Coding in the classroom and Makey Makey fun!

As part of our learning pathways learning, Room 8 are busy working on a project which will be shared at our school wide 'Innovation and Creativity Expo' towards the end of the term.

A big part of our learning is centred around coding. Coding is when you give a computer a series of commands which it follows. Coding is what computer programmers use to create software. To write our code we use a great website called Scratch.

In this lesson we were learning to use the arrow keys and sound blocks to programme our computers to play a range of instrument sounds. 

Once we had mastered this we made things even more fun by adding a Makey Makey. 

A Makey Makey is a way of turning anything into buttons that control your computer. We swapped the arrow keys for playdough. This is what our learning looked like!

Here is Caitlin and Sulyne experimenting with using their bodies as conductors to control the sound

We are excited to share more of this learning with you at our expo

Creativity and Innovation

This term's learning pathway is 'Creativity and Innovation'.

We started off this topic with some creative painting.

Each person was given a letter to make using masking tape on a piece of blank paper. They were given a range of paints to use to decorate their letter with one catch - they weren't allowed to use paint brushes.

Some children collected sticks, rocks, feathers. Some used their fingers.

It was lots of messy, creative, innovative fun :)

This was our end result...

Welcome to 2018!

Welcome back to school! What a great year it is going to be.

In Room 8 we have been busy getting to know each other and setting up our classroom routines.

We have been learning about the qualities that make a great learner and the types of strategies, skills and attitudes we will need to have a successful year of learning.

Room 8 were given a challenge - to recreate a paper sculpture without touching it. It was a tricky task! Some people said "It's too hard!" "I can't do it!" "This is impossible." Only one person managed to complete the challenge and a few gave up altogether.

They were then given a second go - this time they were allowed to touch the model, talk to and help each other, and they were allowed to come and ask the teacher for help if they wished. By trying it a different way and taking action to help themselves, everyone had success and was able to complete the challenge.

This activity reminded us that learning is not always easy and that you feel even more proud of yourself when you master something that was challenging.
We learned the importance of a positive attitude and using a range of strategies to help us if we are stuck in what we call the 'Learning Pit'.

We know that being in the Learning Pit is a good thing, because challenges are good for our brain and that is where the best learning happens!

These are the top 6 qualities that Room 8 decided are needed to be an amazing learner:

We look forward to a fantastic year of learning in Room 8!