If you have some time for blogging...

If you love to read picture books then this site might be one for you. It's always such a pleasure to discover a new source of inspiration.

The other site that is worth keeping an eye on is the City Libraries Christchurch Kids Blog. You might even be able to get a book review published there.

Good Bye and Happy Holidays

Dear Friends and Families of the room162010 Bloggers,

Thank you for your interest and support this year.

We'd like to wish you all a happy holiday season filled with love, laughter and real life learning.

Arohanui

room162010

Little Bird

Yesterday Yuki and Cody brought their little silver eye to school. He had something to eat and then tucked his head under his wing for a sleep. Cody wrote "Little Bird" for us on the white board in Japanese.

Summertime Reading Club

Yes folks it's back again this year... the Summertime Reading Club at the Christchurch City Libraries.
There are weekly book prizes and even an iPod touch to be won.

If you are not confident using a computer, a librarian will help you register when you call into the library.

Happy Reading!

Brydie's Summertime Riddle

My first is in ball but not in racquet
My second isn't in coat but is in jacket
My third is in float and isn't in sink
My fourth is in cup and not in drink
My fifth is in shade but not in sun

When we go here we have lots of fun.

Where am I?

Thanks Brydie for this wonderful riddle.

Please leave us a comment with your answer.

The Second Apollo 11 Movie

Here it is folks!

Bathtime for Harry

Today Ms Douglas brought Harry into Room 16 for his bath. He was very calm and peaceful.  He has grown a lot in his 11 weeks. He was really too big for the baby bath!

Beach Ed

We have had a wonderful day at New Brighton Beach today. How fortunate we are to be able to be at the beach in such a short time from school.
The weather is not what we would have chosen, but in the spirit of the St Albans Value of FUN, everyone made the most of the day. The Life Guards were excellent and ran an interactive, informative programme.
Thanks to the parent and grandparent helpers who came with us. It was very reassuring to have so many watching eyes in the water.
Good luck to the children who are trying to come up with a riddle for the day!
The children (or teachers and parents!) won't need much rocking tonight.

Space Probability Statements

I was tidying up my virtual desktop this evening and found this fun bit of probability we did a week or so ago. The thing about space is that it is so vast it is hard to say whether something is certain or not. You will notice some statements are in a few different columns - we just couldn't decide on one!

A Christmas Riddle

My first is in sand but not  in beach.
My second is in strawberry and also in peach.
My third is in naughty and also in nice.
My fourth is in cost but not in price.
My fifth is in eat but not in chew
And if you are good I'll bring presents to you!


Who am I?

Please work this out and post a comment with your answer.

Apollo 11 Revisited Part One

As promised, here is the first of two movies about the Space paintings. Children wrote their voiceover using deBono's Thinking Hats. They thought about the experience of the astronauts and their experience as a painter.

A Sweet Treat

Today Pam came with twenty two little brown houses that she had created at home. Each sat on a silver circle awaiting the creative talents of the Room 16 children.

Grinning with excitement

It looks like a Hansel and Gretel village

Nothing can stop us now

Great work Pam - thanks!

Excitement is in the air

Reaching for the lollies

Bright colours and Christmas themes

Ready, set ... pipe the icing glue!

Everyone is focused

Artistic ideas 

Delicious and delicate

Homes for gingerbread folk

Oh, they are hard to resist!

Uh oh, chimneys fall and blizzards strike!

Santa might find these chimneys a challenge

Excellent designs 

Stunning creations admired by all.

We cannot thank Pam enough for her hard work and preparation that enabled us to have such a special day!

Spaced Out!

The Apollo 11 Paintings

Watch this space for the movies which will give you a closer view of these magnificent paintings and a voiceover comment from each artist. We are looking forward to beginning to make our aliens next.

D.I.Y. Display Space

We have a great place to learn and be together in Room 16. There is lots of lovely light and and fresh air. There hasn't been much space for displaying all the wonderful work you do though. Thanks to Dad we now have four new display places. Here is a photo of Dad putting a few finishing touches on our display frames.

More Play Performances

At last the final two groups had the chance to perform their plays for Rooms 3 and 21. After that Room 3 performed the play The Hole in the King's Sock by Dot Meharry for us!

Pay it Forward

Our hearts and minds have been with the community of Greymouth. After all the support and kind wishes we received from others after the earthquake, the children were keen to send some love and support to the children in schools on the West Coast. The children made beautiful pictures and wrote thoughtful messages and we have sent the card to Paparoa Ranges School which is near Blackball.

Performance Season

We have been practising and performing plays in Room 16 recently. Some groups have performed to other classes and others are waiting for the opportunity to do so.  Here are some snap shots of the action.

This weekend is the BIG weekend!

Support Our Year Four Movie Makers.

If you go this website you will get the opportunity to look at the movies made by some Year Four children about why St Albans School is the best school. The movie that gets viewed the most often wins the competition.
When I watched the movies I noticed that Room 16 children were in many of the photos. Can you find yourself?

Taking our surveys on the road.

Finding out about Room 17's reading habits.

Surveys are fun to design and carry  out. The children had to design a question about reading and select 4 options for people to choose from. Next they had to make a prediction about what the results would be. They went to Room 17 to carry out the survey. When they got back to Room 16 they had to write statements about what they did discover. Some people's predictions were correct, but others got a surprise.

Softball

Today we had some softball coaching with Ian. We did some catching and throwing.
The tips we learned were that if you're catching a ball above your waist you hold your hands in a W, but if you're catching a ball below your waist you hands should be in a V shape.

We found that doing shot put is very different from THROWING a ball.

Last of all everyone tried on a softball glove. They feel very different from a woollen glove.

We are looking forward to our next session on the 25th of November, and have plenty to practise before then.

That reminds me... how's the fireman's pole practice coming along? It's only two weeks till our next video session.

Book Character Parade Day

What a wonderful event this was to finish up Book Week. I've never seen such a fine selection of creative costumes. I felt particularly privileged to be able to hold Tigger (Matiu) so he could be part of our class parade.

We had to leave just before the end of the parade to go to our first softball session. We all had a great time there and I don't think Ian (the coach) has ever worked with such a diversely dressed group!


After that the author Ben Brown came to our room to talk to many of the Middle school classes about being an author and his books. We learned that a knock to the head by a classic book is really got him started on the road to becoming an author.

The children (and teachers) listened with rapt attention and then asked very thoughtful and interesting questions. I have found an interview he did with some other children online.
I was very proud and impressed that the children's questions showed that they had listened so well to his ideas and experiences.

Why don't you get a Ben Brown book out of the library this long weekend?

Some reading surveys

I'm looking forward to posting some of your reading surveys on the blog. It will be good to know where people prefer to read.
Today's FFF was Lola. Lauren Child's books are works of art within themselves.
DEAR at "the site where Bob the Builder would like to work" was a bit blustery but a nice chance to do some silent reading.

D.E.A.R.S.

This stands for Drop Everything And Read Silently and today the whole school gathered at the place where you can find "The ingredients for a prehistoric cake". I saw some teachers taking photos so I hope I'll be able to update this post with a snap soon.
We'll be doing this again tomorrow so come to school prepared with a great book to read.
I've had a great day today - thanks for all your good wishes.
The FFF (fabulous fictional female) for the day was Ramona the Pest.
Don't forget Thursday is "Come as your favourite book character" day.

Week Five is BOOK WEEK - Yippee

We have a fun week ahead celebrating books and reading.

Don't forget Thursday is Dress Up As Your Favourite Book Character Day so get your Thinking Caps on (as Dr Seuss would say).

I'm not saying who I'm going to be but I'm having a bit of fun working out how I'll be her (whoops that was a tiny clue).

Keep an eye on the Blog as we'll do regular updates of the Book Week activities.

See you soon

Ms Ashby :o)

Surveys

We have fun designing and carrying out some surveys this week.
We have asked questions like: What is your favourite colour? What is your favourite shop? What is your favourite holiday?
We give four options for the people we ask to choose from, this makes it easier to do the next bit!
When we have asked 15 people and kept a tally of their responses, we look at the results and make three statements about them.
The statements usually have words like most, least, popular, more, prefer in them.

Why don't you try carrying out a survey with your family and friends this weekend?

Walking in the Air

This lovely song has a great You Tube video link.
I think we will sound beautiful singing this in the ChristChurch Cathedral on the 10th of December at 10am. Don't forget to tell your friends and family about this Celebration of Learning will you?

You can also find the version of this song when Aled Jones (the adult) sings a duet with himself as a boy soprano. This brings tears to my eyes every time I watch it. (Probably something to do with the age of my own boys!)

Finding Old Favourites on the Blog

Some people have been asking lately how to find old favourites on the blog. So here's what to do...

Think about what the label for the post might have been. Was it a blog post about maths? Perhaps the theme was fitness.
Check out the label section at the side of the blog. Can you see a label that matches? Click on that label, this will bring up any posts relating to that label.

Here's an example:

We want to find the link to the triangle song.
We learned about triangles at maths.
We click on the Maths label.
We scroll down and find the triangle song link.

The only sound was of cogs whirring!

This week we are writing narrative stories. The children have planned the stories and told them many times. These are photos of the children writing today. There was a great sense of purpose and concentration as they crafted their work.

Beware! Fabulous Writing Below!

At long last I have published the Spring Search Reports.
To find your report quickly go to your label on the side and click on your name. The post with your writing in it should come up at the top of your list of posts.
I hope you enjoy reading the posts and remembering that lovely walk in the Spring.

Some Super Spring Writing: Part six

Spring has sprung. Yesterday Room 16 went walking to look for signs of Spring. Flowers are coming out. At first the flowers look like a soft little pillow on the straight green stalk. The sun shines on the buds, encouraging them to open up. The blossoms are blooming beautifully in the sun. After their discoveries, Room 16 felt excited as they realised what they had found. Spring is finally here!

Kayla

Spring has sprung at St Albans School. Yesterday Room 16 went for a walk to search for spring signs. On the brown bare twigs, the fresh green leaves were wet and sweet and blossoms are sprouting. Red tulips are sprouting too. After their walk, Room 16 felt excited.

Morgan

Spring has sprung at St Albans School. Yesterday Room 16 went out looking for spring stuff. There are blue flowers at St Albans School. There are daffodils growing in the garden beside the office. The brown leaves are turning to a colourful yellow green. The birds are chirping. These signs of spring made Room 16 happy.

Riley

Some Super Spring Writing: Part five

Spectacular Spring has sprung. Room 16 went to search for signs of Spring with their notebooks. They found fabulous flowers growing to the perfect height. In the beautiful blossom trees birds were singing beautiful songs as they made their nests. High, high up in the sky looked like a beautiful ocean on a sunny summer day. They loved the warm weather Spring has brought for them to play in. Room 16 is amazed by the beauty Spring has brought.

Sammie

Room 16 went for a walk to look for spring signs. Blossom and the clouds are fluffy. They are blowing in the breeze. The daffodils are shining like the sun. Room 16 is excited that Spring has come.

Paige

Spring has sprung so Room 16 went out to have a look at the flowers that had burst open. Children were playing cricket, a sure sign Summer is on the way. Busy birds were high up in the trees building their nest, preparing for their eggs. Just as in Hagley Park, some daffodils had sprouted in the St Albans grounds. Summer is close.

Flynn

Some Super Spring Writing: Part four

Spring has sprung, so Room 16 went off to find signs of Spring outside. They found three types of flowers - blossoms, daffodils and tulips as red as roses. At the field they saw very light green grass growing through the patches of silt. At the oak tree they heard birds chirping while they were making their nests. Room 16 went back to class.

Cody

Spectacular Spring has sprung at St Albans School. Yesterday Room Sixteen went walking to search for the super signs of Spring. Magnificent birds were chirping like the wind howling while they worked. The kowhai blossom looks like baby bananas growing magnificently small. The sun shines to warm the flowers and the animals and their homes. 

Room Sixteen felt excited.

Grace

Spring has sprung at last at St Albans School. Room Sixteen was going on a walk to find some sights of Spring. Lots of people were playing cricket on the courts with the Milo Cricket Club. Birds were making nests for eggs and babies. Kowhai trees are sprouting well in Spring now. Room Sixteen was excited to see lots of spring sights.

Neo 

Spring has sprung so no more ugly winter in St Albans School. Room Sixteen went outside to look for super signs of Spring yesterday. The daffodils are out and beautiful. Yesterday you could hear and see cricket (lots of kids were cheering). Tulips are as red as rubies. The jonquils are out and beautiful. Busy birds were chirping wildly. They were building nests for their eggs. There are little baby leaf buds on the trees. The bushes are very green and smell very good. Everyone in Room 16 felt cheered up and excited on a spring day. 

Heathcliff

Some Super Spring Writing: Part three

Superb Spring has sprouted at St Albans School. On the 15th of September Room 16 went wonderfully walking around the school searching for signs of Spring.

Sharp spikes were on the stalk of the soft green rose shoots. The spikes were dark purple and looked like rhinoceros horns.

Birds were soaring down from the trees. Swush, swash, swosh was the sound you could hear. If you listened closely you would hear magpies chirping a melody as they built their nests for their eggs. The magpies are black and white as Room Sixteen discovered.

Room Sixteen felt proud about their discoveries. They also felt excited that Spring was just around the corner.

Brydie 

The fantastic Spring has sprung. Yesterday there was no rain so Room SIxteen went for a walk to find the signs of Spring. We went out and guess what we saw growing: flowers and bright yellow daffodils. We saw birds chirping and making nests for their eggs. We saw five blossoms, they were pink and white. So what an exciting sparkling time Spring really is.

Sophie 

In St Albans School, Spring has sprung! Room Sixteen went out for a trot to look for signs of Spring.

The first sign we found was a summer sport - cricket. Giant fluffy clouds like the foamy soap you can get at the Palms were in the blue sky. Puddles were here and there with the sun hitting the water softly, and making it glisten ever so brightly.

Zach 

Some Super Spring Writing: Part two

Spring has sprung at St Albans School. Room Sixteen went out looking for signs of Spring. When they were looking for spring signs Room Sixteen found people playing cricket.

On the way they also saw lots of flowers and they looked very beautiful, especially the red tulips in front of the staff room. 

When Room Sixteen were looking around they found thousands of blue flowers. They looked very very beautiful. They really really liked it.

Isabel

Super Spring is finally here. Yesterday morning Room Sixteen went walking, looking for spring things outside. The birds sang their songs as they flew home to build their nests.

Day light daffodils make the children feel happy when they watch them sprout. 

And last, but not least, beautiful blossoms, a favourite flower shines white and pink while the sun shines bright. 

Hooray everyone! Spring is finally here.

Samantha

Spring has sprung at St Albans School. Yesterday Room Sixteen went for a walk to see all of the flowers that have sprung up on trees and through the cold earth.

Birds are making their nests for their eggs so their eggs have somewhere to hatch. Kids are playing cricket in spring because it is sunny. Daffodils are rising up in spring. So these are the signs of Springtime. 

Hope 

Some Super Spring Writing: Part one

Are you ready for a spring search? Because yesterday morning Room 16 went for a spring tour to see what was flowering in St Albans school.

The thorns on the rose bushes are like rhinoceros horns, their sharp barbs are like a spike from a dragon’s tail, and the flowers are as red as a stripe from a rainbow.

Clouds, the clouds remind me of my blanky - it came in one piece, but now it’s in... actually I don’t know how many pieces it’s in. 

I saw some daffodils in the garden, the orange and yellow light up like a lightbulb. 

Room Sixteen was inspired by the walk.

Kezia

Suspicious Room Sixteen looked for signs of spectacular spring in the school. They discovered that at St Albans school, spring has sprung.

High to the side of a tree the birds were squawking like elephants. The birds were making nests for their eggs.

Summer sports look fun. Room 16 like the look of cricket games. There are lots of flowers here and there, and it looks beautiful. Room 16 are glad that spring has come at last. It has promised summer is coming.

Sam 

The fantabulous spring has sprouted at last. No snow, not one bit. So Room 16 went for a walk around the school to find spring things.

They got their note books and set off on the trail. The clouds looked like a farm yard with baby animals and thousands of flowers, including a Kowhai tree, and that’s what they saw next.

The Kowhai blossoms looked like little caterpillar chrysalises. There were no puddles on the ground, so that’s why Room 16 loves Spring. 

COME ON SUMMER. The fantastic summer.

Isabella

A Wonderful Time Was Had By All...

The Athletics Sports were held today. At lunch time I was told by many teachers how well the seven and eight year olds behaved and performed. The two Room 16 relay teams ran well, the girls even won the Year Three Girls race. Great job everyone, sleep well tonight! 

A Good Case of the Blues

It's secret admirer week for the staff at St Albans this week. My S.A. knew my favourite colour (for the sky at least) is blue and so I was greeted by this lovely sight this morning.

Thank you Secret Admirer! And thanks too for making the sky blue this afternoon!

Good bye Sam, we'll miss you.

Lucky Ohoka School, they're getting our Sam.
Good luck Sam, we hope you have a wonderful time at Ohoka School.
Keep an eye on us and send us comments and emails.

We're On the Move...Around the Sun.

These children seem to have a good understanding of why we have night and day, and the four different seasons.

The Best White Bread Ever!

Today at school we made bread with Mrs Allen. Some of the ingredients were: water, salt and bread. When we put the bread mixture in and pressed start, the machine started to make a funny noise. After a while it stopped. Mrs Allen said that soon after morning tea, the bread will be ready. I'm looking forward to eating it.

by Kayla

Room 16 are making bread. There are two teams. The key ingredient is yeast, that makes the bread rise. I wish I could open the lid and eat it now! 

Mmmmm... what's that smell? It's the bread - it smells good. I wonder how much time until it is finished.

by Max

Today we made bread because it has to do with measuring and we're learning about measuring in Maths. 

Some of the ingredients we used were water, salt and butter. We used a bread machine. I got to put the ingredients in the machine and push the start button. The other group put too much salt in. I hope the bread is delicious.

by Samantha

Today I walked in the door and Mrs Allen told us that we were making bread. We got into two teams. We put water in a big pot with high grade flour, salt, white sugar and some other stuff.

It got quite messy, so, as always - the dumbest part of cooking (and why I don't cook), we had to clean up - boring!!!

I hope it's going to be ready soon. I'm hungry!

by Isabella

Today Room 16 made bread.  When I first came in I didn't know that we were making bread. I looked at the two machines, they were bread makers. We had to measure the ingredients carefully.
Wow the smell was really strong. Our class smelled like a bakery!
by Morgan

Mental note: remove formatting prompts before taking screen shot!

Thanks Mrs Allen!

Red sky in the morning...

... shepherd's warning. That's how the saying goes and yet today seems to be a great day. You could look up where and when this saying originated and see if it makes sense for New Zealand in 2010 or not.

This is the view from my back door at 6.30 this morning.

This view is slightly more to the East.

I found an explanation  here, but it's a bit tricky to understand. There are some other sayings to help predict the weather at this site too.

Some Space Questions to Ponder

1. How long does it take for Earth to travel around the Sun?

2. How long does it take for the moon to travel around Earth?

3. How long does it take for Earth to spin around on its axis?

4. How long have humans known this?

Planets, Suns and all that Jazz

We thought this website was worth sharing. It gives quite a good idea of how big the planets are in comparison with each other.

Jump Jam Mufti

Let's do our bit to support getting the Jump Jammers to Taupo. They do terrific job of leading our Jump Jam session each week so let's support them by putting on our glad rags tomorrow and bringing a gold coin donation.

Capacity Capers!

We know that capacity is the measure of how much something can hold. We did an experiment to find out the capacities of some containers we had lying around.
We want you to make a prediction about what order these containers go in starting from the smallest capacity to the largest capacity. That means from the container that holds the least to the container that holds the most.
Please send us a comment with your prediction. We will post the answer on Friday. You could set up a similar experiment at home - WARNING it gets a bit wet!
Good luck and good guessing.

Hmm, that's a bit tricky to see...

Ahh - that's better!

Saturday 16th October:  The answer is B, A, E, C and D and F are equal. 

The Poster Process

If you're wanting to find out about some different authors or find out more about some of your favourites, you could come and read the posters in Room Sixteen. The authors featured are: Dr Seuss, Roald Dahl, Lauren Child, Beatrix Potter, Mo Willems, Emily Rodda, J.K. Rowling, Kym Lardner, Lynley Dodd, Dav Pilkey and Korky Paul.

13 October
Room 22 and Mrs Glasson came to Room 16 today to look at our posters and give us some feedback. You'll be able to read their excellent quality comments when you come and see the posters for yourselves!
Thanks Room 22!

Measurement

Fahrenheit got the better of me!

This week we are learning about measurement.

Today we talked about measuring weight, distance, time, temperature, capacity, speed and density. Perhaps at home this week you can explain and show about measuring you do each day at home.

We had a quick look at the fun website Map My Run. You could go there to find out how far away from school and each other you live.

Heart Shaped Stone Collection

I found some new stones to add to my collection on the West Coast. We had sunny warm weather the whole time we were on the Coast - there're not many people who can say that!
I hope your holidays are going well. Have you practiced climbing a fireman's pole? I did in the first week, down at our local park.
See you soon

Ms Ashby

What a Lovely Way to Start the Holiday

There's nothing like a new born babe to remind you how amazing people are.  My boys and I went and visited Ms Douglas and her new baby Harry at Christchurch Womens' after school today. He's lovely! Welcome to the world Harry.

I hope you all have a happy holiday. It's been quite a historic term hasn't it? Not one we'll soon forget.

Wacky Hair Day

Hmmm. I wonder what Friday will bring...













Crazy curls
Funky fringes
Perky plaits
Dyed dreadlocks
Spooky spikes
Creative colours
Perfect perms???????

Watch this space!

Did anyone else realise that Friday is the LAST DAY OF TERM? Hazaar!

The St Albans Commonwealth Games

These were fun weren't they? It's so great when we can meet together as a whole school.
I haven't managed to find the time to upload any photos yet, but they will be posted soon. Please keep looking.

I'm so pleased I can do the Ka mate haka properly. I think that will be something I'm pleased I've learned for the rest of my life - how about you? What did you like? Please leave a comment.