2016

It's great to be back for what promises to be another exciting year for the students in Room 8. The children have settled into their work very quickly and our classroom routines are already well established. There will be regular updates to our class blog throughout the year including samples of the children’s work and photos of the children participating in a variety of different activities. You are encouraged to make regular visits to the blog to check out any updates and leave a comment if you would like to.
 

Sports Activator Visit

On Monday 2 November, Rory, the sports activator came to our school. Each time he visits we work on a different set of skills. This time, the sport that he wanted us to learn to play was softball so we began our lesson with a small ball skills session. First we buddied up with a partner and practised catching. Next, we practised pitching the ball underarm. We learnt that the pitch has to pass the batter between the shoulders and the knees to be a fair pitch. Finally we learnt some of the rules for softball and then put them into practice during a game. It was a lot of fun and quite a few runs were scored.

Cricket Coaching

On Wednesday 21 October Dion came from the Otago Cricket Association to teach us some cricket skills. First we warmed up by playing a game of ball tag. After that we did some fielding  practice. We had to be careful when picking the tennis ball up and placing it on a cone or else it would fall off  and roll away. It taught us the importance of getting down low and keeping our eyes over the ball. The next skill we practised was bowling. We learnt the correct technique and the importance of keeping our bowling arm straight. Dion explained that our front arm was like a pulling a chain except that we were actually pulling our bowling arm into position to bowl the ball. We spent a lot of time practising bowling at sets of wickets. It was fun and we will try to apply these skills the next time we play cricket.

Emergency Drills

On Thursday 15 October, the school participated in the nationwide "Shake Out" event which is about raising awareness of what to do if an earthquake strikes. At 9.15 we practised our earthquake drill inside our classroom. We had to duck, cover and hold which means we had to get under our desks, cover our heads and hold onto the leg of our desk in case it moved. We also watched a series of videos made by famous New Zealanders which all had the same message about what to do in an earthquake. Later in the morning, the whole school practised our emergency evacuation procedure or fire drill. Finally we practised what to do in case we are caught outside when an earthquake strikes. We all thought it was a good opportunity for us to learn about what to do in case we are involved in a real emergency.

Technology Challenge

For much of this term every class in the school has been focusing on the concept of "Special Places". Room 8 chose to study Ancient Rome and other ancient civilisations. One of the activities was a technology challenge. We were given the task of creating something made famous by the Romans. It had to be small enough to bring to school, made from materials you could find at home, and parents were encouraged to help. From the variety of choices that we brainstormed, many children chose to make a model of the coloseum, some made weapons or armour, and several children made a working catapult. We had to present our finished products to the class and give information about the thing we had made and how we went about making it. We are very proud of what was made and we were pleased to be able to share our work at last week's assembly.

Museum/Art Gallery Trip

On Thursday 17 September, Room 8 went on a class trip to Dunedin. The purpose of the trip was to support our current topic which is Ancient Civilisations. First we went to the Otago Museum where the educator talked to us about some of the exhibits on display and then we acted out a Greek play. We then acted out the process of mummification and were taken to the room were actual mummies were on display. We learnt a lot about life in ancient times and it was fascinating to see how advanced their technology was thousands of years ago.
After lunch, we went to the Dunedin Art Gallery where John, the educator, took us for a tour of the gallery, pointing out some art works of interest and telling us some stories from ancient times like "Androcles and the Lion". Finally we arrived at the classroom where John explained that we were going to be doing mosaics, a type of art made famous by the Romans. We had to work quickly to draw our pictures and then cut out the numerous small pieces of coloured paper that needed to be stuck on to create the mosaic effect. Once they were finished, the mosaics looked great as can be seen in the examples below.

Sports Activator Visit

On 7 September our sports activator, Rory, came to to take us for a session on basketball skills. Firstly, we practised our dribbling skills in a straight line and then Rory set out some cones and we had to sidestep them. Next we had to try to bounce the ball between our legs and behind our backs as we went around the cones. We were then put into pairs and we practised chest passing. The next type of pass we learnt was the bounce pass and finally we had to do the bounce pass with one hand. Room 8 really enjoyed this session and can't wait until Rory's next visit.