The Climb

Here's a song that we know well, especially those in the school choir who performed it at Maeroa.

Sound performance to parents

Well done Room 11 for all your hard work during the term. It was great to be able to share a little bit about what we have been learning with our families and the rest of the Middle Syndicate. Wasn't it great that although we were all learning about sound each class in the syndicate had a little something different to share. If you couldn't make the performance here is a little taste of what we performed. A special thanks to Gina as well who performed 'Twinkle, Twinkle little star,' on the Violin. It was great to hear plus we could see the strings vibrate to create sound when she slid her bow up and down the strings.

Explanation writing: How a tadpole turns into a frog.

Our group wrote an explanation on how a tadpole turns into a frog. We liked using the etherpad because it meant we could work together and help each other with our writing. Check out our video's as well to see our reactions to this new writing tool.

Sasa Take 2

We have been adding onto our Sasa and practicing staying in time with each other. Because if we do the move at the wrong time our audience will really notice it!
Leave a comment for us on what you think we need to work on.

Explanation Writing using Etherpad

Check out our explanation writing that our group put together on a Etherpad. Each person got a different colour and could start typing at the same time which surprised a few of us!

Then this is us with our planning. We created a flowchart because it is an easy way to plan with explanation writing. We used this to then each pick a couple of the boxes of information to write about to create our group explanation on how milk is made.

Our first attempt at a Sasa

On Friday for the last 15minutes of the day we watched a video on what a Sasa is starting playing with the beat we can create just by sitting and clapping or tapping.

Check out our first attempt and be sure to tune in for updates!

CONGRATULATIONS

A big congratulations to Shaynie-Lee, Sofia and Amelia who performed their speech at the Middle Syndicate Speech Finals today. You all spoke so well in front of all five Middle Syndicate classes, teachers, parents and two judges. You can all be very proud of yourselves because Room 11 are!
A special congratulations to Shaynie-Lee who has made it through to our School Speech Finals night on July 19 in the hall.
To check out their speeches visit their individual blogs and leave a comment for them.

Sound Poem

Thanks to Mr. R.'s World of Math and Science we have found a poem that talks about what we have been learning in class about sound. We know that sound creates vibrations and this is how we hear. We also know that the higher the sound the faster the vibration and the closer together the sound waves become. Also the further away we are from the sound the longer it takes to travel to our ears. Our brain will sometimes see sound before we hear it, for instance in a storm we see the lightening before the thunder, that's because light travels faster than sound.

Sound

Clang!
Bang!
Boom!
Pound!

Things gotta' move,
To make a sound...
And that movement,
Makes vibration,

Makes a sound,
Celebration!
Vibrations come,
To our ear,
In a wave,
That we hear!

Vibrate fast,
Sound is high,
Vibrate slow,
Sound is low!
Clang,
Bang,
Boom,
Pound,
Things gotta' move,
To make a sound!

What is sound?
Sounds are made by vibrations that create waves (in air, water, etc.) When these waves are detected by our ears, we hear them as different sounds. When the vibrations are faster, the sounds have a higher pitch, and when they are slower, they have a lower pitch. When the vibrations are moving more (larger amplitude) the sound is louder, and when the vibrations are moving with a smaller amplitude, the sound is softer. 

http://sciencepoems.net/sciencepoems/sound.aspx

Sasa

In Room 11 we are learning about sound. Learning about beat and rhythm with music ties in with movement as well. So we are beginning our journey to learn a sasa as a class. I wonder how well we will all keep in time. Keep checking into our blog to see our progress.

Sound and Movement

While most of the class were at Kapa Haka the rest of us were experimenting with different types of sound. We ripped newspaper and shared our favourite sound. After that we showed sound and movement link by creating big, small, soft and loud movements.

Kapa Haka

Each Wednesday afternoon most of Room 11 choose to attend Kapa Haka learning lots of waiata. Today they came back and asked to show the rest of us what they had been learning.

Maori Phrase of the Week

Koi pai to mahi
this means,
great work

Maori Phrase of the Week

Kohikohia nga rapihi
this means;
pick up your rubbish

Hockey

Hockey

On Friday we had a go at playing hockey. None of us play hockey as a winter sport so it was great fun to get out and give it ago. We learnt how to hold the stick properly, and open and closed dribbling. Closed is like glue stuck to the ball and stick and open is when there is elastic between the ball and stick. Like all team games we need to learn to spread out so that when someone on our team gets the ball they can pass it to us and we can make a run for it.

Book Character Dress Up Day

On Friday we had a great day getting dressed up like a book character. We had some very creative costumes and a range of characters from Tinkerbell, to Where's Wally. Matilda, Cat in the Hat, Robin Hood and Superheroes. During the week we visited the book fair in the library and many of us were lucky enough to have some of our wishlist granted. We loved being read to by different teachers on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

Making Music

We are learning about 'Sound' in Room 11. Today was a rainy afternoon so after most of the class returned from Kapa Haka we decided to make our own mini orchastra's using our bodies to create the sound of rain falling. We quickly talked about the levels of sound and how we hear different parts to the rain, the wind gathering, rain falling and sometimes we hear thunder and lightning.
Have a listen to what we created with just five minutes in our groups.

Practicing our times tables

We are learning our times tables and division in maths. We are using these songs to help us learn them so that we can answer them straight away. We have learnt little tricks like using our doubles to answer our two times tables and skip counting in fives or tens. We can also use what we already know from our two times tables to help work out our threes.

Good Speeches

Then we watched these two examples of what a good speech looks and sounds like. The two girls sway a bit on their feet and we are going to work on not doing this too much because it can be distracting. They also have accents and the video quality isn't great which sometimes makes them hard to hear but the things we liked about their speeches were;

-Spoke loudly and clearly easy to understand- Josh

-She kept looking at the audience –Shaynie-Lee

-Everyone is hearing her speech – Tawhiao

-Started the speech in an interesting way – Rhiannon

-Acting at the start – Filipe

-Never used ums and ahs – Shaynie-Lee

-Added funny/humour- Gina

DOG SPEECH

-She used actions to help – Shaynie-Lee

-Spoke clearly and loudly- Sarah (A little bit hard to understand with accent)

-She had practiced her speech and knew it really well – Faye

-She didn’t use ums or ahs-Sarah

-Used humour- Sofia

Speeches- Tips on what not to do!

We have begun speeches time! We are all excited about having the chance to stand up in front of our class and practice writing and performing our speeches before our real one in a few weeks time. We hope to have a few from Room 11 go through to the Middle Syndicate finals and maybe even the school speech finals.
Today we watched this clip which showed us some tips on what not to do when performing our speech.

After watching it we realised that we need to;

Talk clearly and speak up (Alex)-Otherwise you don’t know what they are saying (Tawhiao)

Look at the audience, eye contact (Maggie)- Because if you don’t the audience won’t see your face you look silly and it is not very interesting for the audience to look at a piece of paper (Paarth)

Don’t use um’s and ah’s (Faye)-Makes your speech sound silly (Sarah) It doesn’t sound interesting (Gina)  The audience can’t concentrate or focus on your message (Alex)

Don’t talk too fast (Samuel) – They can’t hear you or your message (Tawhaio)