Science Tech - making fun Christmas decorations

Reflective Art

We have been getting creative with our names this week, using symmetry and reflection to create these cool works of art:

Getting our reading on in Room 12B

This term we are doing Literature circles. Each reading group has a novel that we read together. During the week we have to read an agreed number of chapters and complete a special task that has been assigned to each of us. There are 6 tasks or 'roles'.

1. Discussion director
2. Passage picker
3. Summariser
4. Word master
5. Connector
6. Illustrator

Once a week we get together for a meeting and discuss what we have read so far and share our tasks.

The novels are: The BFG by Roald Dahl, Holes by Louis Sachar and The Silver Sword by Ian Serraillier. 

Statistics Update

We've been all systems go for the last three weeks learning about statistics. Below are some posters Room 12B Maths class made to show what they have been learning. We know all about discrete, continuous and categorical data, which graphs are best suited to each type of data, we can interpret a range of graph types and know how to ask effective investigative questions. Next week we will be following the Statistical Enquiry Cycle to complete a formal investigation. We look forward to sharing with you!

Sheppard House Speech Competition

This morning two representatives from each Sheppard class competed in our House Speech Competition. From Room 12B we had Jack with a speech on not growing up too fast, and Holly with her speech on bullying. Everyone did well and impressed the audience, but it was our Holly and Room 11's Finn taking the top two places. Holly and Finn will go on to represent Sheppard House at the HNI Speech Competition in week 10. Good luck you two!

Here are Jack and Holly's speeches.

Year 7 Mathletics

On Friday morning the whole of year 7 competed in a Mathletics competition. In groups of 3 or 4, we had to solve tricky Maths problems as quick as we could. Everyone was very determined, worked hard and most importantly, had fun!

Room 12B's first Gold award!

Congratulations to Connor who has earned the very first Gold award in Room 12B. It's very exciting to see the Golds coming out now!

HNI Year 7 Technology Challenge

Here we have Imaan & Siobhan and Joel & Ben representing Room 12B in the Year 7 Technology Challenge. They had to fly a red paper flag as high as possible using only paper and sellotape. The boys' tower was taller than every other groups' but unfortunately it was too wobbly and couldn't stand unassisted. The girls on the other hand were able to get theirs to stand steady and won third place!

Well done to both teams.

Sheppard Technology Challenge

Last week the whole of Sheppard house got stuck into a technology challenge. The challenge was to build a contraption that could hold a ping pong ball, and when dropped from a height, would take as long as possible to reach the ground. In pairs, we had to build this contraption using only six A4 sheets of paper, 1m of celotape, some straws, and a pair of scissors! After our planning and building time, we all went out to the fitness course, dropped it off the highest point and timed how long it took to hit the ground. Some designs successfully defied gravity for a little while, others seemed to get swept up in wind and a few plonked straight to the ground in under a second! We had a great afternoon using our creative brains!

What a Treemendous lunch!

Room 12B had the best attendance (class members and whanau) at the Treemendous planting day. As our prize, Ms Vanderpump shouted us a scrummy lunch of hotdogs and chips out on the new performance deck. What a great end of term treat!

Transformation art

For maths we have been using our transformation skills to create a piece of mathematical art. We used squares, rectangles and triangles and had to show rotation, reflection and translation. Here are a few:

Room 12B's Mihimihi

Lately we have been putting together and learning our Mihi.

Mihimihi are introductory speeches which take place at the beginning of a gathering after the more formal powhiri. Mihimihi involve individuals standing to introduce themselves by sharing their whakapapa (genealogy, ancestral ties) Maori people use the mihi as a way of making connections with one another.

Everyone is room 12B has a Mihi and has given it to the class. We also created digital presentations. Here is George's:

What a TREEmendous day!!!

June 5th was a very special day at HNI. Today was Arbor day, a day for planting, nurturing and celebrating trees. It was also World Environment Day, a day for promoting awareness and care for our environment. What better way to acknowledge both of these events than to do some planting! 

Our wonderful Treemendous area is almost complete, and today we helped by each planting a small tree, shrub, grass or flax. In fact, the entire school did their bit throughout the course of the day and it is looking spectacular. 

There are more plants all ready for planting tomorrow at our final Treemendous planting day and celebration. 

We can't wait to start using this awesome new outdoor space!

The power of persuasion...

Right now in Room 12B a hot topic is the NZ Flag debate. We have had some fiery discussions and debates as to whether the flag should remain as it is, or if it is time for change. To rally up support for our side (whichever that may be), we are all writing a persuasive piece. Arguments involve national identity, the economy, representations of cultures, our history, war veterans, national pride and more. Which side are you on? 

Here is a little of what we have done so far:

We looked at samples of persuasive writing to see which persuasive writing techniques are the most powerful:

We made a plan of our ideas before writing: 

We look forward to sharing more soon.

Treemendous painting!

A few of us got together with some students from Hillary house to paint our artwork frames outside in the new Treemendous site. We cannot wait to see the art go up next!
P.S. Work on the Treemendous site is coming along well, we'd love to see you there this Saturday (23rd May) to give us a hand!

HBHS Cultural Performance

At last week's assembly HNI were very lucky to have the HBHS cultural groups perform. Both their Kapahaka and Pasifika groups are extremely talented and passionate about their art. What a treat!

Paper plane innovation

This term our inquiry is Movers and Shakers - with a focus on innovation. Here we are innovating on the humble paper plane to make it fly as far as possible. We had great fun! Well done to Joel's group and Luis's group for the best innovation!

TREEmendous ART!!!

At HNI, all classes are in the process of creating a unique piece of corrugated iron artwork to be permanently displayed outside in the new Treemendous makeover area. For homework last week we all came up with a design to put forward. Our theme is flora and fauna. Here are some of the favourites.

Next step is putting the winning design onto the iron! Watch this space...

Fractions in maths

This term we're all about fractions in room 12B.

Here is a video made by Hayley and Tayla demonstrating how to add fractions with unlike denominators by finding the lowest common denominator. Can you spot what their next step is?

Making Felt Balls

Today we got to spend the afternoon with Miss Hawtin making felt balls! We started out by choosing which colours we wanted, then with a bit of elbow grease we worked soapy water into sheep wool - over and over and over! Then we rubbed and rolled and shaped the wool into neat little felt balls.

Here's our finished product. Thanks Miss Hawtin!!

Little Scientists - learning about acids and bases

How we're feeling in Te Reo

This week we have been learning about how to ask how someone is feeling and respond appropriately. 

Can you spot the photo where Jonty is feeling happy/angry/hungry/good/sad/sleepy?

Reciprocal Reading

One of our group tasks for reading is called reciprocal reading. 





















Each member of the group takes a turn at leading the discussion by predicting, clarifying, asking questions and summarising. 

We are getting more confident discussing what we read and sharing our opinions and ideas.

What we learned from the Bugman... aka Rudd Kleinpaste (use the bar at the side and bottom to read all of our ideas)

Created with Padlet

Holleigh B's pieces of ancient NZ history

Our Inquiry focus this term is Turangawaewae - meaning 'a place to stand'. We are learning about NZ's heritage and history. Holleigh B was kind enough to bring in a collection of precious Moa bones found by her Poppa and Great Poppa many years ago. It's really interesting to have a close encounter with the remains of the extinct native bird. They were MASSIVE!!

Impromptu morning jam in Room 12B

We have been learning to play guitar in Music class. 'The lion sleeps tonight' is just one of the songs we are learning. What a nice way to start the day :-)

Group 12Bb at Science

Thanks for the cool Pic Collage, Miss Hawtin!

Multiplication Strategy Game

This morning we played a fun two-player strategy game that used both our multiplication and addition skills. It's fair to say there are some very competitive people in Room 12B!

Loop de loop Team Building

Here is Room 12B doing a fun team building activity. Everybody had a good time and learned how important it is to be patient, encouraging and positive. The key to success in an activity like this? Communication!!

Class Treaty

Today we completed and signed our Class Treaty. We started last week by imagining what a class with no rules would look like/sound like/feel like. We came to a consensus pretty quickly that class rules are definitely a good thing!

Next, we all wrote down 2 rules or expectations that we think we should have in our class.

Finally, Miss Pitt put all our suggestions together into a Treaty for us to sign.