Welcome to the Holidays

Kia Ora All,

I hope everyone had an excellent weekend. If you're doing homeschool activities throughout the holidays (which we are as the structure helps keep the days happy and fully occupied), then here are a couple of suggestions:

Times Tables

Often kids learn 5's, 2's and 3's by skip counting and find it hard to break the habit. Working on times tables at home is a good way of solving this problem, and what better time than now? I recommend working on them as a family of facts e.g., 7 x 5 = 35, 5 x 7 = 35, 35 ÷ 5 = 7 and 35 ÷ 5 = 7.

Short bursts is the way to go with this. If you're cooking tea and your child is in the room, fire a few questions at them. Do some they know and a couple they don't. Do this regularly throughout the day. Here's a good plan of action.

• Start with 2's and 5's. Your child probably knows these but making sure they're secure with the family of facts is a good place to start.
• Next, 3's.
• 4's come next as links in with 2's.
• 6's so long as your child knows 3's.
• 7's link with 2's and 5's.
• 8's link with 4's.
• 9's at any time, particularly if you show them the fingers trick. 

Here is a link to some flashcards I made up and was planning on introducing term 2. If you make flashcards, they're only to remind you which ones your child needs to learn or for your child to practice with - you need to test your child while they're not looking at the cards. If you don't have a printer at home, you can just write them out by hand. When I was a kid I remember making flashcards from Weetbix boxes.

Maths Buddy has a time tables game. You need to monitor your child with this for it to be useful. They should stick with the table they're working on and try to master that before moving on. Short bursts of 5 - 10 minutes a day on this; I wouldn't recommend any more than that.

                                                                  Maths Buddy

I've enjoyed working through tasks with Olive. I encourage students to have a pen and paper beside them to do their woking on. One task a day is plenty I reckon.

Island Activity Ctd...

Write a letter or make a postcard to send to a friend telling them about what you've been up to on your island paradise over the weekend. If you make a postcard, make sure you draw a picture of a major landmark from your island on the front. Look at a real postcard if you have one and copy the layout. Put a space for the address and draw a stamp as well.

Keep the pictures coming. Staying connected through this time is very important and I thoroughly enjoy seeing what everyone's up to.

Rock On,
Mr M

Mitchell's Mythical Creature and Island List

Olive's Island List

Dash's Family homeschooling in style

Theo's Hut & Map

Theo and his Grandad built this sleepout together! Theo named it 'Horror Castle' and has even spent the night in it.

The Next Great Adventure

Kia Ora All,

Below are some pictures that have rolled in throughout the day. Looking very cool.

Another suggestion which came from a parent was the daily Stuff News Kids' Quiz. I'm going to get Olive to give it a crack tomorrow. If you've got any ideas that work for you, feel free to let me know and I'll post them.

Here's the next task for when you've finished the map and the transport:

You're finally ready to head on out to your island. Your transport is ready to go and the island is now officially yours. But as your Nana always says: "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail," and she's not the sort of Nana whose advice can be ignored. That means that it's time to make a list. On the list are going to be the top 10 things you'll need to take with you to keep you entertained while staying on your island.

• Give your list a heading and don't forget to bullet point each item.

The other thing that your Nana happens to mention as you're getting ready to go is the legend of the mythical creature that lives on your island. Some people say it's real, some say it's just a legend - whatever the case, everyone you talk to agrees that you wouldn't want to meet this creature... You can't get much information, but you do manage to find out that it's half of one animal and half of another (like many mythical creatures). Your task is to put a fact file about this creature together. You may like to research mythical creatures as you're doing this activity. You might like to get ideas from Greek Mythology e.g., a centaur, or Maori legends such as the legend of Ngarara Huarau.

• Draw a detailed picture of your creature.
• Give it a name.
• Give it a special power.
• What does it eat and where does it live?
• Does it have any weaknesses?

Rock On,

Mr M

                                                                 Finn Map

Dayananda Vehicle 

 Bodhi Map

 Mitchell Vehicle

 Olive Vehicle 

Sharing some work

Kia Ora All,

Here are some maps from yesterday's activity that rolled in after the cut off point. Looks like lots of thought and effort went into them. It's great to see the adults getting into it too - what a fantastic bunch of creative people! If you're participating in this series, please show your child these posts so that they can see what each other are up to.

If you've commented on the blog and your comment hasn't appeared, please let me know. One person has had this problem so far. I suggest trying a different device or web browser if this has happened to you.

Best of luck designing your vehicles today; send your work when it's done and I'll post it.

Rock On,
Mr M

P.S. new Maths Buddy tasks set this morning.

                                                                        Cody's Map

Olive's Map

Aroha's Map

 David's Map

 Dayananda's Map

 Nadine's Map

Teo's Map

Island activity Pt II

Kia Ora Koutou Katoa,

I hope everyone is doing well as we move to level 4. I've been doing a bit of much needed work in the garden and enjoying spending plenty of time with the family. 

Great job to Mitchell who did the excellent map below. Olive and Teo both did maps; I'll post pictures up when they're finished. If your child did a map but doesn't want it shared, I'd still love to look at it if you want to send a picture through. Please leave a comment saying what you like about Mitchell's excellent creation.

If you've designed your island, you're ready for Part II.

Your rich and eccentric Nana is keen for you to head on out to your new island as soon as possible. Your next task is to design transport to your island. This could be any kind of land or sea vehicle. 

• It must include a place to store the stuff you're taking with you.
• It must also have a place to sleep and something to entertain you on the journey.
• Some kind of defence system is recommended. The island is surrounded by pirates most of the time. Actually, you don't need to worry about pirates too much - they are quite scared of your dear, sweet Nana for some reason... What you do need to worry about is the Secret Service. Your Nana won't tell you why, but apparently the government does it's best to track her every move. Try to design your vehicle so it's hard to follow. 
• Use A3 paper if you have it; include labels telling us about the features of the vehicle and make sure you include colour.

Rock on,

Mr M

Here's another home idea.

Kia Ora All,

How much work you do with your child over the next few weeks is, of course, entirely a family decision. You should not push yourself to achieve learning tasks with your child if it causes you stress. In saying that, having a bit of a focus to the day might make entertaining kids a bit easier so here are some suggestions:

• Have your child read daily - with a bit of luck you have a selection of books at home. If not, I'm in the process of locating some good online ideas. I reckon 20-30 minutes daily, for most kids, is realistic. Let me know if you have concerns around this though and I'll do what I can to assist.
• Read to them daily - I'm reading Olive Stories of the Wild West Gang by Joy Cowley, which is going down well. 
• Keeping a diary or writing a story is a good idea.
• Maths Buddy is a good maths resource. Your child could do a few sessions a week - perhaps completing a lesson per session if you're trying to keep screen time to a minimum.
• I'll send out ideas via the blog to supplement the above. I encourage students and parents to visit the blog regularly and post comments. If we get enough people making an effort in this area, it'll be a nice way of staying connected and seeing what we're all up to. To that end, here's today's task:

Draw A Map

At 12.01 am on your birthday you receive a phone call from your much loved but extremely eccentric Nana (who also happens to be incredibly wealthy). She tells you that she's giving you an island of your own just off the coast of New Zealand. Your task is to draw a map of your island (I recommend A3 sized paper or even bigger if you have it). 

• You must include colour (coloured pencil looks best)
• Compass markings
• You must have at least 5 major landmarks on your island e.g., a forest, mountains, volcano, haunted cave, buried treasure etc. More landmarks are encouraged.
• Your island must have a name
• Include labels showing what the landmarks are

When you have drawn a map of your island, I encourage you to send a photo of the map to me so that I can post it on the blog. You might also like to do a short video telling us all about your island while showing us your map. I will post work that's sent to me on the blog and I encourage everyone to check back and leave comments saying what you like about other people's work. Siblings from other classes and parents are highly encouraged to contribute their own maps. 

Rock On,

Mr M

School Closure - The Plan

Kia Ora All,

To keep the learning rolling (and hopefully keep the kids a bit more entertained) I'm going to set work through the blog. I'll aim to set tasks that can be adapted to a range of abilities and suggest ways to do that. This is actually a good opportunity to explore some of the things your child does throughout the day at school. Today, lets make sure there are some basics in place:

• Access to a computer is essential for online learning - please get your child to log into their school gmail account on a home computer. If your child has forgotten their password, let me know and I'll send it to you.
• Make sure your child can log into Maths Buddy (this should be bookmarked on their Google account). I will set and monitor tasks for your child to complete at an appropriate level. You can do the tasks with your child, or let them get on with it themselves.  
• Bookmark the class blog on their Google account. 
• Because there are a wide range of abilities when it comes to reading, you may have to help your child with this next task: Read this National Geographic article about sharks. Make up a question that you need to have read the article to answer e.g., which direction does a shark attack from? Post the answer to my question by replying to my comment below. Post a question of your own by adding a comment and answer other peoples' questions. The aim of this activity is to get a conversation about this article going between kids from the class. 
• If you're confused about how to post a comment, hopefully the below video works for you.
• I'll regularly set learning tasks. As always, please touch base with me if you need extra support or have any feedback for me. 

Rock On,

Mr M

Week 8 Update

Kia Ora All,

I hope everyone has had a great weekend.  Here's a heads up about what's on:

• The camp I had planned for Term 2 has unfortunately been cancelled. It is a Ministry directive that school camps don't go ahead until further notice due to Covid 19. I'll advise later in the year when we know if we can go ahead with something else in term 4.
• Here is an article by Souxsie Wiles about how to talk to your child about Covid 19; I found it useful with tips about how to approach conversations about what's going on. It may be of use if you or your child are feeling anxious. Feel free to touch base with me if you have concerns about how your child's feeling about the virus. 
• Remember that Monday is a teacher only day.
• Homework books on Tuesday please.
• Below are some photos of the students learning about binary digits, which we've spent the last few weeks chipping away at. Computers store information using binary digits, and exploring this basic concept will lead into other computer science concepts.
• There are also some pictures of the students making metamorphic rock cookies. We looked at how metamorphic rock is formed, drew a diagram and made the biscuits to reinforce the idea that metamorphic rock is formed by heat and pressure.

Rock on,

Mr M

Week 6 Update

Kia Ora All,

The Room 2 learning juggernaut continued to roll along last week.

• On Friday we did another activity for our Geology topic: making a sedimentary rock. We started with a class shared reading of a short article about sedimentary rock. The students highlighted keywords: Sedimentary rock, erosion and sediment. We discussed how sediment is formed by erosion and how the sediment then forms into rocks. Then we used plaster of paris and sand to make layered sedimentary rocks. Your child probably brought their rock home on Friday (I hope they hardened properly). 
• Good job to most people for getting homework books to school last Monday. Please send your child's homework book to school in their book bag tomorrow. If your child doesn't have their homework book, we still set up a new homework page anyway so they should always have homework with them on Monday. 
• We went over to the Weetbix Triathlon today. It was a fantastic experience for the kids and I could thoroughly recommend it for next year to anyone who can make it over the hill with their child. 
• Below are some pictures of the students making sedimentary rocks on Friday. 

Rock On,
Mr M