Picture Prompts - writing

 Picture Prompts - Motivating to Write and stimulating thinking

A good way of getting children to write is by using picture (usually photo) prompts. Big pictures are best and they can be electronic or in paper form, as long as the children are able to look at them closely from the place from where they are writing.

Children can be guided to describe the setting or a character in the setting by using looks like, feels like, smells like and sounds like, or they can use the scene to begin a story using who, what where and when.

 The children may have to be encouraged to choose a prompt as procrastination in making a choice is common.

 Room 6 children have chosen their prompts in this picture and are now orgainising their books and other writing equipment.

Some children are very happy and motivated writers - others may need support and encouragement to write.

Room 6 Assembly Term 3

 Room 6 Assembly Term 3

Last Friday at the end of week 9, Room 6 students ran the school assembly. This was the second assembly that Room 6 have run this year. A new group of students got the chance to participate and practice reading clearly in front of an audience. All the children learned their words perfectly and spoke clearly to the assembled audience.

The assembly was opened by Joseph who welcomed everyone to the hall. 

Josh introduced the prayer which was Hail Mary or Awe e Maria in Maori. He did the sign of the cross in French and then Maori.

Tae'o asked the school to stand for the singing of the National Anthem.

Claire and Anna played us a beautiful piece of music on their ukeleles.

All of Claire's guitar students played us a couple of pieces together with some musical accompaniment.

Willem asked Mr Macmillan to present the Principal's Awards to some worthy students.
He wore his Dad's tie especially for the occasion.

Mr Macmillan presented the Principal's Awards.

Teachers and pupils admire the wonderful assembly put on by the marvellous students of Room 6.

 Ignition Day - Enterprise -Term 3 2013 Concept at St Mary's

In the middle block of Tuesday, the first day back at school in term 3, St Mary's had an ignition event for our term 3 concept of Enterprise. The children experienced a variety of activities that challenged their thinking and got them reflecting about what enterprise is, and what it means to be enterprising.

 We started off proceedings in the hall by dividing into our houses and listening to the introductions given on the big screen.

 Mrs Tootill and Mr Bach challenged the children to come up with a unique structure using lego building blocks.

 The children really got into the activity, some building original items and others copying famous constructions from world architecture.

The children earned a letter from each activity and had to put the different letters together at the end from all of the activities to spell 'Enterprise'.

The Fruits of the Holy Spirit

The Fruits of the Holy Spirit

In Religious Education in Term Two we have been learning about the Holy Spirit. In particular we have looked at the Fruits of the Holy Spirit. The children have learned that the fruits are not apples and oranges, but just as real fruit nourishes our bodies so The Fruits of the Spirit nourish our minds and souls. They help us to become better people.

The children have discussed the people around them who show some, or all, of the Fruits, such as kindness, generosity, peace, self control etc. We have talked about how these people can inspire us to use the Fruits to become better human beings. 

We played a board game that helped children remember the names of the Fruits of the Holy Spirit.


Some children got enthusiastically into the game.

 Some of the dice throwing was very dramatic.







Other children took the calm relaxed approach to playing the game.

Lucille enjoyed playing the game and naming people she thought showed the Fruits of the Spirit in her life.

 Some children preferred to play the game alone at their desks.

 The children learned also to cooperate and follow the rules together as a team.

The game showed how performing acts in the game, as in real life, that showed evidence of the Fruits of the Spirit, is a positive and rewarding thing in our daily and religious lives.

Sustainability -Term 2 Concept

 Our concept this term at St Mary's is ‘Sustainability’. Children will learn what difference they can make to their immediate environment. We will focus on sustainable gardens and recycling will also be part of the programme. Middle School children will be using the school gardens, looking after the chickens, recycling scraps, running a worm farm and trying very hard to persuade others to do the same.

 The middle school has exclusive access to the school garden's this term and room 6's day in the garden is Wednesday. In class we will be talking about sustainable practices and why sustainability is important but on Wednesday's we are allowed to get our hands dirty weeding the gardens, getting the scraps from the chickens and keeping an eye on the worm farm.

 The children enjoyed their first afternoon in the garden and found lots of fascinating things to talk about. Tae'o and Misty in particular seem really keen to share something with Mr. Bach.







The children were not scared to get stuck in weeding the gardens and looking for insect pests on the leaves.

 Some caterpillars were found on some of the cabbage leaves but with autumn upon us there should be no more butterflies laying eggs.

 This week Poppy also shared something very interesting for news. She brought a large abandoned nest from last summer, probably made by a larger bird like a blackbird or starling. Interestingly among the twigs and leaves used to build the nest was a piece of plastic rubbish.

Koby was also lucky enough this week to receive a special prize at assembly for his holiday reading. He won one of the main prizes - a book voucher. Well done Koby.

Communities - Term One Concept

 Communities Concept

The Term One Concept at St Mary's School in 2013 is Communities. The children looked at different types and sizes of human communities and how they function. The children also looked at the roles and responsibilities of everyone living in various communities. They learned that the word  'interdependence' means everybody relies on everybody else in any community.

The children then learned about ant communities and how they work and compared them to bee communities.

The children completed a compare and contrast map to plan their writing assessment and then wrote about the similarities and differences between ant and bee communities.

Some children are also preparing information boards using the Comic Life app on the i-Pads.

 The children helped research information about bee and ant communities and this information was displayed in posters.






 One interesting thing that we learned is that ants are very strong for their size. They can lift up to ten times their own weight. That is like Mr Bach lifting ten adults above his head. Actually he can only lift nine!!!!!!?

 Ants can farm aphids for the honeydew (liquid food) that oozes out of the aphids backs. In return the ants protect the aphids from predators, including fighting off larger ladybirds.The aphids are free to drink sap from the plant to eat themselves and provide more honeydew for hungry ants. The ants and aphids rely on each other.

 Bees are also interesting insects that live in large communities like ants. Unlike ants, all bees fly and when a worker bee finds a special pollen or nectar source she performs a dance to tell other bees. The type of dance tells the other bees in what direction and how far away to fly to find the pollen.

We also learned that the Maori for communities is He Hapori and that the various levels in the Maori community are very important to the health and the flow of life in the Maori world.

Maths in Room 6

Maths in Room 6

Maths in Room 6 is done for usually one hour every day, bright and early in the morning during the first block, before morning tea.

In Room 6 have a rotation system in place where children are grouped according to their current needs and abilities and then go through a range of activities and exercises during the one hour of maths. These exercises and activities are to support the teaching and learning of maths knowledge and number strategies by Mr Bach.

The first stage of the rotation is learning on the mat with Mr. Bach where we practice our basic facts a little and then learn a new number strategy, or talk about one we are still learning. 

At present we are learning strategies to help us with addition and subtraction.

We use materials and the interactive whiteboard to help us learn.

 Children will then work independently in the next stage of the rotation to practise the strategy that they are learning by doing book work. Worksheets will often have the strategy explained on them, and when we are lucky Miss James is often around to assist. 

 Children in the same group will often help each other with their learning, especially when the strategy seems hard to understand the first time.

 Another stage in the rotations is practising basic facts on the computers through particular websites, especially Tutpup and Studyladder. Studyladder can also help children with their strategies.
i-Pads are also used to practice basic facts.

 Veronica concentrates hard on her book work.

 Lucille tries to practise the new strategy that she has just learned.

 Malia and her classmate use play money to help them with their maths learning.

 Naina and Veronica are practising adding strategies that use tidy tens or splitting numbers by using place value (the chainsaw strategy).

Ria shows clearly how she has used one strategy to work out the addition problems.












This term we have also been learning about statistics and how the basic statistical investigation works. Find a problem - Do a survey - Record your answers in a tally chart - Put your data into a graph - Talk about what information the graph is telling us.
Children are at various stages in being able to follow this process.