That's it folks!

Well this the end of a great year! We all move to new classes next year for yet another year of exciting learning.

 Thanks for following us!

Kite Making

Here is the link to the Kite Making site we are looking at

How Wolves Changed the Rivers

Music video

An incredibly mix of Maths, Science and music!

Earthquake info

Here are a few things we looked at in class today re the Major Earthquake we had last week. Some fascinating discussions took place and could be carried on at home.

Singing at the Botanic Gardens

The Water Cycle

As part of our Inquiry this term, we are looking at the water cycle.
Here's a fun song all about it!

STEAM!

This term we've started STEAM sessions in Room 4. STEAM being Science Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Maths. So far we have been doing a rotation of making 3d shapes, parabolic curves, spiral designs, simple circuits with brain boxes and coding (using the online programme -Scratch)

Loads of fun, engaged learning happening! (Click on photo for link to more pics)

School Athletics

Well done to everyone on your efforts with our school athletics- Fantastic!

Click on this photo to see more from the day (getting my head around the google photo thing!)

Here are the results - 

http://hamptonhillsports.wikispaces.com/Athletics

SPCA visit

Today we had the second visit from the SPCA. They were showing us how to behave around strange dogs. We also got to have a look at 3 adorable puppies!

Tawa Goes To Town - Music Festival

What an awesome night! After lots of weeks rehearsing, everything came together for a show that we wont forget being a part of in a long time - what an experience!

Here are some photos taken during the dress rehearsal and the evening - if you have a comment, put it here instead of the photopeach site - thanks!

Tawa Goes to Town on PhotoPeach
 Here is a link to the performance as well - enjoy!

Rugby Challenge - the Young Tilley Cup

This is an annual competition between Greenacres and Hampton Hill. It started about 13 years ago when Matt Tilley taught here and his friend Howard Young was over at Greenacres. It gets played alternatively at the schools and this year it's our turn to host.

Rugby Tournament vs Greenacres on PhotoPeach A fabulous game of rugby! Well done team for winning 10-8!

Calendar Art 2016

Here is our Calendar Art for 2016. You can see them on display in our school office over the next 2 weeks. Orders need to be in by the last week of term. You can order calendars and cards - Great Christmas presents! Calendars - $12 Card Packs - $12 Diaries- $15



 

The Solar System - in perspective!

Here's a fabulous model of the solar system!

Science Visitors and the Magnus Effect!

We had some special visitors with us today. They are part of the Royal Society Science Leadership Programme and came to see how we do Science at our school.

They helped us with a tricky experiment trying to get cardboard tubes to fly. You could try this one at home
You need:
A strong table
elastic (about 1cm width) 2/3 the length of the table (un-stretched)
A cardboard tube - try different lengths and weights
Tape (or someone's finger to hold the elastic down)
Some room for flying objects!

What to do:
Attach the elastic to the edge of the table and stretch the elastic out to the other end of the table. Roll it 6-7 turns onto the centre of the tube (The first couple of turns to trap the elastic onto the cardboard)
Wind it as though it were a carpet carpet you were going to roll out, in other words, the elastic needs to leave the cardboard on the underside of the tube.
Now hold the tube at the centre and let go. The roll should take off and curve upwards as it travels across the room

(After lots of experimenting we finally succeeded!)

(When Mr Stuart and I tried this last year!)

Here's an explanation from the Physics Girl

Buddy Reading with Room 5

What a special time sharing books with Room 5 this afternoon!

Our Last Day with Shanshan

It's been fabulous having Shanshan with us! Tomorrow she flies home to China. She has enjoyed her time here. Today we made special chinese masks - a work in progress!

Haere ra Shanshan! All the very best xx

Chinese Folk Dancing

Shanshan taught us a traditional folk dance from China. Unfortunately the music was lost in the recording - but hopefully you get the idea!

A visiting teacher from China

We have a special guest teacher in Room 4 at the moment. 
Shanshan (say "Shun-sarn") from Education Advantage (AFS) 

Shanshan is on a teaching exchange for 4 weeks from China. It's wonderful having her with us and I know she is really enjoying getting to know the very friendly and helpful Room 4!

Here is a slide show she presented to us

States of Matter - Solids, Liquids, and Gases

Flower Art!

Our Bike Track Journey and Official Opening

Today we had the Official Opening of our School Bike Track. Mayor Celia Wade-Brown came to our special assembly to cut the ribbon.

Malachi and Lima

Mayor Celia Wade-Brown

Cuttn gthe ribbon with our youngest and oldest kids 

Our Mayor tried out our bike track

... and so did our Deputy Mayor - Justin Lester. He's been so supportive of this venture!

Pacific Island Presentations - Nieu

Well done to Talamahina and Jake for this interesting presentation.

Time Tables Interactive games

Click on the picture to get to this site :)

Times Tables interactive games

Click on the picture to get to this site :)

Bike Poems

Here are some great poems about riding a bike - enjoy!

What is a million?

There’s a million games I want to play

I cannot play them in a day

A million stars sparkling in the sky

All of them are way too high

A million tears running down my cheeks

Like a million pipes that have got leaks

A million grains of salt in the sea

And a few grains of sugar in a cup of tea

A million rocks makes a mountain

And a million drops makes a fountain.

 By Arnez

What is a million?

A million toddlers making trouble

A million kids blowing a bubble.

A flock of birds making a nest

A lot of hedgehogs heading west.

Think of all the fish in the sea

And all the adults losing keys

All of the leaves on all the trees

And all those itchy, itchy fleas.

That’s a million.

By Dyarviarhnne

What is a million?

A million things that I see.

A million things to do with me.

A million stars in the night.

A million creatures in the light.

A million times I hear a shout.

A million times that I doubt.

That’s a million!

By Caroline

A terrific clip about persistence!

Here's a wonderful video clip we enjoyed today all about not giving up. The class was so enthralled they cheered at the end!

Enjoy!

Science Challenge 2016

Dancing Raisins!

Here's a fun experiment that you can try at home!

You need:
Lemonade
Raisins

What to do:
Pour some lemonade in a cup and then add a few raisins.

What's happening:

Raisins are denser than the lemonade, so initially they sink to the bottom of the glass. The carbonated soft drink releases carbon dioxide bubbles. When these bubbles stick to the rough surface of a raisin, the raisin is lifted because of the increase in buoyancy. When the raisin reaches the surface, the bubbles pop, and the carbon dioxide gas escapes into the air. This causes the raisin to lose buoyancy and sink. This rising and sinking of the raisins continues until most of the carbon dioxide has escaped, and the lemonade goes flat. Furthermore, with time the raisin gets soggy and becomes too heavy to rise to the surface.

ESR Scientists

Today we had some Soil Scientists come in and talk to us about Soil.

There are 3 main types - Clay, Loam, and Sand. We learnt how water gets through sand much easier than clay and we also tested different types of soil - making worms out of clay based soil.

HHS Cross Country - 2016

Well done Room 4! What terrific running from everyone. Brilliant effort from you all. I think our school course is one of the toughest school courses in New Zealand!!

Science Week! - Surface Tension

Looking at Surface tension has been fascinating. Some great writing has come from this as well - will put that up soon. Here is an experiment we did to help us understand Surface tension more. - How many drops of water could fit on a coin?

Week 1 on the Bike Track

Well, at the start of this week we had 10 out of 27 who could not ride a bike - yikes!
I am so proud of Room 4 though. 2 band aids and 1 ice pack (sorry Barbara!) after we are down to 1 to yet conquer riding a bike. Way to go guys!!
Bikes on PhotoPeach

 Once again, write comments here rather than on the photo peach site - thanks

Puddle Maths!

Today we had a go at estimating the volume of water in a variety of bottles by drawing a chalk circle the size we thought the volume would be then by pouring out the bottles. Great connecting and learning going on!

Aurora Australis Artwork

Aurora Australis - Southern Lights on PhotoPeach
 Remember - if you have any comments for this put them here rather than on the photo peach site - thanks!

PJ Day - a fundraiser for Autism Awareness

Antarctic Exploration

Zooplankton

Sunflower Seeds

Our beautiful sunflowers that we planted last November have finished. What a lovely display they were!

Today we collected up all the seeds - and quickly found that we were dealing with very large numbers!

We counted approximately 250 seeds into a small plastic cup and weighed it. We then weighed all the seeds we had collected - that was 500g. We worked out that 41 little cups could weigh the same as the large bowl of seeds. We then did some multiplying and worked out that 41 times 250 (seeds) was 10250! That's a lot of seeds!!

Salt water and Ice

We looked at how cold water sinks today. First we took a jar of water that had been sitting in the room for a while. Then we added a cube of ice. This floated on the top. Next we added some food colouring and the food colouring followed the icey water as it was melting in the jar.

We then tried the same thing again, this time with a jar of salty water. The ice sat on top again but when we added the food colouring, it just stayed on the surface - it wasnt as dense as the salt water so it didnt sink!

Ice formed in the Antarctic (and the Arctic) is fresh water. The salt in the water gets 'spat out' and sinks. The water below the ice is very salty.

Farewell Mrs O'Leary

We sadly said goodbye to our dear friend and Principal, Mrs O"Leary this afternoon.

A sad time but also an exciting one as she is going to have a baby soon.

We had a special assembly for her. Sofie, Talamahina, and Caroline were fabulous hosts! Room 5 had decorated a chair and made a special hat and lei that Mrs O'Leary wore.

Everyone had drawn or written a special message for her. Many thanks to Peveline O'Keefe for binding them all so beautifully into a book. Mrs O'Leary loved it!

Be prepared to be inspired by a small team from our Kapa Haka Group and their awesome haka - way to go guys!

Dusting for Fingerprints Science Experiment

'F' was the letter Rimu Day was based around today so we just had to dabble in a bit of Forensics and Fingerprinting! Fabulous Fun!

How about trying this one at home - all you need is some baby powder, hand cream and a fine brush - here's the link Fingerprint Science

Antarctic Marine Food Web

Blubber Hands!

We had a go of this wonderful experiment to see how blubber insulates animals - it really does!

Blubber Hands

How do Antarctic animals stay warm in bone-chilling water?

1.    Discuss how quickly our bodies are chilled in cold water. What do we do to stay warm? (move around, wear insulating wetsuits, get out of the water).

2.    Ask students to list ways in which animals are able to stay warm in cold water (blubber, air in feathers, oil on fur, low surface area to volume ratio).

3.    Have the students cover one hand with a plastic bag.

4.    Put a generous amount of solid shortening into another bag. Have the student put the plastic-covered hand into the bag with the shortening. Knead the shortening to make sure the hand is completely surrounded by shortening.

5.    Cover the other hand with two plastic bags (without shortening). This is the "control."

6.    Place both hands simultaneously into a bucket of cold water.

8.    Have a student time how long each hand remains underwater.

9.    Whales, Weddell seals, and penguins all have blubber.