M Homework

This week's homework topic was a career starting with M. Here is the learning that some of the students did. These were chosen by the class. Hopefully you will be able to read them properly. Click on the photos to see them (much) larger.




Jessica's topic was Marine Biologist. As always, her presentation and design was neat and attractive. She even included a Wordle of key phrases relating to her topic.


Laura has been looking forward to this week for a while now. She is a big fan of monkeys.


Adam's learning on Magicians was awesome. In the hat is a removable rabbit (so you are pulling a rabbit out of the hat) which includes more information.


My favourite topic this week was Devan's Muppeteer. This really took me back to my childhood. Good times...


Rio found a lot of information about Matadors. From what he's found out, it sounds like a pretty dangerous job.



Once again, Shenae produced some fantastic learning, using some really creative ideas for presenting her information. She has now achieved two 10s, the only person to do so this year.

I'm looking forward to next week's homework - Pod 9 always come up with some really interesting topic when they have a free choice.

New Gear, Old Problems

Hello everybody.
The new school year started this week on Wednesday. The senior school has relatively big classes this year, with 30 students in Pod 9.
While I would love to have the class put their first posts up on a blog, this is currently impossible due to a new computer system being installed at Hurupaki School. However, our new Airports are yet to arrive in New Zealand, and so we don't have any internet access in classes.
As you can imagine, this has been rather frustrating for the students and teachers alike. Hopefully we will be back online asap.
By the way, I have set up a wiki for Pod 9 this year with individual students having their own pages. I'm hoping that they will take ownership of their sites, posting their work here in the future. Watch this space. Just click on the wikispaces icon below for find it, even though there's nothing really there yet....
Hope to hear from you all soon.

The Summer Break

Hello to everybody out there. I hope that you're having a great break from school, and that Santa was good to you this year.
Just to let you know that this blog will be going off line sometime near the end of the holidays, perhaps the 28th or 29th of January. Until then you are of course welcome to use it as you have in the past.
If you have any comments or opinions about the blog and how we have used it, please leave a comment. I would really like to know how it could be improved on for the future.
Enjoy the rest of your holidays - they will be over before you know it!
Mr B.

Street Art

During this final term of 2008, our topic for art has been street art. The key concepts that we have been exploring have been:

1. The use of modern fonts over traditional fonts,
2. The contrast of using cold colours and hot coulurs, and
3. The use of space, and in particular the layering, or overlapping of letters in words.

Every student in Pod 9 made their work based around a fruit. Their work has been compiled into this slideshow. They worked really hard to achieve these results, and I feel these photos do not provide the same effect as seeing the works in real life, so to speak.

I think you'll see the quality that everybody strived for during this learning.
Enjoy.




Mr B.

Hurupaki Tapuwae Champions

Today Pod 9 and Pod 10 played the final of the Hurupaki Senior School Tapuwae competition. It was a very tight battle, with some very long periods of play without goals being scored.

In the end Pod 9 came out on top by a score of 18-15. Both teams played exceptionally well and can be proud of the way that they played - hard but fair. Pod 7 finished third, and Pod 8 fourth.

On the whole, I think the competition has been a success and I intend to run similiar competitions next year.

Hopefully we will have photos of the "trophy presentation" next week, depending on when it will be held.

Mr B.

What do we know about Gravity?

Yesterday the class watched some videos about skydiving and the use of parachutes and discussed how and why things fall or sink. We had used a bus stop activity to explore some ideas about gravity and air. There were 7 statements written on card that each individual had to decide was true or false.

Some of the statements were "Air can push against things", "When an object is floating, it is not falling", and "We can speed up or slow down the rate at which an object falls through the air." Some of the results were very interesting.









Click on the pictures to get a better look at them.
At the end of our unit, we will revisit these and see if our opinions have changed at all.

World of Maths

Today Pod 9, along with Pod 7, were able to participate in a World of Maths workshop. In groups of three, students move around different activities and using their mathematical abilities, solve the various problems. There was a wide range of activities that required different skills that many students did not even realise that they had. Here are a few photos of students at work. For the Pod 9 students reading this, leave a comment explaining what activities you liked and why. Would you recommend other students attend World of Maths? Why/Why not??


Here Matthew is putting together a 3D jigsaw puzzle. How did you get on Matthew?


Hayley, Victoria and Caitlin are thinking interdependently to build bridges between islands. Not as easy as it sounds. Did your little man get eaten by a crocodile?


Jayd, Jayden M. and Julian are working out where the pirates have hidden the key and their treasure. Aaaaaaaarrrrrrrrr..........


Latrell, Brodie and Ngahere are navigating their way through a maze. "Where's the maths?!?" I hear you ask. You have to measure the distance between the 'posts' to work out which way to go.


Cheyenne, Jayden H. and Jessica are working out some area problems, and deciding if this 'building' meets the council bylaws. Is there going to be a demolition, or can we move the furniture in?

Over the Holidays...

Hi everybody, I hope you're having a great holiday.
I just wanted to remind you that you can write on the blog during the holidays if you want. Tell us about the places you go and the things that you do. Don't forget to use those thinking words!!
See you all in couple of weeks.
Mr Buckland.

Friday 19 Sept

Today is a very special day - International Talk-like-a-Pirate Day!! Aaaaaarrrrrrr


We are also helping Pod 1 to use the COW for the first time today. It is a bit crowded at the moment, but everybody is enjoying themselves and learning some new skills - both Pod 1 and Pod 9.

Hopefully we'll have some photos for you soon.