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Friday 31 July 2015

Weekly Notices - Term 3, Week 3

Next weeks notices are proudly brought to you by Braden and Jamin. Thanks to Manav for the filming.

Very humorous, well done. We haven't seen notices presented like this before.
10/10 for originality.


Extension Maths Teaching Conversions

We were very lucky yesterday. Our extension maths boys, taught the class a lesson in conversions.
The burning question was - how many mm in a km?

The class discussed and estimated how many mm's they thought were in a km and then the boys proceeded to help the class verify the correct answer.

Well done Manav, Robert, Daniel, Joseph, Josh and Ben!

You did a great job, and listened to the feedback constructively, so that next time you will be even better.





Thursday 30 July 2015

Writing - Editing

Each morning when we start our writing, we have a simple sentence and the children need to improve the vocabulary and detail within the sentence.

Today we started with: Nadija saw some flowers in the vase.

Here are two examples of how we could improve and rework this sentence:

Nadija T spied a bunch of golden orchids in the yellow chipped vase. (Wesley)

Nadija glanced at some absolutely horrific roses in a cracked and ugly vase and struggled not to choke on the stench. (Braden)

It takes time and effort to improve our writing, this is a skill the children will continue to work on.

Wednesday 29 July 2015

Gymnastics

This term we are concentrating on our gymnastic skills.

We are working from the following areas, within the NZ Curriculum:
A2 Regular physical activity • Maintain regular participation in enjoyable physical activities in a range of environments and describe how these assist in the promotion of well-being.
A3 Safety management • Identify risks and their causes and describe safe practices to manage these.
B1 Movement skills • Develop more complex movement sequences and strategies in a range of situations. B2 Positive attitudes • Develop movement skills in challenging situation.

We are working on five different apparatus:
Mats for forward rolls and candle sticks rolls.
The Balance Beams - of various heights.
Mats for backward rolls.
Beat board for free style jumps.
Beat board for vault jumps.

This is Room 23 in action yesterday:















Sunday 26 July 2015

Paper Plane Competition - Cause and Effect

This week we have started to read and write about "Cause and Effect". Each reading group has been reading and discussing the cause and effects in their stories. We have also started to write about the Causes and Effects of Deforestation. 

The Lorax reading group was reading an article about the New Zealand Rocketery Association and a boy called Matthew who made his own rocket at home. This lead to a discussion on the causes that make rockets either fly further, turn and travel higher than others. We also discussed the effects of changing certain features of the rocket - different shape, structure, length, features or using different materials.

This discussion lead us to our paper plane competition ... 

On Friday we decided to test some of these theories that we had discussed. Thanks to Ben, who organised the sign up list and the different competition categories.



Sydney was adding on an additional feature, a longer tail.

Anna was working with Olivia.


Nadija and Nadia researching the perfect paper plane.


Navneet thinks she has the smallest.



Kayla is researching how to make her plane fly the longest distance.


First Competition - The plane that can fly the longest distance.

Well done Kayla and Navneet! Their plane flew the longest distance.



Congratulations Kevin! His plane could fly the highest.



Well done Ben and Quinn! Their plane had the most endurance - stayed in the air the longest.

Congratulations Brooke! Her plane could perform the best tricks.

Hopefully you can see Josh's plane. His plane was the smallest plane that flew.

A congratulations also must go to Mr Merrit, for his circular plane, that flew the longest distance up side down.


Well done to everyone for participating in Friday afternoon's competition. 

Looking at the Key Competencies in the NZ Curriculum - we covered a number of areas today.

Thinking - Using our Problem Solving skills to improve the performance of our planes and to make them perform specific tasks.
Relating to Others - We were working with others and combining knowledge.
Managing Ourselves - Managed our time and resources and were resilient when things didn't go as planned.
Participating and Contribution - Everyone participate in the afternoon, some contributed to the competitions by being judges.

It was an enjoyable, fun and learning packed afternoon.


Friday 24 July 2015

Week 2 Notices

There is another busy week ahead. Thanks to Olivia and Kayla for our notices for Week 2.


Thursday 23 July 2015

Maths - Cubed Numbers

One of the maths groups this week, have been learning about square and cubed numbers and what that means.

To show their understanding they had to make a cubed number using place value blocks.

This was their understanding of 6 cubed. The group now understand that a cubed number is made up of length, height and depth.

I'm not too sure how Manav was feeling about completing 6 cubed. 

The group went on to look at prime numbers and prime factors.

They had "hard fun" learning about these numbers, well done.

Welcome Back To Term 3

I can not believe we are in Term 3 already. We have a very busy and exciting term ahead. The big event this term is CAMP. I can't wait as I am sure the children can't either.

Evelyn is currently in China. She has been keeping in contact via email. It has been great hearing all about her trip and getting some of the children to reply to her emails. I am sure she will share more when she gets back next month.

We have also had a new student arrive in Room 23. Her name is Olivia and she is from Korea. All of the children in the class have been fantastic at making her feel at home. We have had children work with her during reading and they are ensuring that she has someone to play with at intervals. It has been great to them working on the Key Competencies and are helping her adjust to kiwi life.




Sunday 12 July 2015

Minecraft Castle

I have finally been able to load up a couple of Minecraft Castles videos.

At the end of last term, the Lorax reading group researched castles and then designed their own in Minecraft. 

Scan the QR code and you will be able to have a quick fly through of Josh and Quinn's and Joseph's castles.
Joseph's Minecraft Castle

Josh and Quinn's Minecraft Castle



Friday 3 July 2015

Tough Gal and Guy Challenge

Yesterday, Western Heights took 105 children to the Tough Gal/Guy Challenge. The challenge was to run, walk, crawl or climb around a 1.5 km muddy course. The before and after picture say to all.
In some of the photo's it is hard to spot the people we know, you just need to picture them without the mud!