June Reflection

It's hard to believe it's the end of June already. We have been reflecting on what has been a very busy month since we came back to school after Lockdown. We couldn't believe how much we have achieved!

You can read our individual blogs to find out how we think we have got on.

Here's Savenaca's June Reflection:

Pattern Ball - P.E.

We have been learning to communicate and work as a team.

In P.E. we have been playing Pattern Ball. We were in groups of 5 or more and had to create a pattern so that everyone caught and threw the ball once in the pattern. To work out the pattern, once we had thrown the ball, we bobbed down. We couldn't throw it to the person next to us. On the completion of the pattern, we continued throwing the ball in the pattern - it formed a closed loop.

Next, we increased the speed to see if we could beat the number of catches in 30 seconds - it was warp speed! 
To add another challenge, we introduced a second ball which had to be bounced, and once we achieved that challenge, we used a third ball which had to be a rugby pass.

With three balls going, it was very important we remembered our initial conversations about communiction. We found that calling the person's name before we threw the ball AND making eye-contact worked very well. We also asked questions: Was that throw too hard? Was the throw straight? Working as a team and saying postive comments to each other helped us.

We also talked about the different passess and what we needed to do:

Chest Pass:
1. Hold the ball to your chest.

2. Knees slightly bent and feet shoulder width apart.

3. Step forward with your foot finishing with your arms fully extended and thumbs down.

4. Aim the ball to your partners chest height.

5. Aim for a straight pass because loopy balls take too long in the air.

Bounce Pass:

1. Hold the ball to your chest.

2. Knees slightly bent and feet shoulder width apart.

3. Step forward with one foot and pass to you partner with a 'snapping' action.

4. The ball should bounce 2/3 of the way from the passer to the receiver.

Rugby Pass:

1. Hold the ball in both hands.

2. Stand sideways from the person you are throwing the ball to.

3. Use your fingers to control the ball.

4. Look at the person you are throwing the ball to and swing your arms towards them.

5. Use the arm furtherest away from the person you are passing to, to push the ball.

6. Use the other hand to just guide the ball.

7. Flick your fingers and wrists so that the fingers end up pointing towards your target.

Having a positive artitude, never giving up, treating others kindly and responding to challenges with enthusiasm really helped and are attitiudes we can use in our lives.

Check out our individual blogs to see the Screencastifys of Pattern Ball.

Matariki

This week for Reading and Writing, we have been reading and learning about Matariki. We've watched videos, read articles and discussed opinions. We compared it to other celebrations we have in New Zealand as well as celebrations around the world. 

Matariki is the Māori New Year and yet it is not a public holiday. We celebrate the European New Year. We thought about why this was so, and then formed our own opinions about this question: Should Matariki be a Public Holiday? Then we used Flipgrid to collate out opinions. We will be sharing our ideas our on our idividual blogs.

Did you know that in Taranaki they don't celebrate Matariki? They celebrate Puanga because they can't see Matariki in their night sky.

Here's Ciara's:

Remembering our Multiplication Facts

This week we decided to set ourselves the target of learning two times tables each week that we don't know. 

First we self-assessed. Did we know all of them, nearly all, most, half or none?

We are busy learning ways to work them out.

If we are learning our 2x, 5x or 10x we use a T-chart to stop us from skip-counting. We have races with Mrs Naden who says she is the fastest skip-counter in the whole world! We use the T-chart and beat her every time even though she is skip-counting super fast! It is a fast way and we call it 'Smart Maths'.

If we are learning our 3x, we use our 2x and then add one more lot on. For example 8x3 is the same as adding 8x2 and 8x1 together.

If we are learning our 4x then we just double our 2x. So 7x4 is double 7x2.

If we are learning our 6x then it's 5x plus one more lot. 4x6 would be the same as adding 4x5 and 4x1 together.

7x is simialr but we add 5x and 2 more lots on. 8x7 would be the same as adding 5x7 and 2x7 together.

For 8x we double our 4x tables. 3x8 is the same as doubling 3x4.

For our 9x we use our 10x and take one lot away. 8x9 is the same as (8x10)-(8x1). That's 80-8=72. If we use this then we can even work out 14x9.

We have coloured in the ones we know on our individual charts. You can see these on our individual blogs.

Corpus Christi

Last Sunday was Corpus Christi. We have been learning what this means as well as 'transubstantiation'. We will be posting the definitions of these words on our individual blogs this week.

Rat/Stoat Trap and Possum Trap Update

If you have been reading our blog, you will know we are trapping rats in our Rerenga Awa. Well, we haven't had much luck with the A24 and A12 traps we installed last year. We even asked Sam Gibson who works for DOC and Goodnature to come and check them for us. He suspects there aren't any rats in the Rerenga Awa but we have seen them run along the river bank. The problem is, we can't get closer to the river because of all the blackberry.

So we have decided to use the very first trap we set as well as the A24 - the DOC 200. We can manoeuver it closer to the river bank. The egg we used for bait is fresh (rats prefer rotten eggs) so we will have to wait a couple of weeks before going back down to check. Rats also keep away from human smells - hopefully this weekends rain will wash our scent away quickly.

Gravity

We have been learning about gravity by reading School Journals and articles on the internet, watching YouTube clips, and conducting experiments. We put all our new understanding and knowledge together to write explanations about how gravity works, and also made connections between the texts we read and the experiments.

Here's Kylah's explanation of Gravity:

If you throw a ball into the air what will it do? It will fall down right?  But why doesn't it not float into space?

The reason for this is a force called gravity. Gravity is a force that keeps us on the ground. Gravity is like super glue and holds us down.

Force

A force is a push or a pull. Gravity is a force that pulls us down so we don't float into space.

Boinks

Boinks are a flexible spring-action toy. If you push down a boink, a force will be created. When you let go it will fly up then gravity will pull the boink down.

Dropper popper

A dropper popper is a toy that looks like a dome. If you invert drop the dome with a ping pong ball, the ping pong ball will spring into the air and then gravity will pull it down.

Conclusion

No matter where you throw the ball, it's going down! The effect is a person or a thing that acts in the way that some specific thing happened as a result. Gravity is the cause and effect of everything coming down. Eventually everything is coming down.

To see the videos of the experiments she conducted, read her blog.

Here's the connections Francesca made between the journal article she read and the Boinks experiment:

Bling Your Blog

Today Mrs Torrie came in and showed us how to bling our blogs. We switched to the new blogger and then went into design which is like the engine room or 'behind the scenes' of our blogs. Using our own art work, we took photos and used them as our new background and made the writing transparent so you can still see the whole piece of art. Then we changed the font, colour and background of the header. We experimented with texture backgrounds and had trouble choosing which one to use because there were so many great ones to choose from.
We had a lot of fun personalising our blogs. You can see before and after Screenshots on our individual blogs. Let us know what you think of the changes we made.

May Reflections

This week we reflected on our learning during May.
We are a bit late reflecting as there was so much to do after we got back to school after Lockdown.
Our digital learning objects show we take Screenshots of our work and post them on our blogs.
You can read our reflections on our individual blogs. Rememer to leave a postive, thoughtful and helpful comment.

Pentecost

On Sunday the 31st of May we celebrated Pentecost...the Church’s birthday! We have been learning about this at school as well.

What is Pentecost?
Pentecost is sometimes called the birthday of the Church. Celebrated 50 days after Easter Sunday, Pentecost marks the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles. This was the start of their minisrty to go forth and make disciples of all nations.
The Gospel for Pentecost reminds us that the Church begins with the command to forgive. Within the family, the domestic Church, we learn how to forgive and how to accept forgiveness. The gift of the Holy Spirit enables us to do both.
Pentecost is a fitting time to share a family celebration of reconciliation and be challenged to proclaim the word of God in our daily lives through all that they say and do.

A Reading from the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 2:1-11)

The Holy Spirit Comes at Pentecost 
When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 
And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. 
Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. 
Amazed and astonished, they asked, "Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and 
residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs -- in our own languages we hear them speaking about the wonders of God” 
The Word of the Lord.... Thanks be to God! 


Prayer to the Holy Spirit
Breathe into me Holy Spirit that my thoughts may be holy.
Move in me Holy Spirit that my work may be holy. 
Attract my heart Holy Spirit that I may only love what is holy.
Strengthen me Holy Spirit that I may defend all that is holy.
Protect me Holy Spirit that I may always be holy.
(St Augustine)

Read our blogs to see what we made and how we explained this using our own words.

Torch Challenge

We have been learning about closed circuits for our Digital World unit. We were given an equipment list and had to work out how to make a light bulb go.

Equipment:
2x C batteries
6x wires
lightbulb
tinfoil
cardboard
electrical tape

We brainstormed some ideas and got stuck into the task. Some of the groups could get the lightbulb to work but didn't use all of the equipment. We are now trying to work out what we will do next time to make the closed circuit.
Read our blogs to find out how we got on.