Our Duffy Heroes Mark & Brenda

Today we were entertained with catchy tunes and songs from Mark & Brenda, our Duffy heroes this term. Both are very musical and come from musical backgrounds. Brenda had two older brothers who were very musical. Mark enjoyed music ever since he was a young boy, his father was a professional Jazz musician and his Grandfather was a piano tuner. So you can see why these two were destined to be very talented musicians.

Mark wrote the book Rufus and the Rain. He spoke of the ideas he had for the story but never in his wildest dreams would think that it would be published into a book for everyone to read. It goes to show you never know where your ideas and interests will lead you, could be to exciting new things.

Both, Mark and Brenda quizzed the tamariki on what they would see on pages in a book. The tamariki gave answers such as pictures, ideas, sentences, paragraphs, lines, stories, words and punctuation (full stops, commas, speech marks etc). Brenda and Mark then transferred some of the answers from the tamariki, into a song. Reading can be fun and transformed into musical tunes.

We are very fortunate to have Duffy books in homes so make sure whānau that you ask your tamaiti/tamariki about the Duffy books they received or read it to/with them. Thank you very much Mark and Brenda for sharing your musical talent and journey with our Te Mahia School tamariki.

Whangawehi Catchment Management Group - Logo

Room 1 learners have been thinking creatively this week about designing a logo for the Whangawehi Catchment Management Group. It has been interesting watching this creative thought process and trying to keep so many ideas into a simplistic representation. We again today further progressed this idea and some people are really thinking hard about the one or two important ideas they want to convey in their logo. One more session on this early next term should see us ready to go to a hui with some exciting concepts to share.

Maara Kai Master Chef - Wairoa District Competition

Can you smell something tasty in the air? Congratulations to Patricia Davis, Anthony Thompson, Violet Bell-Streat and Azure Waihaki-Taumata who are the Maara Kai Master Chef Champions for the Wairoa District for 2016! Our day started off with a demonstration from Chef Sean Gaskin who modelled how to make pumpkin fritters. They were quick, easy to make and tasted delicious. Our team then had to make Pasta Arabiata, (a spicy tomato sauce to accompany pasta) a salad and a drink. The feedback from the judges was that the salad looked like a dish of colourful summer with produce that had been seasonally used. They then made a smoothie with banana, apple, pineapple and coconut water. The combinations were a winner on the day! All of the teams competed well in what was a pressure test to say the least. I am super proud of the preparation our team completed last week and the team work they used today. FANTASTIC!!

How does yeast grow you wonder?

Room 1 tamariki were very busy indeeed yesterday morning making ginger beer with Mr Hoek. The purpose of the lesson was to investigate and research how yeast grows?

The classroom discussion was around biotechnology – looking at the reaction involved with yeast – which is a living organism.

What is Bio? The science of living things.

What is tech? We can use biology to make things.

Watch youtube clip How to make homemade ginger beer the link to the video is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSBb7bCCbNY

 The tamariki were provided with all the ingredients and equipment to make ginger beer in small groups. They all had a lot of fun and it was their first time making ginger beer believe it or not!

Research and note taking

Tamariki were using class technology (iPads and Macbooks) for research and investigation into how and why does yeast grow?

They were asked questions such as:

1) What in the ginger beer mixture reacts?

2) How does the yeast and sugar dissolve?

3) How are the bubbles made?

4) How does yeast make carbon dioxide?

These questions will help form their explanations of how yeast grows..

Deconstruction

When writing the tamariki need to think about:

What is involved in explanation writing?

Explain what is happening (topic)

Linking paragraphs – First, then, next, now, finally etc (one idea per paragraph)

Use topic specific vocabulary

Last but not least the tamariki were deciding on how they would present their findings. Can’t wait to read/see and listen/hear their final explanations of how yeast grows!!

Goal Setting Growth Mindset

How To Be A Scientist?

Over the last week Room 1 tamariki have been songwriting and working in small groups to come up with their own raps about being a scientist. They all came up with attributes that they think you need to have as a scientist, some were you need to be open-minded, persistent with trial and error, dedicated, communicate easily with others, curious, creative, investigative and the list is endless. Their challenge was to incorporate their selected attributes into their very own scientist rap.



Stay tuned for our very own science raps produced and recorded by Room 1 tamariki!!

Goal Setting The SMART Way

We are on a mission to be focused, engaged and motivated learners with our maths learning this year. Miss O'B has given us our assessment results to talk about, compare, analyse and identify what we need to do next. We have talked about strategy stages we are currently working on to solve addition/subtraction problems. We have completed a basic facts test, an attitude interest survey and a PAT maths assessment. With all of this data and information we have looked closely at what we are already good at doing and what we need to focus on.

Our SMART goals are completed and we are busy displaying them, talking about them, writing about them, reflecting about them... (you get the point). Here are two photos that have helped us to write SMART goals for term one. Some are in the area of basic facts, some are about strategies we use, some are about statistical literacy we will learn about later on in the term.

What do you think?