Moturoa's Blog

Google Presentation- Five Things

2011-12-05T09:00:00.012+13:00

Next year we will all be in another class. Here are five things my new teacher needs to know about me.

Here is our finished presentation for our next teacher next year, Ellie White.

Google Presentation- Super Powers

2011-12-05T09:00:00.010+13:00

Today we will try and finish our collaborative Google Presentation about what super-powers you would like to have if you could have superpowers.

When you are done you may like to take a tour around this SuperHero website.

Here is the finished Google Presentation. Click on the forward arrow when you have finished reading each slide.

Aotearoa Christmas

2011-12-05T08:49:00.001+13:00

We have been singing Aotearoa Christmas. The song is very New Zealand.

QR Code Christmas

2011-12-04T23:53:00.004+13:00

You will have probably heard us talk about QR codes. Here is a Christmas QR Code Advent Calendar leading up to Christmas Day. If you have a smart phone or iPod Touch at home you scan a new code each day.

Our First Swim

2011-11-30T12:48:00.002+13:00

Today we had our very first swim of the season. It was a lovely day but the water was still a bit cold so some of us got out early.

Scatterball

2011-11-28T15:12:00.001+13:00

We had a quick game of Scatterball before home time today. Allanah took this action photo on her iPad. Can you see the ball?

Show Me Multiplication

2011-11-16T11:46:00.002+13:00

We had a bit of a go on Allanah's iPad to share some different ways that we work out how to do the five times table.

Multiplication Madness

2011-11-15T23:45:00.004+13:00

Today we're looking at Multiplication. Here are some different multiplication activities that we can use to get faster at knowing our times tables.

You can practise your basic facts by using the Basic Facts wiki too.

Jump Jam in Christchurch

2011-11-08T12:43:00.002+13:00

I was really excited when we were waiting to go on stage. We got to watch the other people while we were waiting. They were really good. They always had a smile on their face and they had lots of energy.

We when got on stage I was so happy that that had got all the way to Christchurch just for this. I was excited. The light was shining in our eyes. Our jump jam routine went really well. We had big smiles on our face the whole way through and we all remembered the routine well. Jodie was watching and she was really proud of us.

When we finished we got a big clap. Jodie gave us some chocolate and bath bombs.

In the end they called up the groups and the head judge judge told us who the winners were. We got fifth. We got a trophy for the team.

Fendalton School won.

By Brooke

Maxwell Teaches Us How to Play Spore

2011-11-04T11:06:00.007+13:00

When Allanah showed us Spore on Wednesday Maxwell said he had had some experience at it so Allanah asked him to take over and show everyone how to do it.

I felt excited because I hadn't shown anyone how to do this sort of thing before. It was fun. The other kids thought it was cool and they really wanted to have a try as well.

I felt like I was being the teacher. And I was. Allanah had a little rest from being the teacher!

Charlie's Awesome Bagpipes

2011-11-04T10:29:00.002+13:00

This is me playing my bagpipes. I played for you Brown Head Maiden. The bagpipes you might think they're from Scotland but they're from the Middle East.

I have been learning the bagpipes for one year and a half. I first started playing on the chanter but then I got good enough to go up to a higher level which is the bagpipes. You need to make sure you don't have a hole at the bottom of your bag or spit will drip out.

Piping fingers helps you to text faster and type faster. When I am blowing really fast my eyes tingle at the speed of light.

Aaaah. Sunday morning. Waking up my brothers at five o'clock in the morning.

I love playing the bagpipes. My pipes teacher says I could earn a lot of money busking!

Spore

2011-11-02T15:15:00.005+13:00

Today we used the game Spore and Spore Creatures as a prompt for descriptive writing.

Here is what Holly wrote on a Google Doc and shared with me...

Hi my name is Ronald. My eyes are brown and googly. I have ears and they are big and round. My nose is big and triangle. My mouth is big with sharp teeth. My body is long and skinny. My feet are long and square.My claws are sharp and long. I have some horns on top of my head. I have a huge tail that goes for a year of running. I live in the sea and on land. I love lollies and sweet things but I hate vegetables. I have no enemies so I love people. I eat leaves and twigs. I get food by swimming and fighting. I am very silly but hey why not be my friend for sometimes.

Spore is a big hit with everyone. Allanah needed some help from Maxwell who is a master of Spore!! Thanks Maxwell

Making Patterns for Algebra

2011-11-02T11:21:00.002+13:00

Today we got with a partner and made patterns with craft sticks. We had to work out the patterns for the numbers.

We used the Figure It Out book. The photos and this blog post was written on Allanah's iPad.

Steve Jobs

2011-10-12T12:45:00.002+13:00

Last week Steve Jobs- the man who led Apple computers died. It was very sad and people have been making tributes for him to show how he inspired them. This one is made by sprinkling salt on black paper, shaping it, videoing it and speeding the video up.

The Monster

2011-10-01T14:37:00.005+13:00

This week I had the privilege of working with three different classes- Moturoa, Kahurangi and Moutere. We all read The Monster poem and drew some pictures of our monster! Moutere recorded the poem.

3D Shapes

2011-09-27T23:29:00.001+13:00

Today I am working with Jenny's class. We are looking at 3D shapes. This is a noisy fun game to see what 3D shapes you can recognise.

Kieran Singing Soul Sister

2011-09-27T00:09:00.001+13:00

We had singing today and one of the songs was Soul Sister. I remember that Kieran is really good at singing. Last week he entertained Richmond Primary with his singing and guitar playing. Thank you Room 14 at Richmond Primary for sharing this on their blog.

Have Fun With This Stick Man

2011-09-24T16:49:00.002+12:00

Have fun with Stick Man.

Powerlines

2011-09-02T09:39:00.001+12:00

We are learning about patterns with algebra and found this to be quite a great challenge as we worked through the patterns to go up levels.

How did you get on?

Typing Practice

2011-09-01T23:30:00.000+12:00

Today instead of all of us doing handwriting some of us will be able to practise our keyboarding skills. We can practise all the time so we can type faster and more accurately.

Quadblogging Buddies

2011-09-01T22:45:00.001+12:00

We are linking with children at Auckland Point School to share what they are doing at their school. They have left us lots of comments on our blog and we will leave them comments on their blogs. To go to their blogs click on the screengrabs.

Fractions

2011-08-28T23:47:00.004+12:00

Today we are looking at identifying fractions. These websites will help you.

In this game we match up the halves.

In this one we match the shapes to the written fraction.
In this one you have to pick the biggest fraction to make your dolphin win the race.

Find Sums

2011-08-22T20:09:00.003+12:00

Today Allanah showed us Find Sums on her iPod Touch. We took turns to play the game and then took a screen shot of our last game with the best score. You had to match up all the sums that add to ten but you could put other totals in there as well.
Maxwell managed to solve all the sums in the quickest time and grab a screenshot.

Locate the Aliens

2011-08-22T08:57:00.000+12:00

Directions

2011-08-12T11:44:00.002+12:00

Today we learnt a bit more about directions- North, East, South, West. We used Google Maps to show where Appleby School was and to work out directions from there

View Appleby in a larger map

QR Code Treasure Trail

2011-08-08T12:38:00.006+12:00

Today we had a fun treasure trail around the school. We had try and find clues using Allanah's iPod Touch and QR Codes. This part of the trail lead us to the shed.
We had to find the next clue by scanning the QR code. When we scanned it another clue came up. We then took off to where the clue told us to go.
When we found the QR code we took a photo to prove that we were in the right place. In this photo I am over in the hall.
It was really fun apart from when we couldn't find the QR code. Isaac, Mika and Charlie won the treasure hunt. They got it done in the quickest time.

Nets

2011-08-08T10:00:00.003+12:00

In our maths lesson today we did some cutting to see if we could work out which nets would actually make a net. This activity revises that. Can you get eleven nets without making a mistake?

Maths Week 2011

2011-08-07T21:53:00.004+12:00

It's Maths Week again this year. Click on the logo to go to the log in page.

Science Fair

2011-08-06T11:11:00.000+12:00

Bryn, Frank and Charlie worked on this project. We are proud of our work because it is interesting and has lots of detail in it. We learnt that acid turns the litmus paper red. We found that tap water and milk had the most acid in it.
Rhiannon, Quinten and Lindsay learnt about cleaning stains and what best product removed black currant juice stains. We found out that bleach cleaned the stain the best and shampoo and washing powder hardly cleaned the stain at all.
Zahra, Livi and Sophie A had fun doing this experiment. Our question was. 'What stops apples from going brown?" We found out that lemon juice works the best and white vinegar doesn't work at all.
Maxwell, Mika and Issac found out that wool burnt the fastest out polystyrene, cotton and denim materials. We finished first.
Ewan, Hannah and Kara worked hard on this project. We found out the Handee towels are the most absorbant. Viva was the least absorbant.
Holly, Sophie C and Georgia tried to find out which liquid freeezes the quickest. We found out that orange juice froze the quickest. Lemonade and Coke took the longest time to freeze. We think this is because sugar doesn't freeze well.

Study Ladder #2

2011-07-14T13:38:00.001+12:00

I have handed Study Ladder over to Jodie but you can still log in here. Have a great holiday people. Thanks for all of your visits to our blog over the last term.

Allanah

Quinten's Birthday Surprise

2011-07-11T11:07:00.002+12:00

Today I took a surprise. Usually when there is a birthday in Holland we do something like this and bring something yummy to school. We shared it around- one for every one. We all loved it.

Football Fun

2011-07-08T12:02:00.004+12:00

Charlie was the cameraman when Ben and Che came to teach us some football. Charlie had a sore foot so he couldn't play today. We had lots of fun racing other people and knocking other people's balls out of the square.

Our favourite game was trucks and trailers. We finished with a real game of football. The Awesome Giants team won against the Winners Team.

Study Ladder

2011-07-08T08:23:00.003+12:00

We're going to be having a go with Study Ladder. It was a huge success. This team of girls wanted to stay in at lunchtime and go up some levels and play the maths games and get rewards.

The Three Little Pigs

2011-06-27T14:01:00.003+12:00

Today we listened to the Three Little Pigs on the iPad. We liked it because we could tap on the characters and they would speak. The more we tapped the more the characters had to say. When we tapped they said different things. We could flip the wolf and his van. We could make them flip or jump. The three little pigs chucked their materials together to make their houses.

Allanah had to pay $10.99 for the app. It was so worth it.

Reading Graphs

2011-06-26T20:29:00.004+12:00

Today we are looking at reading graphs. Here is a website that we are going to help us do that.

Playtime

2011-06-20T08:31:00.005+12:00

We like it how the Year Fours and Year Fives work together on such a great structure. We like to build dams and blow the dams up and let all the water out. We particularly like the beginning where we funnel the water out of the pump, down the funnels and into the dam.

We are so lucky to have our playground.

Playtime from Allanah King on Vimeo.

Soccer Training

2011-06-17T11:49:00.006+12:00

Today we had a fabulous session with George learning soccer skills.
Hooray. I scored a goal.
After we did some skills we had a four a side game with the green v the orange bibs. We did not keep score.

Untitled from Allanah King on Vimeo.

Many of us were filthy at the end but it was good fun.

Perimeter Explanation

2011-06-13T22:55:00.001+12:00

We made this explanation using Puppet Pals on the iPad.

Untitled from Allanah King on Vimeo.

Perimeter

2011-06-12T22:22:00.006+12:00

Today we are doing some revision on working out the perimeter of shapes. Here are some activities to support this.

There are three levels of working out perimeters in this activity. It will be good to start on the beginning level and see how far you get.

This activity gets a little trickier.

This activity shows you how to add the length of the sides together.

This activity shows what we know about measuring perimeters to help make a good playpen area for a puppy.

These activities we can start doing together and then we can move at our own pace.

Perimeter workshop

View more presentations from Jacqui Sharp

Sophie Won

2011-05-30T10:08:00.004+12:00

Sophie won the Year Three and Four age group for our Nelson Photo Competition.

Sophie tells us how she came to take the photo.

"We were sitting inside reading a book when a bird came and whacked itself on the wall. We heard it crash into the wall. It was kind of knocked out. It was a good job our cat, Zukee, wasn't there. Mum picked it up and put it on our tree. I took photos of it with Dad's camera. This was my best photo."

I won a big canvas with my photo on it. Click on this link to see the other winners.

Zahra's Photos

2011-05-20T15:18:00.005+12:00

Zahra was very proud to be able to share her wonderful photos of her holiday in the Abel Tasman National Park with us.
It was nearly night time when I took this photo.
We were running around all of these bays ahead of everybody. I was exhausted at the end of it.
We were going to the swingbridge and I took this photo when we were on our boat. I really liked the reflections on the water.
While we were going to the swingbridge I saw lots of birds on the sand and I thought it would be a good photo. Allanah said they were pied oyster catchers. I wonder if she's right?
We were on a short walk at the start of the long walk. We could see heaps of a great view. It was good.

Digital Microscope

2011-05-19T12:33:00.002+12:00

Today Allanah borrowed a digital microscope from another school for us to explore our world with. We had such fun seeing things close up.

Can you guess what our screen grabs are of??

Photo Competition Nominees

2011-05-09T15:18:00.006+12:00

Today we took the last of our photos for Allanah's ICTPD cluster photo competition. We are very proud of our entries. They close next Monday. The winner of the whole competition wins an iPod Touch.Tauhou by Sophie A
Weed by Isaac
Pohara Sunset by Holly

Here are all of our photos...

Chess

2011-05-02T12:58:00.005+12:00

Today we used Guess and Check for problem Solving.

Using a chessboard and 8 counters the counters must be placed on the board so that there is only one counter occupying each vertical, horizontal and diagonal ie there cannot be any other piece on the same line as another. Sounds easy, but it is a little harder than you think.

We worked hard and some of us solved the problem before lunch time.

Holidays with Sonic Pics on the iPad

2011-05-02T12:49:00.002+12:00

For a change from writing about what we did in the holidays children were asked to draw a picture of one of their significant holiday event and script a couple of sentences of explanation.

The Billy Goats Gruff

2011-05-02T09:00:00.001+12:00

Today for phonics we looked at the double ff and ss at the end of words. I found a game to support that.

Click on the graphic to play the game.

Apple Distinguished Educator

2011-05-01T21:53:00.006+12:00

During the Christmas Holidays I applied to be an Apple Distinguished Educator by preparing a video presentation and completing a detailed application form. I was honoured to be accepted into this highly sought after programme along with four other New Zealanders.

During these holidays I attended the Apple Distinguished Educators Institute in Sydney. During the four day Institute we were introduced to innovative media & educational leaders and made some valuable connections with leading educators throughout Australasia.

It was a great learning experience.

Thirds and Close Ups

2011-04-04T14:30:00.002+12:00

We have been practising how to take close ups and photos of thirds for the photo competition. Here are some of our great photos.

Turtle Dash

2011-04-04T11:15:00.004+12:00

For word study we have been looking at vowel combinations in the middle of words. The Turtle Dash game is a fun way of practising these.

Making an Organised List

2011-04-04T10:58:00.003+12:00

For maths we have been learning about making an organised list to keep on track of what we are doing to solve problems. If you make an organised list it is faster. Otherwise you have to do it all in your head and you can get jumbled up with all the numbers.

We use a problem solving wiki to get the problems from.

by Mika

Hannah at RDA

2011-04-04T10:29:00.005+12:00

Every single Friday I am away from school because I go to RDA. There are about twenty horses. Last Friday Allanah came to watch me ride.
Some of the jumps are pretty hard to get over but I did get over them pretty quickly. I had to stand up in my stirrups twice without holding on to the reins.

The name of my horse is Woody. I do like riding.

By Hannah

Kieran Sings For Us

2011-03-31T00:10:00.004+13:00

This week Kieran shared his video with Allanah via Skype and YouTube. I thought about how great Kieran's voice is. He has a talent and we love it when Appleby students go on to do well, even after they have left our school.

Photo Competition

2011-03-21T15:50:00.003+13:00

We are going to have a photo competition where the first prize is an iPod Touch!
The competition is for all the children and teachers in Allanah's ICTPD cluster. We started learning about how to take good photos today by learning about the rule of thirds.

The rule of thirds is where you take photos with the subject not in the middle of the photo but off to one side and the eyes are where the third lines meet up.

We did very well for a very first go. Here is a photo of how the thirds might look if they were on the photo.

CSI Reading Strategies

2011-03-21T15:28:00.002+13:00

We are thinking about the sorts of things that we can do to help us become better readers. We thought about what we do when we get stuck when we area reading. And then we brainstormed what we might do to help us get ourselves unstuck.

Reading is fun when it is not too easy and not too hard. Just right.

The Disco

2011-03-21T10:10:00.002+13:00

Today we looked at the photos from Friday's disco and we wrote a little bit about what happened. Then we chose our favourite photos and some people volunteered to read their stories onto this Voicethread. You can add a comment right there on the Voicethread as well.

The Tale of Peter Rabbit

2011-03-18T12:37:00.004+13:00

Today we read the interactive Tale of Peter Rabbit on the iPad.

We liked how we could tap the creatures and they would move. The leaves could grow bigger and you could splat the berries.

We liked the part when Mr McGregor chased Peter Rabbit under the gate and how Peter Rabbit lost his shoes and his coat and he put them up as a scarecrow.

Lots of people liked the part where Peter Rabbit got home and lay down asleep because he had a big day. When you touched him he would snore and he sounded like a pig.

We Can Rebuild

2011-03-18T11:21:00.002+13:00

Today we thought of the people in Christchurch.

Here are our thoughts...

We hope that we can rebuild. In a few years it will be a big strong city again.

It is never going to be exactly the same. We hope it is going to be better.

We hope it is going to be stronger.

Munch Crunch

2011-03-07T12:40:00.006+13:00

Today we made Talking Tom copy us reading a poem called Munch Munch. The poem had lots of 'ch' words in it.

We found some 'ch' words at the beginning of words like cheese, chair and Christchurch.

We found some 'ch' words in the middle of words like teacher, Richmond and Christchurch.

We found some 'ch' words at the end of words like lunch, much and Christchurch.

We used the free Talking Tom App on Allanah's iPad.

Weetbix Tryathlon

2011-03-07T12:39:00.010+13:00

This weekend there was a Weetbix Tryathlon down at Tahunanui. First of all we did the swim in groups of about fifteen at a time. Then we ran to our bikes and pushed it out of the bike racks. We jumped on it and did two circuits. And then we parked out bikes and took off our helmets and then we ran the last circuit.

We all got a medal. Appleby School won $500 for sports equipment. Ww would like to buy paintball guns. We'll see!

Fling

2011-02-28T14:05:00.003+13:00

Fling is an interesting game that we learnt today. You can only fling the furballs vertically or horizontally. You can't fling them if you are right close together. It is a problem solving game on the iPad.

We all thought it was fun because we got to play it on the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad.

Skype Call to Hamilton

2011-02-21T14:20:00.003+13:00

Today we Skyped a girl called Hayze in Hamilton. We learnt how to say hello to people in Maori. We played a game of Peek-a-boo with the girls. It was good fun.

Click here to see their video of how it looked when we played Peek-a-boo.

Thank you Melville Intermediate.

Our Morning News

2011-02-21T13:13:00.002+13:00

Today we recorded a couple children recounting their news. We used the yellow Easi-speak mike and practised what we had to say.

Tena Koe

2011-02-14T22:41:00.003+13:00

Today we were revising how to greet each other in Maori. We used a free app on the iPad called Puppet Pals. You can select different characters and record them speaking. It is a fun way to revise something that we are already familiar with.

Balloons

2011-02-14T21:59:00.002+13:00

We had such good fun and challenging learning today that we were rewarded at the end of the day with some fun balloon movement fun. Allanah filmed the class with her iPhone and made this little video of us having a good time.

Well done Isaac, Sophie C, Ewan, Miss Docherty's class from Scotland and someone else who forgot to put their name on their comments.

We love to see comments on our post. It helps us communicate with others and know that other people are following what we are doing.

Rogo Maths Problems

2011-02-13T14:29:00.004+13:00

This term we will be looking more deeply at maths problem solving.

As well as using our maths problem solving wiki I will throw in some games to practice play at home.

The first game will be... Rogo.

The aim of Rogo is to collect as many rewards as possible while taking a route of the given number of squares, returning to your starting point.

You can start on any square, with or without a reward on it.
You may move vertically or horizontally, but not diagonally.
You may not step on the black squares.
You must return to your starting point.
You may visit the same square once only.

Here's the video to show you how to play.

These are the puzzles we are going to have a go at today.

Welcome Back

2011-02-03T23:34:00.004+13:00

Welcome back to another year of great learning at Appleby School.

This year Allanah and Jodie will share the teaching. Allanah will be teaching on Mondays and Jodie will teach for the rest of the week.

It will be a great mix and everyone will learn heaps.

How did the term start go for you?

Allanah

Movie Review

2011-01-19T17:42:00.005+13:00

Yogi Bear was a great movie and it was particularly funky as it was in 3D! I recommend Yogi Bear for all ages but it didn't quite have the adult appeal that other kids movies have! As my Mum and I went to see it we both laughed and sometimes even tried grabbing for things that popped out of the screen - ha ha!

The basic story to the movie is about Yogi Bear who helps the Ranger stop Jelly-Stone National park from being destroyed.

All up I think its a fantastic movie and I rate it and hope that you will go watch in either 2D or 3D!

Georgia O'C

Georg

The Spider

2011-01-18T23:33:00.006+13:00

Frankly he scares the life out of me! If you've been following this blog for a while you would know about the spider but he's good holiday wet weather entertainment. Feed him by double clicking and he'll follow your mouse. Click on options and you can make the spider scarier still or even go full screen!

Golden Bay Trip

2011-01-18T20:56:00.008+13:00

I went to Golden Bay (Parapara) which is over the Takaka Hill. I had lots of fun in the sea. I went Sea Biscuiting and swimming - it was really warm! I also went to the Golden Bay A & P show and it was so hot I managed to get through two big bottles of ice cold water in 10 minutes. I had lots to eat such as donuts and hot chips and lots more junk food! The bach had a cool view off the balcony of the sea! I had a great time at Golden Bay and hope to go there some other time! :)

By Georgia O’C

Georgia O'C told me that I should update the blog so I suggested that she do it herself via a shared Google Doc. Clever girl :-)

2010-12-25T15:05:00.001+13:00

Best wishes to everyone from all of us.
What did you get from Santa this Christmas?

Last Day

2010-12-18T14:57:00.000+13:00

I have been naughty and not sharing our last day of school where it has become an Appleby tradition for the whole school to walk to the nearest boysenberry farm and pick fruit and have a real fruit ice-cream. Marshall was good enough to smear it around a bit and to pose for the camera!

Happy Holidays everyone.

Appleby School Beach Trip

2010-12-15T23:21:00.003+13:00

Today we had a fabulous morning down at Rabbit Island. We swam in the sea, built sand sculptures, wandered down the beach, did relays and played beach cricket! All great fun.

One more sleep and we will be done for the year!

Mrs Murphy

2010-12-15T17:13:00.002+13:00

Yesterday we frightened Mrs Murphy by giving her a gift to show her how much we appreciate her. Mrs Murphy is our front desk person who helps everyone all the time- who fixes us up when we are broken, who answers the phone, who makes her computer fly, who answers all our questions and who is an all round great person.

Everyone who knows her knows that.

Puzzling Time

2010-12-06T12:32:00.007+13:00

Today at Problem Solving time Steven Wills came to share his problem solving games with us. He showed us Rush Hour. It is quite challenging. You may have to restart it a few times to get it right but we got there in the end. We had to show perseverence.

Allanah has got the app on her iPod Touch as well.

It was a very tricky puzzle game.
We built towers. It was fun.
Grace puzzled hard and long.
Jack enjoyed playing Rush Hour on Allanah's iPod Touch.
Georgia used the instruction manual to help solve the puzzles.
I thought that game was really hard but cool.
I thought the game was so cool. I wanted to buy it.
The original Rush Hour was really easy.
The Dinosaur Game got harder and harder.
Rush Hour Safari was hard.
I am building castles and making new ones.
Santana and I played this together. You could only move the goats when they were in line.
Looking over the crates was fun.
This game is super fun but hard too.

Lunar Lockout

2010-12-06T10:02:00.003+13:00

Today Steven showed us Lunar Lockout. We had to use the our brains to work it out. It really got us thinking.

Helicopter Trails

2010-11-29T18:34:00.002+13:00

Last week when we were discussing the Pike River Mine Collapse we followed the live track of one of the Westpac Rescue Helicopters. Each helicopter has a GPS on board. Today children wanted another look to see where it was so I thought I would put a link to it here so you can see where it is now and where it has been during the day. It is a live map so it refreshes itself every few minutes.

If it is not moving then it is on the ground.

Swimming is Fun

2010-11-29T12:01:00.004+13:00

This is a video we put together at the swimming pool on Allanah's iPhone. The video was on the computer before we got back to the classroom.

Swimming is fun. In today's swimming lesson we learnt more about how to do breastroke. You put your hands to pray, then push them out, put them back to back and pull. With your legs we were practising how to glide.

Geocache

2010-11-21T23:27:00.002+13:00

Last week we talked a little about Geocaching and I went down to the Appleby Domain and found one to share with the class. This weekend I went geocaching again and found this in one of the caches.

The cache was first placed in Ulster, Northern Ireland.

Its goal is to travel the six nations, the tri-nations and any other nations where rugby is played. It hopes to get to Eden Park, Auckland, for the 2011 World Cup!

Who do we know who can help it on its way?

Allanah

Appleby School Playtime

2010-11-15T11:32:00.008+13:00

At playtime Allanah took photos of us on the iPhone while we were playing. We made the video on the iPhone using Sonic Pics and shared it with the computer and now we share it with you.

So this video was done without using a computer at all.

Guess and Check

2010-11-15T11:10:00.002+13:00

Last week we made chess sets for problem solving and we couldn't put the blue squares diagonal, downwards or across. It was a mission. I struggled but I got it in the end. Allanah took a photo of my finished chess set.

Keegan's Fiji Holiday

2010-11-15T10:18:00.001+13:00

Last school holidays our family went to Fiji for a holiday.
"Mum, is this the island we are going to?"

"No," said Mum. "We are on the next island."
Just before we left my cousins and I went on the banana boat. It really hurt.
Everybody had fun, even the adults. My brother was on the back and that person flies off and smashes into everybody.
It was really hot and we liked sitting in the shade under the palm trees.
We went to a private island to snorkel.

Inch Worm

2010-11-11T23:57:00.003+13:00

The children at Makuri School showed us Inch Worm on their blog and they say they love playing this game and I can see why!

I am on Level Ten now and still going. How far can you get to help the inch worm find food and find his way home? Let me know in the comments.

Mask Parade

2010-11-07T19:14:00.003+13:00

Here are photos and video from the Nelson Arts Festival Mask Parade. It was so much fun. Click on the graphic to see the whole slideshow. There are two pages of photos.

I am using Dropbox to store the photos. It is a good way to share things on line.

Fireworks Go Boom

2010-11-05T10:22:00.002+13:00

We wrote some rules for using fireworks and then we looked at a website that gave the rules- we got them all ourselves.
Luc and Sharon made this Kid Pix fireworks drawing.

Here is a link to our fireworks rules in a Google Doc.

Daniel and Caitlin made this one.
Marshall and Summer made this one.

Moturoa Class Camp

2010-11-05T07:50:00.008+13:00

Allanah didn't get to go on camp this year tell her all about it.

I hope this link works cos the last one didn't.

Watch the doc grow.

K12 Online 2010 Keynote- A Week In The Classroom

2010-10-26T01:05:00.004+13:00

I was honoured to be asked some time ago to present the keynote presentation for the K12 Online Conference. The conference is a global sharing of teachers talking about their practice. K12 tells you the conference is aimed at teachers of children from kindergarten children up to Year 12.

Allanah

The children in Moturoa got a chance to watch the video some weeks ago after I made it in the school holidays and now it is ready to be published here. I am speaking slowly because people always tell me I talk fast and I want to make sure that people for whom English is not a first language have a opportunity to understand our kiwi accent!

It's a Book

2010-10-19T22:26:00.006+13:00

I thought you would enjoy this...

It's a Book.

Super Scoopers in Dunedin made their own version here.

QR Codes

2010-10-18T22:18:00.004+13:00

Over the weekend I learnt how to make QR codes. QR codes are sort of like bar codes but they can hold more information. I have seen them in art galleries and museums and on packing boxes and always wondered what they were about.

The idea is that if you have a QR code reader on your phone you take a photo of the code and it will lead you to a website with more information about our class. If you want to find out more about QR codes read here.

Here is our QR code on the classroom window so if you are walking by with your web enabled phone and a QR reader you could give it a try. It is way cool. A chocolate fish is on the way if you tell me what the code leads to in the comments.

Allanah

Holidays

2010-10-18T16:02:00.003+13:00

Last week we started to share what we had done in the holidays but we didn't get time to finish. Here is as far as we got. We have good times on our holidays.

New Zealand Youth Brass Band

2010-10-12T00:09:00.004+13:00

Today we had a special guest, it was the secondary school brass band of New Zealand. They played seven songs for us. We liked them all 'cause they were awesome. They had a base-drum, trumpet, trombone, tuba and others. We had lots of fun listening to their music.

Ulearn Learning

2010-10-06T13:13:00.005+13:00

I am at a big computer conference in shaky Christchurch. We felt a big earthquake last night that made me shake a bit.

Today we learnt about Learning Paths, which is a way to link to a whole lot of great learning materials on line.

To get to them click on the graphics. I found one on Platypus just for you Grace.

Ten Guitars

2010-09-21T00:16:00.002+12:00

I have been learning to play the ukulele and today we are going public with our first ukulele song- some of you may know it!

Marae Podcast

2010-09-19T23:53:00.003+12:00

Here is our recording sharing our marae trip with you. It was a great day and we all helped to record what we did. Thank you Te Awhina Marae for your hospitality and generosity.

Typing

2010-09-19T22:22:00.002+12:00

Today, when most of us do handwriting some people will be able to do keyboarding practice.

They are going to use Dance Mat Typing.

Today's lucky keyboarders are: Sean, Sharon, Sam, Summer, Santana and Shona. They are going to practice their typing and leave a comment on this post about how they got on.

Dotty-Dots

2010-09-18T21:19:00.002+12:00

I came across this little gem and thought I would post it here just for fun. Click on the text to take you to the web site and hover your mouse over the letters. Then add your new word and do the same. You could use it as an aid to remember your spelling words!

Christchurch Earthquake

2010-09-05T23:44:00.002+12:00

The Christchurch Earthquake has been on everyone's minds over the weekend. Everyone knows someone affected by the earthquake. We trust that they will soon be able to overcome the devastation.

Here are some websites to learn more about Earthquakes.

Photos of the Christchurch earthquake.

An American website of earthquake information.

New Zealand's latest Earthquakes.

Awesome Forces from Te Papa.

The Best Photos

2010-08-30T14:28:00.005+12:00

We are learning how to make better photos. We are doing this by learning about the rule of thirds. We divided the photos into thirds and we made sure to put the subject of the photo where the third lines join up.
How did we go?

Make An Organised List

2010-08-26T10:59:00.006+12:00

We have been problem solving for maths and today's activity was to make an organised list.

We had to find out how many different ways four children could stand for photographs and not repeat the photos.

Before we took the photos we got ourselves into groups and then we made our organised list- we listed the four people for the first photograph, then we wrote down four columns of combinations of people in order. Each person had a turn at being in all the places.

We worked out that we needed to take twenty four photos. The video is 24 frames long- one for each of the items on our organised list.

Luc went on to work out how many photos you would have to take to get all the combinations for six people! Can YOU work out how many photos you would need to take?

Hei Waiata

2010-08-18T19:57:00.003+12:00

We are learning to sing E Nga Iwi and need to practice it for assembly on Friday. You can listen to the song and even download it and look at the words by going to this website.

We are looking forward to going to Te Awhina Marae tomorrow.

Our first Mathletics Day

2010-08-16T23:47:00.004+12:00

Today we had our first day practising on Mathletics. We all managed to sign in easily and sort our avatars out and we were away. Lots of maths happened today in class.
Seeing there weren't enough computers for one each we all took turns.
Everyone helped everyone else.
It was fun choosing how our avatar should look.
Allanah brought her iPod Touch along for us to use as well- just like another computer really.
Remember your username and password and you can do lots of practice at home as well.
Luc showed great focus on his maths.
You will soon become maths masters, ready for the real thing next week.