Year 6 Cycle Safe Programme

This has been a very busy week with our Year 6 children taking part in the Cycle Safe programme run by the Christchurch City Council. Our students have done well to manage their timetables and apply the skills they have been taught in practical situations on either their own cycles, or ones supplied by the instructors.

The programme includes:

• Cycle maintenance and helmet fitting
• Basic cycling skills
• Road rules
• On road cycling

Feedback from the instructors has been fantastic, so our Room 14 children can be very proud of their efforts. All participants will receive a personalised certificate highlighting their achievements upon finishing the course. We look forward to hearing what information our Year 6s can pass on to our younger children about being safe on our school bike track.

2015 Cricket World Cup

The buzz of the 2015 Cricket World Cup has reached our classroom. We have a large number of children who have been watching the games so far and are eagerly looking forward to their trip to the upcoming Scotland vs England game at Hagley Oval.

Beginning with our literacy programme, the CWC has been the theme of much of our learning this week. A new addition to Ultranet, the Virtual Classroom, has been a useful resource for hosting the projects that each of our literacy groups have been working on. These have been adapted from a CWC educational resource package put together by New Zealand Cricket, which integrates a wide range of curriculum areas into the overall theme. Our focus areas have included - hosting an event of this size, the global spread of cricket, roles in a team, and the past, present and future of the game.

All of us have been making wise decisions around organising ourselves, including our workspaces, our resources and our time - Each of which were seen as important during our recent learning environment investigations. 

We have also begun a PE unit on cricket, which we started on Monday. In a couple of weeks, we will be using the skills and understandings we have developed to play some adapted games of cricket, which the children will help to design.

We listened to the commentary of the NZ vs Scotland game while eating morning tea today. Jack B directed us to ESPN's Cricinfo website, which has loads of data on all of the international teams and players. Some children were trying to work out who the best players are and others were adamant that they already know who they are. With statistics also being a focus for us this term, a number of students will be conducting statistical investigations using this website, looking to find evidence for their 'best player' claims.


Come on Black Caps.

Beach Education

We had a successful trip out to North Beach Surf Lifesaving Club today for our beach education programme. It was great to see all Room 14 children refreshed after the holidays and ready to get stuck in.

The day began in the clubhouse, where four local lifeguards took us through 5 key points for children to remember at the beach, which we then acted out in role play activities.

The 5 points were:

1. Always swim between the flags
2. Always have an adult watch over you
3. Always listen to the advice of lifeguards
4. If in doubt, stay out
5. Never swim or surf alone

We went for a swim later in the morning, where some of us were working on our body-surfing techniques and others were being courageous by dolphin-diving under the big waves.

For the rest of the day the lifeguards taught us some lifesaving games, told us a little about their jobs, and we also had time to get creative and build sandcastles. 

We were lucky that the rain held off for us and that the weather didn't disrupt our programme. The key messages were a great reminder for the children about being safe in the water, considering our national accident statistics have been so bad this Summer. We will revisit water safety when we start swimming at school later this term. 

Dodgeball

Here is the video we presented in assembly today that documents our dodgeball journey this term. It highlights the challenges we have faced around decision making in groups.

We've had to make lots of decisions that tested our ability to compromise and take instruction for our peers. As we reflect more deeply about this, we will be starting to think about decision making and governance in our wider community. The timing of this is fitting with our general election approaching. How could our classroom experiences affect how we feel about our electoral system?

Note: The boys insisted on the State of Origin style team intros!

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...

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...

 

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.

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!