The Dinosaur Tooth

We are so lucky to have Mrs Clyde in our class.  She often brings in exciting objects for us to look at.
Last week she brought in a Dinosaur tooth...interesting!!!!

We had a chat about what sort of dinosaur the tooth might of belonged to. Where might it have lived, what might it have eaten?
Here we have two fabulous writers sharing their stories.

Great descriptions Tom and Ashton.

Our Favourite Stories and Drop everything and Read (D.E.A.R.)

Here are some of Team 8's favourite Stories.  We have really enjoyed listening and sharing our favourite stories this week!  Thank you to all for bringing your books in.

As part of Literacy week we had a Drop Everything and Read time.  A Bing Bong went over the speaker and we had to stop everything and read any book.  Team 8 loved it so much Mrs Grant had to stop us after 15mins to get ready for lunch.

Team 8 has loved Literacy week!!!!!!

Stu Duval Cartoon Drawing

On Tuesday during Literacy week Stu Duval came back to teach all the Juniors to be Cartoon illustrators.

Team 8 loved being part of this exciting interactive performance. 

Literacy Week - Stu Duval Show

Today a New Zealand author and illustrator came to talk and entertain us.
His name was Stu Duval. If you are interested in learning more about Stu Duval and his amazing books please visit his website.  http://studuval.co.nz/

Stu could make any number or letter into a drawing or cartoon.
He drew a picture using chalk of a wonderful place in New Zealand where he was going to tell us a story about.
Stu's story was about some pirates who loved pudding, they went on an an adventure to New Zealand to search for a magical Kauri tree.  In that tree there was a lady called Lilly Lamington who made delicious lamingtons that the captain of the pirates wanted to taste and get the recipe for.

Stu was an amazing story teller.
Here are some photos to show his amazing drawing skills.

When he had finished his story went back to team 8 to practice our drawing skills that he had taught us.

Stu is working again with us tomorrow where he is going to be teaching us some more cartoon drawings. 

I can't wait!!!

Super Similes

Last week some of Team 8 were learning to describe things using Smilies. - A simile is a figure of speech that compares one thing with another thing of a different kind. 

SOME of us were working with with the teacher, and SOME of us had their listening (eavesdropping) ears switched on, and decided to create smilies all on their own without any of my help!!!

I was super impressed with these writers and I promised them fame right here on the blog. 

Please help them to understand the value of their writing and leave them a comment telling them what a great job they have done.

A Civil Engineer Visits Team 8

Today we had a very special visitor. Her name was Kirsten and she is a civil engineer. We learned all about what civil engineers do. 

Did you know that civil engineers design and help to build our roads, bridges, services(sewer and wiring pathways) runways and tunnels?

She showed us a heap of pictures and told us about all the different types of bridges and how they work.

We tried out making bridges with our bodies. Can you guess what type of bridge we are trying to make?

THEN... The most exciting part happened! Kirsten let us build our very own arch bridge. Team 8 did a super job working together as a team to put all the wedges in place. It was a little tricky, we had to check what side of the wedge we were putting towards the middle. 

 Look how strong arch bridges are!!!! we can even stand on them! 

Afterwards, Mrs Clyde told us that the very top wedge of the arch bridge was called 'they keystone'. It is the strongest part of the arch.

We get to keep the 'bridge kits' in our room for the next few weeks, so if you have some spare time come in and have a play - Can you make a bridge that is strong enough for you to stand on?

It was a pretty cool experience. I think that some of team 8 might take this new learning into their Passion projects/Genius time next term!

... watch this space :-)

New Team Members!

Welcome to Team 8 Olivia, Ashton, Dylan and James.

They all had a super duper first day with the rest of the team helping them out!

Here are a few pictures to show them in action.

Some more fabulous team members!