Athletics Day

We thought that you may like to see a few photographs that were taken on St Alban's Athletic Day.

Our Reports and Poems on the Canterbury Earthquake

A Rocking Time

Suddenly my cupboards started to shake
I'm surfing on my bed.
Mum comes racing down the hall,
yelling,"Vienna!"
I yelled back, "Mummy!"
She picked me up
We huddled under the doorway,
Then finally it was over.

Written by Vienna
aged 7 years


The Natural Disaster

At 4:35am the ground started shaking
The lights went off
My lamp fell down
My bed shook fiercely
The new building behind our house
Moved...
A whole 10 cm
I was terrified when the earthquake struck
My mum text our friends
Dad checked on the neighbours
We listened to the radio
to find out about the damage

Jermaine 7 years


Dangerous Cracks Appear

Something was rocking,
The ground was shaking.
A tremendous shock, a terrifying night,
Rocking, shocking shaking.
Power... no...power off!
What a scary night.
Such a tremendous wait,
This earthquake that hit Christchurch and Kaiapoi
Never felt anything like that before.

Georgina Huckett 7 years



George has a strong interest in science. Among a number of subjects that fascinate him is geology. As part of our report writing unit the students were asked to form a report about the Canterbury earthquake. This is George's report.

At 4:35am on Saturday the 4th of September, 2010, an earthquake struck Darfield. A richter scale which is a machine that scientists use to measure underground vibrations from vault lines or tectonic plates recorded the measurement of the earthquake as 7.1. There have been more than 2000 aftershocks.

What Causes an Earthquake?
Under the surface of the Earth there are tectonic plates that move slowly on a liquid substance which is heated by the Earth's core that is molten iron and is hot as the surface of the sun. The rock that surrounds this fiery ball is molten and is called the outer core. At its deepest point it is 2,000 kilometres thick. The liquid substance that surrounds the outer core is known as the mantel. The mantel is 2,500 kilometres thick. The mantel is covered in tectonic plates. These tectonic plates move on top of each other. An earthquake is caused when these tectonic plates hit a bump which causes a vibration that travels through the crust. We call it an earthquake.

George 7 Years

Our Painting Unit based on our earlier work on Simple Machines

In Term 3 Team 15 developed a deeper understanding of the colour-wheel and how contrasting colours can be used to create a more dramatic effect. The students experimented with warm and cool colours using predominantly cool colours in the background, adding black and yellow to create line and light. By assembling 3D components of their simple machine designs painted in warm colour in their foreground, the students added yet another dimension to their artworks. This movie will take you through the process.

Our Trip to the Christchurch Art Gallery

Our Trip to the Christchurch Art Gallery

Georgina H

On Wednesday we had a trip to an art gallery. We went on the bus. When we got there we went into a room and there was a man named Matua. He spent some time showing us Maori moves and symbols. He showed us the koru shape, poutama (shaped like zig-zag stairs) and hongia (shaped like teeth),

Matua showed us an artwork he called the ‘around and around thingy’. Electricity allowed the parts to circle around each other.

We split into two groups. Some of us went to see Maori Tikis. The real Tiki looked very small but when photographed with a format camera, they looked huge. We talked about what the Tiki might symbolise and thought it might be spiritual and connected to Maori ancestry.






Amelia also writes about the visit:

After being introduced to the art gallery teachers, we went back into the art gallery and looked at some art created by Andrew Drummond. These were moving pieces of art that were electrically controlled.

Then we split into two groups and moved around the art exhibitions with Gintra and Matua. We saw Tikis, a bear rug carved out of Kauri, a giant staircase made out of thin kebab sticks that went up to clouds that were made out of white plastic bags. Then we went to see the Blue Planet Room. Everything was blue. You could look through a kaleidoscope that made wonderful patterns. There was even a movie on a big screen about people riding bikes under water. In the Blue Room we saw an artwork created by Rueben Paterson that was decorated with glitter. It was this picture that we used to inspire our own artwork. This is what we had to do to create it:
My Procedural Recount:
First we had a painting race. We had to paint a sheet of cardboard with frosted blue quick drying paint. Our table won the race. Then we drew some Maori symbols onto our piece of paper that had been folded twice to form the shape of a triangle. Then we had to cut out our shapes to make a stencil. When we were finished the cutting, we opened out the piece of paper folded like a triangle and put it onto our piece of painted card. Next we had to use the screen-printing process. We used another shade of blue paint and screen printed over our laid out pattern. After that is was time to put the blue glitter on top of our artwork. Adult helpers dried off our work with hot blowers. Once we all had out paintings tucked into the art bag, we caught the bus back to school. We were really excited about taking them home to share with our families. This was my best trip with Room fifteen for the year.

Reading our Narratives -How to view the text more effectively.

A little advice for reading our narratives:

If your screen is bright you will find the scrolling text difficult to read. We suggest that you dim the screen until your eyes adjust. This is the only means that we could find to overcome this affect. Let us know how you get on.

Narrative Stories Brought to Life

Hot Off The Press -Read our Narrative Stories
These are some of the narrative stories that we published at the end of Term 2. We studied narrative text styles for five weeks. Before writing our stories, we read lots of different narrative picture books and explored the way they were written. We learned that narrative stories come in many different forms but all have a plot that includes a problem and solution. 

The writing process was broken down into small chunks so that we could understand what went into each part of it. First we planned our story around a theme. Then we developed the plot thinking about how the problem would happen and how it would be solved. The characters were developed to suit the story we were writing. We used visualisation to imagine our characters and then brainstormed lots of different words to describe them. 

The hardest part was getting started. We had to set the scene using the ‘w’ words; where, when, who and just a touch of why. We knew we had to save the what, how and why for the body of the story. We talked about whether our story would have a climax or anti-climax at the end. Most of used an anti-climax. 

The hardest part was going back to reread our work every two or three sentences. We were told that this was called 'recursive writing' and that it was very important. We had to make sure that what we had written made sense. After proof reading and editing our work we thought that we did a great job of writing. We hope you like these stories that have been put into an imovie scrapbook format.

Our Technic Lego Extension Activity

As a part of our 'Simple Machines' unit, a group of students who had demonstrated a keen interest in the scientific component of our work were provided with the opportunity to further their understanding of levers. William Joyce came in to spend an afternoon with these children. Nate and Teariki used digital images to record the session. These images have been inserted into a Keynote application. We hope you enjoy sharing their experience.

The Dance Component of Simple Machines

During the shared planning phase of the unit, the students thought that it would be fun to create a dance that demonstrated how simple machines worked (moved) and were used in everyday life. As a class they brainstormed different types of machines that they wanted included and how these might be performed. While the entire dance is not shown here with the students in costume, this short movie clip provides you with an example of how we worked together to put our 'Simple Machines' dance together.

Question and Answer Time

Before undertaking our planned 'Technology Challenge' which necessitated creating a vehicle (using recycled materials) that would move independently down an inclined plane, the students shared their understanding about concepts covered earlier in the unit. This information confirmed the extend to which critical knowledge had been transferred to the student and could effectively be applied during the technology challenge phase.

The Roof Goes On - Pulleys in Action

Here we are observing a moment in our school's history. A pulley is lifting the roof structure into position. We were really excited to be there to witness it. We noticed the construction workers using a number of simple machines to make their workload easier.

Our Unit on Simple Machines

We have completed a large percentage of our unit on Simple Machines and believe that the time is right to share some of our completed work with you. Our 'Simple Machines Book' takes you on a journey through our unit. While as students we contributed much to the direction the unit took, this book provides both you (parents and viewers) and us (students) with an opportunity to reflect on the Inquiry process required to produce this work. There are additional movies included on our Blog that were filmed as part of our learning process. If you cannot view the book or movies please add a comment.

We hope that you enjoy sharing this work with us. Please feel free to provide feedback.

The Sea

Dolphins jumping high

Like someone doing a flip on a trampoline

Starfish swimming very slowly

through the deep blue sea.

 

Colourful small fish surrounded by huge rocks

Multi coloured crabs and starfish

Scuttle along the smooth sand

The soft sand with its shiny shells

 

Tiny fish swimming in breathtaking coral reefs

Pretty jelly fish lifting to the surface of the water

A stingray hiding in the sand,

Away from the Hammerhead sharks.

 The sea, all that magic is found there.

 Written by Adam

.

 

Sometimes I Wonder Why It is That Way

The slippery salty smashing waves

Shining blue dolphins nudging sharks

Sleepy soggy stingrays swimming through the blue

 

Seagulls waiting for us to leave

While the boats whish onto the shoreline

Sloppy sea slugs under people’s feet

 

Magpies searching for gold things

Brownish black caves looking like wolves

With horrifying sharp teeth,

Even coloured grass as though they have eyes

Eyes to the sea 

By Safiya

Welcome to our Team 15 Blog 

Recently the children explored the concept of imagery. They wrote poems using their senses (e.g. see, hear, smell, touch). These are a few of the poems that were written.

The Sea

Glimmering sand surrounds

Oceans vast and wide

Screeching seagulls on jagged cliffs

Florescent jellyfish filling oceans with colour

Dolphins with wonderful shining colours on their skin

Gropers swimming gracefully, gliding through the silent sea

Jagged rocks and glittering sand covering the seafloor

Gaping caves, shadows dancing

Like swirling images on the screen

Shells scattered on the sand as it shimmers in the sunlight

Terrifying ferocious waves smashing onto cliffs

I taste the salty spray as I walk along the beach.

Written by George