Flat Out ANZAC Friday

Good afternoon,

Well, if that was the first week of term, we've had it. Whew! Friday's are 'sposed to be more laid back, but today I guess was the exception that proves the rule. We seemed to be rushing from one thing to another to another all day!

First up, setting up the hall for the ANZAC assembly, then a letter from Room 10's Isabel's Dad, who is serving in Afghanistan...


...and then the whole J Team became the J Team Army, and we did some drill outside. It was cool. 'Cept I didn't take any photos of it, 'cause I was the Sergeant Major!

After morning tea, it was on with making an Gallipoli memorial using some 1/72 scale miniatures.








Way many thanks to Andrew and Treacy for helping out. We couldn't have done it without you!

Funnily enough, today HaT (the manufacturers of the figures) have just posted a contribution to their Everything Toy Soldier page using these very same figures.

Then it was rush rush rush to the ANZAC assembly (well done Mr A).




The afternoon was a bit more laid back, for the children at least. Their teacher still felt like he was running around like a flea in a fit, trying to coax the new office photocopier to print the R.E. sheets that went home this evening.

Ah well, we got there in the end. All in all, another full day was had here in Room 2.

Next week we've got a couple of soldiers visiting on Monday, the Cross Country on Tuesday and the Air Force Museum visit on Wednesday. Thursday and Friday look to be fairly normal though.

Have a good weekend,

Mr Grant

Oh, and these photos are just for mum. She wanted to see the wall displays!


Those are Pop's medals, all mounted proper like. I wore them for our assembly this afternoon, and am going wear them when I drag Matthew to a dawn service on Sunday.







I finally got round to doing something with Uncle Bert's letters!

ANZAC Day Ceremony

Good evening,

For those planning to come along to OLA's ANZAC day commemoration, I was wondering if I could impose upon some of you to help out between 11:00 and 11:50. I'm planning to have the children each mount a 1/72 scale ANZAC and a 1/72 scale Turk onto a contoured cardboard base thus...

To illustrate the hilly terrain, the children will be provided with 5 or 6 pieces of A5 card. They will use one card to draw contours on and then cut out each contour to use as a stencil, one contour at a time. E.g. cut a bit off, use it as a stencil, but a bit more off, use it as a stencil, cut a bit more etc...

The children will then colour their contours (blue for the sea at the bottom, with ever lightening green-yellow to the top) with wax crayons (side on). The ANZAC miniature will be hot glued half way up, the Turk at the top, both facing each other.

I'm kinda thinking this might be a bit optimistic for some, so, if anyone has got any spare time...please...

Mr Grant

Galipolli Thursday

Good afternoon,

(We've had a good run with the weather, haven't we?)

Today's Topic activity was to identify where each of the armies who were fighting at Gallipoli landed.


Earlier in the day we were learning to make bar graphs in maths.


It was quite cool really. I pasted a screen shot of a table I had made in Word into Paint, and all the children had to do was come up to the tablet one at a time and fill the cells with paint!

Then we rushed outside to tally cars.



All this along with our usual stuff.

Funny, from the length of this post you'd think we'd had quite a lazy day. Umm, no, we didn't!

Mr Grant

ANZAC Day 10th Anniversary Edition Memorial Newspaper

By Matthew Grant

Good evening,

My son has just produced this article for his NCEA Level 1 History course. His brief was create a series of newspaper articles for a special 10th Aniversary Edition, in the style and format of the time. Hence the dense text and the columns.

He has done brilliantly. My son is quite a gifted wordsmith. And he's got a good grasp of the history too.

Now, true to his genetics, he's frantically putting it all togther, complete with diagrams, photos and a couple of advertisements from 1925, to be handed in...tomorrow! Note the time stamp of this post...a true chip off the old block!

Mr Grant

World War Wednesday

Good afternoon,

And what a lovely afternoon it was. Just right for our re-enactment of World War 1! The class were divided up into armies - English, German, Russian, Turks and ANZACs.


The Germans were in the middle, facing the English on the left (West) and the Russians on the East. The Turks were to the South fighting the Russians when along come the ANZACS (from even further South) to try to knock out the Turks and aide the Russians.




Now, if the ANZACs had done over the Turks, the Allies could have aided the Russians which could have tipped the balance and pushed the Germans facing East over the edge, which in turn could have allowed the Allies in the East to crush the Germans facing the English in the West...



The Russian Revolution (and the Cold War, for that matter) may never have happened. Had Germany been crushed Hitler and World War Two would have never happened (and hence no need for nuclear weapons (they were initially designed because of the fear of Germany developing them first))...the whole world would have been very different. Makes you think, huh?

But the ANZACs were not able to break through at Galipolli.


Earlier in the day Room 2 Maths were using tally charts to count the different counter colours.



For writing for this term we are starting to write arguments. The first step is simply being able to understand a statement, decide if you agree or not and to be able to justify your answer. For example...


We simply did this as an oral language exercise. If you've got a spare minute or two, please practice making statements with your children and having them decide whether they agree or not and have them justify their position.

I think that's about it.

Bye for now,

Mr Grant

Rugby Tuesday

Good afternoon,

Or should I say, Good evening...

Anyway, we kicked off the day by counting cars using telly charts...



...which turned out a little harder than I had thought! It's ok when they come along one at a time, but when you've got a rush of half a dozen or so - not so easy...

After lunch we had J Team singing...




...and then chased rugby balls around the paddock!




See you in the morning,

Mr Grant

Oh yes, and we just this through, thought you might be interested.

The Cracroft Caverns visit is a fundraising event for St Martins Scouts but is likely to interest many families.

Cracroft Cavern Tours – Saturday 1 May 2010 10am - 5pm. Find out about one of New Zealand’s most closely guarded war time secrets by exploring this underground bunker. Tours leave from the rear of Princess Margaret Hospital, Cashmere. $2 per person.

To book please contact cbywater@paradise.net.nz, phone 980 6551 or turn up on the day. Jamboree Fundraiser for St. Martins Scouts.

I've been through myself, its pretty cool...I may drag Matthew along, now that I think about it...

Oh Yeah...

...and I showed the children the first couple of minutes of this...


This clip here gives a good background as to why the ANZACs went in in the first place...



Mr Grant

New Term...

...new stuff

Good afternoon,

Well, Term 2 has started, and we kicked off the term by having a Values Assembly, where we learnt about Respect, in part, from Mr Stanley...


I was also going to use this clip as a discussion starter...

...but, well, I didn't.

So, for some homework...


Still, the children did work in pairs to come up with a wee role play about how they could show respect to other people.



This afternoon, after R.E., we started our Serving Our Country unit by discussing the ANZAC landings in 1915, and how the Turks were always shooting down at the Kiwis and Australians because the Australians (who landed first) didn't push on and dig in on the high ground.



This was cut from Google Earth. Another resource I didn't share with the children! I was too busy going 'old skool' using the world map that I've stuck to the white board, and the white board itself!


Still, we had a great discussion, and the children had some excellent questions (Grace, look here for how many died, and it looks like 19, 940 New Zealanders, Australians and Englishmen were evacuated from Galipolli) and brilliant suggestions about how to sneak up to the Turks.

More on Wednesday, where we'll be looking at this.

Don't forget that tomorrow is P.E. day, so no uniforms need be brought to school.

Thats it for now,

Mr Grant

Oh, and speaking of downloading stuff, for those who haven't checked their e-mail (and for Mum!) here is the newsletter for Term 1, Week 1.

And for those who missed it, here is this afternoon's ANZAC day notice.

What is that funny smell?

Well, umm, yes, the camo net did (and still does) smell a little 'plasticly' when I unrolled it...


Still, it looks cool!

Mr Grant