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

Should we be allowed gum at school?

Dear Wendy,

I think we should be allowed gum at school.

firstly, I think we should be allowed gum at school because we won’t talk while we work because we would be too busy chewing gum.

SECONDLY, I think we should be allowed gum at school because it is good for you and is low in sugar, plus it’s just like brushing your teeth.

Thirdly,  I think we should be allowed gum at school because it will keep people entertained.

finally, I think that gum should be allowed at school because you would never need to use blu-tac again because gum is just as sticky to use as blu-tac.

Therefore, I think that gum should be allowed to be at school.

I hope you agree with me, Wendy.

by Breanna Thurston Room 16.  

Dear Breanna

You have presented some very convincing arguments for having gum at school.  I like to occasionally chew gum as i enjoy its flavour and its is less fattening to chew on gum than chocolate and other sugary foods.

I agree gum is better for your teeth but your other arguments are easily disputed.

I can talk and chew gum and i am sure you could too.  gum is sticky and because people tend to carelessly dispose of their gum it can end up on your clothes, in your hair and on the soles of your shoes to be trodden into your home carpet.  it is yucky to find gum stuck under your desk or seat.

gum makes a mess of our pathways and is a real issue when it is just tossed to the ground when people have finished with it.

Also people chewing gum can be off putting - especially when the chewing comes with those awful sound effects.  

EVEN THOUGH I ENJOY CHEWING GUM OCCASIONALLY I DO NOT THINK GUM SHOULD BE ALLOWED AT SCHOOL AS IT CAUSES MORE PROBLEMS THAT BENEFITS.

THANKS FOR SHARING YOUR IDEAS BUT I AM NOT CONVINCED!

SMILES,

WENDY B

Should we have gum at school ?

Dear Wendy

I think we should have gum at school because it will keep the children

entertained and it stops you from talking in class while you are working.

Secondly, it makes your breath smell nice instead of your breath smell bad.

Thirdly ,it tastes nice and you don’t get bored because you are too busy chewing.

Fourthly ,you don’t need to brush your teeth. However ,it is disgusting when people put it under the desks and stick it behind their ears.

Finally ,the noise of chewing can be annoying.

But I think we should have GUM AT SCHOOL.!

By Georgie

Hi Georgie,

I can see that you have good reasons behind your argument however I am not convinced.  

I think it is awful seeing someone chewing gum like a cow chewing it’s cud, even though it might make your breath smell nice.

In Singapore they have banned gum and so their footpaths and roads are gum free.  After seeing how clean their paths etc were and coming back to New Zealand I was shocked at all the gum remains that have stained our foothpaths and roads.

I have had gum stuck in my hair and on my clothes as people tend to dispose of their gum in a very careless manner, so I don’t believe gum should be allowed at school.

Thanks for sharing your argument with me - your points are convincing but not convincing enough.

Smiles and hugs,

Wendy B

Soil Layers

Today R14 came to visit Annie and learn all about soil.  We  completed a pretest about soil and found that we did not know very much about the wonderful resource, SOIL!  We stand on it everyday and grow our food in it but don't know as much about it as we should.  R16 have finished their inquiry about soil and their knowledge was great when we did our pretest.   Well done R16.  What a lot they learned.
Today though it was R14's chance to learn and inquire. We then completed a T chart about what we knew and questions we have a bout soils .  There were some rich questions asked.  We also watched videos about soil, focusing on what it is, what types of soil there are and the soil layers.  We sketched a cross section of soil and labelled the different layers.  See the diagram below to learn the layers.  Also see R16's fun photos below when they made edible soils in layers just like this.  It certainly helped them remember the order of the layers from the bottom to the top or vice versa.

Milly's Matariki Presentation for Homefun

Shared Reading Activity: Koalas & Wallabies

Koalas & wallabies from annie.mccambridge

Matariki

Edible Soil!

I was asked today for the recipe as some of the children wanted to make this again at home.  Here is a screenshot of the layering we used.  Enjoy but beware lots of calories!

Edible Soil!

We made edible soil  so we could show the soil layers.  We made this in a clear plastic cup.  We used an an oreo cookie to show this bottom layer which is  called the bedrock.  Next we added cocopops and M&Ms to show the parent material or substratum layer.  We made chocolate mousse and then added that to show the next layer which is subsoil.  We crushed digestive biscuits (showing how weathering and pressure work to break up rocks) and added this to represent the top soil. We add organic matter (humus) last of all.  For this we used chocolate chips.  After we completed our assessments we ate it!  YUM YUM.

Charlie's Homefun - The Seven Stars of Matariki