Homework Photo Challenge - perfect timing!

Here are the entries to this week's homework challenge.  Remember to send them to me by 9am Friday morning to be in with a chance to win $100 snidges - the votes will be cast over the weekend and the winner revealed on Monday.

Thomas - "Rugby Dog"

Sophie - "Jumper"

Sophie S - "Gemma going really fast."

Aleisha - "Bindi the jungle girl."

Rebbeca - "Digging for Gold (in the snow)"

Ben W - "Cat Yawn"

Per(uuuuur)fect Timing

Do you like this photo?  It was taken by Ben W on his ipad at home and he emailed it to me this morning.  This is his cat taking some time out on their couch.

It got me thinking - are you great at taking pictures?  The secret to this photo (I think) by Ben is that the head is in focus and the timing is fantastic.

Let's have a photo challenge for the week!  The best photo, emailed to me by Friday, 9am and posted on our blog, as voted by us, will win $100 snidges!  The theme will be perfect timing (you don't have to have a cat theme...I think the internet has plenty of cat photos) and you'll do well if it captures people's attention in some way.

So - get snapping and have fun!

Young Leaders Reflections

Have you read what we've written about the Young Leaders Trip?  There are some great reflections on our kidblogs and here are some links to two that showed the impact it has had.

It's great to see parents commenting our posts, too.  What a great way to join in the learning that's happening with your student!

Is learning cool?

Today we used a stem chart to dig into what learning means for us.  We started by using a word association game for the word 'tree'.  We had to write three words that came to mind, and then words about those words and so on.

Once we had the 'knack' we did the same with the word, 'learning.'  Then we associated words with those words until our stems were quite chock-a-block.  Here are some of our stem charts...

Next we looked at our stem charts and made a summary statement starting with, 'Learning to me means...'  It was really interesting to hear the different responses and how differently we all see learning.  Some of us really liked learning and achieved great success while a few others had quite negative things to say about learning.

Then we talked about why some liked it and some didn't - why are there happy learners and unhappy learners.  It all came down to us!  This chart we made below showed us that our attitude and choices determine how much we achieve and succeed at school - no matter how smart we are.

 The last discussion we had, which got quite philosophical, was about whether we thought the happy learner was 'cool' or not and many of us thought that they were not!  It's interesting that for a lot of our class (mostly boys), the coolest person was the unhappy learner.  "It's cool to not like school."  "I don;t want to be a geek!"  I thought this was pretty sad that some of us thought that way and we'll be looking at ways we can change this thinking over the next few weeks.

I finished the session with something to think about.  I shared with everyone that when we leave school this perception of who is cool changes.  People who learn and try their best are the ones who have the most opportunities and can do what they want in life.  They get to achieve their goals and live their passion.  This gives them opportunities and life long learners have the world at their finger tips - now THAT'S cool!

What do you think?  This would make a GREAT discussion at the dinner table...  Please comment below or on our recorded message service on the right hand side of the blog.

Why did Maori and the British sign a treaty?

We're going to watch this series from the TVNZ about how Te Tiriti came about over the next few days.  Watch closely and use your 'synthesizing' skills to pice together answers to our questions;

 - why did the British create a treaty?
 - why did the Maori sign it?
 - what did it mean for maori?
 - what did it mean for the British and everyone else?

Synthesizing!

We're still learning how to 'synthesize' when we read - this helps us make conclusions about what we're learning about NZ history and the different cultures we have here.

This poster gives us a visual reminder of how we synthesize.  We'll use this link to dig a little deeper and even further in our small groups.

Ta Moko

The Year 5s made these amazing Ta Moko while the rest of us were at the Young Leaders Conference.  Ms Duncan helped them understand what the Moko represent and the significance of them for Maori, both in the past and today.  Great job, Year 5s!

BYOD Trial - so far so great!

Our BYOD trial for the term has ended for the first week. Below you can see the 'stem chart' of some issues as potential solutions we came up with on Wednesday. Two new ideas came from our discussion -

1.  It will be important for every family bringing a device to ensure that their contents insurance covers the protection of that device at school.  Most insurance policies do but it is worth noting.

2.  We discussed what 'personal use' means.  Does this include having another student helping me on my device count?  We thought it would as it's hard to work collaboratively and not share a device.  This will ONLY be under supervision by the owner, though.

Some other reflections by the class have been frustrations with the wireless connection - it's been very slow this week (due to a number of factors) and we're looking at solutions to speed things up.  We also think it's great having a device there, ready to use when ever we need one - even if you don't have your own.  The ratio of students to devices in our class today was 1:2 (compared with 1:4).  It made is super easy to get access to our blogs!

If you have any thoughts, suggestions or questions that may come up over the next few weeks, please talk, email or comment on this post.  This trial is our chance to discover the 'tweaks' and work ons.  We'll keep you posted over the next few weeks!

Bulletin!

What happened to the land?

The land ownership in NZ changed dramatically when Europeans started arriving.  Watch this video and see the changes over the years.

Create a skit, drama, poster, oral story of the main points from this video.

Dunedin - Young Leaders!

On Monday and Tuesday of this week our Year 6s went to Dunedin for the Young Leaders Conference. We also had a visit to the Art Gallery, Moana Pools and stayed overnight in the Museum!

 You can read our reflections on our kidblogs soon but here are some photos from the trip. Parents - ask your child to describe what's happening in each photo - you'll get a great idea of what we did from their stories!

 

Earthquake Video - Young Leaders

One of the speakers from the Young Leaders Conference spoke about making a difference in what ever way we can.  He decided to make a music video of a song her wrote to cheer up the people of Christchurch. - Here is the video (I've had 3 seperate requests to post this video since getting to school!)

Hand Art

Our learning word of the week is 'acceptance.' We wanted to practise our teamwork skills, create some art and show how our differences can be a good thing when working together.

To create this hand art we had to trace and cut out our hands while having strengths and weaknesses from the rest of our team. Some had no eyes, some had no hands, ears or voice. It was quite a challenge!

House Hippos!

Should we believe everything we see on the internet or on tv? Watch this amazing video and use clues to see if it's real or not.

   

 - did you think the hippo was a real creature? 

- what gave you a clue before the ending?

Now have a look at these websites about the 'Tree Crab.' 

Tree Crab

Coconut Crab

  - is the Tree Crab real?  

  - how could you tell?

  - Make a list of things to look for when searching online to tell if information is credible or not.

Are you excited about the Year 6 Trip?

You should be amped!

Weekly Roundup

This week we revamped our Tree of Fame!  Have you seen how many of us have reached the top of the success ladder already?  We're all impressed with the improvement they have made this year - who will make it next?

One of our maths objectives this week was to learn how to measure the volume of a 3d shape.  Here are some photos that show the steps some of our maths groups went through to measure the height and width- and then multiply it by the depth.  Ask your child to explain each photo and what we are doing in each one!  Don't forget to add the little '3' at the end to show you are measuring 3 dimensions! eg. 22 cm3.

 

Lastly - we have been working teams this week and we've practised being leaders, being helpers, sharing and listening to our team members and also making sure that everyone pulls their weight.  This week our goal was to make some 'people pyramids'.  What do you think of our pile ups?

How did the Maori get here? - One theory!

View Māori migration canoes and over 3,000,000 other topics on Qwiki.

Cross Country Training

Today we started our training for the Cross Country Zones in week 5. Every trip around the filled earns our class a bean and today our starting record was...177! I wonder if we'll beat our record?