Room 18
Term 4 2017
Week 1 - Term 4
What a great start to the term we have had. Our new Inquiry is all about how cycles are an essential part of life and can affect lots of different things. Having to think about what is living and what is not and how we can differentiate has been brilliant. We were really fortunate to have Georgina from Enviro Schools come and visit us to talk about the life cycle of bees and then to add to this, our student teacher, Mrs Elliott is an expert on bees (along with being a Scientist). Mrs Elliott brought in a tray from a hive (no bees!), a beekeeper's suit, honey and a few other bits and pieces that help with looking after bees. The children loved looking at the honeycomb and investigating the intricate details of a hive. Certainly got lots of conversation going and loads of questions. Thankfully Mrs Elliott was able to answer them all! Great to have an expert in our midst. We will miss her when she leaves us at the end of Week 2.
Camp is coming up - only a week away! I am sure there will be lots to share after this.
Here are some photos to highlight Week 1.
What a great start to the term we have had. Our new Inquiry is all about how cycles are an essential part of life and can affect lots of different things. Having to think about what is living and what is not and how we can differentiate has been brilliant. We were really fortunate to have Georgina from Enviro Schools come and visit us to talk about the life cycle of bees and then to add to this, our student teacher, Mrs Elliott is an expert on bees (along with being a Scientist). Mrs Elliott brought in a tray from a hive (no bees!), a beekeeper's suit, honey and a few other bits and pieces that help with looking after bees. The children loved looking at the honeycomb and investigating the intricate details of a hive. Certainly got lots of conversation going and loads of questions. Thankfully Mrs Elliott was able to answer them all! Great to have an expert in our midst. We will miss her when she leaves us at the end of Week 2.
Camp is coming up - only a week away! I am sure there will be lots to share after this.
Here are some photos to highlight Week 1.
Term 3 2017
Last weeks of term
We did our class speeches. There are a lot of great things about Palmerston North and the children all shared their views. Hugo and Malachi represented the school at the Northern Clusters speech competition. They did Roslyn proud.
Calendar art is underway and orders will be taken in the first two weeks of Term 4.
Our Inquiry based around Colour and how it is used to communicate certainly gave us all an insight into the power of colour. Lots of great questions asked and answered.
The children are loving Langauge Nut which is a programme which helps you learn other languages. Great to have experts at your fingertips.
Our student teacher Mrs Elliott will be back with us for the first two weeks of Term 4. We are loving having her as part of our Room 18 family.
Calendar art is underway and orders will be taken in the first two weeks of Term 4.
Our Inquiry based around Colour and how it is used to communicate certainly gave us all an insight into the power of colour. Lots of great questions asked and answered.
The children are loving Langauge Nut which is a programme which helps you learn other languages. Great to have experts at your fingertips.
Our student teacher Mrs Elliott will be back with us for the first two weeks of Term 4. We are loving having her as part of our Room 18 family.
Getting Up To Date
Goodness, where is the term going? Not sure where the last 4 weeks have gone, but gone they have. The children have been learning lots about Colour and the different ways it is used to communicate. They have found some amazing information and have also written some incredible stories and poetry about Colour. Did you know that Yellow Fire Trucks are being used in some countries and that is because they are easier to see at night time?! Different coloured roses represent different emotions. These are just a couple of facts the children have found out. They also have a pretty good understanding of why advertisers use bright colours to get your attention.
Production went off very well last week and the children performed spectacularly. We are super proud of the effort they put in. We are very fortunate to have Mrs Kristin Elliot with us at the moment. Mrs Elliot is on her last placement before completing her Teacher Training. She will be with us until the end of Week 2 in Term 4.
Production went off very well last week and the children performed spectacularly. We are super proud of the effort they put in. We are very fortunate to have Mrs Kristin Elliot with us at the moment. Mrs Elliot is on her last placement before completing her Teacher Training. She will be with us until the end of Week 2 in Term 4.
Weeks 3 - 4
Things have been pretty hectic around here. Production parts are taking a true front stage. Parts are now set and children are busy practising their parts and the songs. We have had World of Maths day which was awesome. There were so many activities and the children all collaborated in their groups to achieve the tasks set. Big Day Out was Spectacular. All that colour was simply stunning. Everyone was pretty exhausted afterwards but felt very satisfied with the day. We have also had Duffy Theatre and of course we farewelled Mrs Lockett. Science Kits have been ever popular in the classroom and certainly engage the learning.
We have settled well into Term 3, with all the changes going smoothly. We farewelled five students to Kahikatea (they have settled well also) and we welcomed nine students from Room 16 into our room. They have all fitted in very well. Learning is happening every day as it should be. The questions and discussions around our learning are fantastic. I would like to share a couple of poems that two children have written, based around colour. Green makes me want to expode! Blue makes me feel sad and droopy. Red makes me feel as angry as a bull! Gray makes me feel lonely. White -nothing moves and I watch as if I was an owl. Black makes me feel scared. Orange makes me feel rich. Purple makes me feel disgusted! By Taane Colours by Rubijean I'm feeling a bit blue - sometimes I sob in my room sometimes I’ll feel lonely and bloom and other times I will cry and the blue fills me inside that causes me the sadness. I'm feeling cheerful yellow - I’m as happy as can be bouncing up like a kangaroo with a smile on my face shouting yay! So everyone can hear the joy. We are really enjoying the vast areas of life that colour is a part of . Looking forward to everything else we will be learning and the writing that is going to come can only get better. |
Weeks 8 - 9
It is super crazy how fast the term has flown. We have had a wonderful time having Mr Roberts with us. He has taught us lots of things around The Arts, Science and Maths. We hope he has learned from us as well. We have been incredibly busy with our Inquiry & Investigations, Matariki and of course in among it all have been Conferences. What a lot of creative people we are developing into. Here is a sample of what we have been doing.
Week 7
Time is certainly flying – it seems like Monday becomes Friday very quickly! We had another great Buddy class Science fun time this week. We were looking at circuits and how electricity works. Science certainly gets the oral language flowing. We have also been researching Matariki and are enjoying designing a piece of artwork around this. We are looking forward to creating our designs. Several of our students play sport, either during the week or on Saturdays. They are all improving and enjoying building their physical stamina, skills and fitness.
What a great week we have had. Short but exciting. We are enjoying have Mr Roberts with us - he is a Student Teacher from Massey University. I think we are giving him a positive spin on being a teacher because we love learning.
We are really into our Roslyn Investigators now and our creativity is standing out. Each of the groups has come up with some amazing ways they could be Change Makers in our world and are now creating their designs. They are using a lot of recycled materials to support the whole theory of helping improve our environment.
We are really into our Roslyn Investigators now and our creativity is standing out. Each of the groups has come up with some amazing ways they could be Change Makers in our world and are now creating their designs. They are using a lot of recycled materials to support the whole theory of helping improve our environment.
Pohutakawa Reading Group visited the school worm farm with Whaea Tracy after reading a story about how incredible worms are. They struck the time right as Jake was down at the garden and about to feed the worms. We are so lucky to have opportunities like this where the learning in the classroom can be reinforced by activities happening at school.
Take a day out of the week and my how fast it goes. A short week but lots and lots of learning going on. Writing up procedures and understanding the importance of fair testing is a small part of the learning. Fidget spinners are certainly taking the world and the Manawatu by storm. Our kids all love them and we are trying to have some sort of balance with them. (Between play and helping) The creative juices of Mrs Veza and Whaea Kirsty got flowing and with ideas from Lisa Taylor (Teaching Stars) they developed a booklet and a kit for our students to use to create their own fidget spinners. The collaboration that went on as groups worked together to create their spinner was awesome. Ideas were designed and then developed. Measurement, recording and soon to be writing up the procedure made the learning experience a very rich one. Problem-solving was an essential component and certainly raised some interesting interactions. Of course then their was healthy competition to see which spinner would spin for the longest. Well done to Mr Roberts, our student teacher, who oversaw this very loud and exciting experience.
We have so much fun with our buddy class. We love to get outside and play co-operative games and activities. The laughter and the talking is just awesome.
We are so proud of the effort everyone put into the school Cross-Country last week. So great to see all the practises pay off. Not one single person who ran did not finish the race. Tu meke tamariki.
We are so proud of the effort everyone put into the school Cross-Country last week. So great to see all the practises pay off. Not one single person who ran did not finish the race. Tu meke tamariki.
Science! What a wonderful opportunity for students to question and test different things. The oral language that comes from these activities is outstanding. The writing is also developing. Simply brilliant. Adding food colouring with a drop of dishwashing liquid to different milks has a different reaction. They all blend though. There were some fabulous patterns. Would the same thing happen with PVA? No! The colours would not blend! Interesting. We also tried to make a water spout but no success. The students decided the air hole was too big, so we will need to try this one again.
Room 18 has had a fantastic start to the term. We absolutely loved having the Science Kit in our room and learning about liquefaction, earthquakes, the earth's crust and fossils. The collaboration and language was brilliant. We worked with our Buddy Class, Room 19 and everyone learned something new. It was very loud but very exciting. Both our classes also were responsible for School Assembly in Week 1. This was student led and even the power point had no teacher input. We sure have some talent in our rooms. Our Inquiry and Investigation this term is Science based. The ideas coming from the students is outstanding and their realisation of the importance for caring for our planet and being able to make a difference is brilliant. Our students certainly know that they can be a change maker, even if it is in a small way.