PAEKAKARIKI
Newsealand Newspaper
Brought to you by the wonderful students of Room 8
Zumbatomic!
Our new teacher
By Amelia and Arlo
By Max and Gabriel
We have a new teacher called Ms.
Thorn. She is nice. Ms. Thorn is
learning to be a teacher. Ms.
Malones and all us kids are
teaching her. She has been with us
for a long time. Ms. Malones goes
out of the class when Ms. Thorn is
teaching.
We like doing Maths with Ms.
Thorn because she plays Guess my
number with us. She also does skip
counting with us. We can skip
count in 2s, 5s and 10s.
Yesterday after lunch we did Zumba. Zumba is
a kind of dancing where you do lots of moves.
Our teacher’s name was Jo. She was nice and
really funny.
We did bottom dancing, tummy dancing and
back dancing. We also did the penguin dance
which was fun. The penguin dance is where
you put your hands out at your sides and
wobble back and forth by kicking your feet out
sideways. Our favourite part of Zumba was the
crazy penguin dance.
Jo taught us how to do the sleepy leg in another
dance. The sleepy leg is when you drag your
leg and pretend it’s asleep. We also played
Freeze. It’s like musical statues.
Last week Ms. Thorn helped us to
make grass men. We put sawdust
and grass seeds into stockings and
then we made ears and a nose. Ms. Thorn’s
mum glued on the eyes and then we painted
mouths. The grass men are going to grow grass
hair and we can give them haircuts.
How to make a
grass man
By Lillias
We made grass men with Ms. Thorn two weeks
ago. The first thing I did was to get a stocking
from Ms Thorn. I put lots of sawdust inside it.
I put some blue grass seeds in it and then I tied
it up at the top. Ms. Malones put a rubber band
on it too. It looked like a head.
Ms. Thorn’s mum stuck eyes on it
for me. I painted a mouth on it.
My mouth was purple. I made a
nose by pulling the stocking out
and then used a rubber band to go
around it. The nose was in the
middle of my grass man’s face. I
made ears the same way. The ears
are on each side of his head.
When I was finished, Ms. Thorn
put the grass men in the window in
some water. They will grow grass
hair and we will be able to give
them haircuts.
Jo showed us how to dance on our bottoms
Ms. Malones was really happy when Jo played
Waka Waka at the end. Ms. Malones plays that
song for us in class and we do the Waka Waka
moves. We liked it when Jo played it too.
Last night some of our parents came and did
Zumba at school too.
Ms. Malones says that we will get
to show them to the school at the
end of the term when we do Assembly.
We are learning to skip count in
2s, 5s and 10s. We have also
learned about positioning and
know about left, right, ¼ and ½
turns. Aren’t we clever?
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Ms Thorn teaching us to make grass men
My first week at
school
By Milo
I like coming to school because I love my play
area. I like playing on the playground. I have
friends at school like Harry and Ollie. The
hardest thing about coming to school is trying to
do different words in writing. I like singing and
drawing pictures.
By Karlos
I like reading books at school. Today I am
going to the library for the first time and I’ll get
to take my own library book home. I think my
favourite part of school is going to be playing at
lunch. I play with Zachary. We play on the
playground. I like the assemblies at school
because I like singing.
Things I’ve
learned this term
By Caitlin
I have learned how to tie my shoes. I practiced
at home all by myself with my shoes. I made
bunny ears and I wrapped the laces around and
around and then I put one bunny ear underneath
the other one and I pulled it. I was so excited
because it was really fun. My mum and my
daddy and my brother and my sister were all
really proud of me.
By Yazmin
I learned how to write a recount. A recount is
something that has already happened. I have
been practicing my recounts at home. I like to
write about what happened on the weekend. I
put finger spaces and full stops in my stories
and I write on every second line. My mum and
dad like reading my stories.
Did you know?
The Book Club
they are rostered on to the computers at lunch
hour.
By Markyrious
By Ellie
I love how the students of Room 8 sprawl all
over the floor enjoying the picture books. They
are well behaved. They usually come in to read
the books (not for the computers) and it’s lovely
for me to look out and to see the seniors reading
books to the students in Room 8.
Did you know that a long vowel says its name?
You get a long vowel by putting an ‘e’ on the
end of a word. The word cake has an e on the
end, and the ‘a’ says its name. Ms. Malones
taught us about long vowels. A short vowel
doesn’t say its name. Has is a word with a short
vowel because the ‘a’ doesn’t say its name.
I like learning about vowels because they’re
cool. Vowels are fun to learn and I use them in
writing. I like the alphabet sheets and vowel
sheets that we do each day. They have cool
music and the sheets are awesome.
By Manny
Did you know that Father Christmas can go to
different places? If you are not going to be at
home, you can write him a letter and he’ll find
you. I hope he brings me a remote control car.
By Lily
Did you know that my mum and I are both
home sick and we are making a peacock that we
found in a magazine. First you get two egg
cartons and paint them pink and blue. Glue
them together and stick feathers on them and
make them sparkly. Put a pointy nose on and
googly eyes and then use pipe cleaners for legs.
Sometimes at school Ms. Malones gives us
Scholastic and Lucky Book Club magazines.
They have heaps of books and posters in them
that you can buy. I take it home and show it to
whoever is at home. This is my first time
getting a Lucky Book Club magazine and I used
my own money to buy a book. I bought the
book called, Dragon’s Fat Cat about a cat who
was outside by himself during winter and a
dragon opened his door and found him. I just
ordered the book today and can’t wait until I get
it. The Paraparaumu Library has the book too
but I didn’t get it out from there. Martha
bought a book using her own money too. She
bought the Club Penguin book. I don’t think
she’ll let me read it though.
Popcorn party!
By Lucy and Sam
Sometimes on Fridays Ms. Malones makes
popcorn. She puts the popcorn seeds into a
machine and then she turns the machine on.
The seeds start popping when the machine gets
really, really hot. We like watching the popcorn
pop because the seeds sometimes go around the
side of the machine. Sometimes they even pop
right out of the bowl and on to the ground. Ms.
Malones says that popcorn is one of her
favourite foods.
Lucy: I eat it at my birthday party. I don’t have
a popcorn machine so my mum buys it already
popped.
This is a picture of my peacock
Can you guess my
pet?
By Zachary
My pet isn’t a cat or a dog. It isn’t a bird either.
My pet has four legs and a scaly body. I think
my pet is a boy. His name is Tora and he likes
to eat snails. He came from Australia. Did you
guess what my pet is? It’s a blue tongued
lizard. I like having a lizard for a pet because it
always sits on my shoulder and he even climbs
on to my head and sits there.
Tora lives in a big fish tank. He has little rocks
and he has big rocks too. He also has a food
bowl and a water bowl. He has a heater too
because he likes to be warm. If he gets cold he
could die.
Sam: My mum and I like popcorn but my dad
doesn’t like it. Whenever my mum cooks
popcorn on the stove, it burns so we don’t have
popcorn much.
Our Alphabet
Medley
By Harry and Michael
Last night we did our alphabet medley at the
arts festival. There were heaps of people
watching, even some of the big kids from Room
3! We sang the alphabet, the alphabet rap and
the alphabet boogie. We sang a Michael
Jackson song too and we boogied. When you
boogie, you dance like crazy.
There were other things at the arts festival like
lights and music. We wore dark clothes with
baseball hats. We had ribbons on that would
glow in the lights. People clapped at us the
whole time and they laughed at us because they
thought we were really fun. Our parents
thought we were cool. It was fun singing in
front of all those people. We weren’t scared at
all.
Library News
By Donna, School Librarian
Juniors are welcome into the library on any
lunch hour after 1 pm for reading. Once a week
My mum, Storm, with Tora , our blue tongued lizard
Once a week, Room 8 comes in with Ms.
Malones to exchange their library books.
Library books must be returned in order for a
new book to be borrowed. Books are due back
the following week.
My favourite part
of school
By Taya
My favourite part of being at school is maths
because I like maths. The best part of maths is
guessing numbers in “Guess my number?” I
play it with my friends Max and Gabriel.
I like lunch time because I play on the slide and
I play by the trees. I play with Danika and she’s
a big girl. She is nine years old. Sometimes I
play with Layla who is another big girl. In
Room 8 I play with Karlos and Lucy.
When I started school I missed my mum a lot
but now I don’t miss her so much. I like being
five years old. The best thing about being five
years old is being at school.
My time in Room 8
By Chelsea Thorn, Student Teacher
Challenge, laughter, struggle and adventure are
four key words that describe my journey over
the past seven weeks. I was lucky enough to do
my last teaching placement in Room Eight at
Paekakariki School.
On my first day, I entered Lisa’s classroom full
of nerves. I felt like a fish out of water. I had
no idea what to expect being in a class full of
new entrant kids, however I was pleasantly
surprised. The children of Room Eight, staff
and Paekakariki community welcomed me with
open arms and made me feel right at home.
You all allowed me the opportunity to learn and
further equip myself with the knowledge and
skills required for teaching. I would like to
thank you all for your support and guidance
over the last seven weeks.
I feel privileged and blessed to have had the
opportunity to learn under the talented and
caring Lisa Malones. I also feel equally lucky
to have had the chance to work with each of the
kids in Room Eight. They are a talented bunch,
who are always eager to learn. I was amazed at
how far they have come over the last seven
weeks and was so proud to watch them shine
during the arts festival. I will miss you all when
I am gone but will be eternally grateful for how
much I have learned whilst being with you all.