For our Science intensive unit today. Room 10 learnt about how things glow in the dark. The students also made a light using tape, a phone torch, blue and purple sharpies to make their highlighter solution glow in the dark.

Financial Literacy at Glenbrae

We have been fortunate enough to receive financial literacy lesson from Rachel who works for Price Water Cooper. This week, our first lesson on Monday was about identifying our needs and our wants. This was a good eye opener for everyone in Room 10 because spending money is very easy and therefore it is also very easy to spend on things you do not need and do not have any use for.

Today the lesson was about being credit worthy. Credit ratings are very important because it will determine our trustworthiness to pay money back when we borrow. Four Room 10 students took part in skits where they lent something of theirs to a friend. It is good practice now to think about who you lend your things or money to.

Always question?????????????
Are they going to pay me back and on time?
Will they respect my property and give it back?
Did they pay me the last time I lent to them?

This will be questions we will be asked when we borrow from others too.

We enjoyed the lesson today and Miss Rachel is doing a great job being a teacher in Room 10.

Aarmione's argument writing. Have a read and let us know if you agree or disagree.

Persuasive writing - I disagree with the statement ‘1 block of the day for free time in class.’

Having one block of free time a day is a bad idea because the students won’t get to learn much, and the class would be very noisy during that block. The students would be very distracted, and when you tell them to put their netbooks away, they would refuse. It would be just a waste of time.

The next reason why I disagree is because you would be wasting your time coming to school. School is a place where people learn, and having a block of free time would not live up to the purpose of going to school because there is not much learning in one day. Also, the students would be very over excited when playing games, and the excitement and effort of most students would vanish when told to do their work.

Another reason why I disagree with having a block of free time is because if you went home and your parents asked what you learnt at school that day, what would you say? “Nothing much really. We were just playing games.” What would your parents think? What would they do?

Another main reason as to why I disagree with having one block of free time is because if you play games instead of learning, your grades would become even lower, and it would be hard to bring your grades back up with the block of free time.

These are the reasons why I disagree with having a block of free time. So Mrs Tofa, please consider my points of view. Also, please do not allow us to have a block of free time. Hopefully my points would have convinced you. Thank you.

What does it look like?

In Maths we are currently working on finding the area of shapes. We have been talking about metres squared and wanted to find out just how big it is. 

Pictured are the Room 10 students working to measure out 1 squared metre in the classroom. 

Fantastic to see everyone thinking and trying to help out. Excellent use of materials too.

Kiwisport - Athletics

On Tuesday 1 September we had our last Kiwisport session with coach Georgia. She taught us athletics skills in - high jump, shot put, discuss, sprinting and hurdles. It has been fun learning from Georgia and we wish to thank her for her time and effort. 

All the best Georgia.

Recount about our fantastic car wash

Saturday’s Car Wash.

On Saturday 22nd August 2015, some year 7 and 8 students and other students came to Glenbrae to help wash cars and fundraise money for our school camp. I woke up at 6:44am and had a shower, when I was dressed I told my parents and brothers to hurry because the car wash started at 8:00am and it was past 7:30am. I was watching Hotel Transylvania and it was 8:05am then my dad drove the van to the front. It took us 30 minutes to drive to school, but we stopped at the shops to buy a tray of drinks.

When we got to school and entered the school parking, Mr Nath was told us to park near the school pool. The kids 

waited for us to hop out of the van, before they started washing, I joined in with them and got wet. Only 4 students were allowed at one vehicle but 7 students were washing our van, I joined in with them. Then Mrs Tofa called all the students including me and told us that only 4 students were allowed a 1 vehicle.

We had a lot of vans and cars to wash and we only had 3 construction vehicles. Some of the students had to leave because they were busy. Other students came and helped us out when they finished their rugby games. Miss Tuia, our Kiwican teacher and Mr Nath, one of our staff offered the us a sausage sizzle each.

When it was nearly time for us to end our car wash, we waited for Mrs Tofa our coordinator to calculate the amount of money we raised while we started packing up the equipments. We raised $910.00 altogether. Most of the money was from the car wash. Parents came to pick their kids up when the other kids walked home, my dad picked me, my mum and my brothers. We were all exhausted and glad that it was over.

Aarmione's quiz about our class novel 'A new song in the land'.

Well I read the novel to you guys everyday but I still got one question wrong in Aarmione's quiz about our class novel 'A new song in the land'. Give it a go on this link http://www.quizyourfriends.com/take-quiz.php?id=1508060146502498&eml&. 

Great questions Aarmione really got me thinking.

Siosifa's work on another cause of child injury and fatality

Maths learning with Sue

Some Room 10 students enjoyed a Maths lesson today with Sue who is our school Maths facilitator. Today they learnt about fractions and the problem they solved as a group was:

Six students were in a 100m race. The student who came third got a time of 13.56 seconds. What might be the times for the other students in the race?

They also used deci mats to show representations of different numbers.

Feedback from students:

Bono - I learnt that decimals are special fractions

Keti - I learnt how to show decimals using materials

Siosifa - I learnt that decimals and fractions are similar to each other

Kyana - I learnt that decimals are special fractions with a denominator of 10, 100, 1000...

Lennyx - I learnt that decimals are more complicated fractions

Joseph - I learnt that decimals are special fractions

Tauola - I learnt that the bigger the decimal the smaller the pieces of materials we had to use. For example tenths are bigger than hundredths and hundredths are bigger than thousandths

A fun trip to Aotea Centre

Fifty lucky students including all of Room 10 were able to travel to the Aotea Centre in the city to watch shows performed by different performing groups. We were also able to take part in workshop about different forms of art. We used Ipads to look into a mail box and watch a moving bird through the Ipad. When Mrs Tofa tried to view through her phone she was not able to see the bird. Another great workshop was the tormento workshop by one of the AUT students. There she used her mobile phone to call a number and the students were able to blow into the phone and the air from their breath affected the faced on the interactive screen. The displays are still displayed in the Aotea Centre and anyone standing in front of the tormento display can call the number and blow into their phone and see their breath blow the faces on the screens.

We travelled to the city by bus and the bus dropped us outside the Town Hall which is an old building with historical value to Auckland and also New Zealand. 

It was a fun day and all the students enjoyed the performances. 

Science in the classroom

Its been a really busy week with our Science intensive week. Room 10 students have travelled around the senior classrooms learning from different teachers. Mrs Tofa taught students about carbon dioxide and made scones with students using L n P, Sprite, Vinegar and no one wanted to use water because they knew there will be no chemical reaction between the baking powder and water.

Here are some of the scones Room 10 made.

Travelwise week 2015

Danny-Joe's poster with tips about being safe on the roads. 

Thanks for the tips Danny-Joe.

Travelwise week

This week there is an emphasis on being Travelwise in New Zealand. Room 10 are creating posters and digital presentations to promote being safe on the roads. 

Here is Taki's poster he created.

Making cakes maths problem

Sally made eighteen mini cakes and used 3/5 of a block of butter to make them. How many mini cakes can she make with one fifth of a block of butter?

ANZAC biscuit making

Today in class we made ANZAC biscuits. They were very easy to make and were delicious. Thanks to Miss Atuahiva for helping us make the yummy biscuits.

History of ANZAC biscuits.
Some believe the wives of the soldiers made the biscuits and sent them to the soldiers in tins. However, recently researchers have found the biscuits were not eaten at war by soldiers but were sold in NZ to raise money to help with the war efforts.

MADD Messenger Antibullying session 18/03/15. Today the session was about intelligences. Everyone had the opportunity to share who they think is a smart person and for different reasons too. Great to see we value each other and our different intelligences and talents. Our chalk art gift from Petia and Caroline was Fash.

Group photo

Petia working on his Chalk Art

Group photo

Chalk Art

Boys problem solving

Problem solving girls figured it out first. All nails had to be stuck to each other and on the piece of wood. Good leadership Fusi. 

Different SMARTS

Mrs Tofa's observations and reflection from today's MADD workshop

Today in the MADD workshop the theme was Being Proud of our Cultures. As the students listened to Petia tell about his father's journey to NZ on a ship and the obstacles he had to go through as a non English speaker I thought about my journey of moving to NZ when I was 12. Fortunately for me I was able to speak English and communicate with my new friends in NZ.

The students were asked to go into their ethnic or cultural groups. Some had the privilege of choosing which cultural group to go to as they had more than one. When the students were working together I was able to see those who are confident within their own cultures. I was also able to see those with leadership potential stepping up and taking charge. 

I felt proud watching the Tongan, Cook Island, Niue, Samoan and Samuel representing Africa (Botswana). Some of these students are 3rd generations in NZ and yet they are very proud of their cultures.

Highlight today was when five students stood around Samuel in a circle and told Samuel something positive they know about him. The comments given were genuine and I could see Samuel was humbled by the comments being said. 

At the end of the session I felt Petia and Leah had reinforced pride within the students for their cultures. 

Butterfly Creek trip 9/3/2015. Our trip to Butterfly Creek was amazing. We learnt about dinosaurs, butterflies, farm animals and also crocodiles. All students had a great time and learnt a lot. We will now put our learning to action by thinking about LEARN, CREATE AND SHARE activities.

Train ride toot toot

Voni has found his favourite cuddly animal

We need a selfie stick

James enjoying the free ride from one of the dinosaurs 

Crocodile show - fun, excitement, suspense and scary