Moody Poems

 This term a big focus for us is creating mood and atmosphere in our writing. One way we can do this is through the words that we choose, so we have been learning about the connotations of words (how different words make us feel or what they make us think of). 

We have been calling these purr words (words that have a positive connotation) and snarl words (words that have a negative connotation). Today we also learned about euphony (soft, pleasant sounds) and cacophony (harsh, unpleasant sounds). Our task was to write a 5 line poem using words that would create a strong mood or atmosphere. 

Here are some of our poems so far! You can scroll through the Slides to read them.

Which poem is your favourite, and why? Let us know in the comments.

Awesome Algebra

On top of their other maths work this week, a group of students in Room 11 decided to explore what they thought was going to be a very tricky mathematical concept - algebra!! At first the combinations of letters and numbers looked like a confusing code, and it seemed bamboozling to work out what the letters represented. 

After starting to think about the equals (=) sign as "the same as" it became clear that all they had to do was work out the answer to problem on the left and then balance it out to have the same answer on the right. 

What is your favourite type of maths to do? Is it algebra? Statistics? Measurement? Let us know in the comments!

A Day of Celebrations!

 The last day of Term 3 was a day of celebrations for Room 11. First of all, we won the Kiwican trophy for this term. Woohoo! 

After that we had our awards for the senior school speech finals. Ruqayat came in 1st Equal, and Joshua and Ema got a certificate acknowledging their participation in the competition. Congratulations to all three, and the participants from Rooms 9 and 10 as well. 

To end the day, Room 11 found out their Top 10 and Champions of our Term 3 Learning Leaderboard. 

- 1st Place Shriya

- 2nd Place Ruqayat

- 3rd Place Joshua

In the top 10: Ema, Nese, Mahara, Jackwalin, Nathaniel, Toa and Faavae. 

Well done to all! I hope you have a relaxing holiday.

Tongan Language Week

 

Malo e lelei! This week was Tongan Language Week. To celebrate, Jackwalin and Ilaisaane organised a fun day for us which included a shared lunch, an afternoon of sports and a speech about Tonga. Here is a photo that we took. 

Do you speak Tongan or any other languages? Let us know in the comments!

Lockdown Learning Champions

 

During Auckland's lockdown Room 11 had a leaderboard where they could earn points for doing their learning tasks and attending our class Google Meets. When we came back to school the points were totaled and the champions were announced! 

First Place: Ema

Second Place: Shriya

Third Place: Ruqayat

In the Top 10: Nese, Nathaniel, Joshua, Faavae, Gunveen, Margaret and EJ.

Congratulations to the winners and all those who participated. We have restarted the leaderboard for the rest of term 3. Who do you think our next champion will be? Let us know in the comments!

Hūria Mātenga: The Hero of Wakapuaka

 Who do you think of when you hear the words "New Zealand's hero"? For the next few weeks Room 11 is going to be reading about a number of great New Zealanders. One hero we learned about this week was Hūria Mātenga who rescued a ship full of sailors in 1863. Here is a portrait of her painted by Gottfried Lindauer:

Our task was to create a map of the setting where Hūria's true story of heroism took place. 

Ruqayat's map:

I love how Ruqayat's map gives a bird's eye view of the coast and shows the perilous rocks where the ship got into trouble.

Shriya's map:

 

Shriya's perspective makes the beach look 3-dimensional. She has helpfully included a real map of New Zealand to show that the events took place in Wakapuaka, near Nelson.

EJ's map:

I like how EJ's map emphasises the rain, as there was indeed a terrible storm. He has also included an art gallery to represent the portrait that was made to immortalise Hūria.

Who is your New Zealand hero? Let us know in the comments who you think we should read about next!

Nese's Persuasive Writing

 

During lockdown we have been learning about persuasive writing. Last week we wrote about a topic of our own choice. Nese's work is a fantastic example of how to write persuasively. You can see our success criteria on the second page. 

Do you agree with Nese that dogs are protective? What experiences have you had with dogs? Let us know in the comments!

Is Matariki a celebration for all New Zealanders?

Recently we learned all about Matariki. We had to write an argument thinking about whether or not Matariki is a celebration for all New Zealanders. We had to consider both why people might agree and why they might disagree. Here is some of our writing:

What do you think? Do you celebrate Matariki? Let us know in the comments!

Mahara's Song

In Room 11 we have been working on songwriting, and along the way we have discovered some handy online music tools. In this video, Mahara demonstrates how you can use a virtual piano on your Chromebook. 

Let us know in the comments below - can you play an instrument?

Books We Read Last Term

Today we shared with one another what books we read last term; here are some of them.

Shriya:

Ruqayat:

Margaret:

Josh:

Mahara:

Emora: 

Cristyn:

Ema:

Have you read any of these books? Do you agree with our ratings? Let us know in the comments!

Latest Learning

Here is some of the fabulous learning that Room 11 have completed this week!

Faavae wrote an argument about whether or not people should stop complaining about the Covid-19 lockdown:



Ruqayat and Shriya shared what they have learned about fractions, decimals and percentages:

By Ruqayat

By Shriya

Let us know in a comment - what have you been learning this week?

Anzac Day

Tomorrow is Anzac Day. Room 11 has been exploring a number of different stories and articles about what this means to New Zealand, and considering the question: "Should Anzac Day be commemorated?"

Great Graphs

This week Room 11 has been going over some of the maths skills we learnt in Term 1. One of these was creating graphs. We had to...

• Come up with a question we wanted to find out about our whānau
• Survey our whānau and record their answers
• Present the results as a graph.

Here are some of our graphs!

Let us know in the comments - what do you think a perfect graph would include?

"Wow Work" of the Week

For the last two weeks at home, Room 11 have been able to work on literacy units about either plastic pollution or sports. Here are three excellent summaries of what we have been reading about.

Curly Caterpillars

Before New Zealand went into lockdown, Room 11 had some fun making paper caterpillars and racing them across tables. Here is a picture of some us doing this activity, and a video of one of the caterpillars.

Science Experiment: Plant Life

This week in Room 11 we tested three plants to find out how they would survive under different conditions.  Here is how they were looking at the end of the week, as reported by Emora:

(Left to right: Plants 1, 2 and 3).

Plant 1: Plant 1 got sun and water and it turned out great!

Plant 2: Plant 2 got only sun and no water and it went
terrible, it turned out dry and droopy.

Plant 3: Plant 3 got only water and no sun but it still turned out great. (But you can see in the photo it ended up with less flowers than plant 1).

Welcome to Room 11's Blog

Watch the slideshow to find out some more about us.