Mrs Beazley comes to Room 5

Handwriting

For many children throughout New Zealand handwriting seems to be a thing of the past, particularly for those with 1 to 1 devices, e.g chromebook in schools.  Whanau in Tautoro had a few concerns about the handwriting of their children.  Therefore, we have been lucky enough to have Mrs Beazley come to our classroom.  She is re-known throughout Kaikohe for her skills and knowledge in handwriting.

I have already seen a huge improvement in my students writing, from how they form and link their letters, grip their pencil, set out and take pride in their work.  Tall letters touch the top line, small letters start half way between, g's q's and y's have tails.

  

 

Stop Motion Animation

We had Tania visiting today to help us prepare for our movie making presentation based on Matariki later this year.  We were familiar with the process, however we've come to realise that instead of jumping in and racing to get things done.... we need to slow down and think about what we're trying to say. 

What is our purpose for doing this?  

Who is our target audience? 

What is our message?  

What is the best way of portraying that message?

So, thankfully we got to experiment with play dough.  Tania hand made clear back drops for pairs to use in order to eliminate the class room furniture.  We focused on making small movements for each shot (as it's estimated that feature films require roughly 30 shots per second).  We also focused on ensuring the pairs worked as a team, communicating 'clear' when all hair, hands and shirts were out of the picture.  The students enjoyed it, and grew as future movie makers.  We found play dough easier to manipulate as opposed to plasticine.

 

 

ProJoe comes to visit

On Monday Room 5 had a visit from Matua Bodean and his trusty side kick ProJoe.  They came to discuss the importance of making healthy food choices.  As a class we discussed the four main food groups - Grain Foods, Fruit and Vegetables, Milk and Milk products and  Meat and Meat alternatives.

Interestingly we learnt key words that would help us remember the significance of each food group.  We learnt that each food group also contains different nutrients that our body needs in order to grow strong, stay healthy and give us lots of energy.  We were reminded of why it's so important to eat foods from the four food groups in order to help us Go, Grow, and  Glow.

Glow Group = Fruit and Vegetables: This food group provides us with essential vitamins and minerals needed to have our skin glow; our nails to grow; our hair to shine and  they also help fight off infections and bugs.

Grow Group = Meat and Meat Alternatives: This food group helps to grow our muscles.   They provide our bodies with protein which plays an important role in building and repairing our bodies muscles and organs.  Meat is also an important 

Grow Group = Milk and Milk Products: This food group helps to grow our bones.  They provide us with the calcium our bones need to stay strong.  Our teeth too.

Go Group = Grains: This food group provides us with most of the energy our body and brain need to get going - carbohydrates.  They are also a good source of fibre.  

Room 5 Assembly

We've been really busy these last few weeks with quick rip and rippa rugby tournaments for our year 5,6 & 7 students.  We've been preparing ourselves for Tautoro's Speech Competition later in week 7 for writing, where the students have been focusing on topics that are important to them.

The tamariki have also been learning about Pablo Picasso's cubism - a branch off our geometry unit we're studying this term.  We've learnt about the difference of abstract and realistic pieces.

I hope you enjoy the spotlight on some of these amazing pieces of work.  Feel free to browse their blogs.

Nga Mihi

Whaea Gaylene

Tyrone & Chace - 2D shapes

Angel-Rose - Pablo Picasso

Neko Henley - Speech Planning