Tennis

We started learning tennis this week (ongoing til the end of term). Our coach, Wayne, got us practising skills that will hep us in a game. We were put into teams and students had to balance a ball on a racket and walk it around the teams. It was tricky!

We also worked with a buddy to take turns to throw the ball (underarm) and hit it back...

Coat of Arms

As part of our inquiry (Ata-whakaaro/Reflection) we have been looking at the Coat of Arms and how in the past these have represented a part of people's identity. They can show what family, tribe, group or country somebody if from. We each created our own Coat of Arms on a shield shape that had four parts. Each part shows something about us: 

• the first letter of our name
• symbols or shapes to represent our family
• a picture of something we are good at
• things we like to do in our spare time

Here is a look at our finished work...

...don't they look amazing?!?

The Shape Of Things

Recently, during our lockdown/online learning, we have been using apps to create pictures using geometric shapes. 

The first task involved using the Pattern-Shapes app to cover a large shape with smaller shapes to create a picture...

For the second task, we used the Geo-Board app to create shapes and patterns... 

Don't they look AMAZING?!?

Marble Run Challenge

During the holidays my son, Charlie, and I designed and made two marble runs from things that we had at home (cardboard, tape). 

The first one was quite basic. I built the base and Charlie told me where to put the strips of cardboard. 

The second one was more complicated. I drew a grid on some cardboard and Charlie drew the path that the marbles would travel along. 

Then I made walls from card (it took ages!) and the end result looks like this:

Your Challenge: Create your own marble run from things you can find at home

Post the results (photos etc) to your own blog

Here's how our marble runs worked...

Old Mouldy Bread

Before our current isolation we began a science experiment. We wanted to see the difference in the way mould would grow on bread that had been treated in different ways. We used bread that was:

• not touched
• touched with unwashed hands (after playing at lunch time)
• touched with hands cleaned with sanitiser
• touched with hands washed with soap and water
• touched with chrome book keyboards

We talked about how food that is good for us should eventually go mouldy and rot, then we predicted which pieces of bread would grow mould the quickest and why we thought this (our hypotheses).

Here they are on Day 1 (19th March 2020)

Luckily I remembered to bring them home with me instead of leaving them on the classroom wall...

Here's how they looked on Day 7 (26th March 2020)

Not touched

Unwashed hands

Hand sanitiser

Washed with soap and water

Wiped on chrome book keyboards

And then on Day 10 (29th March 2020)

Not touched

Unwashed hands

Hand sanitiser

Washed with soap and water

Wiped on chrome book keyboards


 Day 19 (7th April 2020)

Not touched

Unwashed hands

Hand sanitiser

Washed with soap and water

Wiped on chrome book keyboards

Wow...they certainly have changed! 

Do you have any thoughts, observations or questions about the results so far?

Water Safety Skills

This week at Cameron Pools we were taught about water safety. Everyone wore life jackets and practised skills in the big pool. For some students this was a new experience. It sure looked fun!

Reading Cats

We have been reading a few different books about cats recently...

• Greedy Cat (by Joy Cowley)
• Chester the Cat (by Melanie Watt)
• Fat Cat (by James Sage)

...so we decided to create our own cats to describe. We have managed to complete the art (pastel on black paper) and, this week, we will be writing a description of them.

Here's what we've got so far:

Don't they look PURR-FECTLY AMAZING!