Animal Habitat Report

This week our writing task is to write a report about the habitat of our chosen living thing. Some of us have picked snakes, wombats and even the extinct 'Bear-dog.'

Here is how we find out how good our report is. It's called a solo matrix and we move our names up the matrix if we have met that level. At the highest level, the extended abstract level, we need to explain how our animal interacts with 'other' living things in it's habitat.

We can also use this criteria to help us form a great report structure. You can help us research our animals at home if we need it. We've learnt how to use key words in the search bar and to use the most important word first.

Speeches!

This week the students all gave a speech on something they're passionate about. They were practising how to use gestures, maintain eye contact and use expression - among lots of other things!  Well done, everyone. It's a scary thing to give a speech in front of your class and I know for that many of you it was your first time. You should be very proud of your efforts.

Everyone had their speech recorded and you can listen to them here on our soundcloud account (some will be uploaded early next week). Next week we will be posting our speech and the assessment sheet we get on our efolios. Each student will reflect on two things they will improve for their next speech in 3 weeks! I'm sure they will all improve!

Here is Amy's speech that she gave about her love for Dalmatian Dogs.

Moffat Cup

Hay yes every one is excited about Moffat Cup which is in two weeks.
Moffat Cup involves Netball, Rippa Rugby and Tackle Rugby. The schools who are compete in Moffat Cup are Myross Bush, Rimu, Woodlands, Tokonui, Gorge Road and Tisbury. Myross Bush have a good chance of winning the Moffat Cup this year again.

 Go Myross Bush!!

By Ben Wylie.

Using scale with maps

Today we had a workshop on how to read a scale on maps. We used this interactive and you can have another look at home to refresh your memory.

We also started reading, 'Amazon Adventure' by Willard Price. Have a look at this map of the Amazon and see if you can spot the scale and work the distances.

Environment Inquiry, Living Or Not?

Hello, This term our inquiry is all about environment and habitat.

Lately we have been learning how to tell what is alive and what is not.
We watched a video that told us about Mrs Gren. Mrs Gren is a acronym that helps us remember how to tell if something is living or not.This is what Mrs Gren stands for:

M-movement
R-respiration
S-sensitivity

G- growth
R-reproduction
E-excretion
N-nutrition

If something is living it must do or be all of these things.

The teacher read out some objects and we had to decide if they were living or not, here are some of the things we had to sort out,


Living:                                    Non living:

Jelly fish,                                 Vacum,
Cat,                                         Car,
Snail,                                       Laptop,
Fish.                                        Hot air balloon

We also had to go home and talk to our parents about fire and if it was alive or not.
what is you opinion? Is fire alive or not?

Leave a comment and tell us what you think!
Bye for now!

Olympics Project - Homework

Here is a project for you to complete in class and at home before next Monday. Our class is going to all Olympic ready by the time the events begin next week!

Our New Room...s!

We've in! On Friday we moved everything into our new classroom and we're loving the two breakout rooms that go with it. Here's a 360 panorama site that shows you our main room from every angle.

All it needs now is some of our work on display (and our tree to be planted / stapled up) and it will feel like home.  We hope you can pop in sometime soon and have a nosey around.

Living and Non-Living

This week we started looking at the living world around us. We began our inquiry by learning about what makes something alive - the way that scientists categorise living things.

The 'acronym' MRS GREN helps us remember each part. Watch this interactive again to remind yourself what each letter means.

Have you had a chance to decide whether 'fire' is alive or not? You can make a comment below about your opinion!

Our Speeches

Here's our first post by Jaidene, our 'Blogger of the Day!'  Great work, Jaidene!

This morning we have started our speech competition all of us are starting there brain storm. We also watched a you tube clip to give us some tips for when they tell their speech.
Like.
- Make your audience comfortable.
- Eye contact.
- Power of the pause.
- Body language -hands
                         -movement
                         -gestures
- Don't be boring.
- Volume control.

Marshmallow Challenge

Today we started the term with a challenge - 'How high can you build a tower for your marshmallow?' It's based on this challenge that has been done with thousands of people all over the world.

Here are some of our best efforts!

We learned that it's best to have a go and not be afraid if it falls over - that's about taking risks and keep on trying.

We also talked about how our class would have to use a lot of team work to be achieve our goals!

Our first week?!!

Welcome to the Matai Masters blog! As you can see from this photo it's going to be an interesting first week starting from Monday. This was taken on Tuesday and it's looking like our new room will be completed sometime in week 2 or 3 (the linings that will go on our walls are still on a ship somewhere out to sea).  So..

...our first two weeks will be spent in the largest class of all - the Activity Centre!  There are some pros and cons with this -

Pros - LOADS of space, a huge area for sports games, close to the car park (I know, I'm stretching that last one)
Cons - could be chilly, we'll have to talk quietly due to the echo...

But - it will be an adventure! Looking forward to seeing you all on Monday and getting into a new Term!

Make sure you bookmark this site at home so Mum and Dad can find it easily!

Mr Herring