Sunday, June 28, 2009

Reflecting on our blog with Wordle

What does this Wordle "word cloud" reflection tell you about our class blog writing?

Team 17 are learning to use Wordle word clouds to reflect on their blogs.

Friday, June 26, 2009

A Birthday to Remember

Thursday was my birthday and my awesome kids from Team 17 planned a surprise party for me. I came back to the classroom during lunch and 'SURPRISE' they all jumped out of their hiding places and gave me a small scare. I was so amazed they had planned a huge party, decorated the classroom and brought cake, food and drinks. I am a very lucky teacher to have such an amazing class. A big 'THANK YOU' to my very special girls and boys in Team 17, you made this birthday one of the most fun and memorable I have ever had.

Mr Wood

Saturday, June 20, 2009

I Believe In You

Empowering Inspiring video message
Sometimes I hear "I'm a loser", "I can't do it", "I'm not good enough", it makes me sad.
This video is for ALL of my Team 17 students. I believe in you, I believe you can do anything you really want too, I believe you can change the world. Never pretend you are happy to be a loser or unable to do something. I have seen all of you succeed in different things, from math, drawing, to sport. I have seen the joy shining from your face when you do succeed. Success takes practice, it takes time but you will be a winner in the end. Persevere, because I believe in you, and yourself should believe in you too.
Mr Wood

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Westpac Visits Team 17

Westpac managers who attended the school Matariki ceremony today stopped by for a visit with Team 17. Westpac kindly donated these laptops to the school when they upgraded. Team 17 now gets to do engage in 21st century learning. Team 17 showed the managers how we use the laptops in our learning. Thanks Westpac.


Matariki Tree Planting

Today we had a Matariki ceremony with the whole school. Matariki celebrates the Maori new year and is a symbol for new beginnings. Some of the Team 17 children were at school at 5:30am for a dawn ceremony. After the ceremony each class planted a New Zealand native tree. Team 17 planted a 'Dodonea Viscosa' or 'Ake Ake'.
First we dug a hole for our tree. When we dug up the soil we found lots of earthworms, some small and some BIG. Some of the boys chased the girls with worms, but then we talked about how important worms are for soil. This shows we have healthy soil. Next we put the tree into the hole and then pushed in the soil around it. We made sure to push the soil down tightly.
Lastly one of the Westpac managers who were visiting took our team photo around our tree.

Our Science Project

For science we are writing songs and making Glogsters about insulation, which is our science topic. We are gathering all the information we know and have researched about insulation and are making a song or Glogster, which is a poster to show what we have learnt. Insulation is the stuff that keeps us warm by stopping heat from escaping. Metal is not a good insulator though it's a good conductor.

This is Youngblood and Ekim recording their song. They used Garageband and Audacity.
By Shweta.C