The Olden Days.....

This week we were very lucky to have a visit from someone who could tell us all about the 'olden' days.
It was Gayle's mum. She is 87 years old and had so much information to tell us about the past and her childhood.

Last week we thought about all the questions that we would like to ask her and we had them ready for the interview!

We found out that she didn't ever have a birthday party, there weren't many cars about as they were expensive, her teacher would come and hit her over the hand while she was working, you had to line up like soldiers every morning before class and be VERY quiet, no take aways, hardly ever had any lollies as they were expensive, lots of chores to do at home ..her mother was very fussy about the house being tidy, no school uniform, no TV, movies were black and white..no colour and she only got to go to them as a real treat, no radio.
She had to drink milk every day at school...she hated it because it was always warm!!
We all felt very sad when she told us about waving goodbye to her Dad as he went off to war and not ever seeing him again.
She also had a teddy of Gayle's and some dolls. They looked very different to the dolls and teddies that we have.

The next day we wrote a thank you letter to Noel and then all had a think about whether we would  like to live in the time that Noel was growing up or now and why.

Most of us chose now...we love our TV and computer games!!!
Luke B said he would like to live in a bit of both...he explained that when Noel was growing up there weren't many cars about which was great as there would be very little pollution where now there is heaps of pollution .
Great thinking Luke...what a super star you are!

Noel showing us where she was born...

Listening to a question.....

A fur scarf that belonged to Noel's mother ....boy that must be VERY old!

Gayle's teddy...minus an eye.....

Jeremy with one of Gayle's dolls.....

Photo time.....

Gayle and her Mum....

Aaron wanted to take home the lovely warm scarf!!

Gayle's dolls....Aieshar REALLY wanted to take one home!!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!!

It was a real winters day yesterday...the wind was biting and we were all very cold. We were sure that it was going to snow!

Gayle's Mum was meant to come and talk to us about her days as a child but she had a fall and couldn't come. She is now coming to see us next week.
So what were we going to do since she couldn't come?

Plan B was put into action and look what we created.

First we had to cut out pieces of a snowman......

Then we had to glue the cut out pieces onto a piece of black paper...

A touch of colour for his hat......

Glue cotton balls on the body...

Finally lux soap flakes to make it snowing.

Here is the final product.

Look at our wonderful cutting skills!

We were all very proud of our  snowmen.

On Monday we all did something very special.

One of our teachers was very sad as her Mum had just died, so we walked to her house to take flowers to her from all the other teachers.

Before we went we made her a card .

We hope that we put a smile on her face.

Keep warm everyone!

Yay for sunny days....

11 years old!

What a stunning day we had on Thursday...Spring is on its way!!!

We have celebrated two birthdays this week....Rachel and Aieshar

9 years old!!

 We have sent off letters to our Grandparents asking them for a recipe from their childhood and for some information about what life was like for them when they were our age.

We are really looking forward to hearing back from them.

For baking this week we made Anzac biscuits as they have been around for a long long time.

We sat and ate them while we listened to the story about the history of Anzac biscuits.

Here are some of the things that we learnt....

            * The original biscuit was not sweet 

            *It was put in the soldiers ration pack as a substitute for 

              for bread as it was more like a savoury biscuit

            *It was called Soldiers biscuits or Rolled Oat biscuits   

             

Before they went onto the oven...

Out of the oven and ready to eat!

Eating Anzac biscuits and listening to the back story of them

Fingers crossed for a warm weekend!!

 

TERM 3 WEEK 1

Welcome back everyone!
We hope that you have all had a very relaxing holiday.

Good news!!
Our dance that we performed at Monday Meet Up is now on the Waimairi School Youtube site.

Our Topic for the Term is called Backstory and we have decided to learn from our grandparents what life was like when they were our age.

We hope to get from them letters, telling us about their schooling and what baking their Mum's did for them...or Dad's.

Next week we will be writing letters to them. Some of us will have to email them as they live in another country.
Each week we will bake one of their recipes .

This week we made scones as that was what our Grandparents used to bake a lot of as they are easy to make and don't cost too much as there are only a few ingredients in the recipe .

Measuring the flour...

Now for the baking powder...

A little big of salt....

Mixing the flour mixture with the butter...

Ready for the oven...

Mmm, this is delicious...I  thought I wouldn't like  scones but I do!!

Eating scones and looking at books on Italy as that is where Mrs Coleman is at the moment. We have been learning where Italy is on the  world map and Gayle has been reading her blog to us. It looks and sounds like a beautiful country . We all loved the old buildings...they are everywhere!!

We are also continuing our learning on Me In The Big Wide World.

This weeks discussion was on our routines...what we do every day.

We did some brainstorming on what else we could do to help our parents.

Here are some of our ideas.....

Helping with the dishes

Being happy

Putting away the clean washing

Setting the table

Packing our own lunch boxes at night

Dressing ourselves

Packing our own school bag

Next week we are going to choose one  suggestion off our list and do it at home to help our parents.

Enjoy your weekend...fingers crossed that the sun will stay shining.

End of Term!!

Well here we are at the end of the term! Nine weeks have gone by very quickly.

Sorry that the video of our dance at Monday Meet Up still isn't on our blog but we have had a few 'hiccups' with it. We promise that  you will be able to see us in action first week back. We will get Mr Anderson onto it as he is a whizz with computer issues!!

On Wednesday and Thursday we went to the hall to see the presentation of the terms work form Katelyn, Rachel, Luke's and Aieshar's class. Wow, it was amazing what they have done this term. We saw videos,dancing and sculptures.   Waimairi school has heaps of talented children in it!

Speaking of talent look what we produced with our rock art.......

            Artists at work!!

Mrs McGrath gave us some rocks that she had collected from Birdlings Flat Beach.
We wondered what we could do with them and then Gayle showed us some beautiful art work from an aboriginal artist.
It was all made up of little dots so we decided to try and do the same!
We got twigs, feathers and straws and created our own design.
It was fun painting on the rocks and Gayle said we could keep them forever...

We are all looking forward to the holidays...we hope you are too!
Have fun and we will be back next term.

Rachel, Katelyn,Luke B, Luke U, George, Aieshar, Aaron, Jeremy