Welcome to Room 18's Laboratory

Since the beginning of week 3 we have been following an Inquiry process to find out what a number of scientific concepts mean. One of the first was to look at different liquids and to work out why some liquids fell to the bottom of a container while others floated to the top, or remained in the middle of the container. The objective of this Inquiry was to establish what density meant.

Questions asked were:
a) What do we already know about the liquids we are using in this experiment?
b) Knowing this about the liquids we are using, what is our hypothesis?
c) What must we do to create a Fair Test?
d) If we measure 50mls of each liquid and place it in a beaker, can we predict what will happen?
e) How will we make sure that our recordings are accurate?
f) Observing the process, can we conclude what has happened?

The slideshow will take you on a short journey through our Inquiry process. The children having completed this part of the process still have questions they want to answer. We will share the results of this work with you next week. In the meantime, enjoy watching the slideshow.

Evaluation of our clay unit:

We thought you would like to listen to some members of the class sharing their pottery experience . While the creative process develops new skills and is great fun, it is also important to be able to evaluate the end product. Students generally enjoy discussing their process and receiving feedback. The clay sculptures were designed to represent a strength the student exhibited. We hope you enjoy watching the movie.

A Chance To Discuss Our Process:

How we used statistics to learn about Multiple Intelligence

The first two weeks back at school this term have provided an opportunity to reflect on our Term One Inquiry and to enable the children to use their knowledge of SOLO Taxonomy to assess their learning journey. While most children believed that they were in the Unistructural Phase (knew one piece of information) at the beginning of the unit, they were confident to place themselves in the Multistructural Phase (had made multiple links with the subject) or Relational Phase (confident to justify their position based on their understanding and application of knowledge ). Refer to the link on SOLO Taxonomy for further information on SOLO Taxonomy at the side of our Blog.

Rather than have the children write a report on their findings, we decided to informally share ideas. The children were asked to respond to questions aimed at unlocking their understanding of Multiple Intelligence. The movie is divided into sections and is approximately 10 minutes in duration. You may find the youtube site posted at the side of our Blog interesting. Howard Gardner discusses how he believes an understanding of Multiple Intelligence could shape American education in the future. The New Zealand Inquiry Model is certainly taken a huge step towards this goal.

Once you have viewed the movie we would be grateful if you would click on the link 'post a sticky' at the bottom of the wall. This will direct you to wallwisher where you will double click on the orange background to post a note to the children. If you have any questions, the children will do their best to answer them. If your child wants to post a note to share how they feel about the work they completed, they are most welcome.

It's Autumn

During our first week back at school, our writing focus has been the development of Haiku poems. What better ignition than to view our grand old oak trees preparing for winter. Rather than publish poems on the Blog, the children recite their own work. We hope you enjoy the poems that are posted.

Holiday Adventures

The First Week Back for Term Two

The class share their holiday experiences in small groups.





Here are some of the exciting events that they were involved in over the two week break.



Jackson: "I went to Hamner Springs with my friend. I fell off the edge of the mini waterslide but I was okay. My family went down to Lake Ohau. It was there that I got another piece of my favourite Lego."

James " I was in Auckland for some of the holidays. I went to see my friends Elliot and Nick. They used to go to our school. One day we went up into the SkyTower. It was fun."

Neve: " I know that Jake was in Dunedin because I saw him there. I went to stay with a relative. We went to the museum and found out about how electricity works. That's where I saw Jake."

Jake: " Yes, I was in Dunedin. While I was there I went on a tour of the Cadbury's Chocolate Factory. There was lots of chocolate to eat, but I'm not a big fan of it."




Jack: "I went all the way to Tekapo and Queenstown. It was really lovely because the leaves on the trees were all changing colour."

Toby: " We went on a long trip up the West Coast of New Zealand. I went over the Arthur's Pass to Greymouth and Hokitika and then onto up to Westport. We saw the pancake rocks at Punakaiki and then came back through the Lewis Pass. We did such a lot of traveling, but it was fun to see so much."

Myah: " I went up to Nelson to stay with my nana for Easter. She is really artistic. On Monday, we made nests out of clay and coconut shell and decorated them with feathers. Our eggs were made out of small stones. I was allowed to paint them."





Daniel: "I had my birthday during the holidays. I went to the Airforce Museum with my friends Robert and Jake. We had lots of fun jumping out of planes. I was given plane kits to make up. This is a Spitfire."