Finishing term 3 with a smile!

Hello to our blogging friends!

Today marks the last day of term 3 for schools in New Zealand. We made it! We have spent just under 7 weeks of school online this term (6 weeks and 4 days to be exact). That's 34 days of online learning!

 Well done to all the awesome learners who made the effort to attend (I know some days it was a struggle to get out of bed!) and a special thank you to those learners who had their cameras on! It was lovely to see you all each day (even if we do all need haircuts!😆) 

As part of Mental Health Awareness Week, Paterson Class used Jamboard to brainstorm some ideas of how to be kind to others in our bubble, when we're online and what we could do once we move to alert level 2. It's a timely reminder for all of us as we continue with the lockdown in Auckland. There are some EXCELLENT suggestions here and so I challenge you to pick one and see if you can brighten someone's day!

Wishing everyone a well deserved break over the holidays. I'm keeping my fingers crossed we head down to level 2 so we can see everyone back at school for the start of term 4! 

Be kind to yourself and to others! See you next term!

Would you rather be... round 3

 Mālo e lelei bloggers!

We've survived another week of lockdown learning! It's a tricky time for us here in Tamaki Makaurau still being at alert level 4 while the rest of the nation moved to alert level 2 this week. However we are soldiering on and proving how resilient we can be! 

For today's writing task we have another opportunity for share your opinion and give us 3 reasons to explain WHY you have that opinion.

Our blog ponder for today is: Would you rather...

Leave a comment below explaining which one you'd rather be. Remember to expand on your ideas by telling us why you'd prefer to be a space astronaut or a deep sea diver!

And we are still looking for suggestions for what our next round of "Would you rather...?". If you've got a great idea please leave it in the comments below.

Would you rather be... version 2

 Kia ora bloggers,

It's time for another blog ponder! Today's writing task is to share your opinion and explain WHY you have that opinion.

Our blog ponder for today is: Would you rather...

Leave a comment below explaining which one you'd rather be. Remember to expand on your ideas by telling us why you'd prefer to be giant sized or ant sized!

And if you have any suggestions for what our next question for "Would you rather...?" could be leave it in the comments below.

It's not just a...

 Hello team of 5 million! 

This week we've had some incredibly motivated and independent students completing learning tasks at home. One of our writing tasks was to watch this clip about Stick Dude. 

We were then challenged to write a poem about a cardboard box (or another object) and the potential it has for playing with. The goal was to be as creative as possible!

Once we had written our poems we then had to practise performing it before recording it. 

Special shout out to Karolina who has very kindly allowed us to share her poem on the class blog as she is having some technical difficulties posting it on to her own blog at home.  

My Empty Pringles Box

It is not just an empty box!

It is a mega phone!

It is a unicorn horn!

It is a telescope 🔭!

It is a tower!

It is a mini sky tower!

It is a musical instrument!

It is a sword ⚔️!

It is for storing my little things!

It is more than JUST a Pringles Box!

IT'S MY FAVOURITE BOREDOM BUSTER! 

Karolina has done a fabulous job of recording her poem and you can check out here performance below.

 

We challenge you to have a go at writing a poem like Stick Dude and Karolina - it can be about anything you have lying around at home or in your backyard (If your stuck for ideas you could write a poem about a old sock, a tin can, or an old tyre!). Remember, the more the creative, the better! Write your poem in the comments below!

Would you rather be...

 Kia ora bloggers,

The Delta variant of COVID-19 has hit New Zealand so we're in currently in lockdown and learning from home. 

Today's writing task is to share your opinion and explain WHY you have that opinion.

Our blog ponder for today is: Would you rather be...

Leave a comment below explaining which one you'd rather be. Remember to expand on your ideas by telling us why you'd prefer to be giant sized or ant sized!

Rumble, rumble, rumble... BOOM!

 Hi fellow bloggers!

Another day of distance learning complete! We had a fantastic turn out at our google meet this morning and we looked at incorporating onomatopoeia into our writing task today. The challenge was to use some adjectives, WOW words and onomatopoeia to describe what it would be like if you were caught in a thunderstorm. There was also an extra challenge to include a simile or a metaphor!

Below is some fantastic writing from our Year 4 students:

I was sleeping in my bed  then suddenly I heard a kaboom. A lightning bolt cracked above my house then my bed started to rumble. I was terrified! My sister got a fright and screamed. Things crashed to the ground. It was so frightening. The window was left open and things were flying around the room like a tornado because of the howling wind and the rain was splashing so hard that I thought our roof was going to break.

- Written by Axel

I knew there was gonna be a storm today but since I had to pick up my kid and had NO car I had to walk. I could not take a bus because they were all full. The rain started to rumble. Rain turned into a storm then I heard a big BOOM! Then there was CRASH of the rain, into the puddles I went. Splish splash went the HUGE puddles. I could hear the PING SHING of rain falling on poles and water dripping onto peoples balconies. Finally I got to my baby and then… what happened next, well that's another story.

- Written by Karolina

When I was playing outside it was sunny, then it turned grey clouds really fast and then I got scared when I heard a loud rumble. Then boom the raindrops were falling hard on me pinging it hurts ouch. I went under shelter. I looked up and saw the flashing lights come down from the sky and made a loud bang sound. I got scared and ran inside.

- Written by Layla

As I was walking to school I heard a loud BOOM in the distance. Then a BANG came next. I could hear the pitter-patter of rain coming so I started to run. Splash went my feet as they hit the puddles. I was running so fast that I almost went CRASH in to my classroom door.

- Written by Mila

Can you think of any other onomatopoeia words that we could use when we are describing a thunderstorm? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

Unpacking the Kawa of Care

 Talofa lava!

We're currently on day 3 of distance learning and we all have devices at home this time! Some students only received them on Monday so they've been thrown into the deep end and have been learning about the Kawa of Care at home. 

It's been super awesome to see the Year 4 students be able to learn how to use a chromebook and google drive so quickly. (They must have had some AMAZING teachers last year!) 

For our learning today everyone chose one rule from the Kawa of Care and created a google drawing about it. The challenge was to unpack what the rule meant and insert images that matched what they had written. Below are two fantastic examples created by Year 4's from Paterson Class. If you want to check out what the Year 5's and 6's created you can have a look at their blogs over here ➡️

Created by Axel

Created by Mila

What rule do you think is the easiest to follow from the Kawa of Care and which one is the hardest?  Is there some other advice you could give to help people look after their chromebooks? We'd love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a comment below!

Beat the Boredom!

 Hello blogging world!

For those of who live in other parts of the world you may not be aware that Auckland has moved to alert level 3. This means that we are back to distance learning for round 2! 

We've already had 5 days at home, so for some of us we are starting to get a little bored of being at home. Tuffery Class have been working on some ideas for activities that you can complete while you are home - particularly when the boredom starts to bite! 

Below is Mrs Eagleson's DLO (digital learning object) with some suggestions for activities that you can do at home when you get bored. Students in Tuffery Class have come up with some even BETTER ideas and you can check out their DLO's by clicking their blogs over here ----> 

 

*The emoji bookmark is an awesome activity - you can check out how to create one by clicking here.

What are you doing to beat the boredom during alert level 3? 

Leave us a comment below with your great ideas! 

Bubble Poetry

Kia orana!

This week we're back at school and it's so good to back! On Monday we had 11 students return and they worked in two groups to collaboratively write a poem about their bubble life.

Here they are below:

Respect the bubble

My bubble is small

My bubble is safe and has locked doors

My bubble is secure like a vault 

Respect the bubble

My bubble is powerful

My bubble is fancy

My bubble is incredibly noisy

Respect the bubble

My bubble is as huge as a shark tank

My bubble is warm

My bubble is clean 

Respect the bubble

My bubble is big 

My bubble is strong

My bubble is colourful

Respect the bubble

My bubble is sometimes loud like a bomb yet sometimes silent like an owl in the day

My bubble is away from strangers

My bubble is what I live in

Respect the bubble 

- Written collaboratively by Hasti, Nasteho, Mina, Melissa & Farah

Lockdown

Believe that the lockdown will be over 

Believe we will have fun after the lockdown 

Believe we will make the virus go away

Lockdown

Believe that we can have great times with each other

Believe that we will be safe

Believe that we can hang out together again 

Lockdown

Believe that we will find a cure

Believe we will have fun after this is over

Believe that we can go to the park

Lockdown

Believe that we will have level 1 soon

Believe that we can go to families' and friends' houses

Believe we can travel overseas

Lockdown 

Believe that l can go to the zoo

Believe that the sea doesn’t have any rubbish

Believe that we have more green trees growing

Lockdown

Believe that we could eradicate this virus

Believe that we could stop spreading the virus

Believe that we could fight the virus together

Lockdown

- Written collaboratively by Dayton, Tino, Miraj, Mohit, Aarav & Pita

Hosting Online Student Toolkits from Home!

Hello blogging world!

Just wanted to quickly share something awesome that happened with out Senior School students this week!

We held our first ever online student toolkits using google Meet! 9 students ran 7 toolkits from their home for their peers. The toolkits covered a variety of tools including kahoot, using google slides to make an animation, word art and canva.

If you missed them or you want to have a look at different one, click here and check out what was covered!

We had a few technical challenges and it was a bit tricky presenting online, but our presenters did a superb job! Some of the feedback that we had from our student attendees is below:

"I liked both of the sessions I thought it was helpful and they explained the stuff well." - Y5 Tuffery Class student

"The sessions were helpful. The kahoot and the animation worked. Both of them worked. I would like nothing changed, I think it was amazing the way it was." - Y4 Lockhart Class student

"The session were very good and helpful. Everything worked perfectly, nothing went wrong." - Y4 Lockhart Class student

"I found the first session quite cool because I found another way to log in to Kahoot. Next time maybe the presenter can help each other when their connections aren't great. I found the second session useful and great because I learnt how to insert an image into an Kahoot. I also had fun playing Kahoot in the second session. Next time the presenter could slow down a bit more and go with the audiences speed." - Y6 Lockhart Class student

"...everything worked well and there is nothing I would like to change." - Y6 Tuffery Class student

Thanks to all our student attendees who also followed our google Meet norms and were super respectful, responsible and resilient.

Overall the toolkits worked pretty well and we're keen to give it another crack with the other schools in the Ako Hiko cluster soon! 

Learning at home vs Learning at school

Hello bloggers!

Did you know this week marks the start of our 4th week of distance learning! So far we've had 15 out of 27 kids attend our google meet sessions. I'm wondering how we can get more... leave me a comment if you have a good idea!

For this week's blog ponder, we want to know how you prefer to do your learning!

Do you prefer learning from home or learning at school? 

Leave a comment below about what you prefer and why.

Life in Lockdown

Today marks the 33rd day of New Zealand being in lockdown. At 11.59pm tonight we will move into alert level 3. Some things will change, but for most people things will still look pretty similar at this new alert level.

There have been a lot stories about what people have been doing with their time to help keep busy - some learning new skills, some refining their trick shots, others enjoying quality family time. With that in mind, what do you think has been the BEST thing about being in lockdown?

Leave a comment below and let us know what you think is the best part about being in lockdown.

Alert level 4 vs Alert level 3?

Kia ora bloggers,

Today the New Zealand Government will be analysing statistics about coronavirus and making a critical decision around whether (and when) New Zealand will shift down to alert level 3. There are lots of factors that they need to consider, but the number one priority is making sure that the residents of New Zealand are kept healthy and safe.

There will be some differences if we do move to alert level 3. Some of these changes are listed below:

What do you think New Zealand should do? Should we move to alert level 3 or should we stay at alert level 4?

Leave your thoughts and opinions about which level you think we should be at and why.

Boredom Busters!

Hello world!

Today marks the beginning of the 4th week of New Zealand’s lockdown. Many kids and families throughout the country will be getting a bit agitated with having to spend so much time confined to their homes, and some of them will be incredibly bored!

To help combat the boredom, some of our amazing Tuffery Class students have shared their top boredom busters with you.

How are you fighting the boredom during lockdown? What creative and cool activities have you been up to? Share your ideas with us, we'd love to hear them!