2021 - How it started vs How it ended

Talofa lava bloggers,

we've officially ended school for 2021! It has been a peculiar year with an incredibly long extended lockdown. Students in Tamaki Makaurau had to stay home for 13 weeks!! 11 of these weeks were spent learning online, before we were allowed to return back to school. 

Some families chose to keep their children at home for the reminder of term 4 and continue with distance learning online. Before we ended the year we held a special google meet to get together one last time as Paterson Class and farewelled our Year 6 students who will be leaving us to go on to intermediate next year. 

How 2021 started

How 2021 ended

We're keeping our fingers crossed that when we return to school in the new year that we'll be able to have everyone back (and not have to wear masks in the classroom!)

Wishing you all a happy holiday and safe summer break! In the meantime you can check out our individual blogs and see what we're up to as part of the Summer Learning Journey! 

Would you rather...? "Our future" edition.

 Bula vinaka bloggers!

You may have seen recently that it is now possible for tourists to visit space! William Shatner (a VERY famous actor from Star Trek: The Original Series) is 90 years old and recently became the oldest person to travel into space. 

After his one-of-a-kind experience he stated that he was "... so filled with emotion about what just happened. It’s extraordinary, extraordinary. It’s so much larger than me and life...Everybody in the world needs to do this, everybody in the world needs to see this.” 

You can get a ticket too, for about $250,000.... (click here to find out what that will get you).

Prince William has also been in the news this week with a new environmental initiative (Earthshot) he is running until 2030. Every year he is awarding $1,000,000 to 5 groups who are working hard on making a world a better place by:

• protecting and restoring nature
• cleaning our air
• reviving our oceans
• building a waste-free world
• fixing our climate

With the ultimate goal being to provide at least 50 solutions to the world’s greatest environmental problems by 2030. He believes we should be "trying to repair this planet, not trying to find the next place to go and live."

William Shatner (actor and oldest man to travel into space) on the left and Prince William (founder of The Earthshot Prize) on the right. 

So this week's "Would you rather...?" is a bit tricky! Would you rather be a space tourist or use that money to save the Earth? 

Leave your opinion in the comments below. Who do you agree with? William Shatner or Prince William? 

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...?

 Hi bloggers,

this is our final "Would you rather?" writing task for the term! Thanks to Phil @ Ako Hiko for this one!

For today's writing task you'll need to choose which one you'd rather do 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 not being able to talk for one day (24 hours) or if you'd prefer to not moving for an hour.

 

The results are in!

 Greetings bloggers!

We have some great news to share today! 

A few weeks ago Eat My Lunch ran a competition asking students for inspiration for their term 4 menu. We had several students write recipes for a healthy and delicious lunch that they would like eat once we're back at kura in term 4. 

The recipes need to be healthy and the ingredients needed to be in season, and of course they have to be delicious so kids will eat them! 

Mrs Eagleson submitted all the entries that were completed, and the results were announced last week! Ten students from five schools had their recipes chosen. Of these ten students, five were from Hay Park School and ALL from Paterson Class! 

Congratulations to Aarav, Axel, Lanisi, Marcus and Layla whose recipes were all selected!

Aarav's recipe was for a club chicken sandwich. Axel's recipe was for fruit kebabs. Lanisi also submitted a recipe for vegetable chicken sandwich. Marcus entered one for mango rice and Layla submitted a recipe for berry crepes.

We are looking forward to tasting these delicious recipes next term! 

Would you rather...? Version 4!

 Hello bloggers!

Well I'm not sure how you're feeling about the Prime Minister's announcement yesterday with the alert levels, but lately I've been doing a LOT of sleeping! Something about being on a screen for multiple hours makes me EXTRA tired!

I've been thinking that the sleep ins are great, but I've been wondering how we will all cope once we are back at school! I've noticed several people are still in bed when we do our daily 10am google meets! This got me thinking about our next round of "Would you rather...?"

So... would you rather...

Leave your answer in the comments below and justify your thinking by telling us AT LEAST TWO reasons why you picked that answer. 

And don't forget, I'm still look 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!

Special Google Meet Appearance!

 Mālo e lelei bloggers!

Today Paterson Class were lucky enough to attend Adsett Class' google meet for a special appearance by a real scientist! We were introduced to Georgia who is currently working on her PHD studying snapper in the waters around New Zealand.

Georgia (or Super Snapper) is a marine scientist who looks at where snapper live, what they eat and who they hang out with. We learnt about some of the foods they eat. Did you know that snapper have teeth and they eat crabs? They can also eat worms called polychaete worms. Sometimes Georgia finds that the snapper eat worms longer than themselves!

Another thing that we learnt is that snapper can have different shaped foreheads. Some are flat, some are curved and some even have a hump on their forehead! Did you know that snapper also have ears?!

We also learnt that even if snapper are the same length, they will still look different. Some snapper are different colours, some are fatter and taller than others or markings on their bodies. Some of them also have bigger eyes so they can see better in deeper water, see things they are hunting or see things that are hunting them!

There were lots of fantastic questions asked during the meet and we learnt lots about snapper. I'm sure we'll look closely at them next time we catch one when we're out fishing!

Special thanks to Georgia and Samantha from Nanogirl for providing us with this awesome learning opportunity! 

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!

Ako Hiko Poetry Slam!

 Namaste bloggers!

This week Phil has been hosting the Ako Hiko Poetry Slam! 

In class, we looked at Haikus and Kennings poems. Here are a couple of poems that some of our students wrote. You can check out Salote, Mina and Nasteho's poetry slam submissions by click on their blogs. 

We really enjoyed creating these poems - can you guess what animals or seasons our poems are about? We'd love to read your poems that you've created, so please leave us one in the comments below!

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!

We are... Paterson Class!

 Kia ora world!

This year we've had a bunch of awesome Year 4 students step up from the junior school to become part of our amazing class. We've kept ALL the original Tuffery Class students from 2020 (with the exception of our Year 6's). We've also had a couple of new additions with Akram joining from Pule Class, Martha joining from Wesley Primary and Marcus who is new to New Zealand! 

We had the option to remain as Tuffery Class, but we chose to come up with a new class name to celebrate all our wonderful new additions. We are now known as Paterson Class, named after NZ artist Reuben Paterson!  Paterson’s artworks are influenced by his Māori and Scottish ancestry. He is most famous for his large-scale glitter paintings and draws his inspiration from koru and kowhaiwhai designs combined with optical illusion art. 

Check out our new team for 2021!