Georgia with her prize

We wrote emails to the Wanganui Chronicle news paper describing an event which had happened to us. For the past two weeks we have been following a narrative called 'Cody's unexpected catch.' We have also been doing a lot of work with Newspapers in Education. Georgia, Mia, Biasha and Caitlyn all had their writing published in the paper and Georgia's was chosen to win three books by Des Hunt who also wrote Cody's unexpected catch. We are very proud to have had our email stories published in the paper and thrilled that one of us won the books. Thank you Wanganui Chronicle for giving us this opportunity to have such a huge audience for our writing and to have such a great prize.

Visiting the Sarjeant Gallery

We went to the Sarjeant Art Gallery to look at the different ways that artists have drawn, painted and made flowers. The exhibition was really inspiring and Catherine Macdonald, the artist, had done her art work straight on to the wall. She showed us how to draw observationally. Andrea, the Art teacher, then took us in to a room where we could draw on heavy paper on the walls.
We didn't realise how good we were at drawing. We enjoyed our visit very much.

Then we went to the Wanganui Museum and looked at containers, what they have been used for and how they are decorated. We are preparing to decorate our own containers.
Margie at the museum told us all about conatiners used in history and then we had to find them all over the museum.

It was a good day out and we learnt a lot.

Homework: Narrative by Georgia

HOMEWORK
One day, last week I came home from school looking worried. Our teacher Miss Plum had given us some homework and I didn’t know how to do it .We had to design a map of New Zealand and I was sure to get it wrong. It was due in by tomorrow and nobody was home to help me with it (except for my little sister that knew nothing). I flopped onto my bed and went to sleep. A few hours later I woke up to someone licking my face. “stop it peanut” I giggled. It was peanut, our black and white spotted puppy. I lifted him off my bed and sat down at my desk. “What am I going to do.”I said to myself. Just then my little sister came bouncing into my room. “Sis guess what day it is today ?”. My little sister said happily. “What?” I groaned. “Its Saturday silly” she laughed. Oh my I had almost forgotten. I had promised my sister that on Saturday I would take her to the fair in town.” Ok then go and get ready” I said. We walked out the door and out to town. We finally reached the fair. We played all day. When it was getting dark I suddenly remembered about my homework. “oh no!” I cried. “What am I going to do about my homework?” I took my sisters arm and ran home as fast as I could. “ My homework” I screamed as I scrambled through the door. I picked it up in my arms , ran through the door again and ran to my friends house. “Help!” I cried and ran into the house and slammed the door behind me. As I ran inside my shoe fell off. I stopped to put it back on. I looked up and the house was empty. Suddenly I heard a noise. I walked into the next room and I saw her. It was my friend and she was sitting in a dusty old corner of the house. I walked up to her and tapped her on the back. She turned around and said “My homework” in a very creepy voice. I took her by the top and sprinted home. I sat down and told her to calm down and then I said lets set off and start the trip. She looked at me with a big smile on her face. “well then lets go” she laughed. So off we went. It felt like years before we came home(but it was only one day). We got home really late at night and when we reached our bedrooms we slumped down on our beds and went to sleep. Two days later we came home screaming. We got A,s. !!!!

Author: Georgia

Containers observationally

This term we are looking at and making containers. We have observationally drawn containers and discussed why the artist has made them, the design, size, materials used and the space inside...is it important? What could they be used to contain? Why did the artist use the shape, colour and design they used? What materials were used and how were they made?
We hope you enjoy looking at some of our drawings and we will keep you posted with the process and the outcomes of the containers we make.

We interviewed our principal Mr. Petersen to find out more about our school because we have been looking at rules and laws and whether they are important or not.

Our big Inquiry question is 'Who Makes the Laws?

Question: Who makes the rules for the children?
Mr. Petersen: The Board of Trusties.

Question: Who makes the rules for the teachers?
Mr.Petersen: The Teachers' Council and the Board of Trusties.

Who made the law that you had to go to school for 6 hours?
Mr. Petersen: About three hundred years ago people moved off their farms into cities and they needed somewhere for their children to go while they were at work so they put the children together and formed schools.

Question: How do principals become principals?
Mr. Petersen: They start off as class teachers then they become deputy principals and take on extra resonsibility like organising sport and then thy apply for Principal's jobs.

Question: Why are some schools so strict?
Mr. Petersen: It's a good thing that schools are strict because the students don't make as many mistakes. Parents like schools which are strict because there is less bullying. You need strict rules such as driving on the right side of the road, imagine what it would be like if everyone drove where ever they liked.

Question: Why can't we have longer breaks?
Mr. Petersen: You already get 1 hour 20 minutes to play and eat. The main reason why you are at school is to learn.

Question: Why do we need a principal and a deputy principal?
Mr. Petersen: I am so busy I could start work at 6am. and finish at midnight and still not keep up with my work, a deputy principal takes half the work load.

Question: Who makes sure everything is running properly?
Mr. Petersen: The Board of Trusties and all the staff.

Question: Why are principals so busy?
Mr. Petersen: There are lots of jobs to make sure children are learning and safe. I do books, paper work, files and lots of work on the computer.

Thank you Mr. Petersen for visiting us and helping us with our questions.