GE Blogging Round up!

Here are a few highlights from last week's Great Eight happenings.

The Pens literacy group were challenged to write a news article for their blogs with a really great one being posted on the school website! Here's Travis' post that he wrote about the classroom upgrades.

He's written about the four Ws and an H and did a great job on the G.S.P.I - gramma, spelling, punctuation and interesting words! He even used alliteration in the title. Nice work, Travis.

We've also been working our written reflections. We try to use a slogan to help us reflect on our learning - 'what, so what, now what'. It help s us think back to what we've learnt, why it;s important to learn and what are we going to do next. Robbies, reflection - here and pictured below, especially what he plans to do next. Well done, Robbie.

Lastly, Jaidene has posted about her 3d shapes she has made with a partner. One of last weeks tasks, listed on her learning plan, was to photograph her shapes and reflect on how many vertices, edges and faces they have.

These tasks have a due date at the end of the week and requires her to co-operate, reflect and problem solve to complete. She is using a wide range of skills learnt throughout the year to complete and she's done a good job! Keep it up, Jaidene.

Wahoo!

Congratulations, Great Eight! Our science documentary is a finalist in this year's 2011 Made Awards. All the effort and hard work has paid off and it's fantastic to see you all get some credit.

We're in the running for some amazing prizes - check out the website to see what we could win if judged the best in our category! Here's hoping...

And here's the video we entered. We'd love some comments below!

Buddy Reading in Room 1

Buddy Reading in Room 1 from mark herring on Vimeo.

We paid a visit to Room 1 in Term 3 to practise our oral language focus - reading out loud with expression and clarity.

Our Final Animation - Credit Card Crisis

Here's the last of our class animations - The Credit Card Crisis. This was created by Aleisha, Ruby B and Sophie W.

The competition for the most popular animation closes on Friday! The movie with the most youtube views will win - time to get watching!

Snow Trip 2011

Lots of us went on a snow trip last Friday. Here's a video I took, following Bruce and Emma.

Snow Trip Action 2011 from mark herring on Vimeo.

We've been learning about the different camera angles and techniques that will help the class film their documentaries next week. What kind of technique am I using for this clip?

Safety Town Flyover!

Here's a flyover of our 'Safety Town' project, combined with Room 7. You can see some certificates for the blocks that had the best design, best detail, best safety features etc.

Safety Town Fly-Over from mark herring on Vimeo.

This project combined all our key understandings of identifying hazards, choosing the right action to take and using the design process. Well done, teams! You should be very proud of your efforts! Watch out for some stop animation projects next term...

Our first Hui Whanau.

Today we had our first Senior Team Assembly - which we've decide to call 'Hui Whanau!' It means 'a family meeting' and will be a great chance to get Rooms 5-8 all together to share our learning and celebrate our successes.

Can you see the way we're sitting? It's like having an imaginary 'campfire' in the middle.

First Day Challenge!

This is a huge hello to the 'Great Eight' extended family! Today was the first day of term 2 and our first day together. It was a 'getting to know each other' day and learning about how things will work. We've also spent some time talking about how the homework can happen for the year so please visit our 'homework' page for more information.

One of our activities today was to explore the things we'll need to do to have a successful year. We talked about listening more than we speak, thinking outside the square and helping each other. The second challenge, the photo below, proved to be quite difficult! We're going to have to persevere and have another go later in the week. We're also aiming to be a little more independent and to take the initiative without the teacher's direction! These are some great lessons to actually experience today.

Here's looking forward to a fantastic year!