The week that was...

Well the week started in style - with Monday off! A day in lieu for the couple of hours we had to spend at school on the Saturday of the centenary celebration - Principal Ayson is a good man :-)

With Waterwise on Friday - that meant 3 days in the classroom!

On Tuesday, about 13 of the class were out at the cricket tournament. Meadowbank's Team A and Team B made the final; Team A ending up victorious.. 2 of the happy medal winners below:

For those lucky few that remained in class, we had a fun game of 'Sock' - the children invented the game - it's actually really good; ask them to explain it to you if you are curious..

We then did some 'hands-on' Maths out in the playground, The children had to prove the formula for calculating the circumference of a circle (ie. C='pi' x D). Firstly, they measured the diameter and then used the formula. Then they used a tape measure to measure the circumference and then compared that with the answer they had from using the formula. I thought this exercise would help them remember the formula + make the learning more fun.

In Reading, the children rehearsed and then performed plays in the classroom:

On Wednesday, we had a few children missing as they were out at Zones Athletics. We had a relatively normal day in class. In Maths, we continued practising with protractors, measuring angles. In Writing, the children continued work on 'The Dare' and in Reading, the children had the opportunity to finish off any work that was not yet complete.

On Thursday, we (finally) had a full class. I had my appraisal in the morning and so Anna Taylor stood in. Anna taught the children how to enhance their google presentations by adding videos and sound. 

In Writing, 'The Dare' work continued. In Grammar, we looked at contractions and apostrophes of ownership for the umpteenth time. The children, on the whole, get contractions. However, struggle with ownership apostrophes, especially with plurals...

eg. The horses' tails.

The horses are in the field. (trick sentence!)

In the second sentence, some children still cannot understand that as a verb follows the noun there is no concept of ownership in that sentence. Yet, they still throw in an apostrophe on the off-chance they may be correct. Perhaps, you could have a go at explaining at home :-)

As an aside... also, remind them ALOT is NOT a single word, but 2 words: A LOT. I thank you.

Here we have our cricketers, and then Athletes telling us what happened on their days out:

Thursday evening was the Cultural Picnic. A great success, despite the fact it felt like we were having it on the surface of the sun! Many thanks to those of you who came and offered your support. Check out the 'arty' snap... is there no beginning to my talent ;-)

We ended the week on a high, with perfect conditions for Waterwise. Hurrah.

And finally, here's the art the children worked on last week - we had quite the glitter fest going on on Wednesday when they finished it off!

Reminders:
All Library books have to back to the library this week for stocktaking purposes. Please ensure your child remembers to bring in their book(s).

Tomorrow in the hall we have the non-native speaker Mandarin Speech finalists giving their speeches. This starts at 1.30pm. If you have a child giving a speech, then please do come along if you can.

The week that was..

Well, I have just read the homework books of about 20 children and I am in awe of the quality of the writing. The improvement over the course of the year has been outstanding and I would like to thank the children who have taken ownership of their learning and worked so hard on improving their work. Well done to you and well done to your parents for keeping you on track.

Week 6 began with a wet day at Rainbow's End for the Road Patrollers and Librarians. Despite the fact that it was the wettest day we'd had for weeks, the children still had a blast. Many thanks to all of you parent helpers who valiantly looked after your groups in the incessant rain! I was designated official bag man and enjoyed the quality, peaceful time with the bags, where I remained relatively dry :-)

On Tuesday, we only has 8 children in the class as the rest were out working at the junior Athletics Day. Sadly, the year 6 role models did not all behave as such and we heard a fair amount of negative feedback about their behaviour at the event.. a real shame :-(

On a happier note, throughout the week, the children from year 6 took turns working on the mural that will adorn the back wall of the courts outside the library. In effect, the children will be leaving behind a lasting reminder of their time in Year 6.

Parent helper - steady on.. leave some painting for the children!

In Maths this week, the children learned how to use a protractor to measure angles and created the classic 4 types of triangle: right angled, equilateral, scalene and isosceles... see if you child can explain the attributes of these..

We also looked at 'pi' (3.14 etc..) and how to use it to calculate the circumference and the area of a circle. Again, chat about this with your child to see how much has sunk in.. we have only just started but it would be worth googling this with your child if you'd like to further your discussion.

In Writing, the children started planning work on a lengthy narrative called 'The Dare'.. the idea behind this is that the children will end up with a mini novella style story that they will then publish and place in our class library for other children to enjoy.

We had no time for any formal reading lessons this week, however, the children continued their inquiry research and all put together slides for a google slides presentation as part of our inquiry work. The final presentations were quite impressive. NZ intermediate and high schools are embracing google docs and so all google doc type skills the children learn at primary will stand them in good stead  for their future education.

Unfortunately, it was too windy for Waterwise on Friday and so we had an art day. I shall display the fruits of the children's labour next week.

Reminder: we have the Cultural Picnic on Thursday evening. I look forward to catching up with as many as possible of you there.

The week that was...

Another short week in terms of time in the classroom as we were out all day Tuesday at Mt Smart and out at Waterwise on Friday.

In Maths, we continued to look at 3D shapes. The children drew cuboids and then had to measure sides before calculating the areas of different surfaces, followed by the volume of the whole shape. A great way to combine the strand areas of measurement and geometrical shapes. The top Maths group also had a go at calculating the area of triangles. We ran out of time to look at calculating areas of circles and so will do that this week.

For number, we also went over factors. See if your children can tell you the factors of 2,3,4,5,6 and 7. Ask if they can tell you what is special about numbers 1,3,5 and 7..

In Writing, the children worked on their powers of description, trying to describe the buddy sitting opposite them. As I think I've mentioned before, often in writing the children are very keen to write about action and a sequence of events, but regularly forget to fill out the detail when it comes to describing a setting or a character's appearance.

In Reading, we continued with comprehension skills, dictionary skills and novel studies. The children also did a rotation using the computers where they had to collaborate in groups to put together a google slides presentation. We have seen one very good presentation and this week will get to see the rest. I think the collaborative aspect of google tools is a worthwhile skill for the children to master... the best part (I think) is that they have to work together and plan exactly who is doing what before they begin.

We had glorious sunshine for Athletics Day at Mt Smart. Many thanks to all parents who came to either support or help or both! 

Some of the Hauora deisgns the children have created..

Maths art showing transformation, rotation and reflection.. 

Tom Clark's excellent poem about homework..

The 3D spheres I mentioned last week..

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On Friday we had perfect conditions for Waterwise.. please remember that we have it on Friday. We had 5 children forget their togs! 

On Thursday we had a drone hover over the field and take a picture of the children marking out a Meadowbank 100 message.

And finally...

On Wednesday lunch, myself and the guitar group went to visit the local retirement village where they performed a number of songs.

Warming up for the big gig!

If you click on the link, you can see a number of the girls from our class in starring roles in MBS news this week..

https://youtu.be/gkDCpIOZdUI

The week that was..

We had a relatively normal week. In Maths, we were working on Geometry, focusing on 3D shapes. If you get the chance, come in and see the way the children have used shading to turn 2D circles into 3D spheres.. very impressive. Next week, we are moving onto 2D shapes and then an investigation into measuring angles. The Math testing is complete and almost all of the children have made clear progress.

The children also completed their on-line Reading tests. I shall be marking them asap so that I can get on and start report writing. 

In Writing, we focused on recount writing this week, as a few things have happened this term that deserve to be recounted! Please note: if your child ever decides to do a recount for homework, can you ensure they focus on writing about one part of an event, describing it in detail, instead of skating across the surface of lots of events with the classic 'and then...' .. ending up with a list of exciting activities, none of which are described in detail. Thanks :-)

In Inquiry, we continued looking into how to handle various forms of bullying at school; the children enjoyed thinking of scenarios and then acting them out for us.

We also had a Guy Fawkes quiz on Thursday. I think it important that the children have a smattering of the historical background.. ask your child if they remember any of the details.. they should all at least remember the grisly end that befell Guy Fawkes and his fellow conspirators.

Sadly, I was ill on Friday and so missed Waterwise, but the weather was perfect, so I'm sure everyone had a great time.

Next week, we have Athletics Day at Mt Smart on Tuesday - do come and support if you have the time. On Friday we have Waterwise, so please ensure your child gets to school by 8.30am as we get the bus at 8.45am. 

Some snaps from the week..

Practising that classic summer olympic sport.. the welly throw!

A few scenes that the children put together to enact the new 'Stop, Walk, Talk' behaviour management strategy the school is implementing. The basic idea being that the children will have a strategy to handle any bullying type behaviour that they encounter in the playground, or classroom for that matter.