Podcast #19

Arcade Five #2

Arcade Five was a great success. Our games featured simple machines such as inclined planes, wheels and axles, levers and pulleys. 

We also raised over $175 for Tamari, our school’s World Vision sponsor child who lives in Rwanda.

Our thanks too to Caine from Caine's Arcade who inspired us.

Edublog Awards

 

We have been named an Edublog Award finalist in the category of Best Class Blog. If you would like to support us with a vote click here.  Locate room5hds2015.blogspot.co.nz under drop down menu for "Best Class Blog". Then scroll to the bottom and press vote. 

Arcade Five #1

The games are made and we are almost ready to share our work. Join us tomorrow for Arcade Five

Wire Art

In art we used wire to construct 3D models of people.

Podcast #18

Garden Takeover #3

We were very lucky to have Chantelle's mum come in and teach us how to make spring onion pancakes using our home grown onions. Chantelle has kindly shared the recipe too.

 Ingredients

1. a bunch of spring onions

2. 1 tablespoon of oil ( with some spare oil for later )

3. 2 cups of plain flour ( sifted )

4. 1 cup warm water

5. 2 grinds of salt

   Method

1. Add your plain flour and 1 cup of water together followed by 1 tablespoon of oil and 2 grinds of salt to a bowl

2. Mix together till hard to mix and dough looking

3. Sprinkle flour onto where you are going to knead and start kneading. When smooth put in a bowl to rest

4. While you wait for the dough to rest start cutting up your spring onions into small circle shapes

5. Pull off a piece about the size of a golf ball roll into a ball and squash

6. Roll till nearly as thin as paper

7. Spread a little bit of oil evenly onto your rolled out pancake dough then add your spring onions

8. Now to add your layers to the pancakes there are two ways to do this one way is the roll and squish. The second way is the roll and snail. To do the roll and squish you have to take one end in your palm and slowly start squishing it together then push the two ends into the now squished pancake. For the roll and snail you squish the ends and create a snail or a spiral then squish down.

9. Leave to rest for about 10 minutes

10. Next roll out till it looks like a pancake      

11. then cook with oil till crispy brown  

Serving idea

Cut into wedges serve with dipping sauce

Maori Myths

In Room 5 we have been reading and learning about Maori myths such as Tane and the Stars and Kahu and the Taniwha. We then created our own myths influenced by Maori culture and language.

The Fight by Sherlyn 

How the Volcanoes and Mountains came to be by Sativa

How Rugby was created by Eli

How the Moa became extinct by Torres

Hedgehogs in your garden

The X-Men used the information in "Hedgehogs in your garden' by Victoria Purdie to create their own acrostic poems.

Caine's Arcade

We just love Caine's Arcade in Room 5. So much so we are creating our very own cardboard arcade.

In the meantime the Justice League created these designs for Caine if he wants an upgrade on his current shirt.

Robotics

We were very lucky to have some Lynfield college students come visit us to teach some year 4 and 5 students about robotics. They brought laptops and NXT robots and introduced us to programming. Members of the world champion VEX Robotics team also came and demonstrated their robots. Thanks again to the awesome students from Lynfield College we had a great time.

Should every classroom have their own worm farm?

The Avengers after reading 'Worm Wise' by Jude Southee evaluated the claim 'each classroom should their own worm farm'.

Should every classroom have their own worm farm?

We disagree with this statement because having lots of rotten food scraps and worm farms would make the school smell really bad. When people open the covers of worm farms they often have to hold their nose because the stench is so bad. Children may actually stop coming to school if the smell was that foul.

Some people may argue that the fertiliser from the worm castings could be used to grow healthier plants at school. However if every classroom produced castings they would be too much fertiliser for our current number of gardens.

Another reason why we believe this would not be a good idea is worm farms take up a lot of space. Children need space to run around and the school already uses a lot of space with the playgrounds, gardens, pool and sheds.

People may disagree and say that worm farms should be in every class as they are good for learning about recycling, reusing and reducing waste. However individual worm farms are not necessary as we can just visit the farm we already have to learn the same concepts.

Overall although worm farms are good for the environment it is not necessary to have one for every classroom as they can smell terrible and take up valuable space.

Podcast #17

The was an old man....

We created our very own limericks.

Tea's Made

The Justice League created these advertisements for the teasmaid found in 'Tea's Made' by Margaret Cahill

Monster Trucks Vs Formula One Cars

The X-Men worked on a comparison between Monster Trucks and Formula One Cars after reading 'Monster Truck Battle' by John Medcalf

Monster Trucks Vs Formula One Cars

“Vroom, vroom, crash, bang” You may hear these sounds at a certain type of car race - A monster truck race. Monster trucks are enormous, powerful vehicles that smash and crash into cars. Another famous car race is Formula One, these cars are sleek, low and fast. These two cars have many similarities and differences.

Entering the Vehicle - Kishan and Hemish  

Both drivers need to enter the vehicle before the race. However monster trucks are huge so the driver has to climb high to enter the monster truck. A Formula one car is low to the ground so the driver climbs in. In our opinion a Formula one car is much easier to enter than a monster truck.

Powerful - Sativa and Aaliya

A monster truck and a formula one car are both powerful vehicles. A formula one car can go as fast as 250 miles per hour and a monster truck is 10 times more powerful than a normal car. We think that a monster truck is more powerful than a Formula One car because they are larger and heavier,  although a formula one car is faster.  

Compete around the world - Seb and Eli Both

Both vehicles compete around the world however the monster truck competes mostly in America and sometimes New Zealand. Where as Formula One races take place in many countries such as Australia, England, USA, Japan and more. We would prefer to watch a monster truck show over a Formula One race because they do massive jumps, sometimes fail and crush cars.

Compete against other drivers - Amelia

Both drivers compete against other drivers when racing. In a monster truck race two cars compete. However Formula One races have 24 cars competing in the race. In my opinion it would be more exciting to watch Formula One because their are more cars racing really fast

Track - Jolui and Espen

drivers race on different tracks. The monster truck tracks are muddy with ramps and cars to crush. The Formula One track is smooth because of how fast the cars travel. We believe the easier track to race around is the Formula One track.

Overall we think that monster trucks are better than Formula One cars because they are powerful, have more interesting tracks and are more exciting to watch. Crushing big cars and doing flips is better than cars going around and around the same track.

We believe our comparison is extended abstract because we had several similarities and differences and made an overall statement.

The Accident

We used the storyboard below as inspiration for a short narrative focussing on dialogue.

The Accident By Sherlyn

One chaotic Monday morning in Auckland City a man named Bob was zooming to work. He sped past all the other cars. “Move on you lazy people , don’t you know I’m late for work! ’’ mumbled the grumpy grouch Bob. He couldn't stop thinking why his wife didn’t let the kids just walk to school !

The thought kept on filling up in his head and wouldn’t let go. He just couldn’t concentrate on the road . Suddenly an old man began to stroll across the road . Grumpy old Bob braked. ‘’Hurry up you stupid old man’’ he screamed. But the man just couldn’t hear Bob, maybe he was deaf.

“Boom, Zam, Splat, Kapow” A crack raised up Bob’s car. He turned around furiously . A Tow Truck caught his eye. “This day has gone from bad to worse” Bob frowned. “Don’t you worry sir we will call a tow truck’’ giggled the Tow Truck drivers.

The Accident by Torres

“Move along you old timer!” On a Monday morning at 8:45, the city was overloaded with busy citizens. The old timer had just woken up and was ready to have a little walk in the city. “beep!”,”vroom!” A car zoomed passed. Just as the car was about to go over the lights the old timer stepped out onto the road. “Shreeeeeeek!” the car stopped suddenly but the old man just kept walking like nothing had happened. “Hey, use your eyes!” The truck behind didn’t see the commotion and crashed into the car. “BANGGGG!” “THUD!” the man turned around shouted. “WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!” “I JUST BOUGHT THIS CAR!” “S-S-S-S-S-Sorry” said the driver of the truck. “Gees...wait aren’t you a tow truck!?”

 The Accident by Priscilla

Honk, honk! “Get out of the way!” It was a busy Friday afternoon. (I guess everybody wanted to get home quickly.) Jake had just finished work. Now he had to pick up the kids Bella and Ella. At the crossroads where Jake was about to cross, an old man stepped out onto the road. The old man Douglas was covered with wrinkles. He had big round glasses because he was almost blind. Jake was looking around for a lavatory because he suddenly needed to go. Then there was shouting, the next moment everything was just screeches and honks. Tyre marks marked the black road. Douglas just kept walking through without one hesitation through the whole situation. Then, CRASH!!!  The tow-truck behind Jake’s car splintered the back of his car. It felt like the biggest bump from a bumper car. Finally the old man finished crossing. Jake could not move, so he had to call a tow-truck. "I thought tow-trucks were supposed to tow cars away?"

Tea's Made

The Justice League created these book trailers for 'Tea’s Made' by Margaret Cahill

Podcast #16

Block Printing

In Art we created these prints using string and wooden blocks.

Crossing Safety

The Justice League created these acrostic poems in response to reading 'Cross Now' by Roly Hermans.

How To Toast Marshmallows

The X-Men after reading 'School Camp Fun' created these guides to toasting marshmallows.

Te Ra and Te Marama

The Avengers created their own glossary for the Maori vocabulary found in 'A Wife for Te Rā'

Describing Settings

In writing we have been working on describing a variety of different settings

A Wife for Te Rā

Here is Samarah's amazing retelling of 'A Wife for Te Rā'

Traffic Lights Vs School Crossing

The Justice League after reading 'Cross Now' considered whether it is best for our school crossing to have traffic lights or children operating signs. What do you think?

We believe traffic lights should be used on school crossings instead of children operating signs. Firstly the children operating the signs have to stand out in the rain and stormy winds. The children who do this often catch colds and end up missing days of school. However even though children wear bright jackets and it is easier to see them rather than traffic lights, they still get wet, cold and sick.

It is not only the children who have to stand on the crossing teachers and parents do too. Teachers have to leave the class early when on road duty. They could use their time better. For example they could be planning, marking or teaching the children. Some people may argue that operating the signs teaches children responsibility. However spending time in the classroom learning is much more important than learning how to operate traffic signs.

Another reason why traffic lights should be used is that children finish patrols at 3.10pm and any children who are late may miss them. The traffic continues after 3.10pm as some parents pick up their children from SKIDS in the afternoon. Having traffic lights would mean children can cross safely at any time of the day. On the other hand people may say that drivers may miss seeing the traffic lights and that it is much harder to miss the long signs. However drivers must follow the reduced speed limit in school zones and use their instincts to look for traffic lights as well as zebra crossings.

Overall traffic lights are much safer, quicker and more efficient than crossing patrols and we would like to see our crossing replaced with traffic lights. We took a poll in our class and 16 out of 22 people agreed that we should have traffic lights.

Even Superheroes need to be safe when crossing!

After reading 'Cross Now' by Roly Hermans the Justice League created this video to showcase the message in the story.

What a dump!

As part of narrative writing we described the setting below.

The Dump!

I was rummaging through the dump searching for my long lost teddy bear. Flocks of screeching seagulls searched the landfill as if it was their restaurant. On the menu our food scraps. A rotten smell caught my nose and would not let go. Ravenous rats and creepy cockroaches scattered everywhere as I walked along. Chicken, cow and pig bones lay on the ground like an animal cemetery. Plastic bags were flying around doing cartwheels and dancing in the air. Rusty cans with the labels peeled off sat amongst snotty used tissues. Maggots squirmed out of mouldy old pizza boxes. This was possibly the worst day of my life.

Postcard Exchange #7

Here is our latest postcard from Texas in the USA!

What is it like to go to school in Ireland?

Our twitter friends Class6th completed our questionnaire about going to school in Ireland. Where do you think you would prefer to go to school?

What is the name of your school and class?

Mrs Boyce’s Class in St Colman’s BNS

Where in the world is your school?

Cork, Ireland

How many classes are there in your school?

4

Do you wear school uniform?  If so, what colour?

Yes. A Grey Pants, Grey Polo Shirt and a Round Necked Wine Jumper.

How many pupils do you have in your school?

107

How many teachers are there?

6 teachers. 4 Class Teachers, a Learning Support Teacher and a Resource Teacher. Our Principal teaches.

How many children in your class?

20

What is the name of your Head teacher?  Do you have a Deputy Headteacher?

Mrs Finneagan is our Principal. Mrs Boyce is the Deputy.

How old is your school?

Our school was first built in 1892. It has been renovated twice since then. Last week we received news that we had received Planning Permission for a new Amalgamated School. We hope to have a new school in the next year or so.

Do you have school pets?

No

What facilities do you have?

Our facilities are poor. We do not have a school hall and our School Yard is small. We get to use the Gym of the local secondary school for PE. Our breaks are staggered to use the yard to its potential. All pupils are never all out in the yard at the same time. We still use the old desks with the inkwells.

How many year groups in your school?

6. We have pupils from 1st Class to 6th Class. ( 7 to 12 year olds.) 

How long is your school day?

9.10am - 2.50pm

How many different nationalities come to your schooll?

Mainly Irish but we do have Polish & Lithuanian as well.

What subjects do you do? What languages do you learn?

English, Irish, Maths, Religion, History, Geography, Science, Music, Art, Drama, SPHE(Social Personal Health Education) & PE.(Physical Education)

Do you have assembly?

No

Do you have devices such as chromebooks and iPads?

We have 4 Ipads, 1 Chromebook, 1 tablet , 3 laptops and 8 other ancient devices all stored in our room.

We have a class blog if you want to learn more about us. http://www.kanturkbns.com/5th--6th-class-blog

We have a Twitter Account. Follow us @Class6th

We take part in the Global 100 Word Challenge. Our NightNews Link is https://edu.nightzookeeper.com/night-news/55f63df4bd20860300a0f79a

Feel free to read our stories and leave us comments.