Wicked Writing!

This week we have used a science activity as our inspiration for writing - we are going to have a go at writing a science report!

Mrs C found this cool water fountain experiment and we did it this morning.  We had to come up with a big question, so our question for this experiment was:

"Is air always there and does it take up space?"

Mrs C blew up a balloon and put it over the top of the soft drink bottle - we were mystified about why the balloon didn't go down.  Here is a photo of Louis inspecting this very closely:

Harley came up with a great idea!  Mrs C asked us why the balloon didn't go down and Harley shared that he thinks it's because the bottle already had air in it, so instead of the bottle filling up with air and the balloon deflating it stayed blown up.

Here is what we needed for our experiment:

This is what we did:

First we had to make a hole in the bottle about half way and push a straw through it.

Then we had to use blu-tack to make sure we plugged up any spaces around the straw.

Ebony and Mrs C worked together to achieve this.

Next we filled it up with water - nothing happened!  Michaela is looking a bit worried here that our experiment is going to be a flop...

So we added blue food colouring:

Nope...still nothing happened.  Maybe changing the colour was a bit optimistic...

SUDDENLY we had a brain wave, maybe we needed some air to help the water to move...so...Mrs C blew up a balloon (again) and we laughed a lot at her face while she did this.  Once it was blown up Mrs C attached it to the top of the bottle:

It worked!  Here is a video of us watching our awesome water fountain and Mr Louis answers a tricky question:

Stage 5 - Bringing Learning Alive!

You must check out the clever strategy use of these 3 clever cats!

Today I told them that they were going to be able to solve an addition problem involving 2 and 1 digit numbers without counting.  They thought Mrs C had finally had one too many coffees.

We explored three strategies that could all solve the problem.  These involved using our known facts, friends of 10 and compensating (when you borrow then repay).

Kingston, Reegan and Blessing all chose the strategy that they found most suitable to their style of learning and had a go at solving a problem using it.  The tricky thing was...they weren't allowed to count...AT ALL!  They had to find another way to solve it.

We nicknamed the three strategies:

Mr Thief - this involved stealing from the 1 digit number to be able to round the 2 digit number to the nearest ten, then adding what was left over.
Mr Doubles - this involved making a double with the ones then adding on the tens.
Mr Nice - this involved Mr Nice loaning us some money to make a tidy number (the tens family), which was great but then we had to pay it back at the end.

Can you figure out which strategy each of these clever mathematicians used?  HINT: if you can't work it out ask the mathematicians themselves.

Mahi Whai - learning about Matariki

Mahi Whai – String Games

The Māori called the game ‘whai’ or, in full ‘Te Whai Wawewawe a Maui’, meaning ‘Maui’s clever string game’ because, according to Māori mythology, the game originated with the great culture hero, Maui.

The game encouraged the nimbleness of fingers which was very necessary for the weaving and taniko work.

In ‘whai’ as it was practised in ancient Māoridom, the figures were all given names and not only represented objects, such as a fishing net or a star in the heavens, but also incidents from mythology.  

‘Whai’ was also performed competitively.  Two players would sit back to back and on a signal make a certain figure.  

Here are some photos of our Superheroes with their Mahi Whai patterns, do you recognise any of them?

Clever work Waitohi - what has she made?

Love your style Malachi and Louis!

Naomi, that looks tricky!

The kids kept asking me to put my hand in, but I had a feeling that something like this would happen.

Reegan, did you make Matariki?

Precious, I think Parepaora has well and truly caught you in her web.

Wow Niah, what creation have you made?

Waitohi, you look like you are ready to show someone how it's done here...

Clever Precious knew how to make the diamond pattern.

Ka pai to mahi!

Michaela looking very pleased with her Mahi Whai.

Hmmmn, this looks suspiciously like something Mrs C is often seen with...

Tino pai rawa atu koe!

Room 2 in their Learning H.Q.

In maths we do a quick warm up at the start of our lesson.  This involves learning how to do something or practicing something we have already learned so that we don't forget how to do it.  In this lesson we were learning to split numbers by making (bridging) 10 before adding on the rest.  This is so that we can solve problems more easily and quickly.

In these photos Blessing and Kingston demonstrate how to do this perfectly.  See if you can follow what they did:

Can you see what Blessing has done here?  He had the number story 7+9 = ?  He needed to work out the answer.  He solved this by making 10 first then adding on the remainder of the number.  He had 7, took 3 from the 9 to make 10, then added on the 6 that were left.  Great work Blessing, you will find this easier and easier each time that you practice.

Kingston, you picked this up so quickly!  You could see the benefit of making 10 so that you could solve it quickly but you also could see really quickly how you can manipulate numbers to do this.  Kingston made 10 by adding 2 from the 9, which left 7 so he added the 7 on. to the 10.   

We are going to practice this lots so that we can do this without stopping to think.  Room 2 at their best in their learning H.Q.

Stage 3 Maths Group - learning to count on

Mrs C recently tested our maths strategies and we found counting on and back difficult.  This week we began learning how to do this from the biggest number.  Counting on is when you don't go back and start counting from 1 each time, you stay on the biggest number then count on the rest.

Here is an example:
5 + 9 =

We would start at the number 9 and count on 5 more until we reached 14.

Here are some photos of Louis and Harley having a go at counting on from the largest number to solve problems quickly..

Here Louis is setting up his number problem using counters.  He has used blue for the 7 counters and now begins to pull down his 6 red counters.

YES Louis!!!  You remembered to count on from 7 instead of starting at 1 and you got the right answer too.  We are going to practice this for a bit before we start practicing it in our heads instead of using materials to help us.

Harley sets up his number problem so that he can solve the equation quickly using counting on.

You are perfectly right Harley!  I noticed you really took your time and double checked that you had used this strategy properly.  No more going back to 1 to count, you will be solving tricky problems in no time.

Please talk to your children at home about their learning and encourage them to show you how to do it, or give you some examples of how they might use the strategy.

The Geniuses of Room 2 Present....

For the last little while we have been working hard on setting our own inquiry and going through the research process to find the answer to our big question.   This is our first attempt at a project like this so there has been a lot of learning go on and we have some fine tuning to do.  We learned how to use a new app called PicCollage to present our research.

The superheroes of Room 2 are proud to present the results of this research for you to enjoy:

Our next inquiries will be about space and we can't wait to get stuck into them next week!

Matariki - enjoying stories together

This week at Te Reo Language Nest Mrs C got to go with the group from Room 2.  We all heard a story about Rona and the Moon from Whaea Clare and we shared it with our class so that they could enjoy the story too.

Here is a version of the Rona and the Moon story that we shared:



Here is the song that we have been learning and want to share with you. The cool kids of Room 2 can Talk about what this song means:

 

When Mrs C was at school a LONG LONG time ago, she learned this song in her Kapa Haka group at Ngati Toa Primary School in Titahi Bay. Her teacher helped the class to learn how to sew and they all made cushions depicting the story of Rona and the Moon. They went on display as part of an arts exhibition at the museum. She doesn't know where they are now but it was really cool that she could share her story with us too.

Samoan Language Week in Kowhai - Friday 3rd of June

Today was our last day of rotating round the different classrooms.  We finished our week with Mr Roberts in Room 1.  Thanks for teaching us a new game Mr Roberts, you can tell from the photo that we enjoyed playing it.

Samoan Language Week in Kowhai - Thursday 2nd of June

Here is what we got up to on Thursday in our Samoan Language Week celebrations

Samoan Language Week in Kowhai - Wednesday 1st of June

Samoan Language Week in Kowhai - Tuesday 31 May

Here is the YouTube clip that inspired us for our Turtle Siapo artworks,  We can all talk about this story and why the Turtle is so important to Samoa.