Creativity and Innovation - Making Music

Wow....what a week! A terms worth of learning from each class was finally on display at our whole school Creativity and Innovation Expo.

We were blown away with what each class had come up with and we were so proud and excited to finally be able to share our learning with our community.

Here is a quick look back at the the process of creating our musical instruments...

Coding and Makey Makey fun!

Creating our instruments.

Hooking up the Makey Makey...

Making Music...

Alongside this, we were researching our instrument, taking notes, drawing diagrams and writing information reports. We were also composing our own music and lyrics and experimenting with instruments in the music room with our buddy class.

This has been the most incredible learning! Room 8 students have been self motivated learners who have worked wonderfully with their partners.  They have displayed fantastic creativity and the ability to work collaboratively to problem solve when things got tricky.

We celebrated our learning with a short 'concert' last week. You can check out the video below...

Could this be the tallest cup tower yet?

The Cup Tower Challenge is a favourite activity in our Room 8 maths class, for those children who have finished their work. The challenge is to make the tallest/most interesting cup tower without it falling down. The one and only rule...you must answer each multiplication question correctly before your cup can be placed on the tower.

The whole class was impressed with the tower these boys created this week! Nice work 😊

JUST ONE MORE CUP...

OH NO....

CRASH!!

Buddy Class Easter Scavenger Hunt 2018

What a fun day we had with our buddy class on Thursday!

We worked in pairs or small groups to complete a scavenger hunt. We had to read clues which sent us all around the school completing challenges. Some of these challenges included making up a handshake, completing an obstacle course, asking each other questions and recording the answers, identifying features on the New Zealand flag, collecting natural resources from our environment and practising cartwheels!

Our focus was doing lots of talking with our Room 13 buddy, giving lots of encouragement and of course having lots of FUN!

We finished the fun with an Easter treat, some music and  Easter colouring.

We love spending time with our buddy class!

We would like to wish Room 13 as well as all our whanau and friends a safe and happy Easter!

Descriptive Writing - Plastic in the ocean.

Room 8 have been learning to use a variety of language features to add detail to our writing. Some of the things we have explored so far are similes and metaphors, onomatopoeia, adjectives, powerful verbs and the importance of a strong 'hook'.

We know that our words have the power to create pictures in our readers mind.

We watched a shocking video clip about the horrible plastic floating around the Bali and we wrote a descriptive piece of writing from the divers perspective.

Here are a few of the many lovely examples of writing.

A roof of plastic hovered over my body as I drifted through the torture. "They don't have a choice do they?" I thought to myself. Ghosts of rubbish drifted into my face as I kicked my way through murky water which the sea creatures have to live in. 

In this situation I would have usually cleaned the sea but this disaster doesn't end just now and not here. Plastic bags floated and bobbed up and down just like jelly-fish. My face started to heat up and turn red. Eyes bulging, head spinning and stomach rumbling with disgust. I saw a needy sting-ray alone probably looking for REAL food to eat.

As I made my way through the filthy rubbish a medium sized chip packet brushed my face then strayed into my hand. Suddenly a little spider of guilt crawled down my spine. As the journey ended, my heart hammered against my chest begging me to do something. 

As I packed away my stuff I was texting a few people to meet me down at the beach. It's about time this scenario changed.
By Caitlin

5 years ago I fell in love with this ocean...I had finally got to my destination and then my eyes gazed around. I smiled then it changed to a frown. Tears dripped down my cheeks. I didn't have anything to say. I was disgusted and disappointed. I jumped in the water as slowly as a grandma crossing the road.

As I entered the water I felt the seaweed crawling around me like cockroaches. I looked left, I looked right. I said to myself "I should have a better look." My body started to get goose bumps as I dodged the rubbish. Pollution is common in the country. I saw plastic bags drifting through the murky water and broken down bits of rubbish.

Darkness surrounded me and rubbish hovered on top of me like a helicopter looking for me. 

How can these marine animals live?
By Ali

A ceiling full of plastic covered my shivering body as I swam around the filthy, murky water. I saw rubbish flying onto my skin like bullets heading directly for its target.

Plastic bags, chip packets, and lolly wrappers is what I saw. I gazed at the giganticness. I could feel the insides of my body getting ready to vomit. My stomach flipped, tossed and turned as I glanced back at the disgusting pile of rubbish. 

I wondered why people would do that to the ocean. 80% of the air that we breathe is made from the sea. If they dump a pile of rubbish into the ocean, that means we are inhaling half of the rubbish that sits in the sea.

The sting-ray glided through the water as the rubbish merged into a group and slowly drifted towards it.
I felt so gutted by what people would do to the ocean.
By Hazyl

Totara Park 2018

Room 8 had the BEST day last Friday on our whole school trip to Totara Park. 

From our bus ride with our buddy class R13...

To going on a big walk and climbing some trees...

Hunting for cicada shells and building pretend campfires... 

Conquering the 100 Steps and spotting kereru along the way!

Then lastly, cooling of with a well deserved swim...

What a wonderful day of sun, friendship, bonding and creating lovely memories.

Green Fingers!

Room 8 were excited to pull on gardening gloves and get into the garden last week.

Things had gone a bit crazy in the garden during the school holidays and our mission was to tame the jungle.

There was some great team work as we struggled to pull out some huge plants...

We made some interesting discoveries....

It was great to take our learning outside. We made interesting observations about a range of bugs we came across, discussed the root systems of plants and how weeds impact a garden. We talked about composting and also about turning the soil and letting it rest before we plant some seedlings later this week.

We will keep you updated on our progress.

Making Music with R13

Since our buddy class R13 is also exploring music as part of their Learning Pathways this term, we decided to meet in the music room this week.

We were exploring the chime bars and experimenting with the different sounds they could make. We made some short patterns together and had some sharing time at the end. 

It was so much fun and we look forward to doing it again soon!