Learning words - SURVEY

Te Pahu School Culture

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Tessellations

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We have explored what a tessellating shape is (a repeated pattern made by a single shape). We then created our own tessellation pattern. This proved to be more challenging than it first appeared. There was lots of learning around the need for accuracy, because if drawing and cutting are not accurate then the shape will not tessellate. The students created a tessellating shape and then identified what 'picture' the y could identify it to finish the art piece. Well done guys you came up with some creative patterns.

Challenge 3,4 and 5

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Well done room 7! Challenge 3, 4 and 5 achieved! You can be proud of yourselves. Some of you conquered some really big fears. It was so good to see everyone giving their best, supporting each other and taking on the challenges. You also managed to gain lots of knowledge about survival, the bush, edible plants, and caves. It was great to see most of you up for an early morning run too - I like that attitude! It was such an awesome thing for me to watch you guys in these challenges. I'm looking forward to your personal reflections on your owns blogs.

A massive thanks to the parents who supported us in this. You were so helpful and made it all run smoothly. Hope you enjoyed your time too!

Leadership day

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We are focusing on leadership in room 7 this year. We went to Albert Park in Te Awamutu with lots of other schools leaders for a day designed to develop leadership qualities in us. It was a great day which challenged us to display the values of the Commonwealth games - respect, perseverance, support, cooperation, and patience. There were some challenging activities requiring lots of team work.

Kindy Bark Spreading

Room 7 got their 20 hours of community service for the Te Pahu challenge kicked off by helping the Te Pahu Kindy spread some new bark. It was a hot day to work in but the class managed to get it spread and ready for the Kindy kids. Well done room 7. I know the Kindy really appreciated your help.

Leadership discussion

When I put the word  Leadership into Google images, these are some of the pictures that came up. We had a great discussion in class as to why the images relate to leadership. It helped us see that leaders inspire others to be better and to grow. Leaders also lead their followers not by bossing them but by encouraging them and getting in there and setting an example. I'm looking forward to you guys learning what this looks like in your own leadership positions.

2014 LEADERSHIP APPOINTMENTS

TE PAHU CHALLENGE

"The tough challenges we encounter, make us stronger, and wiser. With each victory we gain something of value, our character is strengthened." Ellen J Barrier

Challenges are great opportunities to grow and that is why we have set up the Te Pahu Challenge. We want you to be risk takers in life and develop the character needed to push yourself through challenges. I am really looking forward to seeing you take on the challenges this year - let's face the fear, develop endurance and display the attitudes needed to conquer these challenges. 

THE CHALLENGES: Learn a new hobby, 20 hours community service, sleep the night in a bivouac, caving, rock climbing, horse riding, climb Mt Pirongia, skiing or snowboarding, polar bear dip, 7 km run/bike challenge and an extension group will get to climb Mt Tongariro.

New Year - turning a new leaf!

Welcome to a new year room 7! This is the start of a new chapter in the book of your life. I'm really looking forward to getting to know all of you and seeing you change, learn and grow into leaders! Come into this year expecting to learn and expecting to do things you thought you couldn't. If you come with this attitude I am sure you will grow and succeed. As our school motto says ATTITUDE DETERMINES ALTITUDE. It is true.

Mr Marquand survey

Personification

We have been looking at personification. We have described some pictures in pairs using personification and then have combined our sentences. Here is what we came up with. We don't have a title yet so put your ideas in the comments section. (WELL DONE TAYLOR AND KAYLA for winning the naming of the poem)

The ghostly souls of the abandoned ruin.

The shack sat in the rough green like a bird fallen short.

The wise old gate was battered by the harsh destructive weather. Abandoned and lonely, it opened itself up and looked at the ocean waiting for new visitors. Exhausted and groaning it slumped down letting death take its soul. The friendly concrete posts are the only thing holding up the fragile gate.

The sad lonely tree stood there abandoned and feeling lost. It stood still welcoming in the bright sun onto its spindly new spring shoots. The ill coloured moss was clinging to its chunky trunk.

The old lonely window sat tangled and unloved in the wall. Run down and abused by the storm, the vines choked its rusty frame.

The abandoned, mindless chair sat lifeless and shredded in the dark ghostly room. Old and dilapidated it was sad and alone. The sun peeked through the broken window, gazing at the gloomy worn chair. 

Survey

Hi guys, click on this link to be taken through to the survey we talked about.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/TMMG3QV

BOOK week

We have had an awesome week with a special focus on books and reading. Books open up whole new worlds for us. We did buddy reading with the room 3 students each day, the teachers shared stories with other classes, there were challenges in the library, a readathon and it ended with a book character dress up day and parade.

Melted Crayon Art

Check out our AWESOME Melted Crayon Art!

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Speed of Sound

Today we looked at how sound needs to travel through a medium. We also looked at the speed of sound and explored lightning and thunder, and learnt how sound travels faster through materials denser than air, such as metal, water, wood, etc. We did a number of different experiments to explore this. We also went outside and observed from 100 meters away Mr Marquand whack some wood together - there was a slight pause before we heard the sound. We compared the speed of sound to light. Sound travels about 330 meters per second where as light would go around the earth about 7 times per second. Finally we looked at how somethings can travel faster than the sound it is creating, such as jets, and create a sonic boom and a cloud like effect. So there was plenty of fascinating learning to get our heads around today!!

SOUND - Vibrations and Waves

We have been learning about sound and how it travels. We learnt that sound is started by the vibration of something such as a bell. The vibrating bell makes the air around the bell vibrate as well, and it keeps vibrating out in waves until it hits our ears. The waves are a bit like dominoes, a Mexican wave or when you pulse a slinky. The air particles don't move position they just vibrate and cause the particles next to them to vibrate. We looked at how a speaker works and how the cone vibrates which vibrates the air between the speaker and our ears. We then did this experiment which shows how sound vibrates whatever is in front of it - in this case, different liquids.

SOUND - I know... I don't understand...

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Clearing and planting day!

Clearing and planting day on PhotoPeach

An awesome effort today guys. Great to see many of you taking initiative and putting in some consistent hard work. Well done. We planted a few hundred trees and made the area look much better. A few years down the track and it will look really well developed - awesome work. Your community and environment is better from your efforts today. A massive thank you to all those parents that helped and also those that donated plants.

What is ENERGY?

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SOUND - bull roarers, bending water and sand patterns

On Monday we spent some time experimenting with bullroarers - ancient instruments and communication tools. We are looking this term at energy and in particular sound energy. We explored the questions - what makes the bullroarers produce sound? What changes the kinds of sounds it produces? Why did some of the bull roarers not work? It was lots of fun and has got us thinking about the incredible energy of sound. We also looked at these amazing videos where water is bent by sound and one where sound produces patterns in sand. Click on them to view.

DISCO!

DISCO PHOTOS - Young Photography

Click on the above to see some awesome photos of our DISCO!

Creative Statistics

 

We have been looking at the purpose of statistics and that how statistics are displayed affects how they are interpreted and 'listened to'. We viewed lots of interesting and creative displays of statistics and then we got creative and looked for powerful ways of displaying some statistics. The statistics we used were of if the world was shrunk down to a village of just 100 people, what would it look like? Here are a few of our finished displays. Well done guys. There were lots of challenges bringing your creative ideas to reality but you persevered and powerfully showed your statistic.

Market day

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What an awesome market day! It was great to see many of you made a profit through your sales. It was good to see you tackling the challenges and stresses of handling money, a business and staff. I think this was a great experience for you to learn some of the skills around finance and business. You had to carefully plan your venture, chose a profitable product, invest gongs for a return later, advertise, evaluate ideas, negotiate deals, as well as many other skills. I'm looking forward to reading your reflections on your blog and the changes you would make next time.

Snow Trip

What an awesome day we had! It was so great watching many of you go from hardly being able to stand up to skiing/boarding down the mountain by the end of the day. Happy valley lived up to its name!

I'm looking forward to reading the reflections on your own blogs. Think about these questions when posting. What advice would you give to someone learning to ski/board. What was challenging and were there points you wanted to give up? What helped you keep going? What attitudes do you need to learn to ski/board? Describe a memorable/funny moment.

Thanks to all the parent helpers, it was great to see you learning too!

Student Health and Physical Activity Survey

Enterprise

The school is busy exploring the world of money and business. We have created a little society with a government, currency, bank, warehouse and lots of small businesses. We, including the teachers, are all trying to gather as many gongs (Our currency) as we can! Everyone is busy making products or services to sell on Market Day on the 13th September. Here are some photos of our society in process.

Creative statistics

We are learning about statistics and watched this amazing video of a very creative way of displaying statistics. We also viewed images of other creative and powerful displays of statistics. We have looked at the purpose of statistics and why the way we present them can influence how they are understood and increase how much they influence people.

We are going to apply our creative minds to some statistics to see if we can display them in a powerful way. So keep your eyes out!

Pirongia Lodge Outdoor Classroom Project

In recent years room 7 has been involved in helping create an outdoor classroom up at Mt Pirongia. The next stage of the project is planting native plants around the outdoor classroom. We need to clear the area, source the plants through donations and sponsorship and then plant them.

We had a great introduction to this stage of the project up at the lodge. We also got to feed one of the Robins that was released earlier in the year (we made the boxes to transport the Robins). We also went on the new flying fox.

The first thing we need to do is write letters asking for peoples support through donating native plants or money for plants. So if you know where to source some native plants we would love to hear from you.

Collage art

We have created some awesome collage art. We had to think carefully about contrasting patterns and colour as well as effective layout. Enjoy our finished pieces!