The Riddle of the Black Panther

We are studying persuasive news articles and feature articles this term and today the students worked through a learning object called, The Riddle of the Black Panther, in which they play the role of a news reporter who has to investigate whether or not there is in fact a black panther in the town of Flotsam. As reporters, the students have to interview various people as sources of evidence and decide whether or not they are reliable. The students really enjoyed this activity and it is a great role playing opportunity whereby they use their own judgements and investigative 'know how' to track down the infamous panther.

The Riddle Of The Black Panther

Dom and Cody.G working as news reporters.

Wednesday 20th April, 2016

Today, we started looking at how to use the split strategy to solve division problems. This strategy is all about knowing how to partition a number so that its 'parts' are individually divisible by the divisor. For example, if the problem was 1140 divided by 4, the number can be broken into 1000 + 100 + 40 as each of these numbers is divisible by 4. Then we divide each 'part' of the number by 4 and add the results together. Ask your child to show you the working out for this example and perhaps an even trickier one: 1185 divided by 3. Cody.G was quickly onto this one today - good job, Cody :)

 During Science today, we investigated the distance of the planets in our solar system from the sun. As these distances are in billions of kilometers, we looked at them in terms of their scaled size. We watched a great video that demonstrated the scaled distances of our inner planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars) from the sun and their size differences using an odd man in a silver suit, a school oval, complete with footy goals, and some high speed footage of the man stepping out the distances. We might do this out on our own oval one afternoon, without the silver suit.

Persuasive Writing

This week we're focusing on persuasive writing and students are working on a persuasive argument for homework. Each night they should be working on a part of their text following the structure modelled each day and using the language features taught.

Lisa Heard's Post on Friday, 15 April 2016

Our other Super Star runner today was Waimarie. Wai came 1st in the under 10s and still had fuel in the tank at the end. This little pocket rocket is one to watch 💫

End of Week 1

Wow, that was fast; where did the first week go? Today was cross country and I was very proud of everyone for doing their best - a special shout out to Cody Irvin who came second in the under 11s; his run was outstanding.

We've had some fantastic homework efforts this week and it's been very good to see how they went with the maths strategies on their own. I was able to use the misunderstandings to inform the teaching for the day somewhat and help children build their skills. We're not all there yet, but these strategies come up again a little later in the year when we can consolidate further. Remember, we don't just touch on topics once; we do come back to things often so never lose heart when something is new - next time we see it, it can make a little more sense 😉.

Thursday 14th April, 2016

Today we explored the area model for solving more complex multiplication problems. Waimarie was the star student in this area today and was blitzing every question. Go Wai 😊

Setting Goals

Today the students reflected on their goals for Term 1 and began setting new goals for Term 2. Many students have reached their goals for Term 1, which is fantastic. Students write a draft copy first; I then edit it with them and they go on to write a good copy. This good copy will come home for your perusal within the next week. It would be great if you could discuss these with your child and help them achieve their goals wherever possible. We also started our Science unit: Exploring our place in the solar system. Tonight they are set the task of making scale cut-outs of Saturn and Venus. Students are always very interested in space topics, so I'm sure they'll have plenty to share with you over the coming weeks.

Predicting

This week, we are learning about how good readers use predicting to assist with deeper comprehension. Today, students worked in small groups to predict what might be happening in a given picture and what may have happened before and after the photo was taken.

Student of the Week

Congratulations to Laelani on being our first Student of the Week for Term 2. Laelani ALWAYS strives to do her best in everything she sets her mind to and is very encouraging of others to do the same.

Week 1 Super Starters

Super Starters today were Jacinta for her usual application to tasks from the get go of the day, and Evan for being alert and engaged during maths and noticing errors through checking. Good job, Super Starters.