Our Year 6 Master Chefs

Sometimes when the Year 7 and 8’s are away at technology, we get baking in the kitchen. Look at how tasty these bacon and egg cases look. The tamariki did all the mahi, and filled their bread cases with the fillings of their choices. They were delicious!!

A Smashing Time!!

Last week Te Mahia School tamariki had a fantastic day out in the sun completing the ‘Egg Drop Technology Challenge’. Each house group came up with some very interesting and sturdy egg rover designs. I saw box shapes, cone shapes, and some designs had parachutes or a cover on top. One house group even used the masking tape as a seatbelt for the egg. We definitely have innovative tamariki at our school. Each House group produced a design before time was up. The first egg drop was from a one-metre height. Four of the six house groups had their designs land the egg safely. We then had a face-off where we changed the height to two metres. The four remaining rover designs were tested see which design would protect the egg from the impact of landing. Congratulations to Te Ara o Paikea for their robust egg rover design that safely landed their passenger (the egg) from a two-metre drop.

With this challenge, the tamariki gained the ability to design a product (a container to told the egg), communicate the process of their design to the rest of the school, and lastly communicate any necessary modifications they would make next time.

Last weeks Technology Challenge!!

Technology Challenge – EGG DROP

SCENARIO:
Exploring new worlds is tricky business, especially if that new world is another planet! One of the most difficult aspects of sending a rover to Mars has been designing a way to land the rover on the planet without completely destroying all of its scientific instruments!

CHALLENGE:

Your challenge is to design and build a landing device for your ‘Egg Rover’ that will protect it from structural damage when landing on Mars (dropped from a height of 1metre by one person from each house). You will have 10 minutes planning, and 20 minutes to complete your designs. At the end of the time, one person from each house will launch their ‘Egg Rovers’ with the landing devices that they designed and assess if there was any structural damage upon landing (egg breakage).

RESTRICTIONS:

1.    Base of landing device must fit on launch platform (the lid of a ice cream container) and rest in a stable position.

2.    The egg itself may not be modified in any manner.

3.    Devices must be built to allow for quick “UNLOADING” of the ‘Egg Rover’ for damage assessment.

4.    Only provided materials may be used.

MATERIALS:

·      1m string

·      2 x A4 Cardboard

·      1m sticky tape

·      5 x small cotton wool

·      4 x straws

·      1 x plastic bag

REFLECTION
1) Did your design try to slow down the speed of the descent? How did you do this?
2) Did you try to cushion the egg rover? If so, how did you do this?
3) Can you explain your approach? Was it successful and if not, what could you have done to improve upon your design?
4) What would you do differently next time?

Reading 'The Halfmen of O' by Maurice Gee

I am reading the book  ‘The Halfmen of O’ by Maurice Gee to the class. Each of the three groups have their own learning intentions. Summarising the main ideas when reading a text is our main focus but the children should also be able to

• ·      Identify the structural features of the text.
• ·      Determine the important details in a text.
• ·      Combine and condense the ideas.
• ·      State them in their own words.
• ·      Order the key ideas to develop a succinct statement that captures the essence of a text.

My learning intention is: After reading a chapter I focus on summarizing and putting the main ideas in order so that I give my audience a clear description of what is happening in the text and what the main ideas were.

In the first chapter, we are introduced to Susan and Nick who are cousins. They have an odd relationship and don’t get along too well. One evening while out by the river, Nick comes across an old stinky and ragged-looking man. He looks like a gold miner and he talks really weird. The old stranger gives Nick a peculiar stone to give to Susan. What would Susan need with a stone? What does it mean? ‘The message from the stranger’ is the most important aspect of this chapter which leaves us wondering what will happen next.