Robotics with Mr Crowe!

Mr Crowe from Wesley Intermediate visited us in Term 3 this year. We had an introduction to coding and using robotics.

We talked about what inventors do. Then we got to learn some new words like algorithm. An algorithm are a set of steps to finish your goal. Its kind of like the movement words that we have been using in geometry for maths. 


We worked together to create robots out of lego, before we put them to the test. Check out some of the action of our robot wars!

Ch, Ch, Ch, CHANGES!

This week our PB4L lesson is around dealing with changes. So far we have discussed some of the changes that have happened to us in our own lives. We are learning that there are lots of ways to deal with changes and that we need to be resilient. Some of the changes we experience can be expected, while others are unexpected. 

Here are some of the changes that we have experienced:

Next year we will all be going through a change when we leave Room 13 and move to a new class! We have lots of questions and mixed emotions about this new change! 

Have you got any advice that you can give us for how to deal with change? Please leave us a comment below!

Something AWESOME is coming!

The Kauri Team have been working SUPER hard over the last 8 weeks! 

Here is a sneak peek of what we've been up to. You'll have to check back in with us at the end of the year to see the finished product! 

Summer's Here!

It was a BEAUTIFUL day on Monday, so as a special treat, we got to take our SQUIRT session outside and sat under the shady pohutukawa trees. 

It was much nicer reading outside in the cool breeze instead of the hot stuffy classroom!

Where is your favourite place to read a book?

Leave us a comment and let us know!

Student Achievements!

WOW! Our first 5 weeks of school have whizzed by and so far we have sen lots of our fantastic class members be recognised for their AWESOMENESS! 




In Week 1, Amelia & Kahealani were awarded our Class Certificates. 

Amelia received her certificate for using her talk moves during Maths. She is becoming more confident of asking questions when she is unsure, and is taking more responsibility for her own learning.

Kahealani received her certificate for actively listening and contributing her ideas in maths discussions. It has been pleasing to see Kahealani share her ideas. 










Maile was also acknowledged for her contribution to "The Dream Team". She has been working alongside the Puketapapa Local Board, and helped to successfully organise and run a clean up day last term on a Saturday, down at Plantation Reserve. 

In Week 2, Dominique received his Class Certificate for valuing his learning. Dominique tries hard to focus on his learning, manage his time work and persevere with his learning, even when its challenging! 

In Week 4, Carson earned his certificate for having a focused and positive attitude in Maths. Sometimes it is really challenging when we do problem solving, but Carson was able to work cooperatively with his group in order to solve a problem.











Mariam was also our learner of the week in Week 4. She is now a super amazing blog commenter, who can leave comments that are positive, helpful and thoughtful. Mariam has been leaving comments on May Road Students' blogs and other school's blogs around NZ!







and... Last week's certificates went to Moosa & Mehran!

Moosa received his certificate for his excellent time management skills. He is ALWAYS able to finish his work within the given timeframe, and ALWAYS completes his work to the best of his ability.

Mehran earned his certificate in Maths. He really, really, really persevered with his explaining his mathematical thinking to his peers. He was patient and explained his ideas in a different way, even drawing a picture, so that other people could understand how he solved a problem. 

It's so awesome to see these kids stepping up and valuing their learning. Keep an eye on their progress, as I'm sure next year we will have some AMAZING Year 4's and 5's to watch!

Onomatopoeia Words

When Miss Roper was here, she introduced us to ONOMATOPOEIA words. We looked at some poems and found some examples of these words.

An onomatopoeia word is a word that describes a sound. For example: BOOM!, BANG!, KA-POW!

This week we have been creating some images to help us remember these words. Here are Miss Percy's.

Volleyball

Our PE for term 4 is.... VOLLEYBALL! 

We are learning using super softballs, which is helping us to learn new skills and the correct techniques.

In our first week we learnt how to do an underhand serve.

This week we learnt how to set the ball up. We need to use our fingertips and extend our arms and bodies when we do this skill. 

Check out the action shots below from our second session. 

Getting ready to serve!

Learning how to set. Check out Andrew & Maile's awesome technique!

Learning to play a new game!

What tips do you have for first timer volleyballs to help us get better? 

Leave us a comment with your ideas!

Tuhi Mai, Tuhi Atu - Introducing Room 13!

Tena koutou readers!

This week we are embarking on our Tuhi Mai, Tuhi Atu journey! 

Tuhi Mai, Tuhi Atu means "Write to me, write to you"

We are excited to expand our blogging audience and comment on other students' work around NZ. 

To get us started we created this slideshow to share with you a bit about who Room 13 are. 

Feel free to leave us a comment on this post or click through to our individual blogs. 

Super Star Readers!

Every holidays, Amazing Andrea (our librarian) organises a holiday reading log competition. 75% of our class completed their holiday reading logs this time.

A big shout out to these kids for their super efforts. You are all awesome! 

Waste Free Rubbish!

What we learnt from the rubbish trip team!

Today we had 2 very environmentally friendly visitors who shared with us their story of how they are waste-free! That means they generate NO rubbish! None at all! Zero-waste! We learnt A LOT from them! Below are some of our ideas. You can check out our individual blogs later in the week for some more of our learning.

Amelia: 6R’s

Dominique: That you can make stuff like marmite instead of buying it.

Alzarah: You can make stuff at home instead of buying it.

Maile: 6R’s

Jahrey: 6R’s - recycle

Abdulwahaid: At the rubbish dump there is a big hole in the ground that we put rubbish in.

Asomua: You can make what you usually have in your normal life. You don’t have to buy stuff, you can make stuff, like your own glue, toothpaste.

Mehran: Compost your food waste.

Carson: 6R’s - reuse, rot

Francesca: 6R’s, how to make glue - you can make your own glue from flour, sugar, vinegar, water

AbdAlrahman - 6R’s refuse, replace, reduce, reuse, recycle, rot

Achsah: 6R’s reduce, reuse, it’s in our Going Green song

Arcadia: We can make our own stuff at home like your own toothpaste and marmite.

Aadil: 6R’s - refuse - say no to packaging

Emeliano: 6R’s - replace - replace a plastic bag with a cotton bag won’t rip and you can reuse instead.

Astera: When you finish your chip packet it is rubbish.

Mariam Y3: When you’ve finished your food scraps find a compost bin so the worms can break down your food.

Mariam Y4: What you can put in your recycling bin is: bottles made from plastic & glass

Drona: You can use a wooden toothbrush to brush your teeth and then put it in the compost.

Von’Zy: We can recycle paper and cardboard

Kahealani: Gladwrap is not good to use because it can end up in birds’ stomachs.

Tuku’afu: 6R’s reuse - you could use a cotton bag for your sandwiches

Andrew: When you throw your rubbish in the bin or the landfill it can still end up in the sea and kill animals.

Moosa: Don’t use a plastic bag because it can rip easily. Use a cotton bag instead.

Isaiah: Reuse means to reuse stuff that you’ve already used, like a pickle jar and you can reuse it for putting coins in.

Let's set a challenge for the week!

Anyone who can bring a rubbish-free lunch this week can have 5 sunshines!

Week 6 & 7 Learners of the Week

It has been CRAZY busy in Room 13 for the last few weeks celebrating 2 language weeks, having hip hop dance lessons as well as preparing and presenting our speeches! (Keep an eye out for more about these events - hopefully there will be a blog post coming soon!)

Let's celebrate our Week 6 Learner of the Week which was Aadil!

Aadil tries super hard ALL THE TIME to be an ideal student. It is so great to have someone who values their learning, as well as respecting the rights of others.Keep up the fabulous work Aadil!

In Week 7, we had 2 Learners of the Week!

Our first learner of the week was Emeliano. He has made some REALLY good progress with his mathematics this year and is becoming more confident when sharing his mathematical thinking with his peers. Ka pai Emeliano!

Our second learner of the week was Aadil (again!!) We have had some new students arrive in our class recently, and Aadil has proven himself to be extremely reliable and helpful with supporting these students. Fantastic job Aadil! 

Learner of the Week x2!

On Friday we celebrated another 2 successful learners! Well done to Andrew & Achsah!

Achsah received her certificate for showing enthusiasm towards her learning, and Andrew received his certificate for persevering with his speech brainstorming! 

       

Keep up the awesome work!

Wet Day Breaks!

When its a wet day we have to stay inside the classroom for our morning tea and lunch. Sometimes we get a little crazy and forget what games or activities are appropriate. To combat this problem we have collaborated as a class to create...

 

Miss Percy has given us some feedback about our slides, but we would love to hear from you. 

What games or activities do you play in your class when its raining? 

Learner of the Week!

Week 4's Learner of the Week was awarded to Carson!

Congratulations Carson! You totally deserve this week's certificate for the amount of effort and perseverance that you have put into your writing. 

Tino pai!

2017 Ako Hiko Student Toolkits

WOW! How lucky am I? Yesterday I got to take 22 amazing May Road Students to the 3rd Ako Hiko Student Toolkits session at New Windsor School. 

We had 2 groups of students run 2 different workshops where they taught other students across the Ako Hiko Cluster. 

Fredrick, Lata, Maaiasepi and Siaosi ran a toolkit on how to use Thinglink.

Jordyn, Seem and Vaisioa ran one on how to use Tinkercad.

These students created a presentation that they used to help teach others. Such an awesome way for these students to build their confidence and leadership skills!

There were HEAPS of different toolkits - you can check some of them out by visiting this site. 

Some of our students also participated in a coding challenge and a problem solving challenge. They were pretty tricky!

Here's a quick look at what happened throughout our day:

What is your favourite tool or app that you know how to use? Maybe we can run a workshop on it in 2018! Comment below and let us know!

Learner of the Week x2!

In Week 2 this term we had TWO amazing Learners who earned certificates. Well done to Mariam and Von'Zy who received their certificates for always valuing their learning and trying their best! 

What ideal May Road Students you are both are! 

Geometry!

We are learning about GEOMETRY for maths!

We learnt about symmetry with Miss Nakhla. We got to go on a treasure hunt around the school to search for objects that are symmetrical. We found heaps!

Here are some of the photos that we took:

Can you find the line of symmetry in each object?

We have also been learning about orientation and position. Here's some of the new vocabulary that we have been learning:

We even got to play Battleships to help us learn about coordinates!

Asomua versus Emeliano 

Dominique versus Isaiah

Life Education & Harold the Giraffe

In week one, we had a visit from Carleen, Harold the Giraffe and the Life Education caravan.

In our first session we learnt about choices vs decisions.

Choices are the options that we have. Decisions are what we CHOOSE to do. Every time we make a decision there are have influences that can make us change our minds. Some influences can include: past experiences, friends, family, media, money, work, time.

Inside the Life Education Caravan with Harold the Giraffe!

We also learnt that every decision we make has a consequence. The consequence can be positive (like a reward), or it can be negative (like going to time out).

In our second session, we learnt that our choices influence our reputation. A reputation is the respect or admiration someone receives based on their past behaviour.

Did you know that you can change your reputation? Read on if you want to know how!

Start by being good! CHANGE YOUR BEHAVIOUR! Remember that the choice of words we use are important.

We also learnt another about another thing, known as peer pressure. Peer pressure is when your friends try to make you do something that you don't want to do.

Room 13 and Carleen discuss some BIG issues!

There are 3 different ways that we can deal with peer pressure:

1. Be agressive - this is not a good way to deal with issues because people get angry

2. Be passive - giving in, this means you may be unhappy with the consquence

3. Be assertive - don't back down, keep calm, say what you want and stick to it - this is a good way to deal with peer pressure.

What was your favourite learning from the Life Ed Caravan?

Valuing Our Learning

Our first 2 weeks for PB4L was about Valuing Our Learning. We had lots of discussions with Miss Nakhla around what this looks like in our class. 

Then we set our own goals around how we could value our learning. Everyone has their own goal and it's up to us to make sure that we achieve them.

Holiday Super Readers!

These are some of our FABULOUS, AMAZING, SUPER, WONDERFUL, TERRIFIC, MOTIVATED readers! 

Well done Maile, Abdulwahaid, Dominique, Aadil, Asomua, Mehran, Astera, Arcadia, Alzarah and Mariam!

All these children read during their holidays, completed their holiday reading logs AND returned their reading logs back to Andrea.

For their tremendous efforts, the Blue Fairy rewarded them with a certificate and a prize. 

12 out of 23 children returned their holiday reading logs. Hopefully next term, you will read a blog post about us winning the holiday reading log competition and having lunch with the Blue Fairy!!

Term 3's First Learner of the Week!

Congratulations to Mehran who was our first Learner of the Week for Term 3!

Mehran received this certificate from Miss Nakhla for being focused on his work and helping others when he is finished his own learning.

What an ideal student he is! We are so lucky to have him in our class. 

Keep it up Mehran!

Maori Gods & Matariki

As part of our art and maths during Matariki, we created a google drawing of one of Rangi (Sky Father) and Papatuanuku's (Earth Mother) children.

We read the story In the Beginning retold by Peter Gossange. Then we used the book as inspiration for our drawings.

Here is Tawhirimatea - God of Winds & Storms, created by Miss Percy.

Check out these slides to see out what other gods we were able to create using shapes.

Hockey Skills

Room 13 learning how to hold the hockey stick.

Room 13 have been learning some new skills for PE this term. Miss Percy has been on release so she has NO idea what Room 13 have been learning at hockey! 

After having a chat to the class we worked out that some of the key things were learnt were: 

• How to pick the right stick
• How to hold the hockey stick
• How to control the ball

You can read more about what Room 13 have learnt during their PE sessions by clicking on their names on the right hand side over here ------------------------------------->

Dominique, Emeliano, Jahrey & Arcadia looking good controlling the ball.

Emeliano tries to get the ball past Asomua.

Prediction Powers!

During our reading lessons, we have been working on predicting. We can use the clues in the text and our prior knowledge (what we already know) to help us make sensible predictions.

Good readers keep making predictions and adjust them as they continue to read.

We watched this short movie, and had to predict what happened next. We had to justify our thinking and explain WHY we thought what we did.

What do you think will happen next?

Add your prediction below, and then check watch the rest of the clip here!