Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Mailbox Maths

This week we have got a problem from James from the book James and the Giant Peach.
Here is a copy of the letter we got from him.


We got into groups with people from the Pentagons, Hexagons and Diamonds maths groups and talked about how we would solve this problem.
We quickly realised we needed to know how many grams fit inside one kilogram and it was lucky that we knew 1000g=1kg.
After we had discussed how to work it out with our groups we came back together as a class and shared our strategies before writing our letter as a class back to James.
You can see what we wrote back to him below,

Dear James,
We know how much you guys can each eat of the peach without sinking.
How we worked it out was we knew that 1kg=1000g. So another 1000g equals 2000g that makes 2kg the amount of peach you said you could eat altogether. If there are four people we need to split the 2kg up so they each get the same. We started by splitting it in half to get 1000g this is enough peach for two people. Next we had to split it up in half again to find what a quarter of 2kg is. We did this by going half of 1000g is 500g. We checked our answer of 500g each by going 500g+500g=1000g (or 1kg). Then 1000g+1000g=2000g (or 2kg). We hope you land on the shore safely and that you remember to only eat 500g of the peach each.

Yours Sincerely,
Room 11 and Mrs Head.

Monday, July 30, 2012

Group 6 Olympics Research-Week 1

Our question is 'How many medals has New Zealand got over the history of the Olympics and do they do best in certain sports?


Our keywords and questions that we will be using to research this week are;
-Olympics medal tally.
-NZ Olympic medals.
-Who keeps the medals?
-When were the medals created for Olympic winners?


Group 2 Olympics Research-Week 1

Our question is 'How do they decide who gets to host the Olympics and why has New Zealand never held it  before?'
The keywords
and questions we have thought of to help us with our research this week are;
-Countries Choosen for Olympics.
-host countries of the Olympics
-Why hasn't NZ held the Olympics before?

Group 3-Olympics Research-Week 1

Our question is 'Why does the Olympics have its own flag and why does it have five rings on it?'
Our keywords and questions to research this week are;
-five rings on flag
-Olympic flag design
-what kind of pole do they have for the olympic flag?
-why do they have giant rings?
-why do they have a flag?
-how big is there flag?
-how many flags do they have?

Group 5 Olympic Research-Week 1

Our Question is 'Why do we have opening and closing ceremonies and how do they come up with the theme?'

Our key words and questions to help us with our research are;
Why do we have opening ceremonies?
Why do we have closing ceremonies?
How do they come up with the theme?

Group 7 Olympics Research-Week 1

Our question is 'How has the Olympics changed over time and when was it first televised?'
The keywords and questions we are going to research this week are;
-ancient Olympics.
-modern Olympics.
-Olympics change.
-When was the first time the Olympics been on t.v.
-When did the modern olympics start?

Friday, July 27, 2012

Mailbox Maths

We have a special maths mailbox in our class now. Twice a week a letter appears in our mailbox and it always seems to be from a character that we have got to know through our stories Mrs Head reads. The character writes us a letter with a maths question they are having trouble solving. We try our best to work it out and then we write a quick letter back to reply to the character. Sometimes we use our oral language time to talk about possible answers and the strategies we have used to get to these answers other times the letter is read out and stuck on the whiteboard for us to go up and show our working on before writing the letter.
This helps us with reading (reading the letter), maths working with word problems understanding if we have to use plus, take-away, times or divided by and explaining our strategy. It also helps with our writing when we have to follow the structure of a letter to write back to the character.
Take a look at some of the examples of our recent mailbox maths.





Dear Your Majesty The Queen,
We have worked out your problem that you were having trouble solving.
First we started with the two minutes and added that with the three minutes that equals five minutes.
Then five minutes plus five minutes equals 10 minutes.
Then 10 minutes plus 10 from the 12 gives us 20 minutes then we added on the two from the 12 to give us 22 minutes.
Next we added 22minutes plus 6 minutes equals 28 minutes.
Lastly we got the two lots of 30 seconds which added together makes 1 minutes. So 28 plus 1 equals 29 minutes.
This means you listened to speeches for 29 minutes.
Yours Sincerely
 Room 11 and Mrs Head.

Mrs Head found this new idea when she was looking on another teachers blog to find out more check out http://thefirstgradeparade.blogspot.co.nz/

Circuits

Today I made a video about circuits. I took photos of everyone doing circuits on the ipod touch and then I made a video using the splice app on the ipod touch.
By Shaynie-Lee


Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Getting to know Room 7 at Frankton

This term we are very excited to be working with other Year 3 students from Frankton School. We are going to be researching in groups with some Frankton and some Vardon students our 'I wonder' questions about the Olympics. We will spend the term researching these and then presenting our findings in a collaborative way, hoping to meet up face to face at the end of the term to share our learning.

We sent Room 7 an email to let them know about Room 11 and Vardon School. This is what we sent;


Dear Room 7, Frankton School
We are Room 11 at Vardon School. We have 18 people in our class and we are a mix of Year 3 and 4 children, we have nine boys and nine girls in our class. We have people that are ICT leaders, Year 4 leaders and Enviro Agents in our class.
We have a Star of the Week each week. If you are the Star of the Week they get to do things for the teacher like getting the notices from the office and they get to sit on the couch. On Friday at the end of the day we write nice comments to the star of the week and we put them into an envelope for them to take home and read.
We have special netbooks in our class. We can go on our blogs on them. We are only allowed on the favourites bar for wet lunchtimes. We use our netbooks for maths, reading and writing. We like to go on games that help us remember and learn new maths.  In Room 11 we have a class blog. Everyone in Room 11 has their own blog as well and we have our class thinking blog ‘Oh the thinks you can think.’ We also have blogs for Techspertx (ICT experts that meet every Wednesday) and Enviro Agents (who meet every Tuesday who look after the school environment). We have blogs so that we can save our learning in there and other people (friends and family) can see our awesome work and leave a comment. We like having blogs because we can look back on our learning and reflect on how much we have learnt.
We have an ICT suite at school that we go to every week next to our library.
This term we have started a bookworm race. We are excited to read lots of books so that we can move spaces and see who the winner is. We have a notebook that we record the date and how many pages we read and a little bit about the story. This term we are looking forward to performing our big school production. We are also excited to do some learning with you about the Olympics.
Some highlights so far this year have been going to Waitomo Caves in Term 1 when we learnt about Change. Learning about Sound we enjoyed doing our performance to parents and the Middle Syndicate with our Sasa and making our own instruments to make a band.
Other cool things that we have at Vardon are a school Disco at the end of every term.  The Middle Syndicate go to Ngaruawahia at the end of the year to celebrate our hard work and it’s like getting a medal for all our hard work. Every second year the Middle Syndicate have a camp where we stay out on the field in tents.
From, Room 11 (at Vardon School)
We were super excited when we got our email reply from Frankton and found out more about them. Here's what they sent us back;

Dear Room 11, Vardon School

We are Room 7 at Frankton School. We are a Year 3 classroom. We have 24 children in our class. We have welcomed two new members to Room 7 just this week! We have 12 girls and 12 boys in our class. We also have two Enviro Agents, and we get to take turns as ICT leaders within the classroom.

We are a Virtues School which means that we learn about the different virtues that we can use to help us at school and at home. We also have a classroom metaphor that links in with our ‘food theme’ which is “the virtues are our ingredients for a successful year”. We then have a Super Baker of the Day who has shined their virtues the most for the day. They get a Virtues certificate, a trophy and medal for the day and they get to choose the sound of the day.

We have a classroom blog that we share as a class. We like to share with others what we are learning at school. We also love to watch educational videos and play learning games. We enjoy listening and reading stories on Tumblebooks. We also have an ICT Suite in our school that is just down the hall from us. There are also extra computers in the library.

This term we are focusing on how to be an information detective and what it means to be a researcher. We are looking at the investigation process and learning how we can follow this process to learn about the things that we wonder about. We are also interested in learning about different ways to present the information we have collected with others.

Our highlights this year have been our classroom assembly in Term 2. It was a Michael Jackson themed assembly. We love to listen to music and watch music videos. We also held a Year 3 Matariki Art Exhibition and each classroom got to go and walk around the different classrooms to view the artwork. We then raised money which will be spent on resources for the Middle Syndicate.

From Room 7 at Frankton School.

We read their reply and discovered that some things were the same, some were similar and somethings were completely different about our two schools and classes.
We found that they are a virtues school and they have 6 more people in their class then us. They only have Year 3's in their class but we have Year 3 and 4. Things that were simliar is that we both have Enviro Agents but they have 2 and we have 4. We both had ICT experts but their experts sounded like they were class experts but ours go to Techsperx meetings and share back to the class as well as being helpers in class. The things that were the same were we both have class blogs and go to the library and ICT each week.
We look forward to learning more about Frankton and working with Room 7 during the term.

R.I.P Margaret Mahy

Today when we got to school many of us had heard the news that Margaret Mahy had passed away. Margaret Mahy was one of New Zealand's most loved children's authors. She wrote over 200 books and poems and won lots of awards for her work. She was even made a member of the Order of New Zealand in 1993. Margaret Mahy was only 7-years-old (the same age as many of us) when she wrote her first story that got published. A Lion in the Meadow was her first published story in 1969. Today we remembered her by reading one of her well known books 'The Witch in the Cherry Tree' in the library.
She has said that her stories begin with real things that happen and she changes them by adding new adventures and ideas to what really happened. Being a writer she said she almost never got her stories right the first time unless they were very very short! So even Margaret Mahy had to go back and proof-read and edit her work making lots of changes from her first draft through to the final copy.

Here's a few comments about what we thought of Margaret Mahy;
Rhiannon said; "One of our reading groups is called Margaret Mahy. She is a really good book writer we love all of her books."
Samuel said; "We really love her stories especially 'The Witch in the Cherry Tree,' especially when she did the rain dance because David said she couldn't come  in and when David's cupcakes were burnt and the witch really liked them."
Oliver said; "Her books were cool. I have two or three of her books at home that I like to read."
Sofia said; "Margaret Mahy was a great writer of books and it is sad that she has passed away."
Tawhiao said; "Margaret Mahy had very nice kids books and she helped people learn to read."
Amelia said; "Margaret Mahy made really cool books for little kids to read."
Gina said; "She made really nice children's books that we could easily read as little children."
Faye said; "I liked her books a lot and I am really sorry about her passing away."
Saphyre said; "It's sad that Margaret Mahy died she was a very nice lady and she wrote heaps of cool books and we appreciate all the hard work she did."
Alex said; "You have been writing lots of books for people to read and we appreciate how you do all that hard work writing so many books."
Filipe said; "Thank you Margaret Mahy for giving us some special books to read. Oliver and Jacob are in your reading group."
Sarah said; "She was a great author and good at making interesting words up in her books."
Josh said; "It's sad that she died and now we can't read more of her books."
Shaynie-Lee said; "It was sad that she passed away because she write lot`s of books and they were all good book`s and I want her to write some more cool books."
Dayton said; "She was a good writer and her books weren't boring."
Maggie said; "She was a good author and the books that she made were cool and we have a group that are called Margaret Mahy."
Jacob said; "Margaret Mahy was a good storywriter and I liked her stories and it's bad that she has passed away because she was a good storywriter."
Paarth said; "Margaret Mahy has a lot of books and she must have been a great writer to remember her letters and fullstops and commas we can't remember that much."


The Witch in the Cherry Tree
Front Cover

Friday, July 20, 2012

Tangaroa's Gift

What was Tangaroa's Gift?
Why were the other creatures not jealous in the end?
Watch the legend of Tangaroa's Gift to find out more.

How Maui slowed the Sun

What did Maui use to slow the sun down?
Why did he want to slow it down?
Watch the legend of How Maui slowed the Sun to find out more.

Hatupatu and the Bird Woman

What saved Hatupatu from the Bird Woman?
What was the Bird Womans name?
Watch the legend of Hatupatu and the Bird Woman to find out more.

Rata and the Totara Tree

Why do you think the legend is called Rata and the Totara Tree?
What problem did Rata and his tribe face?
Watch the legend of Rata and the Totara Tree to find out more.

Rona and the Moon

What was Rona's mistake?
What did the moon do to teach Rona a lesson?
Watch this video to find out more about the legend of Rona and the Moon.

Maori Language Week: Why is it important?

This week is Maori Language Week. Listen to our thoughts on why it is important to learn the language and more about the culture.

Explanation Writing: Why do birds chirp?

More Explanation writing-Why does Popcorn have a sound

Olympic Torch

We have been learning about the Olympic Torch. We found out that there is 8000 people carrying the 2012 London Olympics torch around the country. The oldest person carrying the torch is 84 and the youngest is only eight, that is the same age as some of us! The torch began its journey on 19 May and will end on 27 July.
The reason we have a torch that is lit is because in the Ancient Olympics in Greece a scared flame was lit from the sun's light and it stayed lit until the end of the games. Now the last runner of the torch runs it into the Olympic stadium during the opening ceremony and it still stays lit until the closing ceremony. The torch relay represents passing traditions down through each Olympic Games that is held.

Check out our individual blogs to see our own designs for a 2012 London Olympics torch.

Thursday, July 19, 2012

London Olympics 2012

Check out this sneak preview of what we will be seeing more of as the London 2012 Olympics gears up!