End of the year

We've had a great year in Room 12 - we've learned lots of different things and become very savvy using lots of different technology. We've had visiting teachers and Skype interviews with authors and connected with schools far away.

Ms Fothergill is teaching in Room 10 next year (hence the name change for the blog) and is looking forward to working with a whole new group of students.

All the best everyone for 2012.

Movie Making

We discovered that making movies using a green or blue screen has some unexpected drawbacks - the main being how different colors react against during the screening process. Here are our movies that we made:












Special thanks to Anne who spent two days with us taking photos.

How to create a green/blue screen movie

How to create a green screen/blue screen movie
You will need:
1. Green/blue screen
2. Camera
3. Apps i movie and garage band
4. People
5. Props

If you want to make one follow these insrtuctions.

1.Think up the story
2.Think of the characters
3. Think of the scenes
4. Practice the scenes
5. Write the script
6. Practice the script
7. Take photos (freeze frames)
8. Create a background.
9. Make a voice other
10. Put the last two steps together
11. Share  with freind and family

And thats how to create a green or blue screen movie.

By Ryan

How to create a green/blue screen movie

Here are some instructions on how to make a green or blue screen movie.

You will need:
a camera
a blue or green background
some characters/actors
costumes

Instructions

1. Choose/Make up a story to tell (If you are retelling a story, make sure to put it into your own words.)
2. Create and sort out the scenes
3. Make any props you will need
4. Write up a script
5. Rehearse script
6.Take pictures of the scenes with the camera (Make sure if you’re doing a green screen don’t wear green clothes! Same for blue screening.)
7. Put into Garageband
8. Record your script
9. Add recorded script to photos
10. Put in some music (OPTIONAL)
11. Do any Special Effects you would like to add
12. Watch and enjoy!

By Kate

How to make a green/blue screen movie

Things you need

• A group of people
• A camera
• Props
• A green/blue screen

Step1 First you have to get in a group and decide on a legend

Step 2 After that write down the story in your own words

Step3 Now make some props for the green screening

Step 4Write a script and make sure to include everyone

Step5 Practice it!

Step 6 its time for green screening

Step7 Create a background for the movie

Step8 Put it behind you in the pictures and make sure it fits

Step9 practice some more

Step10 record the script and put it in the right place

Step11 edit it

Step 12 now you can watch the movie and do some last edits and enjoy.

Noho Marae

First at the Noho Marae I had to pack some clothes and a drink bottle our school uniform a book and PJ’s and if we wanted to we could bring a cuddly teddy and a toothbrush and tooth paste.

When I had finished packing I had to either drive or walk to the Marae. When we got to the Marae I unpacked all of my food and put it all in the kitchen of the whare Kai. When I had finished putting Fmy food in the whare Kai I played with Paige and we played on the back field with a ball until more kids came.

When more kids came Paige and I told them how to set up and we told them were to put all of there food. We got out some more sports equipment and started playing with a skipping rope. When we got tired from playing with that lots of other kids had arrived and Paige and I went inside and sat down.

When most kids had come we all had to share two mattresses with three kids so it did look a little bit squishy. After we had finished setting up the mattresses we had dinner.For dinner we had home made hand burgers and chips it was really yum.

When everybody was finished eating we had dessert and it was ice-cream with peaches ad that was delicious. Everybody finished quick with eating dessert. I was not the last to finish eating and I wasn’t the first I was in the middle at eating.

After we had finished eating all of our food we played a fashion design game and we had to only use news paper. Our models were Mark and Paige they looked very funny when they were done. Paige won a certificate for doing the cat walk and mark also won for being the best dressed and some other people won certificates as well.

Then when we had done the fashion designing we got to play with some games which was really fun. I played charades and connect four and I won against Russell and Mark. We all had to play with the games or either read in our heads. we had to do that till a visitor came and talked about the planets and universe.

When he came we had to go into the wharenui and listen to him talk about the planets and universe. I learnt that the earth wasn’t going to end over a billion years because lots of people were saying that the world is going to end in 2012 but it is not. I also learnt that the sun will just keep expanding until it is big enough to reach the earth and burn it.

After we had listened about planets and the world it was time to go to sleep. When I was trying to get to sleep lots of kids were talking and I was so tired. After I had just fallen asleep I would of been woken up by talking. After every one had just about asleep I fell asleep. When     I woke up we had to get changed and have our breakfast. I had brought my own breakfast and it was nutragrain. After everyone was finished we tidied up around the marae and the collage backfield which was a mess it was disgusting. When that was finally we got to play with the sports equipment I played with the skipping ropes with Paige.

After a while we got called in to practise our powhiri. It was fun to do and I didn’t even realise we had been practising for over an hour. When we had got everything right we got to set the table for the other half of room 20 and room 16. When we had set everything up we had our lunch.

When we had finished eating our lunch room 20 and 16 came and we had to start the powhiri. Room 20 and room 16 got welcomed on and it was really loud but not the loudest. When we had finished welcoming them on and we had finished doing our part of the powhiri they sang us a kapa haka song. Once they had finished there song they came into the wharekai and got to eat what we had put on the table for them.

Once they had finished eating it was time for us to go even though it was two oclock in the afternoon we were aloud to go because that was the time we were leaving. My mum came and picked me up and I said goodbye to everyone that was still there and I hope that we could go back there again.

Noho Marae

Last week my classroom Room 12 and half of Room 20 had a sleepover at the Kapiti College Marae. 
At 1 o’clock we went over to the Marae to be welcomed on to the Marae by some of the Kapiti College kids. When they had welcomed us on to the Marae we went into the dining room to have some afternoon tea. Then we went home. 
At four o’clock we went back onto the Marae to set up our beds. At five o’clock we went in to the dining room to learn what we were going to do next. We were put into groups to do some activities. The first activities was a newspaper dress up game. You had to chose two people in your group to be models. Then you came up with a costume that they should wear. When the outfits were all finished and on the models the models walked down the dining room showing off there costumes. Then we had dinner. For dinner we had make your own hamburgers. They were delicious! After dinner we got back into our groups and we had do do some sort of skit, play, dance or drama. When they were finished we preformed them in front of the other groups. Then the board games were taken out and we played them with each other. After that a guy came to tell us about the stars. The conversation we had with him was very interesting. The we got ready for bed. 
We had no idea that we were going to get a practically sleepless night. 
What felt like hours later every body woke up. Even although we were all tired we had full day ahead of us to learn how to welcome the other half of Room 20 and Room 16 to the Marae. 
When we had all got dressed we were all sent for a run around the Kapiti Collage school field twice!!! After that we had breakfast. For breakfast we had cereal (if we had brought it) and toast. After that we got into our groups again and planned a Maori legend in freeze frame images. 
Then we started work on how to do a Powhiri. The Kapiti College Maori teacher taught us how to do one. Then we stopped for some morning tea then we continued or learning on how to do a Powhiri. Then it was time for lunch. When we came to the marae we bought our lunch. Luckily nobody forgot their lunch! Unfortunately we only had ten minutes to eat and even more unfortunately in the middle of lunch the fire bell rang. Luckily it wasn’t a real fire. When we got back to the dining room it was time to stop eating lunch because the other group were coming. Nobody was very happy about this because they had barely started their lunches. 
When the other group had arrived at the Marae we performed our welcome. Then we went inside. On the table we had payed out a delicious looking after noon tea. As the second group started eating the afternoon tea we performed a Haka to entertain them. 
When they had gone back to school we cleaned up the dining room.
A few minutes later our parents came to pick us up from the Marae. Then we went home. I really enjoyed my sleepover at the Marae. 
There was only one problem. I got practically no sleep!


By Elliot

My Marae Stay

7.00

I had been waiting for this day for two whole weeks. On wednesday 9th November, My class and half of room twenty were staying on the kapiti college Marae overnight. My eyelids slid off my eyeballs letting in the unbearable glare.Snap! I closed my eyes again and sat up clutching my head in my hands. Slowly, I opened my eyes one more time training them once again to take in them once again to get used to the bright light. My hair was dangling all over My face. I swept it away and walked out of my room smearing My eyes.

7 HOURS LATER…

1.00

The bell for end of lunch rang and my class lined up on the quad. Then we walked over to the back field where the teachers counted us. Then we walked over to the Marae where the year 9 Maori class and Mr Trim (Paora) did the welcoming ceremony. Then we had heaps of food and the year 9s provided entertainmeant. Then we all went home.

An hour and a  ½ LATER…

After guitar lessons, I along with rest of room 20 that turned up, I went to the Marae.
Before long we went in to the wharekai for our dinner. We had self made hamburgers (Yum!) then ice cream for desert(yummier!). Then we had some activities. First we had a model competition to see who could go down the catwalk the best and who made the best costume. Then we had to do a musical and our group mucked up so bad.Then we just played games or read. Soon it was time for bed so we headed back into the wharenui and Mr Jones gave us a talk on outer space. Then afterwards we went to bed.

10 sleepless hours later
7.00

We had to do 2 laps of the Kapiti college field.It was freezing. On from there the day pretty much shot past. We had to greet the other half of room twenty and room 16 and then we went home at 2.00. It’s decided. I am doing another Marae stay.

By Luke

Helping our learning with ShowMe

Last week our teacher introduced us to the ShowMe app on her iPad. Then she got us to script a simple maths movie to create using the app. We didn't have a sound proof room but we found a place that was sort of quiet! Here are some of our movies.

Look who I met up with at conference!

I spent some time with Rohi and her teacher.

Rippa Rugby Training

Rippa Rugby Training on PhotoPeach

SODA - What will the car of the future look like?

Learning to embed

On Wednesday Ms F taught us how to embed pictures into our blog posts. This was exciting because, although we've been blogging all year, this is the first time we've been able to put pictures into our blogs. Ms F says uploading the pictures to another site and embedding means all our space isn't used up over at Kidblog.

Take a look at our blog posts:

SODA

Every morning Room 12 does a Start Of Day Activity.

This is Jacobs version - he created it using the draw feature in Google Docs.

Recycled Creations

As a finish off for our topic about innovation we had the chance to make some recycled creations for homework. Here is a slideshow with them.

Recycled Creations on PhotoPeach

Today's SODA

SODA stands for Start Of Day Activity. Today we had to create a mousetrap. This is Ryan's creation.

Visit from Vane

Yesterday after morning tea we had a visit from a guy called Vane. He was from the ASB bank. He came to teach us about money and not spend it on things you do not need and to be wise with money.He also taught us some ways we could earn money and how much we could save if we be wise with our money. He told us that “if you save in a bank you will get interest” And I thought that was pretty cool. And that was my story about the visit from Vane.


By Antonia

My Favourite Sport

The coach took a deep breath and blew the whistle. I grab the ball off the other team and passed it on. As we get the ball closer to our goal the other team snatches the ball off us. “Defend, Defend!” Shouted our parents. Someone passes the ball to me. I hear the echo of the ball when it lands in your hands. Beeeeeeeeeep goes the whistle. Its half time. We change our positions. Oh no, The coach hands me the GS bib (goal shoot). We go back on the court the score is 1/1. If I don’t get the next goal the other team could win. It is now up to me. The whistle goes again. I wait till the ball comes to me. It slowly comes then drifts away again. Zoe passes the to me. Its my time to shine. I look up to the goal. “Concentrate” I tell myself. I bend my knees and my elbows. I go for it and let the ball out of my hands and “Yay” my Team shouts. I did it!


By Paige

The Snow Day

On Monday at around about 7:00 it was so cold I did not know why until it started to hail and then it came drifting down like little white parachuting men flying to melt on the deck. It was so cold the snow stayed on the deck for a little while and then melted. It also snowed at 10:00, 12:00 and 2:00. after the 2:00 snow storm I got my jersey on and stepped through a portal to a new white world. We made snow balls and threw them at each other! Mum took some photos of the white world. As the little men parachuted down from the heavens and I was standing still, I felt like everything was in slow motion in this strange new white world. That night mum faced the forces of this new world, and on the windscreen of our snow mobile parked in the driveway she wrote “Cool Stuff 2011”. She made us a snowman, he was a creepy fellow, looking in our window from his white planet.  And I will tell you something amazing…..he stayed there for all the next 24 hours, sadly melting into cracks of the white-worlds deck.  Leaving only a wet puddle, and two sad chocolate-button eyes, and a carrot noes.  But this story does not end here.  The troops of ants will come and break off little tasty morsels from the sad little chocolate button eyes, and take it back to their hungry little child ants, no bigger than a speck of dust.  They will devour it, so slowly that it will last at least a month.  The carrot will be taken away by the chirping cute sparrows that will give their just hatched babies.  They will chirp in delight.

But just because our little snowman friend has gone it does not mean that we forget about him, we will always remember him, and will remember the day that it snowed in Paraparaumu.

By Jacob

My first day at Raumati Beach School

I had a great first day at school. This is what I did:

First we sat down and did the register.

Then Miss Fothergill read a bit of Dragon Rider.

After that we wrote in a leaflet about money.

Next we went out to have break.

Then we all came inside to do some work.

Next we did a Skype session

But we only got to do a tiny bit because it SNOWED!!!!!!!!!!

Finally we all went home.

By Lucas

Telescopic Text

We've been learning how to write telescopic text. First we looked at the example on the website (http://www.telescopictext.com/) then we had a go at creating our own examples. Here are some of them:

The links will take you to the page where you can expand/unfold the sentences.

Judo Drama

In the holidays I had to go to hospital.

When I got thrown in my judo tournament I hurt my neck so I got rushed to hospital just in case I had either fractured or broken my neck. On the way to the hospital in the ambulance the medic {who was called tom} gave me some strawberry flavoured medicine that tasted yummy.

When I got to the hospital {and waited for 3 hours} I had an x-ray done on my neck. Once the doctor had taken a look at the x-rays he said that I would be OK.

After that I went to KFC with my dad. I got a quarter pack and my dad got an ultimate burger meal and then we went home.

By Ollie

Kung Fu Panda

In the holidays I went to see Kung  Fu Panda 2 in 3D. It was awesome. 

My favourite part was when Po was fighting the hyenas. 

The sad part was when his mum left him in a basket full radishes. Me and my mum were sad. My mum stated to cry when his mum left him in the basket. 

I enjoyed the movie. 

After the movie we went to Kmart. I got two bayblades in a two-pack and then went home.

By Zane

Crabbing in New Plymouth

My holiday highlight was when I went crabbing in New Plymouth with my dad, sister, uncle, cousin and a friend of ours.

It was really fun, we found a few huge crabs, some medium sized crabs and a lot of baby crabs. We also found some tiny little fish and some tiny little wormy things but we did not no what they were called. We saw a lot of starfishes: we saw some big ones, small ones red ones and green ones.

We had to climb from rock to rock and some of the rocks were really slippery so we had to be really careful. One time I stepped on a really slippery rock accidentally and I fell into the water and I got all wet.

That was the worst part about going crabbing but other than that it was really fun. And that was the highlight of my holiday.

By Antonia

Stephen Hawking & our School Vision

My hero is Stephen Hawking.

Stephen Hawking shows resilience when other scientists try to prove his theories wrong. He shows involvement when he lets other people work experiments with him. He shows communication by using his voice synthesizer because he can’t use his own voice. He shows respect to former astronomers who discovered all the space around us. But most of all, he shows massive curiosity. He looks at black holes and nebulae and starclouds and stuff.

He shows all five qualities in his quest to uncover the mystery of the universe.

By Luke

Bill Hamilton

Bill Hamilton is a New Zealander. Bill designed the first jet boat. He was born in 1899 and died in 1978.  Bill founded CWF  Hamilton water jet boat company. He also was an  engineer for jet boats. His boat was the first ever boat that traveled up and down the Grand Canyon in 1960. In 1947 he made the first ski tow in NZ.

By Paddy

Richard Pearse

Richard Pearse was a famous NZ plane inventor. He was the first man to build and fly a plane. He flew his plane on 31 March 1903. On his  farm he built his own workshop and that is where he did all of his engineering. He designed, built and powered his own plane.

By Zoe

John Britten

Born in 1950, John Britten was a revolutionary motorcycle genius.

He was among a motorcycle gang who liked to stick to the golden oldies. He was rebellious though, and wanted something new. In his garage at his property in Cristchurch, he was building something new. In the end he had finished it.

The V-1000 roared up to the line, revved it’s engines, and overtook all racers. The track stank of burning rubber after the race.

John Britten died in 1995 but by then he had become world famous. Earlier, simply a: glass sculptor, artist, engineer, thinker, entrepreneur, and glider pilot, now having made the world’s fastest motorbike. And he was a KIWI!

By Luke

Antonia - I am ...

I am sporty and flexible
I wonder if Jesus is real
I hear bees buzzing in the summer time
I see the stars in the night sky
I want to go to America
I am funny and bubbly
I pretend that Madi is my sister
I feel happy when my friends are around me
I touch my dogs fluffy fur
I worry that my friends don't like me
I cry because my nana lives in New Plymouth
I am cute and cuddly
I understand that my sister is mean
I say I can’t sing
I dream of horrors
I try and do the splits 2 other ways
I hope that Madi will be my friend forever
I am funny and smiley

Mahina - I am ...

I am special and sharing.
I wonder why am a girl.
I hear dogs howling.
I see a pink cloud.
I want a pony.
I am special and sharing.
I pretend I can fly and that I have superpowers.
I feel like I am going to fall on a bunch of flowers.
I want to touch the fur of a soft bunny’s.
I worry that my mum might crash when she drives.
I cry when my sister messes my room.
I am special and sharing.
I understand that Michael Jackson died.
I say that the Easter Bunny is real.
I wish that I had an i Pad.
I try to make my rugby games perfect.
I hope that my family never dies or gets hurt.
I am special and sharing.

Pets at school?

Last week Ms F showed an article about a dog who goes to school in Timaru.

We had to write whether we thought pets should be allowed to school. Here is one response:

Well I think that pets shouldn’t be allowed at school. Imagine all the chaos it would cause just over a bunch of pets at school. If there were birds at school they will fly right over our heads. If there were were mice at school they will eat all our scrumptious food. If there were cats at school they will scramble up the trees, frightened and kids climbing up after them. It will be crazy! Where would we put our pets during class time? We can’t just leave them loose, they will climb through the gates and the fence and run down the road. That’s my opinion of having having pets at school.
By Paige

Rohi and Room 12

It's been a while since posting but this weekend will see a few posts appearing. This one is a slide show of Rohi and her visit with us.


Rohi and Room 12 @ RBS on PhotoPeach

The Bag of Rubies

 

I was walking home from school when this paper bag fell out of my school bag. It was shimmering red in the sunlight and pulling me closer until I couldn’t move. I tried to move away but I couldn’t, I knew I had to open the bag. I peeked inside and there before my eyes were lots of little rubies. I wondered where they were from. I asked everybody whether they knew where they came from, but nobody did.

That night I felt like there was a silver door in my room. I woke up, then I saw it, the silver door just like my dream. I crept to it without waking anybody up. When I tapped on the door it tapped back. I tapped on it three more times and it mysteriously opened. In the distance i saw something shimmering, it was powerful, it was controlling my hand. Then I looked down and there it was 2 inches of the ground, a magical floating key. I picked it up. Different colours started shooting out of it. I thought it was a rainbow.

Then I saw it, a little cute furry creature. It looked like a tuttie fruity but told me it was a binky bonk. It pointed further into the door like it wanted me to follow it. It led me down the staircase to a locked door and pointed into the keyhole. I put the key in, I turned the key and the door swung right open. I walked down the hall, but it was a dead end. I looked left. I looked right. To the right there was a carving made out of wood, it had emralds and diamonds in it but no rubies. I ran home with the key in my pocket and the binky bonk in my other one.

 The next night I dreamt of me opening a secret passage. I saw the key, the binky bonk, and the carving. The next morning I woke up and ran down the hall still in pyjamas with the key, binky bonk and rubies.I knew what I had to do. I went up to the carving and put the rubbies in the spaces. When I had finished it I ran down the secret pasage. At the doorway there was the binky bonks heart, he swallowoed it and began blowing bubbles everywhere.

Out my Window

We spent most of Friday finishing off our pictures. Ms F then took photos of our individual pictures. Here is a slideshow of them.

Out My Window on PhotoPeach






And here is what they look like up around the classroom.

Out My Window

Out my window I can see quite a lot of interesting things. I can see the courtyard, the parsley ravenously reaching out for more room to grow into; (sadly it's work gets washed away into a delicious pesto); the front door, it's bells being thrown around carelessly by the wind; the sliding door slightly ajar, curtains flying through to be blocked by a pair of roman sandals; the waves crashing high against the seaside rocks, spittle spraying even higher. That's the view from my window.

By Laura

Writing and editing

This week we have been looking at the writing process.

First, on Monday, Ms F read us a paragraph from Mrs Frisby and the Rats of Nimh where the Frisby's home is described. Then we thought about what we can see out our window at home. We made a brainstorm of everything we could see.

The next day we looked at our brainstorm and Ms F looked at hers. She started to write her paragraph about what she could see out her window and then we did the same.

On Wednesday we looked at our paragraphs and Ms F looked at hers. She showed us how she was going to change some of the things she wrote to make it sound better. Then she sent us away to start work on our editing.

On Thursday we did some more work on our paragraphs and some of us started on our pictures. Ms F said the pictures HAD to match our paragraphs.

When we arrived at school on Friday, Ms F had put up some 'Amazing Phrases' on the wall for us to read. Some of the kids had written really interesting sentences.

Ms F says good writers edit their writing lots of times.

 

 

Activ Board

I walked in the door and what did I see?

A new interactive whiteboard.

Lucky you and lucky me.

I watched it go up, one, two three,

Now it's all up there's nothing to see,

Except to learn off it.

Yippee!

By Jacob

New IWB

We've been waiting 3 days for our new IWB to be installed. Today was the day! Here's a picture of it in action for the first time. Unsurprisingly it's showing photos of it being installed. The kids then wrote about it. The next few posts will have some of their writing.

2011 - A new school year

Welcome to 2011 - a new year, a new classroom (Room 12) and a whole new set of students to introduce to blogging and the wonders of eLearning!