The Room 15 Experience

Ama and Syamel Visit

2011-07-12T18:45:00.000-07:00

Wow It has been ages since our last post. Unfortunately we have had log in issues with the blogger site. Expect to now see a lot more posts!

Recently we were lucky enough to have Ama and Syamel visit from Malaysia. They are student teachers who are in New Zealand to look at the way we learn and teach. We learnt a lot about Malaysia and even got to dress up in Malaysian traditional dress. Take a look at the video they made for our blog.

Week 8 Update

2011-03-22T16:16:00.000-07:00

This week we welcomed Matua Lawrence Hinton. He is joining us for 7 weeks as a student teacher. His strengths are in Te Reo Maori and Kapa haka so we are really lucky to have him in our class.

In writing this week we are expanding our ideas by adding detail to our writing. We are learning about adjectives so it will be helpful if you could support this at home by describing things in your house.

We have finally started our addition and subtraction unit. Your child has recently learned a strategy in maths to do with addition and subtraction. To reinforce their learning ask them to show you what strategy they learned.

This Thursday a team from Japan are arriving which includes 23 students who are being billeted throughout the school. We have been looking forward to their arrival for some time now and the school is busy making preparations for this.

During the aftermath of the Christchurch Earthquake, the 23 families of the Japanese Exchange students and the 3 accompanying teachers that are coming to our school on Thursday all made a significant donation to NZ Red Cross. It was something they felt strongly about as they knew that many of us have family there.

In light of all that has happened in Japan and the fact that there are members of the travelling group that have had family members affected by the quake/tsunami/fallout, it may be pertinent to return the favour. Whilst it would be impractical to send over blankets and food, we can send over money.

We are going to have a mufti day this Friday for the Japanese Earthquake/Tsunami. Gold coin donation - as many gold coins as you would like. A cheque will then be arranged to be presented to the Japanese group during their farewell next week. Check out the newsletter on Thursday for more details.

Just a reminder that homework is due in at the end of week 10 (8th of April).

Thank you to all who attended the learning conferences. It was a great opportunity to meet you and share your child's learning.

Week 7 Class Update

2011-03-14T20:35:00.000-07:00

I think last Tuesday was the highlight of the year so far for Room 15 and Pouakai Syndicate. Both students and teachers looked awesome in pink. Everyone made an effort to show pride in who they are, not just by their attire but by the way they competed in the various athletic events. It will be interesting to see who makes it into the inter-intermediate competition. Special mention for Reilly Makea who blew all the teachers away with his amazing throwing ability in the Vortex.

POUAKAI PRIDE

Some of us are getting over our recent fame, we were photographed organising the can drive for Christchurch and put in the local paper. Hashzyre is also our resident TV star winning a spot on the "I love rugby because..." advert. Keep an eye out for him.

Leo Stacking the Cans

Learning conferences are on this Thursday 17 March and the following Monday 21 March. It is really important that we meet to discuss the learning direction for your children. I have given your child a sheet that has your time. Please come a few minutes early just to have a look around the room and see your child's work up on the wall.

This week we are finishing our Statistics Unit. We have been exploring mean median and mode and constructing different graphs. Next week we are starting our Addition and Subtraction unit. It will be great if you all good make sure that your child is completing at least two basic facts tests a week at home. This is part of their homework. I have been impressed with the standard of some of the homework which is being handed in, I would like to see more. Your children know what their homework involves and what is required of them, please ask them to share this with you if you are unsure. Every student has homework!

K.O FUN!

2011-02-23T19:19:00.000-08:00

Hi all,
This is the first post of 2011! Wow what a year we have had already. As some of you can tell I have changed the name of our blog as I have moved classroom.
We are now situated in Room 15, a large recently renovated room!
We have spent the last few weeks exploring how we would like our classroom to run. We have come up with a Dialogue Covenant, a class treaty and now we are starting our Treaty of Waitangi Unit.

BIG NEWS. We won our first game of K.O in the inter class competition. We gave it our all today and it paid off as we are now in to the next round!

Create a log in and leave comments. We love to hear from you, whether you are from Kazakhstan or Taumarunui!

End of a great year

2010-12-15T13:39:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone.

I would just like to thank all my awesome students and their amazing parents for all the support throughout the year. It has been a busy and crazy 4 terms but we have all grown academically and socially this year. My highlights have been camp (where I saw people come out of their shells), Creating our garden, and seeing students win school wide competitions!

I hope that everyone enjoyed 2010 and I wish you all the best for 2011.

Merry Xmas

Kia Kaha

Nick Van den Borst

Our Garden

2010-11-23T16:51:00.000-08:00

In Tui Syndicate we have been growing our own vegetable garden. We planted the seeds ourselves and watched them grow into many types of vegetables such as…

Lettuces, Peas, Radishes, Zucchinis, Broccoli, Silver Beet, Spinach and much more.

Here are some photos of Jordan Holford picking some radishes.

CAMP

2010-11-06T22:15:00.000-07:00

Well what a week we all had at Mount Holdsworth. The weather was fantastic, we had sun everyday and clear skies for star gazing at night. We had an action packed time filled with activities like Caving, High Ropes, Rock Climbing and Tramping.

It was great to see our students step up to many different challenges like the tramp or braving the cold river! I would especially like to thank our parent helpers who made our week run smoothly.

Here are some photos and videos of our time.

THREE MORE SLEEPS TO GO

2010-10-28T22:29:00.001-07:00

Hey all

Just a reminder to everyone to be at the Wellington Train Station at 7.40pm. If you are sick and can't come anymore let me know Sunday night via email.

nick.vandenborst@tawaint.school.nz

Have a great weekend getting everything ready!

Camp Prep

2010-10-14T19:03:00.000-07:00

We are all gearing up for our camp in week 4!
Make sure you all have got the following:

For Camp
□ Packed lunch for Day One	□ Drink bottle
□ Scroggin / Energy snacks	□ Camp book & pencil case
□ Waterproof jacket / Parka	□ Woollen hat
□ 2 pairs longs (1 pair track pants)	□ 2 pairs shorts
□ T-shirts (4-5)	□ Bush shirt / Polar fleece / Wool jersey (2)
□ Underwear (at least one per day) □ Thermals – Merino/Polypropylene undergarments	□ Socks (at least one pair per day + warm, thick pair for at night) □ Toiletries
□ 2 towels	□ 4 pegs to hang up wet clothes
□ Sunhat / Sun block	□ Swimming togs
□ Sleeping bag, pillow case	□ Torch
□ PJ’s / Nightie	□ Insect repellent, band aids
□ Backpack (day pack size)	□ Bags for dirty clothes (rubbish bag)
□ 2 tea towels	□ Toilet roll
□ Named knife, fork, spoon, mug, plate, & bowl.
□ Book / Cards – for indoor activity and quiet time.
□ 2 pairs suitable footwear for around camp & walking – Old shoes for wearing in water.

ENSURE ALL GEAR IS NAMED

NO RESPONSIBILITY TO SCHOOL FOR LOST EQUIPMENT - CHECK HOUSEHOLD INSURANCE

NO FIZZY DRINKS – NO CHEWING GUM –

NO ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT – NO MONEY

Image Poem

2010-10-14T18:28:00.000-07:00

My beautiful house in Vienna

The snow is thick,

On the footpath below

My beautiful house in Vienna

I sit on my bed,

And watch the wind blow

My beautiful house in Vienna

The park across the road,

Has a blanket of snow

Witch will soon melt away to let the grass grow

My beautiful house in Vienna

By Grace Burt

Olivia in America!

2010-09-21T19:10:00.000-07:00

Here is our lastest email from Olivia in America!

Have a look at what she is getting up to!

It is really fun in America. Today I went to Gatorland and I saw loads of alligators.I got to hold one baby gator, two snakes and I got to sit on a huge gator called Jess. Also at Gatorland there was a bird aviary with heaps of budgiesand they just all fly up to you in a big swarm and sit on your head, arms, feet or anything that they can stand on.

Yesterday I went to Ripley's believe it or not and I saw lots of lots of really weird and wonderful stuff.There was a room that was completely round like a tunnel with a bridge running through it. The room spins when you walk through it and even though the bridge doesn't spin it feels like it is spinning. It makes you fall over or no reason because of the illusion.

On Thursday I went to Disney World in Orlando and it was really cool. We went again when it was dark and we saw the Disney fireworks.

I miss New Zealand but it is probably the only time I will get to go to America. It is really funny because none understands our accent so when I said I was from New Zealand they thought I was from England.

I went to universal studios and to the new Harry Potter World and it was amazing.I had a look in the Honeydukes candy store in Hogsmeade and they have chocolate frogs and Berty Botts every flavour beans.

In San Francisco we drove across the Golden Gate bridge, drove down Lombard street in a limosine (crookedest street in the world) , rode the cable cars and had Dim Sim in china town.

I will tell you more when I come back.

From Olivia.

I just received another email from the Nasa with a picture of someone as I was writing this post!

WE REACHED OUR GOAL

2010-09-07T13:50:00.000-07:00

We now have had a visit from every continent in the world!
Except for Antarctica but we think that is because penguins have trouble typing.

Report Writing

2010-08-18T17:07:00.000-07:00

Today we used the a Google spreadsheet (off Google docs) to write a collaborative report on the African elephant. We were split into groups and asked to research an aspect about the African elephant. We had to research about one of the following: Physical Characteristics, Habitat, Diet, Reproduction, predators and endangerment.

We used the computers to research for the information. We wrote a paragraph about our assigned topic. We collated the information on the Google Doc. This is what we came up with!

THE AMAZING AFRICAN ELEPHANT

The African elephant is the largest land Animal in the world.Its scientific name is Loxodonta Africana.

The African female elephant has slender Tusks and a pointed forehead. Male elephants are bigger than the female elephants. Male elephants have thicker tusks male elephants have a slanted forehead. Their grey hairy skin is often covered with mud to protect them from the sun. Huge floppy ears are coincidentally shaped similar to the continent they live on, Africa.

African elephants primarily live in savannas, woodlands, mountains and desert areas; however they prefer thick moist tropical forests. Clean water and plentiful vegetation are the major requirements for their habitat selection. African elephants are indigenous to Africa with the vast majority of populations, residing in conservation areas.A wide temperature range from freezing to 48.88Celsius is tolerated by the elephants as long as water and shade are available.Elephants are not dependent upon other species for survival.

Elephants consume about 5% of their body weight and drink 30-50 gallons of water per day. Young elephants must learn how to drink water up their trunks and pour it in their mouths. They eat a big variety of vegetarian food including grass, leaves, fruit, twigs, bark and seed pods.

When mating, the male elephant stands up on his back legs and rides the female elephant from behind. He holds on to her with his front legs and have sex with her. The mating takes a few minutes. After mating, the two elephants spend time together touching each other with their trunks and even entwining each others trunks in an embrace. The two elephants may spend as much as two weeks together before the male leaves to live apart from the females again.

African Elephants don’t have any predators because they’re so big, but the calves are vulnerable to lions and crocodiles and sometimes to leopard and hyena attacks. Humans are the elephant's major predator. They hunt Elephants for meat, skin, bones, and tusks. Tourism and plantations attract sport hunters. Trophy hunting still happens today. The population of African Bush Elephants was halved during the 1980s. Scientists said that, if they didn’t protect elephants, they would be extinct by 1995.

The African elephant is endangered because of habitat loss. They have two worries, the lions eat them and humans hunt them for their tusks because their ivory tusk make great piano keys and jewelry.

Written by the whole of Rm 7.

What constitutes abuse?

2010-08-08T17:08:00.000-07:00

During our Keeping ourselves safe unit we have been debating what acts are classified as abuse.
The debate got intense when we discussed whether smacking a small child to warn her not to touch the fire. We were given a whole lot of different scenarios and we had to decide what type of abuse it was. The categories were Sexual, Physical, Emotional, Neglect and Not Abuse. Some scenarios were being burnt with a cigarette, being grounded, using put downs, not taking a sick child to a doctor etc. Here are some photos of us doing this.

Keeping Ourself Safe

2010-07-25T20:40:00.000-07:00

Today we listened to a variety of different scenarios where people in that scenario felt unsafe. Our task was to act out different solutions to the problems.
One problem was "Imagine your are walking through the subway at Porirua Station, a couple of older men are smoking and are looking at you funny, what could you do?" Some of the solutions we came up with were really good, like turning around and waiting for a group of people to walk with.
Here are some photos of us in the role plays.

Rhara, McKenzie and Lidiah dealing with the pressure of smoking. Tohu, Elis, Jordan Dominic dealing with what to do when there are big scary people smoking in the subway.

Term 3

2010-07-25T14:14:00.001-07:00

Welcome back, sorry we haven't been blogging lately. We have all been on Holidays.
I personally had a great time on my break as I was lucky enough to go to Samoa. Listening to all the stories is sounds like a lot of people have had a great holiday too. Richard also spent time in the Islands, he traveled to Tonga and said he had a great time.

Our first week back involved a lot of sorting out. We have PAT tests, spelling tests, writing tests and maths tests coming out of our ears. Its fair to say that we all look foward to P.E time so we can run around and play dodgeball.

Training is in session for the Inter-class Dodgeball Tournament. We are planning our attacks with strategies and its becoming very intense. Watch this space, I hope to be able to say soon that we make it through the first round.

Remember don't be shy, leave us a comment and we are only one continent away from reaching our goal so if you know anyone in South America send them our link!

Mr V.

Soccer Triumph

2010-06-23T20:13:00.000-07:00

Seems like the All Whites glory has caught on here in Room 7. Today we faced the strong Room 10 team in our first round of the Inter class football competition. There are three rounds, one round is for boys, another girls and the last one is a combination team. After a spine tingling first round from the boys who drew we had to watch the nerve wrenching girls game. We managed to draw with them too thanks to some handy footwork by Steph Blackford!

Crunch time came, the last round. With two draws whoever won this round would make it through to the next stage. We played really well and ended up scoring the first goal. The rest of the game saw a lot of close calls from Room 10 attack but we held them off to win 1-0.

CONGRATULATIONS, what a cool class room 7 is!

We face our neighbours Room 8 in the next round next week!

Aliysha Visits the Gold Coast

2010-06-23T19:10:00.000-07:00

Aliysha was lucky enough to take some time off school to visit the Gold Coast.
Have a look at some of the things she got to do!

Disco Fever!

2010-06-20T20:56:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday evening the Tawa Intermediate Hall hosted the Syndicate Pride Disco. Those who attended dressed in their syndicate colours and danced the night away.
George and Dominic proved quite the Shufflers by showing the whole school their moves. Dominic and Kerstin also won prizes for best dressed.
Here is some evidence of the night, turns out dancing can win hearts! :P

George and Jenna

Kerstin, Grace and Olivia

Mr V and Andy's Friends (Andy at the end)

George and Charlie Shuffling up a Storm

Wild Self

2010-06-15T16:07:00.000-07:00

In Room 7 for writing we have been focusing on using descriptive language. To help us to remember to use lots of adjectives we were asked to create our wild self. We used a website called

www.buildyourwildself.com

Once we had created our wild self we used the picture to create a fake dating profile for wild crazy people. Here is what we had to include on our profile page

-Personal Info (age, sex, weight height, disfigurements etc)

-Hobbies

-Create a name for the website

-A description on what type of person they are looking for.

-Description of their looks

-Reason as to how they became deformed.

-Written description of their Ideal first date.

Here are some examples of what some of our stars have achieved! Click on the image to enlarge it! Check out Amy as her wild self.

Continent Goal

2010-06-10T14:06:00.000-07:00

Our new goal is to get a view from every single continent!
It is up to our family and friends to help us with this goal. If you know anybody who lives in
South America and Asia please get them to view our blog! It will be awesome if someone knew anyone in Antarctica.

It is also a bit of a competition between classes so lets get promoting. First one to get someone to view our blog from Andorra wins a prize!

Cross Country-Descriptive Writing

2010-06-07T20:02:00.000-07:00

In room 7 Mr V has given us a special writing task. He has told us to write a description of the cross country from our point of view.
What we HAD to include:

-Show don’t tell -Descriptive language e.g. adverbs, adjectives, similes, metaphors etc -Correct Capital Letters and Full stops. -Try to include a conversation with speech marks.

This is a little bit of what I wrote.

My heart was pounding as we, the year 8 girls, lined up to tackle the Tawa Intermediate School cross country. I knew that no matter how hard I tried I would not be 1st. “Jess Kerr is just too fast” was all that was going through my head while Mr O’ C’ was telling us the instructions.
Mr O C’s yelling cut through my thoughts. “You have to remember that the first few seconds aren’t going to win you the honor of first place, so don’t trample anyone trying to get to the front of the pack. Ready, GOOOO!!!” He yelled.

We were off! As I ran past Mr V he yelled “C’mon Grace! Every person you pass is another point for rm7!” Round the block we went before running the actual course. I ran past at least 3 people on the block run. “I’ve made it past the block run, now for the big one” was all that was going through my head at the time. Up the hill and down the other side and again over the next hill. My breath was going in and out in big whooshing gasps.

My chest was on fire (or at least it seemed that it was) as I turned the corner to go back through the tunnel to school. “I hope I’m in the top 10. I hope I’m in the top 10”. My thoughts were muddling up in my mind.
Concentrating on the path, I ran my last few metres, passing someone as I went. By then my legs were numb so I couldn’t stop them from going faster than I ever have before. In through the channel I went. Finally I came to a stop right in front of Mrs Stewart. I took the ticket politely from her hand and looked at it. “7th Place! Last year I only got 14th!” I was so excited. I sat down in the middle of the courts and sighed. I had worked hard and got the result I was looking for, and only 1 other thought passed through my head that day; “I’m DONE!!!”
By Grace Burt

Overall our class did awesome, we came 6th in the class competition and our syndicate came 2nd in the syndicate competition! We had lots of people finish in the top 20!
Well Done!

Cool Brain Test

2010-06-07T14:26:00.000-07:00

1- Find the C below...do not use any cursor help.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOCOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

2- If you already found the C, now find the 6 below.

99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999
99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999
99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999
69999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999
99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999
99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999

3 - Now find the N below. It's a little more difficult.

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMNMM
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

This is NOT a joke. If you were able to pass these three tests, you can cancel your annual visit to your neurologist. Your brain is great!

Joe's awesome achievement!

2010-06-07T00:23:00.000-07:00

Jody Van Straaten has just won an award for model making. Here is what he wrote.

One of my hobbies is modeling. Modeling is building a replica of a vehicle/person/object etc... You can buy a kit that contains plastic pieces that you have to glue together then paint. My Dad and I usually do this when my Dad gets home from work and my little brother and sister are asleep. I entered my LAV 150 in a contest and won 1st place. This is what I won and below is what I built.

CONGRATULATIONS JOE! It is awesome to see what we achieve outside the classroom as well. If you would like your achievements shown email me some pictures and I will post them up!

FUN RUN RESULTS!

2010-05-31T13:19:00.000-07:00

OUR CLASS CAME 7TH!!!!

Well done to you all, our grand total for 27 students ended up being $1300.00
Our highest earner was Jordan W. who raised $179.00!
What an awesome achievement, we on average have raised 48.00 each!
Thats amazing!

Im proud to have Room 7 as my class!
Mr V.

D.A.R.E Problem Solving

2010-05-25T01:59:00.000-07:00

Constable Ian has been coming in to teach us about the dangers of Drugs and Alcohol. We have been looking at ways to deal with situations and ways to solve problems. Ian gave us some problems to solve. One being getting untangled and then another challenge was balancing 12 nails on top of one nail.

This Video is of Rhara and Mckenzie trying to Solve the hand cuff challenge.

This is Mckenzie And Rhara Solving The Problem

¿Cuántos años tienes?

2010-05-20T15:52:00.001-07:00

In class we have been learning Spanish. Mr V. lived in Spain for a year so he is teaching us.
So far we can greet and farewell each other, Count to 20 and have learned how to count to 100.
Our biggest challenge so far is to ask each other how old we are! This is an example of a conversation we have performing in class:

Hola Amigo (Hi Friend)

Hola (Hello)

¿Cuántos años tienes? (How many years do you have?)

Tengo _____ años. (I have ____ years.)

¿Y tú? (And you?)

Tengo _____ años. (I have ____ years.)

Adiós (Goodbye)

Hasta Luego (See you later)

More Comical Comics!

2010-05-17T21:16:00.000-07:00

Here are some more comics that we have been creating.

Click on them to enlarge, ENJOY!

Fun Run Pics

2010-05-16T21:28:00.001-07:00

Here are some pics of us running on the Fun Run. Our theme was 'Sci-Fi Appreciation Society'

Stars In order, Folau as the Man in Black, Kerstin and Princess Leia (Amy), Grace, McKenzie and Rhara (Nerds) and Mr V as SPOCK

Pompeii Mosaics

2010-05-16T20:21:00.000-07:00

In Tui Syndicate every Thursday we swap teachers and get to do 'Creative Thinking'. When we went to Room 8 with Mrs Christie last term we got to make Mosaics that represented the eruption of Pompeii. It was really fun! We had to create a powerpoint of our learning journey so we got to use the computers too!
Take a look at some of our work!

(Photo Stars are Andy on the Computer, Mariel and Amy gluing and Kerstin, Grace, Anna and Olivia cutting the paper. Oh and we can't forget Folau's Hand!)

2010-05-16T19:26:00.000-07:00

We have been making our own comics in class. This is one example from Nick

Thursday 13th May

2010-05-12T19:43:00.000-07:00

The highlights of today were creative thinking , P.E. (Dodge ball and A fitness circuit) , Painting our syndicate flags , Making a house on Lego creator and Having fun in class!Mr V. read another chapter of the book The Boy in Striped Pyjamas. In English we learnt more things about adjectives. At the end of the day we played a game of categories and it was fun.

Written by George and Amy

Fun Run Fever

2010-05-12T00:34:00.000-07:00

Today our whole class ran at least 5km in the Fun Run. We all dressed up in costumes with the theme "Sci-Fi Appreciation Society". Some of the costumes that some of us dressed up in were Men Black, Neo from The Matrix, Pokemon Card Geeks, Princess Leia and Mr V. dressed up as Spok!

We ran around to fundraise for our class camp for the end of the year. We have been working hard to get sponsors to donate a certain amount of money for every lap we ran. The class that raises the most money wins a prize. So far our class are doing well, but we have a lot of work to do if we want to win so we need all the help we can get!

First Post Ever!

2010-05-11T13:29:00.001-07:00

Hey, my name is Nick Van den Borst, a teacher in Room 7 at Tawa Intermediate in Wellington New Zealand. I am beginning to use this website as a tool for students to broadcast their learning to the world!