Class Speech Video 2017

Kia Ora Koutou Katoa,

Here is a video that includes a small part of many speeches from the recent in-class speech competition. Everyone worked hard on their speech, and for many it was a real challenge getting up in front of the class to present it. Well done to all those future orators from the mighty Ruma Rima!

Rock On,

Mr M

Week 6 Update

Kia Ora All,

Welcome to a new week. As usual, here is a heads up:

• Daffodil day was awesome, the students had a blast. Thanks so much to all those who donated ingredients, baked with their children, lent kitchen appliances, and came in to help out - we couldn't have done it without you. 
• Hockey was a ton of fun. I thoroughly enjoyed coaching a year 5/6 mixed team on the day. Again, thanks to all who came along to help out. My favourite part of the tournament was seeing many students start from humble beginnings on the hockey field and improve at an astronomical rate to be playing with enjoyment and confidence by the end of the day. 

• Please make sure spelling notebooks come to school on Monday.

Maths - Probability

• This week in maths we will be making predictions about "what’s in the bag?" by drawing cubes of two different colours from a bag (and then returning them). The more turns you take, the more you know about the cubes in the bag. You can then use this knowledge to make a prediction about how many of each colour there are in the bag. We'll be linking this in with the work we've recently been doing around fractions.  

Instructions for: What’s in the bag?

Put a total of six buttons (or counters) of two colours in a paper bag or container that you can’t see into. Ask your child to try to work out what colours the six buttons are by drawing out the buttons one at a time. It is important that the button is put back into the bag each time. Let your child do this as many times as they want until they are ready to predict the colours (drawing a diagram is an excellent way of keeping track). Ask them to explain their prediction and then let them look in the bag. Next time let your child make up a bag for you to work out. Enjoy making your predictions and seeing if you are right!

Rock On,

Mr M

Bottle Rockets

I think it's safe to say that the bottle rockets were an epic success. The students designed and built their rockets in pairs or groups of three. We then busted out the hot glue guns and glued the designs together as best as we could - there was plenty of opportunity to adjust our plans and problem solve along the way. I enjoyed watching the students working together and figuring out how to build a rocket that they were all happy with. Here is a short video and some pictures of the launch. Thanks to Kiyo for some super camera work.

Rock On,

Mr M

Welcome To Week 5

Kia Ora Koutou Katoa,

This week looks like it's going to be a big one.

• On Tuesday the Y4's head to Nelson for hockey and on Thursday the Y5's head over. If you're able to come along and provide transport, please let Mark or myself know. 
• Picasso art is in full swing. Most students have finished one portrait using pastels and are moving into using the same compositional technique again, but on a larger scale using paint. I'll get some pics up soon.
• Friday is the Daffodil Day Gala. The students in Room 5 have been working on their stalls. They've had to fill out an application form designed to help them think about what they need to do to run their stall. I'm looking forward to seeing it all come to fruition. Hopefully momentum continues and they don't stall. Here are some images of the students beavering away in preparation. 

• In science, we're designing and building our own bottle rockets this week. This involves measuring our bottles and drawing a plan of our rockets, then constructing our amazing designs using state of the art materials such as ice cream containers and cutting edge tools such as scissors. It should be a blast (off). Here are some photos of the design process thus far. 

Rock On,

Mr M

Welcome to Week 4

Kia Ora Koutou Katoa,

• As part of science, we'll be doing some experiments that involve plastic bottles - soft drink bottles such as 700ml - 1.5 litre Coke bottles are ideal. I'm sure you could convince your child to take one for the team and drink some Coke this week. Sorry parents, beer and wine bottles aren't needed! If you have any to spare, please send them along to school. 
• We've going to be hitting a persuasive writing unit hard from this week onwards. If you are looking for a home learning task, you could get your child to put together a short speech to share at oral language convincing us of something they are passionate about e.g., ban homework, why should everyone own lego, skateboarding should be banned etc.
• The year 4 speech finalists will be heading off to the competition on Monday, the year 5's on Tuesday. Good luck guys, you've worked hard!
• Last week the students continued to beaver away making DLO's about compound sentences, which we've been touching on periodically since last term. If you want a home learning idea that fits in with our writing programme, you could see if your child is able to explain a compound sentence to you. You're hoping to hear things such as: two sentences joined together, conjunction, subject and verb. Here are a some DLO's.

Week 3 Update

Kia Ora Koutou Katoa,

Welcome to Week 3, a.k.a the week that the fledgling speech writers get to unfurl their wings and leap into the great unknown - wish them luck.

• Speaking of luck, some of the students need a little more just than luck: a few of them still need a finished speech... If your child is amongst this group of optimistic procrastinationers, could I respectfully suggest that you give them a gentle nudge this arvo if you get a chance. They may be able to access their speech via their google account if they typed it last week, if not, I know that quite a few students did take their writing books home on Friday. 
• The final flurry of speech preparation happens tomorrow. Then all names will go into a hat and the order they come out will decide the order in which students deliver their speeches. I'm aiming to film them and hopefully put some of them up on the blog if the sound quality turns out good enough.
• The sports that we're playing at school presently are hockey and miniball in preparation for some tournaments coming up. 
• The fractions juggernaut continues to roll along. This tends to be the most confusing area of numeracy for students. Any cooking / cutting up of fruit etc you can do with your student is beneficial. 
• Here is a short video that suggests another fraction activity for home learning.

Rock On,

Mr M