Term 3/4 Interest Projects Review

It has been an extremely busy Term!

Students worked hard to complete nterest Projects.

Lotu and Keahi presented some interesting information about New Zealand's Sporting Culture. They informed us of some of New Zealand's sporting successes and  have outlined how success in sport is linked to coaches, passion and overcoming challenges.

Aaron and Zendon provided insightful information about solar powered houses. They contacted experts in this field to get some of their information and provided us with the benefits and cost of solar panels.

Olivia and Azahlia helped us understand what it is like for fellow students who are in wheelchairs in our area. To do this the girls interviewed students in person (at our school) and online (students in other schools). The girls used the information they gathered to outline the challenges and benefits of being in a wheelchair. They discussed the various types and costs of wheelchairs. After interviewing a local boy in a wheelchair they were able to explain the disorder Morquio.

Juliet researched and shared information on ghosts including the Catholic Church's perspective of ghosts, why some people believe or do not believe in ghosts and some of the methods believed to prevent ghosts.

Seamus, Cole, Andre, Nelson and Ryan attempted to use their Interest Based Learning time to create their own game. They discovered that the time frame for the project was not long enough to fully develop the game they were hoping. Throughout the project they also noticed that working in a big group can have challenges. Although the game was not finished, the boys shared information about what successful games have had in common e.g. story lines, graphics, characters.
'In conclusion we can’t make a game in this time frame. But we did make a couple games and we are still going to keep trying to make the game in our free time the reason we have  been unable to make the game in this time frame is because the research took most of our time and we had difficulty finding the equipment we need.'

Andre and Hirday worked really well together to create a questionnaire type game using coding and explained that if you would like to start coding you could start by completing a coding course on Codeacademy. They pointed out that this is just the beginning and there is lots to learn about coding.

Allen, Josh and Jack worked together on a project about obesity. They provided us with information about your BMI, the effects obesity has on your health and some of the reasons for obesity. The boys contacted an outside expert (Dr Kelly) for extra information and received information about the steps were taking as a country to help reduce obesity in New Zealand.

Anaru worked hard to explore what robots are being used for nowadays. Anaru researched how robots are being used in the military, in medicine and in schools. Anaru thinks robots are key to the future.

Nicolai and Edward requested start up money to fundraise for the Salvation Army. The boys calculated the amount of money they would need, arranged assistance from Mrs Goodwin to tie dye t-shirts before selling them to repay their start up money and make a profit of $100 which they donated to the Salvation Army.

Alesha and Marlene aimed to create awareness about mental health and raise funds for 'The Friendship House' in Gisborne. The girls held a cupcake day and raised $195.50. Outstanding effort! Find out more by visiting their blogs and use it to ask them questions.

Alesha's Blog
Marlene's Blog


Lily and Sophie completed an Interest Project about animal testing. They explained why animal testing exists but outlined the negative effects of it. The girls also provided us with a number of common products that use animal testing.

Maia and Grace were motivated by their love of the 'Harry Potter' book series to complete a project about reading and books. The girls shared information about why reading in beneficial, why particular books are popular and why some books are banned in New Zealand. The girls stimulated some great sharing about students' favourite books.

WELL DONE 7/8 OD

Lots of hard work, lots of communication and lots of learning (from various aspects)!

Diary of a Wimpy Kid

During our Term 4 Reading Challenge lots of us read or reread 'Diary of a Wimpy Kid'.

One highlight was congratulating Lotu on fully reading her first novel 'Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Old School'. 

We were super lucky to have Andre bring his ever own 'Diary of a Wimpy Kid' box set to class for all of us to use. Thank you Mrs Rudd (our Librarian) for helping us keep Andre's books in great condition!

Cole and Andre helped us check our comprehension by using their expert knowledge of the series to check how much information we understood and remembered!

THANK YOU EVERYONE, ESPECIALLY ANDRE!

Term 4 Homework Challenge (2015)

Welcome Term 4

Welcome! The last term of 2015 is upon us. We have a very busy term ahead which will include finishing interest projects, swimming, triathlon practice, movie reviews and lots more!!

One thing we will be doing this term is a reading challenge where students aim to complete the sheet below by reading a variety of texts throughout the term. Check in on students' individual blogs to see how their challenge is going.

Students of the Week

Congratulations to our recent Students of the Week... Anaru and Lily.

They were nominated by their fellow students for the following reasons:

Thank you Alesha for designing and creating these certificates.

Interest Projects

Year 7 & 8 students have started their second Interest Project.

There are a range of exciting ideas across all classes including coding, animal cruelty, free range chickens, raising money for the poor, fitness/health, effects of technology on our health and lots, soar power, wheelchair accessibility, education and more.

We are going to be very busy getting to the impact stage of our projects.

Thank you Lucy and Lana from our blogging buddy class at Selywn House for asking your blogging buddies questions and giving them tips on their Interest Projects.

Thank you Caro from our blogging buddy class at Auroa Primary School for your comments too.

Keep up to date with the progress of our projects or offer support/suggestions by visiting our students' individual blogs.

Stages of Inquiry

This week year 7/8 students are reviewing the stages of inquiry they learned in Term 1.


We would love to hear from you if you have previously completed an inquiry using some or all of these stages. What was your inquiry on? Which stage did you find most difficult and why? Which stage did you enjoy completing the most?

This is in preparation for our second Interest Based Learning Project. We will be using the stages of inquiry to help us structure and plan a project on an interest of our choice. Lots of us have already decided what we are going to do and are getting very excited. We will use our individual blogs to update you on our progress.

Students of the Week

Each week a group in our class has the responsibility of awarding Dojo points and nominating a Student of the Week.










Congratulations to our Week 5 Student of the Week -Andre.
Andre has been working hard to improve the amount of work he gets completed in class time and is always respectful during class discussions.







Congratulations to our Week 6 Student of the Week - Juliet.
Fellow students nominated Juliet because they have noticed she is always focused on her work and ready for learning.

Storyboard: How to write a science report?

In 7/8 OD we have been learning how to write a science report. Our task was to share what we have learned in creative ways.  

This is how Josh shared his learning using storyboardthat.com

Check out Josh's blog and leave him a comment by clicking HERE

Middle School Ski Trip

Last week year 7/8 students traveled to Mt Ruapehu for the week of a lifetime.

From chilling out in our warm cosy hut to flying down the slope on our board or skis, we had an excellent time!

This was all of us at the top of Knoll Ridge.

This is our class at the bottom of Happy Valley after our very first run down.

Our Rangatira mascot :-)

Snowball fights and fun outside our hut.

We had amazing helpers in our hut. 

Lucky us! Maddie (& her dad Rob) and Summer chose to join our hut. It was awesome having them!

Meeting up in the morning to get our ski passes!

After dinner we wrote in our diaries!

We all had an amazing time and we are so grateful for all the hard work that went into organising this trip. We are particularly thankful to Mr Naden and our parent helpers Rob Ashworth and Mark Armstrong. 

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR AN AMAZING EXPERIENCE

FROM 7/8 OD & Maddie & Summer

Student of the Week

Week 3 this term saw Hannah Ruelens receive our Student of the Week certificate before she left us to return home to Belgium. 

Hannah was nominated  for being a helpful, kind, caring and polite classmate.

We are already missing you Hannah! We hope you arrive home safe and we look forward to reading about your life back home on your new blog. ;-)

Student of the Week

Congratulations to our Term 3 Week 2 Student of the Week:

Aaron Sarcia

Aaron was nominated by his fellow students for always working hard and doing his best in class.

Welcome to 7/8 OD Term 3 2015

Welcome back from the holidays.
7/8 OD have been busy getting back into learning after the holidays.

We have been setting up individual blogs which will be popping up on the side of this blog very soon.

Our focus this term is 'Relating to Others'. As part of this focus we have new co-operative learning groups. Each week one of our groups are responsible for awarding 'Dojo' points and nominating a Student of the Week.

Week 1 this term our Student of the Week, as nominated by fellow students, was 

Seamus Mc Cormack

CONGRATULATIONS SEAMUS!

Keep it up!