Launching Our Rockets

It's been a long time coming, but we finally launched our water powered rockets.  We built our rockets last term and have been waiting for a really still day to launch our rockets.

The rockets use compressed air to fly, and we made them to show how energy can be used to move things.

Thursday Writing Slam

We had 4 awesome slammers this week, 2 of them slamming for the first time.  Well done Tina, Ryley, Ruben, and Emilia for sharing your work.

If you want to join us for the writing slam, it happens every Thursday at 2:40.

Check out their work on the 'Room 10's Work' page.

Mr. P

Thursday Writing Slam

On Thursday we held another writing slam.  Students can choose a piece of writing that they have done really well on and they share it with the class.  I have put some of the writing on our 'Room 10's Work' page.

We have writing slam every Thursday at 2:40.  If anybody wants to join us to listen, you are more than welcome.

Mr. P

Well Done MiniBallers

Our MiniBall teams had a great time at the recent Western Hills MiniBall tournament.  The tournament was organised by the Western Hills sports cluster as a fun event to get students interested in the sport.  Our year 5&6 team won 4 of their games which is a great effort.

Thanks to everybody who helped organise and support the event.

Booking a time for you student led conference

Just a reminder to book a time for your student led conference if you haven't already.  Our class has 11 bookings so far (out of 25) so there are a few more to be made.  To make a booking, just follow the instructions below.

Thanks

Mr. P

Trevor Mallard Comes to School

We had a great visit from Trevor Mallard today.  As a follow on from our Parliament trip, we asked Mr. Mallard to come in and talk to us about being an MP.  We had some great questions for him and it was obvious that we put a lot of thought into what we wanted to ask.

Here's a few of the questions that we asked:

'What's the most difficult thing about being an MP?'

'What are some of the qualities that you need to be a good MP?'

'What are some of the issues that you think are important to Maungaraki?'

'How did you decide to become an MP?'

'Can you describe a typical day for an MP?'

Oh hail! It's a snowman!

Paraparaumu School Fire

Many of you are aware of the devastating fire that destroyed over half of Paraparaumu School and left much of the rest of the school damaged by smoke.  We feel badly for the staff, students and parents of Paraparaumu School and would like to help them as best we can.

On Friday, we will be holding a coin trail to raise money for the school to purchase the badly needed resources that it needs.

Please help us to support Paraparaumu School by supporting the coin trail on Friday.

Mr. P

Off to Parliament

We had a great trip to Parliament.  We learned heaps about how Parliament works, how the buildings are set out, some of the history of the buildings, and what people actually do there.  Even though there weren't any MP's around, we still got to see where their offices are, where they vote, the chairs they sit in, and we even got to touch the elephant.

We weren't allowed to take any photos once the tour started, but we do remember heaps.

Still Smiling...even the big ones in the back

Apparently the 'beehive' isn't really a beehive!

Of course she gets the biggest chair

Waiting our turn to speak to the house

Off to Parliament

Some people never get tired of having their photos taken

The obligatory 'sitting on the lion' photo

Just lyin' around.

Starting our session of Parliament

Unfortunately, there were no cameras allowed inside Parliament, so this 'bootleg' video is about as close as we got to the real thing.  Maybe a Prime Minister from the Hutt is looking like a possibility?

Maths Week Family Challenges

Maths Week is here...and you are all invited to join in.

Miss Postma has added a family challenges link to the page on the maths blog.

You can find the challenges here…

http://maungarakimathsfamilychallenges.blogspot.co.nz

You can participate by working out the answers to the family challenge and then emailing your families answer to:

bpostma@maungaraki.school.nz

This Friday during our assembly, there will be a prize draw from all of the entries.  Maths week is a great way to get the whole family involved and support your child's learning.

So, get calculating…

Mr. Pampalone

Thanks MORE FM for the new 'toys' that are, unfortunately, just toys!

Trip to Parliament

Hi All,

If you need a copy of the permission letter for the Parliament trip, click on this link.  Also, if you need to be somewhere on Wednesday afternoon and need to be back earlier than 3:30, please let us know and we can get you into the morning session rather than the afternoon session.

Cheers

Mr. P

If you wondered what using Chromebooks in the classroom would look like...

When we use Chrome Books in Room 10, we still use groups to teach.  We also still use books and pencils.  One thing I have loved about using the Chrome Books is the amount of discussion that has been created between the students.  They love looking at each others work, helping each other to get things done, finding ways to make their work better, and having some fun while doing it.

Writing Slam!!!

As a way to celebrate the writing that we are doing, both in and out of class, every Thursday afternoon we will be having a 'Writing SLAM.'  Here's how it works: students select a piece of their own writing that they would like to share, they read their writing to the class, and SLAM, that's it.

Being in the SLAM is entirely up to the students and hopefully everybody will enjoy taking pride in their work and sharing it with us all.

We had 4 awesome pieces of writing today, so thank you to those who participated in the inaugural SLAM and I'm looking forward to next week's.

Mr. P

Welcome back to term 3

Kiaora! And welcome back to Term 3. 

Can you believe that we are already half way through the year?

Inquiry: "Having a voice to make a choice!"

We will learning all about choices, needs, wants, rules, laws, politics, parliament, government, political parties, leadership, elections and voting!

We are going on a syndicate trip to parliament in week 4!!!

We are writing about small moments and also creating some longer stories.

We are learning lots of reading strategies and also learning to participate in book clubs. Since we are writing about narratives, we will also be reading lots of these texts.

For maths, we are cross grouping and our focus is fractions, percentages, proportions and ratios. 

Our strand focus is probability.

For physical education we've got jump jam still happening weeks 2 - 5. Then skipping weeks 6 onwards with athletics training starting at the end of THIS term, so we are ready for athletics at the beginning of term 4. 

PRODUCTION IS WEEK 9!!!!

We are the "Secret Agent/Mission Impossible" group. 

We will be working on this as a class so think about some great ideas.

And, our amazing students will be sharing all their progress with you in week 6 - STUDENT LED CONFERENCES. 

Kapahaka will be every Tuesday 12 - 1pm. The same as last term. 

Western Zone basketball is in Week 5. Mr M.C will be organising this.

Western Zone netball is in Week 6 - Miss Matich is organising this. 

Coming up this week:

Mud run Thursday.

Buddy time is on Monday, Library and syndicate assembly on Friday. 

We had a great electives showcase assembly with models, rubicks cubes, funky fish, and lots more.

The group of boys who worked on the birdhouse.

The boys have finished the bird house and it looks great!