On Thursday lunchtime I took a series of photographs of what the different groups of children were doing.

…. making an account with Glogster to make posters

… getting help from Mrs Steadman finding some information on the laptop

… practicing sketching and comparing techniques

…. sharing with a parent how to programme the NXT robots

… finding out from Mr Beaton what different types of sand look like under his VERY flash microscope

… checking out what different mosses look like under the dinoscope

…and even some reading! Books … remember them?

congratulations to you all!!

Yesterday we took delivery of the new LCD screens that we have purchased for the classrooms.  They are 42″ and connect directly to the teachers laptops.  Room 6 were the very first to use one this afternoon to share the videos from YouTube they were watching looking at our Challenge at the moment of “Curiosity and Wonderment”  The children watched a video from John Glenn who was one of the first men to walk on the moon 40 years ago this week.

The children in this picture are discussing how they can show that they are exhibiting that Challenge.  You can see the screen with the movie they have just watched.  The TV’s are SOO much better than a projector as they are bright, clear and can be used in a well lit room.

We also had a visit today from Disa McLean our ICT PD Cluster facilitator.  Many of the teachers were released to work with her looking at ways we can incorporate just this sort of technology into our classroom programmes.  If you look at the sidebar of this site you will see links to all the different online places classes are using to support their programmes.

We were in the finals of the Full Primary 10-a-side rugby tournament yesterday.  We came second in the competition overall and the team played really well in all the games.

School was closed today because of the snow.

About half of our teachers live in Dunedin rather than Outram so there are times when those of us who travel to school will not be able to get there.

Dunedin woke to a thick blanket of snow in places this morning and it has been snowing much of the afternoon.

Last Thursday (28th of June) the Student Council had a ‘Blue Day’ to raise money for Heart Children Otago as they can only help people if they had enough fund so in the end we raised $178.00 in donations for
Heart Children. So that kids like us can have a more normal life with a new heart!

Christie Wood – Student Council

Yesterday 17 children went to visit the Pangea. It was a great trip and all the group both learned heaps and had a huge amount of fun. You can find out about the purpose and goals of the expedition here.
If you are lucky enough to be selected you can even spend time with the crew on their ecological missions. Soon children from 13 – 16 will be joining the boat in Bluff for a visit to Fiordland.
How exciting would it be to be involved …. have a look at the site and see what you can do to support their work!!
A big thankyou to the parents who helped with transport or allowed us to use their vehicles! Thanks as well to Mrs Mac for supporting the EnviroGroup, almost all of who went on the trip.

Hugh has been working on his Science Badge activities over the holidays.  Hugh has taken up a strong technology based challenge around the topic of Toys. Hugh has built a fantastic lighthouse with a flashing light.  Hugh was able to give an excellent explanation about how a circuit works.  Hugh also built a toy boat that runs on a rubber band.  This creation led to Hugh having an understanding of Isaac Newton’s Third Law of Motion – every action has an equal an opposite reaction!!!

He is able to explain how it all works and they are on display in the foyer along with the book he has produced explaining the work and especially the THINKING he has done to make it all work.
Jacob W knows all about meteorology.  He built a wind vane and used it to record wind direction.  Jacob can now identify cloud types and use that knowledge to help him predict the weather.  He is also able to describe wind using the Beaufort Wind Strength scale.

Great work Hugh and Jacob, your brains must have been on fire!!

There is some thinking going on at the moment for the children in Outram about playgrounds.  If you would like to be involved then here is the link to a survey for the children about the things they would like to see.

Be involved and take the survey!