Rotten Romans

This week room 4 have been learning about the different continents. We have started with a 'visit' to Rome 4, or ancient Rome. This gave us an example of how architecture, language and people moved around Europe. We learnt some interesting facts like:

• The Romans conquered many countries around the Mediterranean sea.
• The Romans kept dogs as pets
• They used to wash their clothes in urine,
• There are still Roman roads and architecture that we can see today!

We also learnt that Latin developed into the romance languages like French, Spanish and Italian! So we can still see some of the influences of the Romans 2000 years later - we thought this was pretty cool.
As there have been hundreds of wars in Europe, we looked at how different empires had conquered different places throughout history. We looked at how the Roman army were able to invade so many countries - they had a rigorous training scheme and some great formations. Check out our Testudo!

Navigating Narratives

We then had to find connections between these ideas by grouping them and justifying the links between the hexagons. This made the task much more challenging, but it reiterated the fact that good writing is good writing - some aspects of the text change across genre while others remain the same.

We are straight back into it in Room 4 literacy! This morning we discussed what we already know about narratives and their features. We had to sit with our reading groups and write hexagons to represent our prior knowledge.

Garage Sale

Last weekend we hosted the Pt England Garage Sale in order to raise money for year 8 camp. This was a really fun event and we had heaps of different stalls; from a sausage sizzle to a tech stand. Check out this video to learn more:

             
 We'd like to thank everyone who came to help out and bought our goods - we had a great turn out!

Haiku

Today in Writing we discussed Haiku's and syllables. We were then tasked with making our own Haiku, drawing upon rich vocabulary. Check out some of our poetry below:

As I swim alone

In a lake of great Silence

I’m feeling content

I'm a Gemini

That is a zodiac sign

what is yours reader?

How much can I fit

Into a Haiku format?

Oh no I ran out

Mindfulness

This afternoon we participated in some mindful colouring. We played soft, relaxing music quietly in the background as we coloured in our independent spots. This really helped us to relax and focus after a very busy lunchtime.

We got the idea from Rimu Class at Yaldhurst Model School and we realised that one of our teachers, Mrs Bush is an expert in mindfulness! Next we would like to try Mindful eating, it sounds like fun!

Identity Masks

This week in literacy we have been discussing our identity and how we express our identity to others. We realise that some aspects of our identity are more obvious than others. We also discussed how we show different parts of our identities in different situations to other people. In response we made masks - one side that illustrated how others perceive us and the other that represents the aspects of our identity that are more subtle, or lesser known.

Check out our progress so far! Some are from the front and others the back of our masks.


                 

April Fools!

Today was the first of April, or April Fools Day! Mrs Stone took the opportunity to play some pranks on her literacy class and they came up with their own as a prompt for writing!
First Mrs Stone gave the prank task to her literacy class. She had two word searches - one was real and one was a prank. Most of the class completed the real word search so the students with the prank one would feel especially confused!

At the end Mrs Stone asked the students to put their hands up to indicate how many words they had been able to find, again there were puzzled looks before Mrs Stone announced her mischievous trick. There was an uproar! The class thought it was very funny and a few hatched some plans to pull pranks on Mrs Stone in return (which she welcomed as a writing prompt).

King pranked Mr J by casting this image as Mr J turned the TV on

Now literacy time was over. It was morning tea. Mrs Stone had an idea to prank her maths class as well. She decided to look up questions that had the answer 4 and made a mini test. She had 15 questions down and ready for the 2019 April Fools Day Maths Test. 

As her class waits quietly at the door ready for the invite to enter, Mrs Stone got all the papers ready. She was ready to prank Room 4 Maths. Once Mrs Stone announced that we were doing a test, everybody was 'thrilled'. 

Nasibah and Maria pranked Mrs Stone with a fake paint spill

Firstly she explained to us how may feet were in a yard because she knew that none of us knew the answer. Next she set us in place to do the test and handed out the test sheets at the same time. Mrs Stone also told Chastyti to hand out the pencils. She gave us 10 minutes to complete the test. Mrs Stone had planned this prank really well.

10 minutes later...

The test had ended and everyone was desperate to know the answers. Mrs Stone ran through the answer with the help of Marika and Maanas. The answer to each question was the same: 4! At the ended you should have guessed what Mrs Stone said... April Fools! She also said it bang on 12 o'clock. It was too late for the class to respond - they applauded and laughed - she got us!

By Chastyti