Term 3 - Week 6

Jack received our 'Star Student' award for fantastic effort in writing and for being proud of his work...well done Jack!

 We are making good progress with our self-portraits!

 It's our last week of swimming and there is some wonderful progress being made!

 'Playdough Words'....a popular way of practising spelling.

A special message from the Stingrays reading group for Maggie from Tahunanui School...she is one of our blog's most active followers!  Thanks for all your positive comments!

Term 3 - Week 5

Lucia was awarded the 'Physically Active Learner Award'.

Lucia has a great competitive attitude but also follows the rules of fair-play so that everyone has fun.

She is a great swimmer, is deadly in dodgeball, does gymnastics and just loves any chance to be outside and active. Keep up the great work Lucia!

 As part of our forces unit we looked at the stored energy that is suddenly released when we used the catapults that we made (thanks so much to our students from the enrichment programme that taught us how to make them).  The force could make a marshmallow hit the ceiling as it turns out!

We began to practise our sketching skills with a few face sketches, later we will be doing self-portraits.

 In our Chinese lesson we looked at Chinese numbers and practised putting them in order.

Our swimming lessons have begun! Each day we will have an early lunch (12:15) and then get on the bus at 12:40, our lessons begin at 1:00.  We will be back at school at about 2:30.  Remember to pack your togs each day!

 You can tell that the students are really thinking: 

"I wish I was back at school doing maths and writing".

 We even got a surprise on Tuesday when Mrs Pearson and Zico joined us for a play in the lazy river!

Term 3 - Week 4

Remember everyone that we begin Swimming next week (week 5)!

Our first lesson is on Monday the 17th of August.

We will be having an early lunch (12:15) and then getting on the bus at 12:40.

 Isabella received our "Star Students" award this week for behaviour that always displays the 'Birchwood Way' .  This means Isabella is polite, respectful, hardworking and has a positive attitude....not just sometimes but all the time.  Well done Isabella, we are very lucky to have you in our class!

 Jade entertained the class by playing a few tunes on the piano...it sounded great Jade!

 In maths we did a bit of place value work, the students thought up a two digit number and then had to place themselves in order as quickly as they could.

Term 3 - Week 3

Tayla received our "Star Student" award this week for her fantastic effort in writing and for sharing her clever ideas.  Keep up the great work Tayla!

 We began our first forces experiment looking at how different ramps and different sized balls affected momentum.  

We measured momentum as the distance the ball travelled after it left the end of the ramp.

 The results were recorded after each roll.

We found that the balls travelled faster and further when they left the higher ramp.

We also found that the larger balls of playdough went further than the smaller ones (on average).

 What else did we learn?

That if you co-operate you get more testing done.

That the jobs a group needs to do have to be divided up.

That everyone needs to make sure they are doing their job.

That keeping an eye on the time is a good idea.

That you don't always get to do the job you want to do...that's just how it goes!