Measurement in Te Ana Ako

 Mālō bloggers, 

Over the last two weeks, the Middle Syndicate has been investigating measurement. At first, we estimated (guessed) how big things were in our classes. We used popsicle sticks and blocks to measure a range of things and objects in our learning spaces.

After that, we created our own measuring tools as we learnt more about centimetres and unit measurement. 

We started to measure things again, this time with our rulers. From handspan, to leg length, to the distance around our head. We even measures the size of our feet and compared to the rest of the people in our class. 

Finally, we did our own experiments seeing how big different creatures are around the world and how their sizes compare to each other. We even measured how big a blue whale is and used the corridor of our classrooms. Can you guess how big a blue whale is? 

(Waving to show the size of a blue whale)  

Thanks for reading, 

Philippa Werry - a special guest for the middle syndicate

 Talofa Lava Bloggers,

This week we were very lucky to have the New Zealand author Philippa Werry visit our syndicate via video call.  She has written lots of books, including picture books, novels and some of the readers we use at school including stories in the school journal. She was really interesting and humorous, giving us lots of great advice and information.  One interesting fact was that her first story was published in the newspaper when she was 6 years old. It was still saved and glued into a scrapbook that she showed us, very precious!  

One important message that she shared with us was how important it is to edit our writing. Taking the time to do this before you publish is really important! We got to ask lots of questions to find out about her job and some of the connections that she has to other New Zealand authors.

Finally, she read us the start of one of her stories. It is called, "The best skateboarder in school" and you can find it in School Journal Part 1 Number 3 2003. We really enjoyed this and we are looking forward to exploring more of her stories. A special thank you to Mr Hing-Windsor for organising this for us. 

Have you had a visit from a school author? Do you have a question or comment? We'd love some feedback below.

Tofa soifua

Student Led Tookits

This week we had the pleasure of learning about different apps and technologies from students in the senior school.  Workshops were run throughout the day with students choosing three to learn about. 

There was something for everyone, including:

• Google Maps
• Google Slide Animation
• Word Art
• Piskel
• Drones
• Sphero
• Makey-makey
• Brainbox
• Webcam Toy
• Music Lab
• Book Creator
• Incredibox

The presenters did an amazing job of showing students how these apps and technologies worked and then helped out as students then gave them a go. 

What an awesome day!

What are some apps that you find fun and helpful? Perhaps you could recommend some that we could check out in the comments below.

Cameron Pools Swimming

 Kia ora bloggers,

Over the first half of Term 2, the Middle School have been going down to the local swimming pool to learn how to be water safe. 

 

 We have done a lot of different activities, from floating with milk bottles to using lifejackets when our lifeboat gets flipped in the pool. We have loved learning more skills to stay safe in water and the using equipment in the pool. 

 

 We have improved a lot over the sessions and have become more confident in our swimming and being in water. 

Have you learned any water safety skills? Did you learn them in your pool or a local swimming area? We would love to hear your ideas in our comment section below.

Middle School Zoofari Trip

 Talofa lava bloggers,

On Monday the 24th of Monday, the middle syndicate was lucky enough to visit the Auckland Zoo to participate in the Zoofari experience.  The first exciting highlight of the day was a trip to the Zoo on a double decker bus!

When we arrived, we were greeted by Lizzy who gave us lots of information during our briefing and set us up for our class guided tours along the African Safari track.  Our Zoo educators were amazing, they had lots of interesting things to share with us and things that we could feel while we were learning.  

Then, under the guidance of our awesome parent helpers, we explored the zoo, ticking off the different animals that we visited on our map.  It was really interesting to have the chance to find the animals that we like and have a look at their habitats and how they can be adapted to them.

The final main event for the day was a second educator session. During this time we watched a feeding session for the spider monkeys. We also found out that we can do our bit for conservation by making sure that we buy paper with this special logo so that spider monkey habitats are kept safe.

Have you been to the Zoo before? Do you do something to protect animals?  We would love to hear what you do in our comment section below.

Pink Shirt Day

This week, we have been looking at our responsibilities in helping to prevent bullying. 

We did an activity where we used a picture of ourselves, made some comments to it that weren't kind, then screwed it up. Later we apologised to the screwed up paper, opened it up and tried to make it flat again. This activity was to show that, even when we apologise, what we have said can still affect someone. 

We made some chatterboxes with positive comments to share with others or encouraging comments to help us when we need them.

We have thought of ways we can encourage others with compliments. Here are some of our ideas:

• I like how you include others
• I like how you are helpful
• I like how you make people happy
• I like how you play fair
• I like how are a good friend
• I like how you can run so fast

(Maybe you could choose one of these to share with someone you know).

And we also designed our own t-shirts to help promote being bully free.

To finish our week we participated in the Pink Shirt Day to raise awareness that it is not okay to bully others. It's our responsibility to make sure we are kind to others. 

The whole school on Pink Shirt Day

Haumia on Pink Shirt Day

What are some ways you can show kindness towards others and what are some things you could do if you see someone being bullied? Maybe you could answer these questions in the comments below.

Oat the Goat thinking hats

 Kia Ora Bloggers,

This week is Bully Free NZ week and we are going to be reading more about this and doing some activities in our class.  This morning, we watched a story called Oat the Goat.  It was story that was about being nice to people and it had an important message about not bullying people. 

We were asked to do a thinking hat activity.  We got some ideas from the story and matched them to the different hats so we could think about our story in different ways.  This helps our understanding. Here are the ideas that we shared as a class.

Have a read of our ideas and have a look at the story yourself.  We would love some comments!