Beach Education trip with Surf Lifesaving NZ

We got to spend a fun day out at Mairangi Bay learning about how to stay safe when swimming at the beach. We took the school Go Pro's and got some really awesome footage. Watch this video to see what we got up to.

Ancient wonders

Room 4 were very busy at the end of Term 4. The whole class were super enthusiastic about our inquiry topic "Ancient Wonders". Room 4 did some initial research in buddies finding out basic information about a large number of ancient buildings. They were able to find out so much information such as where the buildings were built, when they were built and what type of materials were used to make them. Students shared all the information they found with the class. Once Room 4 finished that students began picking their own buildings. Ancient buildings that they found interesting. Each student worked individually with Miss Bridgland to create four key inquiry questions to research and answer.

Different questions asked by Room 4:

- What was the cultural significance of sporting events held in the Colleseum?

- How did people today find out what the Hanging Gardens of Babylon looked like?

- Why did they build the Acropolis on top of a hill in the middle of a town?

- Why does the Great Sphinx have a human head and the body of a lion?

- What was the purpose of the building?

- What makes the Lighthouse of Alexandria so special?

- What made King Tut so important in order for him to have such a big, lavish tomb?

Miss Bridgland challenged Room 4 to present our information without the use of a poster or a slideshow. Room 4 was able to rise up to the challenge and presented information in a range of ways. Books, 3D models, interviews and maps to name a few of the projects produced.

Take a look at what Room 4 created by travelling to different areas of the Ancient World.

Speeches

Food! Names! The everything box! These are some of the brilliant titles and topics that people had for the magnificent speeches. First we had to present our speech to our class and the best five people vs again the next day. Then three people get eliminated and the best two go through to the finals a couple of days later in front not only the 5’s not only the year 6’s but the year 4’s 5’s and 6’s! Over the next couple of days we work with our teacher and get over all the shivering nerves we practise looking up to the audience and emphasis. Then comes the nerve racking final, a lot of amazing speeches and very talented people. Finally the prizegiving. Some very sad moments for some but life-changing moments for others. The claps and cheers always bring a smile on your face. Bring on next year!

By Lucy Nevill

Lucy representing Room 4 with her excellent speech on if school would be better without boys. She sure knocked those smelly socks of the audience. Well done Lucy! 

Phenix representing Room 4 with her speech about animal testing. She shared her views on animal testing and made the audience think more about their purchases. Brilliant work Phenix!

A small snippet from Miss Bridgland:

Everyone in Room 4 presented fantastic speeches. There were so many varied topics and the hamburger template we had been practicing was being well used. I was very impressed to see students in Room 4 giving constructive feedback to one another as well as encouraging and congratulating each other. Ke te pai Ruma wha.

Our inquiry museum trip

Last Friday we packed up our bags and headed off to the museum. Our inquiry focus for the term is on Ancient Wonders and all the questions we have around ancient civilisations, buildings and culture. We were fortunate enough to visit the classroom at the museum and have a special lesson. In our lesson we used our inquisitive minds to find out information about different ancient civilisations. We were able to look at artefacts from these civilisations and examine them. There were some incredible objects with very interesting backgrounds and reasons for their usage. The museum trip definitely sparked some great inquiry focussed discussion.

A special thank you to all our great parents who offered to help and those that came along. It definitely wouldn't have been such a fun trip without you all.

Thomas D: I like how we were presenting information about our Gods and what they were doing.

Dominic: I really loved the mummy at the museum. I like how they found all the interesting artefacts. The Ancient Egyptians thought that if their pets died and they mummified them they would meet them in the after life.

Olivia: I liked all the quizzes. There was a Buddha meditating as an artefact in one of the glass cabinets.

Zac: We had to get ancient artefacts and had to figure out what they were.

Fraser: We got given a puzzle. It was actually a Viking's toilet seat.

Morgan G: There was an artefact that was the end of a staff. I think it came from Ancient Egypt. I never knew staff were real because they are usually magical.

See if you can spot anyone you know in all the photos Miss B took.

Our assembly item

Our class worked really hard on our assembly item. We decided to focus our assembly item on writing.

We have been working hard on perfecting our persuasive writing. We hope you can learn some tricks to help you with your persuasive writing.

 We had two wonderful students write each side of our debate in our item.
Bria Cottton wrote the 'FOR' side. 
Holly Barker wrote the 'AGAINST' side. 

Cross country

On Monday we had our senior school cross country. Room 4 has many avid runners and were excited about the cross country. Many of Room 4 are a  part of the VAS running club. Everyone tried their best and made Miss Bridgland proud.

Many of our class made the top ten places.
Year 5 girls:
2nd-Lucy
3rd- Kate
7th- Tyler
8th- Zoe

Year 5 boys:
2nd: Morgan T
3rd: Thomas B
5th: Dominic
6th: Thomas D
7th: Zac

Maths week

It has been Maths week here at VAS. We have been working hard on our maths knowledge. Miss Bridgman has sent us problems everyday to test our maths skills. We had a great time.

Here's what some of Room 4 have to say about maths week:

Bria- I liked doing the problems everyday and it tested my knowledge a lot more.

Morgan T -  I liked the maths trail because it was fun. There were hard questions and it was fun to work them out.

Kate - I like being challenged. I had fun doing the maths trail. It was exciting to be finding maths all around our school.

Thomas B -  I liked the maths trail because it was fun. I enjoyed doing all the different things. We got to do maths by running around the field.

Charlie - My favourite problem was working out how much the names of all the teachers in the senior syndicate were worth.  It took me ages to work them out.

Photos from our trip to the Mind Lab

We were lucky enough to go to the Mind Lab and do some fantastic inquiry exploring with magnets. We mined iron out of sand from Piha. We made our own electromagnets and we even made pharoah fluid.

Mind lab trip

This is a slideshow made by Flynn O'Shannessey, George Baker and Thomas Delmas about our visit to the Mind Lab. 

Kia ora everyone!

Welcome to Room 4's blog. Here are four quick facts all about us!

1. We are a year 5 class at Victoria Avenue School in Auckland. Our class is filled with 30 enthusiastic, sporty, fun, competitive, caring students who love learning. We are all very different but together we are awesome. 
2. Our teacher is Miss Bridgland. She loves sports, reading and learning as well. Harry Potter is her favourite book series. 
3. There are loads of things we love about our school. We have a big field to play football, touch and capture the flag on. The library is another place we enjoy to relax and read. You can always find Room 4 students using the table tennis tables and the handball squares. We have chrome books in our class which we all love to use as much as we can. 
4. We are very excited to start this blog and can't wait to share our learning with everyone. Please feel free to comment and we will write back. 

Follow us throughout the year as we share our learning.

From Miss Bridgland and Room 4