Term 3 learning in Room 2

Here are some of the wonderful learning in Room 2.

Sharing ideas in topic on the mat as a whole class enables us to stop and listen while others are speaking.

Making sure we are actively listening to others is important because we can learn from each other new ideas and also understand what other people are thinking.


                                                       Making learning a priority is important to us because it would be a

 waste of time for our teacher, our parents and ourselves.

Making sure we have all our learning tools is important so that we do not waste our learning time. We are getting better at managing ourselves so that we are ready to learn when the first bell goes in the morning.

Dr Tom visits Avalon on Wednesday 24th September

 Dr Tom Mulholland visited Avalon today to speak to us about his life and how he is helping people to live a more healthy lifestyle.  He drove into school in his flash ambulance and set the siren off which was so loud.  Dr Tom answered questions about his medical career, his hobbies and sports he loves to do.  He is an ex-pupil of Taita Intermediate (1973-1974) who later attended Taita College and Upper Hutt College.  He continued his education at Victoria University then Canterbury and Otago Universities.  Wow...he's amazing.  Thank you Dr Tom for telling us that "we are as good as anyone else". 

Gezhane with Dr Tom who had some effective messages for all of us.  One of them is simply "BE NICE TO OTHERS"

 

Isabella, Kartya, Christina, Crichton, Trace, Dan pose next to Dr Tom's cool ambulance. 

Getting down to learning in Room 2

The group is working hard to improve their literacy skills.

Work is important to us in Room 2.  We have access to laptops to assist us with our work.
We are trying to make our classroom a positive learning environment by following instructions, focussing on achieving our goals and helping others who need our support.

Keeping busy ensures we are learning.

 Ryan and Mika 

using laptops to practise their math skills.

"My favourite is going on math websites to play math games to help us understand decimals, fractions and percentages." - Te Manu.

Science is so cool in Room 2

 Aim: The aim of the experiment is to find out what happens to a jaffa lolly when put into a glass of water?

Purpose: To work through and make sense of the science investigation process.

Hypothesis: We predict that the jaffa will melt in the hot water and also in the cold water. 

Christina, Isabella, Sam and Zahra are keen to see what happens to the jaffa.

Result:
The jaffa in the hot water changed a lot faster than the jaffa in the cold water.  The colour was the first thing that was affected, there were swirls of red rising up to the top of the water. Tluang described the jaffa as "lava rock".  We saw the white part of the jaffa begin to crack after about 10 minutes.  There were flakes of this layer peeling off and floating to the top of the water level.  Eventually the chocolate centre of the jaffa was exposed. This took about 15 minutes.

We had to be patient when observing the experiment.  We had to watch carefully to see what was happenting to the jaffa.

We discussed terms such as melting, dissolving, peeling, mixing, reacting, changing, process as we observed what happened to the jaffa.

Next Steps:  Explain the reason why the jaffa reacted the way it did in the hot and cold water using scientific language.  Great work Room 2.

Learning looks like

Te Manu knows that hard work is the key 

to his success in Room 2.

The group is working hard to improve their literacy skills.

Dan and Jacob work collaboratively using the classroom imac computer to solve math problems.





 Kehu, Christina and Isabella are busy researching information for the Elections unit of work.

Room 2 Awards

 Sam has worked really hard to achieve great results in Literacy, Numeracy and Technology.  She is a diligent worker who attends Extension Literacy and Numeracy every week to extend her knowledge and skills.  Sam is passionate about reading and makes the most of her learning time in Room 2. Great effort Sam.

Christina is also a hard worker who takes her learning seriously in Room 2.  Her involvement in the Arts, sports and classroom programmes plus her role as a Young Leader means she has to ensure her learning in Literacy and Numeracy is sustained.  Awesome Christina.

Ryan has worked hard to improve in Literacy and Numeracy over the term.  He has good ideas in writing and ensures he is using the appropriate structure and language features in his work.  Ryan loves math and his understanding of math ideas has improved this term.  Great job Ryan.

ICT in Room 2 Thursday 18th September

In Room 2, we are using electronic devices such as mac books, imac and the digital camera to develop our skills in the ICT field.  Extra laptops are available when we use the C.O.W (computers on wheels) for us to research topics, publish our work and explore educational games and websites.

 

 Kehu, Christina and Isabella are working diligently on researching their topic questions about Elections.

We decided to alter our desks formation to help us focus on what we are doing.  We call this our Room 2 ICT Pod and it works really well.  Everyone sits at their desk, each with a laptop doing their work.  We can see everyone else working and this allow us to learn smarter and achieve better results.

Norm Hewitt's visit to Avalon - 17th September

Today Norm Hewitt (ex All Black) visited Avalon to do a presentation on behalf of SPCA.  Norm shared about his life that included his love for his family and his pets.  One of the key messages was to show love, care and kindness to others by learning to love, care and be kind to our pets at home. 

Tluang poses with Norm after the presentation.


Did you know that Norm has 2 pet dogs named Astro and Rusty B?


Did you know that Norm once had a pony called Tommy whom he used to talk to when things were not going well?

Norm told us that animals had needs just like us humans.  They were the 5 Freedoms -

• To have food and water
• To have shelter
• To have regular exercise
• To get medical care at the vet
• To be loved

Thank you Norm for your talk.. YOU ARE AWWWESOME !!!!!

Have Your Say - Voting Day at Avalon Intermediate

Over the past few weeks, Room 2 have been learning about Elections in New Zealand.  We have learned about the history of our voting system and the process of how to go about voting.  Today was voting day at Avalon with all students exercising their right to vote in a mock election held in our school hall. Each student filled out an application to be on the electoral roll.  The roll is kept in a safe place until voting day.  Officers crossed off each student's name as they entered the hall. 

Each student has 2 votes: 1 for the candidate in their electorate and 1 for a political party.

Isaiah is having his say by voting in today's election.

Isaiah is proud to cast his vote.

Each student had to sit behind a screen so that noone else can see who they have voted for.  This is an important part of the voting system.
Once all students have cast their vote, the ballot box is taken away
and the returning officer will count up all the votes.

It is an exciting time for everyone as we wait to hear what the final result will be.  Great job Room 2!

Science in Room 2

We know that science is all around us and we are having fun finding this out.  We are finding out about how to go through the science process in order to have a better understanding of the wonderful world we live in.

We toasted lots of bread at low, medium and high settings for 90 seconds.

We wanted to find out which bread toasted the fastest; white or multi-grain bread.

Our hypothesis was that the white bread would toast faster.  Next we have to find why this happened.

Technology Is Awesome At Avalon

The year has whizzed past so fast it is nearly the end of the term with only 10 days of school left before the holidays. Room 2 have enjoyed participating in many events including Technology.

Te Manu in Fabric Technology

Sam concentrates in getting the right measurement in Wood Technoloty

 T

Kehu presents a delicious breakfast menu in Food Technology

Robin shows off his finished product in Fabric Technology.