Ministry of Inspiration!

We were very lucky to have a visit from the Ministry of Inspiration this week.  On Monday, Amy, Karen and Leanne came and worked with Jerusalem and Capernaum.  First, we made squishy circuits, using playdough and space to create circuits to light up LED lights.   Next we used copper tape to create a path to conduct electricity from our battery to LED lights that we had placed to make Matariki.  Some of us had more success than others.   On Monday afternoon we began to construct some hovercrafts.  Some of these moved amazingly, and unfortunately some didn't move at all!  On Tuesday, we started using a breadboard and creating our own circuits.  We used our chrome boks and a programme called Arduino to create the code.  First we got our LED lights to work, then we added more in and after that we added in a buzzer.  We had a challenge (called the pedestrian challenge) where we had to programs the lights and buzzer to work intermittently and together.  We learnt so much and we have our steam kits to do more circuitry learning.  Tomorrow we are working with Natalie to create and code some robots.  #Ministryofinspiration

Teapot Valley Camp

In week two of this term, We went to Teapot Valley (near Nelson) for our year 7&8 Camp.  It was a long drive with a stop at Reefton and a stop at Murchison.  Once we had arrived, we meet with the camp staff.  Jarred and Gypsy the dog helped us through our whole camp.

We participated in lots of activities and challenges.  Some of them were scary and hard to do.  We did team building, low ropes, confidence course, archery, downhill carts, rock climbing, zip lining and abseiling.  We also went on a massive waterslide, jumped on an air pillow and found our way through a maze.  At night we played spotlight and did a Burma trail.  On the Burma trail, the adults tried to scare us, but they weren't very successful!

We made a up a game call Six Square - everyone got involved, especially the adults! We had to change the rules as we went along to make sure it was a fun and fair game.  Now that we are back at school, we have used chalk to create six square at school. On our last night we had a talent show, what a lot of talent we have!  The adults again tried (unsuccessfully) to scare all of the children.  We had such a blast.

All in all the camp was an outstanding experience.  We have been very busy writing about our camp experiences.  Check out our individual blogs to see what we all thought about camp.  Here are some pictures.

Map of stories

Kia ora.  At the beginning of this term we started to research our community.  We begun with the Treaty of Waitangi and what it meant here in Mawhera, Greymouth.  We used the Map of Stories resources from @schoolkit to create some found poetry art based on the art of Tracey Tawhaio.

First we looked into  our town and shared our ideas on this padlet.

Next, we began to find some words and newspaper clippings that would help us tell our story.  We thought about theme colours to use and the kinds of pictures we wanted to use.  Once we had all that it was time to put it all together.  This was quite tricky.  Mrs Bellis had created an exemplar for us to follow which helped.  The painting was messy and we layered so much it took a long time to dry.

This is what we created.  Tell us what you think :)