Lit Quiz Success!

Well done to Jack, Lola, Finn, and Ewan for their awesome effort and result at the Lit Quiz. The Lit Quiz is an evening where teams from around the Waikato and the Bay of Plenty compete against each other on the subject of literature. Mrs Kewish spent some time preparing with the team and they did absolutely awesome. Out of 65 teams they came 5th. They won the first two rounds as well. The best Te Pahu School has ever done. Well done guys. You can be super proud.

Science Fair

We are getting stuck into the process of science fair. I am looking forward to our students setting up some interesting investigations. We are giving lots of time to the idea generating stage. The students are exploring their interests, problems/frustrations around them, as well as investigations that others have done. Here are a few previous Te Pahu School examples that have done well in the past.

An investigation into the density of wood by Hayze and Logan.

An investigation into what shape hull creates the biggest wake behind a boat by Sophie.

An investigation into which wood burns the slowest by Breanna and Lil.y.  

An investigation into whether children learn better in groups or on their own by Laura and Ellen,

The students have started exploring topics from below and are brainstorming possible aspects of the topic to explore. We have looked at what makes a good science fair project and the basic process.

The true cost of our clothing

We are making a fascinating inquiry into the clothes we wear. Clothing has become so cheap and new designs are in the stores weekly. As a result we are buying more clothes and throwing more clothes away. In class we are starting to explore what some of the real costs of these cheap clothes are. In the effort to sell cheaper clothes brands put pressure on factories and material producers. As a consequence corners are cut, working conditions are at times terrible, the environment is suffering, and people have to risk their lives all so we can get cheap clothes. It is fascinating looking at how 'ethical' the different brands we buy here in NZ are.

We will be looking at both sides of the issue and will explore how these factories are an economical boost for the countries and often the workers most profitable work option.

We are reading articles, watching documentaries, and having discussions around the issue. A major focus is note taking skills. We are discussing how to sift through the information to identify and record the important and interesting points. The main documentary we are watching is The True Cost (Trailer below). The students will be forming their opinion on the issue and backing it up with evidence.

Axes and scissors

Often there are times when writing is boring and can be hard to read because the author uses lots of words to say something that could have been said in a few words. We sometimes decide to put lots of words in our writing that are actually not needed.

Sometimes we need an 'axe' to go and cut away big chunks of our writing such as whole paragraphs. Other times we just need to trim our sentences with 'scissors' to ensure that there are no unnecessary words that the reader has to read.  A common word we often don't need is the word 'that'. Have a look at the below examples and quotes that we used to explore how we can use scissors.