Writing - Character development

In writing we have been looking at developing our characters - creating a vivid character in our heads and transferring that character to our readers mind. We looked at describing what stands out about them when you first see them (such as this woman's wrinkled abundance of skin). We then looked at creating a backstory for the character - imagining the life events and people that have influenced them. We then looked at their personality and what makes them, them! The students have chosen a character from below and have developed them. They have then developed a second character, chose a setting and are currently writing a story about their character. I can already see some great characters coming to life. It just shows the importance of planning and getting our heads into characters and settings before writing.

INQUIRY into the LIVING WORLD

. PhotoPeach

Our inquiry into the living world is coming to an end. It has been really interesting and the students have had their minds stretched, their vocabulary grown and their understanding of the some of the issues facing our planet has been deepened. The slide show above includes some of the information we looked at and your child will be able to explain them to you. Also quiz them on some words like biotic, abiotic, arthropod, exoskelton, deforestation, and ecosystems. We discovered why apparently annoying insects like ants, bees or flies play all sorts of important roles in our world. It was fascinating to discover how a little change to an environment can make such a change to the living things within it. You change one factor and it can muck up the whole system. It was also surprising to discover how New Zealand is a completely different ecosystem to when humans made their entrance - the only land mammals back then were bats! It has helped us see why native species are struggling to survive here in NZ.

WINTER SPORT

PhotoPeach

We have come to the end of our awesome winter sport focus. There has been some excellent development in ball skills, team work skills and strategy knowledge. We had a great day at the tournament with some great results. Well done guys, you can all be proud. Some of our girls did an amazing job at taking on some coaching and refereeing of netball too. A massive learning curve for you and it was so awesome to see you in that role. A massive thank you to the parents that coached and also supported at the tournament.

Speeches

We have just finished our speeches. Everyone in room 7 did an awesome job. They gave great messages and used interesting stories to tell their messages. There was lots of learning around hooking people in, engaging the audience and speaking in a way that keeps people interested. Well done guys, I was proud of how you all presented them. The above video are some snippets of Room 7's finalists presenting at the school speeches. They were awesome and gave important messages clearly and in a way that everyone understood. Well done guys.  Their placings were:
Year 8: 1st Taylor, 2nd Finn, 3rd Graham.
Year 7: 1st Bradley, 2nd Ellen, 3rd Logan
The top boy and girl from each age group will now go on to the Lower Waipa competition.

HORSE RIDING and KAYAKING

Well done Room 7. Challenge 6 completed! I know a number of you were nervous about this challenge but you all took it on and realised that often things are not as scary as you anticipate them to be. You found the courage in yourself to get on and it wasn't long until everyone was relaxed and loving it!

Stop Motion Animation

For our visual arts this term we are going to create stop motion animations. At the moment we are exploring what they are and learning te basic process. Above are some we created as a class to learn the process. We also viewed a number of stop motion animations to identify different ways of creating them. Below are some video links to a few of these. Our animations will be based around our inquiry into the living world - primarily insects. I am really looking forward to what you will create room 7. I know you are creative and will think of some really imaginative ideas to turn into movies.

Living World Inquiry

PhotoPeach

Those small creatures, that can be annoying and gross, but are crucial to this world and are often incredible and fascinating are what we are making an inquiry into this term. Insects, spiders, slugs, beetles, bees and other small life make the world go around and we are going to find out why! 

We have started looking at how we can tell what is living and what is non-living. This video which talks about Mrs Nerg has helped us with this. 



Yesterday we got out our magnifiers and microscopes and viewed the wings, legs, hair, etc up close and began to see the similarities and patterns between them. 

Volleyball and ultimate frisbee

This term we have spent some time learning the skills needed in playing volleyball and ultimate frisbee. Both sports use quite difficult skills but there was great perseverance. We have learnt the basics of a dig, set and spike in volleyball. In ultimate Frisbee we have learnt the correct technique for holding a frisbee and then the basic backhand and forehand throw. The forehand throw was particulary difficult but everyone made great improvement and we are starting to get a good game going. Well done guys, I have really enjoyed these sessions with you.

Learning words - SURVEY

Te Pahu School Culture

Created with Padlet

Tessellations

PhotoPeach

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

PhotoPeach

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

 PhotoPeach

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!

.

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...

Created with Padlet

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?

Created with Padlet

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!