Film Festival

If you were not able to attend our Film Festival evenings, here are Room 8's films for you to enjoy.

What is the X Factor you ask? It’s a fierce, competitive talent show, where the judges have high expectations for the performances and they don’t hold back! Will anyone get the golden buzzer or will they all get the X? Which group will take the title of  X Factor...

In Family Feud, a face to face competition between two Kiwi families takes place, with hosts that will have you laughing and contests that have attitude. Who will get the points? Do they have what it takes to take away the win?

EPro8 Technology Challenge

We attended the EPro8 Technology Challenge today.
We were each put into groups of four and the man in charge gave us brief instructions on what we needed to do.

Here are some of our reflections:

Kakapo Group:

Today we went to Epro 8 we had so much fun!

We found out that measuring was quite challenging.

Setting up the fans was the easiest part.

We had to make a ticket booth.

We finished most of our tasks.

We got 210 points.

WE WON!!!

Kereru Group

What did you find easy?

Putting the cords in  the right place. Kane

Holding the balloon. Stanley

Putting the cords in  the right place. Kavith

What did you find difficult?

Getting tasks done in a limited time. Maskil

What was your favourite part?

When the winners were revealed. Stanley

Making the balloon float on the fans. Kane

How did you find working with a group?

Good, because we could help each other. Kavith

Helpful. Kane

What would you do differently next time?

Paying extra attention. Stanley

Team Pukeko

What did you find easy? The balloon challenge.Leah

What did you find difficult ? Building the box. Claire

What was your favorite part? Building the box. Rishabh

How did you feel working with the group? Good! Maksim

What would you do next time? Work faster.

Leah, Claire, Rishabh, Maksim

Siyanqi Primary School (Ningbo) Visit

In week 4 C.P.D.S. had the visitors from our sister school in China arrive. The week started off with a Powhiri in the hall to welcome our manuhiri (visitors) to school.

On Tuesday morning Room 8 were part of a 45min rotation where the year 3/4 classes each did an activity with our manuhiri. In Room 8 we looked at the koru which is a symbol of new life and new experiences. We used pastel and black paper to create some art work.

The week finished with an assembly for the whole school where our manuhiri received awards and shared some of their cultural dances and art.

Here are some photos

Samoan Language Week!

Talofa lava aiga!

In Week 5 it was Samoan Language week. In Room 8 we talked about the importance of valuing and respecting the different cultures in NZ and in our classroom.

We learnt some basic greetings throughout the week, and learnt a new song in Samoan called 'Le Aute.' We also created some beautiful art work by learning how to draw some Samoan Patterns.

Check out some of the stuff we got up to.

Introducing Persuasive Writing

Today we started looking at persuasion

We were given a statement and then we had to decide if we strongly agree, agree, not sure, disagree or strongly disagree.

Fidget Spinners Should be banned

Strongly Agree	Agree	Not sure	Disagree	Strongly Disagree
Causes a distraction (Rio) Oil inside the fidget spinners can be poisonous (Alicia) If you lose it at school it causes drama (Zareena) Other people want to play with them -too loud (Matthew) Choking hazard (Meg) When you spin them some pieces could break off and hurt someone (Sophie H) If they break or lose them you will be seen as not responsible by your parents (Olivia) If they are played with on the mat so students won’t know what they are meant to be doing (Amy D) You will end up staying in at lunch to finish your work (Paige)	All your friends will want a turn and they will annoy you by asking for a turn - so they shouldn’t be at school (Maayan)	It will distract people/Some people need fidget spinners because they have problems with concentrating and it helps them to stay on task (Sophie) It’s a stress toy that you can spin when you are stressed/disagree because it will cause distractions (Maskil) Depends on the person - some people are easily distracted by them others can use it as a way to fidget while maintaining their focus (Yogya)	Should not be banned because you can choose to use them outside (Andrew) They can be used for stress relief (Maksim) Can be played with when you are bored (Stanley)	Struggling to concentrate, spinning can keep your hands busy and easier to concentrate (Lachlan) Finger strengthening exercise (Shamanth) Could be used as a fan (Mohammad)

Students should only be allowed to have the essential stationery at school (Blue pen, pencil, ruler, rubber, sharpener and 12 pack of coloured pencils in a snaplock bag)

Strongly Agree/Agree		Not sure	Disagree/Strongly Disagree
The amount of stationery is a distraction/trading (Amy G) You only NEED the essentials to get your work done (Aanya) Scented pencils are a distraction (Mohammed) All of the stationery might not fit in the pencil case (Summer) You don’t need your work to be smelly and everything colourful with gel pens etc (Meg) You only need a certain amount of colouring pencils because the teachers have extra colouring pencils etc (Olivia) If you trade, your parents might not want you to (Zareena) Plain pens won’t cause issues (Stanley) Trading causes a distraction, and you might end up having to stay in to complete your work (Matthew)		Sometimes you might need colouring pencils or black pen (Nithya) It can affect your future because if your are arrogant about your stationery it may follow you into later life (Yogya) Extra stationery for rainbow writing/sometimes we don’t need all those colours (Paige) Habit forming - too much money for something that might not be used much/some people get distracted (Sophie) More colour to make work vibrant/some people trade and their parents get upset then when they try to trade back the other person doesn’t want to trade back (Maayan)	If you have lots of things you have more options (Kauan/Lachlan) Some pencils smell good (Dhruv) If you have gel pens you can use them to make your work colourful (Shamanth) You might need more than 12 colours to do your work (Rio) Scented pencils could calm you down when you smell them (Matthew)

Students should be able to wear their own clothes to school

Strongly Agree/Agree		Not sure	Disagree/Strongly Disagree
If you wear a uniform, if you lose something you have to buy a new one but if it’s your own clothes you might have another one you can wear (Andrew) Easy to lose your uniform because someone might take because they think it’s theirs. (Alva) If you have one set of school uniform and it doesn’t dry in time. You have more options with mufti (Calem) You like your own clothes and think they’re cool (Alicia) More comfortable in your own clothes (Maksim) Express yourself with your own clothes (Meg) School clothes cost a lot of money (Matthew)		All school uniforms are in the wash/on a school trip you won’t be representing the school (Rosa) If you wear your own clothes you’ll have ownership/you might get your own clothes dirty - harder to wash (Rachel) If your get lost on a school trip you might get lost (Li) Some people might get fussy about the uniform (argue about the uniform)/if you come to school wearing ballet dresses they aren’t appropriate for a school day (Sophie)	Wear a uniform makes it easier to identify people (Olivia) If we wear jewellery to school we might lose it (Amy G) More sensible to wear a uniform, because your uniform is enough (Claire) If we wear too much clothes it’s too colourful and can’t identify who’s who (Summer)

Our Bug is a...

The Leopard reading group investigated the "bug" that we found in our classroom.

With help from the people who commented on our blog post and the research that they did, they discovered that it is a...

House Centipede

We found out that the picture on the blog was exactly the same as the pictures on all the different websites we looked at.

Here is some interesting facts we found about the House Centipede:

• House centipedes feed on spiders, bed bugs, termites, cockroaches, silverfish, ants and other household arthropods*. 
• Their antennae are sensitive to both smells and tactile information.
• House centipedes lay their eggs in spring. 
• House centipedes have Up to 15 pairs of long legs.
• They are a yellowish grey colour.
• House centipedes live anywhere from 3 to 7 years.
• They can bite!!!

*an invertebrate animal with an exoskeleton

Click here for an article we read.

Can you help us?

Today we found this unusual bug in class. We were all intrigued and some of us a little scared of it.
We don't know what it is. Can you help us?

Some of the students tried to count it's legs...we think that it has about 30.

We are going to do some investigating.

Hot Cross Buns

What a fun day we had today!

Mrs Bell thought it would be nice to make some Hot Cross Buns on her last day with us in Room 8.

We had a fun filled day with baking, despite the horrible rain outside. 

Take a look at how well we kneaded and added our fruit to our buns...

We each got to eat what we made - Even better!!

We have lots to write about tomorrow!! 

Have a lovely Easter Break everyone.

ANZAC Biscuits

Today we read about how ANZAC biscuits came to be ANZAC biscuits.

We then used the recipe to create our own. 

We had fun while also learning about fractions!

Here are a few photos of what we did. 

In Room 8 we have been looking at how we can 'show not tell' in our writing to paint a picture in the readers mind.

We watched a story starter written by a New Zealander called Greg Broadmore who is a Weta Workshop Artist.

Captain Taniwha and the Sticky Space Snot – "What happens next?" animated video from Ministry of Education on Vimeo.

After watching the video we each finished the story ourselves...remembering to try and show not tell.

Problem Solving Maths

On Friday in room 8 we do problem solving maths.
When we do this we are learning to work together to solve problems. This can be hard but we are flexible and reflective learners who are trying to be better than before.

This was today's problem...

Cubes in my pocket

I have some cubes in my pocket.

I noticed that when I shared the cubes into two equal groups there was one left over.

When I shared them into three equal groups there were two left over?

How many cubes might I have in my pocket? What range of possibilities might there be?

We had to discuss the problem

We had to test our theories with materials at times

We challenged others' ideas

We had to ask others to explain their thinking to us

Looking after our iPads

Room 8 was learning about looking after our expensive beloved iPads. We acted out 'what to do' and 'what not to do' to show how much we know. Enjoy

Lichtenstein Portraits

Can you guess who is who?

Room 8's finished Lichtensein inspired portraits are on display. 

They have brightened up our classroom. 

Lichtenstein-Inspired Pop Art

On Friday we started on some artwork using the artist model, Roy Lichtenstein. Lichtenstein was an artist of the Pop Art era of the 1960s whose work was influenced by popular advertising and the comic book style. 

Oh Jeff, 1964

You may have seen his style in the Auckland Transport advertising on the back of buses, encouraging people to take pubic transport rather than drive:

Auckland Transport Travel Myths Campaign 2013

With our work we are focusing on bright colours, bold outlines and the use of speech bubbles like those used in comic books. Our process involves:

• screen printing with class photographs, tracing paper, black vivid outlines and a photocopier. 
• bright acrylic paint to 'colour in' the black and white prints
• layering on coloured card and the application of speech bubbles featuring a personal message from each child.

We can't wait to share the finished products! 

Mrs Bell and Miss Tames

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