Aleisha's Koru design!

Questions..and answers!

This week in reading we've been practising the comprehension skill of asking questions. We read this text together on our IWB and wondered the following question - after we'd read.

"Why did so many people die of the regular flu back then but not today?" We thought we'd ask an 'expert' for the answer so Ben W and Jaidene typed up an email to send to a doctor. I happened to have one as a friend so we sent it to Dr Stout on Facebook! Here was his reply - that night!

We put his reply - thanks Dr Stout! - on the IWB and worked out what some of the words meant. His reply gave us three reasons and this led to a great discussion about life expectancy and what your immune system is.

Then we wondered the following question - at the top of our 'prior knowledge' graph. What do you think about our wondering?

What is 'stickability?'

Here are some good examples of us practising how to explain ideas from this morning's pow wow pals. We tried to explain what 'stickability' is using our four steps - big idea, content, examples and a summary.

What do you think?

Skills Project - Practice Video

We've been working hard to practise one skill - it has to be new and tricky one. Each student is setting goals, planning their coaches and resources and then practising while working on their next step.

Have a look at our progress!

Maths Success

Here is a great example of the line graphs some of us have been working on. I'm calling it - the Graph of the week! Well done, Gabby. We've been learning about putting the numbers on our x and y axis and making sure they're evenly spaced.

Here is another great example - this time of fantastic setting out. Many our our books are getting VERY sloppy in their presentation. Remember - a messy book is very hard to mark and to find the work you're needing to reflect on. It's very hard to improve if you can't look back and see what you've done.

Sophie W has the date and title in the right place, she has used a ruler and numbered all her questions! Nice job, Sophie!

Digging Deeper - Hauora

This week we worked hard to finish our Hauora projects. The purpose of these projects was to help us deepen our understanding of what the model is and how it helps us. You will be able to see what we've created on a wiki, soon.

Today we discovered that we have quite a few questions about the Hauora Model. This is what happens when you 'dig deeper' into an idea.

Here's a popplet of some of our wonderings. Next week we will do some research in Pow Wow Pals and see if we can answer them!

Explain it like Beckham

Yesterday we had our first attempt at explaining how a random object in the class works. We used cue cards that read, 'Big idea, details, examples and summary' to help guide us through a good structure. Then we recorded our explanations in the folder below.

Have a listen in your groups and complete a self assessment - being especially careful to work out your next steps. Then go away and plan to meet them! I think there are LOTS of ways we can improve our explaining skills.

Koru Art

We've working hard to complete our Koru designs. In this stage we're using hot and cold colours (or a rainbow effect if we want) to make the koru stand out from each other! Do you know what the koru symbol represents for Maori? It has something to do with this term's inquiry!

Blogging Cafe

Today at lunch we started our first 'Blogging cafe' for the year. This is a chance to spend our lunchtime learning some cool things that we can do with our passion project blogs.

Today's trick is to use this link to create a cool avatar for your blogger account! It's from a great class blog from Russel St School, Palmerston North.

Adding more detail to our writing!

Our writing focus at the moment is to add more detail to our writing - this will help us explain! This site will help shows us how we can 'expand' more information into a piece of writing.

What's it called when we give more information about something? It starts with 'E'. - ELABORATE!

Here is our 'elaboration; about what Hauora is. The four photos show how we expanded the sentence - Hauora is about four walls.

Here is reading the written explanation of Hauora! Great ELABORATION!

Haoura Projects

Here's a 'in progress' Hauora Project using Popplet as their media source. Milly, Hannah and Mac have started creating this popplet and are well on the way to meeting their criteria. Our purpose for these projects is to explain what the Hauora Model is.

Some of the projects are Keynotes, imovies, posters and even a goanimate! Stay Tuned for more.

Add / Sub Strategies!

This term we are learning how to add and subtract large numbers using a variety of strategies. In the 'golden era' we learnt how to use what we now call 'algorithms.' Today we give the students a number of different ways to tackle numbers, depending on the problem.

We want to share how we are learning these strategies and how you can help us

with them at home. Here's a shot of Logan's working out that he did in our small group this morning.

You will see a strategy cut out in your student's diary. This is what their maths group is learning at the moment. You can ask you child how they work and see some examples for yourself. you could even have a go yourself - they are probably what you do in your heads anyway.

Some of the groups are learning how to use place value to subract. Here's a showme video to help us with a common mistake some of us are making.

Here are some more photos of what happens during a typical maths session. This group is meeting with me to work on the maths they are learning and practising - at their level.

The Robots maths group here are working on solving the problems in their 'Figure it out' book.

Greer and Nicole are working on studyladder, an interactive site that lets me target their maths at their level. Each student gets their own login and gets instant feedback and incentives to keep trying.

This group is completing the follow up questions after working with the teacher. They are able to help each other and practise what they have just learnt.

Lastly - here's a great site with some more info for parents nzmaths / families. It has some videos that explain how we teach maths and what you can do with your student at home!

Kiwi Kids and playtime!

Today for Pow Wow pals we looked at this article which told us about some research - kiwi kids are playing outside less than ten years ago. This makes us think about the 'Physical' side of our Hauroa Well being model.

We read the article and filled in the survey question - most of us play sport at home in our spare time.

This week's Twitter table asks, 'Children shouldn't be allowed to play inside at home on a fine day!' There should be some great debate on this topic this week!

Skills Project

Juggling

EHow website

Our First Jibboo Market Day!

Phew! We had our first Market Day for Jibboo this week and it was fantastic. It was great to see so many creative ideas for businesses and the students made a wide variety of goods and services to sell to their class mates.

This year I (The Mayor) decided to make it a little more challenging by banning products made from New Zealand dollars. This means they have to use recycled or free products made from home. Well done, everyone. You've accepted the challenge and done amazingly well!

Hauora Field Trip

On Monday we went to Anderson Park to learn about what "Hauora" is. Here are some pics from our trip. This week we'll be creating some things to explain what we've learnt.

Jibboo - Successful Appointments

Congratulations to the following applicants! There were a lot of fantastic applicants with quite a lot of relevant experience. These decisions were not easy to make.

Bank Manager - Hannah F

Payroll Officer - Benjamin

Business Manager - Jack W

Advertising Manager - Thomas

Advertising assistant - Mac

Bank Tellers - Katie J, Katie H, Izak,

All successful applicants will be meeting with the Prime Minister (me) and we will be writing up your job descriptions and negotiating your weekly salaries this week.

First market day - THIS FRIDAY!