It's Tongan Language Week!

Malo e leilei Tuhi Mai Tuhi Atu Whanau!

This week is Tongan Language Week and here at May Road School we are celebrating! Do you know any Tongan words? Share with us what you know and we will help you learn some more!

Just a Dog - Book Reviews

Our fabulous librarian Andrea recommended we read Just A Dog by Michael Gerard Bauer. We absolutely loved it and just had to review it for you guys :)

As you can probably guess from our rave reviews we thoroughly recommend it!

The Peace Child

Ok, so we have been a little quiet lately! That's because we are working hard on our school production! YIKES! With only 2 weeks to go, we have some serious rehearsing to do, lines to learn, songs to sing and plenty of fun to be had!

This morning we had a photo shoot with the main characters. It was lot's of fun to finally get into our costumes and really get into character. I think they scrub up pretty well!

Have you ever acted in a play? Have you got any tips for us? We would love to hear them!

Toolkit Prep is Underway!

With only 4 more sleeps until our student lead toolkits it's time to get a move on! 
WeVideo experts Tharindu and Sylvia are busily preparing their toolkit on how to use WeVideo. 
What a great team! 

Our 12 May Road reps are really looking forward to attending the day and learning lots of new digital tools! The best thing about the day ... it's run by kids for kids! How cool is that! 

Listen Up Folks!

Last week we were lucky enough to have some Lynfield College students come and teach us about sound. We learnt about decibels and how loud is too loud for our ears!  

To prove some of these ideas about sound, we created a model of an ear drum using a cup, balloon and a rubber band. We carefully sprinkled some salt on the stretched balloon. Then we made a variety of loud and soft noises. We had to carefully observe what was happening to the salt.

What do you think happened?  We even used the UE BOOM to play loud music to see what happened to our model ear drums. 

Collaborate with Crazy Artist!

Hi there blogging whanau,

Tharindu A.K.A Crazy Artist has had so many great comments about his drawing tutorials! So many of you have said that you are going to try drawing some of his pictures. Crazy Artist would love to see your results so he has made a shared slide that you can add your pictures.

We are looking forward to seeing all the cool drawings!

Learning to Knit

This week has been full steam ahead with our genius hour projects! 

Alisi and Tulei learnt how to knit! These amazing girls have decided to learn how to knit so they can make warm blankets for people who need them. We needed to call in some experts to show us how. A BIG thanks to Samuels Mum and his Oma for coming in to teach the girls. We can't wait to see the final product!  This project is going to take lot's pf patience and perseverance from the girls.  The cool thing is, they are now going to pass on their skills by teaching two others! Maybe they could even teach me!

Try not to drop a stitch girls!

 

Save the Panda!

Check out this cool stop motion animation made by Sylvia! Her genius hour project is all about her favourite animal. Can you guess what it is? That's right ... PANDAS!
These awesome animals habitat is being cut down and this is a worry! Watch out for more from Sylvia or check out her blog as she continues her campaign to help save the panda!

Kia Orana - It's Cook Island Language Week!

Kia Orana!

This week we are celebrating the beautiful Cook Islands! Since we can't all jump on plane and visit, we have decided to bring the beautiful beaches, language and culture to us. This week we are learning how to green screen. Green screening is awesome as you can be transported to anywhere you like and it looks so realistic!  Here is Khin Hla, Joshua and Joelai testing out how to overlay the image in iMovie. We found out it was actually much easier than we first thought! (Especially with the help of a handy youtube clip!) Ahhh, where would we be without youtube?!

Stay tuned for our final movie at the end of the week! :)

More from Crazy Artist!

Check out Tharindu's latest video! It would be SUPER if you could have a go at following his steps and comment about how you went!

Thanks Sylvia!

How lucky am I?
This evening I got this wonderful drawing from Sylvia shared with me! She also took the time to update me on some of her learning that she did today! I can't wait to read all about the animals she has been researching for her adaptation inquiry.

Thanks Sylvia - you really are super!

Matariki Wiki

Matariki celebrations have begun at May Road School! This week we have lot's of learning to do about Matariki! 

We kicked off the week by working with our buddy class - Room 10 to make some delicious fried bread and origami stars! 

Check out our pics below and stay tuned for more of our Matariki posts. 

Matariki ThingLink Learning

Genius Hour #AWESOME

Check out Tharindu's first ever video tutorial he made on we video!
He is going by the name - Crazy Artist

This is his first video in a series he is going to make as part of his genius hour project this term.

Can you help Tharindu by viewing his video and leaving a comment or feedback? Perhaps you may have a suggestion for his next tutorial.

We would love to hear what you think!

Genius Hour + Tinker time + Makey Makey = AWESOME!

We are loving genius hour! When else would you get to transform your teachers lunch into a keyboard and play pac man?! 

That's just what Joelai and Khin Hla did today when they were learning how to use the makey makey! There was lots of learning to do about circuits and conductors! We tried to make a circuit with pencil drawing but that didn't work, so we used a banana! 

Now the boys know how it works they are going to use the makey makey to prgrame a robot! How cool is that?! 

Check out the boys blog for the latest news on how their project is going! 

                     

Book Week 2016

Ever wanted a Thing for your teacher? 

Well, Room 15 had Thing 2 take over their class on Friday! 

It was our famous book week and our fabulous librarian Andrea organised a week full of awesome activities for the kids at May Road School! 

Here are some pics from Friday when we dressed up as a movie or book character! 

Who would you dress up as for book week? 

How about this weather?

This weather sure has taken a turn for the worse and that means being stuck inside at morning tea and lunchtime! Luckily here in Room 15 we are prepared! A few weeks ago one of our PB4L lessons was all about how to handle inside lunchtimes. We made this handy guide showing some safe and sensible inside games you could play.

What are some of the games and activities you do during a wet day break? 

Anzac Poems

We have been reading books about Anzac. We read The Bantom and the Solider by Jennifer Beck and Robyn Belton and Anzac Ted by Belinda Landsberry.

In both the stories we read there was a special hero that gave the brave men and women courage and hope in a time of war and terror.

We wrote some diamante poems about these unlikely heroes and how they were a symbol of hope and peace.

Bertha

scrawny, skinny

encouraging, hoping, believing

She was a strong bantam that gave the soldiers eggs and courage.

killing , living, surviving

strong, hero

Betha

By Nathan

Anzac Ted

broken, dirty

Helping, sacrificing, loving

Anzac ted is helping the soldiers in the war.

Killing, saving, hoping

dusty, helpful

Anzac Ted

By Janet

Anzac Ted

dusty, raggy

dying, killing,encouraging

Anzac ted was a symbol of hope and peace to the soldiers fighting in the war.

surviving, supporting, helping

broken, mascot

Anzac Ted

By Samuel

Flag Referendum

Our kids voting referendum is underway! Check out the team who will be helping you vote for the flag that you would like to represent our country.

Have you made your choice yet?

Stay tuned for the results!

Race Relations Day

Today our school is celebrating race reflations day!

The theme is Welcoming Diversity and here in our class we celebrate all being different! It is what makes us SUPER!

We have been thinking about things we can do to promote justice and peace in our school, community and the world!  Here is pledge against discrimination ... will you join us?

“As a young citizen of the world community, I stand with the United Nations against racism, discrimination, and intolerance of any kind. Throughout my life I will try to promote equality, justice and dignity among all people in my home, in my community, and everywhere in the world.”

The Room 15 Lineup 2016

Miss Haydon

2016!