today we were lucky to meet her and some of her friends as they stopped in for a whirlwind visit. We can't wait to see her again and hope she has a great time visiting other schools and countries.

The Queen of Space came to visit

Today the Serina the Queen of Space came to visit our school. She sang songs and together with her side kick Gloria (the guinea pig) told us the story of Matariki. It was a very exciting time.

Our 1000 hit blog party

The Haka

Last Friday we were lucky enough to have the Howick College Kapahaka group come and perform at our assembly. The boys asked if anyone wanted to come and join them on stage to perform the Haka. J.P and B.R were the only two brave enough to give it a go and boy.....it was awesome!!! We are very proud of them and think it looks superb. Good to know that the future of the Haka is in such good hands.

Miss Wright

Our descriptive writing

Today we looked a picture of a cat. Next we brainstormed all of the words we could think of to go under each heading. After we had done this we went away and wrote at least 4 sentences on our own, Miss Wright is amazed at the descriptive work we have come up with.

We played with some pieces of a comet....

A floating elevator has been invented to take us to a planet of our choice...

Botany Downs jumps for Heart Jam

More than 200 schools took part in Heart Jam today today to raise money for adults and children with heart problems. We have been learning a special Jump Jam routine with Brett Fairweather and we did it this morning. Thank goodness the rain stayed away! We look cool and are all keeping our hearts healthy.

After 200 days on the road the Queen's Baton arrives at Botany Downs Primary

The Baton is coming to Botany Downs

Tomorrow is going to be an exciting day. Some children from Howick Primary are going to arrive at our school with the Queen's Baton which is heading to the Commonwealth Games in India. We are one of only 6 schools in Auckland who get to take part in this relay and we are VERY proud to be involved. We will take lots of photos and put them up soon.
YAY BOTANY DOWNS

Balloon Day at Botany Downs

Today it was Balloon Day at Botany Downs. We all wore red to support the Asthma Foundation and had a sausage sizzle too. We loved all the balloons and were very careful not to pop any....

Buddy Reading

Today Room's 7 and 17 enjoyed a story in our fantastic library. Mrs Macro read 'The Dumb Bunnies' to us. It is an awesome story and makes us laugh.

Simpson and Duffy

E.S and S.C drew amazing pictures of Simpson and his donkey Duffy. We read about how Duffy used to help carry the injured soldiers from the battlefield down the cliff to the doctors. Even after Simpson was shot through the heart and killed the little donkey still carried a wounded soldier down to safety. After the war Duffy went to India where he was looked after for the rest of his life.

We made ANZAC biscuits.......mmmmmm

The Poppy

With ANZAC being a special day in New Zealand a lot of us bought a poppy to wear. The money raised goes to help the members and families of the R.S.A. The poppy is a symbol of rememberance and we feel proud to wear them.

In Flanders' fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunsets glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie

In Flanders' fields.

A special day for all New Zealand

Today we had a special assembly to remember all of the men and women who died in war to keep our country free. We listened to the poem "Ode to the fallen" and heard the Last Post. Some of us wanted to cry because it was sad and made us think about all of the dead soldiers. Two children laid a wreath under the flag and then we were very respectful and stood for a minutes silence. We are very pleased we got to pin on our poppy and help to remember such an important time for our country.
"WE WILL REMEMBER THEM"

Welcome Back...

Term two has just begun.... I hope you all had a safe and happy Easter holiday. This term will be an exciting one with lots more space activities to share. ANZAC day is also coming up so we will look at that too. Don't forget to keep checking our Blog and please leave us a comment.
Miss Wright :-)

Some space pics for you to look at...

The moon over Botany Downs

This is how the moon looked over Room 21 this morning. Isn't it beautiful!!

A very special visit

On Monday afternoon we got to meet Mr Rutherford. His father worked on the Apollo space missions building part of the rocket. He had lots of interesting facts to tell us and he showed us original space badges collected by his father. These badges were given out to the astronauts after each space mission. If you look closely at each the picture on it helps to tell what happened on each flight. We really like the badge with the eagle on it as this is when man first landed on the moon and the famous phrase "the eagle has landed" came from.

Earth Hour Update

In the weekend it was Earth Hour. We all tried to help our planet by turning off the lights in our houses for one hour. Some of us got to stay up late to see how dark it was. Some of us played games by torch or candle light. Some of us played hide-and-seek with torches or read with a torch. C.S even went out for dinner and saved power at his house. Some of us just went to bed as normal which still helped save power. A lot of us watched the news and saw how other countries turned the lights off big buildings and special places. The lights went out on our sky tower, the opera house, the pyramids and lots of very tall buildings. We all tried to help out and do our bit and Miss Wright is very proud of us for reminding our mums and dads that it was on.

One small step for man.......

Moon Rocks

Earth Hour....you can make a difference

To help our planet we can all do our bit by turning everything off for 1 hour on Saturday 27th March. Try reading by torchlight or playing boardgames with Mum and Dad. Perhaps you could go outside and look at the stars......