Matilda arrived in our class!

Our travel buddy Matilda arrived in our class the day before yesterday. She is a gorgeous brown kangaroo with a joey.

Thank you to Room 2E at Yugumbir State School for Matilda, and for the special slideshow CD. It was interesting to see what your school looks like, and we really liked the idea of The Hive. We are looking forward to getting to know you, and learn more about your school and country.

Does anyone know the name of the special hat Matilda is wearing? What is it for? Leave a comment to share your thoughts...

Hungry Caterpillars - Reading Activities

The colours look amazing! The Hungry Caterpillars reading group read a story called 'Chow Chicken'. One of their activities was to do an experiment with milk. They put milk into an ice cream container. Into each corner of the container they put some food colouring (one colour in each corner - blue, red, yellow, and green). A cotton bud soaked into washing up liquid was dipped into the milk. We watched as the colours did some amazing things!
Annabelle brought in her pet chicken Ana because she related to what was was happening in the story:
Annabelle also brought in some milk from one of her cows. The class had a sample and enjoyed the creamy taste!
Thank you to Annabelle and her family for helping us learn new things.

Athletics Day

Gianlucca practising for High Jump.

Tomorrow is our school Athletics Day. All parents and supporters welcome to cheer on the athletes! Events start at 1.30pm.

We are also taking part in raising money for the Arohanui Hospice again this year, so come to school dressed in something green and bring along a gold coin donation. Please ensure that whatever you wear is appropriate for taking part in the Athletics events...

Indian Recipes

The following are the recipes that we made for our Writing activity. We hope you enjoy making them as much as we did!

Kheema Kebabs
Ingredients
250g Mince (lamb/chicken)
½ teaspoon Cumin Powder
½ teaspoon Coriander Powder
½ teaspoon Garam Masala
½ teaspoon Chilli Powder
1 teaspoon Ginger
2 Tablespoons Oil

Equipment
Bowl
Wooden Spoon
Kebab Skewers
Frying pan
Fish Slice

Method
1. Mix all the ingredients into a bowl until well combined.
2. Roll them into balls and place 2-3 on a skewer
3. Add oil to the frying pan and place kebabs into frying pan
4. Fry them 2-3 minutes on each side until they turn golden brown.


Lentil Patties
Ingredients
4-5 spring onions
Fresh coriander
2 tins of lentils (drained)
2 teaspoons cumin
2 teaspoons turmeric
½ cup of plain flour
2 tablespoons oil

Equipment
Knife
Chopping board
Frying pan
Food Processor
Fish slice ( to turn the patties)

Method
1. Put chopped spring onions and coriander into blender
2. Pour lentils into the blender
3. Add cumin, turmeric and flour to the blender
4. Mix everything together well
5. Divide the lentil mixture into even sizes
6. Rub a bit of oil into your hands so that mixture doesn’t stick, then form each piece into a ball.
7. Squash each ball to flatten it into a patty
8. Heat the rest of the oil in the frying pan over a medium heat
9. Carefully put the lentil patties into the pan
10. Cook the patties on one side for 10 minutes, then turn them over using a fish slice and cook them on the other side for 10 minutes.

Mango Lassi
Lassi is a traditional Indian drink. Lassi comes in both savoury and sweet versions. The sweet version is called ‘Lassi Meethi’
Ingredients
1 Tray of ice cubes
2 Mangos or canned Mangos
2 cups of Natural Yoghurt
2 cups of milk
½ cup of sugar

Equipment
Measuring cups
Can opener
Blender
Glasses or cups
Straws

Method
1. Put the mango pieces, yoghurt, milk and sugar into the blender
2. Blend everything together on highest setting
3. Pour the lassi into the glasses

Taratara is off to Australia!

After a class vote, the name Taratara - this means 'Spike' in Maori - was decided upon. Taratara will hopefully arrive at Yugumbir State School in about a week.

We have also included a surprise for our buddy class - we will share that with everyone when we know that Room 2E has got our parcel.

Indian Food

Just a few photos to give you all an idea of what we did today. We will post more soon...

Annabelle, Tara, Gianlucca, and Mikah shaped the patties before they were put in the frying pan.

Lukaz had some help from his friends to combine the kebab ingredients.
Cameron stirred the sago until it went clear.

Tara watches on as Charlotte does a great job pouring the mangos in.
Corey wanted to drink all the Mango Lassi!

Today as part of a writing lesson, we prepared and cooked different types of traditional Indian food. Mango Lassi, Kheema Kebabs, Sago, and Lentil Patties with a Raiti dip were all on the menu. It was so much fun, and we all enjoyed tasting the different flavours in the food after smelling all the spices yesterday.

We would all like to thank the parents who helped with the preparation and cooking of our food today - much appreciated.

Commonwealth Games - Indian recipes

In Room 1 we have been doing some activities about the Commonwealth Games that were held in India. As part of this, we will be making some traditional Indian recipes on Wednesday. All students will take part in preparing the recipes, and we will be writing about what we did afterwards.

We will post some photos of our preparation and final products...

Athletics

Some photos of us in action!

Our Physical Education focus for the first few weeks of this term is Athletics. So far we have been working on our running, throwing, and jumping skills.

Tuatara needs a name!

We are sending a tuatara to Room 2E at Yugumbir State School in Australia. Their school is just outside Brisbane. They got in touch with us via our blog, and we are looking forward to exchanging messages and photos with them.

We had a class vote on what we thought would best represent New Zealand to another country, and the tuatara was voted for by nearly the whole class (the kiwi was second). Now we just need a name, so leave a comment with your name choice, and then we will have another class vote. I look forward to your ideas!

Welcome Back to School - Term 4!

It was great to have everyone back for our last term of the year and hear about what everyone got up to over the break.

We would like to welcome a new Year 3 student - Mikah - to our class and school. We would also like to welcome some Year 1 students to our class for Literacy and Maths periods.

Meghana, Mikah, and Annabelle.

Welcome to Tokomaru School and Room 1, Mikah!

Just a reminder about homework for our class. Students should bring home a reading book each night (this may be a book they have read during guided reading, or a book from their browsing box). We also encourage students to take library books home. Spelling should come home every night (except Fridays), and the students can say the words out loud or write them down for practice. Maths homework could be practicing basic facts with your child, or getting them to help with baking to practice measurements.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me at school and we can arrange a time to chat.