More fun with Stardome - with winning launch and flight (Evanjaline's blog post)

 Barev bolorin,

 Today we had some of the Stardome team come and help us fly our, mostly, student lead rockets. McCahon class, the class I am in, won the highest flight award which the video above shows. Nisha, Simeon, Arnav and I were the makers or engineers of the rocket. We also designed it and it was so awesome having our class room mates praise us. If you would like to see the actual rocket, comment down below and I will upload some close ups!

Thanks for posting Evanjaline! 
Her original blog post can be found here: Flying Rockets! 

Nisha's blog post about our Quad-Blogging Project

This week we began our first quad-blogging project!

We have teamed up with 3 other schools around New Zealand and this week we are commenting on Room 8 @ Paerata School's class blog.

We've really enjoyed looking at their blog and seeing the learning they do!

Here is Nisha's blog post about what she found interesting on their class blog.

24/6/15 T2 WK 10: My Blog Comment on Room 8 Paerata's School Blog

Today I was looking through Room 8 Paerata's School Blog (because it was for quad blogging in my Class Room) and was looking for a Blog Post I could comment on but then I saw nothing I was interested in. But when I looked again on their Blog I found a Blog Post that hooked me in when I first saw it.

What is Quad Blogging?

Quad Blogging is a new term/concept that has 4 schools blogging in a cycle that helps people view and comment on students blogs.

And here is a snap shot of the Blog Post that had hooked me in:

Also here is a snap shot of my Blog Comment I had posted on their Blog Post:

The Link for the Blog I actually commented on and showing my Blog comment:
http://room8paerata.blogspot.co.nz/2015/06/our-first-google-ninja-black-belt.html#comment-form

Stardome Visit and Rocket Launches!

Yesterday our McCahon Engineers were put to the test. A select group were put in charge of the design and construction of our rocket.
Each class had a rocket to build and there was a prize for the rocket that had the best design and the one that stayed in the air the longest - which we won! Our rocket stayed aloft a full .5 seconds than our closest rivals!
So great work Evanjaline, Arnav, Simeon and Nisha - Nisha was also our official photographer - more photos to come.

Badminton Coaching with Danny

First we started with a warm up of shuttles from one side of the room to another working on our footwork. We jogged, sprinted, did the sidewalk and the grape vine. 

Then we came up with some rules about handling the badminton racket. We then got into two lines so that we could collect a badminton racket each. 

When we all had a racket, we learnt how to hold a badminton racket with the forehand grip. 

We then got a shuttle and practised hitting the shuttle with the rackets. Lyle and Sitaleki were very successful with keeping the shuttle up in the air without dropping it. 

After practising our forehand grip, we worked on our backhand grip. It was much trickier controlling the shuttle with this grip but we soon got the hang of it.

We further challenged ourselves by changing between both grips, forehand and backhand. Those of us who were more confident even added some spin to our hits!

Do you know the game "Last Person Standing?" Like its name suggests, the aim of the game is to be the last person standing while keeping the shuttle in the air. When you drop the shuttle, you must sit down until only one person is left. That person is the winner. 

Having practised independently, we then moved into passing between pairs. One person (the passer) would throw the shuttle to their partner, while their partner (receiver) hit it back with their racket. After a few hits, we swapped to ensure that everyone got a turn throwing and hitting the shuttle. 

We held a quick reflection time and recapped our learning about the different types of grips.

McCahon class had a great time at badminton today and we can't wait for our next lesson!

Everyone looked like Cheshire Cat with their crescent moon smiles painted on their faces!

Visit to Stardome!

Last Friday (12th June), Hay Park School had the opportunity to visit Stardome to learn more about Planet Earth and Beyond.  

For the first 45 minutes, McCahon and Flox class watched a screening of the special Matariki show where we learnt a myriad of new facts about the 'Seven Sisters' in the night sky, and the legend of Matariki.

We then went into the art room to create our own rockets out of long cylinders and to get our faces painted!  

We all had a blast and we wished our time there could have been even longer...

Luckily, the main gallery section of Stardome is free so if you have the chance, plan a visit with your family!

Homework Club with Mrs Kingston and Miss Kim

Welcome to Homework Club!

Today we started off by doing a basic facts test to see where our learning gaps were. 

We then created some 'sliders' (a way of practising our basic facts by sliding the slider from left to right, hiding the answer) to practice three of our circled gaps. 

Well done to Shreya for scoring the only 100% in her basic facts test today. Next time, do you think you can beat your original time? :)