Kia Ora whanau, this week the students learnt some Biology. More specifically about the features and behaviours of whales. Did you know, that whales cannot breath underwater? Well the students of Room 1 can certainly answer that for you. They then had an opportunity to make their own whales from recycled material at home. Check out Charles blog about his whale. We have been looking at whales as we started the whale rider novel before lockdown and were a bit sad that we couldn't continue just yet. Check out Mrs Ellen's whales below.
It was a joyous occasion to meet with Room 1 again, albeit it be online. Going into lockdown was no big surprise and I am glad to say the students settled in at home and then jump right into their learning. Look at those jovial faces.
If money was no object and you were in Tokyo right now during the Olympics, what sights would you see? Oh and this is pre internet time, so you can't social media your awesome pictures and your camera uses film that will need to be developed once you return to New Zealand. How do you communicate to your family? Lets write a postcard.
The year 7 and 8s really enjoy being outdoors and getting into their sports. This term we will be playing Ki-O-Rahi. After a few minutes the students got into the game like pros. But practice makes perfect so they will keep at it.
We have come back from our school holidays refreshed and ready to continue our learning journey. We are still getting used to the routines again. The first week has seen us learning about New Zealand Paralympians and the history of the olympics. Here is Texas's research on his Paralympian
The students get to experience technology in Food, Control, Science and Hard materials at Tamaki College
The groups have rotated and the students get to join a new class. In Food tech the students get to make delicious food and practice their food preparation skills. Dicing, grating, frying and mashing skills on display when you enter. Working with food safely is a valuable skill everyone will need in their life. And of course the students enjoy their end products. Yum!
In Science, the students have been exploring what science looks like in different aspect. The science behind paper planes and inside a flower using their observation and measurement skills.
For hard materials, they are working with wood and using one piece of wood they need to measure and create a product. At the moment they are working on housing joints to secure their creations.
In control, they understand file and folder management on their chromebooks and are now looking at electrical components so far they have looked at resistor colour coding.
This week during buddy time with Room 3, a year 2/3 class our senior students paired up and studied the Autumn leaves poem. They then went hunting for some beautiful leaves. Tasked to create, they had the opportunity to create digital Autumn leaves with their buddies on the ipads as well as Paint with their Autumn leaves. The results are stunning. And the Tuakana-teina relationships become strong as they support and help eachother along the way.
Our inquiry this term is to look at life on mars... Is there life? can we sustain life there? We have been adding to our knowledge by looking at what seeds need to germinate and grow and then we will investigate what that would look like if we wanted to take plants to Mars.
We have successfully germinated Broad bean seeds and have started our garden outside our class space. Where we water it and make sure it gets lots of sunlight to continue to grow
The school has been focusing on the Dance curriculum this term and we have a lovely team from Footsteps to come in and show us how its done. So far the students have learnt about the following dance elements: Shape, Body awareness and relationships. It is lots of fun, and for some it is coming out of our comfort zones.
Room 8 has had an interesting time lately, we are in the process of putting together a classroom furniture proposal for Mrs Hamilton as it is time to upgrade the furniture for the intermediates and we get to have our say on the matter. I have been enjoying the conversations we are having about budgets and feasibility. This is very sensible when asking for things we want. We have also had a chance to do some work outdoors. With our old playground being torn down we have had some good and fertile soil unearthed which we have gathered to be repurposed. We love being out and getting our hands dirty.
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For our writing task we did a "Get to know you" activity in the form of a Biopoem. Come to our class to have a look at the student's display. Well, anyway some students have asked me to join the challenge and make one about me. So here it is, now you know.
Whanaungatanga is the theme for the year at our school and during this lockdown we have definitely shown this. Room 8 have been having our Google meets twice a day everyday and its lovely to see everyone and connect with eachother. We are keeping spirits high with sharing what we are doing and the students have taken to playing games with eachother. We can't wait to get back to school but for now we will see eachother online, and it seems space is where most of the students are finding themselves.
Room 6 and Room 7 have created an exciting movie for our Manaiakalani film festival. We are a team of year 3/4 and 7/8 students who usually buddy up for reading and thought this would be another great way to continue our learning together.
Coronavirus is a virus that through rampant spreading has created a pandemic for our world. We are all in this together. We need to do what we need to do to keep those vulnerable in our society safe from the effects of this virus. So when they asked us to stay home, we stayed home and the humans adapted to living and continuing to learn through the internet. We were online doing our writing, reading, inquiry and connecting with our classmates through google meets. Not ideal, but a new way to do things. Here are some of room 7 students learning online.
We had an interrupted term 1 and term 2 and to end it off, we decided, because of our love of Food we would have a shared lunch. There was pizza and chips, lollies and cupcakes and someone brought in some delicious chop suey and a traditional potato salad. Oh boy it was all good and delicious.
