Room12sBlog2008

We have an exciting term ahead, so I hope you have all had a good holiday and come back to school ready to have fun learning!! 

The term is packed with a whole variety of interesting topics and events.  There will be a big focus on China and the Olympics and of course don’t forget Maori Language Week first up!   The first two weeks we will be completing material for our portfolios in preparation for parent/teacher meetings.  We will also be writing speeches for the Bayfield School Speech competition.  The Art exhibition is on later in the term.  On Fridays, during Chamber Choir time and the Ukulele Group, we will have a rotation with Room 11.  I am planning to use some of the geometry we did last term for sewing - tessellating shapes in fabric! 

Here’s a summary of what we will be covering this term.

Maths

Weeks 1-3 - Algebra - Number patterns and sequences

Weeks 4-6 - Fractions and Decimals

English

Writing to inform and report on events.  We will look more at media bias and the impact of media on how we understand the world.  This will take in the Olympics and how the Games are reported in the newspapers,  TV and the Internet.

Intergrated Learning

We will be taking a close look at China and the Olympics.

Visual Art

Preparing for the art exhibition.  Complete the dean Buchanan work and start next project with fabric and fibre? 

Kapa Haka and Rotation

Kapa Haka will continue.  For those not involved in Kapa Haka, there will be a rotation which you will have some choice in.  We will tell you more this week.

Ella left on the last day of term to go and live in India with her Mum and Dad.  We had a fairwell ’shared lunch’ and gave Ella a bloggy toy.  She called her bloggy “Billy”.   All the staff dressed in Indian outfits as a special tribute to Ella and and her mum Michelle (also a teacher at our school).  Thanks to Uru and her family, I had a beautiful outfit to wear too.

We will really miss having Ella in Room12 but we are looking forward to hearing from her on our blog and on hers.  Once she gets settled we hope to get some pictures of her new home and maybe be able to link to her new school and classroom. 

Ella we hope you had a great flight to India and are starting to get settled in.  Don’t forget to keep in touch!

 The Science Road Show was great fun and we all had the opportunity to interact with a wide range of exhibits.  The experiment I loved the most was the one with the gherkin.  It certainly conducted electricity very well.  The wind tunnel was great too.  There were a few cool new ‘hair arrangements’ after a turn in there.   Has anyone tried the egg experiment at home yet?  Remember it looks like the egg gets sucked in to the container  -  but it’s actually pushed in by air pressure.  Here are a few pics I took on the day.

We have been exploring geometric shapes in maths.  Today we used drinking straws to make poyhedrans!  Here are some pictures taken in class today!

Scot’s family have recently opened the biggest juice factory in New Zealand.  Scott went to Timaru to the opening and bought back this big carrot to show us!  He said it wasn’t even the biggest one he saw!

This carrot would keep a few bunnies happy for a while Scot.

Art

Thanks to Simon (and me of course!) our art boards are nearly ready to go!  There was lots of painting and stapling of hessian this afternoon.  I just can’t wait now to get started with the art work!  I think we may have to have a workshop day next week when we really just go for it! 

Blog Awards

I am checking out your blogs regularly now.  Given that we have had such a busy couple of weeks….I think we will vote on Monday next week. 

First prise - A unique blog toy made especially by Lesley

Second, third, fourth and maybe fifth - mini blog toy made especially by Lesley.

Start looking yourself.  We will have a vote and I will also have a say (of course)!

Don’t forget to read the success criteria before you make your decisions.  Keep your decisions to yourself.  This will be a secret ballot.  Remember it is not about voting for your friends!

See you all tomorrow for our special flight to Jupiter.

Lesley

Reading - 20 minutes each night

Basic Facts -Learn your basic facts if your need to

Spelling - Choose 10 words wrongly spelt words from your draft writing.  If you have no errors, choose words related to what we have been learning about  in class.  For example the words we are using in geometry!.  Make sure you choose words that are at the appropriate level for you spelling ability and that they are words that you would really use.  There’s no point learning words to spell words that mean nothing to you!

Special Activity - Find a newspaper article and read it with someone at home.  Discuss the meaning and message.

Highlight all the words you don’t understand and look them up in a dictionary.  (If there are more than 8 - just choose 8 to look up). 

Come prepared on Friday to share your news item with your class mates.

Don’t forget to bring a few coins in to school, for our collection, for this wonderful book that we read last week. 

Remember ‘The Enemy’ is a very thought provoking book that raises issues about war, the propaganda and the stereotypes that support and justify the cause!  This is your last year at Bayfield and it would be great to have our class name on this book! 

Would anyone like to write a book review of ‘The Enemy’ to post here on our blog and on our library catalogue?

Next week we will vote for the best blog.  Remember to keep the learning intentions in mind when making your choices! What we are looking for are blogs that have an educational focus, where the student is reflecting on their learning and where the blog has been kept up to date with regular posts!  Appearance is also  a factor, but not as important.   Here are the learning intentions - in case you have forgotten!

Learning Intention

I am learning to…

Communicate appropriately on my school blog using a variety of media

Success Criteria

To fulfill this learning intention, I need to satisfy the following criteria……

• proof read and edit my published blog work to the best of my ability
• post examples of my school work
• post  reflections on my learning
• make informative comments on other students’ blogs
• include content on my blog that is informative and appropriate for school

In maths, we are learning about 3D shapes. We thought about what we already know about shapes and symmetry.  We reminded ourselves about the parts of a shape including the the faces, vertices and the edges.  We also talked about where we would see geometric shapes in the ‘real world’.  Today we constructed 3D shapes by joining 2D shapes together.  We used toothpicks and blue-tack.

Here is fun interactive site with tangram puzzles;

http://standards.nctm.org/document/eexamples/chap4/4.4/index.htm#applet