If you like unicorns you're AWESOME!!! My name is Phoenix and I love unicorns. I’ve never got to read a unicorn book before. But I will draw one soon because I have more experience now with drawing but I have a workshop that I go to in school and it’s called writing unicorns.
If you ever write about unicorns well you can use your imagination and that’s the fun part!!! For example, unicorns aren’t real. But they can always be in your imagination, lots of people don’t like to use their imagination for things that aren’t real.
This term the Girls only Powerful Writing group have been working on some creative writing to enhance our learning. Some of the things we have learnt are: to use Read Write (on the computer), using different web sites and helping each other ideas, feedback and feedforward.
A creative piece of writing I did was my story called, “ The man in the book”. When I was creating this story the first thing I did was we looked at and talked about some beautiful illustrations and we brainstormed together. This helped me find tricky and interesting words to use. Some of the ways we got words were from the Read Write computer program, thesaurus.com, friends, adults and dictionary.com.
When I started writing I started to use Read write to help me edit and listen to my writing, this has helped me to hear if it makes sense.
When I had finished I got two friends to look at my writing and to read it so they could give me feedback and feedforward.
After I got that feedback and feedforward I used some of the advice to help me make my story more creative and more interesting. The thing I have found really hard has been working with new and different people that I have not worked with before. The thing that I liked was getting helpful feedforward from my class mates. I am really proud of my writing.
Here is an excerpt of some of my writing:
“ While Raj was walking on a big grassy hill he found a big humongous shiny blue book….”
Hi my name is Isabella Morgan and this term, I have a project about my favourite plants and flowers. If you already know about nature and you like playing outside and you like trees, I will tell you all about nature! some of my friends are in the same project group as me and I am sure they will love to learn about the lovely nature and flowers also.
Did you know that some flowers don't like the sun too much otherwise they might die and they need to be healthy and clean.
The largest flower in the world is the flower of the Puya Raimondii, which has a flower stalk 35,000 feet tall and over 8,000 white flowers. Mimosa pudica, or sensitive plant, will actually fold up its leaves when it is touched.
New Zealand nature is amazing but sometimes annoying too. Did you know that some dolphins are dying by getting caught up in nets so please stop killing our dolphins!!make a good choose to not kill plants and trees! I'm writing about my favourite flowers and it is about wild roses!
Over the past two weeks, students have been working hard on their projects.
Cyber Safety
The Cyber Safety Group have been designing a website to promote safe use of the internet to students at HPPS. They have also been busy writing and rehearsing their plays. They were lucky enough to get a special session with the drama teacher, Kathy, who gave them feedback about how to polish their performance. The plays will be performed next week in the other commons.
Healthy Food
The Healthy Food Group went on a trip to the supermarket to source healthy ingredients for the healthy recipes they have been researching. For some of the recipes they substituted the not so healthy ingredients with healthier ones. The whole common is benefiting from this project as we all got to sample the yummy but healthy food that they made!
Friendship
After surveying other students about the type of conflicts they mostly experience at school, the Friendship Group have filmed some common conflict scenarios along with strategies for dealing with them. They will be screening the episodes in all the commons next week.
Outdoor Space
This group have been designing and painting some large art work that will be displayed in the LC4 outdoor area to brighten up the space. They have also worked on crafting an outdoor concrete pot which they are planning to decorate and use in the space.
Fitness
The Fitness Group have been very active, organising a running workshop, an upcoming soccer tournament, a rippa rugby round robin and creating infographics to encourage others to become more active.
THE READING CORNER
At the beginning of Term 4, students decided they wanted to make their learning space more colourful and friendly. You will have noticed lots of new displays and art on the walls but some students took this a step further and created an entirely new space. This is our new Reading Corner. This includes a reading hut designed by Tate, a bookshelf built and donated by Jack and some inspiring artwork by Indi, Sydney, Kaylana and some other students.
ALGEBRA
In the final weeks of this term we will be exploring algebra. During this time students will investigate making and describing patterns, finding rules to predict the results of patterns and how relationships are expressed in words and in graphs. They will also look at equations consisting of +, <, and > and solving equations with unknowns.
COMING UP
Wednesday 7 December: LC4 students have been invited to the Hobsonville Point Secondary School to their Market Day. The students will be walking to the secondary school so they need shoes, a hat and some gold coins if they would like to buy anything at the Market. Tuesday 13th December: HPPS is inviting all parents to visit the school for a celebration, picnic and visit the learning commons to see what has been taking place in term 4. For those that worked on the Hobsonville Point History game there is an opportunity to share the video game also. The school newsletter has more information about this.
Physical Education
There has been a great amount of PE taking place for LC4 students recently. We've had a groups of students taking part in workshops with the secondary school, they've been learning skateboarding, badminton, dance and cheerleading. A large group of students have also been involved with gymnastics on Friday afternoons, professional coaches have been visiting to support our students. As a learning common we've also been going out to practise some of the summer small ball skills of catching, striking and throwing. Students are enjoying the chance to get outside:
"My handstands used to go everywhere and I'd fall, now my handstands are good and I'm starting to learn how to do a cartwheel".
"I've been learning how to do things but I'm still struggling to do them when we're not on the mats. But I still love going".
"I've learnt how to play badminton, I thought it was just like tennis but its not".
"Now I know how to throw a ball properly".
Effective Communication Projects Physical Activity Group:
These students have all chosen to promote greater physical activity at Hobsonville Point Primary and have so far created a survey using Google Forms to investigate the student attitude towards exercise. They're going to use their results to create infographics, including data and their learning from their own personal interest. Outcomes within this group are a lunchtime soccer tournament, rippa rugby workshops, student led run club and another group is looking to excite students with a trip to Clip 'n' Climb. LC4 Outdoor Space:
This group have set the lofty challenge of creating a more inspirational and relaxing outdoor space. They've been busy writing letters for Mitre 10, newsletters and investigating methods for beautifying the courtyard. They are wanting to create Bottleflies using recycled plastic bottles and are hoping to do some planting, paintwork and possibly even some small construction work.
Healthy Food Project Group
In the last few weeks, the healthy food group have been doing a whole lot of research! We have been reading food labels and finding out what things like sugar, protein and calcium do to our bodies!
This week we talked about substituting unhealthy ingredients in recipes for healthy ingredients. We hope to be visiting the supermarket next week and then getting into the kitchen to test our substitutions.
Friendship Project Group
We have been flat out writing scripts that demonstrate how kids in our school can solve problems between them and their peers! After lots and lots of filming and then re-filming, we are happy to be editing our film at last! Soon our "first episode" will be complete and then shared with some of the learning commons around the school. In the meantime, we are writing new scripts for our next episode too!
Cyber Safety
The Cyber Safety Project group are exploring how best to promote cyber safety tips effectively to students at Hobsonville Point. The group have started by collecting information about student use of the internet. Did you know that 50% of students spend 1-2 hours a day online? Over 60% of student play online games with chat. But only half of those know who they are chatting to. Currently the group are researching how to stay online and thinking about ways they could communicate this information. Some of the group were lucky enough to attend a Cyber Safety Conference being held at Hobsonville Point Secondary School.
“I thought it was ok at first but now I know you shouldn’t share your age and birthdate”
"It wasn’t just one of the those normal conferences where it is just boring boring information, the kids actually got to be involved in the sessions and it was mostly kids teaching kids”
“They told us that sometimes you might not be popular at school but you can be popular online - and that surprised me”
Mannequin Challenge
Our students have noticed that the Mannequin challenge has been quite popular, we've been using it to extend their ability with drama skills. Here are some samples of what they've been doing.
Upcoming events:
Y6 Bike Safety course in week 7.
IEM emails to be sent soon from Karma.
Over the past three weeks we have created a ‘sensory’ room in LC4, a space where the visual, audio and olfactory setting has changed every couple of days. This is to encourage students to think about how their environment influences their emotions. What we feel can be influenced by what our senses are taking in and what we hear, see, taste, smell, can provide us with information on how to feel.
Blue room: “Feels like I am in the future”, “calm”, “soothing”
Red room: “Makes me feel crushed”
Coffee: “Reminds of of the time I gave it to my Dad for his birthday”, “mornings”
Thyme: “Feels like summer”
Water sounds: “Relaxing and annoying at the same time”
Digital Citizenship
The immersion in week 3 was around confident and positive engagement with digital technology. We introduced some safety information to help the students get the best out of the internet and stay safe online. We talked about not giving out personal information when we are chatting online, not meeting up with strangers we’ve been in touch with online and not opening emails or files from people we don’t know. We also talked about telling a parent or trusted adult if something is happening online that makes us feel uncomfortable.
If you want to give yourself an online quiz, check out:
Here are some acronyms the students came up with to remember which personal information not to share online:
Passwords
Address
Phone number
Email address
Real name
Hotmail or other email address
Address of your house
Passwords
Phone number
Your full name
Health Kids Challenge
The Healthy Kids Challenge has started! The challenge runs for 5 weeks and in that time students count the number of steps they take each day using their pedometers. We have a team of students adding up the steps each day and calculating the average to record on the Healthy Kids Challenge website. Follow our virtual journey around the world at:
Several of our students helped to organise a Day of the Dead celebration on the 31st October. They prepared activities to do throughout the day, dressed up and asked everyone to bring a plate for a shared lunch. Thanks Radha, Clarissa, Martina and others.
Celebrating our writing
One of our writing groups has been working to construct a village that represents them, they shared this with the Learning Common on Friday. Some children have recently produced accordion books or story wheels. These are still up in LC4 if you're child was in one of these groups.
We've been focussing on our immersion activities a lot this week, specifically working on our well-being through understanding friendship, emotions and relationships.
Friday began with a lot of work exploring feelings, we used freeze frames to show emotions:
Friday afternoon was spent in 3 different art workshops, Nicole explored ink-blowing, Trudy's group worked on Mandala art and Reid's group were inspired by Keith Haring.
Keith Haring inspired art:
"It was great fun because we got messy"
"We got to smudge and use lots of colours"
"I was a bit stressed and this helped me relax"
Ink blowing:
"I still have to do the hair, it was interesting and I want to learn how it [the ink] is used in other applications"
"I want to keep on doing it, it was really enjoyable"
"I want to learn more about indian ink"
Mandala Art:
Mandala patterns are an Indian art form that uses symmetrical patterns that are designed. Today they focussed on radial pattern using paint and rocks. The students listened to a range of music, including Tibetan incantations while they were in their art session, "Be quiet, I want to meditate to this music"
While watching a video, the students thought it would be quite difficult but they all experienced success in the workshop.
Upcoming events in LC4.5:
Healthy Kids Challenge using pedometers
OnBoard Skateboarding Workshops - notice to come home soon.
