Apple Pie preparation

I chose to change the colour of the ceramic pot sitting on the table, to a vivid blue.  I was trying to add blues to the original art work to add light, brightness and a summery feel.

                                              Dish of Apples, coloured by Mrs B

                                             Dish of Apples, By Paul Cezanne

Attitudes programme

Last week our year 7 and 8 students were lucky enough to have the Attitudes programme visit Matawai school, along with our friends from Waerenga-O-Kuri school.  Presenter Robbie Baker was AWESOME, delivering incredibly important health messages about making positive decisions, identity, self-esteem and the power of choices.
His stories were both hilarious and heart warming and his visit was a real highlight.  All students enjoyed a laugh and took away incredibly valuable leaning from the day.  Thanks Robbie!

Stormy Waves Music creation

Our Cybersmart focus has been around the creation of music.  We explored a site called Soundtrap, where you have the ability to create your own music.  The first step of the process was to select an image to insert as a background on a slide.  The idea was that the music we created would capture the mood and movement of our image.  I chose a stormy sea scene and with this in mind, I set about trying to find instruments and sounds to reflect the mood of the sea.  It was challenging to find the right sounds and instruments to truly enhance your image but it was fun to explore the multiple range of sounds and beats you could create.

Fabulous Flipping Fiesta

This morning the cooking room turned into a fabulous flipping fiesta!! Year six students made fluffy banana choc-chip pancakes.  Our skill focus for the morning was learning to separate egg yolks from whites and beat our egg whites to the 'stiff peak' stage.  We also worked on mastering the art of flipping our pancakes.  Tentative flipping soon turned into confident flips, with great height and even a backwards double flip.

We rounded off our great morning by testing a few old eggs in a bowl of water.  Once we had discovered they were a little old, we smashed them in our compost heap.  The perfect fun ending to a wonderful cooking session.  Well done budding chefs.

Dress Up day

We celebrated the end of term by dressing up in clothes from past decades.  This tied nicely with our learning around 'Changing Times' from earlier in the term.  It was fun to look at the changes in fashion and specific clothing items from different decades.  We had cowboys, hippies, Fred Dagg, old school uniforms and brilliant fashion items from the 70's and 80's. A neat end to another busy term in Room 4!

Making Music

Today during our Cybersmart session we explored three different sites to help create your own music.
I used Incredibox to create this short piece...click here to listen.
My next step would be to record a piece of music from an alternative site, like Turn Art into Music or Digital rhythm maker.
It was fun trying different beat combinations and hearing the music come together as you added each element.

The science of yeast

Today we created a 'gif' to demonstrate our understanding of the science behind yeast.  Our gif highlights the process involved with activating the yeast and the chemical reaction which occurs to produce carbon dioxide.  This the process which aids in making light and fluffy bread!

My 80's poem

Our learning around 'Changing Times' has had us interviewing family members and reflecting on decades from the past.  A challenge this week has been to create a poem that reflects 'you and your time'.  I thought back to my childhood in the 80's.  My first step was to brainstorm a list of objects and memories then put my reflections together to create either a list or rhyming poem.

Here is my effort to capture the 80's!  Keep an eye on the students blogs to read their own decade poems.

My skipping animation

Today Ariki, Blair and I made quick animations about skipping.  Room 4 are skipping each Thursday with Mrs Allan so we chose to make that our focus.
Our next step is to add an audio so we have background music.

My best BUBBLE moments. Lockdown 2020

I have used Google drawings to create a poster of my 'Best bubble' moments during our recent lockdown.  The aim was to think about effective layout, adding colour and borders to my circles and thinking about a font that looked effective but was also easy to read. I enjoyed reflecting on the real highlights from my time with my family bubble.

Random word challenge

I have seen many students try the Random Word challenge that Mrs Allan has posted on our class site.  I thought I would give this challenge a go myself.  My daughter selected a random page number, line number and word number from the novel I am currently reading and the word I ended up with was 'Away'.

That word instantly created an image in my head of a child running away from me...my writing took off from there.

Can you spot some of the language features I have chosen to include in my writing?

I am still not sure if I am 100% happy with the final result.  I may keep revisiting this piece and making changes until I get it just right!

Thanks Mrs Allan for the fun writing idea.

Anzac Day art competition

Over the lock down period Ben Fisher has been running fantastic art competitions, open to our local community.  The latest challenge was to create an image to commemorate Anzac day, incorporating collage materials and mixed media, painting and drawing.  Many students and parents entered the competition; Congratulations to Georgia Hunt, Blake Redpath and Kristen Downs, Anzac day winners!

A huge shout out to Ben and Kelly for organising and judging the artwork...you are amazing!

Ben put the entries together in this brilliant short movie.

Violet Notman

Mandala challenge

Students have been given the challenge this week to create a mandala using natural materials collected from outside their home.  Andy Goldsworthy is a British sculptor who uses natural materials in his artworks.  We have used some of his images as inspiration.

Check out our amazing collection of natural art!

Happy Easter Room 4

I hope you are all enjoying Good Friday.  

I wonder if any of you have eaten or made Hot Cross buns today?

Katie and I have made two batches of delicious hot cross buns to enjoy for lunch.  We like them best straight from the oven with LOTS of butter!

Do you know how we made the white crosses on the buns?

We made a paste using flour and water,  put the paste into a little snap lock bag and snipped off one corner to act like a piping bag. Next, we carefully piped a cross on to each bun.

Happy Easter everyone and I look forward to talking to you next week.

Our amazing biking adventure

On the 12th and 13th March, Room 4 teamed up with the Seniors from Waerenga-o-kuri school, to cycle from Motu through to Opotiki.  Approximately 70km through the scenic old Motu road was a challenge, with some epic climbs and bone rattling down hill descents.
Students (and parents) showed enormous determination and perseverance to conquer the hills, set personal goals and have a generally AWESOME time!

Tonui Collab

Last week we had a visit from the amazing team at Tonui Collab. Shannon worked with the Senior team on coding and programming micro-bits to run motors. . Students then worked to create a 'vehicle' using popsicle sticks and wheels, to carry the microbits and make them move, as programmed. 

The collaboration, communication and co-operation was as always, amazing to see. Check out our micro-bit vehicles in action!

TECH CREATIONS

Tech is well under way this year with new rotations of students getting hands on and creative in the sewing, woodwork and Food Tech rooms.

Sewing students are refining their expertise on the sewing machines, hard at it making lounging pants, Wood work students are learning new skills with a range of tools, creating dice.  Food tech students are utilising the abundance of produce growing in our school gardens and last week learnt the skills of preserving, by making delicious courgette pickle.

Blogging Statistics

Today in Cybersmart we were learning how to use digital statistics tools.  We added data about our blogging history and used this data to create a graph.

I enjoyed customising my graph to make the columns 3D, bright and colourful.  The layout features really make a difference to how easy it is to read the data and make the graph visually appealing.

My next step is to use this tool during maths with the class, gathering data and graphing some information to tie into our bike track project.

Perhaps we could gather data from the rest of the school around what features they would like to see in our new bike track?

I can see that my blog posts were non-existant in January.  I know this was because summer was flat stick on the farm, then we were off to the beach camping and I did not blog over this time.

It is easy to see Hayley has been our outstanding class blogger.  This is because she was part of the Summer Learning Journey and was the star blogger of our school!  Hayley blogged 89 times more than me over the past year.

I am surprised to see that most children have over 20 blog posts each...we are certainly are becoming better bloggers.

My Pepeha

Today in Cybersmart we were learning to create a virtual tour of our Pepeha, using Tour builder and Screencastify.
It was challenging at times to find the specific location of certain landmarks but also a lot of fun to watch the tour zoom in on places that are so familiar to me.
My next step is to use screencastify to add my voice to my pepeha.

What is the area of the top block?

Our intention this year is for Room 4 students to head outdoors every Friday, to apply their classroom leaning to some practical Maths tasks.  Last Friday we took the opportunity to further develop our understanding of perimeter and area, by measuring equipment and outdoor areas, using a range of measurement tools.

If the rugby field measures 100m by 70m, what is the perimeter?

Can you work out the area using these measurements?

If it takes Mr De la Haye 15 minutes to mow 1000 square metres of lawn, how long will it take hime to mow the entire rugby field?

Brightening up our classroom

2020 started with a blank canvas in Room 4!  We have begun to fill our walls with vivid colour and creativity.

Mrs Fishers sunflowers provided the inspiration for sunflower paintings and poetic writing.  Pastel and dye was used in a koru design to represent 'My Whanau'.

Should Koalas be introduced to NZ? What do you think?

Today we were reading the opinions of Gisborne citizens, 'Out on the street' in a local opinion poll.  The question they were being asked was, "Do you think it would be a good idea to introduce Koala to New Zealand's eucalyptus plantations following the Australian wild fires?"

We shared our opinions using the tool 'Flipgrid'.
What do you think about Koala living in New Zealand?