Walking the Length of NZ

How Many Steps?

We have been very fortunate to be involved in a some cool learning experiences that have been designed by School Kit. Earlier in the year it was Get NZ Writing and in Term 3, we participated in a Mystery Hangout with Pitt Island School.  

Towards the end of Term 3, we began another kit called, Walking the Length of New Zealand.  This kit has a health and mathematics component which has encouraged us to think about how we can use different types of activity to increase our daily steps.  Now that we have measured our step, tested different step apps, recorded steps around areas of our school and calculated the average kilometer walked on a day; we are ready to invite our family community to 'step out' with us on Friday of week 3 to 'Walk the Length of New Zealand'.

Click on the link below to check out our learning,

link to learning

5Star Marathoners

I spy with my little eye, 3 awesome 5Star athletes.  Can you see Sophie, Raymond and Lucas?  

Along with other Sunnyhills learners, they have been meeting up with Mrs Nelson each week to run 2kms - with the final 2kms to run today at the Auckland Marathon. 

With tension building and eyes focused on the road ahead - all the weeks of training became reality when "parp!" The horn sounded and they were off. 

Fitness Rotations

Every Monday and Friday the year 6’s and the year 5’s do fitness rotation for 15 minutes. They work hard to complete a series of activities. 

They do:

• Chest expansions  
• Half jacks
• Jumping T’s 
• Flutter kicks 
• High knees

These series of workouts are completed with music for motivation. Some of the exercises are hard for some - like the flutter kicks. 

🠛 Here are some photos of our fitness time 🠛 

Reporter: Alex
Photographer: Alex

A Maker Space

Last week on Wednesday afternoon, Room 5 became a maker space. Our choices were coding with Makey Makey, Lego construction, Fathers' Day cards or creating on Merge Cube. We had a fantastic time problem solving, collaborating and communicating.  I'm sure that many of the 5Stars can't wait until their next Maker Space hour!

Brain Talk

This afternoon, Dr Barr (Mr Mac's wife) visited Sunnyhills School to share some really interesting facts about the brain with us.

The brain is... 

• about the size of a small cauliflower and floats in liquid, within the skull
• approximately the same weight as 3 blocks of butter - about 1.5kg
• bigger than the brain of animals which are the same body size, e.g. chimpanzee

Different parts of the brain have different roles, e.g. the frontal lobe tells you when to move, while the hippocampus keeps memory (it backs up when we're asleep - just like a computer!). Other areas help with planning, senses and hearing.

While your body feels pain, your brain doesn't. So if you had brain surgery you would only need anesthetic while the surgeon cuts through the skin.  This is really useful so the surgeon doesn't damage a part of the brain that is being used. Dr Barr showed us a video of a man playing the guitar while he was undergoing brain surgery because they didn't want to damage that part of the brain that he needed for playing the guitar.  Amazing!

This is one of the videos that Dr Barr shared with us to help understand the brain's functions:

https://youtu.be/4Dcj6nYcbLI

Dr Barr shared some awesome words, e.g. neuroplasticity, electroencephalography, and neurons  These will certainly help to improve our scores next time we play Scrabble :)

There is so much to learn about the brain.  Maybe in the future, one of the 5Stars will be a neurologist or neurosurgeon. Watch this space!

#OneWord

Have you ever tried to describe your personal goal with one word?  The 5Stars have, and they found out that it's not as easy as it seems.

In the beginning of Term 3, the 5Stars used a hyperdoc to support learning around developing their #OneWord.  After watching several videos and listening to motivating music, they each came up with one word that defined their personal goal and how they wish to be.  Once they had this word, they then used Google Drawings to create a graphic which could be uploaded to Flipgrid with a video. 

Image of the #OneWord hyperdoc

It might be just #OneWord, but a whole lot of learning happened between thinking, designing and creating.  What do you think of our Flipgrid videos?

   

Click here to view our Flipgrid videos    

OR

Scan this QR code

Osmo Words

International students are visiting Sunnyhills School in the first half of term 3.  We have Mary, Cruz and Eason in Room 5.  They join in with our learning programme and also have special cultural classes with Mrs Shen. Osmo Words has been a fun way for them to develop their understanding of english words.  They play the game collaboratively and can often be heard calling out the word with excitement while they frantically find the correct letters to make the word.

Game Designers

We have been learning about Matariki and how it is celebrated.  There are several versions of the Matariki legend, but many use the seven stars of Matariki as the main characters.  The 5Stars have been designing board, card and Scratch games to demonstrate our understanding of the legend. 

The games are not finished at the moment, but we're really looking forward to playing them with another class and receiving their feedback.  Game Design is fun!

National Young Leaders' Day

Back in Term 1, a small group of 5Stars went with other House and Travelwise Leaders to the NYLD in Manukau.  It's always a great day with inspirational speakers sharing their journey, then the day ends with a performance by a New Zealand artist.

Our 5Stars had an amazing time.  Read about what they thought and who they got to see by clicking on the link below:

CLICK HERE TO VIEW OUR PRESENTATION
or scan the QR code

Giant Walk

Today, Rooms 5 and 9 walked with the rest of Sunnyhills School to Snakes and Ladders Park which is beside the Tamaki River, on the Rotary Walkway.  This was one the activities as part of our Travelwise Walk to School Week. We did this to help encourage more people to walk instead of drive their car.  This helps to reduce the number of cars on our road which results in safer roads for children - and also decrease climate change.

Our buddies are five-six year old and new to Sunnyhills.  Some are crazy, some like to sing and others are chatterboxes.   Here's what we found out about our buddies while walking with them:

• Energetic and amazing - Josh
• Loves to dance and he's from the Philippines - James
• Likes to run away from me and I had to catch up with her - Mandy 
• Likes to talk and laughs a lot - Stella
• Is really funny and enthusiastic - Max Ma
• Doesn't talk much - Grace
• Is very quiet - Jerry
• Knows how to tie her shoelaces - Peyton
• Is an engergiser and wouldn't let go of my hand - Evie
• Likes to chase his class buddy - Henry
• Shy, but energetic - Emma
• Doesn't know how to stop talking - Alex
• Loves transport - anything that moves - Jacob
• Kept hanging onto my hand like I was a piece of gym equipment - Hannah

A 'Giant' line of walkers on the Rotary Walkway

Word Wall

The 5Stars are taking part in the NZ ReadAloud this term.  They are reading a book titled, Finding, by David Hill.  Almost everyday they spend time listening to Mrs Croll read, while developing the art of sketch noting to take notes.

Each week, a series of activities linked to that week's chapter are delivered to their Edmodo group.  This week, one of the activities was a 'word wall'.  This was essentially a list of interesting vocabulary that David Hill used in his writing.  Below is Joe's word definition list and humorous story that includes all the listed words.

My goal:

Finding the definition of words then make a sentence with those words

Words:

• Vessel - A ship or a large boat
• Gouged - To make a hole
• Murmured - To make a low, quiet sound, barely audible
• Fierce - Usually a ferocious, kind of aggression. Sort of scary in a way
• Prattle - To talk in an annoying kind of way
• Glint - Like a small flash of light, usually reflected
• Topple - overbalance, to fall over, or to overthrow or remove someone from the government or like, authority
• Warble - To sing in a kind of way that is like glorious and sweet

Putting the Words Together:

One dark, stormy afternoon, there was a big vessel that couldn’t find the dock probably because the captain doesn’t care that much about his job and instead always liked to warble. The lighthouse made the vessel glint in the stormy day. The steward liked to prattle about what food he likes to the captain which is the probably the main reason why the captain dislikes his job.

The real reason the captain couldn’t see the dock was because there was a giant gorilla in the way, and when I say big, I mean big. The captain murmured something then strided over to the radio. While the captain was doing that, the gorilla yanked up the lighthouse and jumped up high into the air and then crashed back down on the boat, which made the whole boat topple over onto its side!

The captain shouted something at the crew and pushed the annoying steward overboard, he couldn’t take it anymore. Right as the screaming steward plopped into the water, the gorilla gouged a hole in the ship with the lighthouse!

The rest of the story was never recorded but I hope there are no more giant gorilla attacks happening any time soon.  

Silly Shoe Day

Today, the 5Stars have been recognising Road Safety Week by walking to school and wearing an assortment of crazy footwear.  We love dressing up and it's great to see how different we all are. 

ANZAC Stories

The 5Stars have been learning about the meaning of  ANZAC and why it is important that we continue to reflect and remember. Here are a few stories created by some of the learners as a response to their ANZAC inquiry.

   

                    Link to eBook                    or                    Scan the QR code   

     

                    Link to eBook                          or                    Scan the QR code

ANZAC Art & Haiku Poems

We have been learning about WW1 and the tragic results of the landing in ANZAC Cove.  Click on the link or scan the QR code below to view our artwork and haiku poetry that we created in response to this learning.

https://spark.adobe.com/page/XUetHK8ePjw1l/

Check our Amazing Pop Art Jandals

These are Room 5's amazing jandal pop art that we did with Mrs Willmoth. We used colouring pencils, soft pastels and sharpies to produce our creative patterns. After designing our jandals, we then wrote a verse about 'walking in my shoes'. 

We're really proud of our art and writing. What do you think?

Written by Samantha & Stella (with a little bit extra by Mrs Croll)

Telling Our Own Story

Over the past three weeks, the 5Stars have been learning about words, and how to choose the best ones to help describe a small item. This amazing learning adventure was courtesy of School Kit and Warehouse Stationery.

With a partner, the 5Stars had to complete a thinking sheet about their small item.  It might have been a small teddy bear, dinosaur, chess piece or even a small ship in a bottle!  Along the learning journey, we learned how useful a thesaurus is to provide us with more words when we have exhausted our own word list.  We also learned that not every word in the thesaurus is suitable for the way that we wish to use it!  The 5Stars also learned that an 'anagram' is what happens if they jumble up the letters in a word. This resulted in some very interesting words.

Scan this QR code

or Click on the image below, then once it has loaded, just scroll down to read our class collaborative poem and many of the postcards that we sent away to Oaklands School in Christchurch.

Warming up with Just Dance

In Room 5, we like to start our day with either some energising dancing or brain-sparking mindfulness.  Today, we enjoyed moving to 'Power' and 'Timber' on Just Dance.  It's lots of fun and is an awesome way to start our day.

Frozen Friday

The 5Stars love Frozen Friday.  It's an awesome way to cool down and 'chill' out with our friends. 

Be Sustainable with Vector

Learning about sources of energy with Esther, from Vector. What's renewable? What's fossil fuel? How can we 'be sustainable'?

I wonder what curiosities are sparked as a result from this learning?

Class Treaty

Creating Our Class Treaty

Since the beginning of the term, the 5Stars have been designing their class treaty. To support them with this, they have been participating in team building, group and independent learning and of course - camp! All these experiences have provided them with opportunities to reflect on the WWW (What Went Well) and EBI (Even Better If), so they can make informed decisions about their class treaty.

In small groups, the 5Stars discussed ideas that they felt were important for our class treaty.  The groups then shared their ideas to see what was the same, similar or different. These ideas formed our our first draft.

After returning from camp, we revisited the first draft. The groups looked for similar ideas in the first draft that could be grouped together and categorised. Some groups used the GEMS to help guide their decision making in the sorting process. Afterwards, they then thought carefully about the phrases in each group - which ones needed to stay and which ones could be deleted? As a class, we listened to each group's ideas and eventually came to an agreement on which phrases we valued the most.  Our treaty statement began to emerge...

We will 'live' with this statement for a few weeks, to ensure that we are all confident that it reflects who we want to be and what we want our learning environment to look like.  In the meantime, we have each crafted a 'name strip' that will be woven with others to signify our unity.  

Here is our completed class treaty which is now on display in our classroom.  We will use it as a reminder of who we are and who we wish to be.

Mathematical Mindsets

Maths Problem Solving

The words, 'growth mindset' feature regularly in our daily conversations at Sunnyhills School. We talk about using a 'growth mindset' when we are learning - especially when we are in the 'learning pit'. With a 'growth mindset', we don't give up. Instead, we say, "I'm challenged and am having trouble understanding this new learning, but I won't give up."  In maths, the 5Stars will be referring to this way of thinking as 'Mathematical Mindsets'.  Jo Boaler - Stanford researcher, professor of math education, and expert on maths learning - has studied how students learn maths. then developed practical strategies to help all students enjoy and succeed in maths.

The 5Stars will be developing their 'mathematical mindset' thinking during group problem solving sessions. It is here that they will need to collaborate and share their thinking with one another, so that everyone in the group understands the process. There will often be often be more than just one way to solve a problem - written, visual and with materials. I can't wait to see how they all develop as mathematicians throughout the year.

Here are some photos of the 5Stars developing their 'mathematical mindset' capabilities while designing a graph (more about that later):

Water Fun

It’s afternoon at Lakewood Lodge and that means time for the waterslide, bumps, bruises and a mouth full of stinky watered-down clay at the bottom!

All Tied Up

Human Knot

Although this activity is familiar to us, it still remains challenging as we negotiate our way under and over linking arms to unravel our bodies. 

Survival Lunchtime

Campfire Cooking

One of the first challenges at Survival was for each  team to get their campfire started with a flint and steel, then to keep it burning all day so that they could cook their lunch and dinner. The teams found it extremely difficult to create a spark from the flint, but finally achieved success with some perseverance. This made the meals taste even better. 

Team 6 at Camp

We've arrived at Lakewood Lodge and can't wait to get our happy campers out on the activities.  They’ll have some amazing experiences which will last a lifetime. 

Class Treaty

Creating a class treaty at the beginning of each school year is the norm and what better way to launch into this discussion than to look at an historical event in our own country - Te Tiriti O Waitangi (The Treaty of Waitangi). We read/listened to an article from a School Journal, played a Kahoot quiz and participated in a scavenger hunt to help us have a better understanding of why there needed to be a treaty, and also why the treaty ended up having different meanings for the British and Maori.

Team building and challenges are going to provide us with some experiences from which to design our own treaty. We will use the GEMS to help navigate our thinking. I wonder what the Room 5 Stars will decide is important for our learning space.

Welcome!

The doors of Room 5 were swung wide open on the morning of Monday 4th February to welcome a mixed group of Year 6s whom I will affectionately refer to as the 'Room 5 Stars'. Many were keen to catch up with friends that they had not seen over the holidays and others quietly checked out the classroom. It's a new beginning for me at Sunnyhills and I'm looking forward to getting to know each learner; identifying where I can support them - both academic, emotionally and socially. Exciting times ahead! 

It's been a gentle beginning with our first week split in two due to Waitangi Day providing us with a holiday mid-week. This allowed us to take some respite from the intense heat that we have had - especially in the afternoon when the warmth of Room 5 gets the better of us. The weather, however, typically decided to pull rank and cool down on Thursday afternoon which lead to the postponement of our 'Fitness & Water' afternoon. Hopefully this can take place sometime next week.

Speaking of next week, there will be an opportunity to meet the parent community on Tuesday evening. This informal 'meet and greet' is always a great way to put a face to a name prior to our 'home/school partnership' meetings which will take place in Week 4.  The school calendar is getting very busy, with Year 6 camp in Week 3 and the many 'beginning of the year' activities. Just how I like it! 

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Mandy, Stella, Sophie, Alexander, Grace, Emma, Joshua, Raymond, Jacob, Arad, Henry, Jerry, Max, Clyde, Kobi, Chadd, Tony, Joseph, Lucas, James,

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