My Trip to Auckland

On may the 21st I went to Auckland and on the way back our flight got delayed and cancelled because snow on the Queenstown  runway was half a metre deep so we had to wait until the 27th when we were meant to get back on the 26th.  Finally, our flight was ready to board.  Once my mum, my brother and I were in the air we got to play on our iPad's.  I tried to play Roblox but I needed an internet connection.  When it was time to land we had to put our IPads away and stowed our tray tables.  It wasn't that bumpy when we were landing.  When we landed there was snow on both sides of the runway!  When we where in Auckland we went to the park with some friends and we played Go Home Stay Home 123. We also saw my Grandma and Granddad. When we got to the car, it was covered in snow!

by Sam

Blake's Current Events

Note Taking

Taking good notes requires students to evaluate, organise and summarise information. It's a key skill children will need through school and beyond.  We took notes from different sources and used our science knowledge to write information reports on soil.  Some of us found this skill hard but we persevered and persisted because it is an important skill we need to develop.  

We learned how to ...

Surf

Slurp 

Summarise

Math's Games

Playing games is an important part of our math's programme.  Why?

1.  They give the children meaningful situations to apply their knowledge and skills

2.  They motivate the children to both participate and enjoy

3.  They help children  develop a positive attitude and reduce the fear of failure/error

4.  Greater learning can occur through interaction with others and provide opportunities to test ideas and problem-solve

5.  Games allow children to operate at different levels of thinking, and to learn from each other

6.  Assessment - through playing games teachers can make observations of children's actions and decisions in a non-threatening situation

7.  Games provide hands-on interactive tasks for both home & school

8.  Children can work independently of the teacher - the rules of the game and their motivation usually keeps them on task 

Davies (1995)

Take a look at this video.  It shows how engaged and focused the children in Room 16 are.  

Self-Directed Learning

We are using Teacher Dashboard to work in the cloud.  This puts everything "in one box".

It's a commercial application (i.e. not free) from a NZ-based company building specialised extensions for Google. Teacher Dashboard gives us ( teachers) a “birds eye view” and overview of what our students are doing, what documents they’re working on, who they’re collaborating with, and what’s happening with their email account, their blogs, e-portfolio, photo albums and so on. 

Here are some pictures of our students working on their devices to access and record their learning.  

Matisse Inspired Dancers: Creating our Backgrounds

Creating Our Background

Creating our background today was a lot of fun and not as easy as it looked. We loved cutting and playing

and making their backgrounds different.  We drew with our scissors, just like Matisse, cutting sections using wavey, zig-zag, curved, straight or random lines.  We had to cover the background  with  3 - 5 colours making sure that our sections were overlapped.  Next week we will add the dancers.  This artwork is going to be for calendars, note books and cards.  

Here are two pictures of what we are aiming for ...

Matisse

When Henri was an old man he made cutout pictures as well as painting.   Since he was sick so often he had to spend lots of time in bed.  It was easier to cut out pictures than use a paint brush!  
Here’s how Henri made his cutouts:

1.First his assistants painted sheets of paper.

2. Then Henri cut out shapes.

3.Henri would change the way they were arranged on the paper.

4.The last step was to paste the cutouts down on paper.

Matisse always tried to layer the pieces he cut out.  Layer means placing one piece over another.  

Even though Henri made most of his cutouts from bed, he used his memory to get his ideas.

Soil

Soil the upper layer of Earth’s surface.

There are three main types of soil which are sand, silt and clay.  Sand has the largest particle found in soil. Silt has the medium particle found in soil.  Clay has the smallest particle found in soil.

Soil is formed by many factors, including living organisms and plants, fungi, and lots more.

Humus is made up of decayed plants and animals.  Topsoil is the top layer on the five layers of soil.  Subsoil is the second layer on Earth’s surface.  Parent material is the soil layer just above bedrock.  Bedrock is just solid rock with tiny cracks and it is also the bottom layer of soil.

Soil plays an important role in supporting life on Earth.

Written by Grayson

Soil!

Soil is the loose upper layer of the earth’s crust where plants grow.

Soil is made from organic material (decayed plants, animals, broken down rocks and minerals).

Soil makes the outer most layer of our planet. There are 3 main types of soil, sand silt and clay. Clay has the smallest partials and does not have many nutrients, clay feels hard as stone when dry and sticky when wet. Silt is a medium sized partials and has lots of nutrients, silt feels slippery when wet and powdery when dry. Sand is the largest partial found in soil and has medium nutrients sand feels rough and gritty.

Soil is formed over a long period of time in fact soil can take over 1000 years for just 3cm of soil to form! Soil includes rotting plants, fungi, animals and bacteria. How things grow depends on the land and the soil also it depends about climate and weather. There are 5 layers in soil - humus, topsoil, subsoil, and parent material and bed rock. Here is a diagram of soil.

                

Humus is a thick layer of organic matter. Topsoil is a thin layer of organic matter and minerals. Subsoil is made from clay, iron and organic matter.  Parent material is made from mainly large rock.  Bedrock is made from large solid masses of rock.

Soil is very important because we couldn’t grow food, and we would not be able to breathe without soil because plants give us oxygen that is why soil is important.

Written by Eve Bretherton                     

El Gregoe

We went to a show called 'You've Got the Power'.  At the how we learnt how to make the right choices and how we need to feel good about doing the right thing at school.  We learnt about how to care for, and accept each other and how we need to follow the golden rule of treating others how we want to be treated.  It reinforced the messages we have been hearing at school, that is, how to manage bullying by giving us strategies  to deal with this problem - whether you are a bully, a victim or a witness to bullying.  We learnt more about the values too.
Visit this site if you are a child to find out what bullying is.
http://www.elgregoe.trustpower.co.nz/For-Kids/What-is-bullying.aspx

Visit this site  if you are a parent  and want to find out what to do if your child is a bully.

http://www.elgregoe.trustpower.co.nz/For-Parents/What-to-do-if-your-child-is-a-bully.aspx