The Mataura Team's BIG Book of Instructions

In Term 2 we spent several weeks learning how to give, write, read and follow instructions.  Each child chose a simple procedure and practised this at home.
Each day a different person presented their procedure. They demonstrated, we wrote, we read and re-read and then followed the instructions.
It was so much fun and we love reading our book of instructions and remembering all about it.  We think it's a terrific idea to share it with you.

Paper Chain Men

Alex brought an amazing collection of paper chain men to school today.  He made them all at home and shared them during our morning meeting.  We were all impressed.

Only a few people had made these chains before and everyone else wanted to learn.  

"We could make another page in our instructions book" suggested Ben.

"We should put it on our blog" said someone else.  

"Great idea" we all agreed.  "We should put our whole book on the blog."

And that is what we have done.

DOGS MAKE THE BEST PETS

PUPPIES AND DOGS PLAY WITH YOU

They run around so much and they play tug of war with a sock. That is funny to watch so they make you laugh.  They play catch or fetch and they bring the ball back. Dogs run with you.  Sometimes they chew socks, shoes, pillows and even knickers.  Mums don't think that's quite so funny.

PUPPIES AND DOGS LOOK GOOD
They are fluffy and cute.  Their faces have little brown eyes and their ears can be all different sizes. Some are little and pointy and some are long and flappy. Molly's dog's ears hang down. Victor's dog is very fluffy. One of his dogs is called Brian and his big dog is called Jimmy.

PUPPIES AND DOGS ARE HELPFUL
Some people are  blind and they use dogs to help them cross the road and on the path and stuff.
If you fell down when a car was coming a dog could drag you off the road so the car doesn't run over you.
Sheep dogs help the farmer get the sheep in the pen.
Some dogs can get ducks from a long way after the hunter has shot the ducks.

Art Challenge

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This is a family challenge that Mrs Mac saw on the internet.  Each family in the class was given a plain owl and were challenged to make their owl unique. Do you think this is a good idea?   

Dogs Make the Best Pets

Molly, Hunter and Victor read this book.

They did not agree that cats are the best pets. 

Watch this space tomorrow - they will tell you why dogs are definitely the best pets.  

Play Dough

Playdoh or Play dough - however you spell it it's an essential in a Junior classroom.
We use it in maths, literacy and general play.

Here's the recipe for a useful cooked play dough.

1 cup white flour            1/2 cup salt                         1 cup cold water
1 tbsp oil                         2 tsp cream of tartar           food colouring

Stir all ingredients together.
Cook them over a low heat, stirring occasionally, for 3-5 minutes.
You will be able to stir it into a sticky dough when it is close to being ready.
It is ready when it is still sticky but seems to be drying out a bit. 
The dough will continue to dry as it cools down. 

Cool and store in an airtight container.

                   

Skiing - August 13th

What a wonderful day we had skiing on Thursday. We loved it!

Questions and Answers

We have been learning about asking and answering questions and have been practising these in all sorts of situations.
We've learned about closed questions, which will usually give you a yes or no answer, and open questions which begin with a question word and give you more information.

What if you didn't have any money to buy toys?

This was the question we investigated after our Favourite Toys day last week.

We decided you would have to make your own toys from whatever was around. A lot of what is around these days is recyclable "junk" so we were given the challenge of making a toy with a few pieces of junk - plastic bags, tin cans, boxes, string and so on. We were allowed to use glue but Mrs Mac wouldn't let us use sellotape Boo! We worked in groups to make the toys but then some of us got the idea to make kites and that really took off!

You might enjoy watching some of our Sock Puppet interviews which show you how we can ask and answer questions and will tell you about our toys.

   Eli asks Alex questions about his toy boat. 

     Mya asks Brie about her instrument.

  Mrs Mac asks Daniel about his kite.

    Riley asks Hunter about his kite.

Alex asks Eli about his kite.                   

Molly asks Marnie about her vase.

Charlotte asks Mya about their boat.

Tanner asks Ethan about their aircraft carrier.

Welcome

Welcome to our Room 2 blog.

We are a class of 5 & 6 year olds who love to share their learning.

This is how happy we feel to be starting our blog...

We hope you enjoy our posts - 

we plan to get started very soon.