Nature's Math

Why does nature abide by mathematical rules, like Fibonacci numbers and fractal symmetry? Whatever the reason here are some beautiful examples of geometrical plants for symmetry lovers

Light, Stargazing and Darkness

Calling all young writers. The Margaret Mahy Starlight Essay and Poetry Competition is on. If your imagination and creativity are inspired by the idea of creating a piece of prose or poetry this competition could be for you.

Take a closer look

Leadership the Shackleton Way

We have been studying Ernest Shackleton and his incredible voyage of Endurance. He demonstrates many of the virtues we would look for in a leader and today we identified some of those virtues and found examples of times Shackleton showed them. Check out our Padlet to see some of the virtues we identified.

Created with Padlet

Get Your Brain Working for a Chocolate Fish

Here we go again with those tricky maths puzzles. Can you write an equation using only 1, 3 and 4 to make 0.3? 

Enter your solutions as a comment here or through your Kidsblog.

Amazing Worlds Within Our Worlds

We are surrounded by ordinary things... but how well do we really know them? Watch this video of macro photos of every day objects by photographer Pyanek and see how many you can guess?

Iambic Pentameter Made Easy

Well, what do you know? Ted Ed explains it so much better than I can. Iambic pentameter took some getting our heads around when we tackled sonnet writing last. This video makes it looks easy. Maybe it's time for another go!

 

Reporting on Our Learning

As we come to the end of 2014 it is useful to look back on the year and reflect on our learning. Where have we made great progress? What areas do we need support to develop? Which work are we particularly proud of? Is this the work we enjoyed the most? What were the challenges?

Not likely for any of us!!!

The Year 7/8 Inquiry group are compiling a report on their own learning aligned with the New Zealand Curriculum Key Competencies. To provide some support to this process you can use the links below to see what these competencies are and view several examples of reports written by others.

Find out what these Key Competencies are and what they mean.

See how other students have reported on their learning.
Example 1 , Example 2 and Example 3

Can Eating Insects Save the World BBC full Documentary 2013 ( Insect eat...

Well, what do you think? The idea of eating insects made most of us feel a little squeamish but after watching this documentary our whole group is feeling pretty keen to at least give them a go! Hey, if it's going to save the world...!

Breathing Fire

Did you know fire needs oxygen to breathe? Today we did an experiment to show how important oxygen is to a fire? Without it, it dies! We put a small, a medium and a large jar over a burning candle and timed how long it took fr  the flame to go out each time. We discovered that the flame burned longer in the largest jar. Of course this is because the largest jar contains the most oxygen!

Your Voice, Your Choice

Have you ever wondered what the Elections are all about? How do we choose who governs our country? Who gets to have a say?
2014 is General Election year and on September 20th people all over New Zealand, and New Zealanders all over the world, get the opportunity to decide who will govern New Zealand for the next three years.
But did you know that in 2011 more than a quarter of eligible voters didn't exercise their right to vote? Does it even matter?
Follow our page Your Voice, Your Choice to see what we think about all this as we investigate some of these ideas this term.