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..

SYNDICATE ASSEMBLY.
Here is a video of all the classes and the items they presented in Syndicate Assembly.

SYNDICATE ASSEMBLY
We had our first syndicate assembly which was held in our school hall during the week.   We have the chance to show the other classes what we have been doing in our classes, which for us were the balancing robots from our science explorations, and the school councillors had an opportunity to practice presenting to an audience of over 150 people before doing in front of the whole school where there may be 450 to 500 people.

Our robots were used to show that by lowering the centre of gravity we can make objects less wobbly and better able to balance.

Emily and Jonti were our presenters who explained what our robots were about.

We also had achievement certificates that were awarded to individuals who had done well in learning and other school activities.  

Here are the winners.

Congratulations to Hannah, Archer, Jonti and Horatio who all were awarded certificates.

All About Science.
Waikanae School ran a Science Show this week.  It was awesome because we got to try out lots of experiments.  Here is a movie showing some of what we did.

PUNCTUATION  PRACTICE:    Writing 
Room 6 is learning to write stories using correct punctuation.  Each week we focus on a new type of punctuation.  In our class we should be using fullstops (.) and capitals (CAPS), question marks (?), ellipse (...), apostrophes (') and speech marks ( "     " ).   Today there were eight children who indicated that they were getting better at using their punctuation marks in their writing.  To practice, children have written a POOR BOB story to show how they can use exclamation marks.  Their stories were only allowed to be up to 100 word.  Check out our individual blogs for the stories the class came up with.

Here is Mr Corlett's example

17.8.15
WALT use exclamation marks in our writing

Bob stumbled towards the stairs, wiping the sleep from his eyes.  Bang! Crash!  Poor Bob.  He began tumbling, his discarded clothes from the night before wrapped around his ankles."Ahh!  Help!  Ouch! Owww!  Ugh!  @##*@! Waa!" he yelled as he fell, hitting every step as he fell.
"Wheee-eee!  Wheee-eee!" came the sound of the ambulance as he slowly regained consciousness.

2015  WINTER TOURNAMENT   11th August 2015

Despite yesterdays colds winds and wet grounds, local schools battled each other in the annual WINTER TOURNAMENT.  Rippa and netball was at Te Ataawa Park and hockey and soccer was held at Mazengard Reserve.

It was great to see so many children active and playing sport.  For some children it was their first time playing that game while for others it was a game they were familiar with.  

WELL DONE TO ALL SCHOOLS AND ALL TEAMS.

BUBBLES
COME SHARE OUR LEARNING JOURNEY.
Wondering about our science?  We do new science activities each week and we explored BUBBLES!
View the video and share in our learning.

Te Aramoana syndicate has begun our Gymnastics sessions for the term.  Here are some of the Room 6 students enjoying their first gym session.

CHARLIE'S Adventures.

Location 8:   We drove further to a popular tourist destination which has over 2 million visitors a year, on the shores of a large lake, surrounded by many remarkable snow capped mountains. 

Look at a map of the south island and find the Southern Lakes area.   The lake is shaped a bit like a huge Z.

  During Winter, people often come to the area because of the great skiing on the nearby ski field.

  

Jet boating on lake and rivers, amazing scenery are part of the attraction.
Historically, gold played a big part in the development of this place and the surrounding area.

CHARLIE'S ADVENTURES

Location 7: Charlie watched some CRAZY people throwing themselves from a bridge, with just a stretchy rope attached to their feet.   It was a long way d -ooooo--wwww----nnnnnnnnnnnnnn.

To get back to the top again the person dangling on the rope has to get into the boat in the middle of the river and then climb a LOT of stairs.

Charlie  found it difficult even to peer over the side as it was so far down.

CHARLIE'S ADVENTURES - cont-

Location 6 This is a place up-river where two rivers meet.

About 10 metres below the water there is an old bridge, but it was  flooded when the Clyde dam was built.

Charlie looks across the river to the town.  The older historic part of the town was also flooded but some of the buildings were demolished brick by brick and rebuilt on higher ground.

The surrounding area was famous for gold mining.

The two rivers often have slightly different colours that merge as they flow downstream.

CHARLIE'S ADVENTURES

Location 5  Located upriver from location 4 this dam was commissioned in 1956.

Commissioned in 1956, the  dam, reportedly, had a design life of 50 years, and although it has resource consent for a number of years, decommissioning is inevitable.. The reservoir's sedimentation issue is well-known, but what is not widely known is that, geo-technically, the  Gorge has an earthquake faultline close by and landslide areas. A major quake along the Great Alpine Fault is expected in the next 1-20 years.  But it is the sediment build-up or aggradation issue that is the immediate problem.  Build up of silt will eventually stop the dam from working properly.

CHARLIE's ADVENTURES

Location 4.  We went for a drive to our next destination.  Charlie loved watching the rural landscape as we drove inland.  On the way Charlie got hungry.  As we were going through one of the towns we stopped for a break.  Charlie spotted a sign for a fabulous pie shop so went to check it out.  They looked great so we bought some.  We ate lots of pies - even Charlie!

Charlie got stuck into his pie - and ate the whole thing before licking the paper bag to make sure he got every last crumb!

MR CORLETT'S HOLIDAY

CHARLIE'S HOLIDAY ADVENTURES.

Where's Charlie?

Holiday game - Get a map of NZ and track Charlie's travels.  If you can identify all the places Charlie visits over the break, you can be in to win a prize from Mr Corlett! 

 Map - Location 1) Mr & Mrs Corlett had an early start  - 6 a.m. Off to the Wellington Airport for a flight to the ice and snow, to a place where we will have a family gathering.

We got to the airport and found our flight had been delayed.  So I went to get out my computer but discovered a stowaway - Charlie the bear!   Who's Charlie?  Well in our class we have two extra class members - two bears, Henry and Charlie.  Charlie was going to house sit for us while we were away. He said it was too quiet without us there and so had slipped quietly into my bag!

Both bears have wonderful adventures with children in our class - such as to Australia and other places around NZ.   Meanwhile Henry is currently holidaying with Hannah, while Charlie is now winging his way to the snow and ice.  Check back here during the break to follow his adventures!

Charlie has been discovered hiding in my bag - too late to drive back home with him so this mischievous bear has now joined us.  Rather naughty of him - but we can't leave him at the airport.

We had a quick drink of coffee while we waited for our plane.  Charlie made the most of the opportunity and had a hot chocolate - and a biscuit.

Check back tomorrow and see if there is a further episode of what Charlie has been up to!

Here is what Charlie saw out the aeroplane window.

 Check out all the photos and see if you can spot the clue and figure out where the plane went to.  

Location 2) Southern Man   See if you can spot Charlie in the photo.

In his book “The Year of the Horse” the artist Sam Mahon describes the physical and artistic struggles involved in realising this massive bronze statue which is certainly the largest equestrian monument in New Zealand and possibly the largest single cast bronze statue ever made in this country.  . It shows a high country musterer on horseback. It is an impressive work, rich in surface texture.. Hat down over his eyes, his horse steady beneath him, the reins held with one hand, the musterer is slightly twisted to his left, looking behind him. He is, it seems, immersed in his work and at ease with himself and his place in the world.

Mahon’s account of the practical problems of bringing this huge project to fruition are enthralling. The first of these difficulties arose when he showed an early wax model based on measurements of a real horse to an equestrian friend who complained that a horse standing in the pose he had modelled would be diagnosed as suffering from bladder infection.

After this design was modified, and approved by Speight’s, the next stage was to make a full-size model. This was built on an armature of steel and covered with cloth, chicken wire, and about a tonne of plaster. The rough outline was finished in a couple of weeks and then carved. The idea was that the horse and man should seem inextricably linked without too much distracting detail. When the client saw the finished model the one change they required was that the saddle bags should be more clearly carved. This was where the company logo was to be displayed.

From this finished model moulds were made. And it was from these that the horse and rider were cast. The final sculpture weighs about 1200 kilos, with the tail alone weighing about seventy kilos. It was made in about fifty different sections and then welded together. This sound very simple. However, Mahon and his collaborators were constantly required to adapt their techniques and build specialised equipment to solve the many technical problems they encountered. For example, a machine for turning bricks into dust for the moulds was driven by the drive wheels of the family Morris car.

The invention and ingenuity shown by Mahon remind us of the heroic struggles of his great predecessors in bronze sculpture. In fact, on one occasion he turned to the workshop manual of the great baroque sculptor Benvenuto Cellini for a recipe for the inside of the mould-making kiln which had burnt out. The ingredients were sand, clay and fresh cow manure, mixed together by treading them with bare feet. Mahon and his partner, Alison, tossed a coin and he lost. She went to make a cup of tea while Sam took off his boots and got treading. Cellini also provided a recipe for giving a final patina to the bronze. This required the urine of young boys but was not adopted by the modern sculptor who preferred copper nitrate to provide the surface finish. The statue was unveiled in September 2000, having taken a little over a year to complete.

Track Charlie's travels on a map of NZ. Draw a map of NZ or copy a blank one.  There is a prize for the best map showing where Charlie goes.  

Location 3) 

Saturday 11th

That's not snow, it's frost.  The temperature is below 0!

Henry is in a place that  is closely associated with the mysterious ailment chronic fatigue syndrome, which –  The doctor who first documented the rise of the condition in New Zealand, Dr Peter Snow, was based in the town.

But look below - real snow!

Charlie discovered some snow - but discovered it is REALLY cold to sit in!

Charlie is thinking about making a snowman.   Watch out Charlie - it's a snowball!