Y7&8 Extension - Te Wa Toi and Makey Makey

In Term 4 our theme is Te Wa Toi or Art Time. Our Year 7&8 Extension students were asked to select a well known artist to create a digital artwork based on the style of that particular artist. Then our students were asked to share their learning in an interactive way. Their artwork was printed out. Some pieces of foil was attached to the artwork and to Makey Makey and Scratch. When the student pressed on the piece of foil connected to a Makey Makey wire, a piece of text would appear on Scratch to share information about the artwork.

Here are some students explaining the process in the following movie:

Y5&6 Extension - 3D Pens and Jewelry Making

The focus this term is Te Wa Toi (Art Time). For the extension Year 5&6 group they had the chance to use 3D pens to create their own jewelry. First they designed their jewelry  using a 3D digital programme called 'Tinkercad'. Then they tried using 3D pens for the first time to create their jewelry. This was quite a hard process to begin with, but with some practice and experience the students managed to create some amazing jewelry of their own. We would like to thank OMGTech! for lending us the 3D pens and plastic filaments.

Y7&8 Trip to KPMG

On the 10th of August the Year 7&8 Extension students (and some students from Team 5) had the opportunity to visit KPMG for the first time. Our students were so lucky to visit KPMG in the city. KPMG are the biggest sponsors of our Manaiakalani Community of Learning. After meeting some of the staff including Justine who organised our trip, the students got into small groups and began filming.

Throughout the day we were treated to an amazing lunch and some neat activities with some of the staff from KPMG. One group of students interviewed some of the staff to find out more about what they do at KPMG. Another decided to have fun and created an MTV.

We would love to take this opportunity to thank Justine and the staff at KPMG for their hospitality and support during this trip.

Here are some of the student movies that were inspired by our trip.

Paideia Seminars - Extension Group Term 2

What is a Paideia Seminar? It's a Socratic discussion with participants talking about a topic or issue. During the term students researched information about a topic and shared their learning during the seminar. The school wide theme for the term was called 'I Like To Move IT'. The focus was around the topic of Flight. Students were encouraged to build on the ideas of others and share what they had learnt.

Here are some snippets from the Year 5 & 6 Paideia Seminar.




Here are some snippets from the Year 7 & 8 Paideia Seminar.

Team 2 graphics Term 1

In term one Team 2 worked on a stack called 'All About Me' using the Hyperstudio programme. Take a look at some of their amazing artwork.

Hidden Figures - Year 7 & 8 Extn Trip

On Wednesday the Year 7 & 8 Extension group went on a trip to watch 'Hidden Figures' at the Sylvia Park Movie theatre. We were lucky to have sponsors from Mr Vogt. His sisters loved the movie so much that they decided to do some fundraising so that a group of students from our school could go and watch the movie for free.

The movie itself was absolutely amazing. We learnt about how three African American women were able to overcome huge obstacles in their lives to work at and make a significant impact at NASA.

Review: HIDDEN FIGURES is the incredible untold story of Katherine G. Johnson (Taraji P. Henson), Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer) and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monáe)—brilliant African-American women working at NASA, who served as the brains behind one of the greatest operations in history: the launch of astronaut John Glenn into orbit, a stunning achievement that restored the nation’s confidence, turned around the Space Race, and galvanized the world. The visionary trio crossed all gender and race lines to inspire generations to dream big.

Extn trip Hidden Figures 2017 from SchoolTV on Vimeo.

Kidpix artwork by Room 16 - Year 1 students

Our year one students have been learning how to use the drawing tools on a programme called Kidpix. Room 16 drew some pictures about our school picnic.

Room 16 Kidpix art Term 1 2017 from SchoolTV on Vimeo.

Paideia and Coding

The year 5 & 6 Extension students got the chance to work with Anne Sinclair this week who is an expert in the field of education. They were introduced to the Paideia method which is a way of learning that can provide opportunities for deep dialogic discussions. The process also helps to improve communication and critical thinking skills. 



The Year 7 & 8 Extension students were introduced to the 'Scratch' programme. Scratch is a free programming language and online community where you can create your own interactive stories, games, and animations. The Scratch programme would be used as our introduction to coding and how this works. If you didn't know, coding is a list of step by step instructions that get computers to do what you want them to do. First of all the students worked through some of the tutorials which allow you to create your own game. 

https://scratch.mit.edu/

Visual Mihi's: Term 1 Week 2 2017

This week was the start of classes in the Creative Space and Maker Space. It was also the first week of extension classes for our Year Extension groups in Years 5 - 8.

The first task was the creation of Visual Mihi's by the Year 5 & 6 students. They had to draw images on Hyperstudio that represented who they were (e.g nationality) or what some of their hobbies were. They also had to write a brief explanation about how each picture represented a part of them.

Bethan
Daisy
Deavay

Bring on 2016!

This is our theme at Pt England School for 2016. We are looking forward to meeting our students on their first day back at school next week on Tuesday. What a great start to the year if we can 'Make Kindness Go Viral'!

(Thanks to Mr Jacobsen for the image)