Orana Park

Today we had a fantastic day at Orana Park. Renee, our guide and teacher was just amazing. She taught us so many interesting things about exotic and native animals. A highlight would have been feeding the giraffes and seeing Kiwi birds up close. Thank you very much to all the parent helpers.

Room 8 Provocation

Room 8's provocation is underway. At the beginning of the term the children created pastel art works that were based on what they wanted to learn about. They also wrote a short caption to explain what was happening in the art work.

As you can see there is a strong theme of space, so after a group discussion we decided to go down that road. Our big idea is from astronomical systems in the Science curriculum: Students will, share ideas and observations about the Sun and the Moon and their physical effects on the heat and light available to Earth.

One of the tasks for the week was to look at some pictures of the Earth, the Sun and the Moon and record some wonderings. This directed the children to what they wanted to find out.

The children have started off by writing descriptions about the Sun. They lay out in the Sun and shouted out adjectives to describe how it felt. Some of these were; relaxing (Blayke), warm (Rylie), burning (Carlos).

The children talked about how it is dangerous to look straight at the Sun so observing the Sun will need to be done in a special way. They know they can watch some video clips online but they wanted to find out another way. After researching 'safe ways to observe the Sun' the children discovered that they could make a pin hole camera. They were able to project an image of the Sun through a pin hole on to a piece of card. This helped the children create some adjectives to describe what the Sun looks like. 

The children are excited about making more discoveries. Watch this SPACE...

House of Bricks

On Tuesday morning Room 8 attended The House of Bricks. Over 40,000 pieces of Lego were piled into our school hall. The children used their Creative school value while they moved around 3 stations. They made things ranging from forests to boats to houses.

Everyone had an amazing time. It was so engaging and it was wonderful to see the children working together for some of their creations.

 

 

 

Welcome to Awesome Term 2! (Lucas N)

This blog entry is written by Room 8 as a shared writing experience.

Room 8 had a great first term and this term might be even better (Marc). When we came back to Bromley School Miss Banks told us we were on the stage for assembly on Friday (Korbin). We have been practising for our assembly (Lucas N). We need to speak loud and clearly (Carlos). 

We made get well soon cards for Lukas GW (Ashton). When we were sitting on the mat at the end of Monday, Lukas came to see us and we thought he was very brave (Korbin).

We have been doing lots of learning (Sheldon). Also, we are getting smarter (Mana). In the Clouds numeracy group we have been learning to subtract in tens (Ryder). 

We have been creating sticker sentences (Bryson). We have been learning about setting goals (Seth).
We have been learning about what managing ourselves means (Lucas RW). We have been learning doubles and halves (Mana).

At literacy time some reading groups have to do a story map (Willow). We have been being caring and connected in Room 8 (Davontae). We have been doing fitness breaks (Rylie). What a great start to term 2!

 

 

Numeracy Week 8

I have created a small video to show you all an example of some of the activities the children participate in during Numeracy. The children complete activities like these each week while I meet with smaller groups and teach specific learning outcomes. Room 8 loves Numeracy and it shows in the childrens' progress. Well done Room 8, keep up the excellent focus!

Sport Spectacular at Linfield Park

Sport Spectacular was a fantastic opportunity organised by the New Zealand Institute of Sport. Wow what an action packed, exciting day! The children participated in a range of modified games. One of the favourites was a game similar to soccer. There were games that taught skills for netball, touch and cricket. The children also jumped over hurdles, army crawled under nets and did three legged racing. If you noticed a worn out child that evening I am not surprised. We also walked to and from the event. Here are some photos of the day...

 

 

 

 

Plaster Hands Workshop

Wow, what a fun filled week Room 8 is having. Today we had Bianca from the Christchurch Art Gallery in our room. She brought along some plaster hands that she had made using a rubber glove. It was Room 8's job to decorate them with a unique pattern. 

First Bianca showed us lots of different art works. All of these are in the Christchurch Art Gallery. They had different types of patterns on them. Then we learnt about the colour wheel.

 

Our next step was to design our pattern.

 

After Bianca taught us how to mix colours we began painting our plaster hand. Here we are in action...

We really enjoyed the workshop. We all learnt something new about art. Here are the finished products.