We are on Skype.

Dear Visitors,

We have just set up Skype in our room, which has hopefully opened some doors to more learning opportunities for the children.

We are currently studying famous explorers and pioneers and as part of their learning the children are encouraged to seek experts to help them with their research.

If you are from another school, classroom or are a student from another country and would like to make contact with Room 18, leave us your Skype address as a post (we won't publish it).

You can alternatively add us to Skype as a contact: room18balmoral - but to be safe, please leave us a message about who you are and where you are from.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards,


Room 18.

Rich Task - Teaching Room 23

As part of Room 18's learning this term they planned to teach a group of younger children about the importance of fitness. Here are some pictures of some of Room 18's wonderful fitness instructors in action.

Dance Pictures - Friday July 2nd 2010

The Anzacs - Remember

The Year 5 and 6 Film Club recently entered a competition run by the Auckland City Museum called 'I Am Making Movies'.

It was a great experience for all children involved, and we were even short listed to be among the best documentaries featured in the competition. Although we did not win a main prize, we learnt a lot about film making and digital learning.

Here is a copy of our film.

Carey Park Camp 2010

What a great time we all had last week. Carey Park is an amazing place for new learning, new social skills and pushing your personal boundaries.

Before camp we set some goals, many of which were about persisting when times became tricky and hard and I am sure that most of you had one or two moments when you really had to focus on what it was you wanted to achieve.

For this post, use it as a place to describe the things you liked and the things that really challenged you. Did you overcome those challenges?

Tell us about the exciting times that you experienced at Carey Park Camp 2010.

Dance Term 2

Room 18 has been involved in creative dance as part of their arts focus this term. We have been focusing on learning some key vocabulary and skills associated with dance techniques.

In these videos you will see cannon, unison, levels, and body paths to name a few. Ask your child about what these words mean. The dances seen here are after one session with the song and are representative of around 45 minutes of work.

So far we have danced to a range of music chosen to highlight different rhythm selections. We have had 'Put your records on' by Corrine Bailey Rae, 'Heavy Cross' by Gossip - as seen in this video, and are now working on a slower song by Sinead O'Connor called 'Nothing Compares'.

We aim to work on one main dance to present at the end of Term 2, and will begin our work on that after we return from camp.

Note: Due to some children being absent one group is not shown here. However, they will be seen in videos to come.

ENJOY!!

Welcome back to Term 2

After our 2 week holiday break the Room 18 children are back with vigor and enthusiasm. It is great to see a great learning attitude and open minds ready to get busy with this new terms learning.

Here is what is happening in Room 18 this term:

Arts: We will be doing creative dance and learning many new dance terms and composition skills.

Writing: Narrative Myths and Legends, as you will see below this is a theme that runs through many of our core subjects this term.

Reading: to begin with we will cover Myths and Legends. The children are about to use 'Thinkers Keys' as part of their learning about a range of Myths and Legends from around the world. Wondering what 'Thinkers Keys' are .. click this LINK.

Oral Language: Story telling. Children will learn about techniques used in effective story telling and will tell their own stories in presentations to their class.

Mathematics: We are learning about statistics as part of our strand work this term and have already begun collecting data about our pulse rates. We will also be concentrating on Multiplication and Division as our number focus.

Rich Task: Is fitness worth all the fuss? That is our big question and children are learning about 5 key body systems -circulatory, digestive, respiratory, muscular and the nervous systems. The second half of the term will focus on body health and fitness. Ways to improve and maintain good health in the body.

Camp: Children will spend 4 days at Carey Park in Henderson Valley in Week 5 of this term. It will be a great learning experience for all involved.

Stay tuned for more updates and more awesome Room 18 learning!