Highfield School's X-Factor

Congratulations to all the children that took part in X-factor on Friday and to all those who were brave and auditioned.

Amalia and Rafaela and Lucius and Annabel were great entertainers on Friday night.

Special congratulations to Lucius, Amalia and Annabel who were winners on the night. AWESOME.

Pre-Olympic Swimming Practice

It's awesome and fun, especially if you get to go off the bombing board with a life jacket on.
It's exciting because you get to do it with your swimming group.
It's really fun learning how to do things and moving up groups.
It's fun when you get to go into the big, deep pool.
It's making us proud and motivated because we are learning to be a better swimmer.

It's SWIMMING (and we don't want to stop.)

Creating a No Dig Vege Garden.

The gardening team have allocated a garden plot to each class.

We found out about no-dig garden beds then chose the weediest available plot to develop into our no-dig garden.

The garden is like a lasagna with layers of cardboard, paper, straw, compost and earth and more straw.

We have even got some vegetables planted.

Any spare vegetable plants are very welcome.

We also used our measuring skills to make carrot planting strips that we have planted in a separate container.

Now our fingers are crossed, hoping that everything will grow and give us lots of veges.

In our reading about the Middle Ages we have found out that they had to grow all their own food.

Here are some photos of how we started our garden. Some technical issues mean that there aren't photos of some of the other stages.

Plays

We had a busy time creating and sharing plays over the last two weeks of term. The audiences that came to see us were awesome. Some of us had the challenge of creating plays out of stories. We also had a go at finding costumes, creating props and finding backdrops as well as working on speaking clearly and expressively.

Robin Hood

William Tell

Peter and the Wolf

Farewell Elliot

We are sorry to be losing Elliot from our class. He is moving to Rolleston. We wish him and his family all the best there. We enjoyed a farewell lunch on Thursday.

Ryan shares the special E-shaped pikelet he made for Elliot.

Look at all the yummy food!

It will be strange coming back next term and not having Elliot with us.

We will miss you, Elliot.

Caught Reading 3

                                           Lost in books in the garden at morning tea time.

Jump Jam Winners

We are very proud of this Highfield School Jump Jam team.
Look at their bright costumes and their proud smiles.
Mrs Hinde and Mrs Cabrera-Martin both had amazing ideas and coached this awesome team of children, including Lana, Rafaela, Amalia, Lucy, Annabel and Lucius and they were the winners of their section at the recent Jump Jam competitions.

Well done all.

Two More Events.

A photo from the Cross Country held earlier this term. Waiting for the run to start.
(Notice the keen readers!)

I was so pleased to get to the Theatre Royal in time for the Highfield Team on Tuesday. They put in a great effort to come first in their section. Here they are on stage with all the other place-getters.

Book Week Dress Ups

What a great line up of characters we had in our class for Book Week. Well done all.

We had a really interesting discussion today for our Yes, No, Maybe news. It related to the plans to change the zig-zag into Centennial Reserve into a one way route. Most of the class were in favour of such a move and were able to share reasons why.

It led to a discussion about why the reserve was called Centennial Reserve. We didn't know. There were a few suggestions as to how we could find out, including computer and phone the museum. Phoning the museum turned out to be the  most effective way.

Try asking a class member to see if they can remember the reasons.

We've found out about some people who are busy exploring the coldest part of our planet.
If you want to check out their progress, here is the link.

http://www.thecoldestjourney.org/the-expedition/

TERM 2

Welcome back to a new term. We have started out new Kiwican topic which will be about integrity this term. We are also working on writing up holiday recipes, learning about geometry and learning about soccer and sportstart. It is going to be a busy time.

More Diaramas

Here are more photos of our awesome diaramas.

Check out the awesome Rocky  Shore dioramas we made. First we painted the backgrounds of our shoeboxes. Then Mrs Robertson showed us different ways to use paper by folding and rolling it. Next we thought hard about the best way to represent the animals that we saw at the Rocky Shore and created them to put in our dioramas. Later Mrs Roxburgh took photos of them. Finally we could take them home to share with our families. We feel proud of our work and hope you enjoy them too.

El Gregoe

We really enjoyed having El Gregoe come to perform at school.
His show was amazing: where did those birds and rabbits come from?
Just as importantly, he had a message for us as Highfield Heroes that will help us have a friendlier, safer school.
What a challenge!

Caught Reading 2

There are readers all around Room 3; inside and out, all ages. Great to see!

Wetlands

On a damp and  overcast morning we set off with Room 6 to meet the South Canterbury museum educators at the Otipua wetlands. There we found out about the different trees, birds, and insects that are there. We also found out about how it is linked to a volcano and how it has been restored over the last few years.

              Do you remember how all these objects help remind us about how the wetland works?

Here we are, listening carefully to Keeley, as she tells us about the different plants including the juvenile lancewood.

More photos on our photo diary page.

Caught Reading

Room 3 readers can be found in all sorts of places at all sorts of times.
So many children in this class love reading and are sharing their favourite books at library time and news time.
Lucius, Rafi and Millie have been recommending Harry Potter.

The Rocky Shore

Close to Timaru there are places where rocks from a local volcano erupted and went out into the ocean leaving us with some lovely Rocky Shore areas. We went exploring in one of these areas to see what we could see. We had fun. We found hundreds of crabs. Here are some of our discoveries. 

Buddy Classes

We had our first buddy class session with Room 12 on Friday. It is going to be great fun meeting up with them this year. We each have our own special buddy to work with for the whole year. We can share our successes with them and ask them for help when we need it.

Our Favourite Things

Last week, members of the class brought in a bag with four or five objects that are special to them to share with the class. These are the people that brought them in so far and that we got photos of. (Yes, I do know Artemisia is featured twice: it was the way the collage created it.)

THANK YOU FOR SHARING. There is still time for more people to share their bags.

Greetings to Mrs Robertson

Welcome Mrs Robertson.

While we haven't got a picture yet, we are pleased to welcome Mrs Lynda Robertson as the second teacher in Room 3. She has enjoyed meeting everybody this week and is looking forward to a great year working with the children in Room 3. Mrs Robertson will be teaching all the maths as well as art, music and many other things throughout the year.

Week One 2013

Room 3 2013

                           Highfield School

Welcome to our class blog for 2013.

What an amazing week it has been: a lovely class and some spectacular weather. 

We have been able to swim every day so a lot of progress has been made by everybody.