Friday 24 October 2014

Term 4 - What a start!

What a start it has been to Term 4. We have started our immersion looking at Effective Communication. During this term we will be working very closely with Learning Common 1. This has been fantastic so far and we have had such positive feedback from the kids.

Immersion:
We are starting our day with each other immersing ourselves in a world we may not have experienced yet. Week 1 saw us work on our team building skills. We had many highlights and challenges as learning common 1 and 2 got to know each other.  This week, we have been focusing on visual and spoken language, leading up to our visit to the Auckland Art Gallery next week with a focus on exploring how artists communicate visually.




Friday 5 September 2014

Term 3 Week 7

We have wrapped up latest topic inspired by the provocation: when I see you through my eyes, I think we are different. When I see you through my heart, I know we are the same. Students presented their thinking to the class, we will post a link to these presentations when they have been uploaded.



We have started a mini-block of learning. For the next couple of weeks we are delving into what it means to be healthy and active.  We kicked this off by watching Nigel Latta's documentary about Sugar.  This has lead to some of us investigating how much sugar is in some of our favourite foods.
Danny, Josiah & Jack working out how many teaspoons of sugar in everyday foods
We have also been looking at the Be Healthy, Be Active website. Some of us have been making healthy eating plates.

Friday 15 August 2014

Term 3 Week 4

Last Friday Maia, Owen, Josiah, Caitlyn, Paige, Ethan and Myer went to the Secondary School to present at the #edchatNZ conference. They shared what learning looks like in LC2 and how we plan our day to around 60-70 teachers. 
These are some of their reflections about presenting at a conference for the first time.

On Thursday we went across the road to watch Wiremu put the wind chimes we made last term onto the community art installation. He explained that the carving and the eight poles represent Matariki. 



After watching the art installation we went to the park to explore the playground there. We had lots of fun trying out all the different things. 




Friday 1 August 2014

Term 3 Week 2

NARRATIVE WRITING 

For narrative writing we have been looking at these resources. We have started writing our stories and giving each other feedback on what we have written.


Planning our narrative writing

Planet Design

Our wondering (immersion) has taken us on a journey to create our own planet. We are thinking about what kind of culture we want to create on our new planet.  Some are building a collaborative planet and are using Build with Chrome to make this.
Planning
Sharing our learning in the early stages to get thoughtful, helpful, specific feedback

I can give constructive feedback to others

This is one of the learner profile goals we have been working on. We have been giving each other kind, helpful, specific feedback to help with our learning. We enjoyed watching Austin's butterfly and seeing what is possible with the right feedback.


Giving feedback on writing using post-it notes 

The Portal is Open!

Our library space is open and ready for business. 

Friday 25 July 2014

Term 3 Week 1

Hi I'm Laura and I will be your guest blogger. Check out what we have been doing this week.

Writing
Ethan wrote this piece of writing on his own and used a dictionary to edit it. He published it in his Google Docs and illustrated it using Doodle Buddy on the iPad.
Check out our Walls:
By Grace 

We have been looking at questions that you can Google and 'ungoogleable' questions. 
We also plan our day we have some people that are supported so they use the visual planner and for self managing they use daily planner and the weekly planner.
Last term we put up a map of the world and then we put up what culture we are from. 


Last term we got to make some goal fish. We put our goals in to the fish.
The learner profile is put up for all of us to see and use.
In the morning we write how we feel on our tweet sheets.
The maths wall is what we use to know what we are working on for maths.
Every Tuesday we have learning advisory time so we have a topic that we work on. This week we talked about giving feedback.



Thursday 3 July 2014

Term 2 Week 7, 8 & 9

We have had such a busy couple of weeks, we haven't had time to write a post!

Check out what we have been up to:

Immersion:
We have been learning about different cultures. It has been great to see our collection of cultural artefacts grow.  We have also been discussing googlable vs. non googleable questions as we develop our 'I Wonder' wall.  


We watch this video which sparked a few more wonderings...



Culture Day was a huge success! Highlights were dressing up, the parade and sharing our cultural feast.



We had an expert come in and help us make fried bread, which was delicious!



How are you feeling today?
We have been starting the day by checking in with everyone to see how they started their day. We have developed this into our twitter wall, where we come in and write a 'tweet' about how our morning has been.  Check it out below:





We had the 80's Disco last Friday night. Everyone looked awesome in their 80s costumes and had heaps of fun. Here are some photos from the night:


Saturday 14 June 2014

Term 2 Week 6

Thanks for everyone's support with the celebration of our learning.  It was great to see families come in and see some of the learning that has taken place.

We are also working on adding content (we are loving interviewing each other), so check out our progress over the coming weeks.  Here is Grace interviewing Ben about his project.  Feel free to leave a comment with any feedback.



Aart is also interviewing Jack in the interview below:



We will be working on our interviewing and filming skills, so check out our progress.

Discovering Different Cultures
We began our immersion into the concept around different cultures.  Check out the video below of us getting to know some other countries flags.




Friday 6 June 2014

Term 2, Week 5

Hi Everyone,

We wrapped up our week with an awesome trip into town courtesy of Sealord and the Marine Stewardship Council. We were invited to participate in this free event where our students had an augmented reality experience, catching 3D fish on a screen and learning about marine conservation as part of World Oceans Day. It was fantastic.




This is the last week of the project phase of our learning. On Monday we are having a Celebration of Learning for you to come and see what your child has been working on over the past few weeks. 
From next week, we will begin our immersion phase. Our concept this term relates to culture and we would love for you all be involved throughout the term with this. We will keep you in loop!

Here is our provocation for our immersion.





Saturday 31 May 2014

Term 2, Week 4

We are deep into our projects for this block of learning. In groups the challenge was set to invent one thing to make the world a better place.  We have been busy developing, design and re-designing these inventions.
So how do robots help people? Reading about robot doctors.
Finding background information for our projects
Creating our own comic strips, practicing spelling & achievements in guitar
Fitness Time
From the garden to table
We planted kumera at the end of last term.  When we checked it this week, the plant had died off and the kumera were ready to be harvested.  We then dug up the kumera, washed, cut and baked them in the oven.  Everyone tried them...yum!   


Friday 23 May 2014

Term 2, Week 3

Hello Everyone,

This week we had the privilege of watching Learning Common 3's Trash to Fashion show. We loved their costumes and some of our students are hoping to get involved in this project next year. Well done to the students in LC3 who designed, created and modelled these amazing outfits. 




Below is an image of some of the apps we use in LC2. If you click on the image you will be taken to our LC2 learning hub site where this page is interactive. You will be able to click on the app images and this will lead you to the iTunes store.


Friday 16 May 2014

Term 2 Week 2

This week we have been busy planning and running workshops.  We have been teaching others how to play touch, sketch, sew, use go carts, create origami, Hip Hop dancing and make goo for kitchen science.

We have also been working hard on our projects. Some of us have attended a workshop run by Ria in LC3 around using Mindstorm to program robots.

We have also been privileged to have Owen teach us sign language this week for New Zealand Sign Language week.  We learnt how to say good morning, lunch and the alphabet among other things.

Saturday 10 May 2014

Term 2, Week 1

Hi Everyone,

We have had a busy beginning to the term, with lots of experts sharing their skills and expertise with us. 

We had Constable Lorena come in to teach us road safety and bike and scooter safety.



Tiffany Singh come in to run a community art project with all of our students. This featured wind chimes and will be located in the park near our school (our students call it the Acorn Park) and will change each season so keep an eye out for this amazing art.



We finished our first week back with a visit to the Secondary school to see how their awesome school could help us with our projects. We went to their library to talk to Georgi and Leigh about our project topics then broke into our project groups to talk to Steve about robotics or Pete about cooking and restaurants. 




Friday 11 April 2014

Term 1, Week 10

Hi Everyone,

We've had another busy week in LC2. We have started our collaborative projects which relate to our inventive thinking immersion, so make sure you ask your child what their project is about. 

We've enjoyed sharing our learning journey with you during our IEMs, as well as goals and celebrations. 

Our students have started running the workshops they have been busy planning. This is a fantastic opportunity for them to share their skills with others. 


 Tate's Block Workshop

 Owen's Sign Language Workshop

During our trip to The Mind Lab we got to use a MaKey MaKey kit to create circuits and programme our own sound effects using the programme Scratch on the computer. 
Using touch pads, everyday objects are transformed into the keys from the keyboard.


On Tuesday we had our first sports sessions run by the Hobsonville Point Secondary School students. Our students are involved in different sports at this time, including soccer, hockey, netball, rugby, cricket and basketball.