WELCOME TO M9 2017
On this page, you will find weekly blogs informing you of the happenings going on in the classroom this year.
Week 5
Firstly, apologies for not updating this page lately. This term is so hectic with assessments, testing, and reporting going on that everything else seems to go on the back burner.
I can tell you that we have been very busy in class with getting our products ready for market day, which is happening on December 13th in the Village Green at school.
Stay tuned for some more information from the last 3 weeks.
Firstly, apologies for not updating this page lately. This term is so hectic with assessments, testing, and reporting going on that everything else seems to go on the back burner.
I can tell you that we have been very busy in class with getting our products ready for market day, which is happening on December 13th in the Village Green at school.
Stay tuned for some more information from the last 3 weeks.
WEEK 2 TERM 4
And we are underway with what is looking like a very busy and hectic term. We are well into the swing of things in class and already planning some awesome products for market day which is happening at the end of term. Stay tuned. More coming soon...
And we are underway with what is looking like a very busy and hectic term. We are well into the swing of things in class and already planning some awesome products for market day which is happening at the end of term. Stay tuned. More coming soon...
We have been looking at volume and capacity and how much liquid something can hold.
We started off my lining up a set of different containers/bottles/mugs/cups as a way of estimating which container would hold the most volume.
We started off my lining up a set of different containers/bottles/mugs/cups as a way of estimating which container would hold the most volume.
Next we moved onto looking at reading how much something hold. We learned how to read using standard units such as litres and millilitres. We found this a liittle tricky but we managed to understand.
We have been busy with getting our market day products ready for purchase. However, you'll have to turn up to market day to see what we've made.
This term we are focusing on weaving for visual art. We've started off nice and simple by making some place mats for our desks. The students have done an exceptional drop of accurately measuring up their pieces of paper so everything fits perfectly together. Check it out.
This term we are focusing on weaving for visual art. We've started off nice and simple by making some place mats for our desks. The students have done an exceptional drop of accurately measuring up their pieces of paper so everything fits perfectly together. Check it out.
Week 10 - We made it! It's been an exhausting term with so much happening. I hope you all manage to have a good holiday break and some R&R.
Here are some videos of the progress made by everyone with their recorder skills. Everyone has improved so much. We know how to play in time with each other and stay in time with the beat. Check it out.
Here are some videos of the progress made by everyone with their recorder skills. Everyone has improved so much. We know how to play in time with each other and stay in time with the beat. Check it out.
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Olympia, Tyler and Lexi (and Oliver who was absent) all received an achievement award from Miss Audain for their excellent progress in music this term. That's not to say that everyone else didn't achieve because everyone made exceptio.nal progress! Well done guys!
Week 8 - It's nearly the end of term and there is so much happening that I nearly forget to do this blog. Here is what's been happening in the last two weeks.
The class has gotten the 'Chess' bug with everyone really keen to learn how to play chess and wanting to play any spare minute they have. It's a great way to spend spare time and it challenges their minds to play creatively and strategically. The chess sets they are using are called 'no stress chess' which has cards which identify what each does and how they can attack. As of late, not a lot of students are needing to use these cards anymore. I am being challenged as well with some young minds testing the older, more 'mature' mind. Check it out.
The class has gotten the 'Chess' bug with everyone really keen to learn how to play chess and wanting to play any spare minute they have. It's a great way to spend spare time and it challenges their minds to play creatively and strategically. The chess sets they are using are called 'no stress chess' which has cards which identify what each does and how they can attack. As of late, not a lot of students are needing to use these cards anymore. I am being challenged as well with some young minds testing the older, more 'mature' mind. Check it out.
We began looking at writing explanations and in particular looking at and explaining how a sea turtle grows into an adult. It's been really fascinating reading up and looking at videos explaining the life cycle. Here is a class plan we created before we all got stuck into writing our own explanations.
We discussed what things we could do to change the world and how it's starts with the smallest thing; such as making your bed in the morning. If we can do the small things right then the bigger things will be easier to complete. Click here to see the video relating to this discussion.
In maths we have been looking at creating maps and making directions for others to follow our maps from one point to another. The focus behind the maps was the story of Hansel and Gretal and creating a map of their journey from their home, into the woods, getting lost and ending up at the witches house. The directions they gave on their maps used compass points, which was a new learning experience for most. Here are some examples of the maps and directions.
Shiloh has been reading about masks and how they can be 'gold, bold and bouncy' She created a mask that she thinks would look good in a street parade. She is very proud of her pineapple mask.
Our calendar art is mostly completed and ready for parents to come and view. Remember that you can purchase these as calendars, note pads, cards, mouse pads and diaries. Make sure you get your orders in by September 27. Check out these amazing examples.
Week 6 - It's crunch time in class now with lots happening at the business end of the term. Here's what's been happening lately.
In writing we have been writing poems as National Poetry day was on the 25th of August. We have had fun creating Rhyming poems, Haiku poems and using our creativity to make our poems as interesting, funny and random as possible. Here are a couple we did as a class.
In writing we have been writing poems as National Poetry day was on the 25th of August. We have had fun creating Rhyming poems, Haiku poems and using our creativity to make our poems as interesting, funny and random as possible. Here are a couple we did as a class.
We had our in class speech competition for the year 4 students. They all worked really hard and presented some fascinating speeches. Our class winner was Toby, who went on to represent a handful of other year 4 students at the school speech competition for year 4-6. Here he is delivering his speech on why 'Oil Drilling Should be banned'.
Mr Bosson has been teaching the class about catapults. Before he came in we decided to make some of our own using popsicle sticks.
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After having a play around with the small catapults, Mr Bosson came in and this is what we made.
We are getting pretty good with our music and Miss Audain has been teaching us the musical notes and some acronyms to remember their names by. Check it out.
Finally, it wouldn't be a school term without some dressing up. We celebrated Daffodil day by dressing in yellow and raising awareness for cancer. Here are a couple of images from the day.
Week 4 - Time is just ticking by. We are nearly half way through the term and over half way through our year AND...in just over 4 months it'll be 2018. Let that sink in. Here's what's been happening in the last two weeks.
We've continued to look at forces and one reading group decided to look at the police force. In particular, the way they can search and dust for finger prints. It was fascinating reading up on how it is done. Check out the images and video of how own attempt at dusting for prints.
We've continued to look at forces and one reading group decided to look at the police force. In particular, the way they can search and dust for finger prints. It was fascinating reading up on how it is done. Check out the images and video of how own attempt at dusting for prints.
As a class we created a concept map of where we wanted to direct our attention next. This is what the map looks like.
We decided to focus on natural disasters and in particular, Tornadoes. Here is how we are going to approach it.
This past week also saw our Cross Country take place with everyone getting involved and I could not be more proud of the effort of everyone. Here are photos from the day.
We have finally ended the week with a surprise visit from a very special piece of silverware - The Rugby League World Cup. With the World Cup happening in New Zealand at the end of the year, one of teacher aides, Nickie Tane, is an ambassador to the Rugby League World Cup for the Waikato region. She was able to hook up a special visit for us and it was very cool.
Week 2 Term 3 - WOW WEE!! What start to the term. It has been frantically busy with plenty happening. Lots to catch up on so here's what's been happening.
First of all, we welcome two new students. Shuta from Japan and Hayden from Hamilton. It's great having new students in the class and both have settled in nicely.
First of all, we welcome two new students. Shuta from Japan and Hayden from Hamilton. It's great having new students in the class and both have settled in nicely.
We have been getting stuck into our persuasive writing, with the year 4's all having a to write a speech this term. There are a range of topics being discussed but none more so than the opinion, "smoking should be banned in New Zealand" - it's interesting what the minds of these kids have opinions about. They are presenting some very compelling evidence as well. Here is a picture of their ideas in a planning form.
Other topics include: Having longer weekends, students should be paid to come to school, cellphones are dangerous, boredom leads to trouble, children should have yummy lunches. It's great to see their brains ticking and thinking hard about these issues.
We have begun looking at fractions in maths and learning how to share equally with others. Lots of great preconceived ideas on what a true fraction is, which leads to awesome teaching. Here is the modelling book of one group, showing them that the bigger the denominator (the number on the bottom of the fraction) the smaller the fraction.
We have begun looking at fractions in maths and learning how to share equally with others. Lots of great preconceived ideas on what a true fraction is, which leads to awesome teaching. Here is the modelling book of one group, showing them that the bigger the denominator (the number on the bottom of the fraction) the smaller the fraction.
Our big inquiry topic this term is on FORCE! The idea of pushes and pulls. Here are our ideas on what we think a force is.
We started off by looking at elastic energy - the force behind rubber bands and how they work. We made some 'hopper poppers' (which are a frog like contraption made from cardboard) and used rubber bands to see how high we could make them jump. Here is the making process.
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Last of all we have looked at the force of air and how when it is pushed significantly, it can move heavy objects. We made 'shooters' from paper cups and balloons. Cutting the end of the balloon off and attaching it to the cup. We then cut a hole in the bottom of the cup and put a little pom pom in the hole that would act as our projectile. When the balloon is pulled back and released it pushes air out - a perfect example of a push and pull.
Our visual art focus for this term to start with is collage. We have been collaging our names on paper. Check it out.
Week 10 - We made it. It's been a hectic term with so much going on but we have made it to the end. Here is what has happened in the last two weeks.
We have finally finished our artwork and it is ready to go to auction. It is a sensational piece of artwork and definitely needs to be purchased for the classroom.
We have finally finished our artwork and it is ready to go to auction. It is a sensational piece of artwork and definitely needs to be purchased for the classroom.
We held a competition in class to see who could identify everyone in the class just by reading their self descriptions. This was great fun as many students believed that could identify everyone. However, there could only be on winner. Laila correctly guessed 18 out of 22 students. She really does know everyone very well. Here they are racking their brains over each self description.
As promised, I finally have some images/videos of the class with Miss Audain learning how to play the recorder. Check it out - they have come a long way.
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We were interested in how the sound is made with a recorder but also what sound really is. We had a discussion about sound here are the ideas we came up with:
We tried a little experiment with skipping ropes to see what sound waves look like. The students really enjoyed this.
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Week 8 - We are on the downhill now - reports are about to go home and the term finishes in 2 weeks. This term has flown by very quickly, with so much happening. Here's what happened in the last two weeks.
We finished writing descriptions and published a copy of our own self descriptions. This is the result of hard work and lots of editing to make sure we are telling the reader as much as possible about who we are, without telling them our names. Check out some examples.
We finished writing descriptions and published a copy of our own self descriptions. This is the result of hard work and lots of editing to make sure we are telling the reader as much as possible about who we are, without telling them our names. Check out some examples.
I am a female and I am 8 years old. I have one brother who is younger than me and I have one younger sister. I like animals.
I have long, blonde hair and I have a pretty smile. I have sparkling blue eyes and when I go into the sunlight, they sparkle. I am tall for my age. I am a friendly person and I love pets. I am a adventurous person and I love being outdoors. I am kind and caring and I like being with my friends and family. I am fun when I am outdoors. I love to do colouring in and I love going to the beach. I love going to school and I love swimming. I love to explore when I am outdoors. Can you guess who I am? |
I am a female and I am 7 years old. I have an older sister and brother on my Dad’s side and on my Mum’s side I have an older brother. I love animals and my family.
I have short shiny blonde hair that is very sparkly in the sunset. I have brown hazel eyes and a cheeky smile on my face. I am very caring for different people and I have a very bubbly personality. I can be very shy sometimes and hilarious. I am careful and kind and I am really good at being a superstar. I love writing stories for people and love creating. I love biking in the neighbourhood and love playing with animals; especially giraffes. I sometimes like to do reading and playing outside during winter. Can you guess who I am? |
I am a male and I am 8 years old. I have an annoying older sister and no brothers. I like to play BeyBlades and play clash of clans on my tablet.
I have short, light brown hair and hazel eyes. I love to wear black clothes. I am weird, funny, cheeky and I am awesome in my own way. I like to draw, do maths and skating. Can you guess who I am? |
Our big focus this term has been on Juxtaposition and how things can be very similar but yet very different at the same time. We have loved looking at colours and how they can compliment each other but then also contrast against each other at the same time.
We decided to look at how we could incorporate shapes and colours to juxtapose and the outcome was fantastic; especially when we added an interesting picture of ourselves into the mix.
We decided to look at how we could incorporate shapes and colours to juxtapose and the outcome was fantastic; especially when we added an interesting picture of ourselves into the mix.
We have finally finished our art project (apart from a few pieces). This is another example of how you can juxtapose shapes and colour to create effect. It has taken many weeks and lots of careful planning but the end result is a fantastic artwork which has 22 different collaborators. Check out the series of pictures showing the students' individual aspects + the final product at the end.
William had a birthday and his dad surprised him, and the rest of the class by bringing in a very large and very tasty birthday cake. It was great to be able to share in William's special day with everyone.
Week 6 - I don't mean for it be fortnightly but that's the way it's turning out. Gives us more to report on.
We have been looking at writing descriptions on story characters and focusing on three categories: Looks, Personality and Actions.
The character which has been our main focus is 'The Wolf' from 'Little Red Riding Hood'.
We began by brainstorming adjectives which described 'The Wolf' in each of the categories. Each student did their own brainstorm. Here is the class example.
We have been looking at writing descriptions on story characters and focusing on three categories: Looks, Personality and Actions.
The character which has been our main focus is 'The Wolf' from 'Little Red Riding Hood'.
We began by brainstorming adjectives which described 'The Wolf' in each of the categories. Each student did their own brainstorm. Here is the class example.
Here are some student examples of finished descriptions.
In the middle of the woods there is a dark cave where the brown fox lives.
His eyes are burning red like red hot lava. His teeth are razor sharp. The wolf has massive anger issues. He stalks everybody and he sneaks around the forest looking for food. The wolf kills its prey then eats the prey. He eats grandma and other animals too. Ben Collins |
In the middle of the woods there is a brown house where the fat and dodgy wolf lives.
The fat, dodgy wolf has blood shot eyes, razor sharp teeth, and dribbly nose. His black fur covers his listening ears. He has blood on his paws from killing animals. His found face is covered in crazy black fur. The wolf has massive anger issues and is very and evil and as mean as can be. He is extremely bad, he stalks everyone, and eats 5 animals a day. The big bad wolf kills animals and he tricks people too. He sometimes cross-dresses to trick people and tries to eat Little Red Riding Hood's grandma. He likes to follow her to see where her grandma lives. Lexi Ford |
The wolf lives in the middle of the deep, dark woods. He lives in a giant Kauri tree.
He has hungry eyes and fur like brown straw. The wolf has a dribbly, wet nose and teeth as sharp as sharks teeth.. His ears are listening for food to eat and his paws drip with blood from the animals he's killed. He is ready to jump out at you. He hides in the trees like a bat. He is as fast as lightning and eats 10 animals a day. The wolf tries to kill Little Red Riding Hood. He lies to her to get her grandma's muffins. He thinks they're really good. He gets in grandma;s bed to trick Little Red Riding Hood. The wolf growls loudly at people and frightens people like tigers. Laila Dunn |
We have made significant progress in our collaborative art project. We have the template and we made a start on the painting. Check it out.
This term has also seen M9 continue their learning of musical instruments. The students have been getting the hang of playing the Ukulele and learning a few simple chords and strum patterns. We are now learning recorder. It's a very noisy classroom on a Wednesday afternoon but the students are having a blast. Photos are on their way.
Week 4 - WHERE ARE THE WEEKS GOING?! Apologies for the lack of blogging. Getting so caught up in the happenings in class that I end up missing a week. Anyway, here's what's been happening.
Here is an update on what the class looks like - OH!! and be sure to head over to our philosophy/youtube page. It has been updated.
Here is an update on what the class looks like - OH!! and be sure to head over to our philosophy/youtube page. It has been updated.
We've started a new math topic - TIME! Here is what the student's thought about time.
As you can see we had a lot to say and these were our ideas on what time is and could be. It has been a great introduction week to 'time', with students creating their own clocks and learning how to tell the time using an analog clock. However, there was also plenty to say about the differences between digital and analog - here are the the pros and cons for each.
We've continued looking at our 'juxtaposition' of various things - we've look at the 'Sun verses the Moon'... - (the circles words are the juxtapositions)
...and now we've taken an interest in juxtapositions from the past - namely, what is the biggest differences from when I (Mr Jowsey) was a child. The students asked me what my favourite thing to do was seeing as I didn't have the technology available like they do. I told them drawing with chalk - it was decided that we'd all go out and have fun creating art with chalk. The kids had a blast and their creativity really shone. Check out the images below.
Week 2
Things have been ticking along rather quickly this week and everything has seemed to go past in a blur.
We have continued to make progress with our art and this week we started exploring different colours. We mixed colours together to make new colours to see what we liked and what we didn't like.
Things have been ticking along rather quickly this week and everything has seemed to go past in a blur.
We have continued to make progress with our art and this week we started exploring different colours. We mixed colours together to make new colours to see what we liked and what we didn't like.
We have been writing reports on our friends and their adventures. It's been a tricky process because we have had to try and squeeze as much information as possible out of our friends and then make an interesting report. Here are some examples of our work.
Terina’s Beach Trip
Teria went to the buffalo beach on Sunday at 7am with Debbie, Caitlyn and Jericho. Terina went for a little swim and she had fun. She didn’t collect any shells but she did make a sand castle for fun. Caitlyn and Jericho were in a canoe for a little trip while Terina went for a little walk along the beach. Jericho and Caitlyn went so far that Terina couldn’t see them. Terina had a good time with her family. Laila |
Miranda’s Big Brother’s Soccer Game
On Saturday Miranda and her family went to her big brother’s soccer game at Moewai Park. He practised playing soccer with his team mates but Miranda just kicked a ball around on the soccer court. Miranda and her friends won kicking the ball around and Miranda’s big brother and his friends won too. Olympia |
We went on a Juxtaposition walk earlier in the week, looking for things that look the same but also different at the same time. Here are some of the images that students found. Click the images for the caption.
TERM 2
Week 1
It feel like a while since there has been a post on here. The crazyness of the last two weeks of last term + the dramatic finish to the term it all got lost in wind somewhere...
ANYWAY - welcome back to term 2. I hope you all had a restful and relaxing time away. Here is what's been happening first week back in class;
We have decided to have a go at 'playing in the class' and see what sort of learning we come up with. This is completely unstructured and student led.
Here a few pictures with descriptions of what the kids were up to - hover over the picture for a caption.
Week 1
It feel like a while since there has been a post on here. The crazyness of the last two weeks of last term + the dramatic finish to the term it all got lost in wind somewhere...
ANYWAY - welcome back to term 2. I hope you all had a restful and relaxing time away. Here is what's been happening first week back in class;
We have decided to have a go at 'playing in the class' and see what sort of learning we come up with. This is completely unstructured and student led.
Here a few pictures with descriptions of what the kids were up to - hover over the picture for a caption.
Listen to the boys discuss how they can better their marble run. This is great learning. Problem solving and working with angles.
We celebrated Star Wars Day on May the 4th - great fun had by all. We raised over $500 in the primary school - $250 each to St John's and Wetpac Rescue Helicopter.
We celebrated Star Wars Day on May the 4th - great fun had by all. We raised over $500 in the primary school - $250 each to St John's and Wetpac Rescue Helicopter.
Our inquiry focus this term is on Juxtapostion - looking at comparing and contrasting different things. A big part of this is our art project that we have started. That is a surprise so you'll just have to wait.
What is juxtaposition from a student's perspective?
What is juxtaposition from a student's perspective?
Week 8
We have been very busy in class this week looking at a variety of things from descriptive poetry to wondering why rivers flow.
We started with writing and looking at poetry. 5 line poems to be precise (also known as Cinquain poems). It's pretty simple.
Line 1: Noun
Line 2: Two adjectives (that describe the noun)
Line 3: Three verbs (that describe the noun)
Line 4: A short sentence (no longer than 5 words (that describes the noun)
Line 5: Another noun or synonym (for the first noun)
Check out some of the poems below.
We have been very busy in class this week looking at a variety of things from descriptive poetry to wondering why rivers flow.
We started with writing and looking at poetry. 5 line poems to be precise (also known as Cinquain poems). It's pretty simple.
Line 1: Noun
Line 2: Two adjectives (that describe the noun)
Line 3: Three verbs (that describe the noun)
Line 4: A short sentence (no longer than 5 words (that describes the noun)
Line 5: Another noun or synonym (for the first noun)
Check out some of the poems below.
Dragon
Scaly Big Eating Attacking Scurrying Sometimes eating children Komodo by Toby Cactus
Prickly Green Staying Dying Pricking Always found in the desert Plant by Miranda |
Volcano
Hot Rocky Dripping Bubbling Exploding The volcano is erupting Krakatoa by Julian Olympia
Silly Intelligent Playing Biking Learning Eyes keep on changing colour Soanes by Olympia |
Cow
Black White Working Moving Mooing Big cows sitting around me Calf by Milley Regigigas
White Bushy Attacking Running Fighting Attacking other pokemon Legendary |
In reading this week, Shiloh and Cruise were reading a story called 'Uncle Timi's Sleep'. They were asked to use nouns, adjectives and verbs to change the sentence in a story. The sentence was, "A horse with some children on it galloped on the beach.
Some of the alternative sentences were...
Some of the alternative sentences were...
- A wild pig with some children on it ran on the beach
- A crazy monkey with some children on it swung over the beach
- A trained teacher with some children on it sprinted on the beach
- A tired teacher with some children on him crawled across the beach (check out the picture)
Cruise also made up his own silly sentence from the 'Scrambled Egg Sentences' game.
M9 has really been enjoying Science this term and this week we looked at and asked ourselves, 'what causes a river to flow?'
It was great coming up with lots of different scenarios and discussing all the different possibilities. We ended up finding out that all rivers have to start from high ground, like a mountain or hill and they always flow towards the ocean.
To help us understand this a bit better, we made our own mountains by taking 2 pieces of A4 paper and scrunching it around a fist. From here we used felt pens to colour in all the ridge lines to indicate snow and where the water flows from.
To help us understand this a bit better, we made our own mountains by taking 2 pieces of A4 paper and scrunching it around a fist. From here we used felt pens to colour in all the ridge lines to indicate snow and where the water flows from.
We then took two spray bottles and sprayed our mountains, which acted like rain. As the 'rain' started to fall, we could see that the ink started to run showing us that the snow was starting to 'melt'. It ran down the side of the mountain. This helped us to understand that rivers start in the mountains and flow down towards the ocean.
Week 7
Not sure what happened to this week's blog. I know we have been very busy in the classroom.
Moving on to week 8 - almost holiday time. Sheesh! Where has the time gone?
Not sure what happened to this week's blog. I know we have been very busy in the classroom.
Moving on to week 8 - almost holiday time. Sheesh! Where has the time gone?
Week 6
We have finally got our KAURI tree display up and looking beautiful. Come into class and take a closer look.
We have finally got our KAURI tree display up and looking beautiful. Come into class and take a closer look.
M9 is really enjoying maths at the moment. We are having great fun learning new strategies for solving addition and subtraction and playing some of the cool math games we've been taught.
In particular, the class enjoys racking their brains over 'Bowl-a-Fact' - the game is simple. Roll the dice 4 times, and then using any combinations of the 4 operations (x / - +) combine all the numbers in an equation to knock out the numbers 1 - 10. It can very easy or it can be a bit tricky; it all depends on the numbers you roll. Check out the image for closer inspection of how the game is played.
With all the rain we have the other, we decided to look at the science behind the rain we had. The question - 'Where do clouds come from?' From here we looked at a series of videos and asked further questions like 'which clouds bring rain? What kind of clouds did we have when it rained?' We made our own 'Storm Spotters Guide'. Check it out below. We're now experts at knowing when it's going to rain or when we've got sunshine all day.
Week 5: 'The Big Wet'
Another disruptive week has seen students having to stay at home due to roads being impassable with lots of rain falling in the Coromandel; students are still battling with illness as well.
Due to the awful weather, our internet connection was lost for 2 days at school which meant no access to online learning during class time for everyone. The class has done exceptionally well keeping themselves occupied and working together to have fun while they haven't been allowed outside.
We are in the middle of our self portrait unit and today we begun looking at the human eye; how it's formed and how we can add detail to it.
Check out some of the 'eye's' from the class.
Another disruptive week has seen students having to stay at home due to roads being impassable with lots of rain falling in the Coromandel; students are still battling with illness as well.
Due to the awful weather, our internet connection was lost for 2 days at school which meant no access to online learning during class time for everyone. The class has done exceptionally well keeping themselves occupied and working together to have fun while they haven't been allowed outside.
We are in the middle of our self portrait unit and today we begun looking at the human eye; how it's formed and how we can add detail to it.
Check out some of the 'eye's' from the class.
The eyes on the left side of their page are their first attempts at what they thought and eye looked like. The right side of their page is after having a lesson.
Week 4:
This week has seen close to half the class, including myself, come down with a tummy bug and spending some time at home recovering. It has been hard to get things completed with people coming and going all week.
Let's just push this week to the back of our memory and look forward to more exciting learning happening in the weeks to come.
This week has seen close to half the class, including myself, come down with a tummy bug and spending some time at home recovering. It has been hard to get things completed with people coming and going all week.
Let's just push this week to the back of our memory and look forward to more exciting learning happening in the weeks to come.
Week 3
We have continued to establish routines and expectations in the classroom this week. Making sure we all understand how the classroom operates and how we can make the most out of being in an exciting classroom.
We made silhouette pictures of ourselves and inside the silhouette we placed all the things that we love the most. It is a great way of everybody getting to know everyone in the class. Check it out.
We have continued to establish routines and expectations in the classroom this week. Making sure we all understand how the classroom operates and how we can make the most out of being in an exciting classroom.
We made silhouette pictures of ourselves and inside the silhouette we placed all the things that we love the most. It is a great way of everybody getting to know everyone in the class. Check it out.
Something Mr Jowsey has been teaching us is the different sounds letters have and the different combination of letters that make those sounds. It's a great way of understanding how some words are spelt differently to what they sound and identifying new spelling patterns. The picture you'll see is us learning about the 'k' sound. Did you know there are 5 different ways you can make the 'k' sound? These are located on the right side of the picture. The ones circled are the most common.
The weather is very warm and sticky and it's making the classroom a hard place to be in at the moment. So we got out into the field today and played some soccer; with our brand new footballs from rebel sport. The kids had a blast. Check out some of the action shots from this afternoon.
Week 2
WOW! That second week just flew by. So many things to get stuck into and learn. Here's a glimpse of what's been happening.
We started the week by looking at the question 'what is family?' Jump over to our Philosophy page to see what we came up with.
We got stuck into our reading programme and have been learning to make connections between what we are reading and our own life experiences. It has been interesting and fascinating to learn a little more about the class based on their experience.
We made our Pokeka feather cloak - this is a great way of gathering student voice. The blue feathers represent..."I know I belong at school because..." and the orange feathers represent ... "I feel valued at school when...". Check out the image of our cloak. You'll have to come into class to see what students said.
WOW! That second week just flew by. So many things to get stuck into and learn. Here's a glimpse of what's been happening.
We started the week by looking at the question 'what is family?' Jump over to our Philosophy page to see what we came up with.
We got stuck into our reading programme and have been learning to make connections between what we are reading and our own life experiences. It has been interesting and fascinating to learn a little more about the class based on their experience.
We made our Pokeka feather cloak - this is a great way of gathering student voice. The blue feathers represent..."I know I belong at school because..." and the orange feathers represent ... "I feel valued at school when...". Check out the image of our cloak. You'll have to come into class to see what students said.
We finished the week by using our 'yo-yo' eyes in Art. You use yo-yo eyes when you are doing observational drawing; you focus on an object and then look between the object and your drawing page. Your eyes feel like they are going up and down like a yo-yo.
I gave each of the children a clothes peg to observe and practise sketching. Check out the concentration of each student as well as some examples of their work.
I gave each of the children a clothes peg to observe and practise sketching. Check out the concentration of each student as well as some examples of their work.
None of these sketches were traced. They were all carefully sketched.
Week 1
The end of a very busy week has finished! It's been great getting stuck back into work and getting to know new students and new friends being made within the class.
The end of a very busy week has finished! It's been great getting stuck back into work and getting to know new students and new friends being made within the class.
We've created a class treaty...
...we've started our statistics investigation...
...and we've got stuck into some art work to put on our class wall.
Be sure to keep posted to see the goings on in M9 this term.