Our river study culminated in a visit down to the Mangapuhoe stream that runs alongside the road that disects our school. We were trying to catch critters to assess the water quality in the stream. We learnt how to do this when we went to the National Trout Centre on our class trip. While we were there we searched for critters in the Tongariro River. This video also shows how we were able to use green screen techniques for a bit of fun.
Our focus for camp this year was a continuation of our 'Rivers and Us' study. We visited the Huka Prawn farm and learnt how they harness waste hot water to heat their ponds. Action world gave the kids a chance to push themselves outside their comfort zones, though some have very large comfort zones it would seem. AC baths was a hit with the hill slide and a BBQ dinner. We visited the Tongariro National Trout Centre where Ranger Anna had the children totally wrapped up in learning about water care, trout, and using critters to assess the state of our rivers. On our last day Simon was our very knowledgable (and entertaining) skipper on board the Ernest Kemp, taking us out to the rock carvings on Lake Taupo. A huge thanks to the parents that came on camp. Your help was very much appreciated and we can't do these activities without your assistance. Thanks for the great photos Rob, though animotos don't do them justice.
I'd advise starting this then pausing it to allow it to load.
Today Miss Wesley said we would be doing an experiment. She was going to show us what a catchment area was. First we all got a container each because we didn't have a hose. We walked down to the sandpit and made hills and mountains in the sand. (Just so it looked all bumpy.) We laid a plastic sheet over the sand. We sprinkled some sand on the edges of the plastic so it keeps it flat down. Then we raced up to the tap and filled our containers with water. When we were all back in the sandpit we tipped the water slowly onto the sheet. You could see all the water was running down the hills to the lowest point. Some of the water formed lakes. The water flows off the plastic sheet into the sand and forms a river. If we had of kept putting water on it would have flowed to the sea (eventually). 
Miss Wesley told us we were going outside to do an experiment. Everyone had to get a small container of water then listen to MissWesley . . .
We put some plastic on a hilly bit just out of the sandpit and put a cup down at the bottom of the hill. We put a bit of turf (grass) at the top of the hill. Miss Wesley poured water on the grass. The water flowed down into the cup, when it was full Miss Wesley picked it up. The glass had a few stray pieces of grass in it along with the water.
Miss Wesley turned the turf over so that it was dirt side up. When we poured water on to the dirt it stayed where it was but we could see that some dirt was running off down in to the cup. Miss Wesley picked up the glass; it had some dirt floating around. After a while the dirt sunk to the bottom of the glass and some grass made its way to the top.
We went back to the sandpit; Miss Wesley put sand at the highest point then sprinkled water on it. The sand washed down with the water. Miss Wesley picked up the glass. It had HEAPS of sand in it. While we went back to class, the sand was slowly making its way down to the bottom of the glass. The water seems to get lighter the higher up it is.
Our experiment told us that because grass has roots it all held in well. The sand didn’t have anything to cling on to so it slid down the hill. What happened to the sand is called ‘erosion.’ Out of the three glasses the grass side up one was the cleanest.
Who knew school could be so much fun? !!!
2011 is a prime number year, the first one since 2003.
2011 is also the sum of 11 CONSECUTIVE prime numbers: 2011=157+163+167+173+179+181+191+193+197+199+211
2011 is also the sum of 3 CONSECUTIVE primes 2011 = 661+673+677
Two prime numbers are “consecutive” if they follow one upon the other, in the collection of prime numbers. So, for example, 3 and 5 are consecutive prime numbers, as are 7 and 11.
2011 is ALSO the sum of a 2 prime numbers (11 and 3) of consecutive prime numbers.
The next year after 2010 that is a prime number and a sum of consecutive prime numbers is 2027 = 29+31+37+41+43+47+53+59+61+67+71+73+
79+83+89+97+101+103+107+109+113+127+131+137+139
but that year is not a sum of a prime number of consecutive prime numbers.
However, 2027 does have the curious and interesting property that it is prime and the sum of its digits 2+0+2+7=11 is also a prime number. It is the first year after 2003 that has this property.
The next year that is a prime number and a sum of a prime number of consecutive prime numbers is 2081 =401+409+419+421+431.
Happy New Year
Hi to all my students. I hope you are having a great break from school and enjoying our very hot summer. Some exciting things are happening in your classroom while you are away. We have had a permanent data projector installed in class, which is great and will make learning more fun in class. Also I am in the middle of planning the best ever class camp for term 1, so be very excited. I have had a great Christmas in Wellington and New Year in Taupo (checking out camp activities while I was there). Also I got my adrenalin fix by doing the Flying Fox at gravity canyon again...hmmm what next? I will put some photos up soon.
Chris is one of our 7 year 8 students leaving for college. This is his performance of Mambo #5 at our end of year production, "Stars in Your Eyes". My apologies for the poor video recording at the start.
My year 5, 6, and 7 students did a brilliant and very funny version of the twelve pains of Christmas for our end of year production. This take off of the well known Christmas song looks at the things that stress us most at Christmas time. You may need to leave this to load as it's quite a large file. Also best viewed on full screen.
Our end of the year school trip this year was to the Te Awamutu Events Centre for a swim and lunch. Rooms 1 and 3 also used the hydroslide. I'm not sure who was the fastest to get on there for a turn, parents or kids.
We have a tradition at Otewa School where the Year 8 students who will be leaving for college at the end of this year have a day out with their teacher. This year we went bowling and played laser tag. Grayson's dad came with us. Turns out he is a superb bowler but he hasn't quite got Jamie's skills. The rest of us just use luck and hope that our fingers come out of the bowling ball as it heads for the lane. We will miss these 7 fine students next year.
My apologies to my class. I got this clue completely muddled with another picture for the term. Thank you Kayla for making me come back and re check my work.
Here is the correct clue.
Gladiatori combattevano qui
This term we are doing options on Wednesday afternoons for the first 4 weeks of the term. Here are the Otewa Students that chose to do cooking with Miss Wesley. This week we made lolly cake. Simple to make a favourite of kiwi kids. For an interesting read about LOLLY CAKE check out Isaac Freeman's blog.
As mentioned a couple of weeks ago, one of our Room 3 students is off on an adventure to England, Paris and Spain. Max left on Monday (11th). First stop, Aussie. We have created a blog for Max to post onto and you can visit it here. I have posted Max's first email onto it but we should see him posting straight there from here on.
A different twist this term since we are planning our virtual world trip...Can you guess what this is and where it is located? Clues below...
They speak English where she resides now but French where
she originated from.
Click here for a message from Miss Wesley.
I went to Christchurch last weekend. Here's a little bit of what I saw.
I have been busy planning our work for term 4 and have sorted the countries for our virtual world trip. I have included every country that has visited our wiki and broken some down such as America and Alaska, even though Alaska IS America. I have learnt a lot about world geography while I have been doing it. If you get a chance, you may want to stick you head in the door of the travel agents and ask if you can have some travel brochures for your country. You can see where you are going by clicking here. Anna, yours is in two parts since you were really keen to do Canada.
We, as staff, have had many conversations around the topic of student photos on the internet. As part of a new ICT cluster, teaching children to use Web Technology has been a focus for us this year. With that came the teaching of web etiquette and all that that encompassed.
Being able to share photos of students’ learning, succeeding, playing etc was an excellent way of keeping whanau and friends up to date with what was happening at school and allowing them to share these experiences.
Of course for us, the ultimate decision was with parents. We shared our reasons for posting photos with parents and explained the guidelines that we would adhere too. It then came down to them. Most families are at ease with the use of photos on our blogs and wikis. A few are not. We respect that and use avatars for those students. Personally I respect a student’s own wishes as well, with a few in my class who prefer not to have their photos posted.
We only use photos that have no identifying elements and are named with first names only. One of our student blogging rules concerns the posting of photographs as well. We have discussed at some length the reasons for selective photo posting. I feel this is an opportunity for my emerging adolescent students to understand the power of the internet before they have their own blogs, facebook profiles etc.
Schools in New Zealand are on holiday at the moment. We are back on October 11th. So there may not be too much happening here until then. However, on the last day of term we brainstormed in class the reasons why our class blog is worth visiting as part of the blogging challenge. We think that by visiting our class blog you can
- Learn about new things
- Learn about us as a individuals, a class, a school, a community, a country
- Keep up to date with what we are learning
- Share our successes
- Watch us grow
- Have fun
- Be challenged by Maths problems
- Enjoy our creativity, arts and homework.
- Compete in Miss Wesley's weekly challenge
- Play games
- See how we are getting more competent with Web 2 tools
- Use our blog to meet other classes from our blogroll
- Smile
Over the next few weeks, one of our class members will be visiting the UK, France and Spain. We are hoping to get emails from Max if he is able and we will post these on the blog with photos that he sends so everyone can see what adventures he is having.
