Archive for the 'Harakeke – rm 5 – Matt Titcombe' Category

Harakeke Term 2 in Review

Published on July 8, 2011 in Harakeke - rm 5 - Matt Titcombe and Uncategorized. 0 Comments

Term 2 2011 in review

What action filled, jam packed term in the realm of Harakeke.

With focus being on the Arts and Enterprise we have been doing lots of related learning.

Instructional writing we have been learning inform people on HOW TOWe were given various instructions on how to make Oobleck, a non-Newtonian fluid.

Some were more successful than others, from these we came up with our own features of a successful instruction.

Is it solid or liquid?

Hey guys do think this stuff is radioactive?

With all the learning we have to have some serious fun. The school ‘Futuristic Fluoro Disco’ was heaps of fun. Harakeke came to party and dressed to impress.

Take Me to Your Leader!!!

We celebrated the unveiling of our Rainforest signs with a grand opening of the tracks. We got to guide the school and community around and tell them of all the wonders hidden in the Rainforest.

Come and see the geckos in our wonderful rainforest

We have been focusing on Multiplication, Division, Geometry and Fractions for our Numeracy this term. We participated an experiment with Te Kouka were we played Multiplication and Division games on the computer and Te Kouka played board games and dice games in the class. Our initial results showed that the children who played the educational basic fact games on the computer made a greater improvement.

The Grand finale for the end of term was our Art Expo we focused on photography as our medium of art and learnt about Elements of photography such has filling the frame, the rule of thirds, Micro and Macro, perspectives and many more. Caroline came in and inspired and guided us to some amazing pieces.

We explored the HVS and found our favourite place and took multiple photos. Taking inspirations from David Hockney we created collages of our faces and favourite places.

Colourkeke Harakeke Class piece

101 EYES Harakeke Class Piece

Harakeke chose baking for their enterprise it was an astounding success. There were amazing teamwork and entrepnerial skills shown by our students. “Watch out Stephen Tindall”. It was a sell out night with many happy customers sampling our chocolate delights.

: Get back to work!!!!!

Thanks to all the parents who helped throughout the term. See you all back in Term 3!

Harakeke Term 1 2011

Published on April 1, 2011 in Harakeke - rm 5 - Matt Titcombe and Uncategorized. 0 Comments

Harakeke

Welcome Back and Kia Ora to the new students in Harakeke. We have blended the old with the new to put together a great mix for the class of 2011.

We have been working at getting to know each other in the first few weeks and will continue to build on this through the term.

Andy Warhol has inspired some colourful self portraits so come in and check out our changing classroom environment as the children’s personalities start to cover the walls.

Te Whanganui-A-Tara (Wellington) and O Tatou Kura (Our School) will be the focus this term, there is going to be a lot of talking, recording, drawing, writing and presenting on our history and the changes through time in our and the greater Wellington area.

The cicadas have been an excellent back drop for our cross country training, so as my old coach used to say “plenty of fluids, plenty of rest and always bring the right shoes…HUP HUP!!!!!”

With all the great tracks in the rainforest it can’t help not be fun.

Harakeke will be looking after the rainforest in 2011 so if you have any ideas to share about what we can do in our great resource please do.

If you have any questions or want to help please come and see me.

Looking forward to an incredible and successful year in Harakeke.

Matt Titcombe

Rainforest Update Term 4

Published on November 5, 2010 in Harakeke - rm 5 - Matt Titcombe. 0 Comments

The sun has been shining, the trees are in flower and stick insects have been spied! Summer is here, for now at least… This is fantastic for Harakeke because it means getting back into the Rainforest is that much easier! So far this term we have already cleared some bush and planted some trees:

Harakeke are currently revisiting the work they began in Term 1. One of the ideas we had was to think of a way for other people to appreciate our forest and look after it in the way we saw as important. We have begun to work on ten interpretation panels for the Rainforest. These signs will teach the school and wider community a bit about what lives in our forest and other important ideas. Last week we went to Wellington Zoo to learn all about signs as they are supporting us through the Bush Builders program.

One of the signs will be to do with animal pests in our Rainforest. Craig Bond (Evie’s Dad) came in to talk to us about pests and tracking tunnels. We put four tracking tunnels into the bush yesterday. We think there are some mice, rats and possibly hedgehogs in our forest so far – and we have the prints to prove it!