ROCK AND WATER

Room 6 is part of a Rock and Water programme which teaches social and relational skills.  We learn about times we need to be staunch and resist (rock) and times to be flexible and flow around a problem. (water).  We learn about being assertive, and how to deal with difficult situations, being grounded and being respectful of others.

Rob Schofield our instructor teaches about bullying and how we can deal with bullies.

Oskar and Tu work together.

Learning to trust - in this activity we are reliant on our buddies to hold us up.

Vashti and Hannah work as a trusting team.

Theo is supported by his buddy Joshua.

Kids Can Cook.

We had Chris, a chef, come and run a workshop with the children in the Te Aramoana syndicate.  We learnt about French cooking and Meg got chosen to be the Sous Chef.  Together  they made crepes with flour, milk, egg, silverbeet and grated apple.  Everyone sampled some and had to give a thumbs up, sideways or down as feedback when they ate the crepe.

This is Jacob in a photo from yesterday at  the Waikanae Football Club prize giving, alongside his coach Josh Furze. He received an award for the Most Improved Player Of The 2015 Year. "We are so very proud of you and all your hard work practising, training and commitment has paid off." said his Dad.    Congratulations Jacob, you ROCK!!! 

ROOM 6's  AWESOME PRODUCTION PERFORMANCE

Waikanae School's "AMAZING RACE" production was a great success.  Room 6's contribution was the song "Everything Is Awesome'.  

Some of our other performers.

It was a great chance for children to build and showcase their talents.

Room 6 Are Winners!

Nico and Archer accept the prize for winning the school's recycling award.  We make sure all our waste paper goes to recycling instead of the rubbish bin and ultimately to landfill.  WELL DONE ROOM 6!

TECH TIME AT THE RAUMATI TECH CENTRE.

Last Thursday afternoon nearly 60 year students from Waikanae School visited the Raumati Tech Centre for the first time.  There was much excitement on the bus as we traveled to Raumati.  Children got to experience what it is like to go to tech for the Yr 7-8s.  Activities included using Comic Life to create a comic page, origami, decorative book making, cooking and making models in the workshop.  Each child returned to school with what they had made, to show other students and take home.

Origami and making boxes.

Horatio works on his model in the woodwork class.

Year 6 children attended a session at the Raumati Tech Centre.  This is the cooking group.

Hannah mixes the ingredients for here cheese rolls.

Sarah spreads the mixture on to the bread.

Joshua prepares his cheese rolls - a South Island favourite.



Time to do the dishes.

A CASE FOR SMALLER CLASSES

Why would smaller class sizes increase student performance?
This video is from last Friday when 10 students were away... leaving only 18 students in the class.  It was quite a unique situation - 5 boys were away at a rugby tournament and the rest were away for medical reason.  From the start of the day the class was immediately settled and engaged, working on items from their tasklist.  The loudest noise was the Relish the rainbow lorikeet in the cloakroom.
I was so taken with the difference in the class I videoed the children at work - as evidence of how smaller class sizes may benefit children's learning.  What was even more powerful was the feedback from the students themselves.  My questions was, "Who thinks that with today's quieter classroom you were better able to learn?"  Every hand went up!
While this is not definitive proof of the effects of smaller classes it does lend strong support to that notion.
While the children worked I marked and checked the handed in work from my "Checking Box", and marked off completed tasks.  I was able to call students up individually to go through their work and give feedback and next steps to help them further develop their learning.
In the ideal world the daily experience in the classroom - it would be the norm for the class and the ease of interaction with the class would mean greater levels of achievement for all students, and less stress for teaching staff..