Wednesday of Week 4

I want to thank Room 11 for their co-operation today. I have lost my voice and the class has been great - listening carefully to me. I've really appreciated it!

 Today we had a game of "Crab Soccer" with Room 9. It was great to hear Mr Bussell praising the boys for their readiness to join other teams. It was lots of fun and maybe a game we will play again!

Was that a goal?

Where did the ball go?

I've got it!!

All on the move...

 Yesterday during Inquiry we looked at the types of questions that the students should be using for their interviews. We had a good session looking t the difference between "fat" and "skinny" questions.

This afternoon we took a break from our Inquiry ladder activity and looked at some Thinkers Skills tasks. Maisie's use of false teeth was one task that stood out for me! However there was some very creative thinking going on around the classroom!

So that was our day!

Week 3 of the second term

This week has been a short one for me as I have been away.

I have come back though to Student-Led Conferences and have found it really positive and interesting to hear the students talk about their learning, their highlights and goals. Well done to those of you who had prepared your "scripts" and had work to share that you were proud of!

Subject discussions

In reading I have been… learning about the Highwayman. Our class each made a filmstrip, I will show you what I have done. I chose this work to show you because… I really enjoyed retelling the story in my own way, by drawing pictures on a filmstrip. My goal in reading is… to use reading strategies more often when I get stuck. e.g questioning, inferring, skimming, scanning and visualising.

In maths I have been… doing Statistical investigations with the class. I learnt lots of different ways to plot my information. I chose this work because… I want to show you how many different types of ways I can record my information. My goal in maths is… to learn all my times tables and answer them as quick as I can.

In writing I have been… learning to write character descriptions, how to use a burger planning format. I chose this work because… I want to show you what I have wrote about Connor and how to use the burger format. My goal in writing is… think about where to use punctuation correctly.

Other

So far at school, I have especially enjoyed… Music with Mrs McHattie because I have learnt how to play the drums and guitar. I have also learnt some theory and History of Music players.

It is easiest for me to be successful in… art because I love to draw and create pieces of art.

It takes more work for me to be successful in… Science because I haven't learnt Science for a while. When I went to Science in Technology it was lots of information to remember.

The way I like to work best is… in pairs or in a group because I find it easier when there is somebody to help you.

I would describe my using of the school values as… successful because i don’t break the school values and I don’t get into trouble

Yesterday Hannah brought in one of her noughts and crosses homework tasks - a breakfast cereal! She shared not only her packaging but also gave the class a sample to try!

Last week Mrs Bassett sent through some photos from Food technology.

Maths Strategy Show Mes!

A New Term

What great weather we've had to start off a new term!
Yesterday during PE we did the dreaded beep test! Henry took out the top spot - with Oscar not far behind.
Today we used Pippin and Sam S's umpiring skills to have a game of soccer. It's great to be able to use the skills and talents of our pupils.
Inside Room 11 itself we have been working with our new learning buddies. Yesterday the students checked each others Term 1 camp recounts - providing them with 2 "stars" and 1 "wish" - good points and items to work on:

 We also began brainstorming ideas for our term theme of The Human Machine.

 Time was also spent sharing last term's work. Here are some of the activities that were created during our learning about the NZ Identity:

Cairo's diarama

Ellie's Snakes and Ladders

Olivia's Board Game

Tamar's Game

Julian's ANZAC scene

That's a quick look at the start of our term :)

Week 11 - The Last of Term 1

Looking back on this term I'm amazed at all we have accomplished. From the first few weeks when everyone was so quiet .... to  the now and the not so quiet!! Room 11 has come together as a class and new friendships have grown and old ones have been strengthened. There have been some really great learning experiences - both in and out of the classroom.

 Today I've been enjoying handing out little easter eggs. It was a great exercise getting Room 11 students to nominate each other for good moments.

This was full this morning!

Today has been a "finishing off" kind of day - camp recounts, inquiry tasks and reading activities!

New Zealand "Treasures" for a collage

The Battle of the Mountains - Christina's Art

Tom H, Typing up his "interview" with mountain biker Brook MacDonald

Also this week we have been joining with Room 9 for our PE sessions? Yesterday we played Long Ball and today it was Unihoc in the Hall.

This was our week :)

Well we've coped with a wet week! 

The week started with our visit to Matahiwi Marae. The rain managed to stay away as we walked onto the Marae but we had to move into the whare kai for most of the powhiri.
The students had three activities there: Learning about the Marae Atea and Maui, hearing about the ancestors associated with Matahiwi and looking at the Jacob Scott mural inside the whare kai.

Tuesday saw us over at Havelock North High School. We attended the dress rehearsal of "The 39 Steps" and all enjoyed the acting and overall quality of the performance.

Wednesday and Thursday we have been enjoying visiting other classrooms for our Kotahitanga rotations. Both Miss Pitt and Miss Kay have said what a great group of kids Room 11 is!!

Mrs Bassett sent through the following collage of KK during Food Technology on Thursday.

So to today and it too has been a busy one, with the presentation of classroom banners and our Kapa Haka Assembly. Photos next week!  Here's to a sunny one :)

Mrs Goodwin's Showme learning!!

Kiwis with Miss Pitt

This afternoon Room 11 worked with Miss Pitt and created Kiwiana stamps.

The Week After Camp!

Raft building

Waimangu Valley: Echo Crater

This week has gone by in a blurr! It has certainly taken a few days to catch up on sleep after those action packed days at Lakes Ranch. Unfortunately I lost a camera so only have a few photos to share but here are a few:

More from Waimangu

The Water Slide

The Splash

The hot pools were used A LOT!! It was great for activities and for relaxing. At times it was hard to see water for children.

The abseiling was a challenge for many - me included. The setting was amazing and it was a real highlight for me to be able to watch the Room 11 students taking on the "wall"!

and yip... I had a go too!

On our return to HNI this week we have been busy creating our class banner for next week's Kotahitanga celebration! We successfully managed to put 32 handprints on without painting ourselves and each other. The proverb translates as "Many hands make light work" and backs up the term focus of unity.  

We also had a "go" at the Hongi - before our visit to Matahiwi Marae on Monday.

                                      

     

So that is a brief look back on the last couple of weeks in Room 11!

Week before CAMP!

It's really amazing to think that this time in a week we will be at Lakes Ranch! After this busy week it will probably feel like a holiday??!! I know that there are lots of students really looking forward to the challenge that EOTC week brings.
Several highlights for me this week, including homework tasks, athletics sports and introducing some students to some great news websites.
Homework: this week Tamar made a Pinata and we had a whole lot of fun with that.

 We also had crystals made, fitness plans developed, animals created and a range of people "built" for us.

 

   

 The HNI Athletics Day was on Tuesday and it was a full-on, hot day! I was SO impressed by the Room 11 students; their attitude and participation in the various events was wonderful.

And today, with students away at Softball, HBHS and choir, those of us remaining spent reading checking up on a range of news stories from around the world!

So that was a brief glimpse of Week 7. Look forward to lots of camp photos and stories in a couple of weeks :)

Room 11's Week 6!

This week Room 11 has been the school's duty class. This means that students have been managing the PE Shed at lunchtimes (Christina, Tamar, Flynn and Pip), being the school office "runner" (Maisie) and Henry and Liam have been helping out in the staff room with dishes ....

Reward for the hard work ..  eating the teachers' morning tea biscuits!

Also this week I have had enormous pleasure marking the "Musical" Learning Styles homework. We have shared videos of students playing, seen photos and drawings of a huge range of "home made" musical instruments - Bella's wrench xylophone looked amazing. I really appreciate the number of parents who shared some of their favourite music with their children (and vice versa of course!). Here's a piece of music composed by Alice. It also sounded fabulous! 

 

In the classroom we've been reading The Highwayman, by Alfred Noyes and I have seen some great story boards recording the key events, with suggestions for actors who could star and theme music that would be appropriate to create the correct atmosphere. With writing this week the students have been working on their character descriptions and one group used the chrome books for this task. I enjoyed learning how to check their work and comment about it along the way. Also starting this week was the extension maths class,so in Room 11 we left statistics and moved onto adding and subtracting!

This morning I have been  visited by various students filming for media studies ...

                                     

This week softball didn't "happen" but Long Jump did. The students set up the pit and then got on with the job of completing their jumps. I'll end with some of them in action.

Nina

Jacob - lots of height!

Bhulvhai