Room 7 2012

First week of the school year

2012-02-12T16:09:00.000-08:00

What have we been up to during the first week back at school?

We have been very, very busy, making new friends, renewing existing friendships, and getting to know our new teacher. We are having lots of fun reading "The Twits" by Roald Dahl, and re-writing some parts of the story, giving our own twist to the battle between Mr and Mrs Twit. We have been swimming at Eastbourne pool almost everyday, waiting for when, in week three, the Kiwi-swim instructors take Room 7 for instructional swimming lessons. We have also been doing lots of art, to get our classroom bright and colourful for the new school year.

Busy busy busy...

Tim got a certificat in Assembly for having a GREAT start to the year- well done Tim!

We all used some text from The Twits to highlight the descriptive language Roald Dahl uses. We then wrote our favourites on post-its to use in our own writing

Learning how to play "The Spelling Game"

Yosemite through time-lapse lense

2012-01-28T23:29:00.000-08:00

I LOVE watching time-lapse photography. This one came from http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/ (actually a GREAT science/astronomy blog that I follow)

Enjoy ;-)

Yosemite HD from Project Yosemite on Vimeo.

Make sure you watch full screen.

Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T13:17:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year everyone!

A new school year commences in 5 weeks time. Enjoy your summer holiday!

"All I want for christmas...."

2011-12-11T20:44:00.001-08:00

EOTC Week- Fishing

2011-12-07T18:10:00.000-08:00

We had lots of fun today making our fishing rods, then taking them down to Rona Wharf to fish. Mckenzie caught a spotty! An adult fisher caught a kahawai! It was huge!

"Make your own homework" week

2011-12-01T17:56:00.000-08:00

Since it was the last week of homework remaining for the school year, Mr Dobson decided his students could 'make their own homework' this week.

Max made a fun sports quiz

Phoebe played a talking book she made

Georgia made a cream cake

Bella made peppermint creams

Pablo puzzled us with a quiz

Dylan made a strong 'anti-smoking' message

Charlotte spoke about the Kereru

Milly printed this beautiful wrapping paper

Edie made this beautiful sculpture

Lucy made some scummy biscuits

Samantha made some sensational brownies

Jake made this wonderful 'godseye'

Emma made us ponder with her quiz

Ben tell us how to survive falling into a Volcano!

Andrew became a medieval knight of the realm

What a fantastic effort Room 7!

"Child Labour" Day at school

2011-11-21T13:48:00.000-08:00

Last Friday the teachers organised a 'child labour' experience so the Year 3and 4's could experience for a short period of time, what it is like for the many children around the world engaged in child exploitation or child labour.

Activities included
* scrounging the rubbish heap for things to sell (since the school doesn't have a rubbish heap, looking for rubbish instead),
* Working in a sweatshop making packets of rice to sell,
* Sorting piles of rags to make clothes
* Working in a laundry shop
* Fetching the days supply of household water from the well.

Sorting out piles of rags to make clothes

Carrying water from the well

Working in a laundry sweatshop

Mr Wyllie ran a very scary sweatshop making packets of rice! If you didn't work fast enough, you were sent to the punishment cage!

Almost all of the children took the experience very seriously.The teachers role-played the characters of overseers and sweatshop owners and were very strict. In real life, the owners of sweatshops growl, shout at and even hit children with sticks for not working fast enough.

Getting ready for the Art Auction

2011-11-20T18:51:00.000-08:00

Our investigation into 'Child Labour' continues!

To help raise money for the 'Green Gecko project' we have begun making our co-operative art pieces.

Mr Dobson and Mrs Holmes agreed a 'beach' theme might work well. Mrs Holmes has some friends who make amazing beach themes mirrors, with shells and driftwood. So she invited them along last week and Room 7 was very busy making beautiful beach mirrors for the art auction.

Athletics Day Timetable

2011-11-03T15:34:00.000-07:00

Tuesday 15th November 2011

Term 4: The "Working Hard" investigation, and the "Green Gecko" project!

2011-10-30T18:17:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone,
Welcome back to a new school term! While we all seem to be missing a little of school holiday excitement that was the Rugby World Cup, it's nice to back at school and ready for the final 7 weeks of the school year.

Room 7 is undertaking a short, focused investigation into 'child labour' in other parts of the world, and how this can 'stop kids from being kids'. After an investigation into what child labour is and why it happens, we plan to make a small difference in the lives of other people by getting involved in 'The Green Gecko Project'

Other important events this term include the school's athletics day on Tuesday of Week 4. We will start practising athletic events every Tuesday and Thursday up until the school athletics day. After that, we will be heading down to the Eastbourne pool for swimming most (fine, sunny and warm) days until the end of the school year.

As always, feel free to email me if you have any questions regarding this terms upcoming events.

New Dinosaur related learning on the "Class of 2011" Blog

2011-09-26T14:45:00.001-07:00

Over the last couple of weeks, Room 7 students have been adding dinosaur related posts to the Class of 2011 blog. If you haven't visited recently, then pop over and have a good look around. Just remember, this blog is full of student learning, so be supportive with your comments!

Tim's new Dinosaur Blog!

2011-09-14T16:13:00.000-07:00

Tim has been very busy at home making a really cool blog about dinosaurs!


Tim's Dinosaur Blog

You can visit his blog by clicking HERE, or click on the link under the 'student blog' heading to the left.

Well done Tim- your blog will be a good source of information for our individual research projects next week!

Applying knowledge and understanding

2011-08-31T15:56:00.000-07:00

For the last 3 weeks, Room 7 has been in the Excite! and Explore! stage of our term long Dinosaur investigation. "What do I think I know" and "What have I found out" have been the questions during this phase. Now it is time to start putting the pieces together, a bit like a jigsaw puzzle. The final, longest stage of the dinosaur investigation is about to commence, the Explain! stage, where the key question is "What does it all mean?"

One of the explaining tasks the children have been given is to create their own, recently discovered dinosaur species. They need to apply all that they have learned about dinosaur habitat, eating/hunting habits, appearance and other characteristics, to their newly created dinosaur. They will write a 'scientific report' that describes their dinosaur for the wider scientific community (other classes!).

In this post are photos of the first stages of the 'creation' process, where children brainstorm their ideas first, then organise these ideas into different categories. These categories serve as the basis for paragraphs in the 'scientific report'.

Zoom Dinosaurs

2011-08-21T21:20:00.000-07:00

Zoom Dinosaurs is a great website for kick starting that exciting 'finding out about' dinosaurs stage of our dino investigation!

The day it snowed at school!!!

2011-08-14T17:27:00.000-07:00

UPDATE: Monday 3.30pm

During the day on Monday

Snow at sea level? You better believe this was a 'once in a lifetime' event!!!!!

Dinosaur Maths

2011-08-03T19:02:00.001-07:00

This week for Maths we have been investigating the sizes of different meat eating Dinosaurs. To do this we had to learn how to compare and sort information.

Once we had graphed the different sizes of the dinosaurs, we took some chalk outside and, using metre rulers, worked out how high the smallest and largest dinosaurs stood. We drew them in chalk, and had our photo taken next to our drawings.

Last Space Shuttle flight :-(

2011-07-13T13:08:00.000-07:00

I am very sad. The last Space Shuttle mission.

Our "Mystery Stories"

2011-07-11T20:46:00.000-07:00

We have been reading the picture book "The Mysteries of Harris Burdick" by Chris Van Arlsberg. In the book, each page is a new story, with only a picture and a sentence of writing to tell the reader the story.

Here are some pictures from the book:

So we in Room 7 decided to take a page/story each, and fill in the missing parts! We have been writing our mystery stories for the last couple of weeks, and have recorded some of them on Vocaroo to share with each other. These can be found over on the "Class of 2011" blog.

We also plan to publish our stories on A3 paper and make a 'big book' called "Room 7's Big Book of Mysteries'. We will share the book with our buddy class when it is finished.

Other writers have been inspired by 'The Mysteries of HB" as well. In 1993, Stephen King published his solution to the mystery of The House on Maple Street in a story collection entitled Nightmares & Dreamscapes.

For those children who have LOVED writing their mystery stories, there is an official 'Mysteries of Harris Burdick" website for you to explore. It even shows what happens afterwards to the hovering Nun!

UPDATE: I recently found this website, where other children have written stories to solve 'The Mysteries of Harris Burdick'.

Making and lanching our rockets!

2011-06-27T19:39:00.000-07:00

This week we have been making, then launching our water and air pressure powered rockets. We have been designing our rockets to minimise drag and weight, which has presented some challenges!

The launching of our rockets was alot of fun. We had to watch our launch carefully to see what our rocket did, and how far it flew.

Too fast for the camera! But you can see the trail of water as the rocket blasts off!

We then used this information to re-design our rocket to make it fly even higher!

The 4 Forces of flight

2011-06-22T15:08:00.000-07:00

We are winding up our study of the 4 forces of flight. As a fun assessment activity, Room 7 students have been using a 'free' (up to a point!) on-line application called 'Go Animate'.

The children have each made a short animation showing what they have learned about the 4 forces of flight. These animations have been posted on the 'Class of 2011" blog. Please take a moment or two to head over there and leave a comment on an animation or three!

Here is an example of one of Room 7's animations:

GoAnimate.com: Samantha's funny animals. by muritai7

Voices in the Park

2011-06-22T14:48:00.000-07:00

We have finished recording our "Voices in the Park" stories and have posted them for you to listen to over on the "Class of 2011" blog.

This story by Anthony Brown tells the simple story of a trip to the park, through the eyes of 4 very different characters- Charles, his mother (who we call "Mrs Charles"), Smudge and her father (Who we call "Mr Smudge").

We have chosen one of these character 'voices' to tell the story of the trip to the park.

We hope you get a chance to listen and leave a comment.

The power of 'Thrust'

2011-05-31T20:18:00.000-07:00

We have been investigating the power of thrust. We made balloon rockets that run on a string cable.

We measured how far the balloon rockets would run vs. how much thrust they produced (i.e. how much air was in the balloon). We are learning how to be good scientists by making sure we are testing using 'fair test' principles.

Making a tea bag rocket

2011-05-19T17:24:00.000-07:00

This week we have been exploring the 4 forces of flight- lift, drag, thrust and weight. In this demonstration we can see what happens when the force of lift finally overcomes the force of weight!

Our seedlings are now plants!

2011-05-16T18:33:00.000-07:00

In Term One we grew spinach, cauliflower and bok choy seedlings in tea bags. We planted them in Room 7's garden and watered them every second day. Now, six weeks later, they have grown so much! They should be ready to harvest in time for Matariki later this term.

Next Weekend's Telethon for Christchurch

2011-05-11T23:40:00.000-07:00

PS22 Chorus: Awake My Soul

2011-05-09T20:04:00.000-07:00

PS22 Chorus: Awake My Soul: I wish my school choir when I was at Primary School all those years ago was like this! Well done kids- you've done it again!

Making piklets, the "Samuel Show" way!

2011-05-02T16:27:00.000-07:00

Here is the link for "How to make Piklets"- the "Samuel Show" way!

Welcome back- Term Two has started!

2011-05-01T15:02:00.000-07:00

Welcome Back everyone!

Did you know that this week is "National Primary Science Week"? In Room 7, term two got underway today with a really exciting science demonstration to get us thinking in a scientific way.

Then we are celebrating as a whole school on Tuesday with the FIRST ROCKET LAUNCH using our new rocket launcher.

The science focus will continue all term, with an exploration of 'flight' and 'weather'. The Year 3-4 newsletter has all the details!

This week for homwork, instead of Spelling and Basic Facts, there is an ANZAC Day task for each child to complete. Details are in the homework book, as well as on the 'special homework' blog .

As always, a really busy and exciting time in Room 7!

End of Term One- 11 weeks of learning!

2011-04-14T18:46:00.000-07:00

Today (Friday) marks the end of a fantastic 11 weeks of learning in Room 7. While we are all feeling a little weary, we have managed to tie up all the loose ends nicely this week- finishing a recount all about "The best party ever", completing some art, topic and PE portfolio pieces, having a fun "Healthy Sandwich" making lunchtime on Thursday, and completing some amazing self-portraits in pencil and charcoal. We have been busy!

Room 7- enjoy the 2 week break! See you next term!

Healthy Sandwiches

2011-04-13T18:03:00.000-07:00

As promised, here are the photos take at Lunch today, when Room 7 made the healthy sandwiches. They all looked delicious!

Using a ranking ladder as an assessment activity

2011-04-04T19:54:00.000-07:00

This afternoon we started an assessment piece for this term's topic, "Happy Healthy Me". Rather than individually writing a report on what they have learned, children worked in small, co-operative groups to brainstorm ideas about what they can do each day to stay happy, stay healthy and stay fit. They recorded their ideas on post-its. A couple of children chose to illustrated some of their ideas, if they felt they didn't quite have the words to describe their thinking.

Next, the children worked together to discuss the 'importance' of each idea. Each group used a ranking ladder to do this. Rules for using the ranking ladder include:

each member of the group must be satisfied with the place of each idea on the ladder.
If disagreement occurs, each person must explain why they wish to rank that idea the way they do
If disagreement continues, then the idea is placed to the side.

Finally, they numbered their most "important" idea as number one, and then worked down, in terms of importance.

This activity promotes lots of oral discussion and negotiations skills. It also allows for students to support each other with the remembering of key moments of learning. Rather than 'sinking or swimming' individually, collectively the group can all work together to achieve a successful outcome.

New student work on Class of 2011 blog

2011-03-31T13:12:00.000-07:00

Recently Room 7 have written description of people we know really well. We have started to record these descriptions and post them on the Class of 2011 blog (link to the right). This is our first time using Vocaroo, but we hope to get much better as the year goes on!

Using Vocaroo to record a story

Learning about the digestive system

2011-03-30T13:23:00.000-07:00

Over the last 2 weeks we have been learning all about our digestive system.

We spent some time exploring the insides of our body using a really good interactive website. We then summarised what we had learned about each part of the digestive system.

adding a description to each part of the digestive system

Reading what others have written


Checking with a buddy for accuracy

We also had fun replicating the digestive system using a banana, some papertowels and a plastic bag.

Thomas and Dylan being 'teeth' and munching the banana

Milly being the stomach, and mixing stomach acid (we used vinegar) into the banana.


Edie and Charlotte squeezing the banana nutrients through the small intestine

We were also very lucky to have Dr Beena Hegde (Max's Mum) come into class and teach us all about the intestines and how they work.

Dr Beena Hegde using her son Max as a medical model!

Listening for

Borborygmi!

The class is being the digestive track, and the ball is a piece of food. Where does it go? What happens to the food?

The word of the day is 'Borborygmi', otherwise known as tummy grumbles. Listening through the stethoscope was lots of fun!

Yesterday's trip

2011-03-14T15:12:00.000-07:00

We spent a wonderful day yesterday in Wellington at the Capital E Arts Festival. Excitement rose when we were picked up at the school gates in a double decker bus!

The first show we saw was at Downstage Theatre and was called "Grimace" . It was a mix of different nursery rhymes and fairy tails all jumbled up, wit wonderful actors who jumped, climbers and raced all over the stage. The musician for this show was fantastic!

Next we went to Paramount Theatre and watch the fantastic presentation "Passing Wind". Linsey Pollak

is a very talented composer who makes musical instrucments out of every-day objects- like camping stools and carrots! Amazing!

Linsey Pollak playing the carrot

Last show of the day was in the Capital E auditorium. "Boats" was a humourous, sad tale of lost love at sea. There were some amazing scenes, my favourite was when the actors made a real 'storm in a teacup'!

We had a really great day. Thanks to our Capital E host and the others a Capital E who have worked very hard on this years festival.

Growing seedlings

2011-03-08T17:19:00.000-08:00

We are growing seedlings for the Year 3-4 garden. We are growing an autumn crop of Bok Choy, Spinach and Cauliflower.

We are growing the seedlings in teabags. The teabags have all the nutrients that the seeds need to grow into seedlings.

Mr Dobson found this ideas HERE in the Kiwi Conservation Club magazine. It's a great way to recycle used teabags!

Today's picnic at Days Bay

2011-02-24T17:41:00.000-08:00

We had a perfectly sunny day for our picnic at Days Bay today. After a great sand-sculpture competition, we headed over to Williams Park for lunch and games.

We had a great time!

Our first week at school

2011-02-10T15:06:00.000-08:00

We have had a very busy first week at school. We are reading "Georges Marvellous Medicine" and have made some cool 'GR' blend posters, describing George's grandma. Grouchy, Grumbly and 'Old Grunion' were three very popular adjectives!

We also finished our "Thinking hats" about who we are and what we hope to achieve this year. We used the White Hat (facts about me), Yellow Hat (What I am good at), Green Hat (What I want to achieve in 2011) and Red Hat (Things that make me happy/sad)

This term's focus for Art is drawing. This week we spent most afternoons 'drawing what we see, not what we think we see'. It was harder than it sounds!

sometimes the most interesting things were not where we expected to find them!

Next week should be even more exciting!

Meet the class of 2011!

2011-02-03T17:42:00.001-08:00

Aren't they a handsome bunch!

PS22 Chorus- New song!

2011-01-12T14:54:00.000-08:00

I just love these guys! PS22 Chorus, an elementary school chorus from Public School 22 in Graniteville, Staten Island (New York), just ROCK!

Happy New Year!

2011-01-03T18:15:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone has had a great Christmas and you are all enjoying the great summer weather of the January school holidays!

I have been enjoying a wonderful 2 week holiday in the South Island. The weather, apart from a day of rain on the West Coast, has been warm and sunny. Below are a few Photos of the places I have been visiting:

Kayaking down the Dart River, Queenstown

The Jetboat ride up the Dart River.

Mt Cook in the distance!

About to roll Jaffas down Baldwin Street, Dunedin, the steepest street in the world!

Moeraki Bolders, which were once thought to be fossilized dinosaur eggs!

The TSS Ernslaw, on Lake Wakatipu in Queenstown

Waterfalls coming from nowhere, besides a rainy West Coast road, near Haast.

"Walking with our eyes closed" Poetry

2010-11-15T14:08:00.000-08:00

Recently we have been writing a poem about the beach. What is different is the way we are writing this poem, 'with our eyes shut'! What this actually means is that instead of using our sight sense, we are using our other senses to describe the beach- touch, hearing, smell and taste.

Here are some pictures of us at the beach, 'walking with our eyes closed', using senses other that sight to describe the beach.

Our Plate Tectonic movies

2010-11-01T13:00:00.000-07:00

FINALLY we have finished our stop-frame animation movies about Plate tectonics. It took a while, but we got there!

Head over to the 'Class of 2010' blog (on the menu bar to the right) and have a look.

Not all movies are uploaded yet, but they will be by the end of the week!

Sewing

2010-10-20T18:43:00.000-07:00

Today we spent the afternoon learning how to sew a 'double stitch'.

Plate Tectonics

2010-10-13T12:05:00.000-07:00

This week we have been investigating how Nepal was created. We've found out that:

The surface of the world is broken into large chunks called 'plates'
These plate slowly drift around ontop of the liquid mantle that is below the surface of the earth
Sometimes these plates collide, and can force land up or down, making either mountains or deep trenches

We saw on 'Google Earth' the plate boundary that runs through New Zealand. We could see the deep ocean trenches and big mountain ranges, where two plates were pushing against each other.

We then looked at Nepal and saw the great Himalayan Mountains. We watched an animation that showed how, over time, the Indian plate collided with the Asian plate, forcing land that was once the ocean floor, many kilometres up into the air. Wow!

We broke into small groups and made our own tectonic plates out of plaster-cine, and made a small stop-frame animation of our plates colliding.

As soon as we finish our animations we will post them on the 'Class of 2010' Student blog. Head over there to have a look (link on the right hand side)

Term 4 about to begin!

2010-10-06T16:24:00.000-07:00

What wonderful weather we've had for the 2nd week of the school holidays! Who would have thought a Wellington spring could be so warm and sunny? I hope all of you have been able to get out and enjoy it- a walk in the bush, a bike ride to Pencarrow, or lazing on the beach at Days Bay.

In Term 4 all Year 3-4 classes are going to explore our school's relationship with Bistachap Orphanage in Nepal.

This relationship has been ongoing for many years now, supported through "The Orphans of Nepal Trust"
We will spend a lot of time throughout the term learning about Nepal, and working out 'how we can make a difference' in the day-to-day life of the children in Bistachap orphanage.

The first two weeks of this study will explore how Nepal was formed.....
PLATE TECTONICS and EARTHQUAKES!

Visit the Y3-4 wiki to get a head start on what plate tectonics are, and how the Himalayan Mountains were formed.

The Short but Incredibly Happy Life of Riley

2010-09-15T17:36:00.001-07:00

Over on Muritai TV this post was uploaded today, and is a great recap of the school production "The Short but Incredibly Happy Life of Riley".

What I loved so much about our Year 4 item this year was that probably 80% of the choreography for the dancing parts was arranged by the students themselves! We have some very talented dancers, and it shows!

I hope you all have a chance to see the show this week.

Halfmen of O/ International Literacy Day

2010-09-09T19:23:00.000-07:00

This term I have been reading "The Halfmen of O" to the children in Room 7. As one of my ALL TIME favourite fantasy books for children I tend to read it to my class every 2-3 years. each class I have read it to has enjoyed the crispness and clarity of Maurice Gee's storytelling.

I am also excited to see online that there is FINALLY some movement towards the novel being developed as a feature film. As a 3D feature (which could emphasise the 'unsighted/sighted', 'yellow smoke/shy' contrast) I think would be really quite fantastic.

I plan to spend International Literacy Day reading just a few more pages to the class....

Mummified Apples- after 7 days.

2010-09-07T13:38:00.000-07:00

After 7 days we uncovered our mummified apples and had a very close look at what had happened.

Some mixtures of salts had dried out the apple really well. Others left the original colour of the apple intact.

Have a look at the comparison board and see if you can decide what mixture was the best for mummifying an apple.

Rugby World Cup!

2010-08-31T20:42:00.000-07:00

The Webb Ellis Cup (aka "The Rugby World Cup") payed a visit to Muritai School on Monday!

Room 7 children got to have a close up look at it! We weren't allowed to touch though, that honour is reserved for Richie McCaw to be the first NZer since 1987 to hold the trophy up high, when we win the world cup next year!

Egyptian Science

2010-08-30T13:54:00.000-07:00

Room 7 has been investigating the science of Ancient Egypt. The Egyptians were very clever at preserving dead bodies, and used a mixture of salts called 'Natron' to help preserve the body for the afterlife. This whole precess we call 'mummification'

We are running an experiment using Epsom Salt, Table salt and Baking soda to see if we can mummify an apple.

The process we went through can be found on the Year 3-4 Wiki 'Mummified apples" page.

Being an Expert!

2010-08-26T18:40:00.000-07:00

This week each child in Room 7 had the chance to become an expert on the topic of "Why was the Nile River so important to the Ancient Egyptians?"

One of the learning activities we did to help this happen was a "Bus-Stop". This involved the class splitting into groups and each group being given a small passage of information about the different uses the river had.

Each group then had 10 minutes to summarise their passage. Each child had to put to use the information literacy skills of skimming, scanning and summarising in order to do this successfully.

At the end of 10 minutes the summaries were then shared using a 'Bus-stop". One child became the bus, and had a 60 second visit to each other group (the 'bus-stop') and shared the group summary. The members of the group who were the 'stops' were encouraged to ask further questions of the 'bus'.

This activity allowed each child to become an expert on a small but important topic, while at the same time gaining a 'big picture' by listening to what they had to say.

Bus-Stopping is a great co-operative activity to use when their is a large, complicated topic that needs summarising in a short space of time.

Reading our "Uncle Jack" stories

2010-08-10T13:41:00.000-07:00

Room 7 have been recording their "Uncle Jack" stories for you to listen to. Click on the "Class of 2010" link to the side and then click on a students name.

"Uncle Jack" is a very cool story by Kate De Goldi. We used her story of Jack and then made up our own. We hope you enjoy!

I also found this link to a storyteller reading "Uncle Jack". You can listen here

"Extra" science homework this week

2010-08-08T15:55:00.000-07:00

The "extra" science homework this week can be found on the homework blog. Click to the right and take a look. Bring to school and share when you've completed the task.

Soccer Tournament

2010-08-05T17:32:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday we had a fantastic Soccer Tournament organised by SportZone.

The Year 3-4's played in round-robin soccer games during the morning, then the top 4 teams played off for a semifinal/final placement.

Room 7 had 2 teams place in the top four!

Semi finalists!

Finalists!

Short Story Competition winners

2010-07-29T15:22:00.000-07:00

The short story competition winners have been announced!

Please visit the newsletter blog to read about our very excited competition winners!

Being Role Models

2010-07-29T14:44:00.000-07:00

The Year 4 students in Room 7 are great role models for their Year 1 buddies in Room 4.

Each Friday we help Room 4 test their Reading and Spelling rockets.

Ancient Egypt

2010-07-22T17:38:00.000-07:00

Next week we start our new study on Ancient Egypt. There is a new Ancient Egypt wiki for the children to look through, this can be found by accessing the Year 3-4 wiki and clicking on the "Ancient Egypt" link.

Matariki Harvest

2010-06-30T19:34:00.000-07:00

This afternoon Room 7 had a Matariki Harvest from the Year 3-4 Garden. The celery we planted last term has grown big and strong and looked ready to eat.

Thanks Jonathan and Ella for the great photos!

Visit My Photos - 10 Pics

Matariki Harvest

Room 7 talks about Yeast

2010-06-24T15:33:00.000-07:00

Room 7 children have been making 'Comic Life' presentations showing, in their own words, what they have learned during science the last few weeks. Have a look by clicking on 'Class of 2010' link to the left.

Please leave a comment! The children love to read these.

Room 7 digi-kids

2010-06-23T13:05:00.000-07:00

Jonathan and Ella are 2 digi-kids in Room 7 who have been working with Mr Skilton and myself to make a slide show on the bread-making process.

These 2 digi-kids have taken complete control, from start to finish, making the slideshow. They developed a storyboard, included a storyline, took the photos needed to illustrate the story, and imported the photos into iPhoto to use in the slideshow. Well done Ella and Jonathan!

As soon as the slide show is completed, it's going to be shown at assembly! I'll also make sure it is blogged right here, on Room 7's blog!

The photo shows Jonathan and Ella working hard on their slideshow.

Making Bread

2010-06-15T12:55:00.000-07:00

Miss Gandhi and Mr Dobson have been busy teaching Room 7 about starch, yeast and CO2 and how they can be used to make bread.

On Tuesday each table group made a loaf of bread and ate it at the end of the day. It was delicious!

Ella and Jonathan, who are our class photographers, took these photos of the process we followed:

Firstly the yeast needs to be 'excited' by feeding and watering it. We fed the yeast sugar and let it soak up warm water.

We mixed flour and sugar together

we added warm water which helped the starch in the flour swell up and become sticky.

Next we added the yeast mixture and kneeded the bread.

The bread dough needed to be kneeded for a long time until it became elastic

We left the kneeded dough in the sun. The warmth of the sun helped the yeast grow and release CO2. The CO2 gas made the bread dough puff up.
We put the bread dough in the oven and baked it for 40 minutes.

YUM! Who would have though starch, yeast and CO2 could make something so delicious!

The changes that starch and yeast goes through

2010-06-10T15:37:00.000-07:00

Over the last two weeks we have explored what changes starch and yeast can go through.

We have discovered that starch and yeast stay inactive (not doing anything) until they are excited/activated. Warm water was a way we activated both the starch and the yeast.

We discovered that starch swells up and becomes sticky when it is activated.

We discovered that because yeast is a living organism, it needs to be fed as well as watered, before it activates (comes alive).

Once the yeast has been woken up by the warm water, and has fed on the sugar, it starts releasing CO2. The CO2 made all the bubbles we could see. The yeast underwent a chemical change.

We experimented by mixing yeast, sugar and warm water together, then added that to a flour (starch) and water mixture, to see what would happen.

Some of us thought the mixture turned into something resembling pizza dough.

Veggie Patch programme

2010-06-03T16:07:00.000-07:00

The Year 3 and 4's have enrolled in the McCain School Veggie Patch programme. The programme involves collecting barcodes from McCAIN frozen vegetable and McCAIN Purely Potato packs and sending these to school. Teachers will collect the barcodes, which can be redeemed for a whole load of garden supplies.

By clicking on the picture above, you can visit the McCain Veggie Patch website and browse the various items we could purchase, using the barcodes.

Your family can get in behind the Year 3-4 garden project by collecting McCain vegetable barcodes and sending them to school- as simple as that!

Introducing Vaishally Ghandi

2010-06-02T13:52:00.000-07:00

Hey all,

My name is Vaishally Gandhi, and I would just like to introduce myself as the student teacher who will be in Room 7 until the end of Term 2! My time at Muritai is my final section as part of the four year primary and secondary Bachelor of Teaching conjoint programme with a Bachelor of Commerce and Administration. So far I have been inspired by the passion that learners, staff and the wider community bring towards the learning which is occurring at Muritai, and I will endeavour to add to this community of rich learning!

If you do have any questions about your child’s learning during my time here, please feel free either to pop in at the beginning or the end of the school day or to send me an email at gandhivais@myvuw.ac.nz

I look forward to working with you

Vaishally Gandhi

Origami Homework

2010-05-31T16:08:00.000-07:00

HI Everyone,

Here is the link I promised:

http://www.origami-instructions.com/origami-for-kids.html

Make sure you scroll DOWN the page and click on the little pictures.

Don't click on the writing at the top of the page because they are ADVERTS!

The Mysteries of Harris Burdick

2010-05-24T19:39:00.000-07:00

For the last few weeks we have been learning how to use the 4 features of narrative writing (setting, characters, complication, resolution) to full effect in our writing.

This week we used some motivational pictures from the book "The Mysteries of Harris Burdick" by Chris Van Allsburg to write about.

We then recorded parts of our stories using Vocaroo, an online recording widget.

Click on the Class of 2010 link to the right. Then click on each students name to hear them read part of their "Mystery" story.

Learning about chemical reactions

2010-05-18T14:35:00.000-07:00

The main investigation this term in Room 7 is on the 3 states of matter. We have been learning, or will be learning about:

What the 3 states of matter are;
what makes them different;
what can make one type of matter change into another type of matter;
what types of reactions are temporary (physical change) or permanent (chemical change)

Recently we explored how solids and liquids can interact, cause a reaction and change into a gas. We discovered that this sort of reaction is permanent (it can't change back) so it is called a 'chemical reaction'.

After we repeated the 'demonstration', we made a modification to the original experiment, made a hypothesis on what we think would happen, and conducted an experiment to find out what effect our changes would make.

We learned that to make this type of chemical reaction, we need to mix an acid with a soda (carbonate). The chemical reaction releases the Carbon Dioxide ( CO2) that was inside the soda.

The released CO2 made the balloons inflate!

Performing Arts presentation

2010-05-06T15:38:00.000-07:00

For the last few weeks on a Thursday, Room 7 have been working with our
Performing Arts teacher, Mrs Hooke,
learning all about different dance styles and techniques. Room 7 will be presenting the dance to the school at this Friday's assembly.

Hokey Pokey

2010-05-04T20:04:00.000-07:00

On Monday afternoon, we started our Science investigation for the term - Temporary and Permanent Changes. We firstly looked at Chemical reactions, and what can make them. We looked at the 'fizz inflater' video on the Year 3-4 Science wiki...

... which showed that an acid (vinegar) and a carbonate (baking soda) can make a gas (carbon dioxide, Co2) if mixed.

Can we make Co2 in other situations?

We made Hokey Pokey to find out. We heated Golden Syrup in a flask until it bubbled. We then mixed in baking soda and stirred as the mixture frothed up. The frothing was the baking soda releasing all of it's carbon dioxide gas.

Due to popular demand, below is a Hokey Pokey recipe much better than the one we used on Monday!

Ingredients

5 Tbsp Chelsea White Sugar
2 Tbsp Chelsea Golden Syrup
1 tsp baking soda

Method

Put Sugar and golden syrup into a saucepan. Heat gently, stirring constantly until Chelsea Sugar dissolves. Increase the heat and bring to the boil. Boil for two minutes. Stir occasionally, if necessary, to prevent burning. Remove from heat. Add baking soda. Stir quickly until mixture froths up. Pour into a buttered tin immediately. Leave until cold and hard. Break into pieces.

Special thanks to Edmonds for use of this recipe.

Wow!

2010-05-01T19:39:00.000-07:00

The Sandpit from Sam O'Hare on Vimeo.

PIRATES!

2010-04-26T18:39:00.000-07:00

Sometimes writing about things we don't know much about can be tricky. That's why generating plenty of ideas first, before any story writing happens, is very important.

To help motivate the class learn how to write an effective narrative, I chose a 'pirate' theme for the writing to be centred around. The only trouble is, not everyone knows a lot about pirates.

So I found 4 very descriptive poems about pirates. In groups, as they read the poems, the children wrote on sticky notes 3 'facts' about pirates they figured out by reading each poem.

After the poems had been read, we had over 30 post-it notes filled with pirate facts. Next, each group looked at their facts and sorted them into main groups such as 'things a pirate might say' or 'things a pirate might do'. They then cut them up and glued them onto a big chart on the classroom wall.

This is now our "pirate story' display, where the children can go to get ideas when planning and writing their pirate story, which we will start later in the week. It was a visual, motivating activity to get the class thinking on a certain 'theme', where their prior knowledge might not have been great.

Eastbourne War memorials

2010-04-18T20:42:00.000-07:00

Today we looked at two war memorials here at school. The first memorial we looked at is the Pohutakawa tree on the corner of Rata and Orua Street. Did you know this was the first war memorial for the Gallipoli campaign in New Zealand?

The next war memorial we looked at was the Memorial Gate under the flag pole. We noticed that some names had poppies besides them, and realised these soldiers were the ones who died.

Yummy Wraps!

2010-04-06T19:48:00.000-07:00

As a finale to the 'healthy food choices' part of Term One's "How we learn' inquiry, we made yummy wraps for lunch. The success criteria for each wrap was 'did I include ingredients from the main food groups, using the 'eat more of, eat less of, eat only a little of' guide.

That's it for Term One! It was only eight and a half weeks long. Have a wonderful Easter and April school holiday Room 7. See you next term, ready for ANZAC DAY (see the new link to the right!)

Beth's Monarch Butterfy hatches!

2010-03-22T17:42:00.000-07:00

We have been watching Beth's chrysalis for over a week now. Yesterday we noticed that it had turned black and we could see orange wings inside the chrysalis. Today at about 10.00am we suddenly noticed the butterfly had hatched and was pumping blood into its wings, ready to fly away! Beth and her friends put the butterfly on a swan plant in the junior courtyard, and just before lunchtime it flew away.

2010-03-18T16:25:00.001-07:00

This movie was contributed by Stuart Stock who is one of our parents. We had a great time last Friday holding the Y3-4 swimming sports. It was a bit cloudy and cold- who would have thought after such an amazingly warm sunny week? Never mind- it was a wonderful morning filled with children trying their very best. The house relay was a big highlight... go Cook!

Using digital objects to learn new things

2010-03-16T19:35:00.000-07:00

In Room 7 we have a digital data projector that is used (pretty much) every day in different ways. Sometimes we use it to look at and interact with digital learning objects. This week as part of our Body Science study, we have been exploring how the digestive system works, and today we used a digital learning object that helped us learn the names of the different parts of the digestive tract. Tomorrow we plan to use another digital learning object, to help us learn what certain organs along the digestive tract actually do with food after we've swallowed.

You can see these digital learning objects by clicking the appropriate links below the "How WE Learn" sidebar to the right.

Sea Week

2010-03-09T11:18:00.000-08:00

This week is "Sea Week" across New Zealand. Seaweek is an annual event run by the NZ Association for Environmental Education that allows New Zealanders to come together and celebrate the sea. Since we live in Eastbourne, the sea is a big part of our daily life. It only seems right we celebrate Sea Week!

For maths we looked at scale drawings of different sea animals, then we used estimation skills to calculate how big these sea animals would be in real life. We then went outside and drew them! Did you know that some jellyfish can grow to be over 10 metres long?

We've been practising our mihimihi...

2010-03-01T13:57:00.000-08:00

Last week we were practising our mihimihi (greetings) and we were able to record them. This week we will look at our recordings and see what we need to do to improve them!

Some 'Visual Mihi' to share

2010-02-11T16:54:00.000-08:00

Here are 4 children in Room 7 sharing their Visual Mihi. I think they did a great job considering they were not used to talking in front of a camera!

Interesting things about us!

2010-02-09T18:39:00.000-08:00

Today we completed our 'Comic Life' posters where we have published some interesting facts about ourselves.
Have a look!

Visual Mihi

2010-02-07T11:49:00.000-08:00

This week we plan to finish our "Visual Mihi'. A mihi is used to introduce ourselves, and is usually spoken. But this week Room 7 will be learning how to express who we are, and where we come from, using visual means only!

Children in Room 18 at Point England School each made a visual mihi last year. Click here to have a look at them, and remember to check back here next week to look at Room 7's!

Class of 2010

2010-02-03T15:26:00.000-08:00

We are Room 7, 2010!

Inquiry Presentations

2009-12-01T12:27:00.000-08:00

This week the Room 7 children have presented their inquiry findings on the question: How do animals survive in the extreme climate of Antarctica?

Click on the 'writing blog' link to the right, and have a look at the videos of children presenting their answer in the form of a puppet show. Some children chose to present their answer in the form of posters, brochures or comic strips, and there are photos of these as well.

The final phase of this inquiry will have us looking at how human are currently using the resources of Antarctica, and what environmental protection is in place to protect the last pristine wilderness on our planet.

Antarctic Treaty

2009-11-25T15:24:00.001-08:00

What might the picture above mean?

What can you find out about "The Antarctic Treaty"? Can you explain to the class next Monday, what it is, and what it is supposed to do?

Next week we will explore a little bit more on how humans use Antarctica. How might the "Antarctic Treaty" control what people are allowed/not allowed to do in Antarctica?

Stop Motion animation

2009-11-25T15:13:00.000-08:00

Mrs Drinkwater shared this video with the Year 3-4 teachers today. How do you think the author make the wolf and the pig move?

How do animals survive in Antarctica?

2009-11-17T12:59:00.000-08:00

Check out the Room 7 writing blog!

Electricity

2009-11-15T14:05:00.000-08:00

Between now and the end of the year, Room 7’s reading programme is focussing on science concepts, and ‘hands on’ testing of those ideas. Last week and this week, we have been investigating how an electric circuit works.

After last weeks exploration of the ‘circuit’ concept (i.e. the electricity needs to flow around an unbroken ‘circle’), this week we will be making some different types of switches.

Composing music

2009-11-03T11:09:00.000-08:00

This week during music time, we have applied what we have learned about beat, rhythm and melody to completed a 4 bar, 2 note composition.

We used xylophones to plan, practice and perform our compositions to the class. Below are some photos of us playing our own pieces of music.

How cold can it go?

2009-10-20T19:24:00.000-07:00

Today we investigated the effects of adding salt to ice.

We added 2 tsp of salt to a plastic cup of ice and measured the temperature. Most group's ice temperature fell to well below minus 10 degrees Celsius.

We added 2 tsp more of salt and measured the temperature. It fell to between minus 15 degrees and minus 18 degrees. The plastic cups started to frost over!

Why did this happen?

Clue #1: We knew that salt helped ice to melt.

Clue #2: We also remembered that for ice to melt, the water/ice molecules need to be excited and start moving about more. That means the molecules need to draw in energy from somewhere, in order to excite and start moving...

After LOTS of discussion we worked out that the energy to excite the ice was coming from the air around the ice. If ADDING energy warms things up, then removing energy must make things COLDER! So the air around the ice was becoming colder, not the ice. The thermometer was measuring the temperature of the air, not the ice.

And boy, was the air around the ice COLD! Minus 18 degrees Celsius was the coldest reading we made. Did I mention that the plastic cups were frosting up?

What does this mean for Antarctica?

The salty ice all around Antarctica is melting, and energy is needed to keep the process going. That energy comes from the air, and as the energy transfers from the air to the ice, the air temperature drops! Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrr..... No wonder it's so cold down there!

Freezing Cold!

2009-10-18T19:10:00.000-07:00

The Physical Nature of Ice
On Monday afternoon we experimented to find out what temperature salt water (sea water) freezes. We measured the temperature of normal iced water and found it was close to 1 degree Celsius. But when we measure the temperature of the salt (sea) water, the temperature dropped as low as -3 degrees Celsius.

What does this mean?

It might mean that...
Sea water needs temperatures lower than zero degrees celsius for ice to form.

Below are some other questions we are inquiring into this week:

What are the three states of matter?

What is the difference between a solid, liquid and gas?

What happens to molecules of water as they freeze? (see the two links below)

Where does the energy go as water freezes?

History of Antarctica

2009-10-14T15:40:00.000-07:00

As part of the 'excite and explore' phase of this term's inquiry on "Antarctica', we have been learning how Antarctica has, over time, gone from being a warm continent to a cold continent at the bottom of the world.

We learned that Antarctica was once part of a 'super-continent' called Gondwanaland.

We looked at the different shapes of the present day continents and how they might have fitted into the jig-saw of Gondwanaland.

Did you know that Dinosaurs once roamed the ancient forests of Antarctica, when it was part of Gondwanaland? Neither did we until yesterday!

Readers Theatre

2009-09-23T17:21:00.000-07:00

For the last 3 weeks, students in Room 7 have been rehearsing 3 'readers theatre' plays. 'Readers Theatre' plays are designed to be listened to, rather than watched.

Room 7 is proud to present three plays: "The Enormous Turnip", "Rumplestiltskin" and "The Gingerbread Man".

You can listen to these plays on Voicethread by clicking on the links above.

2009-09-22T14:07:00.000-07:00

Mr Dobson got this email from Matthew in France...

Bonjour room 7..

I could not access the blog so I am writing on email.

I arrived in Pouzolles on the 1st of Septembre and started school on the 3rd. The teacher is much more strict, we have to do dictations and the play area is 68 times smaller than in NZ.

Every few days Oliver and I run down to the bakery to buy baguette and croissant. Yet on Wednesday (no school) we have pain au chocolat as a special treat.

I have just joined a football team which has been going really well. The coaches are really experienced and strict.

In most weekends we go swimming in rivers, streams, lakes or the the Mediterranean sea. It's warmer than in NZ (and lots of ladies don't wear any tops!!).

It's a shame that we have missed the season of the snakes but we still see lots of lizards.

Au revoir

KEEP WORKING HARD FOR MR DOBSON EVERYONE!!!!

Matthew

P.S the photo is in front of my school

Listening to the first audio-conference

2009-09-15T19:57:00.000-07:00

At 1.30 today we listened to the first "Kakapo" audio-conference. Andrew and special guest, DOC Ranger Steve Horn answered questions from Ashburton School and Rosehill Intermediate. The topic being discussed was "Quarantine for kakapo on Codfish Island".

The audio-conference lasted about 30 minutes, and 10 questions were answered. After listening, we made a basic 'Question + Answer' mind-map on wallwisher to help us remember the information we had heard.

Here is our mind-map:

Tomorrow's audio-conference topic is "Kakapo - a unique parrot".

P.S. We were really amazed to see that Andrew, the LEARNZ teacher leading the virtual field trip, posted a comment on our blog. Thanks Andrew!

We're going on a (virtual) field trip

2009-09-13T14:42:00.000-07:00

We're going on a (virtual) field trip to look for Kakapo. We will learn how the Department of Conservation have tried to rescue the Kakapo from extinction.

The virtual field trip is organised by LEARNZ and will take us to Whenua Hou (Codfish Island), where there is a Kakapo sanctuary. We will listen in on 2 audio-conferences, where children will ask special DOC guests questions about how the Kakapo was saved from extinction. These Audio-conferences will be held on Wednesday and Thursday this week. We will also be able to email the LEARNZ teacher Andrew with our own questions during the week.

From the LEARNZ website:

The kakapo field trip plan

Tuesday 15 September: Travel day

Join Andrew as he sets the scene. Get on the plane and take off to one of the most southern cities in NZ and the world, Invercargill. It's our destination in preparation for our trip to Whenua Hou tomorrow. We'll take a look at the sights on the flight down from Christchurch.

Wednesday 16 September

Get your gear and bags checked at the southern islands quarantine store in Invercargill. Take a plane trip to Whenua Hou and land at low tide on Sealer's Bay beach. Get to know the restrictions for visitors and the quarantine requirements needed for access to this special island sanctuary. Then help check traps around the coast line.

Thursday 17 September

Spend the day caring for kakapo chicks. Learn about their dietary needs and whip up a tasty treat for them. Take a close look at their vital statistics as they are measured and weighed during a health check. Check out the track and bowl systems on the high plateau. Find out about how to locate kakapo using triangulations from transmitter signals.

Friday 18 September

Finish off Conservation Week with a look at how the kakapo recovery programme is saving these amazing birds from extinction. Examine some of the gadgets used for monitoring kakapo. Catch a plane on the beach as we leave Whenua Hou and head back to the mainland at the end of our adventure.

Our Visit to Te Papa #2

2009-09-08T13:34:00.000-07:00

The interest generated from our trip to Te Papa has been amazing!

Most children have presented to the class something that they found 'fascinating' during the day. The classroom 'newsboard' is chocka-block full of posters, mind-maps and visual aides that children made to support their mini-presentation.

The 'Colossal Squid'exhibit really seemed to catch our imagination! I found the online version to the 'create a squid' activity at Te Papa. Click on the link below to have a go!

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http://squid.tepapa.govt.nz/build-a-squid/interactive

Clean up New Zealand!

2009-09-08T13:21:00.000-07:00

This week is "Clean up New Zealand" week.

The Year 3-4's went down to the beach and helped by spending half an hour looking through the dunes for plastic and paper rubbish.

There actually wasn't that much rubbish so people must be really getting the message that littering is really really wrong!

New Homework blog

2009-09-01T19:39:00.000-07:00

I have created a new homework blog to help inform you and the Room 7 students of any 'different' homework that might be set this year.

As you may have noticed, sometimes the set homework is a little different from the usual 'spelling and basic facts' routine.

This new blog is designed to help answer any questions about any 'special' homework that might be set.

It can be viewed at

http://room7homework.blogspot.com/

or by clicking on the link on the right hand link bar.

Upcoming visit to Te Papa

2009-08-30T16:00:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow (Tuesday) we are going to visit Te Papa museum.

One of the experiences we will have will be at the Te Papa marae. We will learn about the protocol for being welcomed onto a marae. We have prepared a song to sing as part of the welcome.

We will also get to explore the museum in small groups. One of the places we will visit is the 'Awesome Forces" exhibit. This is where we can learn all about how New Zealand/Aotearoa came to be.

"What Now" visited Te Papa and made a really fun 'tour' of Te Papa that you can watch...

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Room 7 2012

First week of the school year

Yosemite through time-lapse lense

Happy New Year!

"All I want for christmas...."

EOTC Week- Fishing

"Make your own homework" week

"Child Labour" Day at school

Getting ready for the Art Auction

Athletics Day Timetable

Term 4: The "Working Hard" investigation, and the "Green Gecko" project!

New Dinosaur related learning on the "Class of 2011" Blog

Tim's new Dinosaur Blog!

Applying knowledge and understanding

Zoom Dinosaurs

More snow video...

The day it snowed at school!!!

Dinosaur Maths

Last Space Shuttle flight :-(

Our "Mystery Stories"

Making and lanching our rockets!

The 4 Forces of flight

Voices in the Park

The power of 'Thrust'

Making a tea bag rocket

Our seedlings are now plants!

Next Weekend's Telethon for Christchurch

PS22 Chorus: Awake My Soul

Making piklets, the "Samuel Show" way!

Welcome back- Term Two has started!

End of Term One- 11 weeks of learning!

Healthy Sandwiches

Using a ranking ladder as an assessment activity

New student work on Class of 2011 blog

Learning about the digestive system

Borborygmi!

Yesterday's trip

Growing seedlings

Today's picnic at Days Bay

Our first week at school

Meet the class of 2011!

PS22 Chorus- New song!

Happy New Year!

"Walking with our eyes closed" Poetry

Our Plate Tectonic movies

Sewing

Plate Tectonics

Term 4 about to begin!

The Short but Incredibly Happy Life of Riley

Halfmen of O/ International Literacy Day

Mummified Apples- after 7 days.

Rugby World Cup!

Egyptian Science

Being an Expert!

Reading our "Uncle Jack" stories

"Extra" science homework this week

Soccer Tournament

Short Story Competition winners

Being Role Models

Ancient Egypt

Matariki Harvest

Room 7 talks about Yeast

Room 7 digi-kids

Making Bread

The changes that starch and yeast goes through

Veggie Patch programme

Introducing Vaishally Ghandi

Origami Homework

The Mysteries of Harris Burdick

Learning about chemical reactions

Performing Arts presentation

Hokey Pokey

Wow!

PIRATES!

Eastbourne War memorials

Yummy Wraps!

Beth's Monarch Butterfy hatches!

Using digital objects to learn new things

Sea Week

We've been practising our mihimihi...