Sarah and her Dad

Today as part of our ANZAC study Sarah's Dad Scott came to Twizel Area School to talk about when his Grandad was in World War One. He showed us some of the things his Grandad used, including a kit bag, a gas mask, a bayonet, and a hard hat. He also had a gun but it was not put together and he had no ammunition so Mr Feasey our Principal said it would be okay. Scott had a drink bottle too, but he thinks it may have been a German drink bottle that his Grandad found and also a bayonet. Sarah is very proud of her family history.
Scott told us that the soldiers who died were just everyday people.

Tom's ANZAC Walk

Tom and his little brother Fred and their Dad Alan went for a walk in Oamaru. They found lots of crosses - Tom thinks there were over one hundred.
The crosses were beside oak trees. The crosses are for remembering the men from Oamaru who died in World War One and Two.
Tom shared lots of photos of the crosses with our class. There were so many, just so many.


WHAT TOM SAID

Tom said that when he was doing the ANZAC walk he felt quite sad in his heart.

WHAT SOME OTHER PEOPLE IN OUR CLASS SAID


Iain said the photos made him sad because his Great-Grandad was in the war and he got shot.
Joseph said he felt sorry and sad for all the people that died.
Zak said it makes him feel sad because someone in his family died a couple of years ago.
Samuel said the photos made him feel really sad for the people who died because someone in his family was in the war.
Caleb said it made him feel sad and disappointed to see all those crosses.
Mackenzie said the photos made her feel sad.
Jaimee said she feels sad to see how many people died because there was heaps.
Sarah said it makes her feel sad. Her Great-Grandad went to war and she still has his bag and his tin hat and his drink bottle.


Thanks Tom for sharing these photos and your thoughts and feelings with us today.

Nine students from our class went to the ANZAC Service to show respect. Everyone in our class is showing respect to the soldiers and their families through their thoughtful responses to our study.

P.S. Mr White (our school's technology teacher) just came to visit. He said there are lots more crosses beside oak trees on the way to Oamaru up the Waitaki Valley.

Poppy Paintings

Tomorrow is ANZAC Day. We have been talking about ANZAC Day and the wars and the importance of peace. We started the term by painting poppies, one of the ANZAC symbols. We are also learning the poem In Flanders Fields.

In these photos we are planning with chalk, and painting. We got our inspiration from the many beautiful images of poppies that we found on-line.

In some of the photos we are moving around the room and talking to each other about our art.

We have displayed the paintings in the foyer to our school and to our community library. If you live in Twizel, please come and see them. We are proud of our art-work.

Homework this week is to talk about ANZAC Day and the meaning of it with our adults, and also to do another piece of poppy art. Some are already done and are on display with our class paintings.

We will continue with our study of ANZAC Day for the next couple of weeks. One of the things we talked about today was how special it is to live in New Zealand, a country at peace, and in the beautiful Mackenzie basin.

Lots of us are going to the ANZAC Service tomorrow morning. We will be thinking about the ANZAC Service in Gallipoli too. We learned about that special event today. We love how the Internet can bring the world in history, and the world today, into our classroom.

P.S. Welcome to Room 4 Mackenzie and Lachie. We hope you enjoy your time in the Room 4 Learning Team.

Term One - Last Day

Here are some photos from the last day of Term One.

We are drawing Easter bunny pictures on the deck outside our classroom, and eating Hot Cross Buns and Easter eggs. It's our class party to say goodbye to Ryan A., Stormy-Lee and Amy, and to celebrate a great term of learning.

Place Stories

Here are some of the stories we wrote about places. We hope you enjoy reading them. To get ideas for our stories, we studied photos in a wonderful book called 'The Natural World' by Thomas Mangelsen. The book is full of amazing photos of many beautiful places in the world.

The Bear’s Plan

A Bear is coming over to the moanas edge to look for his kai. His kai is ika.

The bear has been fighting a warthog all morning so he deserves lots of kai. However a massive boulder stands ahead of him. He has got to think up a plan. The plan is for how he will get up on to the boulder to get his kai.

He will have to swim because the boulder is one kilometre ahead of him.

By Tom 

Massive Rock

There is a massive rock with trees in the back, on top of the rock, there is two lion’s lying down. The sky is blue and the clouds are white like candy floss in the sky.

 The lions lie on the rock for a nap because they have been hunting for the most of the day. They sleep on the rock for the night and in the night the male lion goes and hunts for food.

The male lion attacks its prey and it eats it all up.

By Taine

Africa Story

It is a bright day in Africa where the cheetahs live.  The rocks are shiny and the grass is fresh.

It is amazing and it is sunny. When you look at it you will think the same.

I love it. You can see wonderful cheetahs. The sky is fantastic. You can see a little bit of clouds but suddenly the cheetahs had a war. Three of them stayed at home to guard the house in Africa.

The queen of the cheetahs and the queen of lions had a war. It was not good. What would happen next? Then the sky hung low. It disappeared.

Next there was a storm. The sky looked awful. The place is damaged. Both of the queens gathered the lions and the cheetahs.

By Stormy-Lee

The Grizzly Bear

The huge rock in the middle of the sea floats while a bear walks around the emerald water in search of fish to eat for its lunch.

 Finally a school of fish swam to the edge of the water, but the bear was so hungry he couldn’t wait so he swam as fast as he could without looking at where he was going, and suddenly he hit his head on the rock and he fell slowly down into the sea.

The next day the bears were all very hungry and the bears family was very worried because the bear hadn’t come home yet, but they didn’t worry about him so they went out swimming and got some fish and they ate a yummy breakfast and they were so tired they just went to sleep and forgot about the bear.

By Shanelle

The Snowy Land in Alaska

The snowy mountains in Alaska make me feel cold. It looks like it is icing sugar just poured over the mountains and the flaky trees.

Some bald eagles sit on a high branch in a cottonwood tree minding their own business.

It looks like it is evening in Alaska where the bald eagles stay.

Snow covers the whole land. The snow looks so deep and so cold that it will go right up to your knee and the snow might make your legs freeze.

There is a big fluffy cloud behind the snowy mountains. It looks like a big blob of snow in the air.

Soon the sun will go down and then the predators will start guarding the night.

The bald eagles will fly away and find somewhere else to sleep, maybe up on a high branch in a cottonwood tree in a different place. Or they’ll just stay.

Then in the morning the bald eagles will go out to find something to eat. I don‘t know what they will find to eat. But they might find something yummy.

 Do you think you know what they will find to eat?

By Sarah 

The Alaska Peninsula

It is a cool day. Hungry bears are looking for delicious salmon in the sheer cold water.  Bears are ripping fish to bits. All that’s left is skin and bone.

Passing by boats steal fish from the bears.

Birds dive into the water to catch fish and then go back to their nests.

By Samuel 

Lazy lion

Two lions are sitting on top of a massive rock making sure no predators are coming to take their favourite food. They are relaxing in the boiling sun shine.

The trees are standing up tall. The clouds are looking like an explosion in the blue sky.

Very tiny bits like a sand fly are falling off the giant rock onto the green grass. 

By Lewis 

  

 Alaska Peninsula

It’s a nice and peaceful day on the Alaska Peninsula.

The grizzly bear is hunting for prey hiding behind the humongous rock hoping that the bear can’t see them.

The grizzly bear goes back into the tall hill and sleeps.

He comes back later to find that all of his prey are playing and eating all the luscious green grass. But now he can’t see a thing through the bright sparkles shining off the edge of the lakes tip.

By Kian

KEEP CHECKING OUR BLOG - WE'LL POST SOME MORE GREAT WRITING ANOTHER DAY

Next term we'll be studying ANZAC Day and then Endangered Species around the World. 

Keep checking our blog to find out what we have been learning.

Ka kite ano - see you soon.

From the Room 4 Learning Team

Twizel Area School

Construction Day

Today was Construction Day in Room 4 - except that we didn't do it in Room 4. Instead we relocated to the Multi-Purpose Room, the room where we have Junior Assemblies and plays.

Today we worked in teams of two or three to construct models of famous buildings.
This was a follow-on from our study of the world and of Wonders of the World. 

* We tried to use the words that architects and builders use.
* We borrowed lots of building equipment from the younger classes.
* We pretended that the building equipment was in a building supply shop.
* We had to make a plan, then work together to try it out.
* Some things worked, and some didn't.
* We made amazing buildings like the Sears Tower, the Eiffel Tower, Pyramids, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Empire State Building, the Leaning Tower of Pisa and Big Ben.
* At the end of the construction time we evaluated our work and talked about the good and not so good things in being an architect or a builder.
* We really liked it when other teachers and students came to visit.

We had to break down our models  at the end of the day but we hope you like the photos!