Assembly

We have been very busy this term. We have been out in the garden and planted many plants as well as making signs to make the garden even brighter.

A day in the garden Blog post

Te Ara Hauora Blog 1
Te Ara Hauora Blog 2

The Sombrero

The Ice Tray

Computer Science

We have been unplugged for our computer science topic. We looked at using a problem-solving task to brainstorm improvements. Our task was to make a boat out of tinfoil that would hold as many marbles as it could before it sunk. 

Video Album

Poetry

This term we have written a number of poems using a variety of poetic forms. We enjoyed Haiku and clerihew. Our task was to describe a member of the classroom in a fun way. 

Kyle H's

Alex's

Cori's

Kyle C's

Extension Maths

Kyle and Caitlin have been working on Trigonometry and Pythagoras theorem. Let's let them explain, shall we...?

Caitlins DLO
Kyles practical Presentation

Shantytown

Last week we went to Shantytown to explore Law & Order on the Goldfield. We dressed up and attended the Marsden Valley school, we were robbed on the train

and had a courtroom drama. The day was very much fun. When we got back to school, we wanted to write more courtroom dramas. Here is one by Caitlyn, Ben, Connor and Autumn

Computer Science Discoveries- Aluminum Boats

Today we began our Computer Science Discoveries course. Our goal today was to build a boat that holds the most marbles, using a piece of tin foil. We were to build two boats and try to improve our design between the first and second attempts. The structure of the activity foreshadows different steps of the problem-solving process that students will be introduced to in more detail in the following lesson. At the end of the lesson, students reflect on their experiences with the activity and make connections to the types of problem-solving they will be doing for the rest of the course.

 The aluminum boats problem could easily be substituted out for any number of other problems that require students to define their goals, devise a plan, try a solution, evaluate their results, and then iteratively improve from there. The fact that the problem chosen is "non-computational" is intentional. Computer science is fundamentally a problem-solving discipline and staying away from traditional computer science problems at this points helps to frame this class as one about problem-solving more generally with computer science being a new "tool" to help attack certain types of problems.

Kalebs Boxes

It just goes to show, that learning in Totara 1 is not always confined to the classroom. Kaleb has a particular strength when it comes to using his hands. Kaleb made all of the planter boxes for the Kumara, and these have turned out to be pretty good seedling boxes as well!

 Kaleb took my simple design and has started making planter boxes for the senior classrooms. We hope to be able to grow things outside our door so we can pick and graze on healthy seasonal food. Kaleb wants to make these as kitsets so that the classrooms can put them together themselves.

This earned Kaleb, gardener of the week. Wel



l done Kaleb

A day in the garden

Since the weather has begun to warm up a bit, Totara 1 decided to spruce up the garden, and plant out the many seedlings we started to grow the last term. 

Seedlings ready to go!

Planting out the peas

Many jobs needed to be down. Plenty of weeding needed to happen as well as sweetening up the soil. Kaleb was amazing at making sure the beds were ready for those coming in behind with the seedlings.

Jessica was such a workhorse. Not only did she plant out all the pumpkins, she singlehandedly weeded an entire box and planted out all the red cabbages. 

All of the green manure (lupins and mustard) needed to be dug into the soil as well. Corianna may be small in stature but worked very hard.

Richard looking after the garlic

All in all, it was such as a fantastic day. We achieved so much. I don't think I've ever seen such a hard working class. 

More photos

 

Adding sunflowers to Jordie's garden