Trip to see the Ballet

We went on our big trip to Auckland to see the Royal New Zealand Ballet performance of the Nutcracker.
It was held in the Civic Theatre on Queen Street. It is an amazing theatre. There was a palace and lions with shining eyes. There was a sky with stars. It looked like there was no roof on. It felt like we were outside a real palace at night-time. It was magical.

We thought the ballet was:
- fun. I liked it all. It was fun because everything was fun. - Arama.
- funny because the brother and sister were fighting and there was funny dancing.-BJ
- awesome because there were men dancing with broken legs and crutches. - Kirsten
- cool when she got knocked on the head because she kept flopping and flopping and flopping.-Holly
- fun and cool because Fritz had a fight with his sister and the sister got donked on the head by the nutcracker. - Fynn
- colouful. The costumes and the stage were colourful and the sky was beautiful when they put the stars and clouds on. It was so beautiful. - Micaiah
- beautiful because the soldiers were marching along, guarding the girl from Fritz.- Regan
- the ballet girls were cool because they had pretty dresses and they danced pretty and they looked pretty. I liked the dancing because it was cool dancing. - Trinity
- fun because Fritz had a slingshot and shot a ball out of a glass window. - Jackson
- fun because the girl in the blue dress kept dancing around and she looked awesome.- Gemma
- beautiful and they had beautiful costumes. - Bri
- cool because it was funny and they had great costumes. - Melissa
- awesome because they did cool stuff. They jumped high in the air. It was funny. It was magical when the candles were going around and around. I thought it was someone going out the window. - Ashton
- cool because they had tutus and other special clothes, I think they worked hard on the ballet. - Brooke
- cool because I like the costumes. - Mana
- cool because it had funny parts. I liked it when the matron and Fritz smacked each other's bottom. It was fun when the snow came down from the top.- Jack
- cool because they were cool dancers and spun around fast. - Callum

< We especially liked:
-The bed floating up in the air - Arama, Jackson and Jack
-The part at the end when the man held her up on his shoulder and he spun her around. - Gemma
-When the girl went up in the air on the bed. - Bri
-The part when the Mum and Dad danced and the Mum had a pretty blue dress on. I liked their pretty dancing.I liked when the flowers came to life too. I also liked when the nurse tucked the girl in the bed and then the boy and the girl started to dance.- Melissa
-The part when the soldiers were hunting for Fritz with their feathers and when Fritz got his slingshot and shot Jarrod the waiter. - Ashton
-The part at the doctor's when there was a man dressed up as a girl. She was the matron. It was funny. - Brooke and BJ
-The part when the soldiers were marching around the girl. - Mana
-The doctors tried to be the nurses boyfriends. - Trinity
-The part when the matron drank the medicine and started walking funny and the part at the start when the girl gets the nutcracker and the girl and her brother Fritz start fighting. - Kirsten


If you Google The Royal New Zealand ballet Nutcracker, you can see information about the show and some you tube clips of parts of the show so you can get an idea of what it was like.

Ballet Workshop

On Thursday we are going on a trip to Auckland to see the Royal New Zealand Ballet performance of the Nutcracker. We are excited about going to the show.

Today we are having an extra treat at school. We are having a workshop with a lady from the New Zealand Ballet Company in our school hall. We think we will be learning about the ballet and doing some dancing and moving to music. It should be fun. We are looking forward to our workshop.

This term we have been having a great time learning to swim with the Daniel Fulton swim school instructors. Every Wednesday afternoon we hop in the bus with the children from Rooms 3 and 7 and travel to Patumahoe School indoor pool for another great lesson. It's a lot of fun and we are getting better and better at swimming. Take a look at some of our early lessons in this slide show.

Swimming lessons on PhotoPeach

An alien comes to Room 1

Look who came to school with Fynn to see what we are learning about space and planets.

Sun Pictures

This week we have been learning about the sun and reading the Maori legend 'Maui and the Sun'. We are working on some fabulous sun pictures using pastel with black line pastel or felt pen details. Everyone used a Maori pattern somewhere on their sun. We haven't finished yet, but they are looking good already. We will post some more photos later so you can see the finished work.
Sun Pictures on PhotoPeach


Sun Pictures on PhotoPeach

Stardome Visit

This term we have been learning about our planet Earth and where we are in the solar system.
In May, we had a great trip to Stardome Observatory in Cornwall Park, Auckland. When we arrived there, we had a lot of fun and exercise in the adventure playground and on the flying fox. Then we had our lunch.

After lunch we went into Stardome where we learned heaps about the earth, moon and planets in our solar system. When we went inside we looked at a lot of interesting displays about space.

After we looked at the displays we went into a really cool movie theatre. The seats tilted back so you could watch the giant screen on the ceiling. It was like looking up into space. We saw a movie called 'The Secret of the Cardboard Rocket'. The cardboard box became a rocket and went whizzing through space showing us the different planets in our solar system. We saw another movie that showed what the sky looks like at night. The whole ceiling looked like the night sky. We were shown different groups of stars and what they were called. It looked a bit like join-the-dots pictures.

Then the lady showed us how the moon moves around the Earth and the Earth moves around the sun. Three children dressed up as the Sun, Earth and Moon and showed us how they move around in space. We also used globes of the Earth and a bright light for the sun to see how we get day and night. After that, the lady showed us a funny movie of astronauts in a rocket ship in space. We saw them try to eat and move in the rocket ship. Because there was no gravity, everything could float around. It was funny.

After that, we got in the bus for the long drive home. It was a great day out and we learned lots about space and our solar system.

Check it out on our slideshow!

Stardome Observatory Trip on PhotoPeach

Star size

We are learning about the earth, sun, moon and stars.
Today we brainstormed and shared our ideas on the size of stars.