Matariki Day 2020 - Zaeeda

Today we had a Matariki Day at School.
Matariki is the Maori name for the cluster of stars called the pleiades. The celebration Matariki is the first rising of these cluster of stars. It’s a harvest festival that takes place nearing the end of Winter. While everything is getting ready for the time ahead of them. Ergo, Matariki is the marking point for the New Year and the New Growth.

The Pleiades are the cluster of seven stars. Many people debate on whether or not there are 7 or 9 stars. The Maori constellations states that there are 7 stars Tupu-ā-nuku, Tupu-ā-rangi, Waitī, Waitā, Waipunā-ā-rangi and Ururangi.The Greek constellation includes 9 stars. Including Hiwa-i-te-rangi and Pōhutukawa.

At school we have celebrated Matariki in many different and fun ways. One of them being our Matariki fun days. After a special assembly, the whole school splits up into different classes a mix of yr 1-8 student. Then you spend the whole day doing either, Sport, Cooking, Crafts, Movie Making.



On Friday our school did our Annual Matariki Fun Day. I was put into Arts and Craft, despite the fact that it wasn't my first choice so I was a little skeptical about being in Art and Crafts, mostly because my arts and craft skill haven't improved much.

When arriving at room 7 which would be my class for the day. The rest of the group was there too; Me, Tha-Zin, Leilani, Te Rangimarie, Taliyah, Kauri, Josh and Paschal were all from the senior block so a good chunk of the group would be made up of seniors.

Mr Goodwin let us into the class and explained what we were going to be doing. We were to make a galaxy art in which we had to add a matariki quote onto afterwards. I quite enjoyed doing this it was fun and didn't take to long. We had all finished nearing the end of the middle block. Me and Tha-Zin also got to talk a lot about High-School and our time in Mr Goodwin's Class.

The day went by very quickly and reflecting on it now. It wasn't too bad. I this would have to be my favourite Matariki Group. And I just realized that this was my last Matariki Day, it's a bittersweet feeling. But for everyone who's going to be doing these in the future good luck and make the most of it. ;)

Our Student Teachers!

For the past couple of weeks we have had four lovely students from the University of Auckland working with us online. This morning our tiny class explored the maths website that they created for us.

We are really grateful for them for making this. We can remember making our first docs and sites so we know how much work it is too! Check out our experience in the video below:

             

Are you wondering how the students did with the tasks you saw in the video? Check out
Jahzara, Pisirina, and Zaeeda's blog posts!

News: Real or Satire? Pisirina

TASK DESCRIPTION

This week's topic is Fake News. I've learnt many terms that are helpful. We learnt what satire was. Satire is a the use of humour or exaggeration to expose and criticize society or people's personal beliefs or ways. If you ever come across something suspicious and you don't know if it is fake news then here are some ways to see if it is real - Check google - see if there are any reliable sites that have reported that article. Read it clearly - see if is based on opinon or facts. Investigate the site and see if the other sites have talked about factual articles or not!

Finding Fractions of a Set

Today in maths we revised fractions. We quickly realised that a lot of us didn't know how to find a fraction of a set! Fortunately Mrs Stone found a delicious way to teach this, somehow it provided the right motivation for us to grasp this new concept very quickly!

After completing a maths workshop and number line activity, we were rewarded with a fun fractions task.

We started by counting the number of M&Ms in our packet - most of us had 16. We then separated our M&M's into groups based on their colours. Then we worked out what fraction of the pack each colour was like this:

Next we worked out how to find a fraction of the set. We started by looking for a half and then a quarter. We started to realise that the denominator tells us how many groups the set has been broken up into altogether.

Somehow at this point, a lot of us had 15 M&Ms, so we made thirds and fifths next. Then we were able to solve problems without using the M&Ms. We were able to work out that 1/4 of 12 is 3, because we split the 12 up into 4 groups and there would be 3 M&Ms in each group.

No Fangs

This week we got to choose one of our texts and create activities. Toby decided to read the text 'No Fangs' by Hera Lindsay Bird. Here is his thoughts on the text

Noughts & Crosses - Nadia

This week we have been reading about protests and movements. Today we read three chapters from Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman. Check out my slides to learn about my opinion of the text.

Kindness Project

Today we held our compliments project once again. This is something we love doing in our mornings as it sets our day up really well. This morning we wrote one for Sauma.

Sauma thank you for being such a wonderful member of Room 4. We all had so many things to say about you because you are so kind and caring to us all. We hope you will remember these comments for years to come.

Austin - Why Do People Protest?

A Protest is normally a large group of people that disagree on an event, but feel that they aren’t heard. Due to this, the Protesters use ways to be heard and look for others who agree with them to join in the protest. One-hundred and fifty years ago, the first group of people had doubts about an event and protested about it.

There are various ways of protesting. New Zealanders have been protesting for over a century for causes they are passionate about! There are a lot of crazy events in history, some of them have been caused by Protests. The most common way of protesting now is “Marching”. Marching is where a large amount of people walk on the streets protesting to be heard. Some holding signs, others shouting for justice. This isn’t the only way, some types of protests, are strikes, where people don’t work to convince leaders to do something. Other ways are petitions, petitions are where people sign a form to protest an issue they want to change.

You’re probably thinking “do Protests work?”, well it kind of depends. If citizens work hard enough, and officials agree, Protests can be successful. However, if the Protesters don't work hard, or the officials disagree on their statement, the Protest may not work.

A famous example of a Protest is one that was led by Kate Sherpard. Kate Shepard’s Protest was caused due to women not having enough rights. Her Protest was carried out by a type of Protest called “Petition”, that type works by people that agree, sign the paper. If officials hear this, the Protest could work out, after many attempts, Katy Sherpard finally succeeded. Not only this, but, this was the first time in history that women got rights.

Another great example is, The great strike, The great strike is where Wellington watersiders and Miners from Huntley figured they had horrible working conditions and weren’t getting paid enough in return, they decided to not work. They stayed in strike for about eight weeks to make the prime minister give them better conditions and money, but the prime minister sent special police to lightly beat up protesters. About eight leaders were arrested but some grew to be politicians and create better laws for work environments.

In conclusion, people Protest about things they think are wrong, or that they want to change. Protests can change for the better, at least if officials decide to see and agree.

Thank you Mr Burt. - Marika

Today we finally got to have assembly all together at school. Since covid-19 Level 4 Lockdown in New Zealand we haven't been able To have live assembly together for 75 days. But this assembly was a Special one. Not just because it was the first assembly live that we haven't had in a very long time but because we were honouring our principal Russell Burt. A couple of weeks ago he had gotten a Very important award from the Queen Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit.

We sang a couple of waiata For this amazing man. Some people gave speeches and talked about how hard working and talented he is. He gives us so many opportunities like going to camp, making sure that we can learn online by giving us Chromebooks and iPads and just Believing in us saying that we can make a difference. I am so thankful for this school.

Hand Soccer

This afternoon Room 4 decided to look after their Taha Tinana (and in doing so, supporting the other aspects of their health too)! We have had a full on week full of tests, which has been a little stressful and we noticed we needed some more self care.

In response we headed to the hall this afternoon. We played a game called pass the squeeze to get us all feel connected and positive, before splitting into two teams. Each team had to play a game of soccer using only one hand and score a 'goal' by hitting the ball through the posts. This was such a laugh - especially when the ball seemed to have a mind of its own.

Some of us were a little reluctant to exercise at first, but we soon realised how important it is to get out and get moving! Once we were playing we were all having a good old laugh. This is a great lesson for life too - it's so good to get moving, especially if it is with others. What do you do to take care of your wellbeing after a full on week or day?

The Book of the Road

Last term, Room 4 Literacy were fortunate enough to participate in School Kits 'Get NZ Writing'. This was great fun for us all as we got to explore a range of poems, which were focussed on the idea of a journey. One of the last things we did in term one was to complete our whole class poem, called The Book of The Road. Some of us also completed our own journey poems, which we wrote on to a postcard.

We were in lockdown when we would have sent our poem in, so we did not get to finish the project! 

This week we received a package. It contained the postcards and a letter from our buddy class! We knew we couldn't let them down, so Room 4 Maths stepped in to complete the last of the postcards. We decided to write a letter to our buddies to explain what happened, but we loved reading their poems! It was also really cool to see how all of their postcards fit together.

Despite not participating in many of the previous tasks, Room 4 Maths did a fantastic job at writing a poem about a journey. Check out Lee and Tsai's poems!

Cupcake Company!

This week we have completed a STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, maths) challenge which was to create our own bakery.

After learning about the challenge, we begun creating our 'brand'. We decided what our company was going to be like and then got to work developing a logo. Some of us decided that we would have a health focussed brand, while others wanted to market their bakery for families and children.

The next step was to design our product. Due to Covid, we are still not sharing food, so we had to use store brought plain cakes and then customise them ourselves. We decided what flavours we would add to the cakes using icing/ filling and toppings. We also measured the cakes so we could start building the packaging.

This was when our geometry knowledge was required as we had to use nets to build packaging that would fit our cupcakes. This was quite a challenge but we got there in the end!

In literacy we created adverts for our companies. We also wrote a description of our cupcakes to place on the packaging, to further entice our customers.

                                                             

Finally we created our products and got to taste our hardwork. We all came up with different designs which were fantastic!

Meet Room 4 Maths!

At the moment we are staying in our maths class all day, so Room 4 'home class' is looking quite different! Check out this video to meet some of our students:

             

Week 3/8!

Today we all returned to school after the long weekend. It was great to have a rest and to visit family over this time, so we returned to school with lots of enthusiasm!

In Maths we have been learning about 2D and 3D shapes. After reviewing last weeks learning, we started making our own nets for 3D shapes. This will come in real handy later in the week as we try to create our own packaging for a baking company!

In Kiwi sport we started Skateboarding! This was a blast and everyone was at least able to skate a few metres by the end of the lesson (while some people were already learning tricks!). It was awesome having the opportunity to try something new.