It's week 4 already! Here's what we have been up to...

Our trip to the Rotorua Museum.

Japanese Calligraphy with Mr Watanabe.

How wonderful that a P2 student was the first person to be presented with our brand new 

school Values' trophy.  

Students who win this award must have been nominated by a staff member and then all the staff vote on the winner each  month.  

Term 3 in P2

It is going to be a super term in P2!  

We ended the last term on a huge high.  Our class is working really well together and as a team we are all achieving great things in our learning adventure.  

High fives all round!

This term we will be focusing on the following:

Speeches

Algebra

War and Conflict

Fractions, Decimals and Percentages

Spelling

Sentence Structure

Vocab

We did it!

Well done to everyone in P2 for their hard work and commitment towards their Science Fair projects.  It has been a mammoth task this term.  We started with very little knowledge of how to conduct a fair science experiment and over the term have evolved into a class of mini scientists.  The words hypothesis, conclusion, results and variables have become normal words in our classroom over the past 11 weeks.  

P2 you should feel very proud of yourselves - actually I know you already do!

 Here we are taking proudly taking our science boards down to the hall for judging.

 We made it!!!

 The science projects look very impressive all set up in the hall.

Time to have fun, it's the end of the term.  

Learning a new game with Matua Hori.

Phew!

The last four weeks have been crazy busy in P2!  So busy, I haven't even updated our Blog.  So here is an overview of what we have been up to.

Our focus over the next few weeks is on our values and expectations.  As it is the middle of the year, some of us are starting to forget how important these things are, so we are just having a little reminder :)  As part of that we are learning to work cooperatively together.  Here are some photos of our Marshmallow Tower Challenge, where teams had to work together to build the highest tower using only marshmallows and toothpicks.  There were great discussions about strong foundations and some really interesting ideas being tested.

P2 has started learning Chinese this term.  We are absolutely loving it!  Students in P2 are especially loving the games that they play to learn the words.  In the game below, students are learning their colours.

Science and Maths are all about the Science Fair this term.   We are learning statistics in Maths; how to collect data, present data and analyse results.  Each student has come up with a scientific question which they are working on at home and school for our school science fair at the end of the term.

Below is a picture of the beginning of one of our students experiments.  This student knows that white carnations absorb colour when it is put in the flowers water but she is wanting to find out if it works well with other types of white flowers too, like Lillies and Daises.

Another major focus for maths is multiplication - above is a photo of Miss Avery from P3 teaching the class a strategy for multiplication that her year 8 students are really enjoying at the moment.

P2 Superstars 1

I love it when Students share their achievements with me from outside of school.

On Tuesday Lilly and Mikaela shared their winning ribbons from their horse riding event over Anzac weekend.  Well done, girls!

You can find out more information on their event on their own blogs.

I felt so honoured today to be able to hold in my hand, 3 war medals that Hayden's great grandfather received in World War 1.  Thank you for sharing these with me Hayden. How special it must be to look after these for your family.  My grandfather had medals too, but he gave them away to a young boy none of us knew and so I have never been able to see them.  I think you are so lucky.

For more information on what these medals were for, see Hayden's blog.

Communication and Listening Skills

Our Positive Behaviour for Learning (PB4L) focus this term in P2 is Communication and Listening Skills.

Yesterday we discovered the difference between talking to a focused listener and talking to someone who isn't interested at all!  There was a huge difference for the speaker as they felt valued and respected by their friend when the friend was listening but felt very frustrated and hurt when their friend didn't listen.  The listener when focused, was able to retell the speakers information in detail, and even asked additional questions, but when not focused was barely able to say what the other person was talking about.  This was a great lesson and hopefully P2 students will start using these skills at home and school more often :)

As part of our values we have also discussed the importance of thinking before we speak.  Our aim in P2 is to make people feel good by the things we have to say to them, and not to upset people by saying things that really shouldn't be said at all.

Paper Airplanes

Our first scientific investigation is to find the best paper airplane design for distance.  In groups of 4 or 5, students are making 5 different airplane designs and are going to test them following our investigation format.  We will be learning how to write an investigation, record results, present our results on a graph and how to conclude our findings.

Lest we forget.

Our class sat in silence as I played the last post today.  They have sat in this silence many times over the last week as we have listened to soldiers share their stories, listened to poems about Anzac Day and learnt more and more about what our soldiers faced on that horrible day in 1915 at Gallipoli.

 The students wrote their own poems and soldiers letters today.  These pieces of work, were more than just words, most of the students showed a real understanding for what happened on that day and during many days of the world wars.  P2 is a class with a big heart.

Every student in our school has made a poppy for the wall in the hall. They look really effective.

End of Term 1.

Well P2, what a busy term we have had!  I am very proud of you all.  The effort you have put into your work, the respect you have shown each other and the way you have all really grown as individuals.  Well done everyone.

The end of the term was extremely busy, we had Norm Hewitt visit our school to talk to us about his work with the SPCA and also the importance of family and looking after every member of our family and helping them to feel loved and safe.  He was such an inspiring and entertaining speaker and I know we all learnt a lot from his visit.

We have so many keen leaders in our class and this was shown when 5 people got up to speak in front of the class to be voted for our class councillors.  Congratulations to Koyuki and Alex V who were voted as our two councillors for 2015.  It was an extremely close vote so I have given leadership roles to our other three candidates also.  Joel is the student in charge of Class Dojo, Mikaela is the student in charge of house points and Keaton is our P2 Tech Wizard.

Congratulations to you all.

One of my favourite moments from Term 1 was when our entire learning centre stood up without being instructed and performed the Haka for the teachers of Puarenga at the end of term.  You have no idea how much that meant to us.  The enjoyment you have for learning and the aroha you have for the Puarenga whanau was evident in the passion and strength of your haka.  Ka pai!

 I am looking forward to another exciting and fun filled term in Term 2.  Our focus is the Science Fair, where every student will be presenting a scientific investigation. 

Well done to all those who got involved in new and exciting activities in Term 1.  Make sure you keep your eyes and ears peeled for all the exciting opportunities in Term 2.  Getting involved is what Intermediate School is all about!

Family Food and Fun Fair 2015

Oh What a Night!

 This is the P2 stall.  We had 2 competitions.  

Marshmallow Squash - People had to guess how many marshmallows were in the Jar.  We had a range of guesses, the actual amount was 372 and our winner was April.  (lucky April!)

Our second competition was called Face the Cookie, where people had to get a cookie from their forehead into their mouth, using only their facial muscles.  This was great entertainment for those of us manning the stand!  

P2 Digital Citizens

In P2 we are Digital Citizens.  We are choosing to act in a safe, respectful, and responsible way online.

In order to do this we looked at the power and responsibility that comes with using the internet.  We brainstormed all the ways we can be safe, responsible and respectful while online.

 Here is our brainstorm on Google Docs.

Now we are creating Digital Superheroes.  Our superheroes must help people be safe, responsible and respectful online.  Watch this space for these creative characters.

Settling in after Camp

This week we have settled in to our routines for the year.  

We have started our weekly SED (super exciting drawing), Ten 4 10 (Write at least 10 lines in 10 minutes), Book club (for Novels and Journal Studies).  

Our class Novel this term is The City of Ember.  While I read the book, students are taking notes on characters and setting and we are going to recreate the book in Minecraft!  We have 2 project managers and two teams.  One for the city and one for the storerooms and tunnels beneath the ground.

In amongst all the serious moments of expectations and learning, we have had some fun.  I introduced P2 to 'Go Noodle", a brain break site.  Whenever I play something from this site, it is compulsary for everyone to stand up and do the activity.  Because of this we now have a pretty cool class handshake!

We have also had a few games of Kahoot, and even spent some time with P1 (our other Puarenga year 7 class) as Tuakana Teina, teaching them how to use this great learning tool too.

Check out our dancing skills!  We are a little uncoordinated at the moment :)

CAMP ROTOMA 2015

Sunshine, friendships, great food, and exciting activities.  P2 students had a blast at Rotoma last week. 

Fears were overcome, new friendships were made.  I enjoyed getting to know P2 students and their parents.  What a great class we have and shared memories to last a life time.  I bet you are all enjoying your hot showers and flushing toilets! 

Week 4 in P2

Our first Library visit.

Practising our camp team chants.

Camp Prep and Swim Safety

What a busy week it has been!  Testing, Tents, Tech and Swim Safety.  We are also really excited about getting our laptops this week too!

Here are a few photos of our week.