Tell me a Picture

Matai went to Te Papa today for a tour of the Nga Toi gallery on level 5. We explored the works there by using a programme called 'Tell me a picture'. Students studied imagery, symbolism and put themselves in the artwork to fully experience the art.

Symbolism

Use of colour

 Putting yourself in the picture

Graphing using Google Spreadsheet

Today we were going on our single sign-on account.

First we had to make a spreadsheet about where we will be putting our packaging from our food.

Plastic	Tin	Waste	Compost	Take Home
17	1	36	25	26

and Where does our clothes come from?.

China	NZ	Portugal	Thailand	Mexico	Indonesia	Bangladesh	Other	Honduras	Vietnam	Canada
16	1	1	1	1	1	3	2	2	1	1

It was great fun and we learned how to make graphs using Google spreadsheet.

By Cameron Wu and Sean Wipatene.

Using decimals in Matai Maths

This week we have been focusing on decimals. We have been ordering, adding and subtracting decimals.

Decimats help us to build fractions visually so we can see what they will look like.

Didn't they do well

The birds have been painted and glued onto the backgrounds. We are so happy with the finished product and I am sure you will agree that they look fantastic. Matai have shown that they can blend paints and use a range of brush techniques to add bold bright colours and texture to their work. These will look great on your fridge door : -)

Eliza's Word Story for Maths

Eliza has been busy writing word problems in her maths group. As you can see they can get quite elaborate. Can you work out the answer to this one?

Keith reserved 32 netbooks for maths. Jordan and Teddy took 16 for the seniors. 12 netbooks crashed. Matthew came and gave Keith 19 netbooksfor the class to use. 4 netbooks broke down. Keith is so angry he gives all the netbooks to the seniors. They give 8 back.
How many did the class miss out on?

Isobel's Poem

Dawn ash

Fire will burn

and cinder will come

but dawn will bring peace

at the rising sun.

Should it stay or should it go?

I came to school sporting a lovely mustache and posed the question - Should Keith keep the mustache?
We used this for our writing topic and here are some excerpts....

Should Keith keep his mo?   NOOOOOO

If Keith grows his mo like someone famous then everybody will think he’s a celebrity and there will be paparazzi showing up at the school and Whaea Liz will get furious.After that Keith will get  fired and won’t be a teacher again. That's why I think Keith should shave his mo and it’s DISGUSTING.   - Mia

Firstly when he eats food some of it gets caught in the mo and it will look dirty, places that say NO FOOD will BAN HIM from the place. - Cameron

My second reason is it will be outrageous watching Keith have little bits of food stuck in his mo.I reckon he looks too formal and mean. - Siena

Secondly hairs might come falling down from your mustache into your mouth and you might get the funny taste of rotten food or a booger that had fallen down from your nose. So that is why I think your mustache should be GONE! - Holly

The final vote was 5 for keeping the mo and 22 against. The mo went.

Buddy Reading with Kowhai

Matai met their buddies from Kowhai today. We will be buddy reading with them every Wednesday after lunch. It was great to see the engagement of the kids as they read to each other and the support offered by Matai.

Editing photos online

Some of the students have been asking about software that they can use online to edit their photos.
There are a couple of free options that you might like to check out:

 For Mac users the app that comes highly recommended is Snapseed.

For PC users a really good app is called BeFunky - lots of basic options but you can pay to add more features. (From Chrome web store)

Both of these are free to download from the links provided.

Story of Stuff

Don Binney Artwork

In Matai we have been studying Don Binney's artwork and having a go at creating our own paintings in his style.

Over the past 3 weeks we have practiced some basic painting techniques and completed the coastal landscapes.

The next step is to paint our birds from a template and attach these to our artwork. The kids done a fantastic job with their use of solid colours, blending paints and stippling to create texture.

Thanks for all the baking!

Thank you so much for producing all that delicious baking. Matai made a fantastic contribution to the baking stall and there were lots of happy kids munching into some tasty baking. Thank you for helping us to make this a success.
The kids from Matai helped to set up the stall, package baking for juniors and sell the food to the rest of the school. Good to see their maths thinking in action and some even some up selling on the stall!

Photography Assignment

After seeing all the great photos Matai have taken around school I have set them a photo assignment to do at home. If they have access to a camera/phone - take photos around their home close up. Pick the best 4 photos and email them to me at keith.hutton@clydequay.school.nz

- Take a range of photos and select the best FOUR.
- Take photos around your home in macro setting (up close).
- Upload them to a computer if possible and check them - are they in focus?
- Rename each photo eg. Keith1, Keith2, Keith3, Keith4.
- Attach photos to email and send to Keith so he can add them to the collection.

Here is a small sample of photos that have been submitted already:

Meeting a local photographer

We are lucky enough to have a number of talented photographers in the parent community.
After taking our macro photos we wanted to look at improving our photography and deepen our understanding of "what makes a great photo".


Matai went to visit a local photographer and learn more about the effect of lighting when taking a photo.

We looked at different ways that you can light a subject and the effects that this has on the final product. He also discussed how to frame a subject and the best way to use the school cameras to get the best shots using the camera flash, as well as natural lighting.

We finished the visit with a funny photo shoot of students....

Focus for PE in the middle school

Every Wednesday afternoon we have sport - weather permitting. The focus for this term is catching and throwing with accuracy. Outside we are using small balls to practice the skill of throwing and catching. In the hall we have set up the new volleyball nets to practice throwing and catching with accuracy by playing the game of Kiwivolley.
It is great to see the skills of each group developing week by week.

If you would like to learn more about Kiwivolley check out this link.

Compensation and Rounding Strategy

In maths, Star Ninja and Bubble Bobble have begun learning to use the maths strategy of rounding and compensating. Basically it is borrowing off one number and adding it to another (to make a tidy number) making it faster to add together.

In this basic example we have taken from 2 from 45 and added it to the 38 to make the equation
45 + 40 = ___

Have a go at this example:

145 + 56 = ____         What do you need to "take" to make a tidy number?

Bubble Bobble then celebrated their newly learnt strategy by playing a little calculator golf!