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!

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.

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

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!

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?