Jordan and Jake's Pop-Up Book

End of School Year Reflections

Our final Hands-On-Homework for 2014 was to fill out an end of year reflections. It was such a pleasure to read these and I'm amazed at how thoughtful the comments were. I have picked out all the key words and made some wordles. The first one is all the answers from the following questions:

• My favourite activity this year and why
• I had the most fun when
• What I liked most about my class and teacher
• What I'll miss the most and why
• Things I learned the most this year

The bigger the word, the more students that choose that as an answer. Thank you to all the students that completed their reflections!

Another question was for students to give a piece of advice to students for next year. 

Minecraft Treasure Hunt

Today we did a treasure hunt as our reward for remembering our homework books last term. We were in 4 teams and we had to look around the school for hidden 'treasure chests' that were full of ingredients. We had to use the ingredients to make recipes from Minecraft. We had 45 minutes to complete as many recipes as possible, and each completed recipe was worth points. Congratulations to Zachary, Eric, Sienna, Jordan, Renee and Layla who were the winners, with 2200 points! The rest of the class were rewarded for their team efforts with gold treasure aka chocolate coins =)

Showing Movement

How can you show movement in a photo? We realised that if someone is actually moving in a photo it will be blurry! Last weeks #handsonhomework challenge was to take a photo showing movement. Can you guess what movement they are showing?

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Finding out about NZ coins and notes

It's NZ Money week this week and we've been finding out lots about our coins and notes. We worked in groups to research who was on each bank note and why they were there! We also learnt about what the images are on our coins and learnt a bit more about them.  Here are some facts we learnt.

Jordan - On the front of the 20c coin there is a carving of a Maori chief

Zachary - Sir Apriana Ngata played a significant role in the revival of maori people and culture. He's on the front of the $50 note

Hugh - I was wondering what was on the back of the $20 note and when I found it was the NZ falcon, I learnt it's one of NZ's biggest bird.

Yuna - Ernest, Lord Rutherford of Nelson is on the front of the $100 note and he was known as the father of atoms.

Layla - At first I thought it was a tiki on the front of the 10c coin but then I learnt it was a carved head called koruru

Jake B - A $1 coin has a kiwi and a silver fern. I didn't know there was a silver fern too

Eric - I've found out all the animals on the notes and coins

Joshua - A $2 coin has a big bird on it

Levi - Sir Edmund Hillary in 1953 became the first man to climb Mt Everest and to drive overland to the South Pole. He is on the $5 note

Olivia - A long, long time ago only men could vote and not ladies but Kate Shepard said it was not fair and she helped NZ become the first country to let everyone join the vote. She's on the front of the $10 note

Zoe - I learnt that Queen Elizabeth was on the back of every coin

Josie - I learnt that the Yellow-Eyed is the one of the rarest penguins in the world

Renee - On the 50c coin there is a big boat, Captain Cook was on it

Grace - The portrait of the Queen on the $20 note was taken at Government House

Jake S - I learnt the name of the bird on the $50 note. It's a Kokako

Dinosaur Home Learning

For our last week of Term 3, Room 17 had a special home learning challenge to complete. They were given a sheet with different types of activities to do, all about dinosaurs. Some students chose to make dinosaur cages, others made dinosaur food and designed new types of dinosaurs. It was great to see all the different creations!

Blindfolded Taste Testing

A couple of weeks ago for Hands-On Homework, Room 17 were asked to do a blindfolded taste test challenge.  A few students filmed their taste testing. Here's a few snippets from their videos.  Josh created a spreadsheet of the different foods he tried and whether he guessed them correctly. Apologies for the title missing from the video, I'm not sure where it went!

El Presidentes Week 8

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Learning to write reports

Today we're working in pairs to write a report about Stegosaurus. First we did a plan and now we're using the information to write a report. We need to remember an introduction, conclusion and each paragraph has our ideas grouped together under subheadings!

Using Scratch

For Hands-On Homework this week, we have been learning how to use Scratch. It's a bit tricky and there's lots to understand! Here's Yuna's, Layla's and Jordan's final creations. Press the green flag to start them. For Yuna's you need to use the keyboard arrows to make her dancer move. Use the space bar to get the butterfly to move. For Layla's 2nd one, use the space bar and 'a' key to make music!

Hands-on Homework and Maths Week!

Last week was Maths week and we had great fun estimating how some of our teachers would get on with their lunchtime challenges. Two days in a row Josie guessed the exact time down to the second! That's pretty awesome estimating. We also had the Maths Wizard visit us on Friday and he asked us some tricky questions but they certainly weren't too tricky for the speedy students in Room 17. Our hands-on homework was to have fun with maths. Some students created games and we played Renee's game on Friday. Keep up the great math's work Room 17!

Teach Me Tuesday Week 4

Our second to last Teach Me Tuesday saw Jordan teaching us how to make pop-out mouth cards and Nikita teaching us how to draw a tiki. Jordan was very patient helping everyone to fold their paper correctly and Nikita did a great job drawing each part of the tiki step by step. Well done guys!

Hands on Homework - Egg Parachutes

Last weeks Hands on Homework was to make and test a parachute for an egg.  It was great fun watching the video evidence and seeing pictures. Some eggs survived and some did not! Here's a few snippets of the egg parachute challenge.

Colouring Competition

Room 17 love Go Noodle! We try and noodle it every day. At the moment Go Noodle are running some champ challenges. The first was to use these colouring pictures. Last Friday we chose our favourite champ and coloured them in. Miss Bullen was our judge and she chose her favourites. Congratulations to Neive, Jordan, Zack, Olivia and Jake B for your fabulous colouring.

End of Term 2 El Presidentes

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Kids Can Cook

At the end of Week 7, we were fortunate to have the Kids Can Cook kitchen come to visit us.  Chris the chef used silver beet from our garden to make Apple and Silverbeet crepes. They looked delicious! I understand Jordan made a pretty good sous chef too.  You can visit the Kids Can Cook website to find out more about their visit and some pics and a video of the visit.

Comic Genius!

What great fun we had on Friday reading the comics some Room 17 students did.  Some students drew their own and some used websites like Make Belief Comix. All in all we had a good giggle reading the different stories each comic told. 

Sustainability at Home

Can you tell what action these students are taking to show sustainability?

Pick of the Bunch Writing Week 9 (oops, it's a bit late!!)

In Week 9 we went for a lovely walk down to the duck pond and then in to the bush.  We are so lucky to have this wonderful place to explore just behind our school! Jordan's writing was voted the best.

Yesterday Room 17 went to the duck pond.  The ducks were fizzy because they were swimming in coke and coke's fizzy. The water looked like magic sparkles. The grass felt icy cold in the shadows. The grass felt like slime.  

By Jordan

El Presidentes Week 11

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