Cluster Tech Challenge

We recently had our cluster technology challenge. Our class and Room 5 at Bamford School took part.

The idea was that we would be undertaking the same challenges from our own schools, but would key an eye out (digitally) about how the other teams were doing.

The first challenge was to build a free-standing tower using certain materials that could raise a flag.

The second challenge was a paper planes contest. Students could enter both a 'flight distance' and a 'flight time' competition.

These activities linked well with our Forces and Motion theme, so children were able to use some of the language and scientific terms we have been learning about.

Thanks to Wayne for coming along, giving a hand and showing us your own paper plane designs.



Check out the Linwood Connected Kids blog for some of our reflections and more info.

Our Window Bottle Garden

We are excited to finally have our window bottle garden planted. This has been a side project to our Consumerism unit from last term, when we watched a TED Talk about people growing their own vegetables in high-rise apartments. We liked the idea so much we started searching for ideas on how we could make simple planting systems in our classroom.

Take a look at how our finished garden is looking...



We would like to say a special thanks to Yvonne and Emily for the plants and seeds, Wayne for his handy work with a drill, and Sheryl for her gardening tips and support mucking in.

Along with the team in Room 14, this was a real team effort.

IP's In Room 14

Over the past week we have begun planning some individual interest projects in Room 14 (IPs - not to be confused with Internet Providers!). 

The reason for these projects is to give us time each week to spend developing our independent inquiry skills working on projects that are of special interest to us. This is our take on some education initiatives that are becoming popular in many schools, like 20Time and Genius Hour. Click on the links if you are interested in reading more. 

All of us have completed a basic overview of our intended interest project, including 2 or 3 driving research questions, the resources we will require, and our current thoughts on how we may share our learning. 

Throughout our IP journey, we are required to:

1. Create a plan and communicate our intended learning direction (completed).

2. Keep others informed about our progress (Which we are all doing via an IP blog. Some of us are using our existing USpace blogs, but most of the class have decided to set up a new Blogger blog specifically for our IPs).

3. Share our learning with the class (This may come in many forms). 

Nearly all of our IPs have links to our Looking Back to Look Forward theme, so many of us will be making links to the learning we have already been engaged in this term.

Our next steps are to develop timetables for allocating time to our IPs during the week in class and to begin gathering our required resources. We will also add our IP blog links to this blog, so you may like to read about our individual learning journeys as they unfold. 

All of our IP plans are on display in the classroom. Friends and family feel
free to come and have a look. We will begin personalising each of our spaces
on the wall - adding information about how others can find out more about
our individual IPs.

Setting up our new IP blogs on Blogger was exciting for many of us.
We look forward to sharing them.

What's Up Bromley?

It's fantastic to have such a dedicated and enthusiastic What's Up Bromley? news team this year.

The group itself has been going for two years now and is run by a number of children. This year we have our largest group so far, with ten children, all of whom created CVs and applied for their advertised roles. All of the team are currently from Room 14, as we have learned that it is easiest to have one teacher overseeing the group and for the children to have close communication with each other in one place.

From the reporters and presenters, to the camera operators and editors, all members of the team are showing a great willingness to learn more about their roles and to get their fortnightly shows out to our school community.

This year we have also introduced our What's Up Bromley? blog, which we will be using to advertise our shows, post other articles of interest and to attract student voice from around our school. Take a look and feel free to comment!

We love being able to send a news team out to report on current events, go on field trips and to interview school visitors. The team are learning fast that putting together a news show takes a considerable amount of time and effort, and that communication and planning is key. As we keep hearing so many creative ideas coming out of the group, they will no doubt have a challenging and exciting year ahead of them.

The team watching a BBC tutorial about putting together news stories.

Jack editing footage from our recent syndicate Air Force Museum trip.

Reuben and Jen (filling in for Athalia) filming our first show in the studio.

The team. Maia, Jen, Jack, Athalia, Quaylen, Reuben, Jess, Phoebe, Stella and Kamryn.

Land Yacht Racing

Today was the day that we lined up our land yachts for our final races.

As part of our syndicate inquiry rotation, children coming to Room 14 have been designing and building land yachts. For some of us, we were able to build on our knowledge from the kites we built in Term Two.

As with the kites, we researched forces on a land yacht, planned our designs, organised materials, constructed various prototypes, and tested them.

Check out some footage of our races today. A few crashes and swirling winds, but an enjoyable day celebrating what we've created.

Simple Machines

Check out our video from Friday's assembly. We've been investigating simple machines. How could what we have learned help us to make predictions about a machine many of us know very well?

Technology Challenge: Aircraft

With our cricket team away and various other activities happening on Friday afternoon, a small group of us undertook a technology challenge.

The focus for this was around teamwork. Before we started, we discussed questions like, "What happens if you have different ideas to your peers?", "How do I get people to listen to my ideas?" and "What is the difference between showing leadership and being bossy?"

Although we would have liked more time to work on our designs (as the time limit was a bit short), we thought we worked well in our teams, as you can see in some footage of the task. Excuse the sound of workmen and their chainsaws cutting back some trees in the background...

Winter Games Simulator

What first sounded like a weird idea, has actually turned out to be really fun!

Check out this simple virtual simulator we have built. Once you hop inside, you can watch some of the events in the Winter Olympics from the viewpoint of the athletes.

We have thought of upgrades - fans blowing in our faces, wearing ski clothes, etc. So we'll post any developments as they happen.

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.

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?

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. 

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 - 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. 

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.

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.

ICT - Ultranet

This week we have personalised our USpace accounts and we have all contributed to our Room 14 Ultranet page. This is a great learning environment for us, as we can share our learning with our families and communicate with each other outside of school. 

We will be learning a wide range of ICT skills this year, from moving and saving files, to making all sorts of presentations to share our learning. Keep an eye on this site...