End of Term One 2016

                         

Kia Ora

This term the students in Room One at Karoro School have all worked very hard. This has made it extremely difficult to just select two or three for acknowledgement at the end of term assembly.   Consequently I would like to acknowledge everyone through this, our last blog post for the term.

These students have worked very well in their mathematical knowledge this term, making steady progress in our "Ladder Maths"basic facts programme. I was very impressed that many students chose to take work home to practice their mathematical skills. Matthew R., Beau, Sam, Josh, Molly, Bradley, Poppy, Aedan, Ben and Lakshitha. Congratulations also to Courtney who has moved up five steps in the programme this term.

These students have shown flair in literacy, working hard in their writing and reading challenges. Aleece, Fern and Tara.

These students have worked hard to understand and use their Chromebook to access and show their understanding of their learning. They have developed a lot of new technology skills this term and they have helped others by sharing their knowledge. Jack, Ryan, Kieran, Jayden, Niamh, Madison, Wil, Matthew M., Mitchell, Lochie, Guy, Kade (my IT expert helper!), Greanne, Gage, Emily, Allie, Summer.

These students have consistently completed the home learning tasks this term: Summer, Ryan, Jayden, Tara, Emily, Fern, Madison, Jack, Allie, Bradley, Gage, Matthew M., Mitchell, Poppy, Greanne, Kade, Aleece, Josh, Sam, Aedan, Ben, Molly, Lakshitha and Matthew R.  Everyone has home learning for the holiday break and we look forward to seeing everyone meet the expectations for this.

Everyone has shown that they can participate and contribute to the life of the school through positive involvement in the classroom programme and in school responsibilities. All students have shown respect for each other, sharing ideas and skills and responding to help and feedback.  It is a privilege to share the classroom with everyone. Have a happy holiday.

Ruma Tahi's Family Tree

Whakapapa / Family Tree

This term students in Ruma Tahi have been investigating their family trees. This was a part of our mihi unit. We researched and wrote our basic mihi and then created a digital learning object so that we could share our visual mihi with others. Some of us learned how to use 'screencastify' so that we could demonstrate our pronunciation when speaking our mihi. 

After completing our mihi we each created a branch for our classroom family tree. This tree stretched across a wall and around a corner because there are so many of us in Ruma Tahi! We found out that many of us share common ancestors. More of us share common countries of origin. We all know that each of us has ancestors who travelled to Aotearoa / New Zealand.

Our final step was to write a poem that referenced the idea of whakapapa / family tree. This week we have one to share with you.

I Am the Green Apple of My Family Tree

I am a green apple, I’m in the middle.

My sister is the blossom, who just bloomed.

My dad and mum are red, nice and ripe.

My grandparents have turned yellow, after their days.   

My great grandparents are the soil, but they're still there for us in a way.

My aunts, uncles and cousins are in the nearby branches.

The more distant  they’re related to me, the further away they are.

No matter what or who we become we will always stay near our apple tree.

People are there before me

and people will come after

me.

I’m the middle of my apple tree.

By Lakshitha

Agapanthus Artworks

This term we created artworks based in our local environment. Around the western fence line of our school we have numerous agapanthus plants.  During the start of term one these plants are in full bloom. The agapanthus flowers were our inspiration and motivation for our artworks.

The process we went through for creating our artworks included observation, sketching in pencil, painting in acrylics and highlighting with vivid. We ended up with a wide variety of paintings and some of these are included in this post, along with photographs from stages of the process.

                  

Changes To Assessment At Karoro School

This week in our digital classroom we have been the first class in the history of Karoro School to complete P.A.T. testing online.  We worked on Reading Comprehension and Mathematics.

Many of us thought that it was easier to complete these tests online because we did not lose our place when putting our answers on our marking sheet. We were really focussed because we wanted to give every answer our best attempt.

Our teacher thought we were smart learners.

And then something even more exciting than Statistics happened... our Chromebooks arrived

Matthew investigates the length of Mitchell's face.

We continued recording our measurement data for our statistics unit.

Molly makes a mark to measure Emily's height.

Josh measured Gage from shoulder to elbow.

Ruma Tahi has set off into the new year with purpose and an enthusiasm for thinking and learning! Yay! This year we are starting our statistics unit. We have been asked by Velociraptor Clothing Manufacturers to create new uniforms for schools and sports teams.  We started by brainstorming what aspects we would need to consider.  Then we practised taking an unbiased sample around the classroom of foot measurements for shoes.

Stay tuned to see where we go to next...