December 2012

We have had a busy month. The highlight was our special day at Haulashore Island We caught the ferry across to the island, our trip was the first one and Marlins dad taught us an old Rarotongan welcome chant to travelers coming ashore. We surprised a real pirate hiding in the bushes. He had us go on a real treasure hunt for a chest. North 10 steps....south 25 steps.... looking for clues. We found all the clues and finally found a real chest! When we opened it, it contained special items to keep in our school historical display case. (a piece of hemp rope, a Maori tool and a very old wooden block from the Sounds) We walked around the island, learning about the history of the island (and found 13 dead shags) saw Coles special camp area and the lagoon. After lunch we had time on the Haulashore Beach where the sailing ships were hauled ashore to have repairs and their hulls scraped. Before we left we had time for a treasure hunt....lots of jewels and sweets!!! We had a wonderful day!

This is the final photo taken in 2012. We are wearing our Talleys Adopt a ship black hoodies. We say farewell to Ashton and Taylor to go to new schools next year. The Year 4's move on to Nile Room in 2013. Judi retires on Dec 19,2012. Thank you for reading our blog. The St Vincent Room Kids

Susie's story

When Susie popped into see us at St Vincent Room, we were just finishing off our bees to go into the daffodils. We told her about our bees and she said" I'm going to a ball dressed as a bee on Saturday." So we pleaded with her, "Please come on Monday morning in your bee suit and lead us out into the daffodils...our own Queen Bee! Susie was soooooooo pleased to wear her special suit again, so she came along and helped us put our bees out in the park on Monday. Craig did the banging in, and Tim Cuff took photos for the Nelson City Council paper. Lots of people tooted and waved at us. We think they look good. Marlin and Jack

Susie our Queen Bee

When Susie popped into see us at St Vincent Room, we were just finishing off our bees to go into the daffodils. We told her about our bees and she said" I'm going to a ball dressed as a bee on Saturday." So we pleaded with her, "Please come on Monday morning in your bee suit and lead us out into the daffodils...our own Queen Bee! Susie was soooooooo pleased to wear her special suit again, so she came along and helped us put our bees out in the park on Monday. Craig did the banging in, and Tim Cuff took photos for the Nelson City Council paper. Lots of people tooted and waved at us. We think they look good.
Marlin and Jack

The Goat Skull

Noah's goat skull found on Grandma's farm.

Visiting Local Artists

St Vincent Room have had local artists visiting to share their passion and their art.

Thank you to all the artists who visited us.

Eclipse of the sun

Today there will be a partial eclipse of the sun. The moon will go between the sun and planet Earth. This will black out the suns rays. It is getting darker in our classroom and Judi has turned off the lights. We can't look at the sun but we can look through a pinhole in the cardboard. Nile Room showed us the sun and the shadow on cardboard. Marlin

scarecrows

St Vincent Room is making scarecrows for the Fair, Country comes to Town. What a major job!!! Lots of our parents have been popping in to help us dress, sew and decorate our scarecrows. Neil cut us a big pile of bamboo poles and Celia and Judi have been wiring them together. Tania brought us a bale of hay from her horse's hayshed to stuff the scarecrows. Celia and Georgina went op shopping and found hats, scarves, gloves and clothing. Sandie dropped off a big pile of clothes. Greta has helped us sew on the hair(we found a big bag of woolly sheepskin) Today we hot glued on the eyes and mouths. Our scarecrows will frighten off any crows that happen to fly around the school on Saturday. They will be auctioned at 2.30 on Saturday 10th November.

Rueben in Africa

Rueben has gone to South Africa for a holiday to see his family. He is having fun with his family. He has seen snakes and lots of birds. Matariki We have been emailing him our news and reading about his exciting stay in Johannesburg. On Tuesday we arranged the classroom chairs into a jumbo jet. Angel piloted the plane, Cole was co pilot and we have 2 flight attendants to serve us drinks and give out the lollies. This was Maison and Sequioa, they knew about the exit hatches and the life jackets and the toilets) We flew on the Singapore to Johannesburg route. There wasn't much to see out the windows except the Indian Ocean but we thought we saw Madagascar. It was so exciting as we taxied down the runway....a black and white zebra ran across in front of the plane. ( it was really Minty our black and white Dorper lamb, with his nappy on!!) The pilot shook our hand and wished us a happy holiday in South Africa.

Nelson Artist Kathryn Furnise Visits St Vincent Room Kids to share her art and passion. Minty Lamb goes back to the farm on Friday. We learn heaps about baby lambs and we wrote great stories about him. Minty was abandoned by his mother when she had triplets and decided 3 was too many to look after. Shay said, "His mum just ditched him!!" We will follow his progress at the farm. October.23 Minty's tail fell off yesterday. He's on 2 bottles a day now. He thinks he's a dog and his herd is the hunting dogs, Chelsea the tame deer and Princess Fuego. October 29 Minty is on 1 bottle a day and a really big lamb now. Becky put him in with the other sheep but he didn't want to stay. He knows he's a lamb of special importance and should live on the verandah with Chelsea Deer.

A fishing day

In the holidays I went fishing with Granda at the wharf. He loves fishing. We were there for half of the morning. We took fishing lines, morning tea and some meat to put on our hooks. Granda can catch fish on a string. He gets the meat and puts it on his hook then he puts it in the water and he has to wait until it goes down to the bottom of the ocean. He doesn’t do much talking while he’s waiting cause he has to be patient. During the morning we caught lots of spotties, which are small fish with spots and spikes on their back fin. We caught 5 fish that we took home to feed to my nanas cat, called Puss Puss. I love my Granda because he takes me fishing and plays board games with me. Ashley

My pet snail

My mum found the snail in the bush at my house. I put it in an upside down container and took it to school. It had some grasses to eat so it was a happy snail. My snail slid along on the glass in the snail race, he went backwards towards the start line. He didn't finish the race. I had his container in my pocket and he sneakily popped out and I think he must have got squashed in my pocket cause I can't find him now. I was going to keep him as a pet forever. Conroy.

Minty Lamb

Minty the lamb Minty the lamb who has been to St Vincent Room, is our spring lamb. He comes from Judi’s daughters farm and he is a lamb. Minty lamb is a dorper lamb, they live in South Africa. He is a boy dorper. One time it was wearing a nappy, but he does pee on the floor. Marlin

Dad's near death experience

Dad’s dreadful shock Yesterday dad was building a pig pen on the farm for a farmer. When he had finished he stepped back to admire his work, he accidently touched the electric fence behind him. ZAP!! The shock picked him up and threw him right across the pen into a steel bar. He was breathing super fast and his heart racing. He picked himself and drove himself home in the van. He has a red mark from hip to hip most of the rednes is in the middle of his chest. He is lucky to be alive. 
 by Rueben. Sept 19th 2012

SAVE THE SNAILS

Ashton’s snail facts… Powelliphanta Hochstetteri Hochstetteri is their real name. Snails eat worms, leaves and wild plants Snail predators: Wild pigs Rats Thrush Possums Weka Hedgehogs Snails have a hard shell with protects them and is their home. They live in the native bush.

Planting with Nelmac

It was hard work digging the holes for the new trees. It was very muddy and we found heaps of worms. Shane and Ruth from Nelmac helped us to plant the trees around the skatepark at Neale Park.

Bees, our heroes

The bees are tellng each other, that they have found nectar. They know where the honey is so they do a dance. Its a wiggle waggle dance. Cody H

Honeycomb is made by the bees. . Bees go in between the honeycomb and put eggs in cells and store honey in the honeycomb. Angel The queen bee is laying an egg in the cells. The workers are going to feed the larva in the wax cells. The workers are all female bees. Drones are males. They don’t do anything just mate with the Queen. Marlin and Jack Michael’s Bees Above the drive,through the gate is a wild hive of bees. They are in the branches. The bees flew to Michael’s tree. He puts on his bee suit and got the spray stuff to make them sleep. Michael gently gets the bees and puts them in the hive. No animals can get near the hive. Harold comes along (he’s my best friend) and takes the honeycomb and puts it in a machine and gets the honey in the jar. So when I go to Michael’s, I get honey for lunch. Cody H

Bees The Queen is leaving the hive and all the drones are chasing the Queen to mate with her. She will make a new hive. So she will lay more eggs to produce a hive. Dylan

The bees are telling each other where the honey is.  It's called the wiggle waggle dance.  The bees follow around and around in an 8. Then they flap their wings and fly to the flower. Nelson

All the wax makers are making more wax.  It is for the honey and for the Queen to lay more eggs in.  All of them live in a pattern.  It is a hexagon.
Jaz and Cole

The bees are making honeycombs.  They are putting pollen in the cells.  The pollen came off the flowers.  The bees visit the flowers. Leone

Bee larva

The larva are developing into worker bees. They are in the wax cells. Noah

Art Exhibition 2012

Our school is having an art exhibition. All the classes are preparing for the exhibition to show our art. We invited lots of local Nelson artists to come and share their art and ideas with us. We met some really ibnteresting people and saw some very interesting art. St Vincent Room children have made portraits in the style of Matisse, sunflowers like Van Gogh's, fish on driftwood inspired by Jo Tyson, pen drawn insects from life models (that was tricky,cause they move!!) and self portraits on canvas. These are some of our favourites...

Edible Garden

We took some photos of our Edible Garden, so Celia could do a slideshow for our Special Assembly. Here is Noah looking for some strawberries...in vain!!!

Spring is in the air...strawberry flowers and lots of silverbeet!!!

Radio MORE FM visits St Vincent Room

This morning Blair from More FM came to our classroom to interview us. He asked us really tricky questions and we spoke into his microphone. He asked, How are rainbows made? How does the weatherman know about the weather? What is a flutist? How do the traffic lights know when to change colour? Our answers will be on More FM all next week at 3.20 and 6.20.