Thursday 18 December 2014

Sayonara 2014!

On the behalf of Elly, Troy, Ebony, Suzanne, Charlotte, James and I we'd like to wish all the Poutama Team a wonderful Christmas break!  Thank you for making 2014 an amazing year! Dear Year 6s, don't be a stranger! Make sure you come in and say hello whenever you're able.  Merry Christmas everyone and a happy new year!

Tuesday 2 December 2014

Scaffolding Questioning


Think of something and 20Q will read your mind by asking a few simple questions. The object you think of should be something that most people would know about, but not a proper noun or a specific person, place, or thing.  http://www.20q.net/ 

Now have a go yourself! Google search something on your device, buddy up with someone and play 20Q to see if they can guess what it is using the questioning techniques that 20Q uses.

Monday 1 December 2014

Weta Workshops Countdown till Christmas...

Happy December Everyone! Check out this cool online Advent Calendar that Weta Workshops has produced. I wonder what thing is going to be in each of the days leading up to Christmas? Thorin from the Hobbit Films is under the 1st of December tab. Have a look here


Friday 28 November 2014

Last round of Seed to table


We loved the menu today! Thanks Joy and the kitchen crew we had a fab time. 

We all learned something new, did something new and tried something new!


We look forward to next week to do it all again. 

Tuesday 25 November 2014

Episode 2! 8001Listen

Hey everybody! We have put together Episode 2 of [8Double01Listen].  We have had a lot of fun creating it... Enjoy!  How can we improve?

Ebony and Troy's Whanau hit up Foxton Beach

On Monday, Troy and Ebony took their classes to Foxton Beach for Beach Ed day to continue our learning around Keeping Ourselves Safe that we have just completed. We worked with 3 junior lifeguards to learn about beach safety and played some fun games down at the beach. We were pretty lucky to have such a spectacular sunny day to frolic in the ocean and get smashed by the big west coast waves! Thanks heaps to all the parents who came and had a swim with us, hope you enjoyed yourselves as much as we all did.



Capacity and measurement

We have been learning about capacity during maths with Nic's measurement group. We investigated the capacities of different sized containers. Today we wrote up our investigations to help us move this learning into our brains.

Tuesday 18 November 2014

RSS Radio Reading Inquiry

Kia ora Team,

During our reading session we have been exploring using the radio station to improve our reading and others' reading. 

We have been working really hard to build an audience but it did not take off the ground.  Good learning some would say.

So we have steered into a new direction and used video to create our radio station and it has seemed to catch on a bit more...

Please watch this with your class and give us any feedback or feedforward.

Nga Mihi

Monday 17 November 2014

Revising a Song for Kapahaka



Remember their are some words that we are fine tuning. We found that it is hard to UNLEARN something but here it is for you to practice at home.

Cycle Wise Starts this week.

Today we had our first lesson with Helen our local education police officer. We learnt about what helps keep us safe on e road. We really enjoyed practicing how to ride around a roundabout using our arms as indicators.

Wednesday we will be bringing our bikes along for a practical session. So don't forget your bikes and helmets Poutama!


Thursday 6 November 2014

Are you an Innovator?

In Eb's reading group we have embarked on an inquiry to get lines painted on the field for sports. We have researched, planned and measured out how it will look. We have talked to David, Ivan and the builders in our school working on the new art space. We are now getting our old line marking machine cleaned up ready for the job. Thanks to Ivan!

So while we wait we looked into some other 'kid innovators' who are making a difference for themselves and in their communities.


We found this one about Caine. We all think he is amazing!







We also read about a girl in Texas who is now a millionaire which started as an innovation when she was nine.

http://www.inventivekids.com/2013/12/30/snap-caps-invented-by-5th-grade-student/


We learned that you can never be to young to be an innovator.

Like the article says....

"Who knows, maybe you have an idea percolating away in your brain!"

Sunday 26 October 2014

What is Education 3.0?

I found a great video from Future-Focussed Education Guru Mark Osborne. He raises some great points in the rapidly changing education sector. How our parents learnt things at school is massively different to the way our children are learning and will need to learn.
What things does he raise in this video that we are already doing in #Poutama?

 

Wednesday 17 September 2014

Art Inquiry

Check out Kaylana's AWESOME art that she finished today as part of her inquiry into Fiji.  Kaylana is the first to be finished, 30 more to go!!  Watch this space for more to come next week.


Thursday 11 September 2014

Writing: WALT Add Detail

In Nic's writing group we have been learning to add detail in our stories. Adding detail is when writers use their 5 senses (sight, touch, smell, taste, hear) along with action senses (such as feel, do, say, think).

 I try to explain it like this: a paragraph is like a puzzle; every sentence is a different piece of the puzzle. When you have a range of 'detailed' sentences, you complete the puzzle. If you repeat using the same puzzle pieces, it gets boring for the reader.  Make sense?

We did an activity today so we could see if we had a range of puzzle pieces in our paragraphs.  We used this colour key:
Then I went through my first paragraph to see if I have a range of "puzzle pieces". 


Some of us realised that we only had 1 or 2 different colours.  So our goal is to add at least 3 more.  Try to have 5 per paragraph.  Here is a before and after photo of Jade's writing after we re-crafted it using the detail scaffold. It's awesome!

Monday 8 September 2014

Ki-o-Rahi Tournament


What a special day to be a part of. Kia Ora Pa Ray and Rangitaane for organising this event and providing us with more depth of this awesome game and the legend.  Thank you to all the parents who came down and supported us too!

Nga Mihi Nui

Sunday 7 September 2014

Fighting Vs Collaborative

I couldn't help but share with you this wonderful animation. It's about people trying to eat a bowl of food with long spoons.  They can't do it and begin fighting with each other.  Watch what happens when they "work together" and support each other: it's truly magic!

So what happens when we work together? How can we help and support each others learning?



We watched this movie and talked about what was happening in the beginning.  We said people were: fighting, bickering, arguing, being nasty, hitting.

We talked about how it made people feel.  We said it makes people feel: sad, unhappy, horrible, distressed.  DO WE HAVE THE RIGHT TO TREAT PEOPLE LIKE THIS? 

If you had the choice to make someone feel happy or sad, I bet all of you would choose happy. Right?

Let's all work on "lifting others up" around us. Support positive leaders and ignore the negative. 

Kia kaha, kia toa, kia manawanui.

Winter Tournament

Well done to all of our Winter Tournament players! We had amazing results with our Rugby players coming a close 5th, Hockey, Soccer and Netball coming in 2nd. And then our Basketball team who came in 1st! We are very proud of you all!

Monday 25 August 2014

DanceNZ!

Thursday 21 August 2014

Progress on fractions!

We finished off our fractions learning with a post test this morning. Here is a photo of all the @tribeoflearners who have improved on the pre-test score! Great success team!

Thursday 14 August 2014

WALT Read With Accuracy

Nic's Reading Groups chose to read a text about "The Biggest Snake That Ever Lived!" Woah! It was pretty massive.  The snake was called the Titanoboa.  There were lots of technical words, which challenged us to read them with accuracy.  Here is a youtube video about how to pronounce ophidiophobia. Do you know what it means?

Wednesday 13 August 2014

Northern Cluster! What?!


Russell Street School Performing Arts Group Wows Regent

Wow, wow, wow, wow guys! I mentioned that you were really good today but tonight something magical happened! WOW! You really stepped up to the next level - I was incredibly proud of you all. Many thanks to all the people involved in making The Northern Cluster Arts Festival a huge success. 

Nga Mihi Nui

Nic


Tuesday 12 August 2014

Northern Cluster Support


Wednesday is show time! We have had many weeks of preparing and planning and practising our bracket!  Thank you to all who came down and gave up part of their day to prepare for the event. We are almost good to go.
This Wednesday, all of Poutama will be heading down to the Regent to support the Northern Cluster Performing Arts group. Note being, this is a free trip; there is no cost to the activity fee.

The bus will pick us up at 12pm and we will be returning to school by 2:30pm.

We are really looking forward to it!

For the night performance, could parents of the Northern Cluster Performing Arts Group *please tune in here*  you will need to drop off your child/ren at the big green door on King Street and they will head to Dressing Rooms 5 and 6.  Please note, unless you are a parent helper you will not be allowed to enter the building through this door. Parent helpers will receive a "backstage" pass from me and you will be able to come in. 

The show is scheduled to start at 7pm and the run time is 1 hour and 10 minutes so they will be ready to be picked up by 8:20pm at the entrance of the Regent on Broadway. 

Monday 11 August 2014

The Artist, The Model and The Clay

Looking forward to starting our next phase in Inquiry! Here are some highlights of the drama games we played to help us develop space, levels and focus.

Flipped learning / Maths Fractions of a set

I received a notification via twitter today from a friend who I went to uni with.  He is the DP of a school all the way down in Invercargill, NZ! It said this:


I thought this was really cool because JP, Adarsh, Hunter and I worked on this showme to help us understand how to solve factions of a set using multiplication.  We have now helped another teacher to help teach his students! I replied to Mark saying "wow, cool and exciting" and he replied:


We have just helped someone in Invercargill understand this strategy with his teacher facilitating the learning.  I am glad to be a part of it!  Check out the showme!

Aroha, Jade and Niamh's Mask Dance

Aroha, Jade and Niamh have been adapting some dance moves from Dean McKerras and making them their own.  Well done girls for working hard on your dance routine - it was fantastic!

Dream Sketches by @tribeoflearners

During the past week @tribeoflearners (Nic's Whanau Class) have been learning to sketch.  We watched a youtube video to learn how to set out the composition of a face. We then used some collage techniques for the background. Some of us who finished within the time limit, used coloured clay to make it 'pop' on the page.  Each of us chose someone to sketch - check out our awesome creations!

Thursday 7 August 2014

Mathex!

Goodluck to all our Mathex competitors for tomorrow!

Monday 4 August 2014

WALT Summarise

Nic's Reading group have been practicing how to summarise a text.  We read a Maori legend called Ki-O-Rahi and e chose different ways to show our understanding of the main ideas.  Here is Callum and Emmett's second draft.  They shared their movie during sharing time today and we gave them some feedforward about making sure their movie makes sense to someone who does not know the story. What do you think?  Check it out:

Tuesday 29 July 2014

Term 3 Inquiry

Apologies for the late blog update, we have had an extremely busy yet focused beginning to our term. We are really striving towards reaching that next level in excellence. But more about that later...

Term 3 sees us combining the strengths, passions and interests of the teachers in the senior senior team. We are delighted to welcome Kerri and Stephen to our tribe of learners to deliver a guided inquiry based on the arts, technology and cultures of the world. 

We are within the "get it" phase of inquiry where we are saturating ourselves with knowledge. After this stage the children will get to choose a teacher and subject (one they find interesting or are passionate about) so that they can delve deeper in the inquiry. This we are naming the "sort it" phase.

The "use it" phase will look like Teachers guiding learners through this process and negotiating an appropriate 'action' with the learners who have chosen to work with them.

Check out some of the learning we have completed so far:

Elly's Mexican influenced art: learning about colours, composition and symbolism.



With Nic, we are learning about using levels, symmetry, time, levels, focus, movement and accepting ideas to create a story using dance/drama.

Testing

Monday 30 June 2014

Matariki Concert 2014



 Link to Matariki Photo Album

Practicing for SLC's

It's a great feeling having everything completed and then being able to share our learning with our learning partners. It is very exciting. We are sharing what we have been learning (or what we are trying to get better at). 



Thursday 26 June 2014

100% Spelling Week 8


Well done to the following amazing spellers for this week. I wonder if the board can be full next week...

Tuesday 24 June 2014

Problem Solving

During maths today we were trying to solve some puzzles using number strategies.  We then had a go at making our own.  Check out Rileigh-Kayes!  Can you guess her word?

Friday 20 June 2014

100% Spelling Week 7


We are learning about Integrity

Yes! This term we have been learning about an important value: Ngakau Tapatahi or Integrity.

 Could we imagine a world without integrity? It wouldn't be a pretty place. So we have been exploring ideas and concepts about how students could show integrity in our environment.

 Once again, we are blown away by the range of creative responses to this activity. There is definitely not a "one size fits all" approach. Well done everybody!

 Parents, you should see the below criteria on your child's blog (or very similar). The criteria should be someway highlighted (or bolded) as a 'self-assessment'. Also parents, we'd love to hear how you might use Integrity in a real life setting. Please write a comment so we can learn about integrity in the "real-world".

 Task: Create your own short movie about integrity
- Work in 3 or 4’s In your video you need to:
- Show an example of Integrity

 You will be assessing yourself on these criteria:

What makes a good video: (Please Highlight Yellow for can, Pink for need to work on):
- conveys a clear message
- clear voices
- different camera angles
- Still camera skills
- mute background noise
- mixture of still and moving images
- background distractions
- music

 You will need to write a post about your movie. It will need to include:
- In your own words, explain what is integrity?
- Explain why your clip is showing integrity
- For example, Integrity is... You can show integrity by... or... It is important to show integrity because...

 Self evaluation: What are you proud of? What do you need to work on?

 Peer Feedback/feedforward: I like the way you... Next time you could...

 Check out these awesome samples:
 

Sunday 15 June 2014

Rm 12 Ninja's and their buddies Tahora's Happy Remake

Well done to everyone that was apart of the assembly on Friday. Rm 12 Ninja's you can be proud of all the work you did to create a fantastic show.

Here's our finally song for those of you that want to see it again!


Saturday 14 June 2014

100% Spelling

Well done everybody who got 10 out of 10 in their buddy spelling test this week! 

Tuesday 10 June 2014

WALT Re-craft

In Nic's writing group we had a discussion about what a writer does to re craft their writing. We came up with these criteria:

- Re-read it.
- Re-read it AGAIN out loud.
- Mix it up, change it round.
- Fix it up. (Capital letters, punctuation, spelling)
- Change repeated words or sentence starters.
- Add stuff! (To add detail for the reader!) 
- Can you break it up? (Paragraphs?)
- Subject Specific Vocabulary
- Finally, give it to a buddy and they re-read it out loud

Check out Mitchell's re-craft!




Monday 9 June 2014

To Do List

Hi team, 

This week we need to be completely on task because we have tonnes of learning to complete for our SLC's.

Here is the list:

Sunday 8 June 2014

100% Spellers Week 5

Well done to these people who scored 100% in their spelling test this week! Keep striving!!

Maths Samples

Poutama have been super creative and busy finishing off their Math Samples for their Student Led Conferences.  I absolutely love the variety of samples being created!  There's paper, white-boards, iPads, Movies, Animations and Web2.0!  It is incredible!  

The Poutama teachers have emphasized that it's not about the poster or the movie... it's about the Maths and the audience.  We are looking to see a balanced mix of entertaining and informing our audience.   Check out some of these examples: 

Parents now would be a perfect opportunity to jump on your child's e-portfolio and write them a comment about their learning!




calais maths
By fuse711


math sample by DA BOLDER on GoAnimate

African Drumming Workshop Followed by Performance

You may remember Jennifer Moss, our previous music teacher?  Well, Jen has been working hard on a number of musical ventures since leaving us... one of them spreading the word about 'African Drumming'.  I am a passionate musician and aspiring drummer so I jumped at the chance to work with Jen and Robert Fugah (an African Drumming Specialist from Ghana). 

As the video says, we learnt 4 rhythms in less than an hour and then performed it to the rest of the senior school.  The drummers were amazing!  What great performers they were! 

I eventually nailed my part (not in this recording) though, it was running through my head for days afterwards...


What was your favourite part of the performance / workshop?

Thursday 5 June 2014

WALT: show integrity

Using panoramic shots some of the learners in Poutama have been creating photos to show integrity. How clever is this shot?

Thursday 29 May 2014

Cross Country 2014

What an amazing day at Cross Country today!  We were super proud of you all!  You showed perseverance and persistence on a very tough course.

There are LOADS of photos...

Check them out here and here.

Spelling 100%

Well done to these spellers who have been working hard all week learning their words! They got 10/10.

Tuesday 27 May 2014

Maths Sample Expectations

Reading Follow-Ups

Hey check out a PicCollage Sam and Thomas B made about a text we read last week about Argo Floats. Great informative poster boys - well done!


Wednesday 21 May 2014

WALT show Ngakau Tapatahi (Integrity)

We found a great story that shows ngakau tapatahi (integrity). At home we had a great time reading and performing a story together!  But check out Luke and Jake's experience when they encounter a box of unattended juice. What would you do?

Monday 19 May 2014

Poutama does Newton's Cradle

This week we are looking more closely at potential and kinetic energy. We organised a technology challenge based on this movie: We asked the children what they could see, what they think and what they wondered?


Check out this video we put together, showing some of our prototypes! It was so fun!



This week, our writing will be focusing on what's going on behind the action... What is the SCIENCE? 

"Every Action has an Equal and Opposite Reaction."

Tuesday 13 May 2014

Science: energy!

We have been breaking off in our science / writing groups and doing lots of shared writing and discussing about science concepts. 

Check out some of our ideas!





Saturday 10 May 2014

Happy Mothers Day

Happy Mothers Day to all of the special women in your lives! We hope that you all get spoilt this weekend! 

Wednesday 7 May 2014

Learning Priorities

During Hui yesterday Nic led a discussion about what our learning priorities will be during independent time. We all agreed that learning priorities should be fundamentals such as reading, writing, spelling and basic facts. 

Once the "fundees" are complete, children will get an opportunity to complete Learning Specials. 

Thursday 1 May 2014

Why is my kid allowed to make spelling mistakes? by Jennifer Gonzalez


Why is my kid allowed to make spelling mistakes?

Peetsa
Dear Cult of Pedagogy,
Last week, my son brought home a stack of papers from his first-grade class. Some of them had obvious spelling errors, but no one had marked them wrong. Later that same day, I was helping my 10-year-old daughter with a research paper. I noticed a few misspellings on her draft, but when I pointed them out, she said, “My teacher told us not to worry about spelling when we’re drafting.”
What’s the deal? Why don’t teachers seem to care about spelling anymore?

When kids first learn how to write, they grapple with many different skills at once. After they master letters and build them into words, their next step is stringing those words together into complete ideas. That takes a lot of mental work, and trying to spell every word perfectly can slow the whole process way down. For this reason, many teachers in the early grades encourage inventive spelling, also known as temporary spelling — where the child makes his best guess on the spelling of the word, rather than stopping to find out the correct version.
This practice is grounded in research. A number of studies demonstrate that kids who are allowed to use inventive spelling learn to write more quickly, more fluently, and with a richer vocabulary than those who work under more rigid spelling expectations (Kolodziej & Columba, 2005).
Researchers suggest that parents think about inventive spelling the way they once viewed their child’s early attempts at speech:
When the child said “ba-ba,” did the parent say, “No, honey, it is pronounced “bottle”? Parents treasure this developmental step their child took towards conventional speaking by lavishly praising the child and offering the bottle…The child will not call the item a “ba-ba” for the rest of his/her life; rather, when the child is developmentally ready, he/she will be able to say “bottle” (Kolodziej & Columba, 2005, p. 217).
In the later years, spelling does “count,” but it has a time and a place. Most writing teachers use some version of the Writing Process, where students are taught to (1) gather and group their ideas (pre-writing), (2) flesh out those ideas in sentences and paragraphs (drafting), and (3) reorganize the piece so that it accomplishes the writer’s goals (revising). Only then, after the piece has been revised into a shape that’s close to finished, do most teachers tell their students to start the next step: editing. In this stage, final corrections are made to spelling, punctuation, and usage.
The reason spelling and mechanics are de-emphasized in the first few steps is the same as in the younger grades: Too much focus on correctness interrupts the flow of ideas. Furthermore, teachers want students to understand that good writers revise their pieces many times for structure, development, clarity and voice. Although the mechanics are important for polish, correct spelling can’t make up for a poorly structured, underdeveloped piece of writing. And if a piece is going to be revised several times, it makes no sense to keep correcting the mechanics, only to have those words dumped entirely in a later revision.
Producing a finished piece of writing is a lot like putting on a polished musical performance: It requires the synthesis of many skills, some of which need to be handled separately. Imagine if a band conductor brought a brand-new piece of music to her band and expected all sections to play it together, perfectly, the first time. Even someone with no musical training can see that this is an unreasonable approach. Instead, if each instrument section starts by practicing their part separately, the performers will get really solid on their individual parts before pulling it all together to refine the complete performance.
So what should you do if your child comes home with a paper full of spelling or other mechanical errors? Take a cue from the teacher: If the teacher hasn’t mentioned the errors, then spelling was not a priority for this particular assignment or at this particular stage. Instead, praise the content itself. Here are some specific things to look for, and if they are there, to praise:
Strong, vivid vocabulary: “You chose a really interesting word to describe that monster – ferocious.”
Idea development: “You described how the lizard’s tongue works really clearly. At first I couldn’t understand how a tongue can smell, but this sentence helps.”
Audience awareness: “This introduction really grabbed my attention.”
Organization: “Nice transition here: ‘On the other hand.’ That’s a good way to show that you’re going to talk about a different side of the issue.”
Attempts at sophisticated construction: “Is that a semicolon? That’s a pretty advanced punctuation mark. I like to see you trying new things with your writing.”
If you want to help your child improve his spelling, keep assignments that contain errors in a folder. Later in the year, after a certain kind of word has been taught – say, the difference between there,their, and they’re — have your child go through the folder and see if they can catch some old mistakes with this set of words.
Rest assured, teachers still care very much about spelling. They just recognize that learning other skills — harder, more complex skills — often works best when those skills get a student’s full attention. Single instruments first, then the whole orchestra.

Reference:
Kolodziej, N.J., & Columba, L. (2005). Invented spelling: Guidelines for parents. Reading Improvement42 (4), 212-223.

Creative Writing

This is a google doc we created last term as part of our specials! Check out some of our amazing writers!

Wednesday 16 April 2014

Blood moon/Luna Eclipse

Wow! Did anyone see the Luna eclipse last night? Tell us about your experience...

Tuesday 15 April 2014

Team Tactics answers

Here are the answers to the CLOZE reading activity we have been practicing in class. You might have noticed the STAR Reading assessment which came home earlier in the term. The CLOZE reading assessment can be one of the most difficult to master. We will be practicing at school.

If you want to help at home, you can photocopy a page of a well known family book. Then twink out every 5 - 7th word. Here's an example of Mog:

Making ANZAC Poppies

In buddy class for Room's 8 and 11 we have been learning to blend. We are creating ANZAC poppies.  Check out this snap shot of our learning so far!

Saturday 12 April 2014

Voice Levels

We have been practicing using our voice in different situations so that we use the right level at the right time and place. 
How are you going at using these voice levels? Which levels do you mostly use?

Wednesday 9 April 2014

Tras-Tasman @kidsedchatnz: ANZAC Day

Last week, Ebony and Nic's Whanau classes joined in the first Trans-Tasman @kidsedchatnz ever! Some Australian classes joined us and we shared our stories and learning about ANZAC. Thank you for sharing your special stories about some of your great, great grandparents who went to war too. Here are the tweets of the week. We got mentioned twice out of 668 tweets! Well done team!

Kizoa slideshow: ANZAC tweets of the week - Slideshow

Friday 4 April 2014

Buddy Class (Rm 4 and Rm 12)

We just love catching up with our buddies on Tuesday afternoons. For the last few sessions our task has been to make a movie showing finger patterns to ten to help our buddies with their learning goals in maths.

Here is one movie by Aye, Grace and Ella (Rm 12) and Meleena (Rm 4).

Thursday 3 April 2014

Buddy Swim

It is hard to believe that it is April and we had an opportunity to have one last dip in the pool! We had a great time with our buddies on Wednesday afternoon.

Wednesday 2 April 2014

A Message from Carolyn...

Hi Poutama!
Look what I found in the paper today, it's the book launch for the ANZAC story, Jim's Letters, that we read together on Monday. It turns out the author and illustrator are launching their book in Ashurst next Friday afternoon. What a great opportunity to meet an author. Just thought I would let you know...
Carolyn


Tuesday 1 April 2014

Callum's Experience with an Olympic Athlete

Simon van Velthooven is an inspiring speed cyclist. He came to our school and told us all about his life and his Olympics experience. As a young boy attending Kopane School, every school day he would bike about 8 km to school and he loved biking to school. One day an athlete came to his school and he was a speed cyclist and he inspired Simon to take his cycling to the next level. A few years later Simon is going to the Olympics biking 1km in 1 minute to earn a bronze medal. He says if you want to do something stick with it and try your hardest. At assembly he let us hold his Handle bars and helmet. One of the things that he talked about was his bronze medal. He was was talking about how happy he was and how hard it was to get bronze. I know that feeling because, in the tennis semi finals, I came third in the whole Manawatu for my grade.  It feels like like all the weight is gone off your shoulders.

By Callum.

Sunday 30 March 2014

Seed 2 Table - Rotation 2

We had a great start to our Seed 2 Table rotation on Friday.  Check out the photos here.

You will notice that on the Priorities and Specials for the week, there are 2 Priorities if you are in the current S2T rotation.

The first is to find a plant that you can take a photo of every day this week.  On friday, we will be looking at the changes that you notice in your plant.  (Remember that you will notice changes in a small plant more than a large plant).

The second priority is to draw a detailed diagram (with labels) of a plant.

I have also added a Special.  Would you like to see a dicot form?  There are some Sweet Pea seeds in P1.  Put 5 or 6 on a wet paper towel in a shallow container (see the Science cupboard).  Observe over the next few days to see what happens.

Saturday 29 March 2014

Pyjama Day


Congratulations Sensational 7!  Check out this article in the Manawatu Standard.

Simon van Velthooven

On Friday, we were very lucky to have Simon van Velthooven visit to speak to us about his time at the Olympic Games.  We were inspired!  I wonder if any of us could make it?!  We were interested to hear him speak about 'Comradery.'  This links very well with our term's value - kotahitanga.

At the 2012 UCI Track Cycling World Championships, Simon won the bronze medal in the men's 1 kilometre time trial. He also won a bronze medal in the Men's Keirin at the 2012 Summer Olympics jointly with Teun Mulder after the race officials were unable to separate the two in a photo finish for third place.

Here are Emma and Iggy with Simon's Olympic Bronze medal!