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?

Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires

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

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 5 Term 3

LED Text Scroller

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!

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.

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. 

Hands-On Homework - Obstacle Courses

Our HOH from Week 4 was to build an indoor obstacle course. You needed to include over and under, in and out and see if your whole family could complete it. It was great seeing all the different times everyone got and your times getting better over the week.  

Spelling Time Week 5

El Presidentes Week 2 T2

Myspace Neon Flash Comments

Sustainability at Home

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

Teach Me Tuesday

We had our very first Teach Me Tuesday's this week. Jake taught us how to make vanilla cakes and Renee taught us how to do handstands and cartwheels.  She even set up a competition for the boys and girls.  We all got to enjoy a yummy vanilla cake for lunch after Jake's cakes came out of the oven.  I wonder what we'll learn next week? Don't forget to have a read of our reflections (see the tab at the top of our blog)

Safe Walking

Today Room 17 had a walk around the neighbourhood with Constable Bluemel.  These are the things we learnt about how to cross the road and driveways safely.
- Look out for sneaky driveways (Yuna)
- Stop, look and listen (Layla)
- Listen for cars (Renee)
- Listen for garage doors opening (Zachary)
- Always look to see if there are cars or not (Grace)
- Don't dilly dally across the road (Josh)
- Look left and right and then cross (Josie)
- Listen out for engines starting (Hugh)
- Keep looking left and right as you cross (Zander)
- Walk on the side of the footpath that's closest to the houses (Olivia)
- Watching out for signs a car is about to move e.g. lights on (Scarlett)
- Don't walk on the grass closest to the road (Sienna)
- Stop, look, listen and think, then cross (Jordan)
- If you live on Kyle Rd you leave through the stairs by the junior playground and cross with the flags (Levi)
- If you live in Greenhithe or Fernbank you need to walk through the court gates (Eric)
- If you're walking up to Schnapper Rock you leave through the nature trail (Yuna)