Happy Holidays!

A great end to Term 3, thank you Room 5!

Remember to check out Khan Academy for some maths learning and see what you think.  You should have received an email with your personal login earlier this week.  If not, go to the Khan Academy website, and select 'log in using Google', then put in your Balmoral Google account details, see if that works.

Here are the videos resulting from our Social Justice Rich Task, for any of you who would like to watch them again:

Berlin Wall discussion

For today's blog discussion, please visit Sophie, Miranda and Leah's blog about the Berlin Wall and Freedom of Movement.  Their most recent posts give you a personal story from the Berlin Wall, and invite you to think a little deeper about your responses to their poll: WHY did you vote yes, no or not sure in response to the question "Does anyone ever deserve to be kept in one spot?"

So, have a think about that question, and post your thoughts and discussion on the Freedom of Movement Project blog here: http://thefreedomofmovementproject.blogspot.co.nz/2013/09/your-thoughts.html

And if you have a chance, have a look at the rest of the blog and leave some comments.

Dawn or Rory

Dawn and Rory are each taking it in turns to tell the story of the Slobberers.  They don't seem to like each other very much.

Which of the two characters can you relate to the most?  Which one do you like?  Why?

Calendar Art

Over the past week, Room 5 has had free choice to create their calendar art.  Below are the results.  If you would like to order any calendars, cards or diaries featuring this art, make sure you complete and return the notice sent home a week or two ago.  If you don't have one of these notices, there are plenty of spares at the office.

Word Science and Fitness??

We had a go at combining Word Science and Fitness today - it seemed to be pretty successful.  There was the usual shared document, in which we were to brainstorm words in teams.  Today it was words with the 'k' sound at either the beginning, middle or end.

But this time, the netbooks were at one end of a court, and we were at the other, racing each other in relays to get as many words in as possible.
Tomorrow we will examine the words we entered: Are there any that don't quite belong and why?  What are the different spelling patterns for the 'k' sound in words?  Check it out!

Poor Finger and mouse...

What on earth do you think has happened to them?  What clues has the author given us?

Team NZ get 7th point

You guys did an awesome job taking notes and analysing this morning's America's cup race!

What did you learn from the experience?  How did it make you feel watching the race?

Learn about the Berlin Wall

The Yellow Smiles team have created a blog exploring the concept of 'Freedom of Movement', with a focus on the Berlin Wall.  After every Rich Task session they will update it with new facts, thoughts and ideas.

Check it out and join in their poll: http://thefreedomofmovementproject.blogspot.co.nz/

The Slobberers - the second character

Paul Jennings, our author, just switched to write from a different character's perspective in our read to book, The Slobberers.  He has used this new character to drop in all sorts of new and unexpected clues to really keep us guessing: How did he hurt his leg?  How did Dawn's mum die?  What does all of this have to do with the old school bus?

What do you think?

The Slobberers

We started reading a short book at the end of today - it's called The Slobberers and is written by Paul Jennings.

The author has implied that Dawn, the main character, has somehow ruined her dad's wedding to Eileen.  What do you think she did to mess up the day?  Go on, let's see your predictions!

Life is not a Fairytale

Word on the street says that it was a pretty excellent Intermediate Speech Final today.  Sorry I missed it!
I also heard that our Greer represented us to the max - well done for coming in even though you are sick, Greer.  What a trooper.  An unnamed teacher spectator told me "Hers was my favourite speech in terms of content, what a great message - really original!"

So what was your favourite speech?  Why?

Chopper Challenge Round 1

Day 1 of Chopper Challenge completed!  Well done Room 5 - some awesome effort out there.
Remember, lots of the fitness challenges are things you can practise at home too to really improve your fitness - sit ups, star jumps, burpees, push ups and a 4 minute run.

How was this first session for you?

(photos to follow)