Cool home play challenge

I'm excited about out paper dart contest today. Our homeplay challenge was to make a paper dart that can either fly the furtherest or the best around a corner.

Jack does math before school.

Jack is playing a math game on a iPad he is getting good at Maths because he does it before school.

Maths Strategy: Compatible numbers

 Check out how Elan and Charlie use compatible numbers to solve this problem.

Maths Strategies - Compatible numbers

Check out how Sophie and Taylah explained how to use the maths strategy of compatible numbers.  We like to find easier ways to solve problems.  Try this one for yourself.

Maths Strategies - Compatible numbers

Check out how Josh and Jack use compatible numbers to solve this problem.

Buddy Babble - Bella and oops - who is your buddy?

Buddy Babble - Jess and Samantha

Jack keeps warm

Jack the cat wants to go out side but he wants to keep clean and warm so he watches the kids play as he plays a nice quiet game.

Jack the Cat learns about Compatible Numbers

Jack has been listening carefully in his maths group.  He does not want to add up all the numbers.  He looks for the minus and takes it away first.  The answer is what is left over.

Jack is really good at maths in Kakariki Group.

Maths Strategy - Bonds to 10

Twitter focus Week 4: Reading

Welcome to our first official Twitter session on #kidsedchatnz.

This week we will be focussing on reading.

Q1: Why is reading an important skill to learn in school?
Q2: How can you become a better reader?
Q3: What are some of your favourite books you have read?

Choose a question to answer in your draft book.  Remember you are only allowed to use 40 characters - including punctuation.  You should include the hashtag #kidsedchatnz at the end so people know we are part of the conversation. 

Remember that lots of different schools will be joining in and reading our tweets.  :)

Update on Spot

Check out how Spot is going.  Samantha has posted on her own blog.  She can even do this from home as she has her own passwords.  Do you think you might want a blog of your own just like Samantha?

Make sure you write Samantha a comment about how Spot is going.

Samantha's Blog

Kowhai meets Endeavour

Wow - we are famous!  Go and vist Kowhai Conversation to see the movie the buddies made on their Monday visit.  Make sure you leave a comment.

http://vimeo.com/67039075

Student blogs ..... Check these out!

Some of the E-Team have been busy blogging.  Check out their posts by clicking on the link and give them a comment.

Do you think you are ready for your own blog?  You would need to be giving regular effective comments and posting 1-2 times a week on the class blog.

http://kidblog.org/TeamEndeavour/

Spot on a birthday weekend with Chloe

Hello,
...but don't get too excited because here is a picture of the sparklers and you can't actually see Spot, or anyone for that matter. But Spot had fun. (This was at Chloe's birthday the other weekend.)
Chloe

Spot has begun his visit to Weedon's School so we hope to see some photos of what he gets up to with his new Kowhai Conversation friends.

Welcome Jack to Springston E-Team

This is Jack on his first day at Springston School.  Jack and Spot are playing on the bars at break time.  They will run into class when they hear the bell so they are ready to learn.

We are going to love having Jack as our 'borrowed' or 'hosted' mascot.

Kapahaka - Te Aroha

Kapahaka - He Honore

Blog Buddies - Zac & Baileigh

As you can tell - we are having a few technical difficulties with the Photo-babbles being rotated.  If you have any ideas on how we could fix them - we would love to hear.

Ignoring that ..... here is Zac introducing himself to Bailey.  I hope Bailey answers the questions that Zac asked!

Blog Buddies - Lachie & Donny

Maths Strategies - Jump the numberline

Harold the giraffe

Team Endeavour had a great time with Harold in Life Education this week.  We found out why we are lucky to be us.  We are Kiwis, with our own personality, interests and influences.  Our family influence who we become and the groups we mix with like our class, sports teams and extended family.

There are some influences we need to say no to.  We need to get the facts so we can make the right choices about caring for our body. We need to say no to drinking lots of sugary drinks like Coke, too much McDonalds and especially smoking because they are not good for the inside of our body.

Genius Hour - our first session

E-Team Endeavour had our first real Genius Hour today.  We followed our plans do begin our projects.  Some of us researched things like how greenstone is formed, what the weirdest thing in the ocean is and what the life of a child was like living in a castle.  A group of girls made paper patterns for doll dresses, others programmed a robot and two boys investigated Mine-craft.  One group organised recipes for the next session and the last group investigated rocks, planning a trip to Lincoln University.

Not everything went to plan but everyone acted just like a genius - they had a challenge and worked towards achieving it.  We all have next steps ready for our following sessions.  

Maths Strategy: bonds to 10

Check out how Chloe and Lucy used bonds to 10 to solve the maths problem.

Scraps for Bokashi

Today at lunchtime we found out how to re-cycle our scraps of food to feed the garden.  It is called the BOKASHI.

First we chopped up the scraps.

Next we sprinkled the mix in the BOKASHI bin.

We tipped the scraps in and sprinkled some more mix in.  

The food will turn picked and turn into soil when we bury it in the garden. 

This is a better idea the putting our scraps in the LANDFILL!

Times Tables - 8x from Maggie

I learned my 8x table for home learning.  Check out my picture!

Māori long vowel sound waiata

This is a song we can use to get better at our Māori long vowel sounds while learning a few commands as well.

Commands:
e oma - run
e pakipaki - clap
e tu - stand up
e piko - curl
e toro - stretch out
e takahia - stamp
e hikoi - walk
e ano - again
e whakarongo - listen

Blog Buddies - Harriet & Holly

Blog Buddies - Māhora & Jorja

Symmetry Movie

Check out Tate and Jack B sharing what a line of symmetry is.

Symmetry Video

Maggie and Chloe really know what a line of symmetry is.  Check out their ideas on this movie.

Symmetry movie

Sam and Jack used what they knew about symmetry to make this movie.

Home learning from Estée

Hi Allana,

Tonight I did my home work grid and I decided to email you about my after school activities.

I did my singing exam practice but today I did it with a real piano player. His name was Hamish and he had a grand piano.

 It was awesome because I had never done it before.

My real exam is on the 28^th of May.

Tomorrow night I am going to watch a concert about singing and Hamish is in it.

From Estee

I love finding out about the exciting learning you all do at home.   I am really excited for Estée with her exam.  It takes lots of courage to complete exams in music or dance and I know lots of our class know how she feels and will give her lots of encouragement.

Spot goes visiting

Spot popped home with me for the night and made friends with my cats Tigger and Sophie.  I'll have to watch that they don't teach him any bad habits but he seems to be having fun.

Spot is wondering who to go home with on the weekend.  He is looking forward to having some adventures and posting the pictures on the blog.  Will you be the person to invite Spot home to your place?

Meet My Buddy - Lucy & Gabrielle

Try to answer your buddy's questions in a comment below.  

Spot sorts the rubbish

Spot has been working on a poster to help the kids put the right rubbish in the right bins.

Remember to put plastic, paper and tins in the recycling bin.  Look for the signs to remind you.

Top 10 Wonders of NZ

We looked at the 7 New Wonders of the World and decided how they might have been chosen.

We then looked at what we thought might be the Top 10 Wonders of New Zealand.  We will have to vote for the Top 10 so write you suggestion in a comment below.  Remember to give reasons to convince us your selections should be included.

Photo by Mark Taylor - used with permission

This is one of my choices.  Can you find out where it is?

Miss Lyall from Weedons thinks this should be one of our 10 Wonders of NZ.  

Check out the link below.  Miss Lyall's choice.

Count in Māori

Hey - I found a great video that you can work on your Māori counting.

Remember to use the hand symbols.  I wonder who of us can make a video showing how to count backwards like we have been practising every morning?

ECO Warriors workshop

Our amazing ECO Warriors taught their first lesson with Team Endeavour today.  They used their scripts to help remember what to say and did brilliantly at collecting all the great ideas from all the children.  Most of the ECO Warriors are from our class so we are very proud of them.

Check out the ideas from our team.

Here are some of the things we love about school and the creative ideas we have about making our school even better.

Spot's Learning

Before school today, Spot was seen doing jobs in the class.  This is because he was showing initiative.  He is in the Endeavour Waka.

Spot also wrote a target in his planner and sneaked in some Buddy Reading with Maggie.  Check out their Coaching Sheet in case he gets stuck on a word.

Blog Buddies - Weedons Kowhai Conversation

We are very excited about having blog buddies.  We all got slips of paper with their name on it and some of the things they are interested in.  We wondered how Allana knew all this information but she had met up with their teacher to plan it all.

http://weedonskowhai.blogspot.co.nz/

We are going to make a Photo-Babble to introduce ourselves and ask our buddy two questions so they have to answer in a comment below the post.  Phelix will be busy because he has two buddies!

What can you notice about Kowhai Conversation's room?  Have you any questions to ask them after visiting their blog?  Ask them a question below as a comment.

Caught - Spot during Daily 5

Spot was caught today during Daily 5 doing all the right things.

During Read to Buddy he was sitting EEKK - elbow to elbow, knee to knee.  Can you see the book in the middle so that he and Kiwi can both see?  They were using quiet voices so we could all build our stamina.

Later on in the session Spot was caught Reading to Self.  Can you see that he got started straight away and was reading all the time?  He remembered to take his book box with him and even got ear-muffs to help him concentrate.

Great work Spot the Dog!

Spot being A+ by eating feed and read quietly

Spot was being A+ by eating his food during Feed and Read quietly. When he finished, he listened quietly to the story. He was A+ accepting.  By Lucy

Great thinking in my planner

Check out how much detail I put in my planner this week.  I really thought about my learning. Allana even e-mailed my parents at home to tell them about the brilliant job I had done.

Could we have individual student blogs?

Check out this link to our 'Dummy Blog'.  Click on the blog post and leave a comment.

http://kidblog.org/TeamEndeavour

Making things right - Before Sunrise

We want to make things right about using the pictures from the movie Before Sunrise without permission so we have written this letter.  It would have been quicker to e-mail it but there are no e-mail addresses on Kealan's website.  We will let you know when we get and answer.  

Dear Kealan,

Our class of 7-9 year olds in New Zealand have really been inspired by your movie ‘Before Sunrise’ which we found on The Literacy Shed.

We worked very hard on writing the story of your movie with lots of description.  This is the link to our own movies and stories. 

http://our-writing-rocks.blogspot.co.nz

http://springstonteamendeavour.blogspot.co.nz

We feel terribly bad because we know we have used your pictures without permission and we know that is not the right thing to do.  Could we please have permission to keep these pictures on our class blog?  If you want us to we will take them down and understand why but we would be disappointed. 

We hope that you keep making these amazing animations because lots of school children are inspired by them and can do some great writing using your ideas. 

Thank you

On behalf of the Room 6 Kids

Estee, Lucy and Tate

Reflection with two lines of symmetry

Reflection and Rotation

Reflection

We have a big challenge!

We have been so excited about our work with the movie Before Sunrise that we have forgotten something very important.  The website The Literacy Shed has permission to post the movie on their blog but have we got permission to use the images we took from the movie?

What do you think we should do?  How could we make this right?  Tell me your ideas in a comment below.

http://www.kealanorourke.com/

Term 2 Newsletter

Click on this image for a larger option.

Waiata - National Anthem

AkoAroha and her wonderful class use this to begin each day.  It uses our three National Languages - Māori, NZ Sign and English.  I am sure if we struggle to learn the sign that they will help us out!

Before Sunrise Movie - Estee

Estee has finished her movie about The Shadow from our Term 1 writing.  I love the way she uses great expression to read her story in the movie.  Please write her a constructive comment about her writing and the movie.

Kiwiana 2

A jandal-shod journey through Kiwi pop culture. Kiwiana takes a light-hearted look at the fashion, art, architecture, attitudes, and icons (Buzzy Bees, Edmonds, Swanndri, Pavlova etc) we call our own. Directed by Shirley Horrocks, and shot by Leon Narbey, it featured personalities Gary McCormick, Ginette McDonald, John Clarke, Peter Jackson, and others. Screening at a time (1996) when New Zealanders were just beginning to appreciate these neglected everyday objects as ‘collectibles,' it rated highly, and inspired a sequel, Kiwi As.

Kiwiburger - what makes it so Kiwi?

Kiwi Kids Class Blog

Check out these poems from Kowhai Conversation.  They clearly explain what each poet thinks a Kiwi Kid really is.  Could we write our own poems like this?  Go and visit their writing blog and give then some constructive comments.
http:/weedonskowhaipub.blogspot.co.nz/

Their class blog is worth a visit too!
http://weedonskowhai.blogspot.co.nz/

Genius Hour - What would you love to learn about?

The very forward thinking company 'Google' gives their employees 20% time to investigate their own projects and finds that the most creative ideas come from this time. 

Are there things you would desperately love to learn about but are never given time in school?   What are your passions?  What would you be excited to learn about?  Begin thinking about this question and write your answer in a comment.

On Friday we will be looking at how we can incorporate a 'Genius Hour' in our classroom, what you might like to investigate, the expectations and final presentation.

Genius Hour Class Blog - get some ideas from here.
Class Genius Hour research projects