In Room 4 we’ve been doing pixel art. We chose our animal and copied it by doing pixels. It was so fun! This is my animal – it is a cheetah.

Alex’s Blog

This is my Diamante about the sun.  Check out this video on how to write a Diamante.  Have you written one before?

sun

bright, gas

scorching, floating, thriving

burning, yellow,  dark,  white, cold

shining, impacting, freezing

cool, light

Moon.

In Room 6 we are learning how to count in Japanese to ten. Ichi is one, ni is two, san is three, yon is four, go is five, roku is six ,nana is seven ,hachi is eight ,kyuu is nine ,juu is ten. It was really hard to learn but I have the hang of it now and I think I can do it by myself at school and home. I found this learning fun and difficult to learn because it’s really forgetful and confusing.  And I hope I can learn more numbers in Japanese.  By Chevy

Session today has been really good in respects to actual activities I can see myself being able to use to support important vocabulary development with my crew.

The first thing that struck me was that studies show that vocabulary knowledge accounts for 80% variance in reading comprehension scores. This shows to me that I pay important part and I’m skilling those that are far below where they need to be, and reinforcing for those that already do have a good vocabulary base.

One good idea I did like was a word knowledge organiser. At the start of a unit introducing those key concepts that you may need to cover in a table format where they can tick box and say whether they A – never seen a word, B – no a little bit about it, C – a pretty comfortable using it. Or D – can describe it with confidence.

I had no idea but there are three things you need to know about words. Number one there is aspects to knowing about words. Number two words meanings shift in context. And number three our knowledge around words grows incrementally the more we experienced them.

I was reminded again that they’re a digital tools with multimodal support ( can hear words being pronounced). Mote being a good nz example of this.

The big Christian was asked here was implicit versus explicit instruction. Which one do I do the most of? This is something I think I need a far more explicit instruction in my classrooms for. I do take kids for granted quite often that they know what I’m on about when instead I should treat them as beginners like they are and actually show them what is asked of them more.

We recovered some of the Key approaches to developing vocabulary. The first part of this was word consciousness. This is interest in awareness of words and their meaning. The benefit of this is it shows learners that words matter in that words have subtle meanings attached to them. It reminds us that words have power – alternative meaning – histories – job/roles.

The best thing I think I heard today was the idea that ‘ we think in words.’ this means that my vocabulary is limited than my thinking is incredibly limited. Something that terrifies me for our kids growing up these days.

In respect to enacting consciousness there were different ways to do this one really easy way I thought I could do was to pause in express interest in words as I’m reading to the class. In the newest and more primary perspective like word walls weird wizards or watching out for words being read.

In regards to deliberate robust interactive teaching of words. The main thing to look at was focusing on rich meanings not just boring dictionary definitions. Emphasising connection to other words. Promoting active word usage. Providing strategic review of the words and repeating them. And then making sure there is student involvement/agency in the vocabulary they are covering.

I like the reminder about tier one words, tier two words, tier three words. One being most common language. To being less common but really good expensive vocabulary words. And in three being proper scientific or topic specific language.

I’m wondering if there’s any anyway that I could potentially set up a word wall in my class. It is a bit tricky in my shared learning space I don’t know if it would takeoff fully or just be a distraction to the rest of the class. We think lots of develop a couple of vocabulary and word association documents which I can see as easy use option options at the start of units in my BPL class.

Lots to think about and always lots to do I’ll take the good bits and hopefully be able to put them into practice over the next couple of weeks. I’m also reminded I’m a bit behind on my homework so need to get in touch with my coach and work out a observation on what I’m doing!

In Room 6 we have learning how to be Cybersmart.  We learnt what we should and shouldn’t put online.  So like what is private and public.  Our full name is private and our favourite movie is public, our favourite food is public too. I found this learning easy now I know what I can and can’t put online.  By Amaiyah

In Room 6 I have been learning about chopsticks with Saika.  Saiha has been helping us to use chopsticks.  We have been practising to use chopsticks using pieces of sponge.  I found this learning fun because we are lucky that we get to use chopsticks.  By Freeman

In Room 6 we have learning about Wow Sentences.  A wow sentence has a capital letter and a fullstop.  It has a noun, verb, adjective and adverb.  I found this learning hard because I had not done it before.

Last night the grey mice were fighting roughly at the bad train station.  By Nina

Poems! Poems! Poems!  I love writing poems.  We have been learning how to upgrade our words to more creative, interesting and sophisticated ones.  So in class, we learnt how to write a Limerick, Cinquain and Diamante.  Which of these poems do you like the best?

enjoy my slide show!

Get creative is something we do every year where we do research about our topic that we picked I picked basketball.  Do you like or know anyone from the NBA? Who is your favourite basketball player?  I didn’t like writing the facts but I did like learning about them.

We have been learning about the Great Paa of Kirikiriroa.

This is my diagram of the Great Paa of Kirikiriroa.

The Paa of Kirikiriroa was located in Hamilton. The farms in Kirikiriroa could feed lots if whanau. There was a river on one side and on the other side there was a swamp protecting their homes.

Talon’s Blog

Kirikiriroa was ancient paa on the steep riverbanks were part of Hamilton city lies today. It was one of the best places to have a paa because it was surrounded by a swamp and a forest. I tried drawing it. This is my drawing.

Vincent’s Blog

In class, our teacher has been showing us how important words are when writing so that our reader will want to keep reading.  I’ve been enjoying  learning about new poems. We have written a Limerick, Cinquain and a Diamante.  Have you heard of these poems before?  Which is your favourite one I have written?

Starter Patai – Does your brain get lazy when using AI to do all the work?
Yes if you think surface level, letting it do things without fact checking or using it to support what you are doing.

How does this relate to our tamariki? They are growing up in a space where AI is accessible, ‘solves’ all their problems and they are losing the ability to thik for themselves, any type of problem solving and even ability to remember simple things.

You use AI to quickly generate responses so you can manage workload. How does this support wellbeing? What long term skills are you developing?
Growing proficient at refining prompts – fact checking, editing etc… Critical thinking skills – needing to check where facts or figures are coming from.

Goblin.tools

Pic above ^^^
Can see potential uses  with students especially in my Big Picture class who are doing project based mahi.

Kuraplan report comment generator: This seems handy. Trying with a few kids now.

Must remember that AI are ‘synthesising information’ – taking evidence from what’s out in the big wide web and providing what it thinks we want. Need to tread carefully and not take everything as gospel.

This week we have been learning about Kirikiriroa Paa in reading groups. There are palisades, waka and huge gardens with whare.

Spencer’s Blog

Today in my class I have made a slideshow about the recent national day if you didn’t know it was recently national Reese’s day. I enjoyed creating this slideshow and researching it. I found it hard to pick the photos to put on. Have you ever tried Reese’s.

Every Tuesday Saika comes into Room 6.  We learn about Japan.

Japan has hundreds of islands.  But there are four main islands.  There are heaps of places, Tokyo is one the biggest cities in the world!  Room 6 watched  a video about Japan and we asked Saika some questions.

I am looking forward to finishing the learning so I know more about Japan!

By Nate

Today I made these amazing poems, do you like poems? Because I enjoy writing them? Have you ever eaten a croissant?I think the reason we’re making poems is to make our vocabulary monstrous. I love making poems in room 3!

This week and last week Room 4 learnt about the Kirikiriroa Paa. Kirikiriroa Paa was were Hamilton city stands now about 126 years ago.

It was known to have great soil and it was above the Waikato River which made it easier to spot enemy waka. With steep river banks on one side and a swamp on the other. They made weapons, waka tools and palisades with the nearby trees.

I think I had fun and learned a lot, I would do it again.

Keira’s Blog

Over the past couple of weeks we have been writing poems for our autobiography we have wrote cinquains limericks and a couple more types of poems here are some of my poems.It was actually really interesting to learn that there are actually more types of poems i personally thought that there was only one variant of poem. Did  you know that there were other variants of poems.

Yesterday Room 4 went to the awa. It took 10 mins to get there. Room 4 carried rocks to trees and placed the rocks in a circle near the trees. I didn’t get scratched by the blackberry bushes. I almost got scratched but I didn’t. I went home with no shoes because they got stolen but I got them back the next day.