Our Maths Mini Olympics

Our Makey Makey fun

Oblio's Space Rap

You're Invited

STEAMS Day

The Senior school has kicked off what we hope will become regular events. 'STEAMS' days are there to provide extra support in our classroom practice around the teaching and learning in key curriculum areas that are sometimes given less emphasis in the Primary school classroom. STEAMS is an interpretation of 'STEM' which stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths. We have added the 'A' for Arts and 'S' for Social Studies. 

 Freya and Sharmaine get ready to make some 'Stixplosions'.

 Jessie and Lucie coding an Mbot through a maze.

There was an amazing variety of activities on offer for the day. Students were exploding things, making things, coding things, building things, destroying things, sciencing things, experimenting with things, acting out things. It was a really great day:)

We are on the lookout for any parental expertise in any of the STEAMS areas; where you might be able to lead a small group of students for an hour and a half block. Our next STEAMS day is on the 22nd of June. 

Our First Mystery Hangout

I recently met an Auckland teacher who has had his class participating in 'Mystery Hangouts'. His class had been 'skyping/Hangouting' with classes around the world and he asked if my class would like to have a go. In a nutshell, you agree on a set time to 'hangout' and then through a series of questions that can only be answered by 'yes' and 'no' you guess where each school is in the world.

The class loved the experience and there was a great buzz in the room as the children rushed to consult google maps and pass information onto the questioners etc.
Each child had a set role in the hangout. We had welcomers, questioners, Google mappers, runners, trackers, managers, Googlers, videographers, bloggers....

I loved how the Hangout meant that we had to work as a class to solve the problem. My favourite quote coming from the mappers who would shout out in gusto "I need a runner"(to convey information to the questioners). We developed key geographical and mapping skills and we had fun doing it!

 Photographing and filming the experience. 

Important mapping information being passed on. 

We are keen to try this again and I am in the process of organising some schools that are further afield than Auckland. 

Accelerated Learning with Khan Academy

Today I set the class with a Khan Academy account. khanacademy.org is a free website that allows students to 'learn anything'. As the website says...

Khan Academy offers practice exercises, instructional videos, and a personalized learning dashboard that empower learners to study at their own pace in and outside of the classroom. We tackle math, science, computer programming, history, art history, economics, and more. Our math missions guide learners from kindergarten to calculus using state-of-the-art, adaptive technology that identifies strengths and learning gaps. 

I encourage the students to regularly visit the site and to make a habit of adding to their scores and overall progress. I can keep check of how much time they have put into Khan Academy and what areas they are studying as well as seeing what gaps they have that may need addressing in class.  

So for example, here is a snapshot of some of the student's progress from this morning's session. If the students were able to practise for say 10 minutes a day in maths or coding, they would be sure to make some stunning progress! 

Also, I'm happy for those children that do not have easy access to the internet at home to use the chrome books at school and use their accounts. 

Genius Hour progress!

Fantastic tour of the International Space Station

Team Tower Challenge

We got back into school today with a hiss and a roar. The kids were super engaged and enthusiastic about getting back into new learning opportunities. We started with a primary school classic: the newspaper tower challenge. Skills promoted were team communication, decision-making and risk-taking. We had tall triumphs and major flops.  All in a good days work!