Novel studies

Many of the students have started a novel study. There are two inspiring novels that the children are looking at:

I am Malala - This is the inspiring true story of a young teenage Pakistani girl who has fought for girls education. She was shot by the Taliban, survived, and has continued fighting for girls education all around the world. At 16 she was the youngest ever Nobel Peace Prize winner and today she is still only 19 years old.

Boy Overboard - This is the inspiring fictional story of a brother and sister who flee with their family as refugees. It begins in Afghanistan and deals with the issue of refugees. Once finishing this story the students will take an in-depth look at the theme of refugees. They will look at from a variety of perspectives developing their own informed opinion.

The students will be learning a variety of literacy skills using these novels. To start with we are focusing on their ability to complete short answer questions using appropriate detail and including the question in their answer.

Description writing

As part of learning to use our senses to add detail to our writing the students did a description piece about a hospital similar to the photo. They wrote their own piece, reflected on it with another student and then wrote a combined piece with a buddy. Here are a few excerpts from their writing:

The quiet squealing and crying of the medical trolley rolled around the bare brick hall. All day I can only hear groaning and screams of pain. The doctors and nurses dance their pencils on paper incessantly. I start to slip into darkness when a shell went off in the distance, the walls spitting it back in a never ending echo. The patient next to me has a deep gash on his forehead. His face is very pale and gaunt. He wrinkles his nose at the odor no one can explain. The nurses wander around as if in a trance, their weary eyes dart about the room, flicking from bed to bed. As the nurses bandage my shoulder all I can hear is the sound of my own ragged breathing and the screaming inside my head.   By LOLA and MADELINE.

The lids of my eyes yawn open. The pain of where I got shot overwhelms me. I groan helplessly on my old withered mattress. I hear the notorious sound of the medical trolley strolling through the corridor of the hospital. As I look over I see my friend, lying there in his rickety old bed, gazing into emptiness. 
By DECLAN and ANTONY

The smell of blood and smoke lingers in the air. The drone of a bomber dropping bombs speedily came closer. Blood covered bodies came in every second. The nurses frantically run around caring for the victims of war. I see a mangled face of a bloke with eyes closed to stop blood filling them. Facing me he groaned "Help me." Screaming catches my attention. I turn around to see a crowd of people are holding a man down while others amputate his leg. I nervously look at my own leg "Will that happen to me?
By JUSTICE

Midnight. The smell of sick filled the room. People groan in agony. I slowly walk soundlessly into the room. The walls of the hospital are covered with old grime and dirt where old patients would lean on when waiting for a bed. I see an old man calling for help. I run to him. I grab the medical trolley, the squeaking of the wheels make my ears want to bleed...
By JOSIAH and KIRAN

I slowly opened my eyelids with no memory of what had just happened. Quiet mumbles echo down the solid brick building. The squeak of the nurses trolley screeches in my ears. The smell of urine wafts under my nose, it makes my stomach churn. My clothes are drenched in blood which makes my knees feel tingly. I need to get out of here I thought to myself.
By CAMPBELL and CAMERON

I made tea

Adding detail in our writing is so important for giving a clear picture for the reader. We have started looking at this and used this website to help us understand what it is all about. Click through to the website (by clicking on I made tea) and you will learn why adding detail can vastly improve a sentence such as I made tea.

The Golden Orb

Today we started our inquiry into the incredible sun. We are making a big inquiry into the sun over three terms. The first term we will look at the physical structure and processes of the sun. In term two we will look at its impact on the Earth as well as make some investigations for Science Fair. In the third term we will look at how people harness the sun's energy and whether we could as a school do something to harness it.

We looked at the amazing footage in the above video before the students inquisitive minds got into gear. They asked all sorts of interesting questions that we are all looking forward to exploring. Here they are:

• Does the sun have a brain?
• How heavy is it?
• Why does the sun's heat not get cold as it goes through space?
• Why is it the colour that it is?
• How does it feed itself without oxygen?
• What happens if you are too close to the sun? How close can you get?
• Are there different types of stars?
• Will the sun get hotter or colder?
• How long until the sun dies? What will happen?
• How far away is it?
• How dense is the core?
• Why is the core hotter than the outside?
• Could the sun shrink down to nothing?
• How does the sun have eruptions? How big can the eruptions get?
• Will the sun get larger?
• Does each star have a solar system?
• What causes the transitions to either supernova or white dwarf?
• When was the sun made?
• How do they learn about the sun?
• How come mercury doesn't melt?
• How does the sun stay together?
• What is the sun made of?
• Why is the sun a circle?
• How does the sun create heat waves?
• What is a solar flare?
• Where does the sun and Earth get gravity from?
• Where does it get its energy from?
• Does the sun move?
• Is the sun brighter than the moon?
• How does it project the light?
• What starts nuclear fusion?
• Why do planets go around it?

Te Pahu Challenge - RAFT completed!

Our first Te Pahu challenge has been completed - RAFTING. We had great fun rafting down the Grade 2 Tongariro River near Turangi. There were lots of nerves which showed in initial quietness (or the opposite!) and plenty of giggles. But the nerves eventually turned to screams of delight. It was great to see the students push though the nerves and realise the thrill and satisfaction that is found on the other side of our nerves.

We then spent the night at Whakapapa Holiday Park. We played some sport, dressed up in our best disguise, and then had a range of team challenges. A massive thank you to all the parents who made the camp what it was. It was great to see them disguised as Mexicans, hippos, and many indistinguishable characters. We even managed to hear 3 of them yodel.

On our second day we managed to get some of the students up for an early run and then walked to the beautiful Taranaki falls.

A great way to start the year guys and I look forward to seeing you take on more challenges this year. You can be proud of yourselves and you can give yourself a big tick for the first challenge.

2017 Leadership Positions

Who to save?

This afternoon we did the below task which led to some fascinating discussion. In groups the students had to choose which 15 out of the 30 people on a sinking ship would get to go in the life raft. It really bought up different ideas about what we see as important and valuable in people. Some strong opinions came out and it got us all thinking and debating. We discussed how a wise leader would approach the task.

Our new leaders!

We are into the new year with a great bunch of leaders. To start the year off we are spending some time looking at what great leaders do, say, and think. Here are a few photos of the students learning to work as a team.

We have discussed how junior students look up to and want to be like year 7/8's. This is a real privilege and responsibility to take seriously. They are constantly watching to see how we act.

We used the below video to discuss leadership. Initiative is a really important leadership quality so we have been exploring what it means and thinking about what it could look like at Te Pahu School.


We looked at how being a leader is about inspiring your followers to live life better. We discussed who has inspired them in their lives. We are looking at some inspiring leaders such as Malala Yousafsai. This video is a trailer to a documentary about her. We read an article about her and many of the students will read her autobiography which I am sure they will be inspired by.

I am really looking forward to watching you grow as leaders this year guys. I think you have so much potential and really believe that if you start seeing yourself as a leader you will begin to really have a big influence on the younger students and your friends.

Sketching

We have done quite a bit of sketching over the last few weeks. We have been learning to create smooth gradients and good contrast. The students practiced making objects look 3D by using shading.

In another task the students were given paper coloured middle grey. They then used a black crayon to show shadows and a white crayon to show highlights. They copied an egg. It was a challenging task that encouraged the development of observation skills.

We have spent quite a bit of time drawing trees. This has included speed drawing with ball point pens as well as drawing with graphite pencils and charcoal. Charcoal was a new experience for many. It was challenging but many have opted to draw with it now.  As part of the process the students made multiple drafts and gave and received feedback for them. Here are a few of the trees.

Leadership - Preschool

Here are some photos of the students showing some great leadership attributes. You were really awesome guys. You stayed focused on the children and interacted with them really well. They would have loved having you come. You have a bigger influence than you know!

Calendar art

These are the images that the students have chosen for their calendar. CA on PhotoPeach

Double exposures - Fete

Here are the final portraits that are being entered in the Fete on Saturday. You can be very proud guys. You have really developed your skills and have produced some stunning portraits.

Double Exposure on PhotoPeach

Lower Waipa athletics

Here are some photos from Lower Waipa athletics. Some awesome results guys.

Screen time quality

Today we looked at this article and discussed its message. The author discussed how although the length of our time on screens is important we should really spend more time talking about the quality of things we are doing during that time. We get to choose how we spend our time on the internet and some things will numb our minds and some things will grow and develop us. So let's (students and parents) take a check over this next week on the quality of things we are doing with screen time.

Art history

We have looked briefly at art history over the last 500 years. It has been fascinating learning about the interesting lives, stories, and habits of various artists. It has also been interesting to look at how art style has changed through the inventive and creative risks artists have taken. The students were encouraged to relfect on the art and identify their personal taste.

This is the powerpoint that we have worked through.

Art history from Room7tp

Technology - less is more?

Today we watched a TED talk of an 18 year old inventor who discussed her story and why she believes that having less makes you more creative. She was given very few toys as a child and instead was given a hot glue gun. Out of necessity she had to create her own toys. She also discussed how following the latest craze and immersing yourself in technology took time away from being creative.

We had some great discussion around this, especially in relation to technology. Students shared their stories of being creative when they were in a situation of having 'less'. We also discussed boredom and if it can be something that leads to creativity. Here is the TED talk.

More double exposures

The skills are developing and the students are getting more creative and producing some stunning portraits. Here are a few more.

Reflection and rotation

The students created some kaleidoscope art to help develop their understanding of reflection and rotation. It was a lot more tricky than it looked and some images needed some very careful consideration. Well done guys for persevering!

First double exposure portraits

We have had an awesome start to our double exposure portraits. We have been learning to use Pixlr editor (Online photo editing programme). There has been lots of learning around the process and the students have made excellent improvement. Here are some of their first completed portraits:

Ag day

We had a great Ag day yesterday. The weather ended up being not too bad and everything went ahead as planned. Well done to all those who had animals. It is such a valuable learning experience and process. It was great to see the training pay off, even though animals are not robots and do sometimes want to do their own thing.

Well done to those who completed the home challenges. There were some inspiring and complicated marble runs, as well as some clever masks and decorated footwear. I am sure you have learnt lots from those activities. Here are a few photos.

Slack lining

Today we had an awesome demonstration and introduction to slack lining. Jim Morrison kindly showed us his skills of balancing and walking on a slack line and then we all had a go. Having a go made us realise just how skilled he was (he had made it look so easy). It is a sport that develops such good balance skills and muscle control that transfers to so many different sports. It was amazing to see the improvement with each turn on the slack line. Wouldn't it be great to get our own slack line permanently set up at school!

Screens

As part of our literacy programme we are looking at digital technology and it's impact on us, including its advantages and disadvantages to the way we are living. The internet is with us to stay and it is shaping us whether we like it or not. We want the students to take control of how it shapes them and make good decisions that will ensure it is a positive influence on them.

We started off by viewing the Nigel Latta episode Screenagers. This had some hard hitting information which is a great springboard for the discussion we will be having. Using various articles and videos we will particularly look at screen time and the various ways you can spend on screen.

Using song lyrics to explore figurative language

As part of our literacy programme we are looking at song lyrics. Emotions are hard to convey with literal language so song writers often use figurative language to convey them. Often song lyrics can be confusing and unclear because of this, so they provide an excellent opportunity for us to explore language features and identify what was being conveyed.

We started off with a Ben Harper song called, 'Oppression'. We looked at his use of personification. We saw that song lyrics/poetry often don't follow the rules of grammar and punctuation. We explored the meaning of different sections and then rewrote a verse in a different tense to identify why Ben Harper chose the tense he did. The students then wrote their own verse personifying the emotion of fear.

Here are the lyrics:

ART

We have started our inquiry into visual arts. It is going to be a fascinating journey into art history, colour theory, as well as the learning of artistic skills, especially in sketching and digital art.
We started off by watching an inspiring biography of Jeremy Cowart and his journey of being a photographer and digital artist.

We discussed the quotes: "Art changes throughout the ages, but it doesn't get better." and "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." We have started looking at famous artists over the last 500 years beginning with the most famous painting in the world (The Mona Lisa) and the incredible man who painted it, Leonardo Da Vinci.

The students will be learning to do doubles exposures using an online photo editing programme (similar to photoshop) called Pixlr editor. Here are a couple of images I created which the students are learning how to do.