Pike River Coal MIne

Every day we have a look at the newspaper.  We always look at the cartoon.  To understand it we have to use our prior knowledge and think about what the author wants us to think or understand. We think of the connections we can make with it so that it means something to us.  Sometimes it is quite hard to know especailly if we have not been watching the news, because the cartoon is always about something that has happened, in the news.

We have been reading about the Pike River Coal Mine and the terrrible disaster.  We had been watching, listening and hoping.  Today there was a cartoon, which we all understood.  It needed only one word in it.  We understand from the cartoon that like us the author is thinking about the coals miners and their families and how much they want their loved ones bodies back with them.  We looked closely at the machine and at the arum lily, which is the kind of flower people often give and have at funerals.  We are very sad, we are sad for all the families and friends.

We talked about how people feel empathy with others and how we are all connected to these people because they could be our brothers, our dads, our uncles or our friends, how many of us have visited Greymouth and many of us know people there.  We talked about how we are all New Zealanders together and what this means to us in times like this. We all made a connection with this terrible disaster. We are storing these memories in our brains, it is now part of our history too,  and we will remember in the years to come about this sad time.

Aborginal Art

Here is some real Aborginal Art from Australia.  We painted some ourselves. These are done by Aborgines living in Australia and each one tells its own story.

Learning Celebration We Are the World.

We had our Learning Celebration about the perfect world.  Here are some of the models we made.  We liked parents and caregivers coming in to see them.

The Perfect World

Jack and Luke have been learning about We are the World and thinking about what a perfect world is.  It is when you have healthy food, fresh air, good homes to live in, healthy drinks.  If you feel loved you feel happy. Being kept safe and being responsible and helping people work.

Inquiry

We have been getting ready for our learning celebration. We are the World and we know how to make a difference to the world to make it a better place.  

Inquiry learning

Jack and I were good at reading the words.  A perfect world is where people can live and have a house to live in, water and food.

Aborginal Art

As part of our Inqury we have been looking at art from around the world.  We have done some Aborginal Art. We used symbols to tell stories.

Koru

As part of Māori langage week and also as part of our Inquiry into We are the World we looked at koru and have drawn some.