Matariki

This is an awesome video we watched to explain Matariki to us :

http://www.matarikievents.co.nz/uploads/video1.html

What is Matariki?
Matariki is the Maori name for the group of stars also known as the Pleiades star cluster or The Seven Sisters;  and what is referred to as the traditional Maori New Year.

When is the Maori New Year?
The Maori new year is marked by the rise of Matariki and the sighting of the next new moon. The pre-dawn rise of Matariki can be seen in the last few days of May every year and the new year is marked at the sighting of the next new moon which occurs during June. This next occurs on 5 June 2008.

What does Matariki mean?
Matariki has two meanings, both referring to a tiny constellation of stars; Mata Riki (Tiny Eyes) and Mata Ariki (Eyes of God).

Why is Matariki important?
Traditionally, depending on the visibility of Matariki, the coming season's crop was thought to be determined. The brighter the stars indicated the warmer the season would be and thus a more productive crop. It was also seen as an important time for family to gather and reflect on the past and the future.    http://www.taitokerau.co.nz/matariki.htm

Room 13 are making information posters on Matariki using information we found from the Carter Observatory and School Journals ......... Wait and see!

ZONE CROSS COUNTRY

WOW! What a fantastic event Zone Cross Country was yesterday. Mr Hull did such an amazing job at getting all the Year 4-6 children ready for it.

Well done to the 13 children in Room 13 that went to the event. A big congratulations to Matthew who came 1st in the cluster and he will be going through to Interzone!

Cross Country is a major event and I am quite in awe of you all!

Awesome effort!

Cross Country

Room 13 worked really hard at Cross Country last Thursday! Our top boy runner was Matthew and our top girl runner was Monica

Solar Power and Electricity unit

ROOM 13  have been very busy in inquiry learning about the power of the sun and electrical circuits.

The children have come to year 5 with a lot of knowledge on this topic with a couple of experts from last years Mr. Dobson's class - Wilson and Elliott!

Room 13 have been outside marking their shadows throughout the day to see what happens to them. We are going to be writing a piece of explanation writing about how this happens! Watch this space!

Homework

http://year5and6muritai.blogspot.com

Term 2

WELCOME BACK!

I hope all the Room 13 children have had a wonderful holiday and are feeling well rested. Term 1 is always a very busy term so the holiday was much needed. Fingers crossed for this good weather to continue for the last weekend!


Some reminders for Term 2:

• Any pencil cases that were taken home must come back to school on day 1 please.
• Term 2 is a slipper term, so if we could have as many slippers at school on day 1, that would be superb!
• The seating has changed in the class and it looks great!
• The school Cross Country will be held on Tuesday the 18th of May. This is in week 5.

Term 2 units:

• Art - our art unit will be focusing on drawing and a range of different techniques
• Mathematics - we will be focusing on addition, subtraction, multiplication and division
• P.E - our P.E unit will be cross country training and then large ball skills
• Inquiry - Our inquiry unit will be based on electricity! Our big idea is that 'Solar energy is the best way to generate electricity'. This statement will be looked into over the term and we will either agree with the statement, or disagree with it.
  
  
  See you all on Monday!

The Writing Process

Wow! Today has been a very very busy day!

Sue Steele and myself were in the classroom today supporting the children to finish their publishing. The children were/are publishing their camp recounts.

Writing a recount is a very big task and has been going on since week 7.

All the children started with a brainstorm of their activity that they were going to write about.

Most of the children started off their planning for their recount writing by completing a pictoral plan. This helped the children think about what they did on the camp activity and record it visually. This visual record helped the children remember what happened and help write up their written plan.

The written plan is in chronological order and is broken up into the orientation, the event and the conclusion.

Through draft writing the children explore their ideas and practice putting sentences together and paragraphs together to create the recount.

The teacher uses a pink highlighter pen to highlight what they were "tickled pink" by and a green highlighter to highlight what needed to "Grow" and be developed.

Finally we get to the publishing stage. Check out http://room13sliteracyblog.blogspot.com/ for more published work!

There were two children in particular that worked especially hard today on their publishing. Sam and William.

Awesome work Room 13!!!!!!!!!!