City Development Inquiry

Beauty, Fun, Play and Adventure is our theme for this term.

After completing some personal interest projects, the whole class undertook a new inquiry about making Christchurch beautiful. Following the Canterbury earthquakes, the Christchurch City Council has a number of significant projects they are currently working on. We researched modern buildings, created our own designs and then built 3D models of real buildings that people are working on in our city. 

Today we are proud to have our work on display in our school art exhibition. We left a comment box and have received some great feedback from visitors. 

Check out some photos we took along the way…

Parachutes

Check out some footage of the testing phase of our recent parachutes inquiry...



This project allowed us to revisit the skills needed to manage our own inquiries, which will be very important going into our theme for this term, when we will be designing our own projects relating to our talents and interests. The big question is "How can I express myself?".

We are showing great planning, research and self-management skills. It is amazing to see how far we have come and we are looking forward to directing our own expression projects.

Cycle Animations

As part of our inquiry theme this term (Environment and Sustainability), we have been making animations of the explanations we have written.

We chose lots of different cycles, from food chains and life cycles, to the journey consumer products take. This involved us generating questions, creating success criteria, conducting research and organising our new learning into explanations (also designing and painting backgrounds/habitats, creating sculptures and learning to use animation software!).

This was a big process that tested our self management and organisation skills. We are happy with our results. Some of these are shown in the video below, which we played in assembly this week. The others can be viewed in our USpace galleries.

Ski Trip Video

Here is the What's Up Bromley? news clip that we played in assembly this week.

Our Mathletics Challenges

We now know that 'Mathletics' is the name given to many maths programmes and competitions across the world. However, we use this title for the maths challenge cards we have in our class.

The problems on the cards are colour-coded. Each relates to a maths strand (geometry, measurement or statistics).

We can choose cards to complete. Some tasks take longer than others and we have a checklist in the back of our maths books to keep track of which ones we have finished.

Mathletics allows us to use the maths skills and strategies we have learned to solve real problems. 

Many tasks require us to work in different environments, so having a learner licence is a great advantage.

Dodgeball

We are loving our dodgeball at the moment.

The game we play is a 'medic' adaptation of dodgeball. To win, your team must eliminate all of the players on the opposing team. When you hit them with a dodgeball, they must sit down. However, each team has a 'medic', who can run around and tag their eliminated players back into the game. This means that the main objective for each team is to eliminate the other team's medic, so they can have a better chance of winning.

We have created our own variation of this game, which we call 'dodgeball conquest'. Each team gets 2 minutes to arrange the junior school PMP equipment (mainly the large wooden boxes) to create a fort on their side that they can use to defend themselves. Most teams use their fort to protect their medic, who only comes out to tag their teammates back into the game.

This game is great at our year level because it has a high level of involvement from all players, is fast, promotes teamwork and caters for varying abilities.

Check out this video of us playing dodgeball conquest. You can see both teams' medics, Una and Kaiya, tagging their teammates back into the game…

Whose Planet Is This?

Thanks to our research into some important environmental issues, we have developed valuable knowledge about the causes and effects of these. One effect that disturbed many of us was human impact on animal species through deforestation, pollution and overpopulation.

We had class discussions about whether we have the right to disturb animal habitats in order to improve our own. We discovered that many animals we know have been here for hundreds and thousands of years longer than people. Do we have more rights than all other species?

One question we are asking is  - 'Whose planet is this?' 

We thought we would create some posters for others to think about. Check out our USpace pages for more, or you may find some posted around our school.

Where Can Technology Take Us?

See our USpace galleries for a look at the inquiry projects we have been working on about our environment and sustainability. Our learning has had many of us asking some big questions about the world we live in.

Watch this video and respond to the questions below…



When we learned about Christchurch in the past, we discovered that the central city had traffic conductors at intersections. We know that we don't have traffic conductors now because traffic lights have been invented.

Think about how technology can change our lives. 

1. What new skills do you think people might need in the future?

2. We have been learning about many environmental issues through our inquiry projects. Do you think that technology could solve some of these issues? How?

Readers' Cafe

Here is an insight into our Readers' Café. This is something that runs every Friday morning in Room 14.

It simply involves us sharing what we have been reading for enjoyment during the week. 

We do this in our literacy groups. One person in each group is a designated observer. They watch our discussions take place and award secret points for sharing, listening and questioning. Each group winner is then the observer the following week.

This has been a great success for us. It encourages us to increase our reading mileage, search for books that interest us, develop our conversational skills and recommend books to others.

It's always a nice way to end our week, creating a relaxed environment and 'winding down' atmosphere in our classroom.

Wants Vs Needs

Watch this video from Ollie's World:
VIDEO: Grandpa Takes A Stand

Think: What does this story have to do with wants and needs?

Why do you think Grandpa is upset?

You might think that what Grandpa does is a bit strange, but do you agree with him?

Comment and share your opinions.

Petanque Anyone?

Today we tried our hand at a French game called petanque. It's not the most athletic game, but definitely requires some strategy and forward thinking.

It was difficult at first because you need to throw the boules (heavy metal balls) underarm while putting backspin on them. This took a while to get used to. But really the game is similar to traditional bowls, which is popular in New Zealand.

We have a class set, so may look to adapt the rules and integrate it with our maths programme.

I wonder if anyone can find any videos online that show how good the professionals are at this game. Maybe we could learn a few tricks...

Steps To Success - Term Three

This week we have revisited our steps to success. Like last term, we have each identified one skill and one attitude to work on this term. Both of these are things that we really think would help us take huge steps forward in becoming better learners.

We used our brainstorm from here to help us identify what our strengths and challenges are.

There are some great new steps on display. Sometimes the simplest ones can be the most powerful...

"I want to be a leader"
"Don't doubt myself"
"Be creative with my ideas"
"Look for new inquiry challenges"

It's great to see on display that we are moving forward together, we are all individuals with different strengths and that we know ourselves as learners.

Renewable And Nonrenewable Resources

Watch this clip from the movie 'Wall-E'…
It is set on Earth in the future.



What are your thoughts on this?

What do you think the creators of the story were thinking when they wrote it?

See if you can find out the meanings of these two words before we discuss this video in class…
Renewable
and
Nonrenewable

Round Table Discussions

We have been thinking about how we interact with others when working in a group. This includes how we communicate our ideas and give others the opportunity to share theirs.

One way of thinking about this was to have 'round table discussions', which provide a good reflection point for evaluating our behaviours when working with others.



But does this tell us whether our ideas were helpful, thoughtful or sensible?

What makes a great learner?

As we are approaching the end of term two, we are setting aside time each day this week to reflect upon our year so far and create our own 'visions' for the rest of 2013.

Today each of our literacy groups put their heads together to identify what characteristics a great learner would have. We then collaborated ideas from all of our groups. 

This was the result:

This shows that together we have a strong understanding of what it takes to be a great learner. 

Many of these characteristics we already possess, but this display also provided a nice opportunity for some of us to think about skills and attitudes we really want to develop.

Enterprise Group - Clothing Sale

Well done to the Enterprise Group on their clothing sale.
They planned a project that definitely fits the vision for the group: To give back to our school community and to make a profit that can be used to organise future events.

Check out the wrap-up of their day...

Year 6 Cycle Safety

What an effort this week in the Cycle Safe Programme from our Year 6's. We have been hearing great things from the instructors about their listening skills and sensible attitude towards riding on the road. Here they are road-ready and looking for a challenge...

 

Looking Forward - Life on Mars?

For the rest of the term we will be reading, thinking and sharing opinions about future ideas like this...

 

Take a minute to think about Mars One.

What does this tell us about the technology we have?
Remember all the learning we did about Ancient Greece and Rome. How have we come this far?
What does this tell us about us as humans?

Would you want to go to Mars? Why or why not?

You may wish to share this video and discuss it with others.

Look Forward

Created with Padlet

Look Back

Created with Padlet

iMovie Advertising Project - with Mandy

Today we were lucky to have Mandy from e-Time working with us. We spent most of the day creating advertisements using iMovie on the iPads. It was great to see so many of us taking risks, collaborating ideas, showing confidence and developing new skills.

Our brief was to 'sell' either a paper clip or an insert that comes with an iPad box. Both are relatively boring items at face value, but after watching some real commercials and making the link to the fact that simple products often have interesting ways of marketing through stories, comedy, the use of music and colour, we thought of some cool ways of advertising our own products.

Today sets us up well for future inquiry, as we can all now confidently use iMovie as a presentation tool. Some of us have opened up new opportunities for ourselves, which is very exciting. 

Check out some of our advertisements over the next week as they are uploaded to our USpace galleries. 

Thanks again to Mandy for her time, expertise and enthusiasm. 

Snow Day

No school today. Let us know what you are up to by writing a blog! You could even add photos if you like.
Today is also a great chance to complete your Ultranet tasks. Well done to those of you who have contributed to our outdoor designs wiki and written your challenges blog. You are awesome.

Mr K

Looking Back to Look Forward - Christchurch Heritage Buildings

 Our charcoal artworks are now on display in the school office. Please take a look if you get the chance. We have had some great feedback and are proud of our work.

Teamwork - Creating a great learning environment

The video we made about Teamwork for our syndicate

assembly today. Well done to Ellee and Alex for writing

the scenes and to all of the actors. We hope that the rest 

of our syndicate saw that teamwork is an important part of 

a great learning environment. 

Looking Back to Look Forward - Our Own Projects

Over the last two weeks, we have been inquiring about our own driving question of "How has __________ changed over time". We each chose something that we were interested in finding out more about and created a plan for our project. First, we thought about where we would find our information, what questions we would ask and how we would like to present our learning. Then we worked independently to learn about our topic and put together a presentation that we could use to teach others about our new area of expertise.

Here is Shan's first attempt at using Explain Everything. She has found some interesting
information about Christchurch (now and then):

Caleb is now becoming an expert at using Explain Everything. He loves comics, so he
decided to do a little more research to add to his existing knowledge about Superman 
to explain a little about him and his history. A great effort that he did independently. 


Shania has found some great information about Netball:

Inquiry Checkpoint

Think back to all we have learned about Christchurch, from early Maori settlers until today. What is something you have learned that has stuck with you? Something you didn't know before that opened your mind to our city's past. Share your thoughts.

Created with Padlet

Visitor - Kevin Honeycutt

We were very lucky this Friday to have a speaker who has come all the way from Kentucky in the US. Kevin took a group of senior children from our Friday rotation guitar and science groups for a special session in our library. 

He shared some cool ideas for learning music using iPads and other technology, which we were intrigued by and can't wait to experiment with ourselves. 

It is amazing how fast technology is moving and the seemingly limitless potential we have for learning and creative expression. 

Looking Back to Look Forward - Christchurch Heritage Buildings

We have been working hard to produce charcoal drawings of the many heritage buildings we have in our city. 

Some of the buildings we have been drawing have now been demolished due to earthquake damage. We have been discussing why many people want to keep these buildings and what they represent in our wider community. 

We used grids to help us draw the buildings we each chose. This was very challenging for some, but so far we have had results that we are proud of. The parents that came to our 3-way conferences were very impressed and could recognise many of the buildings. We look forward to sharing the finished works in a gallery in our school office. 

Enterprise Group

The Bromley School Enterprise Group is made up Caleb, Angel, Connor, Satora and Roman (all from Room 14). Here's a video that will be shown in assembly tomorrow. It explains what the group is all about and what they have accomplished so far...

 

Our Weekly Planners

Ellee and Sarai talk a little about our weekly planners...

Tennis Roadshow

We had a fun time this week learning about tennis and playing some modified games. A coach named Adam came to teach us.

Looking Back to Look Forward - Ancient Greece Part 2

We now have some great presentations on display in our classroom. Almost all of our Greek choice board projects were completed individually and a lot of responsibility was shown in creating quality products to share. From Greek gods and heroes, to inventions, government and daily life, our Greek wall contains a lot of interesting information about an influential civilisation of the past.

Despite taking a little longer than expected, the Wonder Women have nearly finished their model Greek village.

This photo also shows our collection of general questions we have generated about the past. We will try to answer all of these this term!

Looking Back to Look Forward - Ancient Greece

We have spent first two weeks of this term looking at what life was like for people in Ancient Greece. This has involved a lot of questioning and self-directed research. Many of us have made links between life in Ancient Greece and our own society in the present, as well as identifying some big differences in the way we live and the reasons why this is the case.

This week each of our literacy groups have had different projects to work on. They have all done a great job using the new knowledge they have learned from their guided group sessions, as well as their own independent research, to make interesting presentations to share. 

The goal for The Flashes group was to make a presentation using Explain Everything (which is an iPad app). They could choose a Greek invention to explain, or choose something else about Ancient Greece that interested them. Caleb and Connor wanted to explain the Battle of Troy. See how they did below. 

Crusaders Visit

Some of our boys were lucky enough to have a rugby training session at lunchtime today with Kieran Read and Willi Heinz. Hopefully they taught us a few tricks for the Rugby Fun Day this Friday.

Steps to Success - Term 2

Last term we talked about how we can become better learners. We identified steps we could each take to make this happen.

We have just created a new display to show the steps we are taking this term. All of us wrote one skill and one attitude we are working on. Some of the girls also created a 'learning tree', which illustrates how positive attitudes (the roots) will shape what sort of learners we become (the branches and leaves).

World's Fastest Indian - Burt's Final Ride

Scene made by members of the Iron Men literacy group (Kaiya, Una, Roman, Brandon, Cassius and Blayde).

Update - The World's Fastest Indian

Today the Iron Men recreated Burt's final ride in the film. They had written a storyboard and parts for each character. There was some confusion at times over roles and responsibilities, but learning will have come from this.

They showed a lot of enthusiasm for this project and should be proud of their movie scene once edited. See the image below of their Indian Scout replica.

Numeracy - Addition and Subtraction Strategies

This term we have had a strong focus on number knowledge, addition and subtraction. We have learned many strategies to solve problems.

Today we each sat down with a buddy to put our heads together. We had a series of problems of varying difficulty and made decisions over what strategies would work best in each situation.

Many children are showing a good knowledge of addition and subtraction, which will provide a strong foundation when we begin multiplication and division next term.

Film Study - The World's Fastest Inidan

"All my life I've wanted to do something big... something bigger and better than all the other jokers".

As part of our 'My voice is powerful' theme, we have finished watching The World's Fastest Indian, looking at the qualities that Burt Munro possessed - showing a 'do it yourself' kiwi attitude, determination and having the courage to pursue his dreams.

We are undertaking a webquest consisting of 5 tasks:
1. A video review.
2. A description of Burt, his shed or his bike travelling at top speed.
3. An online quiz.
4. A group literacy task.
5. Sharing our learning.

The Iron Men have decided to recreate Burt's final ride in the film. They have created a storyboard and are making a replica of Burt's 1920 Indian Scout before using iMovie for their production.

Kaiya and Brandon began painting the shell today. We are looking forward to seeing the finished product.

Healthy Eating - Lessons in Junior Syndicate Part 2

Today we taught our lessons in rooms 6, 7 and 8. Before we started, many we shared tips and ideas we had for others about how to conduct a smooth lesson. Many of us had learned from our experiences last week. Some people changed their lessons slightly and others teamed up with new partners.

Again we asked - "How will we know if we are successful?". We shared ideas on what proof we could get from the junior children in our group.

We will be evaluating how we went this week, but how will we score ourselves on the key competency rubric? This is included on our portfolio page.

Healthy Eating - Lessons in Junior Syndicate

We taught groups of junior school children today about making healthy eating choices. We were working in rooms 1, 3, 4 and 5. Many of us had great activities planned and were asking probing questions. The junior kids responded well and nearly all were engaged with us as the teachers. 

We will be evaluating how we did soon, but how will we know if we were successful?

Swimming

Video made by those still in the pool at the end of our swimming session this morning.

Kiwisport - Cricket

This term we have been working on throwing, catching, striking and fielding, so today we were able to put our skills into use in a game of modified cricket.

Cassius and Roman made some awesome run-outs and it was great to hear people supporting others.

Duffy Theatre - Duffy loses his words

Another entertaining Duffy show this morning. Caleb and Ellee did a great job thanking the actors on behalf of the school. The show was about the importance of reading in our everyday lives.

Portraits

A number of the portraits we drew are now on display in our classroom. The others will be added as they are completed.

Can you recognise the faces?

Healthy Eating - My Voice Is Powerful

One of the ways we will share our learning and put our healthy eating campaign into action is to teach small groups of junior school children.

This morning everyone began designing the lessons they would teach. Some fantastic resources are being created, many of which a real teacher would be proud to use.

From board games, to activity sheets and fitness games, we will be using many ways of achieving our goal - to promote healthy eating choices.

The real questions we will need to address are:
What will make a lesson successful?
How will we know if we have achieved our goal?

Portraits

We have begun drawing our portraits for display in our classroom. We are using a mixture of photography and pencil drawing.

We watched some video clips about portrait drawing and practiced some new shading techniques. Everyone is enthusiastic about putting their new skills to use.

Measurement Challenge

Millimetres, centimetres or metres? Which would be more appropriate?

Today we completed a measurement challenge. We had a list of objects or landmarks around the school to estimate the measurements of, then we went and took the actual measurements.

Many of us showed great task management skills to complete the challenge. It was a great chance for some children to display the skills and attitudes they require to earn their learner license.

Top Team

Top Team were running teamwork activities this afternoon for the senior school. Fantastic weather and lots of fun. Thank you to the parents who came along to help.

Healthy Eating - Blayde's Message

Literacy - Healthy Eating

This week we have been watching clips from Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, a showed aired on TV that involved him visiting the "Unhealthiest town in America" to try and change their eating habits. We have been discussing the episodes, as well as reading about high fruit and vegetable prices here in NZ and the causes of this.

Today we have been grouping foods and deciding how we can share our learning so far. As part of our 'My voice is powerful' theme, we will soon be thinking about how we can teach or influence others in our community to make healthy choices.

Country Profiles Task

Earlier this week we discussed what makes New Zealand unique. We compared ourselves with other countries, which lead into an activity on countries and capitals. Some children wanted to learn more about other nations. As an extension project, for those who had finished all of their independent tasks, some children researched a country of their choice today.

It's amazing how much information you can find out about any country on the Internet. All sorts of facts and figures.

Radio Bromley - Christchurch Tourism

This week the Daredevils read about Christchurch and how the rebuild might look for the city. We discussed how we would like to get more tourists back here. What did they decide to do? Create radio ads to encourage more visitors. Listen to them above.

They did an awesome job. With some more discussion, the Daredevils may use the 'Bromley Radio' format more in the future. The potential for interviews around the school and our community, plus sharing of school news is great. Stay tuned.

PE Shed

We have taken it upon ourselves in Room 14 to run the PE shed this term. We will be trying to set a great example for others and run a tight ship. Thanks to Roman, Brandon and Una for getting us underway as our first monitors.

The Flashes - Literacy Project

The Flashes have been learning all about Anne Frank and other people that have changed the world. Today we enjoyed hearing about their learning and viewing the wall display they have worked together to create.

Iron Men - Literacy Project

The Iron Men have been working well this week to create a poster of their favourite sportsperson, with similes describing them added around the outside. This followed on from us reading about the Halberg Awards in Auckland last week and discussing the characteristics of the winners.

Learner License

It is so fantastic to see so many of our children earning their learner license so early in the year. These people have shown that they can work independently, manage their own learning and work well with others. Having their learner license means that they can complete many tasks unsupervised around the school.

Part of Me

Today we shared our special items from our home task this week relating to our personal identity. It was a beautiful day out under the trees listening to each other. We learned some interesting facts and asked some great questions.

Swimming

We had an enjoyable first swim of the year today. A wide range of abilities, but lots of enthusiasm shown from everyone. The hardest part for most was having to get out!