Class art project

With a number of students out at various different school activities, today we worked on a class art project. All of the leftover art resources were put into the middle of the room and the class had to use the materials together to create a piece of art. The only instructions that I gave was that they had to work together to do it.

I then sat back and left them to it. For the first couple of minutes chaos reigned supreme but then Josef stepped up and began to organise the class. It took him some time to get the class under control but soon the class had voted for what they wanted to make, thanks to Liam organising that side of things.

 A caterpillar was decided upon. The class then organised themselves into groups and set about making different parts of the project.

The class then worked industriously at working on the various parts.

When the bell rang Jose organised everyone again to share what they had completed. Then the went back to work for the second half of the afternoon.

The caterpillar didn't quite get finished but that wasn't the purpose of the task. It was great to see the class actually sorting themselves out maturely and in an organised way. Children taking leadership roles while others listened and followed instructions. Here is the final result.

And finally a bit of reflection on the topic. What went well, what we need to work on.

Nakita's Spaceship

Here is another example of the class spaceship homework. Made on Minecraft by Nakita.

Space ship.

It has been too long since I posted last!

In class we are on board a spaceship called SSVI, (science ship 6) and we are travelling to a new planet as our previous one became unsustainable. Naughty humans, destroying the world.

So on board the ship we have had to make everything sustainable and on the new planet we need to make everything sustainable. For homework the class has been tasked with creating the spaceship we are travelling on. Some have been working on minecraft to finish it off others have drawn them. Here is an example of one that Lauren made out of a recycled bottle and some ice cream sticks. She filled the inside with Lego examples of what is inside. Great work Lauren!

The rest of these should be finished on Friday.

Election Day

It was Election Day here in Room 6. Yesterday all the parties presented their arguments why people should vote for them, showcasing the policies they had developed and taking questions from the audience. This morning everyone grabbed a voting slip and lined up to make their vote.

After go his everyone put their vote into the ballot box.

In the end we had equal votes for two of our political parties. Both UNIque, whose policies were all about our school UNIform, and JELO, who wanted a new look to the classroom won. The class now needs to come to some sort of compromise with these policies. Next week we will be reflecting on our campaigns, what we did well, what we could have done better and why we voted the way we did.

Party Ads

Our classroom political parties have been making ads to highlight what they hope to achieve. Tomorrow we will be reflecting on how well we got our message across to the rest of the class and what we could have done better in the future.
Here are the ads.

Pop Art Changemakers

We created some great pop art over the last few days with a program on the computer that changed around some images the children sourced. The children then had to cut these images up and arrange them however they wanted. They chose the colours they liked and thought would mix together well. Here is what a few of them came up with.

Class Shared Writing - Hair for the better

In class we have been working at understanding exposition. We first developed some success criteria after looking at some examples of this style of writing. Following this Mr Billings planned out and wrote an exposition for the class.

Here are the success criteria:

Success Criteria            

Each paragraph has its own point relevant to the topic, trying to persuade the reader.

The conclusion gives advice for the future, links to the introduction.

Paragraphs start with a topic sentence engaging the audience.

Elaborating on the points in each paragraph.

Use describing words and figurative language.

Fix all their known spelling mistakes and punctuation errors.            

Next we worked on a class piece of shared writing. Here is what we came up with as a class. Mr Billings wrote and the class improved the basic piece of writing to make it more persuasive.

    

Hair for the better.

People with hair often look better, it’s a fact. It protects you from different weather conditions, lets you use a comb, and just looks awesome. Mr Billings, by being bald, you are missing out by not having a set of luscious locks. A wig is an ideal option.

Out of the classroom can be a terrible place for a bald man no matter what time of the year it is. In summer, the sun beats its searing rays down upon us. In the winter it is freezing cold and we lose a lot of heat from out of our heads. Having a wig in summer will protect you from sunburn. In winter this wig will keep you warm in the icy trip from your car to the classroom.

The emergency comb is no use stapled to the wall. Using it on your shiny lonely head just leads to awkward moments. If you had a wig your emergency comb would have a great purpose for fixing those moments when your wig is out of whack.

Hair is the new, bald is the old. With a wig you can keep up with the latest fashions and the great thing is that one day you can have a green ‘fro and the next day you could then have a snazzy mohawk. You could style your do with hair gel creating a unique piece of art on your head. You can look thrilling during those slow motion camera shots, swaying your hair from side to side in the breeze.

Don’t worry if people stare at you, they are staring because they are jealous. Mr Billings, you need a wig. 

This text was written a few weeks ago. The class are now well into their own expository writing.                      

Frogs

One of the reading groups read a story called Frogs and, to combine it with our writing focus of persuasion, they had to make a book trailer enticing people to read the story.

Here's what some of them came up with.

HNIdol success

Amy from our class was part of the awesome HNIdol this year. She managed to get past the auditions, through the Peak T.V. Competition and into the finals. She sung amazingly, choreographing her dance in with the song. She went on to be the top Year 7 student taking away the Year 7 prize. Congratulations Amy on a well deserved win!

Hee she is with some of her adoring fans.

Technology Challenge

Last Thursday, when the Masterton Exchange was on, we stopped electives for that week. So instead we had a quick tech challenge. The class had to make the longest bridge that they could using the materials provided. The winning group stretched 92 cm using paper pipes and a strut in the middle. This was the only bridge to hold the weight of the tissue box without it falling off of the bridge collapsing.

More times tables!

The times tables are almost finished. We have moved on to fractions decimals and percentages in class but the last few times tables videos have just completed the editing stage. Here they are.

Do you know your 7 x tables?

Here is a video of the 7 x tables.

Maths class 4x tables

Here are the members of Room 2 that come through to us for maths and the 4x tables that they made a song about.

Eye balls.

Today we started making plaster eyeballs in class as a bit of an art excercise.  Not everyone got to make them today but the rest will on Monday. We still need to do more sanding and painting. Here are some pics of the he class at work.

All of the messy equipment we were using.

The plaster is in the balloons. Some of the class stayed in at lunch to make extra ones.

Taking the balloon casing off after they have set. The class was amazed at the heat produced by the plaster as it was setting

Time to sand the bottom of them so they are flat.

More sanding

It feels so smooth on my face!

I've got my eye on you (sorry bad jokes are a necessity in the class)

Next week we will finish making the last 8 or 9 we need to do and the children will begin painting them so that they look like eyeballs. We will then varnish them so they have a bit of a glossy look.

8 times tables

We've been working on multiplication and division over the past 4 weeks. To help the class learn their times tables we made some raps and songs about them. Here is the 8 times tables by Reid, Josef, Matt and Oliver.
I had this song in my head all weekend (It sure beats having Bob the Builder or Barney)

Term 2, The human body

This term we are looking at the man body and how it functions. The first part of our focus this term is going to be on our sense and how the different sense in our bodies work.

Today we started looking at our eyes (pun not intended) we completed a small experiment where we investigated how our iris works, expanding and contracting to let more light in. Here is a quick video of a close up of Matt's eye. The class were very impressed with the change that happened in a short space of time.

Magnificent magnets. Technology

The class have been learning about magnetism in science. Here's a quick picture

Kotahitanga week

Last week our class, and the rest of the school was involved in Kotahitanga week.

We had Karl Wixon come in and talk to us about powhiri, marae and marae protocol. The children were very interested, the boys especially so when talking about the wero.

I also set the class a technology challenge. They needed to create a Wharenui in about half an hour that showed all the main features.

Here are some pictures of the finished results (I gave them some extra time to get them completed)

Term 1 in a nutshell

Spotlight on Pippa and Courtney

We have been learning to write to describe and entertain in class. here are some stories by Pippa and Courtney that are both entertaining and descriptive.

The Dancing Elevator

My Family was staying at a really fancy hotel with chandeliers and fancy carpets and all the shiny expensive stuff that you could only dream of . Me and my sister shared a spotless room with a sparkling clean bathroom that shined like a diamond.  Mum and dad shared a large spacious room thats bed was as comfy as lying on a cloud. We were all on the  top floor.It had an amazing view that saw all over the city. I was the last one to go down to the for breakfast in the morning as I wanted a go in the huge luxurious shower. I quickly scurried down the hallway to the elevator .  didn't want to miss breakfast . I took a sniff and smelt the mouth watering food. The doors open and no ones was in there. Great. I stepped inside and looked at the mirrors surrounding me I decided this would be a great time to have quick dance.

It was fun dancing in the elevator you could slip and slide along the floor and seeing 100 of you dancing in the reflection.  I did some turns and all that stuff and was having a great time with all this excitement I didn't realise the elevator had stopped and the doors were opening but just as they started to open I decided to just to do a little silly move the bum spinner you know the one where you spin on your bum round and round. I quickly spun and on the last turn I saw 5 adults standing by the door waiting to be let in. I Quickly scurred into the corner and stood there as still as a cactus and a red as a cherry. I see them trying not to laugh turning purple by the second but just before they exploded I reached the ground floor and rush out. As I sit eating my breakfast I thought of how funny I must of looked spinning on my bum. That was definitely the most embarrassing moment!  

by Pippa

Embarrassing Moment

by Courtney

Going over the bridge I heard the sound of beeping cars surrounding ours and the cranes working hard, heaving the logs high up in the air. I wound down the window to get some fresh air, but all I got was big whiff of gas fumes from the thousands of cars crossing the bridge. I saw the boat sitting there at the docks waiting for us to aboard.  I wiped my hand across the window to see more of the boat, my hand almost froze it was like ice.

As I grabbed my bag I looked up at the gigantic boat, I felt tiny. The gas fumes got stronger every step I took towards the boat. The sound of  little kids crying, people murmuring and others saying farewells. As I took my first step on the boat I noticed the yellow and black stripes with the warning sign, I had never liked boats or planes and those signs just didn’t help.

When we found our way to the bar area, I got a rush of warm air, I plopped my jacket and my bag onto the couch and flopped right on top. I saw a glass bar and some little T.V.’s the size of a computer screen. There was people asleep and others about to node off. The fumes were gone I could finally breath again and now all I could smell was beer and wine. I heard people yelling at the poor bar men, I felt sorry for them, there was only two of them and about fifty people wanting drinks. The room was filled with the sound of music, quiet enough so you could hear the person next to you, but loud enough so that you can act like you didn’t hear them.

It was too hot inside for me, so I heaved myself off the most comfortable couch I had ever sat on, chucked my jacket on my shoulders and zombie walked towards the door. As I opened the door I saw the black sparkling sea gently swaying. It was a nice calm night, perfect time to be on a boat. The boat was chugging along slowly no wonder it takes us three hours to get to picton. I zipped up my jacket and watched as the boat left the harbor. I sat on a seat next to the side of the boat and played with the lace on my jacket.

Soon my eyes were starting to drop, they got closer and closer. I wanted to get up and go inside t fall asleep on those wonderful couches, but I just didn’t have enough energy 

 Courtney's is still a work in progress but what she has produced so far has shown great description.

Transformation

No this isn't a post about Optimus Prime and his nemesis Megatron, this is a post about what we are doing in maths.

Fr the next three weeks we are focusing on transformation in class. Translation, rotation and reflection to be specific. Today the class as working on creating some tessellations a with translation. 

First they needed to create a template to trace around. Then they traced it onto their pages and translated the shape across and traced it again. Here are a few pics of the class at work and their tessellations. This is still a work in progress and we will be working on it again over the next few days.

Spotlight on Flynn, Sarah, Amy, Elliot and Matt A

We have been looking at Creatures that live in and around New Zealand as part of our focus on all things Kiwi. Here are a few of the quick profiles some of the students have made of their work.
Here is Flynn's work on the Hoiho.



Sarah and Amy's work.




Elliot and Matt A's



The class are learning skills about accessing reliable information.

Writing

We spent a bit of time outside yesterday identifying all the features in our playground that could help set a scene outside. The children came up with some excellent descriptive words. It was especially great because there was a slight mist hanging around Te Mata Peak which really captured the students attention.

Homework

We've been putting up a bunch of the class homework on the wall down the back of here class. This is the work that was able to be printed off. I've also seen some great videos too!

Here is a picture of that work.

Lauren also made an excellent educational game about kiwiana. The class has had some great fun answering the questions she developed. Brilliantly presented as well.

And here are a couple of snaps of the class in technology today as well.

Kei te pehea koe?

Today in Te Reo we were looking at the phrase "Kei te pehea koe?" and supplying a variety of answers. Here are some rather over the top versions of the answers we looked at. ENJOY!!!

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Spotlight on Robyn, Josef and Matthew W.

We have been learning about inferring within our class in our small group times. As an extension activity from the text we read, Anna and the Speckled Hen, The children needed to summarise the main points of the story. Here are 3 of the students work.

Robyn


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Josef
 
Matt W
 

Spotlight on Kayla and Josef

After reading part of The Twits by Roald Dahl  we completed some descriptive writing about a character. The character was called Mr or Mrs Glob. The children had to imagine what this character was like and fully explain their different characteristics and quirks. They were rated 1, 2, or 3 on the level of each part of their descriptions. Here are a couple from the class:

Kayla:

Mr glob Is a truly and utterly disgusting man. He was so disgusting that when he got married he wasn’t in a suit or anything. He hadn’t even had a shower in the morning. He wasn’t only disgusting he was overweight, Fat to be exact. If he bent down to find a shoe in his wardrobe, even if he sat on the couch his button on his jeans would pop undone and is pants would fall down. He didn’t care if this even happened to him town. Everyone thought it was disgusting, but they didn’t say anything because they were so scared of his face that they thought they might faint if he talked to them. Luckily for them he never talked. It was almost like he talked so when he was little his mother superglued his lips.

When he was in town no one went near him. But why didn’t they?

The answer is he had a special spray, A very stinky spray. Actually a very very special stinky stinky spray. He sprayed it on every time he was going to be in public. He knew it scared people away, and thats how he liked it.

Going on to how just on part of his body might even give you nightmares, His face. Now don’t faint……..

He had peas mushed all over his face. He didn’t only have a green face he a face full of speed bumps, Wrinkles if you didn’t know.

Whenever he got asked out for a special occasion he made an excuse that he was busy. He never talks or communicates with anyone except his TV. You're probably thinking that TV’s aren’t human but he acted like it was. He fed it breakfast, Lunch and Dinner even sometimes desert. He talked to and had conversations. They even played board games together. Though he never watched it because of the food spilled all the way down to the carpet if you can call it that.

Josef:

Mr Glob was a putrid and foolish old man. He lived far away from town in an old shack in the woods. The shack was built of termite infested walls, held together with mud and raccoon droppings. Mr Glob was a rather odd man, for example his arms. One arm was huge and beefy and he could probably break your face with it. But his right arm was skinny and pathetic, you could see the bone and in a hand wrestle a two year old could snap his arm off, literally. As well as that he stunk. He smelt this way because he has never bathed properly. Whenever he bathed it was in a swamp full of frogs and god knows what else. He has never had a job as everyone refused to hire him because of his smell. And every now and then someone would come up and tell him he stunk. Then he would bathe in the sewer, track down the person who told him he stunk and stick his armpit in their face.

Lets move up to Mr Glob’s horrifying face. He had an insane hairdo, with tufts of hair sprouting out everywhere. Ear wax pours out of his ears and he has a snot waterfall streaming out of his nose.

Softball

We have been learning some new softball skills with some specialist coaches that have come into the school. Today the class was working with gloves and throwing. They played a game where they throw instead of hitting the ball. Here are some pictures.

The class really enjoyed it and it was a great day for being outside.

A little bit of Frontloading. MEAN MEDIAN MODE RANGE.

For maths we are starting on Statistics. Here is a clip I made for the class to look at to get a quick understanding of the mean, median, mode and range. This is great because they can review this as many times as they like to get an understanding of how to work out these mathematical concepts.
I think next time I'll try to make the video a bit more exciting.

Boring Mr Billings voice Activate!!

What does the fox say?

Not much, especially when it's made of MDF. Here are some of the cool foxes the class decorated for technology. These are the ones that went to electronics today.

Spotlight on Oliver and Cullen

In Room 6 we have being looking at adding description to our writing. Today we looked at what adjectives and adverbs are. We also looked at similes and metaphors. I was really impressed with what the students came up with. Here are a couple of examples from Oliver and Cullen.

OLIVER:

One night there was a stormy night with rumbling lightning shooting across the sky like a bullet over the spooky haunted mansion with the lightning looking like blue veins in your body keeping the mansion alive and protected. And the door glowing like glowstone in the mansions heart.

CULLEN:

The old creepy house that nobody would enter sat up on top of the hill just sitting there making crackling noises and hearing screams from the house at night. Thunder was roaring and the lightning struck right by the house like if it was trying to guard the house.

Every night the house lights will turn on and at day they turn off wondering what would be doing that maybe the old family that lived there that passed away but didn't find their way to where they were meant to go and are stuck as ghost that are making weird noises as they fade away trying to say let me free. People complain about that house on the hill they say that they see all of the family that died their staring at them holding hands with disgusted and sad  faces as they all fade away with screams.

Expectations

A few days ago the class set expectations of other students as of their teacher. They came up with some absolutely great ideas.

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