Shared lunch

To celebrate the end of the year, we are having a shared lunch on Wednesday. We'd love it if you could bring something to share.

Celebration slideshow

The last two days have been so busy for us - we had some special guests who did some special baking with us. We also did a rotation with other classes and teachers to learn about different cultures and celebrations around the world.

Phil Mcintosh's Slidely by Slidely Slideshow

our inventions

these are some inventions we made. they took a long time to make, First, we planned them, Then, we  recorded them, after that we published them and some of us made descriptions.


written by Alex




So,do you like our inventions?

Uploaded by Alex.

Capital E Trip

We had such a good time on our Capital E trip that I forgot to take any photos! Luckily for us, we had some amazing parent helpers who managed to take a couple of pictures for us. Check out some of the things we got up to.

Capital E

Yesterday we had an amazing trip. We went to Capital E and created animations! Lucky for us, we are able to download our animations from the Capital E website.

It's easy - just jump on the Capital E website. Click on digital - downloads - 2015 - Karori Normal School - 19112015 - finals.

If the 'finals' folder isn't showing up - try using a different browser.

Special Day

Room 12 are being rewarded for their learning and behaviour. They have been excellent throughout the term.

On Friday 20th November we will be having a "Toys & Technology" day. During this day, the children can bring in a toy or a piece of technology - if you don't want to bring anything in, don't worry, Mr Mcintosh will provide something fun for you!

Dress up is optional :)

other audioboom videos

Radio Adverts + Persuasive Writing

After our posters, it was time to take it to the next step: Radio!

Radio presented a new challenge for us though. How were we to communicate our ideas and persuade people to buy something they couldn't see?

We had to draft up a plan first. This took us a few goes to get it right. Sometimes we forgot that people can't see whats happening in our adverts, so if we don't tell them, they won't know. Other times, we thought our advert would be really long but when we timed ourselves, it ended up being far too short.

We're in the process of recording them now. Some of the are embedded (or will be over the next few days) on our blog. If you can't see yours on the blog then head along to audioboom, login with Room 12's details and find yours.

Finished posters + Persuasive Writing

When creating our posters, we were given the following instructions...

It had to be...

- colourful (so that it caught people's eye)

- include all the important information

- have pictures

- full of positive & persausive language

It could also...

- include questions to get us thinking

- include humour

Check out some of our finished ones here...

Guy Fawkes Game

Answer questions about the famous gunpowder plot before the time runs out.

Gunpowder Plot Game

Advertising

In Room 12 this week we've been learning about advertising and using persuasive language. We were trying to persuade people to buy our new ice cream flavour.

First, we looked at images and posters that advertised different products. We talked about their similarities. Some of the things we noticed were: colour, positive language, pictures, information, questions and humour.

Next we had to create a new flavour. Some of our flavours were really crazy - we had a pineapple and cranberry raz, volcanic rock, chocolate raspberry bunny, multiblast and alien ice cream.

After that we made a plan for our posters. Then we used our plan to create colourful and exciting posters to advertise our ice cream.

What do you think? Would you buy our ice cream?

Story of Diwali

We've been learning about the story behind Diwali. It's a really exciting story about Good vs Evil. We retold the story using pictures and sentences.

Celebrations - Diwali

This week we're learning about Diwali. Diwali is the festival of lights. It celebrates the story of Ram and Sita. The story is very new for most of us - here's a short video that explains the story.

During Diwali, people light candles, give gifts and make rangoli patterns. Here are some pictures of rangoli patterns.

This week we're going to make our own rangoli patterns. Have a look at this video and see the rangoli patterns that these children made.

Celebrations - Padlet

Created with Padlet

Room 12 Stars

Who knew! We have our very own star actress in Room 12 - Check out Arabella in this advertisement for Wellington.

Questions for our mystery class

We have connected with another class from somewhere in the world as a part of the GRA (Global Read Aloud). They sent us a video asking us questions to try and guess where in the world we are.

We did the same...here are our questions for our mystery class.

Year of Billy Miller Padlet - How are you similar?

Created with Padlet

Climbing Down - Measuring game

Add the measurements of kilograms and grams to help the crew climb down.

Climbing Down

Measuring Game - Alien Cakes

Alien Cakes

Help the alien cook different foods and cakes by measuring and calculating.

Year of Billy Miller - Introduction to Room 12

To all those children around the world participating in the Global Read Aloud...

Welcome to Room 12!

Can you guess where we are from?

We would love to hear from you!

Year of Billy Miller - Habitats

Billy chose to make his diorama of a bat habitat. If you had to make a diorama of a habitat, which would choose and what would you put in it?

Here's a screenshot of a padlet that another class has been using. Have a think about what you'd do and you can add yours to it at school tomorrow.

Chloe's trip and blog

Chloe has been on a really exciting trip around the world. She even made her own blog. She has uploaded pictures to show us what she did.

Check out her amazing adventure here:

Chloe's Adventure

Link to another padlet

This padlet has been created by a class in Canada. Click on the link to make a comment about "The Year of Billy Miller"

http://padlet.com/st_fudale/lc9pr3e98ip5

Year of Billy Miller

We are participating in the Global Read Aloud (GRA). Along with hundreds of thousands of other children around the world, we'll be reading "The Year of Billy Miller".

During the next six weeks we'll be trying to connect with different classes around the world using twitter, padlet, blogs and email.

Save the comma

We've been looking at how we use commas in class this week. We figured out that we use commas for lists. We also use them when adding extra information. Sometimes this 'extra information' is at the start of the sentence. It could also be in the middle of a sentence or at the end.

Here's an example:

The sailor, scared of the pirates, jumped into the sea.

Scared of the pirates, the sailor jumped into the sea.

The sailor jumped into the sea, scared of the pirates.

The extra information in these sentences is "scared of the pirates". We know it's extra information because the sentence makes sense if we take it out.

Here's a game that we played to help us know when to use commas.

*seems the game isn't working anymore - check back here soon

Eats, Shoots, Leaves

Term 4

I hope you've all had a fantastic break! We have such a busy and exciting term ahead of us - here's a few things you need to know:

Gymnastics: We'll be heading off to gymnastics once a week. Our first session is on Monday (Yep - the first day back!). Please make sure you have suitable clothing and a raincoat if the weather isn't looking too flash.

Gala: Our school gala is on Saturday 16th October - write this one in your diary now! There's loads of exciting things going on - make sure you come along and join in the fun. Don't forget if you have a bottle to bring in or you can help in another way then contact myself or another member of staff quickly.

Athletics: Our athletics day is coming up very soon (end of October). We've been training hard for this already and will continue to practise every Monday. Make sure you bring suitable clothing for this.

Sunhats: Term 4 means warmer weather - it also means we need to be a bit more careful in the sun. This means wearing sun hats (and suncream if you have it) when we go outside. It also means that our sun hats must cover our necks and ears - please try and remember to bring one from home....if you forget Mr Mcintosh can lend you a school one to wear for the day.

A Poem for Room 12 by Mr Smith

Some of you asked for a copy of the poem that I wrote for Room 12.  I've copied it into this blog post for you, so that it's always available for you to read.  Thank you once again for the wonderful time that we shared together and for being such an amazing class. It was an absolute privilege to share the classroom with you and to get to know you all.

A Poem for Room 12, by Mr Smith

Room 12 has been a truly incredible place to be

It’s full of learning, friendship, and true camaraderie

I’ve had such fun with you all I never would have guessed

I hope you don’t remember me as a terrible, awful, nasty pest.

There’s, Molly, Hannah, and Chloe, but wait here comes Lucy too

Peter, Hunter, Pearse, Anna, and Athena with no shoe

Arabella, Caitlin, Millie, and Sophie make a four,

If you add in CC and Isabella, there’ll be a whole lot more.

Reilly has his cello and Charlie’s got his football dream

Fred, Hayden, and Leo, they make such a great team

Robbie, Henry and Archie I cannot leave them out

Because if I do there’s Zach and Alex who’ll surely give a shout.

It must be morning, Ollie’s got some news to share

And over in the corner, is Noa putting out the chair

Jack was here but now he’s gone to wherever he may stay

So that just leaves Mr McIntosh, to mention right away.

Remember at the beginning and we made a juggling ball?

I think we had a lot of fun; at least that’s what I recall

Balloons, rice and a little bag, colours and designs were made

Together we ventured out with them and in the playground we played.

We read a book by Roald Dahl called the BFG

About dreams and giants and a girl whose name was Sophie

We thought about the dreams we have and whether they could come true

In our books, we wrote them down and shared our point of view.

What imaginations you really have to see such wondrous stuff

A golden boot, vampire bats, and unicorns that are full of fluff

Some were likely, some were certain and some that just could not be

I thought all were amazing and brilliant, and explored some probability.

When you see yourself in the mirror, there’s a reflection looking back at you

And down the centre, right in between, there’s a line that divides the two

We used contrasting colours and paper folded in two or four

To show our lines of symmetry so they showed up even more 

Cut out a circle of paper and then you fold it one, two, three

Take a piece of pizza pie and trace your design so you see

Rotate around, rotate around, rotate around that’s the key

If you fit in more times than one, you've got rotational symmetry.

Now, how to find your way around I wonder if you know?

East, south, west, north, please tell me it’s not so

The compass needle always points to the north and after that it’s east

Never Eat Soggy Weetbix always remember that at least!

What shapes we found and placed them together with no gaps in between

To make some wonderful patterns, the best that I’d ever seen

Now what do we call it?  What name could it be?

Why it was tessellation of course! Oh silly, silly me.

How do you write instructions, please tell me what you need

Begin with a title that says it all and sows a little seed

Next you add a description and maybe a picture or two

Follow the steps you find below and you’ll know just what to do.  

In the mornings after a little maths we took ourselves under the sea

With a special room 12 brain break created just for you, by me

We looked around, we saw such fish, and wonders of the deep

And after we had finished, there was not a sign of sleep!

We learned about cause and effect on the oceans you recall?

How pollution, over fishing, and climate change are problems for us all

We need to act, we need to think about what it is we do

So in the future this planet of ours will still have seas of blue

And in those seas the fish will swim and the whales will blow and dive

All of the life below the surface will multiply and thrive

We need the krill, we need the sharks, we need the tuna and wahoo

Because without those last two fishy types, what’s the cookie cutter shark to do?

Now here we are it’s come at last, the end of my short stay

Room 12 you’re the most wonderful people, and I know you’ll always be that way

And even though I’ll be gone, the memories shall never fade

Because you have created for me, the most brilliant dream that was ever made.

                                                                           Mr Smith

                                                                            25 September 2015

Cartoon Animal Artwork

This afternoon, we learned how to create pictures of animals using simple shapes like circles, ovals and lines to help us draw cartoon animals.  We learned how to draw a koala bear and a lion, and some of us experimented with other animals like dogs.  Here are some photographs of the amazing cartoon animals that we drew.

 

Term 3 Assembly

*Apologies for the poor lighting!

Today we had our last assembly for the term. We were able to share some of the symmetry based art. We explained line symmetry and rotational symmetry.

We said goodbye to Mrs Pilcher. Mrs Pilcher is off to another school. We are very grateful for all the hard work she has put in over the last three years.

These wonderful people received principals certificates - well done!

Wizen world

Wizen world is an online game which allows children to complete quests and missions all in the name of mathematics. 

Wizenworld

Some of the levels are quite difficult so start off easy and make sure you read the instructions.

Our class login is: 589pp

Select your name and create a username (make it really simple e.g. MrMcintosh123). If you forget your password - email Mr Mcintosh, he can reset it for you.

Google Classroom

Google classroom is (hopefully) going to become a big part of Room 12 in term 4.

We are going to use it in a variety of ways. We will be completing work, interacting and commenting, receiving feedback and sharing our learning.

For some information, and to see what it will look like, have a watch of the short video below

How does it work?
Each child has a login. Your login looks like an email address (it isn't) and will need to be typed into the login page along with your password. Every child has a password, but as the teacher I can view and change passwords, so don't worry if you lose yours! You'll also have a class code which you need to login through.

Once you have logged in, you will be able to post, respond, create (using google drive) and share their learning.

As a teacher, I will be creating tasks which you can complete at school or, if you want, at home as well.

We will be going over how to use this in class over the next few weeks. If you have any questions then feel free to ask.

Seesaw

Seesaw is the a new app that we'll be using in Room 12 during term 4.

What is it?

It's an online learning journal. We'll be using this to document our learning and share it with you at home.

How does it work?

Easy. At school we can take a picture of our learning with an ipad. We double tap the screen if we want to add our voice or text over the top. We click on our name and the picture is uploaded to our profile.

Then what?

A notification is sent to our parents phone or mobile device. You can click on the notification and you'll be able to see what your child has wanted to share with you 

Have a watch of the video below to see how it works

Just some more information:

- although we would love you to, there is no requirement to sign up and you can always turn notifications off if you'd like. 

- You can only see your child's work so there are no privacy concerns.

- Mr Mcintosh has to approve all the pictures before notifications get sent home so they will all be learning based.

- We'll be aiming to use this once or twice a week.

Coming soon....

Next term we are going to use Googleclassroom and Seesaw....

Don't know anything about them? Not to worry - both are online/apps that help us share, learn and collaborate. We'll be using them next term and would love you to check them out and help us when it all starts next term.

Maps and directions

Over the past week, the we have been investigating and learning about maps and directions. Today we made a virtual visit to Wellington Zoo and navigated our way around using a map.  In the photographs below, you can see the students working on this class activity.

We've been learning about the cardinal points of the compass (north, east, south, and west also known as never eat soggy Weetbix), found out how to locate places on a map using co-ordinates, created our own games based on the idea of Battleships and written instructions on how to play them, we've been learning how to orientate ourselves on a map, and we've learned how to write a set of directions.  One of our current projects is to write the directions from the school office to room 12, so that any visitor to the school could find their way to our classroom.