Visitors from Chile

Today we got the chance to chat with students from Chile in our Spanish class. They shared a couple of dances from their country and Grace demonstrated the long poi on our behalf. After that we went outside to ask questions and compare life in our countries. They eat dinner at 10pm!

Spellathon Time

By now spellathon cards should be at home and you should be underway learning words and gathering sponsors. Here's a suggestion for pain free and effective 'word - learning'.

Focus on three words per day. Put the visualisation technique into action.

1.Write the word out in three colour blocks ... gua ran tee
2. Say the word phonetically (how the letters sound) goo-a-ran-tee
3. Take a 'photo' of the word in your mind ... close your eyes.
4. With your eyes closed read out what you see in your mind letter by letter, forwards, then try it backwards.
5. Cover the word, open your eyes and write the word.
6. Check it.

We've been doing this at home for two nights now with Tim. 48 hours after learning the words (and they're tricky ones), he can recall them perfectly ... and the learning is a happy time!

Happy spelling :-)

i-touches are go!

We are making the most of the new i-touches that were purchased in the last school holidays. The school has 3 sets of 10, one set of which is housed in our classroom:-) Recently we have been using these to...

research about a year in the history of the modern Olympics ...

track our progress at the Games using the 'London 2012' app ...

and explore apps for the juniors with our buddies.

Well done to Briana, Oscar and Henry 8 (reserve) who are off to compete in the teams competition for Cantamath next Wednesday afternoon.

Today we selected entries for the Cantamath display competition. Room 19 really raised the bar with a number of very impressive creations. Well done to Danielle, Briana, Oscar, Andrew, Conan, Grace, Brendon and Thomas.

A tasty lesson in win win...

We wrapped up our win-win lessons today by discussing the 'tumor twins', competing and comparing. We talked about what made competition healthy, and how when winning at all costs becomes the focus, competition can become dark and dangerous. Comparing our own performances is a good thing, but comparing ourselves to others can lead to a number of problems. These ideas had nice links to the Olympics.

However the highlight of the afternoon was the creation of our win-win pizza. By considering everyone's preferences and doing a bit of maths, we created a pizza to keep everyone happy:-)

Poets in the making

This week we started exploring the poets within! Our first creation is a poem based a recipe, designed to make someone angry. Here are a few of the 'dishes' that have been created...

One beautiful platter of fishing clothes doused in a spicy dip of scariness, all delicately laid on some dirty school uniform.

A piping hot plate of tangy old fashioned unhelpfulness marinated in a delicious not listening sauce, this is a favourite to everyone (except Mums!)

A crisp argument heated just to the right temperature between right and wrong.Served with a sprinkling of ‘I’m right’.

An intriguing cocktail of authentic not as smart as you and distinctive being wrong for the perfect accompaniment to a delicious dinner.

A roasted trio of fighting, dirty clothes and a pile of week old laundry, blended together to make a symphony of flavours. On top of a big fat chunky cut of, it’s her turn to set the table, finally topped off with a creamy dolloping of talking back.

An intriguing blend of a crisp tardiness seasoned with a pinch of homework excuses finished off with a glazed homework excuse .

Learning about win win...

Today we did an interesting activity with a 5 X 5 grid, some 'x's and 'o's and two groups of students. The goal was the earn a lollies by placing 4 symbols in a row on the grid. Ask your children what they learnt from this activity!

One round of the activity nearly ended in no sweets being earned. In another round one group earned 2 each. The last round needed some teacher intervention to encourage the groups to focus on the objective (getting lollies) rather than making the other group get none. We worked out that by helping each other every participant could have got 2 or 3 lollies each ... TEAMWORK RULES:-)