George Brothers at The Kid's ICT Expo

The Brothers have enjoyed helping set up with the teachers this morning and are very much looking forward t being a part of the expo this afternoon.

It's going to be great fun showing the community what they have learnt with the students from the Ashburton ICTPD Cluster. They will post a few more blog entries about it soon.

George Brothers provide advice in Kowhai...

The George Brothers have been getting curious and creative in art this week with Kowhai. We have been looking at myths in our writing and space as our topic. So for art we created the two and were creating mythical suns.
Curious and Creative have been whispering in our ears about how we could design and make our mythical Maori suns and what we could add to make them better. They have been busy helping us by giving us advice whether we wanted it or not; they think that they know best (especially Creative)! Curious and Creative helped us through all the steps, even the tricky part with the black sticky PVA glue which we put around the outsides of our suns.
They saw all the fun that we were having working with pastels that they decided that giving advice was not as fun as trying it out; so they had a go too.

Curious and Creative thought that they could make a mythical moon to go with our suns...

But to us it looks like a banana.

What do you think?

Another Space Adventure - Room 3 Tinwald School

After visiting the moon with the astronauts in Room 4 Curious George was really keen to go even further out into space. So off he went next door to persuade the children of Room 3 to let him try out their newly built space rocket.

Creative George had to work all night to develop new engines and some top secret fuel that would take them all the way to Saturn and back.

On the way they stopped breifly at a space station to fix the broken telescope.

They were both so excited when they got to take a space walk out near Jupiter and Saturn. Curious George was so tired he slept all the way home. Creative George hardly slept at all because his head was full of ideas for bigger better rockets that would take him even further out into space on his next trip.

'Creative Shows Musical Talents'

Today Creative was very fortunate to join in a singing workshop with specialist singing teacher Mrs Jo Castelow. Creative sat alongside the Borough choir members and listened really carefully, taking in all the expert skills and drills that Mrs Castelow was teaching the students.

It turns out that he's got a fabulous voice (just like his Dad) and that he really loves singing. (He mostly sings in the shower.)

Being the creative monkey that he is, we're sure he'll be keen to put his talent to good use.

Here's hoping there's a part for him in a school musical this year!

Roll Call in Manuka!

The George Brothers, Curious and Creative, are taking the morning roll call in Manuka. Did you notice the beanies? It is very cold in Manuka this morning because the builders have already started to renovate the classroom and there is no power - so no lights and no heating! Manuka are moving to Room 2 straight after the roll, and we will be there until next Friday. So if you are looking for us - come to Room 2. PS: can you guess who is under the beanies?

Up Into Space With Rimu - Room 4 At Tinwald School

The George Brothers are getting ready to zoom into outer space with our Rimu - Room 4 astronauts. They will zig zag between the planets and shoot past the stars in their shiny rockets.
"We will have to put on our space suits. I hope our tails will fit in," said Curious George. "We must remember to take our oxygen supply with us too because there is no air in space. I can't wait to collect moon rocks."
Creative George said "I am packing my camera to take photos of the craters on the moon. We will also have to take some dried bananas with us to eat."
"Away we go then."

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Ignition. Lift Off.

Equipment Checks in Totara

Here are the George brothers checking off all their equipment. They need 9 bits of equipment every day. Here are all the equipment pieces that they need, Blue and red pen, ruler, pencil, eraser, notebook, scissors, highliter and gluestick. Did they have everything?

First days in Totara's new classroom at Tinwald School

The George Brothers were lucky enough to spend a day with Totara as we unpacked our classroom stuff and moved back into our classroom. We have spent the last 8 weeks in squashy room 2 while we waited for the builders to come and modernize our room. Now we have new carpet; a heat pump; soft, cuddly walls and new windows. It looks great. The George Brothers like the colour scheme - blue and yellow. They got confused when they saw all the yellow cupboards. "Bananas!" they yelled. Our teacher thinks the colours are great - "Go the Highlanders!"

The George Brothers helped us untangle the computer cords, try out the data projector, play our classroom games that we hadn't seen for weeks and eat fruit during fruit break. Someone kept feeding them bananas. It was a busy day in Totara and we were glad that the George Brothers helped us move back.

Fair trade?

Kia ora koutou!

It's Creative here. I have been a lucky little monkey today.... I joined the International Club, one of Borough School's Friday afternoon enrichment options. The students got to experience what international trade can be like.

I was given the very important task of helping operate the Bank for an activity. I paid the students for the things they produced.

The students producing lollies got a lot more money than the sugar cane farmers who had to work really hard and with fewer resources. I felt a bit bad about that actually, especially when the sugar cane farmers complained that it wasn't fair. I agree with them actually, it wasn't fair, but what can you do?

The students looked rather glum after investigating the consequences for those who don't get paid fairly for the work they do. And even more so when they found out how much of the money their parents pay for a bag of sugar actually gets to the farmers.

Thankfully they learned about the possibility of buying fair trade goods and ended on a high note by sharing some Singaporian treats... I liked the little green pancakes the most. YUM! Almost as good as fair trade bananas!

George assisting with a science challenge. Room10

George learnt how infectious diseases can spread quickly when people share body fluids.Tiny organisms are carried when sneezing or coughing.Our body tries to protect us either with acid in our stomach,mucus in our lungs or scabs on our skin.If the microbes get past our natural barriers Our body uses white blood cells to attack the infection.It's a good idea to imunise non-infected people and/or quarantine infected people.

Making Hay While The Sunshines (ABS)

During one of the rare fine moments this week Year 7 and 8 decided to sneak out for a game of Sneak and make the most of the sunshine. Creative was a little confused to begin with but quickly got to grasp with the complicated rules and soon joined in. He had a lot of fun and tried to stay out of the mud.

Where in the world is Curious george?

Could this be our Curious George stealing bird food in some tropical paradise? And if so, what has he done with his rugby ball?

Still Life at Lauriston!

The George Brothers got right amongst it when the year 3 & 4 class were doing their Still Life painting last week. The banana had a lucky escape - you can see Curious reaching out for it. Creative was more interested in creating than eating, thank goodness! What beautiful paintings.

Cooking with the year 3 & 4 class. (Lauriston)

Mmmm! Making yummy baked potatoes and potato soup with potatoes from our school gardens. Creative and Curious can't wait to try the soup but they don't want to burn their tongues.

Monkeys love to play (Lauriston).

I'm swingin' in the trees like my wild monkey cousins

And I'm scoring all the goals, yes dozens and dozens.

I'm ridin' on a rabbit and I'm hangin' on tight

And I'm being really nice so he doesn't get a fright.

Yeeha! Woohoo! Monkeys love to play,

We play all night and we play all day.

Swing it! Kick it! Hang on tight!

Playing at Lauriston is simply out of sight!

Lunchtime kapahaka at Lauriston.

Two helpful wee monkeys making poi with the kapahaka group.

The George Brothers at Lauriston School

Our theme this term is food and how it is necessary for our survival. Creative George shares a healthy, energy boosting banana at fruit-break time. "Don't eat the skin, Creative! That goes in our worm farms." Next week the years 3, 4, 5 & 6 students are having a famine sleepover at school to find out just how important food is to us, and to raise money to help children living in places where food and clean water are not always available.We don't think The George Brothers would handle it -they're always sneaking into our lunch boxes looking for bananas!

Curious & Creative having fun with photobooth and the year 5&6 students.

The year 5 & 6 students run 'Action Projects' throughout the year. Curious George is helping the Hen House group decide what their next step is. He is checking out the netting to make sure the hens won't escape until they are ready to be free-ranging. The group has until next Friday to put on a door and build nesting boxes and a perch, because the first two hens are arriving on that day. Will they make the deadline?? We'll keep you posted.

Creative George at ABS

CREATIVE George looks like he is having lots of fun without his brother CURIOUS at Ashburton Borough School. Hopefully neither are suffering from an identity crisis and are looking forward to being reunited...soon?

Where in the World is Curious George?

Curious George might have headed for a warmer climate. But maybe his plans have backfired and he's getting wet instead?!

BREAKING NEWS... The Brothers distant relative found!

Meet "Ida," the small "missing link" found in Germany that's created a big media splash and will likely continue to make waves among those who study human origins.
Ida is 47 Million years old!

Could this be a distant relative of the George Brothers?

Find out more here
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/05/090519-missing-link-found.html

Curious George Visits Room 14

On Wednesday the 20th of May, after playtime, Room 14 was delighted to have Curious George join them in an activity.
At the time, they were carefully following some fun instructions for 'rainbow writing'. All the students loved chatting to George while they created rainbows with pastels. They even took turns to help him to make rainbow paper.
Unfortunately we had to say goodbye to C.G. at lunchtime as he had to go to another class. It was a surprise the next day though to see that C.G. had left a rainbow thank you message for us.
Ka kite ano Curious George!

Where in the world is Curious George

Curious George goes missing.
Has he run away to sea? Gone exploring in the mountains? Or maybe stowed away in someone's flight luggage?
Last seen on Tom Smith's desk, Mt Somers Room, Lauriston School. We think he may have gone walk-about. Any information leading to discovering his whereabouts is welcome.

Minimising R 15 miscellaneous waste

Curious was very busy in R 15. He is showing students how to reduce what goes to the landfill.

Much of what was in this bin actually ended up being reused or recycled.

Curious is a very clever bear!

Recycling Waste with the Room 15 students

Curious is hard at work minimising what is sent to landfill.

Curious comes to visit Room 15 at ABS

Curious enjoyed visiting Room 15 students and took part in listening to three Ashburton College International Exchange students sharing some interesting ideas about the countries they came from. Curious thought the Room 15 students listened well and asked lots of intelligent questions.

Room 3 & Curious George

Room 3 have been on a visit to Wastebusters. We are learning about Waste.

Teaching Games For Understanding

The children of Room 2 at St Joseph's School are participating in "Defend the Cone" target game.
The George Brothers joined us on court as we competed against one another. Bree was our "Chief Photographer" for the day!

Just in the Nick of Time

Yesterday Curious and Creative joined Room 3 at St Joseph's during pack up time. They helped all the children with their duties, and watched as Room 3 worked together to keep their room tidy. One of the duties is to sort the recycling and put it out to be collected on Wednesday mornings. This week Victoria and Harrison had forgotten. So, they raced outside with Curious and Creative, fingers crossed, hoping it hadn't been cleared and luckily the recycling truck had just arrived. What great timing!

The George Brothers are impressed!

WOW!

When the George Brothers came to Room 4, they wanted to know what was sitting by the fish tank. It was the new St Joseph's Wastebusters Award! We got it because we picked up rubbish in the St Joseph's School playground. Curious and Creative thought the awardwas fantastic!

Please be Seated

This is the George brothers hanging upside down parachuting

In 2008 two new classrooms were built at St Joseph's School. The next step of this is the landscaping. For a starter we have a big concrete slab that will eventually have built in seating around it, with a sun shade over top. This is where our whole school can have jump jam and assembly on it.



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Autumn Fun with the George Brothers.

Room 8 invite the George Brothers to their playground

“Hey Creative, look at this. autumn must be here” yells Curious.
“I can see that”, said Creative .”What a beautiful tree. Aren’t the kids at St Joseph’s lucky to have such a beautiful tree in their playground?”
“I know its autumn because the leaves on this tree are all scarlet and crunchy.” says Curious as he climbs higher into the tree.
“My favourite autumn pastime is to cover myself in leaves and pretend I’m a hedgehog,” squeals Creative.
“Come on lets” laughs Curious as he jumps down from the glorious scarlet tree.