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):