We have been learning about fables this term.  We looked at some of Aesop's fables and then we identified what a fable needs.  We created our own fables.  This was a very enjoyable activity and we had some amazing fables written!   Check these ones out and tell us what you think!

2020 Begins...

Kia ora koutou!   We are already in week two. We have been spending our time getting to know each other.  We have done some team problem solving, we have made our class rules and we are currently working on self portraits.  This week is filled with testing and swimming, the days are just flying by.  Jerusalem has moved this year and we are now on the other side of the school.  Check out our classroom.

We have also created a prayer wall in our class where we can put our special prayer for people.  Many of us have been praying for Australia because of the bushfires.  Check out our prayers:

Finding Patterns

Today we worked in small groups to find patterns.  This activity created a lot of mathematical discussion and justification.  We found a lot of patterns and it was really challenging and rewarding when we were trying to explain our ideas.  Can you find anymore patterns?

How to make a comment on a blog...

We have been  busy making a video of how to post a comment on a blog.  We are trying to get our families more involved in commenting on our learning blog.

These were the instructions:

Check out the instruction videos our learners have come up with:

Jono      Here

Lenard    Blog instruction thing

Leevy      Blogging comment  

Ciaran      blog comment

Tell us what you think :)

All about matter and changes of state!

We have just had science week.  We became scientists.  We did some learning about atoms and molecules, we even made some molecules out of marshmallows.

Next, we tried a few experiments to get our curiosity working.  After that we created a hypothesis, planned some fair testing, executed the tests making sure that we recorded our data and then we wrote up a conclusion and our next I wonder.  We were scientists!

Creating our own Heroes and Villains

We have been creating our own Heroes and Villains.  We are writing back stories and creating outfits.

Here are some of the outfits we created.  Tell us what you think.

Heroes and Villains

Kia ora.  This term we have Heroes and Villains as our theme.  We have been researching our own  choice of heroes and villains. Check out the learning tasks and reflections that Nicole has done.  We are in awe of the effort she has put in.  We particularly love the dramatisation of her information report about Ned Kelly.  It is in four parts and it is well worth watching all four to get the whole story.  Please leave a positive, helpful, thoughtful comment and tell us what you think!

A song about Robots taking over the World

By Ari - Starring Noah A and Ari

Click on the link to see Ari's song about Robots taking over the world
Video

I think this is amazing - what do you think.

Year 7 and 8's go to Wellington for a week!

Last week the year 7 and 8's went to Wellington for a week long camp.  we had so much fun.  It took 12 hours of travel to get to Silverstream Retreat - where we stayed.  On our first full day we went to Suzanne Aubert's House of Compassion and the Zoo.  After tea we went swimming.  On our second day, we visited Parliament, Capital E and St Paul's Cathedral.  After tea, we went swimming again and the we had our St Patrick's got Talent show. On our third day, we went to Te Papa and then on the Cable Car.  After tea we headed to Queesngate Mall for a couple of hours.  What a lot of fun!  That night we packed up all our gear ready for an early start, another long day of travel. 

CHECK OUR OUR PIX AND VIDS :)

You're the Expert!

Kia ora koutou.  Every Friday  in our class we have "You're the Expert".  Children have time to present to us and teach us all about something they are an expert in.  The children love teaching the rest of us.  This week we had Tom teaching us about his remote control racing cars and he brought them in for us to see.  We also had Lenard who had made a video about spiders (pungawerewere)  for us to watch and learn from.  Check out Lenard's video - we thought it was awesome.  Tell us what you think.

Te wiki o te reo Māori.

Kia ora koutou.  Ko te wiki o te reo Māori te wiki nei.  Kei te ako mātou he kupu hou Māori.

Hi everyone, it is the week of Māori language this week.  We are learning new Māori words in our class.  We are learning about location words and how to structure sentences in te reo.
This is a video that Alex S and Lenard created.  what do you think?

This is a video that Neve and Alyssa created.  They have great pronunciation!

Tongan Language Week

This week we are celebrating Tongan Language Week.  We are lucky enough to have three children with Tongan heritage in our Classroom.  We have been practising our Tongan by playing some online games.  We are getting very good at our Tongan language.  How about you?  Give the games a go!


http://www.digitaldialects.com/Tongan.htm

Human Impact!

Leevy, Meesha, Nadia, Pyper, Blake and Nadia's Mum collaborated to make an amazing news report about our ocean as a dumping ground:  Check it out:




Erika (with some help from Kaylee), created a song about our world as a taonga (treasure).  We are very impressed with the creativity that their DLO's show.

The world is our taonga!

Kia ora, we have been looking into human impact this term and one of the activities we have been working on is - The world is our taonga.

The children had these instructions:

Meesha and Pyper came up with an interactive slideshow.  Our class was very impressed with their effort and the finished product!  Tell us what you think.  Follow the directions and keep pressing the button to keep the slideshow moving.

What is Faith?

Our year 7 and 8 Learners have been exploring what faith (whakapono) means.  Check out our Padlet - it has a lot of awesome ideas about faith!  Tell us what you think.

Literacy - our digital modelling book

Now that our class is digital, we have been innovative about the way we do things.  Our reading group shares a slideshow that goes for the whole term.  This is where Mrs Bellis puts the WALT and all the things we learn about in a lesson.  Often she has things there before our lesson so we can be prepared.  During our lesson we add as we are learning - we use text and photos of our whiteboards mainly.  After our lesson we usually have follow up, this goes on our slideshow too.  We have a whole terms worth of learning in one slideshow.  Each group has one of these.  This is Kapa Rua's Literacy for term one.  We are currently reading and writing narratives.  This week we described the character we are writing about and then we drew the character.  This slideshow will continue updating ans changing until the end of the term.  This means we can look back at what we have learned, check up on things, and make sure we are up to date.

Water who needs it?

This term we have 'Water, who needs it?' as our theme.  We have been doing some research and note taking.  Check out our class padlet - this is where we have shared a lot of the new information we have found out about water.  We hope you learn something.  Keep an eye on our individual blogs to see the DLO's we create for our 12 activities.

Week one - The tail end of Cyclone Fehi!

Week one sailed by, it was over before we realised.  We welcomed our new students and did a lot of cybersmart learning.  We are currently creating videos to teach our junior learners about being Cybersmart and safe on the internet.  We will show some of these in Assembly next week.

We had an exciting Thursday, when the remnants of Cyclone Fehi came to Greymouth.  Our School had very limited damage and was able to stay open.  Many children were picked up over the course of the day and a few had trouble getting home because of flooding and storm damage.   We are very thankful that everyone remained safe and unharmed.

Last year some of our amazing year 8 students decided to leave a legacy at Saint Patrick's.  They wrote letters and managed to gain funding for some new furniture for future year 8's to use in Galilee.  In Galilee the year 8's get to sit on the couches and bean bags, this is the privilege they get when they reach their final Primary school year.  These children demonstrated their ability to think of others and act in a selfless manner.  What a kind and thoughtful act.


A big thank you to Claire, Netana, Phoenix and Ben.  Galilee will look after our new furniture and will remember how hard you worked to get this for us.