Science Group - Thursday Afternoon

As part of The Arts rotation, I have been taking a science group. 

Last week we started growing our very own stalacites, using baking soda. 

This week, we were experimenting with circuits. We discussed what a circuit is and how to make them. We then went into groups and made our own circuits. We made a light bulb glow, a fan work and even made some music play.

This is our Brain Box kit.

Maths - Rounding and Compensating Strategy

This term we have started to learn a new strategy to solve addition and subtraction problems. We have been learning about the rounding and compensating strategy. 

To solve equations, we round one of the numbers, so that it becomes a tidy number. Then we add or subtract the other number. Before we finished, we need to remember to adjust our calculation by compensating the rounding back again.

Here we are trying to solve 303 + 58 = 

We discussed our workings with a buddy. 

This is how we solved this problem:

303 - 3 = 300
300 + 58 = 358
358 + 3 = 361

Maori - Word of the Week

Each week we will be learning a new word in Maori. This week our word is "heihei" or chicken. If we need to use the word chicken in class, we have to say "heihei" instead.

Today the Grinchs read a story about the Chicken Olympics. As you can imagine, we had a lot of fun remembering to use heihei all the way through our story.

ICT - Week 1

Last week, Room 15 worked with Mr McLay developing Commonwealth Games Stadiums on Minecraft.

The children had to include:
* Competition Area.
* Competition Warm Up and Cool Down Area.
* Spectator Seating.
* Spectator bridge, road and tunnels to move around.
* Officials Area.
* Podium.
* TV/Radio Reporters Area.
* First Aid Area.

These are their fantastic arenas:

Team 1


Team 2


Team 3


Team 4


Team 6


Sorry Team 5 - your video could not be found.

Have a look at the other teams and let us know what you think!

Bridges - Ignition

We started our next topic today, the "Ignition" part of our Inquiry, we used Tony Ryan's Construction Key to build bridges. We had to build a bridge from spaghetti, marshmallows and paper. We had to build the longest bridge that we could, without it falling down. 

These are the lengths of the different bridges:

Addison/Isaac/Cathy = 19.5 cm

Cody/Krisha/Oliver = 23.5 cm

Hunter/Sasha/Paige = 15 cm

Cyntalia/Chazz/Kain = 8 cm

Jagger/Eloise/Jaykuz/Jacob = 22 cm

Xavier/Jade/Kevin = 16 cm

Luke/Emma/Monique/Monika = 21.5 cm

We used our higher order thinking skills to come up with these ideas:

Daily Five / Cafe Reading Programme

This term we will be introduced to the Daily Five / Cafe Reading Programmes.

Next week we will becoming familiar with the different activities and ensuring that we know what is expected of us during our reading time. The children will be coming home with a Pick Box Book or can read a "good fit book" of their choice at home each night.

We will be learning a variety of reading strategies, these strategies will help us to become better readers.

Enjoy the last couple of days of the holidays, finally we have some good weather, see you all next week.

Hunter's Home Learning Challenge

After weeks of organising and collecting of toys, Hunter delivered his collection into Star Ship Children's Hospital on Friday. 

Thanks to Brooke and Hunters Mum and Dad for helping carry all the heavy boxes. Ship Ship were very grateful and couldn't believe all of the effort and hard work that Hunter put into this project.

Well done Hunter, you should be very proud of yourself. You will be making a lot of children very happy.

Book Parade

We all had an amazing day, enjoying our book parade assembly. These are our fantastic characters. Can you guess who is hiding under some of the costumes?

Awesome Room 15!!!