Room 4 KPS with Mr Ashcroft

Rhythmic Gymnastics - Session One

2011-09-14T15:14:00.002+12:00

Rhythmic Gymnastics #1

Ports of Auckland Cruise

2011-09-13T19:12:00.000+12:00

Ports of Auckland Cruise

Photos now online.

Waterfront 'open space' redevelopment

2011-09-07T14:52:00.000+12:00

Here's an interesting site all about the redevelopments currently happening in Auckland City. This is all around the area we are going to for our Ports of Auckland cruise next Tuesday 13 September.

CLICK HERE

Finalists for School is Cool Competition

2011-08-01T12:52:00.006+12:00

Wow - awesome results so far!

All these people are finalists for their year.

Winners announced on August 15.

New Sumdog game

2011-07-29T08:32:00.002+12:00

This week, Sumdog has uploaded another new game called 'Starship'.

In Starship, you and your fellow players must answer mathematics questions to fight off a swarm of invading alien spaceships.

Be careful, though - the slower you answer, the more they'll shoot your ship!

It would be great to know what you think of Starship. Have fun!

NZ Under20 vs Phoenix this weekend - Free for under 15!

2011-07-15T08:06:00.000+12:00

This Sunday, 17^th of July, the Wellington Phoenix take on the Junior All Whites (New Zealand U-20) at North Harbour Stadium.

Free for children under 15 if wearing any football apparel (shirt, scarf, beanie – anything!).

In addition the match will also be an alcohol free event.

It promises to be a great afternoon of entertainment for all football fans.

Event Details:

New Zealand U-20 v Wellington Phoenix

North Harbour Stadium, Stadium Drive, Albany

Sunday 12 July, kick-off 2pm

Gates Open 1pm

Tickets $10 at the Gate, children 15 years and under free (with football apparel)

Thanks Parents

2011-07-14T20:27:00.001+12:00

Thanks for coming out on a winter's evening to show support for your child's learning. It was great to meet you all and discuss the progress being made, as well as goals for continued progress.

School Is Cool Competition: Preview and rave!

2011-06-28T12:40:00.002+12:00

Have a preview of our video entry...

http://schooliscool.org.nz/entry/all/kauri-park school/all

If you login you can also rate the video as awesome or add a 'rave'

Measuring Angles

2011-06-21T15:00:00.003+12:00

We are learning to measure angles using degrees.

Today we have been working on angles.

Help your child to cut out three different big triangles out of an old newspaper.

Measure all three angles of each triangle with a protractor.

Write down your answers.

Is there anything that you notice about the groups of angles of the three triangles?

Fuse Experiment

2011-06-16T16:23:00.000+12:00

Let's win some iPads!

2011-06-12T20:09:00.000+12:00

Get your parents and their friends to sign up to 'Yellow' online, and choose Kauri Park as their nominated school and we could win an iPad.

Speeches

2011-06-07T11:54:00.000+12:00

Soon we will be preparing speeches for sharing with others. Some students will be aiming to present in front of a small group, while others will be aiming to represent our class in the senior school speech finals. The winner of the school speech competition will represent us at the inter-school speech finals.

Here is a link to the marking criteria that judges at the inter-school speech finals will be using.

Challenge Progress

2011-06-02T16:22:00.001+12:00

If you're not on the board, then you haven't taken up the challenge for your group.

Here's progress so far, it's only just begun and you need (at this stage) to answer 1000 questions correctly to reach 100%. Although some like Ben may need a higher target because look at his progress already - Woah!

Group 1 Challenge	Effort	Per cent
Samuel Mcintyre	45	4%
Isabelle Nieuwland	1	0%

Group 2 Challenge	Effort	Per cent
Paul Vitapa	380	38%
Sophie Campbell	35	3%
Bianca Carpendale	30	3%
Daniel O'Brien	23	2%
Jackson Pritchard	0	0%

Group 3 Challenge	Effort	Per cent
Ben Haigh-Mcshane	838	83%
Leah Mcleod	112	11%
Talisha Green	9	0%

Latest photos in our gallery

2011-06-01T20:28:00.001+12:00

Some of our recent learning experiences have been captured on camera. Go have a look.

Mandarin Power!

Batting Power!

Boy Power!

Alpha performs journal play

2011-06-01T20:19:00.001+12:00

It's the year 2100 - will the robots takeover? See the play on room4tube.

Current Sumdog Competition Leaderboards

2011-06-01T07:14:00.001+12:00

Group 1	Score	Attempts
Isabelle Nieuwland	1011	1052
Cullen Ravenswood	372	374
Matt Logue	339	342
Stella-Rose Pirie-Marsters	180	186
Thomas Hobbs-Allen	45	46
Cinnamon Vailea Saulala	36	38
Alloisha Fa'atele	23	27
Samuel Mcintyre	0	0

Group 2	Score	Attempts
Tyrone Conroy	1373	1401
Sophie Campbell	1294	1342
Paul Vitapa	354	370
Bianca Carpendale	197	203
Daniel O'Brien	2	4
Graham Legge	0	0

Group 3	Score	Attempts
Ben Haigh-Mcshane	54	59
Oban Hawkins	50	55
Leah Mcleod	45	50
Buster Osborne	26	34
Stephanie Werner	9	17
Talisha Green	8	17

Group 3 (Fractions)	Score	Attempts
Ben Haigh-Mcshane	176	217
Buster Osborne	147	191
Talisha Green	89	216
Rob Ashcroft Jnr	64	66
Oban Hawkins	61	89
Kjirsti Pedersen	48	64
Leah Mcleod	15	26

Isabelle is a legend!

2011-05-31T16:15:00.000+12:00

Well done Isabelle for leaving Mr Watson in your trail as you beat him on Sumdog.com today. You'll need to work on beating Miss Peters next time though :-)

Energy Hog Website

2011-05-31T14:45:00.001+12:00

Good website to learn about electricity here http://www.energyhog.org/

250 Challenge - Final Leaderboard

2011-05-16T18:14:00.002+12:00

SCIENCE | Electricity

2011-05-11T19:32:00.002+12:00

BREAKING NEWS!!!

2011-05-10T17:06:00.000+12:00

We could win this!!! You can enter the competition yourself by doing at home, and we may get some students to produce something this term too.

The 250 Challenge

2011-05-09T20:50:00.002+12:00

Can you answer 250 answers correctly before the end of week 2? Give it a try!

Current Progress Chart...

Current Events Challenge

2011-05-09T08:30:00.002+12:00

We are taking part in an ongoing current events challenge. This week on the 13th we will have a 40 question test. To catch up on the news that may feature in the questions, go to kiwikidsnews.co.nz

A great start...

2011-05-02T16:40:00.002+12:00

A nice start to the term today team!

As I said, last term a lot of our work was working towards building our skills in self-management and thinking about what we are aiming to learn.

Which means this term we can focus on making great progress in many areas of our learning, with each of us having specific areas we can focus on.

Remember, any goals we set should be 'SMART'

Specific

Measureable

Achieveable

Realistic

Time specific

Here's to a great term!

Term Two

2011-04-30T20:28:00.005+12:00

Here we come...

Looking forward to a great term two. Eleven weeks of fun learning new things. Some key learning includes...

gaining understanding from what we read by reorganising information from different sentences.
strategies for solving addition and subtraction problems
writing storyboards to help produce quality videos that clearly share a message
understanding how electricity works, and looking at sustainable methods of producing electricity

It's going to be a challenging but enjoyable term of learning, requiring a mixture of enthusiasm and endurance to make the most of all the different in-class opportunities.

Mangrove Restoration

2011-04-28T20:36:00.001+12:00

Just found this old clip from 2008 when two of our students who won the Panasonic KWN competition visited Malaysia. At the time they were part of a mangrove restoration project.

Interesting how in our local estuary there are people who want to remove excess mangroves, whereas in other places they are want to plant more to restore the environment's eco-system to combat pollution and increase estuary life.

Baking ANZAC Biscuits

2011-04-14T16:34:00.001+12:00

Today we baked ANZAC biscuits with Mrs Londeen - they were yummy! There are a small number of photos in our album

New Photos uploaded

2011-04-13T16:28:00.000+12:00

Have a look at our photo gallery for pictures of both our shared lunch, and eco-system presentations. Well done to all students for a great term of learning and wonderful support for each other as you do so.

End of term shared lunch

2011-04-09T10:32:00.001+12:00

A new Sumdog game: Dress Down

2011-04-08T10:27:00.000+12:00

This week, SumDog have uploaded a great new Sumdog game: Dress Down.

You're in a band, getting ready for a gig. Answer a question correctly, and you'll get some clothing. If it's cool, drag it onto your avatar - but if it's not, dump it on your opponent.

Watch out, though! They'll be dumping their uncool clothes on you, too...
http://www.sumdog.com/en/The_Sumdog_blog/#TheSumdogblog-110407

Please let us know what you think!

Year Six girls taking the lead

2011-04-07T22:28:00.001+12:00

As of end of Day One, looks like the Year Six girls are top of the leader board. Get along to sumdog to get your group to the top!

Last swimming session

2011-04-07T11:00:00.001+12:00

Today was our last class swimming session, so Mr Ashcroft joined us. Have a look at both our photo gallery and room4tube to see more.

New Sumdog competition and challenge!

2011-04-06T20:35:00.005+12:00

Starting tomorrow we have a competition between four teams (yr6 boys, yr6 girls, yr5 boys, yr5 girls) to see who can win the most games from a selection of addition and subtraction questions using the numbers 0-20. Who will come out on top?

The competition will last until the end of the first week of term two, so you can keep going through the holidays.

Also, a challenge for all students in Rooms One and Four... can you answer 100 questions correctly first? The questions are all to do with multiplying and dividing numbers by 10 or 100.

This challenge will finish at the end of term one.

Go to sumdog.com and login to play.

Hockey Field Day

2011-04-05T16:12:00.003+12:00

View our photos or watch our room4tube video from our fun day at North Harbour Hockey.

Journal Play

2011-03-31T17:14:00.001+13:00

Gamma reading group performed the journal play 'A Peach for the Queen' today. Have a look at our photo gallery to see some photos.

Marjorie Mumme visits to discuss mangrove removal

2011-03-10T16:06:00.002+13:00

view some photos at our photo gallery.

Progressive Achievement Tests

2011-03-07T18:54:00.001+13:00

PATs are tests we have each year. They are nationally standardised tests; meaning they compare results across the whole of New Zealand for students in each year group.

They are useful for tracking progress over the years as well as informing teaching and learning appropriate for what students already know, and where to head next.

It is important for students to be well rested and have a good breakfast so they can concentrate and think well during the tests. They are generally in the morning, this week from Monday through Thursday.

Fun Math Website

2011-03-07T08:00:00.003+13:00

Practice your skills and compete against others.

Go to sumdog.com and join in the fun!

Mr Ashcroft has login details and passwords for all students.

Don't have one yet??? - just ask Mr Ashcroft

Website link about an estuary eco-system

2011-03-01T11:08:00.001+13:00

http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/estuaries

We have some students investigating other eco-systems. A good link for them is to choose from one of the different marine life areas listed here.

2011 here we come!

2011-02-03T08:00:00.000+13:00

Looking forward to a great year of learning. You'll be able to keep up-to-date with our blog site. Don't forget to visit our YouTube page and Picasa Web Albums. For those you can follow the links on the right of this page.

Homework: A guide for parents

2011-02-02T10:00:00.000+13:00

Room 4 homework has three main goals.

Develop good self-management work habits
Promote increasing reading 'mileage'
Maintenance of math knowledge

With this in mind, each week's homework follows the same structure with an occasional topic-related extra task.

It is important that students' home reading is text they can successfully read. Encourage them as they do so, and redirect them if they have chosen a book which is too difficult for them. You can check this by getting them to read a paragraph or two out loud to you.

Another way of developing positive reading is by being read to, which is why we also ask that students are read to each night. You may choose an ongoing book, or maybe an interesting newspaper or website article - something that you can enjoy together.

Spelling - Essential Word Lists

2011-02-02T09:00:00.000+13:00

Setting spelling words for homework
In the first week of school, students of Room 4 will have a spelling test where words from each of the essential word lists are selected. The lowest list number where they got one incorrect spelling will become their starting point for focusing on.  In many cases students will progress quickly through the lower lists as there may be only a very few that they do not automatically or confidently spell correctly as a matter of habit.   Once they have shown an ability to correctly spell every word from a particular list on more than one occasion, they will progress to the next list.

About the lists
In total there are seven word lists which make up approximately 73% of the words students will use when involved in writing.   It is important to note that the lists are organised in order of frequency of use rather than level of difficulty, as such. By the end of year six, students should be confidently spelling correctly all of the words from lists 1-6 (if not all of them).

Why do many of the words in 'higher' lists appear to be quite easy?
The lists are based on frequency of use, so the aim is to have students suitably confident in spelling the bulk of words that they most commonly write. The more they write, the more words they will begin to select to use in their writing.  If students are confidently spelling over 70% of their writing correctly already, then that maximises their opportunities to focus on extending the content and structure of their writing, while minimising the amount of time required looking up how to spell 'common' words.

How can I as a parent help?
Students should have a copy of their list in the back of their homework book. Test them on the words they have selected to focus on, as well as some others from the list that they feel they have already mastered.   Once you have tested them on each of the words in the list, and they have mastered each word, you can sign the list as 'complete' (you may want to tick off words from the list when they have shown you that they can spell them correctly on more than one occasion).

Where next?
Students may end up working on different spelling goals either by creating spelling lists from words they have spelled incorrectly in their own work, or looking at particular spelling 'rules' or word families. This will enable them to strengthen their 'spelling sense' when writing.

Essential Spelling List

2011-02-02T08:25:00.000+13:00

You can see the complete list here.

Math home support activities

2011-02-02T08:20:00.000+13:00

After doing some testing with the whole class, the area of 'place value' stood out as something most of us could do with focussing on. If your child is in group 1, they can focus firstly on the stage five activities, if they are in group 3, they can focus on the stage six activities. If in group 2, they could try either.

Here is a general link to activities you can do at home to support math knowledge. Most of our students are working at stages five and six at the moment.

What are 'Key Competencies'?

2011-02-01T09:00:00.000+13:00

Key competencies are the capabilities people have, and need to develop,

to live and learn today and in the future.

Ministry of Education

Basically, they're things we should use well as we live, learn, work, and participate. They are more than just skills, the competencies draw also on knowledge, attitudes, and values in ways that lead to action.

They include...

Thinking
Using language, symbols and texts
Managing ourself
Relating to others
Being involved and contributing

They are the key to learning in every learning area.

Maths multiplication facts - Why an 'easy' focus?

2011-02-01T08:00:00.001+13:00

At the beginning of the year we will have a test of our multiplication knowledge. We will use this to set some goals and a focus for homework tasks.

When we talk about knowledge we mean things that you just 'know' and don't need to work out. The more we just 'know' the less numbers we need to keep in our head when working out bigger number problems. Our times tables are one of those things we should just know without needing to spend a long time working out.

Sometimes we're so keen to get to the 'big' multiplication facts like the 9x, we leave a few gaps behind us. This often shows up when we do tests at the start of the year. We want to remove these gaps, and in some cases, this means starting at the easy ones and moving on from there.

The order of learning times tables from easy to hard is this:
1, 2, 5, 10, 3, 4, 6, 8, 7, 9

So you can see, if you're focussing on the 3s, you're more than half-way there! In fact, the photo shows that for each times table you learn, the next one has one less to learn.

Speech Ideas

2010-05-17T16:59:00.000+12:00

Possible Speech Topics

Prepare a speech for your own wedding
If I were a rock star / film star / sports star
Convince the class that you should be Emperor of the Universe
If I were teacher / Principal for the day
Three things you should know about me
Incy Wincy Spider was the victim
Why the cow jumped over the moon
Humpty Dumpty was pushed
If I had a million dollars
Convince your mum/dad that you need a new computer/bike/toy
My worst fault
Convince your teacher that giving homework is a crime
If I had three wishes
The most important school rule
Road speed limits should be lowered
More people should grow their own vegetables
The best sport ever played
The best song ever sung
There should be more kids’ shows on television
Smoking should be banned
The importance of friends
The voting age should be lowered
There should be less advertisements on television/radio