Science and Technology Fair

This year our Year 7 and 8 students will be entering into the Science and Technology Fair. This is similar to Methanex Maths in terms of investigations, but different in the range of categories students can enter and obviously it has a science and technology theme, not a maths one.
Last week we were lucky enough to have two of the organisers come and speak to both Year 7 and 8 classes. They talked us through all the categories, showed us examples of past entries and answered our questions. There were a lot of enthusiastic students ready to start after their visit!

The categories that students can choose from are:

• Scientific Journalism

The topic for this is "Should New Zealand become more involved in the Space Industry?" Students would write an article discussing this topic. The article needs to be between 500 -3000 words. 

• Photographic Section

The topic for the photography section is "Chemical Reactions". Photos need to be on photographic paper and need to to include information of where, when and with what device the photo was taken as well as how it relates to the topic. 

• Water Rockets

Students need to make a water rocket using fizzy drink bottles. Any size bottle can be used but must be designed to withstand pressure. All rockets will be fired from a launcher at the same pressure and trajectory. Students will decide on design and how much water they add to the rocket. 

• Observational Drawing

"Seeds" is the topic for this category. The drawing has to be a scientific drawing with no shading - dots and lines are allowed. A scale must be shown.

• Advertising Poster 

The theme for the poster is "Farm Safety". It must be hand drawn and A4 size. It has to include the words "WITT Taranaki Science & Technology Fair". The winning entry will be used to advertise this year's fair. 

The two major categories are:

Science Investigation and Technological development. 

The technology project needs to identify a need and and develop a solution ( an example of this is the girl who invented the kindling cracker which is now sold world wide).  The science investigation is about explaining a phenomena - it should have a prediction and experiments. These projects are presented on large 3 way folded displays (shown in photo below) and can be completed individually or in pairs. 

Students at Toko School will be required to enter in at least one category. There is no obligation to complete either the scientific or technology project but students with the desire and / or ability will be encouraged to do so.  Some categories will require completing some parts at home. Students will be selecting their categories this week, so take the time to discuss the categories with your child as this will help them with their decisions. 

Technology Week

A great time was had by everyone last week and lots of engaging learning took place. Students in all four activities - 3D printing / Coding, Go Karts, Cooking and Wearable Arts learned plenty of new skills. Everyone had positive attitudes and enjoyed the challenges put their way. Our Learning Star values were certainly used and the great outcomes reflected this.
Students will be reflecting on their technology week on their blogs this week so watch out for their reports. As well as this, parents and students will be asked to complete a short google forms survey as a way of giving feedback around the technology week.
Here's a few photos of what we got up to....

 

 

What's Up - Wk 3

Week 3 already and we all seem to be very busy with winter sports kicking into full gear. It’s really neat to see the range of sports the children are playing and following their team’s progress.

Maths is continuing along nicely and we begin to look deeper into the connection between decimals, percentages and fractions this week. We explore how we can convert between all three to help us solve problems and use this strategy to prove our answers in a number of different ways.

On Thursday we have our second session of the Otago Problem SOlving Challenge which pushes the children’s problem solving skills.

In reading we continue to read about our enviro focuses, Room 3 planting and Room 4 bees. In writing we begin to turn our notes into an information report to present the knowledge we have gained. Monday’s writing sessions are a free writing session which the children are really enjoying. They have a focus for their writing to practice a particular skill. Today for example was to vary the way we start our sentences. They are provided with a picture and a 1-2 sentence story starter and then they can let their imagination take control. We have been impressed at the creativity we are seeing!

We continue to work on our mihi’s and begin to start using the greenscreen to make it visual. Be sure to check out our blogs in the next week or two as we get them put together. We had another exciting Japanese lesson this afternoon with Mrs Karasawa so make sure you ask the children to share their new vocab with you.

Other than that business as usual. Enjoy your week and feel free to pop in and say hi.

What's Up Week 2

We had a great first week back; it was awesome to see everyone come back well rested and ready to get stuck into some good learning.

Last week had our first Japanese lesson, which left all the kids buzzing and looking forward to our next lesson - which will be today (Monday).  We also began looking at fractions in maths and have had some fabulous discussions around this learning. We continue to investigate fractions this week and will move into equivalent fractions and then adding and subtracting fractions.

In reading and writing we will begin putting the note taking skills we learned last week into practice and start looking at putting those notes together into reports.

Tech choices were made last week. This week on Wednesday we will be having a pre-planning session where students will join their tech group and go over their project and what things are needed. Students will find out what group they are in Tuesday or Wednesday morning.

Everyone was given an IXL password last week. This is a maths program that can be accessed on both computers and ipads and should help students to reinforce the learning taking place in the classroom.

I will be out of the classroom for a few days at the end of this week and the beginning of next week. I have a course to attend on a couple of days and a family event in  Hawkes Bay. Alison Eagar will be in the class and will be running the usual programme so there should be minimal disruption for the students.

As always you are welcome to pop in or email me if you wish to chat about anything.

Japanese

Monday saw us take part in our first Japanese language session. Luckily for me (as my Japanese is as limited as the kids) we had Fleur from St Mary's school come and lead the lesson.  It was a really fun lesson and we were all buzzing afterwards.
We were introduced to some common greetings in Japanese and played some games to help reinforce those greetings.

We are trying hard to use as many of the greetings as we can. We spend a few minutes each morning going over the pronunciation and reminding ourselves of when we should use the different greetings. 

We now have a wall display to help us remember our greetings

And we are getting pretty good  at pronouncing and remembering after only two days - listen to this.....                     

                  

What's Up - Term 2 Week 1

Welcome back to Term 2. Hopefully everyone is rested and ready to go.

This term we are going to be focusing on our enviro areas in greater detail and incorporating this into our reading and writing.

We will be investigating planting and what we could do better in regards to this. Therefore the students will be researching planting in great detail. In writing this means that the students need to know how to take notes properly and how to write up their notes into reports.

In reading they will be reading about planting - types of planting, what to plant, when and where to plant, etc. In maths we will be linking our enviro learning with finding a better way to run the enviro bank. As well as that, we are beginning the term focussing on fractions in maths.

Technology will take place this term and you should all have had a notice explaining how it will run. Students will be selecting their choices early on in the term.

At the end of term TOPEC made the decision to call off our trip due to the bad weather. We are hoping to reschedule the trip for later in the year.

Homework will be slightly different this term. There will be reading and spelling for all, and a few maths basic facts for some, including IXL (an online maths programme similar to Mathletics. Then there will be some optional tasks for those that wish to do them. This will discussed with the students during this week.

Remember now that it is colder to please remind your children to wear appropriate clothing to school. Those students playing with an oval ball during break times are required to wear a mouthguard. It is also a good idea to include a change of clothes in case of wet or muddy clothes.

As always you are welcome to pop in or email me if you wish to chat about anything.

ANZAC Projects

I'm so super proud of the efforts of all the kids over the last week or so. They have displayed all the Toko Learning Stars as they have worked their way through a fairly heavy duty ANZAC Project. They have researched, made connections to relatives, thought about food and life back in the early 1900's, gained empathy for soldiers and soldiers families and shown a great depth of understanding of the way World War One affected the whole of New Zealand.
Students were given the slide show below to work through. They had lots of tasks to complete, then they had to put all their tasks together in a care package for their selected soldier. All projects will be marked over the holidays and then students will share with each other and on their blogs after the holidays.





Here are some examples of the fabulous learning produced.

Abbey's Care Package 

Hollie and Izzy's Care Package 

Some of the awesome care packages 

Some of the information Leah and Meg collected 

Goodies in the care package 

So much effort and learning 

Socks, cans of food and other goodies for the soldier

Leah's Care Package 

Sarah and Heidi's letter to their soldier

Millie's letter to her soldier

Thoughtful gifts for the soldiers

What's Up - Week 11

Well the last week of Term 1 is upon us and what a busy 4 day week it is going to be! What a busy term it has been!

We are off to TOPEC on Wednesday and all notices regarding this went home last week. Be sure to check the gear list to ensure your child brings everything they need for the day. Fingers crossed the weather is good for us! Remember we are leaving school at 8.45am so make sure you are early.

We continue with our ANZAC unit this week where the children are finding out about life during World War 1. They are busy researching a soldier and creating a care package for them which will include a daily menu for them while they are at war and a letter from home that will be tailored to them based on the information they find out about them and their family.

We have also created some fantastic poppy field art pieces which will be finished during this week. If you get the chance pop into school and check them out, they are fantastic!  

Thursday morning we will spend some time making ANZAC wreaths. We need students to bring in plants such as Rosemary, COnifers, Camellias, some greenery and anything that won’t wilt too quickly. This will be followed by the annual ANZAC assembly that afternoon.

There will be no homework this week except working on their ANZAC work if they need to.

We expect to see books being added to reading logs throughout the holidays.

Enjoy the holidays, rest up, have some fun and take care. I’m sure the easter bunny will spoil you all.

We look forward to seeing the children back for term 2.

EPro8 Challenge

On Tuesday night we had two Year 7 & 8 teams competing in the EPro 8 Challenge at Stratford Primary School. It was a fantastic evening which challenged our Year 7 & 8 teams to use their creative thinking skills to complete some tricky tasks. They had 2 1/2 hours to work their way through as many tasks as they could. Each task was allocated points depending on its difficulty. 

One team had to build a bridge which spanned a distance of 2.2m and a 1m tall boat had to be able to pass underneath. The girls worked so hard to figure this one out! 

Our second Toko team decided to complete the Theme Park Ride Challenge. This involved them using fans and a launch pad to propel a balloon upwards to at least 1.2m. It had to then float in place for at least 10 seconds. 

The kids absolutely loved the EPro8 Challenge. Our regular weekly STEM sessions definitely helped them to think outside the box and make the most of their allocated time. It was an awesome opportunity for our kids. 

What's Up? Week 10

The next two weeks of the term are jam packed with lot of different things going on.

On Tuesday evening our 2 Year 7/8 EPro8 Challenge teams will be competing at Stratford Primary against a number of other schools to solve problems in creative and practical ways. The children have had plenty of practice for these challenges with our weekly STEM challenges we have been having in class every Friday. If your child is involved in this please make sure their permission slip has been returned.

On Wednesday the creative problem solving approach will continue as we have the Otago Problem SOlving Maths Challenge. This is a number of problem solving questions which push the children to think outside the box.

On Thursday we have Athletics here at Toko School. If it is wet Friday is the postponement day. The children have been developing their athletic skills over the last few weeks with the Run, Jump, Throw sessions. It will be a great day and we hope to see as many parents there as we can.

The final paperwork and details regarding our TOPEC River Safety day which is Wednesday 12th will be coming home this week so keep an eye out for them.

Reading, writing and maths are going to be integrated into an ANZAC unit which will run over the last two weeks of term. Such an important day with great significance that we will be learning a load about.

Both Year 7 and 8 teachers spent a day learning some of the basics of Japanese in anticipation to kicking off our Japanese Language Unit next term. We are excited to be introducing this new language.

Have a great week.