Musical madness - Creating our own music on garageband

This term, we have been thinking about how we can create a story with music. We have read a range of texts and then created music using garageband to tell the story. From here, we learnt about looping on garageband. We thought about how the idea of creating music on garageband could be compared to a 'One man band'.

Here are a couple of our garageband creations:

AJ:


Pisirina:


Zaeeda:



Toby:

Term 4 PENN movie: Musical Madness

Last week Levonah, Zaeeda, Pisirina, and Toby created a movie about music. The music was made on garageband by Zaeeda, and the backdrop was drawn by Toby on hyperstudio. They had many challenges along the way which they solved as a team. Let’s see what they came up with!

Making Strutes

What are strutes, you may ask? Well! They are little woodwind instruments made out of straws! A woodwind instrument is a musical instrument which requires air to create a sound. To make the strutes, we had to cut one end of the straw into a triangle. This created our mouth piece (with a reed). We then blew into the mouthpiece to create a sound!

We could  change the pitch by moving our fingers over little holes cut into the side of a straw. We could create a higher pitch by cutting a straw shorter, and a lower pitch by leaving the straw longer.

Here is Zaeeda's writing about creating Strutes.

Film Festival Movie: Electric Adventure

Do we have the story to tell you! At Pt England School, we have found a way of getting inside chrome books! One of our friends found out the hard way, and we spent a long time getting her out! Join us on our Electric Adventure!

This is Room 10's entry into the 10th Annual Manaiakalani Film Festival, 2017. Check out other films from the film festival, here.

Musical Madness!

Today we went out to the field and created our own reed instruments. To do this, we held a single blade of grass tightly between our thumbs, placed our thumbs to our lips and blew. When we did this, the blade of grass vibrated, causing a note! We even realised that you can change the pitch of the note by changing the position of your lips and air pressure over the blade of grass. We also found that it was easier to create a note with a wider blade of grass.
 It took us a while to grasp the concept. but some of us are getting better with practice! Perhaps we could create an orchestra with our home-made reed instruments!?

Cybersmart

Today we talked about being cybersmart in the holidays. We talked about the importance of having at least one adult who we can go to if we have any issues online. We went away in groups to come up with slogans about this. Here are the ones we came up with:

Film festival is fast approaching!

Where has this term gone!? Next Friday, our film festival movie is due in, and we have been very busy in Room 10 getting our filming done! This is not any Film Festival we are preparing for. This is the 10th annual Manaiakalani Film Festival! Wow!! We would love to tell you what our film is about, but that would ruin the surprise! To keep you guessing, here are some (not very helpful) hints...

Hints: blue screening, camera shots involving lots of Room 10 students!

To find out what our movie is about, you will have to wait until Wednesday 8th November!

Tongan Language Week

Malo e lelei! Last week was Tongan Language week. The children from Rooms 9 and 10 went around the school to share some Tongan phrases. Do you know Tongan? Can you teach some of these phrases to your friends?

Making Compasses - Technology used for navigation

As part of our inquiry into changes in technology over time, we have been looking at navigation. This week, we began to look at the sun and shadows, and how they have been used for many years to tell the time and to understand direction.

We have also been reading about magnetic compasses and how they work. We followed some instructions to create our own working compasses. We checked our compasses out against an actual compass to see if the needles were pointing to north, and they were!

As we continue to read about different technology used for navigation, we will be creating DLOs (of our choice) to share our learning.

Pisirina & Tuluinga - subtracting decimals

This week in maths, Pisirina and Tuluinga have shared some great learning on decimals and place value knowledge. Go to the last slide couple of slides to watch Pisirina's and Tuluinga's explanation of how to add/ subtract decimals.



To see more of Pisirina's learning, check out her blog.
To see more of Tuluinga's learning, check out her blog.

Their next step will be to think about any changes they need to make to their mathematical thinking. Can you give them any suggestions??

Matariki Celebration

Kapa Haka at Assembly

Ngā mihi o Matariki! 

Today, we had a Matariki celebration! What a celebration it was! Every student from the school chose an activity (Craft, Cooking, Dance, Music, Movie-making, Sport). Students were then organised into groups of 20. Each group had students from Year 1 through to Year 8.

In Room 10, students were creating a mural using pastels. After assembly, students planned their art on paper:

They then transferred their designs onto these pieces of card.

Everyone managed to complete their artwork by the end of the day! However there is still have one final step! We need to stick all of the art together, to create the finished product! Watch out for a post about the finished mural, next week!

Orienteering

The children in Room 10 have been learning all about orienteering as part of Kiwi Sport this term. In this movie, we are putting the theory into practice, on a very foggy Thursday morning last week. See if you can remember the three important rules of orienteering which we have been learning about!

 

Counter Catching Competition

This week for writing, we took part in a counter catching competition. The competition was to see who could catch the most counters off their elbow. There was a lot of excitement in this challenge and counters were flying everywhere! After we completed the challenge, we went back inside to write about the experience. Watch this space for some of our writing!

Knot tying

In reading this week, we are looking at different knots and how different knots are used for different purposes. This is part of our inquiry into technology, and how it has changed over time. We have been reading about a range of knots, watching instructional videos and presentations, and then trying to tie the knots ourselves. Our next step is to create our own entertaining instructional videos to demonstrate how to tie a knot of our choice.

Kelloggs books arrived!

Today, we had a package arrive for us at the office. It was a big box full of 20 books which we have been given by Kelloggs from the receipt collection at New World, Lunn Ave. This is part of the Kelloggs Books for Active Minds programme! These books have been gifted to our school. We have enjoyed looking through the various books before we take them across to the library.

Thank you Kelloggs for these amazing books! We are looking forward to reading them!

Holiday Blogging

Well done to our amazing holiday bloggers! We had a group of amazing bloggers throughout the holiday from team 4. Yesterday, prizes were given for:

- Audience appeal - Jahzara
- Quality commenting - Amelia
- Creative posts - Naomi
- Best comments - Hinerangi
- Most posts - Zaeeda

The five prize winners each won a chocolate bar and a pair of headphones. Zaeeda, from Room 10, won the award for the most blog posts. She posted 41 blog posts over the two week holiday period! Check out the blogs of these girls by clicking the links above. Awesome work!!

The team 4 holiday blogging prize winners

Team 4 go swimming

Team 4 are swimming at the moment! We are learning about water safety, particularly in rivers, oceans, and lakes. Here we are after learning about how to safely enter and exit a dinghy. As you can see from our faces, we found it pretty cool!

Term 2: Now that's thinking!

This term, our school-wide inquiry is Technology. Team 4 are looking at traditional Māori technologies which were used by Tangata whenua in Aotearoa hundreds of years ago, before the arrival of the Europeans. In Room 10, we have already started looking at resources which the Māori had and reasons why they may have stopped using these resources after people started arriving from others areas of the world. We have also started exploring technologies which were made and successfully used, such as fish hooks and fishing nets. 

Read what Levonah shared on her blog about this term's theme. Please go to her blog, by following the link, to leave her a comment!

Levonah:

Now that’s thinking is our new theme for this Term. It is all about how technology has changed since Māori found New Zealand. We have been looking at what has been used to make technology and what technology really is.

Technology could be a Phone, a computer and headphones. Anything that works is technology. This isn’t all! Technology isn’t just things that are electrical. It could be boats or waka which maori used. It could also be things like windows,buildings and paper.

This term team 4 is learning about maori technology. Maori people made their own technology.

I think maori technology is waka, their carvings on marae, and tiki and there kete that they weaved with flax.

We no longer use the things Māori used back in the day. Maori used trees and wood. We use things that are made out of metal, aluminium, titanium and many more because we have people who travel from other countries that bring new resources.

End of term 1!

We would like to say a BIG THANK YOU to everyone who has come to our blog and left amazing comments this term. We cannot believe we have had a whole term of 2017 already! Stay tuned for some more exciting things we are getting up to over the next couple of days!

Camp!

This week, we had our year 5 and 6 camp at school! A tent city was created on the school field. We took part in lots of activities such as kayaking, scootering/ skateboarding, swimming at the Glen Innes Pools and the Mangere Pools, Youthtown activities, and taking part in a camp concert on the second night. 

Even though camp was during a storm, we managed to avoid the worst of the weather and take part in all of the activities which were organised. About an hour after we left on the Friday, it started to pour down for about three days straight!

 Thank you to all the amazing people who made camp happen! To the team of people with Mrs Nua and Mrs Squires who set up all of our tents, to Mr Burt for taking us kayaking, to Mr Jacobsen and Mr Somerville, and to all the parents and teachers who took the time to help with food, the trips to the pools, and security. You are amazing!

Te Taiao o Tāmaki movie

Today we had our school picnic. During the picnic, a group of students from room 10 interviewed teachers and other students to find out how we can care for our environment and what the environment means to us.

Kellogg's Books for Active Minds Programme

Room 10 are lucky enough to ben part of the Kellogg's Books for Active Minds Programme. We were fortunate to have been gifted the book 'Diary of a wimpy kid - Cabin Fever' by Geoff Kinney which we are absolutely LOVING!

While we are reading this book in class, there is a box in the entrance/exit of the Lunn Ave New World which is (hopefully) filling up with receipts so we can win some books for our school! 

Room 10 just wanted to say a BIG THANK YOU to Kellogg's, New World, and School Kit for this awesome opportunity! Here we are enjoying our book!

Bike Track Opening!

Today we had the opening of our new bike track at school! There are some amazing people who have helped this project to happen, including Dimension Data, Variety, Auckland Transport, and Bikes in schools!

We all gathered out on the field for the special occasion. 

After some welcomes, speeches, waiata, and karakia, some students were fitted with helmets and bikes, cut the ribbon, and rode the first loop around the track! 

We would like to say a BIG thank you to everyone who has made this possible. We are very excited about getting out on the track for the first time!

Rooms 9 and 10 Korowai

At the beginning of term 1, we created a Korowai for our shared space. Each of us used blending with oil pastels to create at least one feather, and then wrote our names onto a coloured feather. We then put all of these feathers together to create this beautiful Korowai. When we created our Korowai, we came up with five expectations for our learning space. We expect that everyone will show:

- Respect

- Support

- Responsibility

- Gratitude

Finally, we expect that everyone will work as a team.

Creating through animations

This term, team 4 are creating animations of Māori myths and legends which have strong links with the environment. Learners can choose from either Rata and the Totara tree, Māui and the Sun, or Māui and the Giant Fish. In Creative Space with Mrs Lagitupu, we are developing our animating skills. We look forward to sharing some of our animations with you later in the term!

Toby: Untie the human knot!

This week for writing, room 10 took part in an unusual, yet fun, experience! Toby wrote this descriptive and engaging recount about it:

Check out Toby's blog post and leave him a comment!

As the cheers of laughter spread through the classroom, while the three groups of kids all 8,9 and 10 year olds stood in a circle to wrap, then untie themselves from each other. “AJ, put your feet through Jacob’s arms” I shouted to a friend of mine, my friend josh was having loads of fun twisting, turning falling to the ground.

“What kind of game is this?” I thought to myself while trying to untangle myself from all the disaster that was happening around me. My firm grasp was no match for Josh’s weight, a few seconds ago I couldn’t risk it, I had to let go. Once I let go I could see josh and myself laughing together then slap! He had hit the ground, both of us still laughing.

What I could hear and see was every student having a beaming joyful time, it was so cool to see how the students and teachers were happily getting along with each other.

People were shouting and screaming because of all the fantastic happiness around and inside the classroom, like a zap of lightning striking the classroom and providing laughter and fun while we still had the time to play the game.

I was trying to make sure everybody was listening to me so we could untangle ourselves and be free, but their was too much fun happening. A few minutes ago Miss West shouted ”alright everyone packing up and sitting on the mat” “yes Miss West!” everyone shouted and had already sat on the mat before she knew it, to learn new things!

Photos below!

Our environment in photos

What comes to mind when you think about the environment you live in? As part of our 'Te Taiao o Tāmaki' (The Environment of Tāmaki) inquiry, this week we took some photos of our environment around Pt England School. We are using these to create Pt England Environmental Magazine Covers. Check out some of the creative photos which we took!

Te Reo Māori with Whaea Saf

Kia ora! Today, we had our first Te Reo Māori lesson of 2017 with Whaea Saf!

This year, we are focusing on 'Responsibility' - Kaitīakitanga i nga wā kātoa. With Whaea Saf, we learned the meaning of 'Kaitīakitanga.'

Kai = food/ feed

Tiaki = care

The word Kaitīakitanga means 'guardianship' or guardians of everything. 

We are going to continue to learn more about the meaning of the saying: 'Kaitīakitanga i nga wā kātoa' throughout the term.

              GJ (2017)                   

This links nicely with our cluster-wide inquiry: Te Taiao o Tāmaki - The environment of Tāmaki. We can show Kaitīakitanga in many ways by looking after the beautiful environment in which we live. 

                                                                                         GJ (2017)