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

Week 5 in Room 11

Another week has gone by since the last posting. There is always so much going on that it is hard to know where to begin but...
Here's a peek at some homework I enjoyed marking this week:

Ellie's Homework

There are many others who are putting both the time and effort into these tasks and I enjoyed looking at the goals that many wanted to achieve.

Our Maths focus so far has been on Statistics. Mid way through the week we had a look back on all the things we felt we had either learnt or revisited and remembered more clearly. Here's a photo of some of the board:

Excuse the handwriting - lots of ideas coming from the class!

 It was so great that every student could add their ideas.
Students from the 2013 Maths extension class and a couple of others have been looking at the nzmaths website and have been doing their own independent investigations:

Room 11 students were involved in the HNI Triathlon on Wednesday. We had a boys' team of Tom R (swim leg), Jacob M (run leg) and Henry W (cycle leg) who went really well to achieve a third. Livy completed the swim leg for the girls' team - along with two others from Room 9 and they came second! After all that exercise you need refuelling ....

Tom and Jacob - recovery mode!

I asked the class to pose for a class photo this morning. There was a bit of complaining because it was right on the morning tea break. As you can see they weren't very enthusiastic!! Maybe next time they will smile a wee bit more.

 And to end this week in a really great way: Congratulations Eli on achieving your Honour's

Badge!!

Week 4 in Room 11

Welcome to this week's post. The week seems to have gone by pretty quickly and there has definitely been a lot happening, with swimming tabloids still to come.
In the classroom we looked at life in NZ around the 1840's and the students played a game to help them understand what it could have been like for both Maori and Europeans at that time.

We also had our third softball session on a really hot Tuesday. This time they were using the bat!  After being told the correct way to stand, it was "game on!" I think Junior managed the hit of the day!

The Correct Stance

Jacob: First batter up!

Feel the tension!

Wednesday night saw the Swimming sports. Well done to all those who 1) tried out and 2) made it to the finals. Some of you were a little bit out of your comfort zone but gave it your best. Part of the House Swimming Competition was designing a Sheppard House Banner. Congratulations to Bella who was part of the design team. Here are the House Captains with the big reveal, at our House Assembly:

We also had a lot of fun learning the new House Chant ( although we may need a bit of practise before Athletics!). 

The following are some images from last night.

So that's a quick recap of this week!

The week that was ... again! Week 3

At the moment Room 11 are all at their first Technology sessions. Group LL have Science with Miss Hawtin (she tells me that they are going to cause a few explosions today!) and Group KK have Media with Miss Prebensen.
Last week they were set a challenge to decorate a "flatpack". If, like me, you are unsure what this is about, here are a couple of examples from Ellie and Le.

As they were leaving to go I saw some other really cool "creatures" so hopefully the Tech department will be pleased with Room 11's efforts!

This week we had 7 Chrome Books delivered to us. This means that Room 11 have access to a computer for every 2 students. They will be of real benefit as they can be used at the students' desks.

And an update on our collages ... well they are "progressing" and there are even some finished pieces up on the wall!

It was really nice to meet so many parents last night. I forgot to hand out the information on how to comment on this blog. It has gone home with the students today - they should have a copy in their log books!
So that's a little snap shot of this week!

"The week that was...." 

Room 11 has been getting to know more about each other this week. We described ourselves in 25 words and these are displayed on the wall under the title of  "What a Handful!"

We also agreed on three ways our class will work well as a group. They are

• Treat each other the way you wish to be treated yourself.
• Be ready, organised and on task for every lesson.
• Get involved and try your best.

(I am sure if we do these three things we will have an awesome year.)

Today we began a collage task, based on our names, and making a visual display that reflects a little bit about us! It was great to see the engagement and although not yet complete, there are some great pieces in the pipeline.

On Wednesday we had local coaches take us for softball.  Again it was full on and I was really impressed with the way in which everyone got themselves involved. There are some strongly competitive individuals, as well as really supportive peers.