Inquiry Learning

Wow!  Room 19 and 20's Inquiry Learning has really taken off in the past couple of weeks.  We are investigating the big question:

Are we prepared for an earthquake?

We have been doing lots of research about why earthquakes happen (read Zac's excellent explanation), what we should do if an earthquake happened at school or home and we will also be researching what is in a survival kit.

As luck should have it. Miss Ryan brought to school an excellent booklet that she received in her mail box this week.  Did you receive this booklet?  If so, could you please bring it in to school to help us with out research?

P.S.  check out some of the useful inquiry links at home!

Why Earthquakes Occur by Zac

Wow!  Read Zac's explanation of Why Earthquakes Occur...

An earthquake is when the earth moves.
The inside of the earth is made up of the crust, mantle, outer core and the inner core.  The earth's surface is made up like an egg shell. The shell is called tectonic plates.
Where two plates meet it's called a fault line. The plates move when the mantle circulates causing the plates to move in different directions. When two of them get stuck they rub together and try to move when it is happening energy builds up. Then the energy releases. It shoots through the fault lines causing the plates to move. When the energy dies down the plates stop moving and there a lot of damage all around where the earthquake happened. Some earthquakes are very destructive and some are so small you that you can't even feel them.

Tsunami Writing

We have been learning to add 'juicy words' into our writing.  Juicy words are words like adjectives and strong verbs.  We also did some art work with the koru to represent the tsunami that has hit Japan.  Click on the vocaroo to listen to us read our powerful writing.

Mia's Writing

Tyler's Writing

Grace's Writing

Emma's Writing

Bella's Writing

Voice IT!

Here is our second installment of Voice IT! We are learning to express our ideas and speak clearly and with confidence. Today we discussed whether we agreed with the Rugby World Cup games being cancelled in Christchurch. Here are Henry, Marco, Anton and Marc sharing their opinions.

P.S Thanks to Grace our cameraman!

Mystery Reader

Today was our first MYSTERY READER day. We were so excited to be able to skype Kees's Nana who lives in Nelson. She was a WONDERFUL mystery reader who read us a story called 'The Korimako Kid' by Rachel Hayward.
Here is a photo of Kees with the book she read.

I wonder who will be our next mystery reader?
Plaese come and see Miss Ryan or send her an email if you are interested in surprising us!

Singing with Room 19

Today we got together with Room 19 to sing. We decided to sing 'Heal the World' to send warm fuzzies to the people of Christchurch. We are also all dressed in red and black today to raise money to send down to the schools affected by the earthquake.