Current Events

Today we discussed the Tsunami protector product that has been invented in Japan.

We discussed the good points and the problems with it. Mr Baylis then asked the class if they could create something better what would it be?

Here are our suggestions on improving this idea:

I think for the people that are concerned that a Tsunami could happen any time they should have a tent that is made out of the stuff tat the balls are made out of so they can float .by Mason

I think that in there safety balls they should have seats and seat belts so they can store food, water, batteries, first aid kits and anything else you need to survive with. I think the windows should be made out of strong glass or plastic so they don't break if any sharp or heavy objects come fling into the window and smashing it causing water to flood in drowning everyone inside they should also have a break away button or cord so they can have an easy escape if something does break. By Paige


I think the safety balls they should put oxygen masks inside it so they know that it is alright to breathe and put protection pads on the poll and seats.From Nicholas


I think they could have pull out draws under the seats the store food or drinks and anything that you might need. By Tessa


The safety balls are a great idea but they might have to add a few improvements like side padding to protect the people inside, a space to put clothes, food, etc,. A room to put the ball in because if there is another earthquake the debris will cover the safety ball so you will need a solid room to put it in. Also maybe make it a bit bigger so you can sleep in it because you don't now how long you'll be in it for and some room for chairs so you don't have to crouch all the time your in it. Also  belts maybe so you don't bang around.
But the only problem is how will you go toilet? Nathan=)


I think the safety balls are alright  they will keep you safe in all but they should be more safe they could have seat belts and first aid kits and food and water. I also think  it should be see through so they can see if they are in trouble.  also how will you go to the toilet? it should be a bit bigger and have a cord so it is easy storage and you can get to it quick in an emergency. they  should have  an emergency exit.  i think they should have instead of a ball have everyday things like a car that does exactly the same as the safety ball. They should also build a bedroom that is strong and is easy to get to that does exactly the same as the safety balls.                                                               Jacqui!!!  

Our Noise Experiment

Mr Baylis worked into the wee small hours last night completing our noise level chart.

Our day is broken down into our main learning areas, and how long we will be approximately spending on each one.
We then decide as a class at the beginning of the day what we think our noise levels should be for the different parts of the day. We have a mixture of whole class and group activities and these are split into noise levels as well.

We will trial this next week and reflect on whether we think it has been helpful or not.

If you have any reccommendations/ideas please feel free to comment below and let us know.

(Our initial noise chart)

Noisy Classrooms

I was looking at Miss White and Room 2's blog page the other day

http://turuturuschoolroom2.blogspot.com/

saw their discussion about Noisy Classrooms and was so inspired i decided to try it out with Room 1.

Here's the article:

I then asked the students in Room 1 what their thoughts were. This generated great debate as approximately half of the class enjoyed working with noise while half didn't.

The question was then asked, 'How do we meet the needs of every student in the class in terms of noise level?'

Here are our initial thoughts:

We then took one of these, a noise chart, and explored ways of creating a chart that could assist with this.

Here are our drafts:






We have decided to combine bits of each plan to create 1 noise level chart for the class. It will be created soon and we will trial it for 2 weeks. We'll keep you updated with how it's going.

A big thankyou to Miss White and Room 2 for showing me their wonderful ideas and for inspiring our own.

Current Events

Our focus for Current Events at the moment is to form and justify an opinion about a contentious topic.

Our topic for today is: Should schools still have a library?

We read this article from the website stuff:

Check out our thoughts on our wallwisher.

What are your thoughts? Feel free to let us know : )

Current Events - Pay It Forward

Today for Current Events we read and discussed the following article (If you click on the picture it will take you there):

We then discussed the concept of 'Paying It Forward', whether we should be doing it and examples of when we have done it. 

Here is our class definition of 'Pay It Forward': Doing a simple act of kindness because you can, and not expect anything in return.

Here are some of our thoughts and examples:

I think pay it forward is good because when you help people you fell good inside.

When my sister was hurt I took out the bins for her.By Nicholas.

I think pay it forward is good because it's good to help people.When my little brother jumped off my bed and hit his head on the other bed I did his jobs.By Todd.

I think pay it forward is good because others will respect you for it and may return the favour.

When my mum was sore and not feeling well I made her breakfast because it looked liked she needed help. By Tessa

I think it is bad because you might have a little bit of petrol then you give somebody most of your petrol

and you might not have any petrol for you so you will be stuck and there are no petrol places around you.

When my friend James has no food I give him some of my food and I call them presents.

by TANAE

I think pay it forward is good because you are being nice to someone and they might give you back the favour.I gave my sister $2 to buy some noodles.By Caitlyn

The challenge has now been set to Room 1 to Pay It Forward every day for a week, and next Thursday we'll discuss how we got on. If you have any Pay It Forward moments, please share them with us as we'd love to hear them.

Current Events - Getting Stuck

Today we discussed the little boy who got himself stuck in a vending machine. This created great discussion about unusual places we have been stuck. Here are some of our own experiences:

When I was little i thought I could get my head under a bar that was about 10 cm tall I got my body under but not my head my head was stuck i waved to my mum and she got someone to get me out by bending the bar. Paige.

when I was about 8 I was in the mall my lace of my sneaker and it got stuck in the escalator so we had to snip it of.by Nicholas

When i was 9 years old i got stuck in the bathroom after i had a shower because i forgot that you can't unlock it from the inside or outside. Emily D

When I was 5 and my brother was 8 we were playing hide and go seek and I went to hide in the closet and my brother came looking for me and he went out of the room.I went to open the door to hide somewhere else but I couldn't because it was locked and there was no handle on the inside of where I was. I finally got out because I wasa screaming as loud as I could!! Serena.

When i was 4 i was in a dairy with my mum. i tried to get an ice-blok and i fell in so my mum had to get me out.by Marshall


At my old house I locked me and my sister in the wardrobe.There was no handle inside the wardrobe so me and my sister were screaming for help.One hour later mum came home heard us screaming for help 30 minutes later mum helped us out and asked why did we go in the wardrobe in the first place? After that she gave us something to eat after 1 hour and 30 minutes in the wardrobe.Written by Shawna

At my old house in New Plymouth my sister Jana my brother Leroy and I were playing hide and seek and I went in to the washing room and I hopped into the washing machine and I got stuck because I shut the door and I got locked in and I was in there for 15 minutes and then my brother let me out. By Tanae

When I was at Rotorua me and my family went lodging on some carts. When I got to the end of the track I had to go up a ski lift tip of thing. I got on it but when it got half way it broked down and I had to wait 20 minutes for it to go again. By Nathan

When I was chasing my cat it ran outside so I stuck my head through the cat door so I could see where he went. When I stuck my head through the cat door the cat scratched my face when I was pulling my head out I couldn't my head was stuck so i had to wait 1 and a half  hours untill my mum got home. By MAX

When i was eight me my family went on a holiday to Australia so we went to the Caloundra Races.
I said I'll go up really close so they said ok. So i went up and after the race my leg was stuck in the bars.
So I waved and my mum just waved back so i asked the guy standing next to me he came and moved the bars.So i said thanks and i ran back to my parent to tell them. By Tessa

When i was six i got suck in my rabbit hutch because my brother lock me in .I was suck in there for an hour and then my Mum came to feed my rabbit  and then she let me out .By Mason

  When I was eight I had to under my friends house to help them connect their tv. I went down with my friend and their was a small hole. I tried to get through it. It took me four goes before I got through so I could get through and get the wire. I grabbed the wire and tried to go back through the hole but I got my head and arms stuck. I tried to wriggle out but I couldn't moe so I asked my friend if he could try and pull me out. After a while he managed to pull me out. Phew. By Blair

When I was about 2, I was following my cat, Fred around the house when he got scared and ran in the cat carrier. Before I got in he ran out but I didn't notice until I was in the cat carrier. After that Fred was wondering where I went so he walked past the cat carrier and slammed the door shut. So after half an hour in there Mum came downstairs and was looking everywhere for me. When she finally found me I was still stuck so she got me out. By Emily R

when I was 7 I was going tolit but I didn't notice that I locked the door so I got locked  and I started screaming so mum found me and unlocked the door.
by Akif

when i was stuck i was in a lift and the power went off and i was stuck in there for 20 minutes! by Caitlyn

i got stuck in behind the clothes at the warehouse. shicaela.

I got stuck in the toilet I was three and locked myself in Naasirah.

When i got stuck was when the power went out and i was in the elervater Rayna thomas

I got stuck in the bathroom because the door was jamed by chloe
 
well i was getting potty trained and i fell in the toilet and i  locked the door before i went and my brother had to climb in the window to get me out. by Amy Toi..                                                                      

I was playing blind fold with jade and she was telling me to move up , left , down , right  and jade lead me to the closet and she had opened it before i went in and it was cold in there and she locked me in and i took my blind fold off and i ended up in the closet . By Aaria Canterbury

I was playing hide and seek with my brother and I hid in the closet and the door looked but i didnt know and I climbed up to the top shelf in the closet and my head got stuck bettwen the bar that holds the clothes and the top shelf and it was 2 hours till somone found me and got me out. By Kurtis Fenton

This morning we discussed the world hot dog eating championships, who won, and how this is a special talent of the winner Joey Chestnut.

Here's the link: 

http://www.stuff.co.nz/oddstuff/5233475/Hot-dog-champ-eats-20-000-calories-in-10-minutes

Mr Baylis then challenged us to find and show off a special skill or talent that we have. Here are some of our talents:

  I can shake my eyes really fast.
Emily R

 

 I can do reverse moonwalk and normal moonwalk. Michael

 I can go red. Akif

 I can twist my arm around. Max

 I can put my leg behind my head. Max

 I can do a walkover back and forward without stopping. Jacqui

 I can do a hand stand more than 5 seconds. Naasirah

 This is me moving my nostrels up and down. Kurtis

I can dislocate my toe then put it back together.
Nathan Purser

Current Events

Today for Current Events we talked about the rugby union in Auckland that has decided to cap their rugby scores at 35. We discussed whether this should be done across all children's sports. Check out our responses below.

We also had a quick discussion as a class about the Israeli couple who named their child after the 'like' button on facebook.

Mr Baylis then posed the question, "Should parents be able to call their children any name they want to?"

This generated such good discussion that we've now created a poll to gather everyone's opinons. It's up for a week so please vote and tell us what you think on the topic.

Today for current events we talked about 'planking' the new craze that is hitting Australia.

We discussed how social media (facebook etc) can influence people's decisions. We also talked about the fact that every action has a consequence.

Here are some personal unedited views about planking and social media.

- I don't think planking is cool and fun because it has killed a person who did it on top of a 7 storey building.  Lots of people have tried doing it on 20 storey buildings and railways and have got themselves in big trouble. Michael

-I don't think planking is cool because what does it do what do you do apart from laying on the couch or where ever you want it can be real dangerous when you go on something high or something you need to ballance on. Why would you think that planking on a balcony railway or even on your couch is cool you do absolutely nothing. Paige

- I don't like planking because it is dangerous because their was a person planking on a 7 story building and there were 3 people on top of each other on a railway line and they almost got hit. Nicholas

- I dont like planking because it is a silly thing to do and people should not listen to this little lie. It is not fun it is dangerous and people can end up dying. I think people should not follow this. The person who made this up is crazy and where did he/she get this stupid idea.And i mean it at the end of the day someone could die and you just lost the person or people you care about so dont do it!!! Amy

- I dont like planking because if they do it on the roof they could lose their balance and fall off. Marshall.

- I don't like planking because what's the whole point of it? All you do is get hurt and you could lose what you love like your mum and dad. I've heard a story about someone planking on a rail on top of a 7 story building and he lost his balance and fell down and died.So planking is not a good idea but you can plank on the ground because you can't get hurt but don't start planking or you might die if you be silly. Serena.