Mr Fox and Mrs Tyler

TERM 2 - 2011

Room 1 has been learning about thinking maps and tools for inquiry. We have been using North America as the context of our learning.

Thinking Maps

We have learnt so far about. Bubble Maps, Circle Maps, and Flow maps.

The Flow Map - is used by students for sequencing and ordering information.

The Circle Map - is used for brainstorming ideas and for showing prior knowledge about a topic..

The Bubble Map - is used for describing using adjectives. Unlike the Circle Map which is used for brainstorming, The Bubble Map is a tool for enriching students' abilities to identify qualities and use descriptive words.

Tools for inquiry

The first thing we learnt was about key words and how important they are when we are searching for information.

We learnt that when you are looking on searching engines for information you have to use key words otherwise for an example, if you wrote in "who are justin biebers ancesters" it would come up with something for every word that you typed in. 

We also learned that one page we should never go on when we are searching for information is Wikipedia.org.  We were taught this because anybody can go and write what they want, when they want, on wikipedia even if they dont know if its true.

North America

We have also been learning about North America using our tools for inquiry and thinking maps. Each table is doing a different country. We are using a time line on a flow map to present it and to do that we have to find heaps of information but it is good because it extending our line of knowledge and that makes school cool.

   By Cassie O'Dowd - Year 7

Persuasive Arguments

Recently, in room 1 we have been learning how to write a persuasive argument. We looked at different examples of persuasive arguments and discovered what makes a good argument and what dosen't, then together we made guidelines of what makes a good persusive argument.

You need a title, then an opening statement which is writing what you think of the subject. Then, you give reasons why you think that. You need to compare, use humour, think of safety reasons, and uses. After that, you add your concluding statement, which must relate back to the subject. A good persuasive argument should be convincing.

Aliteration sentences

In our literacy books we have been doing 'aliteration' sentences. They are descriptive sentences which include, similies, onomatopiea (sounds like 'whoooosh') and personification (making the thing you are writing about seem like it is a human). We did our sentences on the wind we've had in our district lately. Here are a few examples: "The howling wind shouted at us, as we tried to sleep." "The wind was furious as it ripped its way down the chimmney. " We enjoyed writing and sharing our descriptive sentences.

Place value

During math time, the 'partioning pirates' have been learning how to solve big equations (both division and multiplication) using different techniques. We learnt, place value (breaking the equation down into hundreds, tens, and ones) written division forms (these were more commonly used when our parents were kids) proportional adjustment (doubling, halving, trebling, thirding.)

We even learnt some methods used in China and Egypt, which was fun because we got to learn something from different cultures. when we had finished learning the Chinese and Egyptian method we were asked which method we liked best and most people said they liked Chinese because it was much quicker.

Proverbs

We recently studied Proverbs. Proverbs are sayings. Some families have their own special proverb, so we were asked to go home and decide with our family's which proverb we like, and write the proverb and the meaning down. Some families had their own made-up proverbs.

The next day we discussed our proverbs and typed them out then drew out an icon or symbol that we think represents it. There were so many intersting proverbs. Mine was "Your future is so bright, you need shades." My picture to go with it was a sun, with sunglasses on.

I love Sherwood school because everyone is so kind, you learn so much, play cool sports games, and make great friends along the way.

  By Kate Whaitiri - Year 8.