Wednesday Week 2

This morning we continued with critical thinking firstly about what is critical thinking. We used the DeBono thinking tool - PMI - from his CoRT series of thinking tools, to think about this possible scenario; It should be compulsory for all people to carry cellphones. For those unfamiliar with PMI it is an acronym for Plus - Minus - Interesting.

Here are some of the plusses that we came up with;
*You could keep in touch with family and friends easier
*You could keep up with your friends
*You would learn to text fast
* Learn lots of numbers
*You could ask for help if you're in troubly quicker
*You wouldn't have to give it to your teacher
*Greater source of technology
*Could listen to music all the time.
*Make plans with far away friends
*Give you something to do
*You wouldn't forget anything

And the minuses
*It would annoy some people
*Global warming
*More robberies?
*People would become lazy and fat
*Distractions while driving
*Emailing, writing and talking face to face would become a thing of the past
*Some people would not know how they worked
*A cell phone is small and easil;y lost
* Cellphone writing can lead to people forgetting how to write
*People may stop writing books!
*Everyone would know what you're doing
*People could your personal details
*You would get told off more
*More text bullying
*you'd be forever on the phone!

And the interesting
*Just because you had to have one...would that you had to use one?
*Would schools let you bring them to class?
*How would they police you having one?
*What age would it be from?
*What about babies?
*Will you forget how to spell?
*Will people die from just sitting and texting?

We then moved on to Cultural Patterns.
Today we chose one culture to focus on and used the clases of patterns to help us patterns specifically used within each culture. For example Greek patterns are spiral based, meandering patterns which often show reflection where as Australian Aborigional patterns are very meandering.

As a class we then gathered ideas about how patterns are created and then what types of skills the creator would use.











We then had a go at copying the culture pattern of our choice. Some were harder than they looked!









Lily giving greek a go...............Judah and Phoebe working on Africkan Andinkra


Spanish Cognates












Working on our Spanish pronounciation...lots of eeeeeeeeeeesssss today
We then went through the Head shoulders, knees and toes song. Jacqui made it reslly hard by going faster and faster!! Easy in English...not so much in Spanish!












Talent Time












Here's Tom creating methods in Alice. His challenge is to get 2 characters to shake hands....not easy!










Joey working on music.


Just before lunch we had a 4X4 challenge...although today it was a 2X2 challenge!
We had to attach string to our wrists which linked around our partners and then without removing the string we had to sepertae the two handcuffs. This was a lot of fun and like Tuesday's class no one managed to solve it!! We thought we would give it a go next week with our parents and teachers.












The hardest part was trying not to snap the string and unding the knots!

Chess

Going over some osf the things we have learnt about so far this year with Mr Newton.

Tuesday Week 2

This morning we continued with critical thinking firstly about what is critical thinking. We used the DeBono thinking tool - PMI - from his CoRT series of thinking tools, to think about this possible scenario; It should be compulsory for all people to carry cellphones. For those unfamiliar with PMI it is an acronym for Plus - Minus - Interesting.


Here are some of the plusses that we came up with;
*It would be easier to communicate during emergencies
*Cellphone couverage would have to be improved
*It would create more jobs
*Companies would have to make better cellphone plans
*There would be more cellphones selling so shops would make more money
*Demand would out weigh supply so more factories would be needed creating more jobs.
*You wouldn't need a landline
*You would become good at texting
*When you are lost you can call for directions
*You'd be able to record memories all the time.
*Younger children would be introduced to technology
*Newer phones would be invented with new improved ways to make contact with people.
*Kids wouldn't get jealous of other kids having cellphones

And the minuses
*Younger children would get used to text language and spell words differently
*Younger children would get threatening messages that might really scare them
*Adults would use too much of their money buying their children cellphones and may not concentrate on buying more important things.
*People living out of cellphone coverage would be in trouble.
*People would get worse at spelling
*There would be a hge amount of people who wouldn't agree with the policy
*People would not see each other as much.
*Phones could run short and become luxary items

And the interesting
*Would that mean landlines won't get used? What effects would this have on the environment?
*What would happen to those without cell coverage?
*Would people actually give them to babies?
*If a toddler had to have a phone who would be expected to pay for it?
*It doesn't say the phones had to be real...so could kids carry toy ones?
*What about where phones are currently banned...like in schools?
*What would happen if you chose to not have a phone?
*What about the use of cellphones for criminals in jail?

This mornings activity generated lots of discussion.......especially once we got on to environmental issues! Which of course these kids love!

We then moved on to Cultural Patterns.
Today we chose one culture to focus on and used the clases of patterns to help us patterns specifically used within each culture. For example Greek patterns are spiral based, meandering patterns which often show reflection where as Australian Aborigional patterns are very meandering.


Here is Regan using the pattern classes to identify patterns within polynesian patterns










As a class we then gathered ideas about how patterns are created and then what types of skills the creator would use.











We had fun copying (or trying to!) our choice of cultural patterns. They were not as easy as they looked!






Jack and Morgan trying their hand at Greek Patterns, Finola is working on Japanese patterns and Georgia and Hayley Celtic Patterns.

We revisited our brainstrom about what skills would be need to create these patterns and added....persistance, patience and determination!!


Just before lunch we had a 4X4 challenge...although today it was a 2X2 challenge!
We had to attach string to our wrists which linked around our partners and then without removing the string we had to sepertae the two handcuffs. This was a lot of fun and no one managed ot solve it!! We thought we would give it a go next week with our parents and teachers.







Here's Morgan our resident speed stacker practising for the Nationals in August. We are hoping to put a team together.....











This afternoon in chess with Mr Newton we went over forks, files and ranks.

Wednesday Week 1

Welcome back everybody. I trust you all had a restful break.
We were right back into it this morning. We began our day with the introduction to CRITICAL THINKING. What is critical thinking? For success in the 21st century...in fact, all centuries? it's important to be critical thinkers. We had an interesting discussion on what we thought critical thinking meant. I was quite impressed with the children's initial ideas. We then moved on to our new learning tool; depth and complexity cards . This learning tool was developed by Sandra Kaplan and it helps us to go beyond the facts and look at subject matter in more depth. We used some of the Depth and Complexity icons to answer questions about ourselves.........

We have begun our context study on Cultural Patterns. What fun we had with this this morning! I created mini posters of various cultural patterns. The first task was to just look at them and talk about what we could see.


Pearl, Emily and Lucy looking at the intricate pattern detail of the selected cultural patterns.



Flynn, Judah and Joey looking for identifying factors within the patterns to see if they can work out which pattern belongs to which culture.


We then used the Classes of Patterns in Visual art (Which matches our Depth and Complexity card; Language of the Discipline) to identify the various patterns used within the cultures. We used words like; mosaic, spiral, meander, lattice and symmetry to describe the patterns.
Our next task was to identify the cultures and add the correct label to them. Some were tricky to identify, but we used our past knowledge (Habits of Mind) to identify the cultures we knew. For example we knew that dragons were significant with the Chinese culture, so we could easily identify that one. Other easy identifiable ones were; Russian (because some of us knew about Russian Dolls) Maori, Polynesian and Celtic.
We then discussed ways we could group these patterns. We came up with; colour, complexity, straight lines-curved lines, We had fun classifying them geographically! For most of us it was a real test of our geography knowledge!


Phoebe, Megan, Tom and sam adding the labels name labels to the matching cultures.



Adrinna, Libby and Jean grouping their cultural patterns geographically.


For Spanish today we learnt how to sing 'Old MacDonald' and The Maori 'AEIOU' song....but in Spanish. The vowel sounds in Spanish are very similar to the vowel pronounciation in Maori.

We began new talent groups today. The maths group began mathsmate, the writers are publishing thier poems from last term for the book they are collating, Tom began working through tasks using Alice Animation and Joey helped out with publisher today. Next week he will be bringing in his clarinet!! Bring your ear plugs! It's a small classroom!

Everyone was very pleased to see Mr Newton. We read through and discussed our goals for this term before playing each other. Judah very nearly won his game against Mr Newton and Tracey won her second game of chess ever!!!


Our chess goals for this term.

This is our topic board display for PATTERNS. It is very bright abd cheerful.

Tuesday Week 1

Welcome back everybody. I trust you all had a restful break.
We were right back into it this morning. We began our day with the introduction to CRITICAL THINKING. What is critical thinking? For success in the 21st century...in fact, all centuries? it's important to be critical thinkers. We had an interesting discussion on what we thought critical thinking meant. I was quite impressed with the children's initial ideas. We the move on to our new learning tool; depth and complexity cards . This learning tool was developed by Sandra Kaplan and it helps us to go beyond the facts and look at subject matter in more depth. We used some of the Depth and Complexity icons to answer questions about ourselves.........

We have begun our context study on Cultural Patterns. What fun we had with this this morning! I created mini posters of various cultural patterns. The first task was to just look at them and talk about what we could see.



Here we are discussing the various patterns and using 'The Language of the Discipline' to identify the classes of patterns.

We then used the Classes of Patterns in Visual art (Which matches our Depth and Complexity card; Language of the Discipline) to identify the various patterns used within the cultures. We used words like; mosaic, spiral, meander, lattice and symmetry to describe the patterns.
Our next task was to identify the cultures and add the correct label to them. Some were tricky to identify, but we used our past knowledge (Habits of Mind) to identify the cultures we knew. For example we knew that dragons were significant with the Chinese culture, so we could easily identify that one. Other easy identifiable ones were; Russian (because Victorya had talked to us about Russian Dolls and Russian art before) Maori, Polynesian, Aboriginal and Celtic. Jack knew a lot about the Celtic patterns and shared with us about the Celtic symbol for peace and how they used to take the hair from a dead king and use it to make knots.
After much discussion over that, we then discussed ways we could group these patterns. We came up with; colour, complexity, geometric shapes, geography. We had fun classifying them geographically! For some it was a real test of our geography knowledge!



Matching the labels to the cultural patterns. We used The Habits of Mind 'Drawing on Past Knowledge' to help us work this task out.

We continued on with our Talent Clubs after Russian.
The writers were busy publishing, the ICT group were working through Alice Animation tasks and the Maths group began Mathsmate.





Jack working through his Alice task....... to create a scene where 2 characters shake hands. One is so strong they lift the other in the air.




Regan and Rhemus working through their mathsmate.



Kyra publishing her poem.


This afternoon we played chess.

Here are our chess goals for this term




And finally ....here is our Pattern wall all finished!! It looks great!