Making with great meaning

Welcome back to Term 2!
We have already been super busy with our learning. You may have heard or noticed that last week we were super engaged with creating cardboard classrooms. The room was a buzz with problem solving and team work. This enthusiasm stemmed from our reading work on structures. Jet plane reading group has been reading about a number of design features of buildings, inparticular the Cardboard Cathedral and the construction of a Wharenui. These artcles discussed the innovate building ideas the designers and builders undertook to build them. 

The excitement of creating an interesting classroom spread through the class until almost everyone was planning, designing and making their own cardboard classroom. It was wonderful. So many learning opportunities naturally fall out of a task like this. I observed teamwork, commmunicating, relating to others, managing self, problem solving, creativity and flexible thinking. The students were reflective as to what to include in their classrooms. Such a great way to begin the term.

Here are some images to show what has been going on: 

We love maths!

Cracking the 100 square code 

We have been having a wonderful time problem solving in maths this week. We needed to be code crackers, using what we know about the number system and using strategies to solve the problem. We had to think deeply about what we were doing, take risks, try things and talk about our thinking. It was so much fun.

Here are some images to show you our thinking and solving!

STEAM challenges: Building a nest

STEAM standing for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths. 

During our STEAM challenges we have been utlising a variety of skills especially cooperation and communicaton. We really enjoy the opportunity to problem solve and try lots of ideas while working with others. One of the key aspects to this challenge was that they needed to be made entirely out of natural resources and hold three 'eggs'. We were really successful at working together, being creative and having fun! 

Here is some of our work during the nest builiding challenge. 

You learn something everyday!

Hi Room 18 families, apologies for the dely in updates. I was trying to store my photos of our work in what I thought was a great location....blogger disagreed..... so I am back to my old ways of storing things!

We have plenty to share with you but will do it slowly over the week so you can enjoy the photos.

This was taken WAY back in the early part of the term when we were just getting to know each other. This is a great way to work together and problem solve!

 

As you can see we got CREATIVE and had some wonderful ideas...we also did LOTS of laughing!

It's in the details

Here are a few pictures showing some details of the barn some students are making for reading. They are participating in a wonderful chapter chat using Charlottes Web as a motivator.