Election Inquiry

On Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, Room 15 and 16 are working together on an Election Inquiry. This is to help the children understand the election process and why we elect our Government.

Room 7 helped us to start the Inquiry Process by inviting us to District 7. President Renner told us the rules of District 7 and how we needed to behave. This was very different to how we normally have to behave, and we found this quite hard.

Entering District 7 

The children had to sit in their own areas and were told exactly what to do by the "Enforers".

These are the rules of District 7. If you didn't follow the rules you were escorted to the Detention Area.

Fitness.

President Renner kept checking if we were following the instructions correctly.

Some people ended up in the Detention Area, sometimes even for no reasons at all.

After visiting District 7, we broke into groups and brainstormed what we already know about Elections and also what we would like to find out about the Elections. We already knew quite a lot of facts.

We then planned our own parties. We need to convince the members of Room 15 and 16 that our ideas are the best.

We split into like minded groups and developed our ideas. We used the ideas from our persuasive writing to write out the reasons and examples that our party came up with.

We then moved on to create our presentation back to the class.

Who would like to join the Teachers Party?

Tomorrow we will finish our presentation and vote on the best idea. We will finish the Inquiry by preparing graphs and comments on who won.

Persuasive Writing

This term we have been concentrating on persuasive writing. We have been writing to try and convince others to our way of thinking. The main points included in our success criteria are below, we had to ensure that our writing included these points:

• An introduction that states what I am writing about and what my opinion is.
• Reasons why my opinion is correct.
• Examples of my reasons.
• Emotive language.
• Words likes: Firstly, Next, Finally.
• A conclusion.

This is Luke's piece of persuasive writing about Why Cats Make Better Pets Than Dogs!

Why Cats Make Better Pets Than Dogs!
By Luke McGaughey

Are amazing cats better than dumb dogs? Yeah they are!
Everybody in the world should have a pet cat.

First of all, everyone should have a pet cat because they are smarter than dogs. They are smarter because they use their whiskers to measure things so they can get through small places, like tunnels, holes and cat doors. They can hide in really good places and keep safe. They will be safe because they will be hiding very quietly and no one will notice where they are hiding.

Secondly, cats are better because they play with yarn. They are also fun because when you rub their tunny they roll over. They are fun because when you go hunting, you can bring your cat with you so it will be easier.

Last of all, cats are the worlds best pets because, they are life savers. They are life savers because they are very brave. They are brave because a cat saved a child's life because a dog was attacking him, and the cat scared the dog away. It was just like in the movies. Cats claws can climb trees and save peoples lives. Their teeth allow them to bite people that are trying to hurt their owners.

This is why cats are better pets than dogs.

Pentominoes

During maths this week, we have looked at the area of objects and how we can measure how large things are. We were using pentominoes to do this. Pentominoes are shapes that are made from 5 squares, that are placed together. We each made our own pentominoe from place value blocks. We were amazed at all of the different ways you can put 5 squares together. We then measured the area of each pentominoe and found that they were all 5 cm2. Next week we will be making our own set of pentominoes.

Friday Assembly

Today Addison, Eloise, Emma and Jade were part of the dancing performance at full school assembly. They performed to Katy Perry's song Roar and were amazing.

Fraction Friday

Today for maths, we were learning how to order fractions.

We all started with one whole chocolate bar (unfortunately we only had a piece of paper, pretending to be a chocolate bar). 

The children had to decide how they were going to share their chocolate bar. They could share it among 2 people - halves, 3 people - thirds, 4 people - quarters, 6 people - sixths, 10 people - tenths etc.

 Once everyone had shared their whole chocolate bars, we came back together to see who would have the largest piece.

We placed the fraction pieces on the mat and sorted them from the largest fraction piece to the smallest. 

The largest piece was our whole chocolate bar and our smallest piece was our tenth.

Clever Sasha spotted that as the denominator got bigger, the piece of chocolate (or fraction) got smaller. Nice spotting Sasha.

Daffodil Day

Today we enjoyed Daffodil Day. We are supporting the Cancer Society. Closer to home, we are supporting any friends and relatives that have been affected. We had a special moment at Syndicate Assembly, when Room 16 shared their thoughts on today. Nandhini (Room 16) shared her own experience with her bright amazing attitude.

Paige picked daffodils and brought them into class to share. We had a beautifully fragrant classroom all day. Thanks Paige for brightening up our day and supporting such an amazing cause.

Whanau Time - 22nd August 2014

What an amazing whanau time today. Sasha performed with the Jump Jam team and then went on to perform with Krisha in the Indian dancing routine. Monika also introduced her little brother Toby, who started school this week.