Architecture!

Check out AJ's description of the future house that he has designed:

The year 6's from room 8 had to act as architects and design a future house for Glen Innes. This my dream house that maybe could be built in the future.
                           
This house is different to the houses around today because the houses in Glen Innes are made out of wood but in the future the houses are all made from metal or bricks so it is stronger in a natural disaster like an earthquake, flood or tsunami. They would have different designs because the architects would create their own new ideas. They would be able to create way cooler houses and things because they have more technology and different ideas. 

The things inside the buildings could be different too. They not have books because they could use devices instead. They wouldn't have analogue clocks anymore, just digital. Everything could have buttons, like when you go to the kitchen you could press a button and then it could change to the living room. The appliances would be better - the oven would cook things faster for example. We could have robots to do things for us as well, they could even brush our teeth for us! Instead of having paper money we might only use digital money instead. People could create robots and get them to work so they could earn more money.

The houses would also be heaps taller because we don't have enough space for all the people to have a one story house. There would be more skyscrapers or three story houses, like the ones being built on Fenchurch Street.

In my house I have filled everything with water. People could adapt to live under water and probably they will have gills like fishes. Or they could invent technology that would let them live under water.  They have created things like floating chairs for their houses.

Here is the site I used:
https://roomstyler.com/3dplanner

History of New Zealand

This term the year seven students have been learning about Treaty of Waitangi and the history of New Zealand. They learnt about this both through their inquires and through their experiences at camp. They documented each historical event that they investigated on a timeline to document important dates in New Zealands history. Check out Sia's timeline below!

Live Stream!

Today all of Glenbrae school walked down the road to Pt England School to watch their school production "Live Stream".  We all really enjoyed the journey and we bumped into heaps of whanau on the way. A lot of our students have extended family and friends at Pt England, so we were looking forward to supporting the school and these people as well.

                            

The production itself was fantastic! We all enjoyed the story as it was about the pollution in a stream affecting the wildlife, which we learnt about in term 1.  We were really impressed with all of the acting, singing and dancing, but the main cast really stood out to us.  It was great to see them stand up with so much talent, confidence and pride.

As we headed back, we reflected on the message that had been portrayed in the production. Some of the students picked up rubbish on our walk, determined not to let the local wildlife down.

Political Debate

This afternoon we were invited to a debate hosted by Room 7. The students had split up into four political parties and they created different policies about how they would run the school. They considered issues like behavior, the repairs needed around the school, homework and the technology that is available.

Then each party sent their leader to take part in the debate. Alfred, Inoke, Tamati and Whitney were chosen and we were asked to attend as the audience, as we could make an unbiased choice about who were the strongest debaters. To start with, the leaders introduced their party and policies. Then the leaders had the chance to debate with one another and to ask questions. We saw that Whitney had listened carefully to the other leaders as she was able to ask lots of questions.

Finally, Mrs Tofa passed around voting papers so that we could select the winner. We all received a sticker for voting and looked forward to finding out the results.

Measurement Scavenger Hunt

This week we have been learning about measurement in maths. We had to select the unit of measurement that would be best to use, like mm, cm or m, to make an estimate and to measure each item.

We started with small items like pens and our chromebooks, before we moved on to some bigger objects like the length of our classroom. We couldn't do this very accurately because of all of our furniture, but we got a rough measurement!

Lilo and Pele wanted to see how long the window was.

Too young to vote!?

Today there was much discussion around room 8 about the 2017 election. The students have heard a lot about this election from the media, advertisements and billboards around Auckland. We all had ideas about who we might vote for and many of the students have met their local MPs, or those who are currently running.

After discussing the elections, some students took to Google to learn a bit more about the parties and candidates. Miss Stone delivered a quick lesson about voting and how the government is selected. We then decided that we should have a class election, using a voting form very similar to that which is currently used.

While our government was vastly made up by the same party (3/4 of the votes went to them and their MP), the remainder of the votes were made up of lots of different parties. It was great to hear our different reasons for voting for different MPs and parties, like their beliefs, level of experience and commitment to visiting/ working for our community.

We then took part in part in a breakout about the New Zealand Elections, by Michael Davidson. This helped us to put our new learning in use and to discover more about New Zealand politics. This was our most successful breakout yet - all teams broke out within the time limit and many of them either used one or no hint cards from Miss Stone - what a fabulous effort!

The first to breakout today was Telesia, Tumanako, Salote and Winnie's team. The girls split up the different locks really well and communicated to ensure that everyone contributed to the win. They were closely followed by Alex, Dekorah, Mathew and Trent, who started with the lead. Both of these teams demonstrated fabulous team work and determination.

However, Miss Stone was very proud of the final groups, who watched their classmates win the challenge, but who persevered and also managed to breakout within the time limit.

Duffy Assembly

This morning a Duffy role model, Niva Retimanu, came and visited Glenbrae School. Niva is an award winning journalist and radio presenter, so reading is a big part of her job! Niva read us a story called Kiss Kiss, Yuck Yuck by Kyle Mewburn. Although it was aimed at younger kids, Niva read with great expression and she was very entertaining!

After the story, Niva presented a couple of Duffy books to each class. We love getting Duffy books and we look forward to reading them in the holidays!

After the assembly, we created a description of our role models and we thought of the traits that we really value in a person. We then discussed the traits that we possess and the ways that we can embody them.

Te Wiki o Te Reo Maori

In honour of te wiki o te reo maori, we took part in a breakout all about te reo maori. We split up into groups of four and practiced team work, problem solving and using te reo maori.

Our groups found the first few clues quite quickly. They involved colours (which we learnt in term 2) and numbers (which we discussed this week when we practiced telling eachother how old we are). After some time, three groups got stuck on the same lock. Miss Stone gave them all the same hints, but even then it was quite tricky to work the whole clue out! 

In the end Alex, Dekorah, Maselino and Trents group won the Breakout, although it was very very close! 

Our Assembly

This week room 8 had the task of hosting assembly. Our presenters were Trent, Alex and Anita and our theme was Kia Ora Te Reo Maori, as it is te wiki o te reo maori. We opened with the Waiata 'Toro Mai' and discussed the theme of this years Maori language week in relation to our learning.

We shared our learning about the Treaty of Waitangi and showed our camp video, because we learnt about the Treaty and Maori culture at camp.



We hope you enjoy our movie!

Shared Healthy Lunch

Today we had a shared healthy lunch with the entire school. Each class made a different healthy dish and then we headed to the hall to try new food and to enjoy the kai together.

Room 8 were given the task of preparing sandwiches. This was no easy job as we had a limited amount of time to prepare enough to feed the entire school and some parents and teachers! We made cream cheese and cucumber, chicken salad and tuna salad flavoured sandwiches.

 

We really enjoyed trying out all of the different types of healthy food. We especially liked the roti wraps, sandwiches and fruit kebabs - they would be great for our lunchboxes!




After lunch we were visited by Mrs Wallbridge, who is a dentist. She told us that a healthy diet is the most important part of good dental hygiene - lots of sugary food will lead you to tooth decay! This gave us another incentive to eat well!

Kiwican

This week in Kiwican we were learning about overcoming challenges. We are faced with lots of different types of challenges every day; a tricky maths problem, a sports game, working with new people, an argument or social problem.

We took on the challenge of making different letters with our bodies. Some letters were more difficult to make than others and we had to all work together. Can you guess what these letters are?




Then we played a game of hoop soccer; we had to kick a deflated ball into a hula hoop. This was way harder than we expected as it was hard to judge how much force the ball needed to land in the hoop (often it would roll over it instead). We also found it challenging to do this in front of the class, as they watched us all.

Playing by the rules!

This week we started playing full touch games in our kiwisport lesson. Before we weren't playing by full rules and we were allowed to pass forward when we had both our rips still on. It took a little adjustment to get used to the new rules, but we had an awesome time playing our full games.



We split up into different teams and played five a side, which gave everyone a chance to fully participate and to be involved. What an awesome session!

Police at Glenbrae!

This morning the senior classes assembled in the hall to learn about the Police with Constable Jude. Each class got to participate in a range of activities during the morning and after morning tea the whole school watched as a police helicopter landed on our field.

We first headed to check out the police bikes. We learnt that motorbike police carry out similar roles as those in cars, but that they are sent to certain jobs more as they can get places faster. They usually work in the city as they can weave in and out of the traffic. We all got a turn at sitting on the bike and then we used a speedometer to work out how fast we could run - it was awesome!

Next we went to room 7 where we learnt about crime scene investigation. We learnt that every contact leaves a trace and that police search for these traces - which could be DNA from hair left on the scene, a persons footprint or fingerprints on something that they touched. We all got our fingerprint taken, which was a lot of fun!

Then we headed outside to the police tent and we got to try on a mini uniform and follow some commands as if we were officers! We also looked at the tools that the police use and carry, like their handcuffs and batons.

After that, the officers let us sit in the police car and we turned the sirens on.

After morning tea the whole school ventured to our field, where we waited for the police helicopter to land. Each class had the opportunity to look inside the helicopter and to learn about the tools that they have on board, like a high powered camera and infra-red.