Tuesday, June 26, 2018

QUILTING - Algebra Patterns

Over the last week we have looked very closely at patterns.  
We got HOOKED when we listened to Little Red Riding Hood.  Her Granny had a quilt on her bed.  The next day Mrs Ruawi came to school with her quilt and we started to look closely at the patterns (colours and shapes) on the quilt and WONDERED if we could make our own quilts with patterns on for Granny's bed.

So we started to EXPLORE lots of patterns to see what we could find out.

Amon, Finn and Nevaeh were EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATORS
 when they acted out the story Little Red Riding hood with the puppets
The boys were making repeating patterns with
the teddies
Layla and her friends were making patterns with the unfix blocks

Some of the kids watched a You Tube clip on how to make a
repeating pattern

Mrs Ruawai bought in a quilt to have a look at how it is made

Lauren and Maddy are enjoying a game of Shape Bingo.
We found out that knowing your shapes is super
important when making a quilt

Max and Zachary were able repeating patterns on the whiteboard table









 
 and had a go at making our own patterns on paper.

BUT.......... just when we thought we were getting really good, we found ourselves an EXPERT.  Maryanne makes quilts!  She has made them for about 15 years for her friends and family.  She's made about 30 - 40 quilts all up.  She even has a special blade at home that she uses to cut her material.  She let us look at some of the quilts she has made.  
Thanks Maryanne!
 

Now that we know about patterns we thought we'd have a go at making our own class quilt.  
Mrs Kenyon and Mrs Ruawi can't sew so we're going to make ours out of paper.  
Watch this space.  
Friday is "Make a Quilt' day in Piako Rua.  
We can't wait!!

Monday, June 25, 2018

WRITING


 
Once upon a time there were 400 billy goats and they all ran out of grass and on the other side of the bridge there was an old creepy man but it was a trap........
By Kosmo

There are 30 sheep on the bridge looking for the sweet green grass but the big troll began erupting "Get off my bridge"!
By Liam

One day some sheep were crossing the slimy bridge.  Suddenly the slimy bridge started to shake and the sheep were frightened especially the baby sheep  The baby sheep started to cry.
By Charlie

One day a family of sheep go frightened so it began a stampede.  The stampede was on a bridge as wobbly as a snake.  A baby sheep was at the front.  It was so scared it probably was the scariest.  Under the bridge lived a troll.  It woke up from the trot trotting of the hooves.  He was so furious that he gobbled them up but.......... they escaped the trolls deathly mouth and lived happily ever after.
By Keira

THE PRODUCTION - BY LAYLA G

The Production
On July the 3rd, we are going to do a production.  It will be awesome because all the Mums and Dads will be excited.  The teachers are doing their dance first and we are going to go second.
By Layla G

Make sure you get your tickets LINK

Sunday, June 24, 2018

TE AKO RITENGA - JACK AND THE BEANSTALK

We continued our Inquiry into learning about Te Ako Ritenga on Friday.  We are getting so good that the teachers say we are ready to self manage our way through the process.  That means when we feel that we have finished our WONDERings we can go through to EXPLORE.  The same applies for EXPLORE.  When we have learnt everything we feel that we need to know we can move through to the ACT stage.

Friday's HOOK was the story of Jack and the Beanstalk!




During EXPLORE, we tried to answer all our WONDERings.  We watched You Tube clips of how to make weak structures strong.  There were lots of other activities where we could EXPLORE the story Jack and the Beanstalk as well.  Some of us worked together to put on a puppet show.  There were a few activities that focus on the book.  We asked the teachers if we could use the Lego and the blocks to try and make a safe way to get the eggs down.





Braxton made a castle out of Lego.  He used the cards with the characters printed on them, to act out the story.  Creative thinking there Brax!








Harlem and Guy made castles from Lego too.  Look at Guy's super proud smile!
Great learning guys!



The boys found You Tube gave them some super ideas for making their invention strong.


Ryla and Ruby worked together to read the book and colour in the characters as they appeared in the book.






Christopher has success making the Jack and the Beanstalk jig-saws.






 Miharo, Shyloh and Nevaeh spent ages EXPLORing the different materials that they could use to make their invention.

Mika and Layla B drew some creative designs on the whiteboard table...


 EXPLORE in Piako Rua ... busy and productive learning times!

 After we had EXPLOREd all that we needed to, we moved through to the Rainbow Room to ACT.  We drew plans of our invention and began to make it and set to work.


At the the of the process we REFLECTed on our invention.  We had to decide if our invention met the success criteria that the teachers set us right back at the start of the process.
We are loving all the challenges we are been talking part in over the week!  
So much so, the teachers think we might even do some more next week!  
Yay!


The Challenge - By Quinn B
When it was Friday we had a challenge for Jack's eggs.  His mother said to Jack, "sell that cow."  This man walked past Jack.  "That is a lovely cow.  I will trade you for these beans.  They are magic beans."
So his mother was super angry.  She chucked the beans out the window.  When it was dark, it grew and grew and grew.  In the morning he climbed the beanstalk and went into the castle.   He stole the golden eggs.



Wednesday, June 20, 2018

PRODUCTION COSTUMES - WHAT TO WEAR

These are the notices that got sent home last week.  You child should be able to tell you what they are so you will know what they need to bring.

Thanks

Jo


Tuesday, June 19, 2018

BUTTERFLY ART OPT-IN

On Friday we worked on making some butterflies to brighten up the cloak bay.

  • First we used a template to draw the outline
  • Then we designed a pattern
  • We drew round the lines in vivid
  • Then we painted with dye, starting with light colours
  • After it was dry, we glued pompom bodies and antenna on...








Have you seen the beautiful butterflies cut out?

PIAKO RUA WHANAU HUI

Every day before the bell, the children organise a group to be the hui leaders.
After the teacher takes the role, the hui starts.


 There are children who put down their names to share...


And even Blueberry helps with the songs on the computer! (with help from Ryla)


TECH TUESDAY - BILLY GOAT GRUFF CHALLENGE

Today we read The Three Billy Goats Gruff.  The teachers challenged us to think of a creative way to get the Billy Goats across the river.  We were HOOKed... we were sure we could come up with something!

The first thing we needed to do was WONDER.   This is when we think of all the things we need to know before we could complete the challenge.





Next we needed to EXPLORE all our WONDERings.
We went into Wonderland and EXPLORED...

  • different types of materials to see which ones were strongest
  • making structures with different construction materials
  • measuring with rulers
  • how to make stronger structures
Some of us watched this video and learnt all about bridges...



Once we felt we had all the knowledge we needed to make our structure, we went back into the Rainbow Room and began planning our bridge.











The teachers were amazed with how much we are learning!

We were able to REFLECT on our structure.  Did it meet the success criteria?  If not, we had to think of a way to modify it.  We are such clever cookies in Piako Rua!


We also did some writing about the Three Billy Goats Gruff.

The Three Billy Goats - By Nevaeh
One sunny day, the three Billy Goats did not have any more grass.  They decided to cross the bridge.  The little Billy Goat went first.  The medium one went second.  The big one went third.  Finally they crossed the bridge.  Hip, hip, hooray!

Billy the Goat - By Shyloh
Billy the Goat wanted to get to the juicy, green grass.

Making Bridges - Maddy
Yesterday me and Lauren made a bridge for the Billy Goats Gruff and we made a lift up bridge for the Billy Goats Gruff.  We made a mistake because we forgot to measure our bridge but I said to Lauren "if it is not longer than 30cm, we will made a bit more bits for the bridge."  Our bridge WAS the right size and we won the challenge.

The Three Billy Goats Gruff - By Layla B
The Three Billy Goats Gruff were awesome.  They shouted "help!"

The Three Billy Goats Gruff - By Parker
One time there were three Billy Goats.  There was a medium sized goat and a there was a big goat and there was a baby goat.  They wanted to go across the bridge.  Baby goat went across and survived.  "Phew!  That was a close call!'


TE AO WHAKAPAPA - OUR SCHOOL PRODUCTION



We have been so busy getting ready for our School Production.  
Please get your tickets from The Regent Theatre on Broadway...
It's going to be AMAZING!

Monday, June 18, 2018

MOVE IT - MUSIC TOY CHALLENGE

Today we again focused on learning the steps of Te Ako Ritenga.

Our HOOK today was the teachers challenging us to make a toy that either moves OR makes a noise.  They showed us the success criteria and asked if we wanted to make a toy. We were HOOKed.  We said we would love to give it a go!

Challenge accepted!


We went through all the steps of Te Ako Ritenga like we did on Friday.  After the HOOK comes WONDER.  We are getting sooooo much better at thinking of questions that we will need to find the answer to in order to solve the problem.

As always we could choose if we wanted to work by ourselves or in a small group.  We filled out our organiser and some of us shared our thinking with the class.
Next we needed to EXPLORE our WONDERings.  We had to find out the answers to our questions so we went into Wonderland to EXPLORE.  The teachers had set out lots of different things for us to look at and play with.  There were...
  • measuring activities designed to help us learn to use a ruler
  • musical instruments so we could investigate how they worked
  • toys to see how they move
  • lots of types of cardboard to bend, fold and manipulate to see which type of card would work best for our toy




We found out all sorts of fascinating things in the EXPLORE phase.  We found out that toys can be pushed, pulled, turned, rolled, and slid along.  We learnt that instruments make a noise when we bang, blow, clap, shake or hit them.  We learnt how to use rulers and found out that some cardboard bends easier than others!

Next it was time to ACT.  We thought about all we had learnt so far and we came up with a plan of what to do.


 Then we gathered all the materials we needed and set to work...





One of the most crucial phases of Te Ako Ritenga, is REFLECT.  This is when you stop and think about what you have made.  We had a set of success criteria that we had to meet.  When we REFLECTed today, we thought about those criteria.  Was our toy meeting them? If so, which ones?  All of them?  or only a few?  How could we modify our design to make it meet ALL of the success criteria?


Shyloh measured her toy only to realise it was too small.  It did not meet the 'must be longer than 20cm' criteria.  

What did Shyloh do?  

Did she give up? 

 NO!  

She made a new version of the toy but made it BIGGER!  Well done Shyloh on never giving up!



Oliver made his toy too.  When he was REFLECTing, he found a problem!  His toy was too short as well!

What did Oliver do? 

Did he give up?  

NO!

He made stilts for his toy!

What a CREATIVE thinker Oliver.  Not only did Oliver FIND a problem in his design, he fixed it!








When all the toys were finished we assessed them all against the success criteria.  We really are competent and creative learners! Go us!!!