Room 14 Story Workshop - Drafting

We have had some very peaceful mornings this week in Room 14. All of us have been drafting the stories that we have been writing through our Story Workshop process.

For two weeks now, we have been working on our own individual story, with the end goal of every child having a bound book on our class bookshelf.

Some children have already been publishing on Google Drive (a great place to write and receive teacher feedback), which will be printed. Those in the publishing phase have also been creating their cover art and a blurb in order to complete their project.

It has been very interesting reflecting on the Story Workshop concept from a teaching perspective, as we can see promising outcomes arising.

Have a listen to Kerryn, Quaylen and Jacob discussing the stories they are writing and attempting to articulate their creative process.

3-Way Conferences

It's been great sharing our learning with our parents over the last two days. For our successes and challenges to be recognised and shared is an important part of our growth as learners. It allows us to gain feedback from our teacher/s and parents, while also allowing us to keep a strong connection between home and school. Many of us have been able to describe our next steps and our visions for the future with great clarity.

For our Year 6s, these conferences have been a good chance to share our thoughts on the big steps we are taking next year. While we will be sad to see them move on from Bromley, we know that they will have many exciting opportunities ahead of them.

For our Year 5s, we have been talking a lot about our responsibilities in the school next year. We are keeping our eyes and ears open for those students who will be looking at stepping up into leadership roles and taking advantage the exciting opportunities that Year 6 will hold for them.

Thanks to all of the parents who came along. We enjoy engaging with our wider community and receiving your feedback about what we are doing as a school. It was also nice to see the parents who came along to camp sharing their highlights on our camp memory display (shown below).

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!

Art - Charcoal New Zealand Landscapes

Aotearoa has some amazing scenery. This has been a centre-point of our artwork.

As well as this, we have been investigating what artists do, how they approach their work and where they might get their inspiration.

We studied work by New Zealand artists like Grahame Sydney, who captures the beauty of our environment and the people who live here. We have also watched videos of artists talking about how they prepare their workspace and their mental state before working on their art.

We haven't just jumped in to creating our own work. We have tried to get to know our medium, charcoal, and how we can create contrast by experimenting and thinking carefully about how we are using it.

Take a look...

Beauty of Mathematics

One of our tasks this week was to view this video by Yann Pineill & Nicolas Lefaucheux.


BEAUTY OF MATHEMATICS from PARACHUTES on Vimeo.

It really raised some interesting questions about what's going on. Even for adults, there are concepts in the video that you would require specialised knowledge to understand. 

We shared our ideas on a SEE, THINK, WONDER chart and were able to make some connections to our current inquiry theme. Can you pick which part of the video had us making connections to our kite investigations?

Knowing Me, Knowing You - Reflections

This morning we've been reflecting on our main inquiry theme for term one.

We had a buddy interview us about the projects we have undertaken, where we shared what we learned and uploaded the video to our digital portfolios. Rather than filling out a paper evaluation, this gave us a chance to speak freely about our learning and have the video available for viewing online. This is the direction that some aspects of our traditional Room 14 portfolios are heading.

How Interested Are You In...?

Each day for the last couple of weeks, we have been responding to a question on the wall in our classroom.

'How interested are you in...?'

The topics change and we put our name on the concentric circles display where we feel it belongs. The centre of the display represents 'very interested', with names placed towards the outside telling us that those people are less interested in the topic. We have one rule - Don't judge.

The reason for this was to provide an interesting discussion point for when we enter the classroom each morning. It also links with our inquiry theme, helping us to understand that we share interests, but we are also interested in different things. This adds to our understanding of uniqueness and diversity.

There have been many lively discussions around this display that have carried over into learning conversations about topics we would like to investigate further.

Check out some of our responses. What do they tell us?

Personal Treasures

Today we shared some of our personal treasures.

We were able to share a part of ourselves with our peers. Some of the back-stories behind our items had a lot of meaning to us and represented who we are and powerful experiences we have had. From memories of loved ones who have passed away, to family stories and our interests, we learned something special about each other. In many cases, we learned something about ourselves and the diversity that is represented in our classroom.

Take a look...



Over the next two weeks, we will be sharing more family stories and experiences that have helped shape who we are.

What Makes A Person Unique?

We've been discussing this question. First, we needed to come up with a definition of 'unique'.
Cassius said it meant - "better than fantastic". Ellee thought it meant - "what makes us different".

After some discussion, and Mr K giving some examples, we wrote on the whiteboard
- "Like no other".

We wondered about all of the things about a person that add up to make them unique.

Individually, we wrote a list of these things. Lots of ideas were shared, like 'language' (Matthew), 'food we eat' (Kyan), 'our interests' (Erin), 'abilities' (Logan), 'where our parents are from' (Blayde), and many more...

These ideas will help us begin to understand about the diverse culture and identities within our community (and the wider world). We have already been communicating aspects of our own culture when working on our mihi with Mrs Tudor. Next week we will be researching some countries competing in the Winter Olympics, linking with our statistics focus, and investigating the different cultures, languages and heritages that exist around the world.

Task: Ski Jump

Watch...



Your blog challenge for week 3 is to answer the questions below. Remember to be specific so that the audience really understands what you think or how you are feeling. Write at least one paragraph for each question.

1. What positive attitudes did the child show in the video? How do you know?
 Click here for a list of attitudes if you need some help deciding.

2. What connections can you make to the video? Share at least one experience.

3. What lessons could this video teach young people?

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.

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

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.

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 - 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?

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.

Descriptive language

How could we describe the way a dog looks, feels, sounds and moves?

This morning we have been beginning to identify descriptive words that relate to what we are reading about.
The Wonderwomen have been reading about search and rescue dogs, the Iron Men about Spider-Man's suit and the Daredevils about horses.