Marshmallow Challenge Recount - Nadia

Room 4 have been continuing to develop our class norms. Check out this team building activity recounted by Nadia:

During the first period of school today, we did a challenge in class, the marshmallow challenge. The marshmallow challenge is where you’re given spaghetti sticks, tape, a roll of string, and a marshmallow. With those items you have to make a tower with the marshmallow sitting at the top, the group with the tallest tower wins.

We were split into small groups, I was with Aye, Jane, and Tsai. We had 20 minutes. 2 to plan a strategy, and 18 minutes to build the tower. 

We had no plan except to go with the flow. Tsai decided to cut up multiple strips of tape for us while me and Aye placed the spaghetti sticks randomly to form some sort of structure. The time was running out and we still had no idea what we were doing.

Even though we started without a plan we still worked together placing pieces of tape over each other, over lapping it. We kept placing the marshmallow on the top every now and then seeing if what we made was strong enough. Jane was the one who gave us the idea of adding more tape in specific areas to help it stay stable. In the end our teamwork and random ideas were what helped us win the challenge with our tower standing at around 60cm tall. Not only that but our way of prototyping helped us figure out.

 

First Day of School!

Today was our first day back at Pt England! After getting in to our classes we started to work on our class norms and treaty.

We started by playing a game where we had to pass a hoop around in a group, half and as a whole class. Then we reflected on the skills we needed to collaborate successfully.

Next we moved outside for two challenges: the floor is lava and flip the tarp. We had some great examples of teamwork in both of these games. In the first round the year sevens won the tarp challenge (flipping a tarp while standing on top of it) then the teams drew.

After another debrief we moved onto our final game; half pipe golf. In this game the two teams had to get a golf ball from one side of the class to another using half pipes. It was a lot harder than it looked! The year eights won this time, but there was a group of year sevens who were determined to complete the challenge which was fantastic.

Last Swimming Lesson

 Today we had our final swimming lesson. It has been an amazing four weeks and we have really enjoyed improving our swimming skills thanks to our amazing instructors at the YMCA Glen Innes Pool.

Tag in the pool

We are currently waiting to find out if we won the swimming contest! Each week team 5 competes to have the most swimmers from each class. We have had all but one or two students swim each week and our whole class have participated in the lessons.

Spending time together during our Room 4 lunchtime

Despite swimming at our lunchtime, we have all had a positive attitude and we've enjoyed spending this time as a class. 

Tongan Language Week by Sauma

Malo e lelei, ko Sauma au. Today my class is learning about the Kingdom of Tonga because this week is TTONGAN LANGUAGE WEEK!! The whole of Team 5 is going to be focusing on learning facts about Tonga which is amazing. It will be really great to see how my class and I are learning NEW CULTURE!

the theme of this years Tongan Language Week is Fakakoloa 'o Aotearoa 'aki 'a e Lotu Mo'oni" which means in Tongan is Enriching Aotearoa New Zealand through Prayer and Faith. Each year has a different theme of how we present Tongan Language Week!

The capital of Tonga is Nuku'alofa which is the city in Tonga where my Mum was raised, where the Queen of Tonga is, and where there is great sightseeing and great people. Tonga has great amazing events and they celebrate eveyrthing reall well, like the Helal flower festival.

Tongan Vocabulary:

Thank you very much - Malo 'aupito

No, thank you - 'Ikai, malo pe

Hi. (Informal) - Malo e lelei

Hello (Formal) - Malo 'etau lava

Maths Week

 This week is Maths Week in New Zealand, which means one thing for Room 4 Maths: Mathletics. For us, mathletics is less about speed and more about team work. We get points for collaboration as well as correct answers.

This year we completed a series of challenges, which involved learning about famous mathematicians, completing algebra equations, geometry, measurement and more! 

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.

Science!

This week we have been learning about the different sugar content in different food. We learnt that there is sugar in foods like cake and fizzy drink, but also in milk and fruit!

The sugar in a cake is called sucrose, the sugar in fruit is called fructose and the sugar in milk is called lactose.

Then we looked at some different types of food to see how much sugar in them. We found that there is quite a lot of sugar in lots of foods! We didn't realise how much sugar would be in juice either,
here are some labels we found.

This is Just to Say

Today Room 4 literacy had to write a poem using the same format and structure as This is just to say by William Carlos Williams. Check out these poems based on some of the naughty things that we did when we were little!

Class Treaty

Today we worked more on our class treaty. First we had a class discussion about what we want our class to look, feel and be like. We talked a lot about respect, but then took us on to talking about our attitudes, ability to work with others and the way we want to listen and share.



With these values in mind, we had a challenge! This tested our ability to respect each other, work as a team and to communicate.


We did a great job working together, but we realised that respect property might be another important value to add as things got messy!

So we came up with: respect for self/others, respect property, active listening, positive attitude and teamwork as our treaty principles. Can you guess which picture links with which value?

Our First Day 2020

Today was our first day together in our Room 4 home class. We are a lively bunch of 33 students who are excited to get started with our learning for the year!

Today we simply focussed on the idea of respect; to respect each other, our 6 teachers and the other people who are here to support us.

We practiced this by taking part in a few activities that required us to work positively with others.

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!

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

Taste Poetry

This week room 4 literacy have been focussing on using effective vocabulary in our writing. After writing a poem about an object last week, we are writing taste poems about food - being able to experience the subject in this way has helped us heaps with our ideas!

To force us to use precise vocabulary our poems were very short; they only had four lines and each line either contained 3 or 5 words! For example:

Palms are sweating

apprehensive about the impending sourness

warhead in mouth

sourness dissolves and sweetness ensues 

Watch this video to see us recite some of our poems:

                      

Polyfest 2019

Yesterday team 5 got the chance to visit a cultural festival called Polyfest. For those who do not know what Polyfest is, it is an iconic cultural festival held every year (for 44 years!) in Manukau Sports Bowl Auckland, New Zealand. Every secondary school in the area get the chance to compete which is what the event is famous for, although it also features a range of food stalls and activities. The competition allows different people to embrace their cultures through traditional dances from Hindi (bollywood) dances to even the Tongan tau'olunga!

Polyfest hold a schools day on the Wednesday (the first day of the event) where schools are invited to come in and explore the activities, before the main crowds arrive. The companies and organisations at the stands put on a range of activities especially for this day. We visited a range of stalls, from the Fire Brigade to radio stations to AUT. Each stand had a different activity for us to participate in.

While most of the main stages were closed on this day, we managed to sneak in to see some of the Kapa Haka performances on the Māori stage, which was amazing! We were so impressed with the enthusiasm and talent of the students who performed. You could really tell that they were loving the experience! 

Some of our favourite stands were from Elections (who taught us about voting and what the mayor and prime minister do), AUT who told us about uni and taught us a dance and Vaimatina who came all the way from Hawaii to teach us to Hula!

We also met heaps of people who taught us more about careers. We met some people from different Universities and courses who taught us about all the scholarships that are available in a range of areas from teaching to welding! We also learnt about some specific careers like the Navy (which is more about disaster relief and peace keeping than many of us realised) and being a radio host. 

Overall the trip really helped us to learn more about our inquiry topic: Ko wai au?  Ko wai tātou?  Ko wai rātou?  As we have been looking at our past (our culture and journey to Glen Innes), our present (our interests and identities) and our future (our careers). There was something to support our understanding of each of those foci throughout the day. What a wonderful experience!

Our Whakapapa

Today in Room Four we have been inquiring into our history. We started by looking at our whakapapa and our different cultures, before we thought more deeply about the journeys of our ancestors.

We have all come from different countries, travelled different distances at different generations, but we have all made east Auckland our home and we all share at least one culture as New Zealanders.

This map illustrates the different countries that we are connected to and we have acted this out to make a virtual map of our classroom below.

Room 4 Literacy

This morning Room 4 Literacy introduced themselves to the members of their reading groups and took part in some challenges to help them to write their group norms.

Every group worked wonderfully together and we had a lot of fun taking part in the challenges. This will set us up really well for our literacy learning this year!

Hank Zipzer Part 2

We are learning to justify our ideas.

BBC Hank Zipzer Season 1, Episode 2

Do you think that the yellow and blue house are sorted fairly? Why/ why not?

Hank Zipzer part 1

We are learning to justify our ideas.

BBC Hank Zipzer Season 1, Episode 2

Some people, like Hanks Dad, believe that people should focus on winning sports games and competitions. Others, like Hanks mum, believe that it is important to participate in a range of games and that it is the taking part and the learning that matters the most.

Which character do you agree with - Hanks mum or his dad?

AND

Why do you hold this opinion?

Should we ban the bag?

Today our literacy class attempted our first ever debate using the topic: Should plastic bags be banned?

After reading texts about the topic, we had to gather a range of facts that supported our view regarding the ban. Although almost all of us agreed that a ban would be a good idea in the beginning, some students decided to argue against a ban to support the debate.


The affirmative side (the students who agreed with the ban) brought up lots of environmental issues that are caused due to plastic bags. They also noted that people have been told countless times what to do with plastic bags, but they are still being littered and only used once, so it would be safer to ban them.

The opposition noted that it is cheaper to manufacture plastic bags than it is to create bags out of other materials. They also made the rebuttal that perhaps people should be fined for littering and forced to take accountability for their actions rather than placing a blanket ban on just one environmentally unfriendly item.


We still have a little work to do on using the structure of a debate, but it was a great first attempt with strong arguments being made from both sides.

Kiwisport

Our Kiwisport this term is Ki-O-Rahi! We wanted to teach others a little more about this fantastic game, so we decided to make a video about it:

We hope you learn something new!