What a year...

We've been counting down and it's finally here, the end of the school year for 2011. Thanks everyone, children and parents, for making Room 19 such an awesome group of young people to teach. I've loved your enthusiasm for learning, your interesting ideas, your creativity, your caring for each other and the fun you bring to each day.

Year 8, all the best for High School. Each and every one of you are very ready for the challenges ahead. Remember that you are meant to get lost several times in your first week and High School is a whole lot bigger than Beckenham and you will be the wee fish again. Keep on shining like you have this year. Drop into our blog next year and leave a message about how it is all going.

Merry Christmas everyone, safe holidays and see you next year.

Miss D

Where are all the presents?

Our rather unique Christmas tree is feeling rather bare, where are those Secret Santa pressies (or not so secret as the case may be)? Get your 'low carbon footprint' thinking hat on and get organised. Tomorrow there will be a Santa sack below to tree for you to anonymously place your gift in. No peeking in the sack.

Reducing your Carbon Footprint

To wrap up our Climate Change unit, we are producing a calendar with suggestions of how you can reduce your carbon footprint in different areas of your life. Here's a sneak preview. Do you have any great suggestions that we could include?

Friday Sports Challenge

On Friday we had the third of our Friday sports challenges against the other Yr 7 & 8 classes. This time we split into girls and boys teams. Room 19 played really well this week and were placed second overall. Yet again Room 17 won Scooby! Awesome action photos Sam, I hope you apply for the media team next year.

Sailing

Sailing on PhotoPeach


What a week we are having! The highlight of this morning was hearing the news that Jed won the high jump and got second in the long jump at the Canterbury Athletic Champs. You're AMAZING! Then after a slight delay with the bus, we hit the high seas. The wind was up and we had an awesome sail. Spot the photos when the waves had just crashed over the bow drenching everyone on the starboard side of the boat.

Top Team

We had a awesome afternoon at Top Team today, Beckenham teams shone. I was so proud of both Room 19 teams; your support of each other, wonderful teamwork and sheer joy at the experience was fabulous.

Click on the photos to enlarge.
Top Team on PhotoPeach

Creativity for the Polar Bear

If polar bears could talk what would they say? We've been considering this as we put together our polar bear collages ...

'Help me, help yourselves; save me, save the world.'
'Reduce your carbon footprint or you will reduce the number of footprints made by us!'

Artwork is under construction...

Reducing our Carbon Footprint

Over the next two weeks we are going to look into the different ways we can reduce our carbon footprint. The students have many great ideas already and we are going to research to find more. Today we discovered there is debate surrounding whether a real Christmas tree or an artificial one is better for our planet. Tomorrow we will select names out of a hat for Sustainable Secret Santa. Students are encouraged to make something or find an environmentally friendly gift, that shows thought has been given to reducing our Christmas carbon footprint.

Let us know who you are.

We love getting your comments:) Please include your name in the message if using anonymous.

Hope you enjoyed the show!

Well it's been a real arts week. The staff were so proud of the Year 7 & 8 team on Thursday night as they shared their creativity on stage. We hope you made it along and enjoyed the night. This would be a great place to leave a comment and give the performers some feedback.

Big day tomorrow!

Tomorrow, Thursday is our Arts Performance day:-) A few key reminders. Come to school in uniform. Bring your costume. Get changed before the bell so we are ready to start the dress rehearsal at 9am. Evening performance starts at 7pm. Students need to come in costume by 6:45pm. No cost or limit to how many people can come and watch, though feel free to donate a gold coin.

See you all there ... it's going to be FABULOUS!!!

A poem to make you think.

Today the class tried to get to the bottom of the message that the author of this cool poem wanted to get across to us.

“If the Earth were only a few feet in diameter, floating a few feet above a field somewhere, people would come from everywhere to marvel at it.

People would walk around it marvelling at its big pools of water, its little pools and the water flowing between.

People would marvel at the bumps on it and the holes in it.

They would marvel at the very thin layer of gas surrounding it and the water suspended in the gas.

The people would marvel at all the creatures walking around the surface of
the ball and at the creatures in the water.

The people would declare it as sacred because it was the only one, and they would protect it so that it would not be hurt.

The ball would be the greatest wonder known, and people would come to pray to it, to be healed, to gain knowledge, to know beauty and to wonder how it could be.

People would love it, and defend it with their lives because they would somehow know that their lives could be nothing without it.

If the Earth were only a few feet in diameter.”

By Joe Miller

We then had a go at creating a static image that could be used as a cover, if the poem was turned into a picture book.

The Great Stuff Challenge

Awesome Stuff on PhotoPeach



What fabulous creativity has been going on over the past two weeks. We were all impressed with the results of the Great Stuff Challenge; from go-carts to flower vases, you have done yourself proud Room 19ers. Can't wait to see the rest on Monday. What particularly impressed you and why?

Arts Performance promises to impress!

Today the arts academies came together for our first combined rehearsal. While there are a few rusty edges, as we would expect at this stage, it has the feel of a wonderful performance of diverse talent. Our big night is next Thursday, the 24th, starting at 7pm.

Awesome Achievement

First place in all three events at the Zones today... what an athlete! (Photo isn't from Zones, but does show how he flies.)

Fabulous effort from everyone today; it was wonderful to hear of all the successes at the Zones (we will have a huge team going to the Canterbury's) and those at school displayed great thinking skills, teamwork and persistence.

Static Images

This term we are learning about Static Images. Yesterday we had our first go at making one. We took a picture, relating to global warming, and matched it with an appropriate quote, then thought about layout, use of space, lettering, colour e.t.c to create our static images. We needed to justify our choices, why did we do things the way we did?

In the image above, 'we' and 'earth' are in block letters because they are the big players, 'smoking' is written with smoke curls, 'away' is separate from the rest of the quote because that's where it is going. The background is red for danger. The picture is on an angle because it it slipping away due to global warming.

Thinking about our thinking

Today we were using Thinking Maps to sort what we have learned so far about our Climate Change topic. We came up with lots of reasons for global warming. At one stage we were talking about the Greenhouse Effect; Anna J gave a great description of this in her own words, then Rhys came up with a real gem ... he said that when he thinks of the Greenhouse Effect he thinks of an electric blanket around the Earth that is set to 1, gradually heating our planet, more than a blanket would. Fabulous analogy Rhys, this is touching on Extended Abstract thinking!

Arts Academies

Over the past term and a half we have been spending Tuesday afternoons unleashing our creativity in our Arts Academies programmes. In two weeks all our hard work will come to fruition when our performances hit the stage at 7pm on Nov. 24th. Today the wearable arts group used the Hall space to work out their moves on the catwalk, so the dance group practiced their zombie routine on the court.

Information Report Writing

At the moment we are writing information reports about the plight of polar bears. Most of the class have finished their first paragraph, the identifying statement. We were impressed with this one...

Imagine your home your place of birth melting away before your very eyes. It’s a tough thing to face but this is what’s happening to the polar bears habitat in the North Pole. Polar bears are down to about 20-25,000 in numbers now as of 2007 and what happens in 2050? They could be down to about 1500 or wiped out completely. This is the fact we have to face not only as an individual but united together to not only to save the polar bears but our planet earth as well.

Can you spot where the apostrophe and commas are needed?

Enjoyment at Technicraft :)

YUMMY. In technicraft lately our Year 7 group have been doing a project about rice. We are all learning new recipes and skills while having fun, and bringing new ideas to the recipes to show off our skills at home. During our time at Tech we made fried rice the first week, followed the next week by sushi. Then today we did a very yummy rice risotto and rice pudding. It's lots of fun being in the cooking class and making many yummy meals. Can't wait till next week to find out what new yummy experience we will be enjoying.

by Angus

Room 19 Maths Class

Today we tested our containers we had made for maths home learning over the past week. The containers had to be capable of holding 1 litre of liquid. The containers were made out of recycled material mainly old cereal or muesli boxes. Students had to come up with the nets and measurements themselves. Here is an example of a measurement: 20cm x 5cm x 10cm. Only 1 box was unsuccessful because they had read one of their measurements incorrectly :( but besides that one little mishap they were a success.

Forbes

 

i-Pad in the Classroom

Our school has so far purchased four iPads to try out in classrooms; we are lucky to be trialling one in Room 19. Today we used it in several ways...

We used it to create a mindmap to help us establish the main idea in an article about Kiribati...

Beth, Gabe and Grace used it to record their smoking ad for Home Learning at lunchtime...

and Rhys took some great pictures of our longball game this afternoon.

Parents and family members, what games did you love playing in the summer terms when you were at school? Let us know by leaving a comment.

Athletics Sports Day

Fabulous effort today everybody. Lots of stunning performances, including this very hard to call 100m final. All the best for the zones in two weeks.

Being Assertive

In Room 19 we have now finished the DARE programme. In the last session today we have practiced being assertive by standing up for what we believe. For example, if you were walking down the street and a dodgy person walked up to you and tried to sell you drugs, what would you do? Be assertive; look them in the eye and say, 'No, drugs are harmful', and walk away. We practiced looking and being assertive.

by Rhys.

Smoking, drinking or marijuana?



Smoking, drinking or marijuana? Which are you doing? For homework, that is. Sam has been working hard on his homework and his hard work has paid off! He has created an amazing video on smoking, and the legomen really get you thinking. He has his homework in early, but will yours be late?Remember homework is due in this Friday, so get cracking!!

By Anna and Anna

Hola!

Today in spanish Senora Carrasco taught us the numbers 21 - 31 and then the months of the year, so we could say our birthdate in spanish. So far we have been learning greetings, the alphabet and numbers 0 -21. Today, as a reward for good work, some of us recieved a Chilean coin.

Hasta la Vista
Beth and Natalie

Victorious Designers!

Yeeha ... well done girls for your first and second place (each judge chose their own placings) in today's Rebuilding Beckenham Finals. GO ROOM 19! Thanks for bringing Scooby back home to our room where he belongs, (that is after spending a week in Room 16, who did just as well as us).

High Jump Style

High Jump on PhotoPeach



Yes ... we got sun today so athletics practice was on. At high jump we are aiming for a tall body, arms driving up to provide extra lift, a straight leg scissor over the bar and an upright landing on the feet, avoiding body twist. Some nice styles are developing. Click on the photos to get a better view.

Innocent Victims

This term we are focusing on information reports in writing. Today we started research for our first report about how global warming is affecting the polar bear. We learnt that by 2050 the number of polar bears is predicted to be 2/3 less than the current population. We need to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions so that the summer ice stops disappearing in the Arctic. Our next step is to research further using books and the Internet and then we will write our reports in Word or Publisher.

What are we doing to our planet?

Today we started talking about Climate Change / Global Warming ... mmmmm, are they the same thing?? We looked at our nine Big Questions and thought about what we know already about this topic. Most of us were at the pre-structural or uni-structural level with our thinking, though there was a bit of relational thinking happening in places. One thing that had us stumped was what the 'Kyoto Protocol' was all about?? If you have any thoughts or gems of knowledge on Global Warming or Climate Change, please let us know by leaving a comment.

Ask your children what these terms mean... it's all to do with Solo Taxonomy.

The Ultimate Test

Today the wheelchair experience went beyond the school gate as we took it for a bus test drive. We learnt quite a bit about maneuvering in tight places. The Red Buses passed our test with flying colours.

Have a wonderful holiday everyone; see you all refreshed, energised and ready to go on October 25th.

We took up the challenge...

Ms Hastings liked our skipping video from two weeks ago and challenged us to try skipping with 4 ropes, in a square formation. Well today we gave it a go and it worked, well almost ... we haven't perfected it quite yet.

Superb Speeches in Room 19

Speech Finalists on PhotoPeach


Over the past two days I have been blown away by the high standard of speeches presented by the Room 19ers. Not only were many of the speeches confidently presented, but the quality of the content was much higher than I have struck before. We chatted about the reasons for this. While some talked about how applying the hamburger method really helped, the overwhelming reason given was the use of the laptops as a research and writing tool. Being able to easily revise what had been written, using a highlighter to identify main points from internet research and then put these into their own words and how easy it was to create the cue cards, so more time could be spent on the content of the speech - were factors that the class all agreed on. Needless to say choosing the finalists was a very hard job. We wish our final three all the best for a smooth and enthusiastic speech delivery tomorrow.
GO ROOM 19!

Presentation Day

Presenting Our Beckenham Rebuild Plans on PhotoPeach


It's been a great day of oral language in Room 19. We listened to fabulous speeches in the morning, but there will be more about that in tomorrow's post. This afternoon we presented our plans for Rebuilding Beckenham. Well done guys, you did a superb job of sharing your great ideas with the class. Special mention goes out to Sam and Ties for their fabulous plan of 'Maple Tree Village', they were nearly finalists. Congratulations to Micaela and Natalie, Baylie and Katie for their confident presentations of detailed and creative plans ... you are our Room 19 finalists.

Our Wheelchair Experiences

Over half of the class have now had their 'three hours in a wheelchair' experience. Today we shared how we are finding the experience. Several children explained how they were treated differently by others when in the wheelchair. This included having people offer to do lots for you, when really you just wanted to get on and do things for yourself, i.e. be independent. We have noted what it's like to push on different surfaces; smooth concrete rated the highest, followed by our well compacted gravel path. Our adventure playground is not a wheelchair friendly space. The bark chips need to be replaced with an artifical rubbery surface and it needs a wider and not so steep entry point. We also are now very aware of the lips by doorways, these proved a challenge when we were starting out, but after three hours we were pretty good at pushing over the 'door bumps'.

Inspired by Henrico

We loved having Ties's dad talk with us today about his life as an author and editor; as part of Book Week. He impressed us with the number of books he has written and the number of words he writes each day! The first sentence of a story is the most important; Henrico shared some great examples and got us thinking about how we can hook the reader in more effectively. My favourite part was when he shared an extract (thanks to Google for the translation) from his latest book. We could all relate to his story from Fed 22nd. Thanks Henerico, we were inspired!

Yum!

What a spread! We very much enjoyed the morning tea put on be the PTA to reward us for getting our Spellathon money in so quickly. Definitely worth the effort!

Project Rudolf

Project Rudolf on PhotoPeach



Today 20 Year 7 students from Beckenham and Opawa Schools worked with ambassadors from the electronics industry to create programmable 'Rudolfs'. They selected and assembled components, soldered, trimmed, connected and programmed their creations. What a fabulous day! With one ambassador to four students, there was always help at hand and the students were fully engaged and highly motivated all day. Many thanks to Catherine from 'Future in Tech' for organising this day.

Rebuilding Beckenham In Progress on PhotoPeach



We are one week away from presenting our ideas for Rebuilding Beckenham and we all still have a lot of work to do. Here is a sneak preview of what we are creating. Do you have any feedback or suggestions for us? (Other than that we have made a few spelling errors!)

The Great Book Swap

As part of Book Week all Beckenham students are encouraged to bring along up to 4 books from home that they have finished reading and would like to exchange for other great reads. Books are to be dropped off in front of the library before school by Thursday this week. The more people taking part, the greater the selection of books; so check out your bookshelf at home and get involved in the GREAT BOOK SWAP.

Making safe choices with legal drugs.

Today in DARE we looked at legal drugs such as Panadol, antibiotics, sleeping pills, wine, RTDs and cigarettes. We had an interesting discussion on whether cigarettes should be made illegal; most of the class were sitting on the fence. Then we broke into groups and looked at how legal drugs could be used safely and how they can be misused. The picture above illustrates one group's thoughts. Have you got some more ideas we could add to this chart?

Athletics Training

It was all about about run, jump and throw on the field this afternoon...

Thinking Accessibility

Today Grant came along to talk with our class about accessibility considerations we should keep in mind when doing our urban plan for the 'Beckenham Space'. He gave us lots to think about. So we can get a better understanding of some of these issues, we are each going to spend three hours in a wheelchair over the next couple of weeks.

More Skilled Skippers

Those with extra beans add spins and twirls!

Jolly Jumpers

One of the most popular fitness activities in Room 19 is long rope skipping. The triangle skip requires coordination, timing and teamwork. We have mastered this with three jumpers in three ropes, our next step is to master six jumpers in three ropes.

So just how important is technology to us when we learn?

The graph speaks for itself! We are very engaged in our learning when technology is one of our tools.

Writing with keys rather than pencils.

This term Room 19 have been exploring using the laptops as a writing tool. This graph shows the impact we think technology is having on our writing. We have offered a number of reasons for our positive view, these include: we can write faster, it's easier to revise our writing,  it's easier to focus, spelling errors are identified and it's more fun.

Seeing what we read

In Room 19 we have just finished reading some great novels. As we read we asked questions and discussed the story to get a better understanding of what was happening. We were also creating pictures of what we thought the story would look like. Here's one take on 'the Barrier' from Emily Rodda's book 'Finders Keepers'