Sir Peter Blake

We have been researching famous New Zealanders and the challenges they faced along their incredible journey. Children could choose the app they wanted to present their information on. This is Callum and Ben Murray's research on Sir Peter Blake. There will be more presentations coming.

My Dad

Thoughts about our dads.

Colours

As part of Mrs Batchelor's challege rotation children had to make a colour mosaic. Children chose a theme colour and took photos of objects that were mainly reflecting this colour. They then made a mosaic using comic life.

Not only did 8-year old Mac win the School cross-country, he also won the Whangarei Primary Schools cross-country and the Northland Champs!
Mac said "I felt really nervous at the start of the race but once I started running the nerves vanished. The most challenging part was trying to overtake the other people because when I sprinted they sprinted.
We are expecting big things from Mac in the future, watch out he could be
the next Nick Willis!

Sustainable Coastlines

Chris from Sustainable Coastlines visited our school last week. He challenged us to think whether New Zealand is a clean, green country!!! We were rather shocked to see evidence that it isn't! and that the story of rubbish starts with a simple act of dropping a piece of rubbish in the road. We were devastated to see the impact that plastic rubbish in particular is having on our coastlines and sea life. So come on people stop and think before flicking that piece of rubbish out the car window or dropping it on the footpath and road.

Challenge Rotations

We have been involved in Challenge rotations over the past 3 weeks.
Mrs Wendt's inside rotation involves children completing various tasks.
Children can choose from origami, mancala challenge, questionaut (laptops), ipad challenges,
juggling, domino runs and whai(string games)- there is an instructional clip on you tube for children to follow-string games Jacobs ladder. Here are a few photos of us working.

Calendar Art

We have completed some artwork for our Calendar art which parents can order in Term 4.
Our theme was Seascape and our inspiration came from a book called Tangaroa's Gift by Mere Whaanga-Schollum. The artist uses koru and black and white designs. Our art was made with dyes (paua colours) and black vivid.

Another activity we have in our challenge rotation is using an online game called Questionaut. It is from BBCKids and is a challenging activity where you go on a quest to retrieve a hat. You have to solve a problem at each level then answer 5 questions correctly to move on to the next level. These questions range from literacy and numeracy to science.

Questionaut

ipad apps

We have made a folder of Challenging ipad apps to use in one of our Challenge Rotations. These vary from quiz challenges to puzzles and maizes. These activities challenge the children to think, problem solve, take risks and modify/ change if they are unsuccessful. They support the skills we are encouraging children to develop to overcome challenges such as perseverance and persistence.

Challenge

I apologise for not posting regularly on our blog this term. We have been busy creating, learning about the Olympics and what it is like to be an Olympian and immersing ourselves in challenging activities.
Here is a brief overview of things we have done.