Kea Class @ Pompallier

In STEM we have been learning about the properties of  materials. We have been mixing, dissolving and melting different materials. As part of our learning about melting we watched candles burn and melt. We decided to make Teacup Candles to gift to the other classes, for them to use for McAuley Day. We created decorative designs for the saucers using blue, gold and silver colours. At assembly we gifted these to the teachers and classes. 

Today we started to create our musical instruments. We invited Te Kahu class to buddy up with us to help with using the tools and the construction process. Everyone in Kea class had a buddy working with them. The photos show the Tuakana-Teina creativity at work. Many thanks Te Kahu for all of your help. Kea Class are well on the way with their instruments. Some are ready for decorating already, and others just need a little bit more work before being decorated. The students all enjoyed their learning, and they are all very proud of what they have achieved so far.

On August 8th Pompallier School all traveled to Cutler's Farm for our school cross country races. Kea Class really enjoyed the day. They have written some great recounts about their experiences to share with you. In our writing we were trying to use description and personal comments to help our readers visualise what was happening and understand how we were feeling.  On Thursday the 8th  of August the whole school was at the Cutler’s farm for Cross country.  To get to the farm, we had to walk down a muddy and smelly track. When all of the students were there, we all walked over to the gazebo to start the races. First went the seniors, next the  juniors. We were second to last to run . When Mrs Watson yelled, “ GO!”,  we all ran through the mud and nearly slipped over. When we came to the plank,  I felt like I was going to fall… and I nearly did! But I kept on running again. Finally, we got to the hill.  I tumbled down, but i got up again. The...

This term our STEM focus has included The Arts - we are enjoying STEAM sessions on Wednesday afternoons, that are supported by our Literacy and Maths learning activities related to our focus on Music and Sound.  This term we have used a discovery learning approach. We have had a variety of different musical instruments to investigate and play. We have learnt about different types of musical instruments and how different materials are used to make different sounds in different families of instruments - string, percussion, brass, wind. We have carried out a variety of activities to learn about sound and how certain materials can be used to make particular sounds. Our aim is to design and make a musical instrument of our own.  Each student has used what they have learnt about musical instruments, and how sound is produced to create a plan to make their own musical instrument, using labelled diagrams to show what the instrument will look like. Our plans i...

As part of our learning focus on plants and growth, Kea class reading groups have been reading about different New Zealand native trees and plants. We started learning about why these plants are important to different groups of people, when we visited Waitangi in Week 3. Students have been using their learning to create slides to share at assembly, and here on the blog. We hope you enjoy them.

We have been working with our facilitator, Whaea Donna, to learn about what we should be sharing on our class and individual student blogs. We are learning about being cyber smart, and making sure we are using public information - not private information. Hannah has created a cool poster to show what we could include in our blog posts. Soham created a poster showing what he could put on his own blog.

We have some google slides to introduce ourselves