February 28th: Treaty of Waitangi and Class Treaty

Kia ora whānau,

Room 9 explored the Treaty of Waitangi over the first few weeks of class. This included reading a school journal which can be found, along with an accompanying audio file, in a presentation Te Tiriti o Waitangi. 

This is a quite challenging text so we focused a lot on the vocabulary. Here you can see students' definitions on our Pānui wall.

We also used the study of the Treaty of Waitangi as an introduction into creating our own class treaty. This has now been discussed, read and signed by everyone in Room 9.

February 25: End of the Week

Kia ora whānau,

I hope everyone is safe.

We continued with our sketching projects on Friday afternoon. Students have also been exploring Education Perfect, which is a new platform for many. I have a few more log-ins to set up, but nearly everyone can access the site now.

Maths Games with Playing Cards

Kia ora whānau,

I introduced a new maths game to practise addition and subtraction skills to the class today. Here each player receives five cards. The value corresponds to the card where an ace is 1, a two is 2, and the jack, queen and king can either be 10 or 11, 10 or 12 or 10 or 13 respectively. A card is turned over from the pile and the students race to discard their cards using an addition and/or subtraction equation. For example, if the five of spades is revealed, a player might discard their seven and two (7 – 2 = 5). Players can also discard multiple cards as long as the result of the equation is the same as the card that was turned over. Players that weren't able to discard a card that round have to pick up another card and then the next round begins. A player wins when they have no more cards.

We also continued with our sketching project in the afternoon. 

February 23: Mahi Toi and Swimming

Kia ora whānau,

We had another busy day in Room 9! There is some wonderful focus being demonstrated in the class with the sketching exercises. Some students have even completed their self-portraits and they look great! There is still plenty of time for everyone else to keep working on theirs as we all work at different speeds. 

We also had two coaches from Swimming Waikato come today to cover more water safety tips. One of the coaches is an Olympian! The children also got to swim after lunch today so it was a great way to cool off on a hot day.

February 22: Preparing for Our Self-Portraits

Kia ora whānau,

We have making good progress with our practice steps in preparation for our sketched self-portraits. The stages have been:

1. Understanding the concepts of shading
2. Using a grid to understand perspective
3. Enlarging using a grid

You can see this process below followed by some examples from throughout the class.

February 21: More Swimming

Kia ora whānau,

Today we had two swimming coaches from Swimming Waikato who came to give further instruction on water safety. They consolidated the skills that Room 9 have been practising over the past two weeks:

• floating on front and back
• gliding
• maintaining buoyancy

There are some very strong swimmers in the class who were also challenged. They also act as models and buddies for our developing swimmers.

Swimming is always a fun time!

February 18: Swimming

Kia ora whānau,

Room 9 has half-hour swimming sessions on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays in Term 1. We have been practising a range of water safety skills. In the pictures here you can see the children challenging themselves to glides as far as their front and back. We also have a buddy system to ensure that everyone feels safe and continues to build their confidence.

February 17: Daily Reflections

Kia ora whānau,

We end each day with a student reflection upon their learning. They respond to the question "He aha ngā taonga o te rā?" (What were your treasures of the day?). Here you can see the class sharing their reflections in a circle:

February 16: Pūtaiao – "Float My Boat" Science Box

Kia ora whānau,

Room 9 is exploring a House of Science resource kit this week which is all about buoyancy. There are two main capabilities that we focus on for Science/Pūtaiao:

• Gathering and interpreting data (observation)
• Using evidence

Today the class had two challenges:

1. Designing a boat from tin foil to hold as many metals washers as possible.
2. Creating an object from various materials that would 'flink' (somewhere between sink and float) in the water.

Students observed how different boat designed acted in the water and adjusted the height and width of the hull. They also sorted the various objects into ones that sink or floated to create a 'flinking' object. It was an exciting and interactive day.

February 15: Before the Morning Bell

Kia ora whānau,

Here is some more insight into your child's day in Room 9. Your child is welcome to come into the classroom and spend time with their friends from 8:30AM. There are always activities such as board games, card games, lego, reading and basketball available for them. Here is how various members of the class spent their time before the 9AM bell this morning: