Today at discovery Codey and Emily W worked together to create the last page of our blog for 2011.

First we saw Cody making a thank you card to Santa that looked more like Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer with a French beard.  We have included this picture because we liked the bright colours.

Next we saw Kara and Katie working together to make a card house in M11. They were trying to make it look like a normal house. Then we saw Morgan, Sophie, Amy and Madison designing a fitness circuit on the veranda.  Jonty was working hard to make a flower tower, out of play dough. Matthew and Roisin were making a salad sammie together, with freshly harvested vegetables from our Middle Syndicate garden. Tyler and Matthew were making a domino trail in M10.  Tasha and Barbara also made a salad sandwich from the vegetables that the Middle Syndicate grew. Helen was skipping and Lydia joined her. We saw the teachers having lots of fun too! Miss Jobbins and Mr Nic were shooting hoops. Grace and Victoria were trying to do 10 push ups, but couldn’t quite achieve their goal.

We enjoyed our job today………

because we saw everyone having fun in the sun during our last Discovery for the year and MAYBE the last Discovery for the Year 4 pupils.

Today at Discovery, Sophie and Mason were syndicate reporters.  First we saw Roisin making paper people out of chocolate wrappers. We also saw Morgan had the fastest time of 7:00 with 832 stacks of the stacking cups without stopping.

Ota was cutting play dough to make a person. Emily Strong was drawing a peach out of James and the Giant Peach. Kya was staying fit by running with others in the staying fit activity. Ms O’Hagan was timing Jamie running around the court. There were lots of people in M10 doing box construction. Shea was building the mini school grounds in the hall at the mural making activity. Jonty and Logan were having a salad sandwich after harvesting the garden with Miss Jobbins. Tyla and Trent were making a house for their dog and people in M11 with the blocks. Lucy Bell was finishing off her robot that she made last week with Grace. She was going further by fixing the stuff up that wasn’t suitable for the robot. Mair was timing Abby and Luke when they were running. Miss Jobbins was also running on the courts with Logan and Jonty. They were timing who was the fastest.

We enjoyed being the Syndicate reporters today because we got to experience all the activities we won’t haven’t have done if we were involved in Discovery ourselves.

Last term the Middle Syndicate of St. Patricks school went on a field trip for our Inquiry to White Pine bush and Mrs. Reids ecological house

These are the roots of an 800 year old kahikitea (White Pine)

That means that when the Maoris came to N.Z it would have been a seedling.

We saw a  800 year old kahikitea( White pine), this is the one I  was talking about.

Mrs.Reid uses a windmill, solar panels and batteries for her power!

There was a cool monkey on the back of Mrs.Reids wood shed.

There was a beautiful waterfall we found at White Pine Bush.

3-11-2011        Reporter: Morgan Bowles.  Photographer: Amy Macdonald

At discovery today, Amy and I had the opportunity to report on people discovering. This is what they had to say…

Sophie is playing with the play dough.” How’s your pasta going?” Sophie said.

Jack and Matthew are making a spy base.” Jack cut the tape there.” Matthew said.

Quelin, Elishka and Tiaamana are making a tree house. “Let’s make the tree house even better!”Elishka said.

Shea made a video camera. “I can put it down and film people!!”. Shea said.

Mr Nick drew a “Dutch leprechaun.”

Plum made a friendship card for Emily. “Just put an E on it.” Emily said.

Brodie is building a house.

Liana, Tiger and Kya made a lettuce sandwich.” This is yum!!!”Liana said.

Today at discovery Logan and I worked together and did a report.

Taine , Shea, Kere, and Kome also Jordon are working together to make a hut. At the boxes Madison and Emily are making a BIG house. Then we went outside and Neha was spinning a rope for Shyan and Josh to jump over. We went back into M10 and Phillip is making a BIG wall of dominoes also Edie is working hard to get the tooth pick into the cork and making a giraffe, even Mr Nick was helping. James had made a BIG tank at last. EVERYONE HAD FUN!!!!!!!!!!!

By Logan and Niamh

Middle Syndicate Blog

Thursday 15 September

Dear Parents/Caregivers,

We are excited to finally have our blog up and running.  We hope to use it as a way to share what is happening at school, with those at home.

The blog can be accessed via our school website. Simply click on the Middle Syndicate Discovery tab, on the left had menu to view. If you and your child wish to comment, scroll to the end of each post and click on the comments tab. Below the comment box you can click name, and then type in your name, so we know who the comment is from. All comments have to be moderated before they appear on screen, which may take a day or so.

As a word of warning, there is a range of inappropriate content which can be accessed when navigating around the blogging website, which is beyond our control. Therefore, like all internet use, we suggest that you supervise your children while on our blog. This is also the time to let your child’s classroom teacher know if you oppose to your child’s picture being on the school website. We ask for this to be put in writing please, so it can be kept on file. Also, we ask that parents be mindful of the blogs they follow, as this information is made public to the children.

During ICT lessons the children will be getting a better understanding of how to use this technology. We are also reminding the children to use their proof reading and editing skills when posting on the blog.

Thanks again for your on-going support, we are all looking forward to sharing this exciting opportunity together.

Kind regards,

The Middle Syndicate Team

My name is Kent and with my friend Mia we are working together to make this blog entry. This is what Katie did at discovery time today. Katie was putting liquid on the flax bushes to try to kill all the scale insects that are harming the flax bushes. The liquid was in a squirty bottle so she could squirt it right on  the scale insects. The liquid was made out of dishwashing liquid and water.

M8’s Literacy lesson – Friday 9 September

First we read a book about Super Squid. Super Squid is about people in a submarine called Sub DD. First they went to the sunlight zone, then the twilight zone and finally to the midnight zone where they saw the Super Squid. The Squid caught the submarine with it’s tentacles but the crew fired lights so it would release them.

Then we went on Google and searched to look at the sunlight zone, the twilight zone and the midnight zone. We then had a look at a video that took us to look deep down in the midnight zone. We saw heaps of fishes and then at the end we saw a huge octopus.

We have included the website below, so you can do some more research!

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/crittercam/deepsea/

We then went on the Te Papa website to look at the Colossal Squid and found lots of information and another cool game. Check out this website too!

http://squid.tepapa.govt.nz/the-deep/interactive

Thursday 8 September

At Discovery time today me (Mair) and Phillip were the Syndicate reporter and photographer. Our job was to take photos and record our Syndicate doing activities.

When we went in to m10 we saw Tyler making a stadium with Cody and Jack.R . Then we went outside and we saw Abby and Tiger making a hut. Then we saw Lucy, Amy and Abby using team work to help each other by handing each other pegs and talking about what they wanted to achieve.

Then we went back into M10 and saw Trent and Emily playing with the lego. They were thinking of stuff they could put in their house.

Phillip – My highlight of being the photographer was observing people cooperating and getting to watch them discover and watch them on the camera.

Mair – My highlight of being the reporter was getting to go around and see people playing and write what they were doing.

By Phillip and Mair

Discovery!!!

When: Violet, Ms Beven, Jack.R, Kya, and Aden,

Were working in the garden they:

·       Pulled out the old carrot roots

·       Mixed the soil well

·       Thought to add some compost

·       Then mix it again

·       And then finally put some seeds in

1.    Aden: says “let’s grow some cabbage”.

2.  Ms Beven: said “we need worms because they are good nutrition for the roots”.

3.  Violet: says “we need to make the soil soft”.

4.  Kya: she’s called the Carrot Sniffer because she found nearly all the old carrots.

5.  Jack.R: says” that he loves gardening even though he’s a boy”.

By: Elishka and Neha !!!!!

Hi, our names are Emily (Dallas) and Emily (Hendery),

Today we had to work together to produce a piece of quality work by, interviewing people who were participating and contributing. Here is a photo of three sock puppets made by Edie, Liana and Roisin. Edie said to, “put different colours and material on it to make it more interesting”.

Another activity was to make things out of plastic bags. Madison made a top and said, “make things with different shapes and sizes to make a top”. Mia and Courtney also used plastic bags to make head bands. They added pieces to make it more interesting.

The skipping activity was outside in the sunshine. The children were given lots of ropes and Morgan kept on going and said, “it was tiring but fun”. We thought that she used the Discovery goal persevere and take tasks to completion well. 

Our favourite part of being the reporter and photographer this week was seeing people carry on discovering when we took photos.

Hi everyone, the Middle Syndicate teachers at St Patrick's school have set up this blog as a way for the children to share their ideas and learning. Throughout the term we will be teaching the children how to use this new technology. We hope that we will be sent lots of messages from those viewing our work, wherever in the world you might be.

Enjoy!