Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No it's...

(March 15th)  Well done to those people who had a go at guessing what the photo is below.  I have left the answer in the comments section.

Below is a close up picture of a 'mystery' object.  Leave your guess in the comments section. 

What am I?

Magnified Leaf Images

We are learning to use different techniques to sketch objects in pencil.

Today we each found a leaf that we thought was interesting. Each leaf was magnified using our Easi-Scope so we could see the details to use in our sketches.

Which leaves do you like? Why do you like them?

Tokomaru School supports Christchurch

Tokomaru School dressed in our school colours of red and black to raise money for Christchurch.

We wrote about what we have seen on the television and heard from family and friends about Christchurch:

Today we are wearing black and red because of the Christchurch earthquake.

The CTV building was on fire.

I watched the news about the earthquake.

Aymee

Today we are wearing black and red because we are supporting the people in the Christchurch earthquake. It happened on the 22nd of February at 12:51 pm. It measured 6.3 on the Richter scale.
Corey

The earthquake in Christchurch was powerful. I never saw this coming at all. It looks so sad .Me and my family and friends gave Christchurch blankets, food, clothes, toothbrushes, toothpaste, and towels. Our family supports Christchurch a lot.  I love Christchurch!
Bailie

We are wearing red and black because of the Christchurch earthquake. It has killed 163 people so far.
Charlotte

Today we are wearing red and black because of the Christchurch earthquake. There was a lot of broken buildings and hurt people and cars broken too.
Archie

Christchurch Earthquake
On Monday 22nd a huge earthquake happened in Christchurch at 12:51pm and on the Richter scale it was a 6.3. Two days ago we had a 2 minutes silence for those who were saved, those killed, and the rescuers. Today we are wearing red and black because those are the Canterbury colours which is the area that the earthquake happened. My great aunt Bess works up at the CPP in Christchurch but luckily survived.
Mikah

THE TERIBLE CHRISTCHURCH EARTHQUAKE!

On Monday 22nd of January 2011, there was a 6.3 magnitude Earthquake at12.51pm in Christchurch. Today we are wearing red and black because they are the Canterbury colours. Mrs Bismark took some photos of the school wearing red and black. My mums Auntie is in Christchurch, but she has not heard from her. There has been 163 people that have passed away. It has been going on for about 2 weeks. I feel sorry for them, don’t you? My mum gave me and Liam 4 dollars on Thursday to give to Christchurch.
Tara

Christchurch Earthquake
In Christchurch their has been an earthquake and it’s on the news and people have died. There has been over 100 people dead and it was on the 22nd of February in 2011.
Domonic     
In Christchurch an earthquake happened and it was on the 22nd of February so we are wearing red and black at school today because it is the Canterbury colours. My Mum’s Auntie and Uncle were in the earthquake. It was a big, big earthquake and most of my cousins and Aunties and Uncles are down in Christchurch. I am very sorry for Christchurch.        

Annabelle

Christchurch
On Monday the 22nd of Febuary at 12:51pm 2011 in Christchurch there was an earthquake. It has been really sad because people have died. Not only that, they may have people in their family who were in the earthquake. And they miss their loved ones. A lady walked pass a car and saw there was a lady holding her baby in her car. A building fell on the car and they both died. It was really sad because the baby was only 5 months old. The C.T.V building fell down too. There was over 200 people in the earthquake and I feel really sad not only for the people in the earthquake but for everyone because maybe they have family that were in the earthquake and they really miss their loved ones too. Imagine if that was you. I would feel sorry for you. Especially if my family was in one of those buildings. I would be in Christchurch just like that. I want to be in Christchurch now even though they’re not my family, I still want to help them. I have never seen an earthquake this bad before , and one of my best friends lives in Christchurch but I’m so happy that she wasn’t there.
Brooklyn

We are wearing red and black for Christchurch.  They just had an earthquake and some people passed away. Some people are sad. Some families have passed away.

Cameron

Christchurch earthquake has caused a lot of damage to their houses and buildings.

Josh

Christurch earthquake

On the first day of the earthquake ,65 died and 100 people were found trapped.
Some of the buildings came down at the same time.
The earthquake happened at 12.51 P.M.
It was 6.3- on the Richter scale.
Lots of bricks have fallen down because of the earthquake.
I heard Bob parker tell everything clearly on the news, live!
An aftershock came after 30 seconds.
I saw on the news that on the second day that 75 were dead and 200 missing.
It all happened in Canterbury and that’s why we are wearing red and black because red and black are the colours of Canterbury.
Meghana
The Christchurch  earthquake  broke the school fields and it has a crack in the ground.

Taylor-Rose

The Christchurch earthquake was on the 22nd of February. We are wearing red and black because they are the Canterbury colours and most buildings came down.
Jordan

When Christchurch earthquake happened on 22nd of February, every single building fell all on the other buildings.
Tyler

Christchurch Earthquake
The Christchurch earthquake was on the news and cars and people and buildings fell down and it was humongous.
Tyler S

Earthquake

I feel sorry your homes are destroyed. I hope you feel better in a few days. I hope your homes get built again.
Tessa

Earthquake

On the news it said there was an earthquake at Christchurch some are hurt and some are dead. I hope not too many people have passed away.
Shayde

The earthquake in Christchurch was huge it was all on the news and special people were  going into  crushed  towers and dead People came out.  They found over 2oo people were dead.

Ryan

Earthquake

On Monday 22nd an earthquake happened in Christchurch . It was on the news and lots of buildings came down in Christchurch. It is sad for some of the people who died. 163 people died .
Tyrone

New websites on the blog...

Explore these new websites for reading and writing:

Into the Book

Great website for improving reading comprehension skills.

StoryJumper

A fun website that lets you create your own stories.  You can even make a treasure map!

Snake in the Grass - Maths

Corey, Tara, and Domonic were playing with snakes today!  Not real ones luckily!  They had to make some 'snakes' with dominoes and each snake had to add to 20.  Check out their snakes:

Domonic's snake: 5 + 4 + 4 + 1 + 4 + 2 = 20

Tara's snake: 1 + 1 + 2 + 2 + 3 + 3 + 4 + 4 = 20

Corey's snake: 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 = 20

'Looking Like Me' by Walter Dean Myers

Today we read the picture book 'Looking Like Me' by Walter Dean Myers.  It is about a boy named Jeremy who is lots of different things to lots of people.

"When you look in a mirror, who do you see?

A boy? A girl?

A son? A daughter?

A runner? A dancer?

Whoever and whatever you see–

just put out your fist and give yourself an "I am" BAM!"

We all thought about who and what we are to some of the people in our lives - check out our 'I Am A... Wordle'

Christchurch Earthquake Collection

A collection is being organised to send down items to help people out in Christchurch.

Items needed are batteries, candles, water, blankets, baby formula, and other non-perishable items.

You will be able to drop items off between 3pm and 5pm tomorrow - Thursday 24th February 2011 - at the Tokomaru School carpark.

These items are going to be transported by Peter Baker Transport.

If you would like to donate but cannot get to the carpark between the above times, please ring 063298007 or 022 1252477.

Our thoughts are with the people of Christchurch, their families and friends, during this devastating time.

Our Name and Logo Challenge Winner is...

Brooklyn's winning design.

Brooklyn wrote about his design:
"I picked red and black because they are our school colours.  I chose the Tokomaru All Starz because I think it represents our classroom because we are all stars".

Shayde's design was second.  He wrote:
"There is one koru for each child in our class. The big T stands for Tokomaru School. I like how the T looks like a jigsaw puzzle. Black and red are the school colours".

Shayde's design - second place

Tara's design came in third.  Tara wrote about her design:
"I picked a horseshoe shape for my logo because it represents our river.  I wrote Bismark's Busy Bees because we are always busy.  I put the colours red and black in because they are our school colours and red and black go together".

Tara's design - third place

Thank you to all the people who voted for us - over 200 votes!  We are looking forward to doing this again next year!

Voting is Closed...

Just to let you all know that voting is closed for the Name and Logo Challenge. 

Thank you all so much for voting! We have had overwhelming support from our family, whanau, and friends. We really appreciate all the votes.


I will count the votes over the weekend and announce the logo challenge winner on Monday.

Another big congratulations to all of the entrants into this challenge for your creativity and hard work.

Class Name and Logo Challenge - Vote Now!

The following are entries into our Class Name and Logo Challenge.  A huge congratulations to the students who entered - a lot of time, effort, and thought has gone into these designs.

Please vote by leaving the number of the logo you want to vote for in the comments section (numbers are underneath the logos).  Make sure you enter your first name under 'Name and URL', as anonymous votes will not be counted.  Paper votes can be sent along to school with your child if Internet is not available.

Voting will close on Friday 18th February 2011 at 3pm.

Best of luck to everyone and happy voting!

Number One

Number Two

Number Three

Number Four

Number Five

Number Six

Number Seven

Number Eight

Number Nine

Number Ten

Number Eleven



Number Twelve

Number Thirteen

Number Fourteen

Number Fifteen

Number Sixteen

Super Spelling

There have been a few questions about spelling as I put on the stationery list that if you have Internet access, you do not require a notebook. 

Our class spelling programme will start running from next week.  If you have Internet access, words will be entered into Spelling City for the week.  Your child can then go into a particular list on Spelling City and practice their words on the site.  You will find the words for your child under 'Room 1 Spelling Lists' on the blog sidebar.  If you do not have Internet access, your child's words will be put into their notebooks for home learning.

I have already entered some words from the Essential Words list onto Spelling City.  There are 10 words in each list.  Please check out the blog sidebar under 'Room 1 Spelling Lists'.   

Class Name and Logo Challenge

Just a reminder that tomorrow is the last day for entries, so make sure you hand your final designs into Mrs B.  Voting will start on Friday 11th February 2011.

Tutpup Maths site



Tutpup Maths website


Tutpup is a Maths site similar to Mathletics - except it is free.  Have a go and see how you go. 


Leave a comment to tell everyone what you think...

We're back!

We are back at school for 2011!  Today we made 'Summer Holiday t-shirts', designed name tags on Publisher, started our poster presentations about ourselves, and worked co-operatively in pairs to complete a Venn diagram about the similarities and differences between us. 

Over the next two weeks we will be sharing picture books in class as part of our Reading programme.  We will choose books from our browsing boxes to take home to get back into routine.

Swimming will most likely start from next week, so please ensure you bring your swimming gear.

Looking forward to a terrific first term!

4 days to go!

I hope that you have all had an enjoyable and relaxing holiday.  During my holiday I visited my family and friends in Auckland and spent lots of time with my sister and her family.  Did you go away these holidays?  Where did you go?  What did you do?  The photo below is of my two nieces, Kara and Mikaela.  Mikaela is turning 1 in just a few days time, and Kara is going to be 7 in 3 weeks.  

On Christmas Day I was taking lots of photos and I just had to take one of these delicious reindeer cupcakes that my auntie made.  What did you do on Christmas Day?



I am looking forward to seeing everyone back at school and hearing about what you did over the holidays. Only 4 days until we are back at school!