Last El Presidentes for 2014!

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Goodbye Room 17 2014!

Give a little...

We've been focussing a lot on kindness this year.  During Circle Time we decided rather than bringing in gifts for another this year (because we felt we had enough 'stuff') we would donate something to someone in need. We discussed a few different options and then voted! We chose to bring in food to send to the Auckland City Mission.  We did a pretty good job and collected a few boxes worth! Thanks to everyone who bought something in.

Joshua and Hugh's Pop-Up Book

Scarlett and Neive's Pop-Up Book

Jordan and Jake's Pop-Up Book

Movement Books

Room 17 have been working hard over the last few weeks to create 'moving books. We worked with a partner to create a book that had moving parts - pop-up, lift the flap or pull tabs. Our goal was to write a book for someone aged between 1-3. Some students are making hard copies and some students worked on Zooburst. Our first book is finished!! Here's Zach and Zander's book about bugs.

El Presidentes Week 9

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End of School Year Reflections

Our final Hands-On-Homework for 2014 was to fill out an end of year reflections. It was such a pleasure to read these and I'm amazed at how thoughtful the comments were. I have picked out all the key words and made some wordles. The first one is all the answers from the following questions:

• My favourite activity this year and why
• I had the most fun when
• What I liked most about my class and teacher
• What I'll miss the most and why
• Things I learned the most this year

The bigger the word, the more students that choose that as an answer. Thank you to all the students that completed their reflections!

Another question was for students to give a piece of advice to students for next year. 

Go Room 17!

Today marks the start of the Year 2/3 Dodgeball tournament. Each Year 2/3 class will be versing one another in a dodgeball match. The classes with the most wins will play against one another to see who will be crowned the dodgeball champions of the school. Today Room 17 wrote a cheer to encourage one another while they play. May the best team win!

El Presidentes Week 8, Term 4

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Counting down...

We made this cool little street to count down till the last day of school 25 days to go from yesterday (though only 18 half school days!) Each student coloured their building and then made it into a 3D shape. A few students got creative and made roads, signs and trees. I wonder what treat is inside each building?

El Presidentes Week 6

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Fabulous Poetry

Room 17 have been learning about different types of poems. They have written cinquain and diamante poems with Mrs Dowson on a Thursday. They chose their favourite poem and performed it for you all to hear. We hope you love our poems!

5SC - Zack's Entry

A long, long, long time ago there was a village. One year later 6,006 armies came to destroy the most fancy castle in the village (well it was the only castle). Everyone screamed. Before you knew it the castle was destroyed!! Everyone was so sad that the village was nothing for 6000 years. Nothing was left except a half broken castle and the rest of the village.

By Zack

5SC - Scarlett's Entry

When I walked in to town I saw that my castle was broken down. There were lots of destroying people destroying my castle. Then when I walked in the castle there was barely anything in there. All I could see was a big hole in the castle. I was terrified that my castle was broken down and we didn't like it.

By Scarlett

5SC - Hugh's Entry

A while ago there was a volcanic eruption. Spots of lava came but a shiver only from the volcano. A while later an earthquake hit the people of the village and they begged for no aftershock. The king was dead and he was Lord of Hope. Legend says it will happen every 18 years. Here says the markings.

By Hugh

This Weeks 100WC

This week's 100WC was set by the Night Zookeeper. The evil Lord of Nulth has declared war on imagination. We watched this video, which set the scene, and then we had to write the ending in 100 words. Congratulations to Eric and Grace, who were voted the class winners and Layla for getting teacher's choice.

100WC - Eric's Entry

He was shocked to find....there was a gleaming explosion. A unicorn blasted out, but the bloody guards ripped her to shreds. The blood squirted. Just then the blood touched the ground and there was a pulse of magic spreading across the world. One by one the animals escaped the curse, fighting for freedom. There was war but darkness took over. All of a sudden...a giant flying potato crushed the guards and smashed the Lord of Nulth's head off. Everyone cheered for the potato (who was named Bob) when he exploded into light. The world was finally restored, everything was back to normal now.

By Eric

100WC - Layla's Entry

He was shocked to find a little turtle with a small, green shell. The turtle stared at the Lord of Nulth and his guards. "Mmm...what are you doing here?" he said, trying to hide the evilness in his voice. "Let me go!" squeaked the little turtle. "I know who you are," it continued. "I want to save the world Mr Nulth." 
"Grrr..." the Lord of Nulth muttered. 
"What's your name?" asked one of the robotic guards.
"Pip," replied the turtle. 
"Stop wasting time, let the war begin!" cried the Lord of Nulth. Animals came out with the word, fighting.

By Layla

100WC - Grace's Entry

He was shocked to find a tiger. "Ahhhh," he screamed. He'd never seen anything so cute and he quickly did up the bag. He said, "Ah, that's better." Then he said "Where was I up to?" and then he started talking again. Then he said, "minions and guards, kill that creepy thing now otherwise you'll be dead too. Now go and do your business." But one refused to do it. Lord Nulth was mad. His face went red. Suddenly, one of the guards came up to him and stabbed him in the back. Then the war was over and there were trees, houses, rivers and the ocean.

By Grace

El Presidentes Week 6

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Swimming starts on Monday!

Just a reminder we start swimming on Monday. Make sure students come to school with their togs (can be on under their uniform) towel, goggles, cap and a bag for their wet gear.  We swim Mondays and Wednesdays.

Movement Drama

We love doing drama with Mrs Dowson on a Thursday. Here we are demonstrating different movements. Thanks Mrs Dowson for all the great things you teach us.

Robots

Monsters

Aliens

El Presidentes Week 5

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100 Word Challenge

The last 100 Word Challenge prompt was just 5 little words. Those students completing the 100WC had to include the words swimming, lifted, broken, green and cat in their writing somewhere. Unfortunately we missed the deadline for entering the competition this week but we still read them to the class and Josie and Grace were voted the winners. Levi got the teachers choice. Have a read of them and see if you can pick where they've put those 5 words!

I was walking beside the broken swimming pool. I saw a broken cat with green paint slashed on it's wooden back. "What happened to this place?" I shouted. "It's a crazy mess." It was like a tornado crashed right through it without a care and went right to the whole place and destroyed everything in it's path. This shouldn't be a swimming pool anymore, It's lifted it up diagonally. It's a total mess of destruction. On the news it said seven thousand, eight hundred and forty two lives were risked for their beloveds. This is a disaster. I better leave them be alone.

By Levi

There once was a green cat. Every morning he went swimming in a broken computer. I know this sounds weird. One day he lifted a pencil to see what was under it. Just incase. He went to plat golf with his friend duck. But he didn't because duck was in space. So he killed a snail. "Ahhhh!" said the snail. "Hi.I'm back!!" Duck came back. They finished the game. "Why did you kill the snail?" said duck. "I did not meant to," said cat. The duck died. I don't know how. Cat is dumb.

By Josie

Once upon a time there was a green swimming pool and I was thinking, 'how did that get green?' The next day my dad got me a cute, furry gremlin and you could not get them wet or feed them after midnight otherwise, dun dun dun....they turn into this. "Ahhhhh," I screamed. Then I lifted up the ugly green thing and chucked it in the microwave and it exploded. There was all green stuff on the microwave. Then my cat was running around like crazy. There was something broken from those ugly gremlins and my cat broke it even more. It was a disaster.

By Grace

El Presidentes Week 3

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Circle Time

Today in circle time we talked about how to work effectively in a group. We have done quite a few group activities lately and learnt it's pretty tricky completing a task as a team when not everyone's on board. We came up with these guidelines to help us be a great group!

Minecraft Treasure Hunt

Today we did a treasure hunt as our reward for remembering our homework books last term. We were in 4 teams and we had to look around the school for hidden 'treasure chests' that were full of ingredients. We had to use the ingredients to make recipes from Minecraft. We had 45 minutes to complete as many recipes as possible, and each completed recipe was worth points. Congratulations to Zachary, Eric, Sienna, Jordan, Renee and Layla who were the winners, with 2200 points! The rest of the class were rewarded for their team efforts with gold treasure aka chocolate coins =)

Yuna's Hands-On Homework

Yuna made this fabulous exercise video for her hands-on homework this week. We all followed along today in class.

Zoe's 5SC Entry

The grapes are hanging from the ceiling. The little boy is holding a bright red apple. The dog is on a leash and he is woofing. The flowers are blooming with colour and joy. The lemons are bright yellow.

Zander's 5SC Entry

I was the cute dog. The carrots were like pens. The apples looked like red bouncy balls. The cat was outside. The banana's were yellow.

Neive's 5SC Entry

"Come on, hurry up old slow lady, I need to get some juicy apples."
"Come on boy, I'm so starving."
"Excuse me mum, please, please, please buy me this shiny juicy apple."
The grapes were hanging upside down like naughty monkeys.
"Would you like to buy these nice ripe oranges?" asked the shopkeeper.

El Presidentes Week 3 Term 4

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Showing Movement

How can you show movement in a photo? We realised that if someone is actually moving in a photo it will be blurry! Last weeks #handsonhomework challenge was to take a photo showing movement. Can you guess what movement they are showing?

Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires

Friday Funday

El Presidentes Week 2 T4

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Finding out about NZ coins and notes

It's NZ Money week this week and we've been finding out lots about our coins and notes. We worked in groups to research who was on each bank note and why they were there! We also learnt about what the images are on our coins and learnt a bit more about them.  Here are some facts we learnt.

Jordan - On the front of the 20c coin there is a carving of a Maori chief

Zachary - Sir Apriana Ngata played a significant role in the revival of maori people and culture. He's on the front of the $50 note

Hugh - I was wondering what was on the back of the $20 note and when I found it was the NZ falcon, I learnt it's one of NZ's biggest bird.

Yuna - Ernest, Lord Rutherford of Nelson is on the front of the $100 note and he was known as the father of atoms.

Layla - At first I thought it was a tiki on the front of the 10c coin but then I learnt it was a carved head called koruru

Jake B - A $1 coin has a kiwi and a silver fern. I didn't know there was a silver fern too

Eric - I've found out all the animals on the notes and coins

Joshua - A $2 coin has a big bird on it

Levi - Sir Edmund Hillary in 1953 became the first man to climb Mt Everest and to drive overland to the South Pole. He is on the $5 note

Olivia - A long, long time ago only men could vote and not ladies but Kate Shepard said it was not fair and she helped NZ become the first country to let everyone join the vote. She's on the front of the $10 note

Zoe - I learnt that Queen Elizabeth was on the back of every coin

Josie - I learnt that the Yellow-Eyed is the one of the rarest penguins in the world

Renee - On the 50c coin there is a big boat, Captain Cook was on it

Grace - The portrait of the Queen on the $20 note was taken at Government House

Jake S - I learnt the name of the bird on the $50 note. It's a Kokako

El Presidentes Week 1 Term 4

Dinosaur Home Learning

For our last week of Term 3, Room 17 had a special home learning challenge to complete. They were given a sheet with different types of activities to do, all about dinosaurs. Some students chose to make dinosaur cages, others made dinosaur food and designed new types of dinosaurs. It was great to see all the different creations!

Thank you!

It's been a busy term and we ended it with two fabulous nights of Sharing our Learning. We love having our mums and dads come and listen to us talk about our learning, as well as looking at all the work we've done. Here's a little thank you from Room 17.

Getting Active

We've had lots of opportunities to learn new sports skills this term. Earlier in the term Ben and Clare from the Junior Breakers came and taught us some basketball. We learnt about team work and respect, as well as how to bounce a ball, defend and get the ball off someone. We have also been learning the skills of gymnastics. We've learnt how to land correctly, fall safely, balance, rotate and roll. We're looking forward to swimming and athletics in term 4!

Jacqueline Harvey Visit

A few weeks ago the Biggles team got a visit from Jacqueline Harvey, an author from Australia. She told us all about how she became and author and even showed us pictures of when she was at school. She shared two of her book series with us - Clementine Rose and Alice-Miranda. It was funny when she got Caitlin from R18 and Daniel from R20 to act out a part of Clementine Rose. If you want to find out more about Jacqueline Harvey's books, visit her website.

Blindfolded Taste Testing

A couple of weeks ago for Hands-On Homework, Room 17 were asked to do a blindfolded taste test challenge.  A few students filmed their taste testing. Here's a few snippets from their videos.  Josh created a spreadsheet of the different foods he tried and whether he guessed them correctly. Apologies for the title missing from the video, I'm not sure where it went!

Hands-On Homework - Salt Crystals

Last week some Room 17 students took up the challenge of trying to grow salt crystals for home learning. Here are some photos of the process and final product. Yuna made a presentation explaining how to get the salt crystals to grow. Click here to view her presentation.

Biggles Museum Day

We had great fun last Friday setting our classrooms up like mini museums. Room 17 and 19 shared their learning of fossils and dinosaurs. Room's 18 and 20 shared their learning of ancient civilisations. 

El Presidentes Week 10

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Mrs Burnett's Teach Me Tuesday

Room 17 asked Mrs B if she could do a Teach Me Tuesday so last week she taught the class string games. We learnt how to thread our fingers through the looped string, make the 'Opening A' and the Parachute. It was a bit tricky to start with but by the end most students could do the basics!

Josh's Scratch Animations

5SC - Neive's Entry

The blue sky looked like it was going to explode with rain. The birds were floating in the sky. The village clock tower went tick tock. The kids were so excited to jump on the red and white bus. It's so relaxing sitting on this seat reading the newspaper.

By Neive

5SC - Zander's Entry

The clock tower looked like a hat. All the houses had shiny windows. I would be the cat. The bike had a basket. There was a dog.

By Zander

5SC - Zack's Entry

The clouds were about to explode into rain. The bus was about to crash into a little dog. There was striking lightning in the dark, black sky. The birds were screeching in the air. The dog was staring at a man that was about to jump on his bike.

By Zack

El Presidentes Week 9 Term 3

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Reading about Dinosaurs

The Tui's reading group have been practicing reading information and highlighting facts. Today they split in to two smaller groups and read about a dinosaur. Neive, Grace and Helen (from Room 19) read about Ankylosaurus. They shared some of the facts they read using Puppet Pals.

100WC - Eric's Entry

The UFO!

Kablam! "Ahhh!" I shouted. "Awww come on, I was just having a sweet dream about candy!" I strolled to the window, I was shocked and I was extremely surprised! I saw a gleaming light from the sky but it was yellow. A UFO looked like it was going to crash in my backyard and guess what? It did! Followed by a nova blast. Luckily it didn't cause any damage. Wait, it blew up my tree. The UFO quickly recovered and blasted out of my backyard with a giant deafening voop sound. Well back to my sleep then. It was awesome but very, very unusual. 

100WC - Grace's Entry

Yellow Snow

I was about to eat some snow but it is yellow! Dun, dun, dun! I ate it even though I noticed there was something on it. I looked in the mirror and screamed. I was covered in yellow. I couldn't believe it. I've always wanted to be yellow. I was bouncing up and down, I was happy! I've wanted to be yellow in a million years so I can blend in with the sun. Then I licked my fingers because I just ate crisps but I remembered the yellow snow. I was looking for a shower but I couldn't find one. I was screaming.

100 Word Challenge - Levi's Entry

The Arguing Boys That Just Keep Arguing

Wow, my house is green but it is yellow. 
No, it is green. 
Dude, you're colour blind. 
No I am not, I am a perfect colour seer.  
No you're not, you're colour blind you lier. 
I am not a lier, perfectly not a lier. You're the lier. How rude of you. 
You are so rude and a lier. 
Oh you booger. 
I am not a booger. You're the booger! 
Now you're the bad boy, the very bad boy. 
How rude of you. You're a baby. 
Mama, brother is calling me a baby. 
How rude of you, you're a poo poo....such a poo poo!

So who won the Hands-On Homework to plan the perfect school day?

El Presidentes Week 8

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Look what I just made

Look at this great Stop Motion movie Zander made on the weekend with his lego!

Geological Timeline

We have been looking at the different time periods and which fossil came from which time. We worked in pairs to colour in an animal or plant and then found out how many millions of years ago they used to live on Earth! We created a time line on our wall. We have also thought about our level of thinking in relation to fossils and placed ourselves on our SOLO rubric. Come and check out our inquiry wall!!

Learning to write reports

Today we're working in pairs to write a report about Stegosaurus. First we did a plan and now we're using the information to write a report. We need to remember an introduction, conclusion and each paragraph has our ideas grouped together under subheadings!

El Presidentes Week 7 Term 3

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Using Scratch

For Hands-On Homework this week, we have been learning how to use Scratch. It's a bit tricky and there's lots to understand! Here's Yuna's, Layla's and Jordan's final creations. Press the green flag to start them. For Yuna's you need to use the keyboard arrows to make her dancer move. Use the space bar to get the butterfly to move. For Layla's 2nd one, use the space bar and 'a' key to make music!

Our final Teach Me Tuesdays

We have all LOVED doing Teach Me Tuesday. What a talented bunch Room 17 are. We've learnt everything from cooking and sport to paper folding and dancing.  Our last two TMT's saw Jake B teaching us a tag game. It was great getting outside and running around. Then Zack taught us about horse riding. There's a lot of gear you need to have when riding a horse! 

Pick of the Bunch Writing

Well it's been a while but we're back at it now - getting our Pick of the Bunch writing up on the blog! On Monday we went outside and blew bubbles. We used a Y chart to record what we saw, heard and felt when we were watching the bubbles, catching the bubbles and blowing the bubbles.  Our writing focus was to start our story from the moment Mrs B started blowing the bubbles (so we only included the important details) as well as using lots of describing words. Zachary was voted best writing this week.

The bubbles floated like balloons through the sky. I thought the bubbles felt soapy and watery. The beautiful bubbles were like floating see-through marbles. I popped watery, soapy bubbles. The bubbles popped high in the sky and near trees. I popped them with my pencil. I love bubbles.

By Zachary

El Presidentes Week 6 Term 3

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Fun with Fossils

Today we went back in time, in fact we went went back 440 million years in time! We looked at some of the different periods, such as Silurian and the Jurassic periods. We ventured back by playing this game, it was lots of fun! We're having heaps of fun finding out about fossils!

El Presidentes Week 5 Term 3

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Cockney Rhyming Slang

Finn is over in the UK at the moment and although he's not in class with us, he still does a lot of the same learning as us. He sent us this fabulous video that he made with his brother. Finn made this for his hands-on homework when we were learning lots of different ways to say hello. Finn let us share this on our blog. You should have a look at Finn's blog, he's doing so much amazing learning while he's away. You'll find his blog linked down the side of our blog, under Blogs We Follow. 

Writing with detail

Last Monday we watched a short video from the Literacy Shed. We talked about what had happened and then Mrs B took a screen shot of the opening scene. With a partner, we wrote one sentence about something we could see the picture. We had to remember what made a sentence - starting with a capital, ending with a full stop, finger spaces, one idea and that it made sense. We then shared our sentences. Some students wrote about the clouds, others wrote about the clock tower and the balloons. We talked about what made one sentences more interesting to read then another. We also had to remember to write a sentence about what we saw in the picture, not something that had happened later in the video. It was a good lesson in writing with detail and we learnt that pages and pages of writing doesn't necessarily make for amazing writing. Here's our finished description.

Hands-on Homework and Maths Week!

Last week was Maths week and we had great fun estimating how some of our teachers would get on with their lunchtime challenges. Two days in a row Josie guessed the exact time down to the second! That's pretty awesome estimating. We also had the Maths Wizard visit us on Friday and he asked us some tricky questions but they certainly weren't too tricky for the speedy students in Room 17. Our hands-on homework was to have fun with maths. Some students created games and we played Renee's game on Friday. Keep up the great math's work Room 17!

Teach Me Tuesday Week 4

Our second to last Teach Me Tuesday saw Jordan teaching us how to make pop-out mouth cards and Nikita teaching us how to draw a tiki. Jordan was very patient helping everyone to fold their paper correctly and Nikita did a great job drawing each part of the tiki step by step. Well done guys!

Hands on Homework - Egg Parachutes

Last weeks Hands on Homework was to make and test a parachute for an egg.  It was great fun watching the video evidence and seeing pictures. Some eggs survived and some did not! Here's a few snippets of the egg parachute challenge.

El Presidentes Week 4 Term 3

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A Day at the Museum!

We had a fabulous trip to the museum last week to kick off our learning about Patterns. Although we went to look at fossils and dinosaurs, it's fair to say everyone's favourite part was the volcano house! Watch the video below to see some snapshots from the day and click here to read our awesome recounts about the day. We were all very proud of our writing!

Teach Me Tuesday

I can't believe we are nearly at the end of our Teach Me Tuesday sessions. They have been fantastic and the students have really enjoyed experiencing a range of different activities. Most of them have realised it's pretty tricky teaching others and getting everyone to listen! Last week Layla demonstrated her paper folding skills and Zoe got everyone out on the netball court. This week Miho taught us how to make origami hearts.

What's a Pattern?

Our inquiry for Term 3 is Patterns. We started off by talking about what a pattern is and watching some videos. We realised there are patterns EVERYWHERE! We then had to create a pattern in the classroom. 

El Presidentes Week 3

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Colouring Competition

Room 17 love Go Noodle! We try and noodle it every day. At the moment Go Noodle are running some champ challenges. The first was to use these colouring pictures. Last Friday we chose our favourite champ and coloured them in. Miss Bullen was our judge and she chose her favourites. Congratulations to Neive, Jordan, Zack, Olivia and Jake B for your fabulous colouring.

El Presidentes Week 2 Term 3

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Josie's Story

Josie is such an amazing writer. She sent me this story that she wrote at home and she did a great job of reading it to the rest of the class. I wonder if someone could read her story and come up with an illustration to match?

Breeze the Wind Fairy
There once was a tiny fariy with long white hair. She was very sad because a long long time ago an evil fairy took her magic crystal which made wind. Now all the days hot because there is no wind. One day she said "I am done. I am going get the magic back!" Meanwhile Professor Bo-bo the evil guy was making a trap to get Breeze! DUN-DUN-DUN! Breeze started to walk along the trees while whistling like the wind. As she put her foot on a pile of leaves she started to...FALL DOWN A HUGE TUNNEL! She landed on a little tiny block of itchy hay. As Breeze wandered around she saw she was in a big cage. When she peered out the rusty gray bars Breeze saw she was in a secret lab. Suddenly she spotted a tiny key on a table then she saw her...magic crystal! Breeze made the key fly to her. Breeze flew to the crystal and made a swirling small tornado that only got Mr. Bo-bo.

The End

Teach Me Tuesday Week 1 Term 3

It was all about paper folding for this weeks Teach Me Tuesday. Eric taught us how to fold plain paper to make a stand up monster.  Neive bought in colourful stacks of crepe paper and string and had us all making paper roses. Fantastic teaching guys!

El Presidentes Week 1 Term 3

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End of Term 2 El Presidentes

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Looking Good For Book Week

Which book characters have we dressed as?

Kids Can Cook

At the end of Week 7, we were fortunate to have the Kids Can Cook kitchen come to visit us.  Chris the chef used silver beet from our garden to make Apple and Silverbeet crepes. They looked delicious! I understand Jordan made a pretty good sous chef too.  You can visit the Kids Can Cook website to find out more about their visit and some pics and a video of the visit.