Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori (Māori Language Week)

Tena Koutou,

 

This week is Maori Language Week and we are focusing on using Te Reo in the classroom whenever we can.  I have set the students (tamariki) the challenge of telling me if I say something in English that I could say in Te Reo.  For example, stand up - E tu, or sit down E noho.  As usual for a Monday after an exciting weekend I have had to say Turituri! (Be quiet) on several occasions!  

When we can we will try and sing some waiata (songs), and we had a chance at Fitness time this morning as we were kept inside by the rain.  The tamariki enjoyed singing the song so much that we sang it again at the end of the day and I got the chance to film them singing - we have quite a few performers in our class so I'm looking forward to when we start rehearsing our production acts in a few weeks.

Nga mihi nui

(With Best Wishes)

Busy Day

We had a very busy day today!  During our first block we went to the Hall with the rest of the Kawau students and completed a number of gymnastic activities including forward rolls, balancing, throwing and jumping.

Then after more tea the students split into their Science Experiment groups and repeated their chosen experiment so they can create their presentation for the Science Fair at the end of Week 3.

Then this afternoon we finished some of our recount writing and had our 100 Days party.

Literacy

This morning in our literacy session we focused on using 'rich language' such as adjectives (describing words), alliteration and similes.  I showed the class a photo of a dog running across the grass.  We discussed how we could write a sentence such as, "The dog was running on the grass." as a means of describing what was happening in the photo.  Then we discussed how we could make that sentence more exciting for the reader if we added in some adjectives.  We then brainstormed what words we could use to describe the photo and add more detail to our writing, and I wrote them on the board around the photo.

The class were then set the activity of writing a letter to a friend or family member which started, "Dear______, I went to the park and saw....."  Their task was to include as much rich language as they could to really add detail.  After 30 minutes of writing we got together in an 'authors circle' and those who wanted to got the chance to read their letter out to the class.  I was really impressed with all the writing.  We hope you enjoy listening to some of our hard work.

Cooper's Writing

Saria's Writing

Mackenzie South's Writing

100 Days Countdown

With just one day to go until we have been at school for 100 days we have been busy preparing for our party tomorrow afternoon.

Today in maths we did all things '100'.  The students came up with different ways we could make 100, using 100 with fractions, counting out 100 beans, putting together 100 unifix cubes, skip counting in 2's, 5's and 10's to 100, and many more activities.  Here are some photos of our '100' maths session this morning.

Counting out 100 beans

What 100 looks like in tally marks

The class came up with all these ways to make 100

Making paper chains that have 100 links

Working out how to draw 100 dots in an array

100 beans!

100cm on a rule, 100 using number lines, 100 on a calculator, piles of money totaling $100

100 unifix cubes

Our completed array

Ten chains of ten links 

Welcome Back to Term 3

Welcome back to the start of a new term!    I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and weren't a victim of the various winter bugs that have been going around.

We have an exciting term ahead with our Science Fair, Book Week and Production all taking place.
We will be doing lots of collaboration across the Kawau syndicate this term with the whole syndicate coming together for gymnastics on a Friday morning in the hall, and forming groups for our production performances.

Learning Conversations take place next week and the students are looking forward to talking about their work with you.  If you are unable to book online please call in at the office and they can make an appointment time for you.

Last term we said goodbye to Siane who has moved to Gulf Harbour school, but we are lucky to have been joined by a new student, Saria, which means our numbers stay at 25 in the class and still 9 boys and 16 girls.

Regards
Claire Kelly

Design Engineers

Today I set the class a technology challenge:

WALT: design and build a prototype bridge.

Problem:  A flood has washed away the bridge across the river between two towns.  Your job is to design a new bridge that will let cars drive from one side of the river to the other.

You can only use the materials provided to make your bridge.  

Success Criteria:  Your bridge must be able to hold the weight of a toy car, and stretch from one side of the river to the other so the car can be pushed across.

The students were quite excited about this challenge, and then I told them the only materials they could use were paper and sellotape!  None the less they attacked the challenge with gusto.  Firstly they individually drew bridge designs after seeing some photos on the internet.  Then they got into groups and decided which designs, or which features of each others designs, were the best.  Then they set to work on making their bridge.  By collaborating together and sharing ideas the students were learning to compromise and think of the end result.

Here are some of the original designs:

All the students were working hard to find ways to make their bridges fit the gap and support cars.

After lunch students were given 15 minutes to finish their building projects and then it was testing time.  There were some impressive structures and almost all withstood the weight of the car, and were stable enough to stay standing as the cars travelled across the span.  Four groups went to show Mrs Sandifer their models and were given Principal Awards stickers for their efforts.  Tino Pai Room 19 a great display of collaboration, design and building!

Progress with our Tinkering Box

We are still busy tinkering with our computer in the 'Tinkering Thinking' box.  We have discovered lots of wires, screws and copper.  Today Max discovered an interesting looking part so we decided to look it up on the internet to see if we could find out what it was called and what it did.  By entering the part number we were able to find out that it was an 'Assembly Heatsink".  It didn't look very fancy or important but just the one part cost $199.48.  This information gave the students a bit of an understanding as to why computers are so expensive!

Max, Janielle, Danella, Ethan and Tiara doing some tinkering.

Inside our computer.

Danella works on the disc drive.