These are the stories we wrote: "I liked trying to break the legs. They were yum!" - Jacinta "I liked putting the icing on top." - Angelina. "I liked the cookie." - Arina. "I liked the green icing." - Mikayla. "I liked the legs and I liked the body." - 'Alani. "I liked the body because it had marshmallow in it." - Kaezyn "I liked the legs." - Keezia. "I liked spreading the icing." - Cheyler. "I liked the head. It was hard and the body was soft. I was trying not to break it." - Marino. " I liked eating it. It was yummy because we put the icing on." Jahzarian. " I liked the spider. It was yum!" - Matariki. "I made the feet." - Naomi.

Look at Room 11 enjoying the microscopes to explore the details on a spider (alive), a fly, a daddy-long-legs and a weta (all dead). It was a girl weta and we could see the tube that she lays her eggs out of (the ovipositor).

I wrote down some of the comments, so you can picture what we saw: "It's creepy"; "It's BIG!" (the fly); "Come and look at this guys" (the weta); "Woo-ooooo" (the weta); "I don't think it's creepy";

"I can see the patterns on the legs (of the daddy-long-legs)"; "It's soooo hairy" (the fly); "Look! Look! It's moving!" (the spider) "I like it" (the weta); "There are 6 eyes" (the spider).

It was hard to take turns when there was so much to be see.

We need to get better at taking photos down the lens. We hope Room 8 were excited to see it today.

Hi room 11! I am so looking forward to Term 3. We will be looking at minibeasts for our inquiry topic. We are visiting Te Manawa to get us all excited, and I have borrowed some microscopes so we can look at the minibeasts in detail. We will also set up a vivarium - a glass tank which we will collect spiders, wetas, beetles etc in and watch how they live and what they eat. Keep an eye out for good bug-hunting places....

Our marae visit.

Matariki says: For lunch I had fish and chips and a biscuit.  My favourite activity was saying my mihi.  Ko Anthony toku Papa.  Ko Sheri toku Mama.  Ko Matariki ahau.  No Papaioea ahau.  Tena koutou, tena koutou, tena koutou katoa.

Marino says: My favourite activity was playing the string games and putting the needle through the holes to make a kite.  I had a biscuit for lunch.  Ko Nathan toku Papa.  Ko Kiri toku Mama.  Ko Marino ahau.  No Palmerston North ahau.  Tena koutou, tena koutou, tena koutou katoa.

Cheyler says: My favourite activity was saying my mihi.  Ko Cody toku Papa.  Ko Jenner toku Mama.  Ko Cheyler ahau.  No Papaioea ahau.  Tena koutou, tena koutou, tena koutou katoa.

Mrs Deroles says: My favourite activity was teaching the string games and listening to Papa Doug telling us the stories of the kowhaiwhai patterns and the tukutuku panels.  I like the flounder tukutuku panel.

We had a great time!!!  Thank you St Michael's Marae for inviting us to your place.  (Photos to follow when Mrs Deroles can work out how to do it.)

Room 11 is growing!!  After starting with only 3 students at the beginning of week 2, we now have 5.  Welcome to Matariki and Tenessy.  We're so lucky to have you in our class.  We're looking forward to you teaching us how to count in te reo Måori and to reading your stories and sharing our ideas with you.  This week we will finish our kowhai flowers for our class identity, and we will ask Mr T if he can find us a branch to hang them from.  We still need a photo of Room 5 who are also part of Kowhai team, and we have been invited to visit them on Monday with our camera.   I hope you will take time to feed our pet - Matariki the white tiger.  He's named after our own Matariki, who wrote an imaginary story this week  about being a white tiger.  We are also visiting a Marae on Friday which will be very exciting.  I can hardly wait.......