Are you ready to present yet?

How is your science presentation progressing? Are you ready to show the other classes yet? How do you know if your presentation is as good as it can be?

Use the self assessment guidelines below to decide if your project is ready to be shared.

Explaining the Science Ideas:

Novice: We can’t explain our science ideas

Apprentice: We have tried to explain a science idea about forces

Practitioner: We can explain two science ideas in our sport using precise science vocab

Expert: We can clearly explain lots of science ideas (3 or more), using accurate science vocabulary to a high standard.

Recording the Process:

Novice: We don't have much to show others about our process.

Apprentice: We have some recordings of our process using some different media.

Practitioner: We have regular recordings of our process using a variety of media.

Expert: We have detailed, regular recordings of our process using a variety of media.

Game on presentations

We have spent some time now learning about everyday forces, particularly gravity, friction, air resistance, push and pull. We even touched on inertia and motion. Here are some of the things Room 11 students have learnt about forces.

The Riverdale Basic Facts Ladder

Climb your way to success! The Basic facts ladder is a tool to assist your Basic facts knowledge. This progression is to help you with the next learning step. Ask your grown-up to help you, then I'll do checks with you back at school.

Have fun climbing the ladder, look ahead and don't be scared of heights.

Stage 7
57. Divisibility rules for 4, 6, 8

56. Divisibility rules for 2, 3, 5, 9, 10

55. Simple powers of numbers up to 10. eg 5 to the power of 2 = 25

0. 5 to the power of 3 = 125

54. Square numbers to 100 and corresponding roots eg 7 to power of 2 = 49.

Square root of 49 = 7

53. Common factors of numbers to 100 eg of 48 and 64 = 1,2,4,8,16

52. Least common multiples of numbers to 10 eg 24 is LCM of 6 and 8

51. Fractions – decimals - % eg 75% = 0.75 = ¾

50. Knows all division basic facts

Stage 6

49. Multiplication basic facts with 10’s, 100’s and 1000’s eg 10 x 100 1000 x 10,400 361 x 1,000

48. Division facts for 6 x tables

47. Division facts for 4 x tables

46. Division facts for 3 x tables

45. Multiplication facts for 9 x tables

44. Multiplication facts for 8 x tables

43. Multiplication facts for 7 x tables

42. Multiplication facts for 6 x tables

41. Multiplication facts for 4 x tables

40. Multiplication facts for 3 x tables

39. Subtraction facts from 10-20 eg 16 – 8, 19 – 2, 13 – 4

Stage 5

38. Multiples of 100 that add to make 1000 eg 400 + 600 300 + 700

37. 10 times tables division facts

36. 5 times tables division facts

35. 2 times tables division facts

34. 10 times tables

33. 5 times tables

32. 2 times tables

31. Subtraction from 10 eg 10 – 5 10 – 8

30. Add combinations up to 20 eg 11 + 6 14 + 3

29. Combinations to make 20 eg 15 + 5 14 + 6

Stage 4

28. Multiples of ten (decades) to 100 eg 30 + 70, 40 + 60

27. Ten and facts eg 10 + 4, 7 + 10

26. "tens in decades" e.g.10's in 80, 10's in 30 between 24 and 25

25. Doubles to 10 + 10 eg 9 + 9, 7 + 7

24. Subtraction combinations up to 10 eg 7 – 4, 10 – 2

23. Addition combinations up to 10 eg 4 + 3, 6 +2

Stage 2 -3

22. Doubles that add up to 10 eg 5 + 5 6 + 4

21. Subtract up to 5 eg 4 – 2 3 – 3

20. Subtract from 5 eg 5 – 4 5 – 1

19. Add combinations to 5 eg 1 + 3 3 + 0

18. Combinations to make 5 eg 2 + 3 5 + 0

17. Addition with 5 e.g.5 + 2, 4 + 5

16. Addition combos to make 10 e.g.4 + 6, 3 + 7

15. Recognise patterns to 10 e.g.tens frame patterns

Stage 0-1

14. Say number before up to 10 eg -7, -9, -10

13. Say number after up to 10 eg 5-, 8-, 7-

12. Say number before up to 5 eg -3, -4, -1

11. Say number after to 5 eg 4-5, 3-4

10. Order number cards eg 0-10

9. Write numerals 0 – 10 correctly

8. Count backwards from 10

7. Tens frame patterns to 10

6. Recognise numerals to ten

5. Finger patterns to 10

4. Recognise numerals to 5

3. Know dice patterns to 6

2. Finger patterns to 5

1. Count forwards to 10

Game on!

Room 11 has energetically leapt into our connected curriculum in the past few weeks.

Our focus is on science and particularly on forces, including gravity, friction, air resistance and push/pull. Phew! Challenging stuff. Luckily, the force is strong with Room 11 and I'm sure they will meet their challenges head-on and persist enthusistically with all their learning.

Our rich task is based on sports and so we are eventually going to be looking at how forces come into play (get it?) in different sports. Then we will form research pods and each pod will be able to design a new sport or piece of games equipment to present to a panel, explaining how their sport/equipment makes use of forces. Wow! The opportunities are ENDLESS!

Game on Room 11!

Quiddage

Today we organised ourselves into our business groups for Quiddage, which will be an on-going financial literacy activity throughout the year. Each group is starting to think about the products or services they will provide and sell. Arts and crafts are popular as are food stalls, however, there are some rules that we discussed in class today.

Ideas must be original.
If you want to sell biscuits then you need to create unique and original flavours. Spinach and celery with chopped chives anyone???

Taxes apply.
Any product or service that requires New Zealand dollars will have a 60% tax on it's profits - so fnd ways to use recycled materials if possible.
Foods will have a sugar and fat tax of 90% of the profits if they contain sugar or fat in any quantities.

Some questions to think about before you begin making products are:
What sort of things do people like to buy?
Who will buy this? What will they pay for it?
How will I encourage more people to buy my products?
How will I package my products hygenically?
Is this quick and easy to make and will it sell for a fair price?
What is a fair price for my product?
How can I make my idea exciting and different so more people will come to look at my store?

The more out-of-the-box your ideas are the more likely it is that you will get lots of customers.

Remember... Quiddage products are made in your own time not school time. Have fun!

Bicycle safety

This week we have had a visit from Constable Emily who has been teaching us about bicycle safety on the road to and from school. We have learnt about how to wear our helmet properly and how to signal correctly when on our bikes. Click on the picture to go to find out what the Land Transport NZ Road Code says about bicycles.

Today we also practised some very important bike skills and we realised that many of us were not quite as skilled and safe on the road as we need to be! Even our most confident cyclists in Room 11 recieved a bit of a shock when they realised they were a bit wobbly in some circumstances, like on bumpy roads, or in U-turns or when signalling 'STOP'.

One of the skills that many of the children in Room 11 struggled with, a vital skill for safety on the road, is cycling steadily with only one hand on the handle bars. Without this skill we cannot signal safely to vehicles behind us on the road and we run the risk of wobbling into the path of following traffic.

Another vital and difficult skill that needs plenty of practise is being able to continue cycling in a straight line while looking over our right shoulder to check the traffic behind us.

Constable Emily would urge us all to ensure that any children biking to school are familiar with the road rules and capable of balancing while only one hand is on the handlebars or when looking over their shoulder.

Homefun information

Wow! Week 1 over already! It's been a very busy week and I think that the students in Room 11 have coped remarkably well, especially those who are new to the Senior Skyscrapers team and are still finding out how we do things here.

I am really pleased to see most children staying on top of their homefun and getting their book signed off every night.

Parents, please expect spelling, basic facts and reading homefun every week night. On occasions there may be extras as well, which will be noted in homefun diaries. I do expect the children to read for a minimum of 15 minutes each night. This does not have to be silent reading. It might be that they read YOU a bed time story instead, or even just share a book with you, taking turns to read and discuss the story. Any reading is good reading. By the end of the year this will be increased to half an hour and homefun will require more thought and effort, in preparation for year six or intermediate. The Murray Ball reading group has received their reading log, which needs to be glued into their homefun book and filled in and signed off each night. I am quite happy for children to read their own personal books at home for their reading log but if you would like me to send books home instead please let me know. The Barry Crump and Joy Cowley reading groups will be getting their reading logs next week.

I don't usually send homefun home on weekends, as many of you are quite busy enough with sports, etc, and I think you deserve a bit of a break!

As always, please let me know if the homefun arrangements do not suit you or feel free to ask me if you are concerned about anything.

My email is kbradshaw@riverdale.school.nz if you would like to send me a quick query,otherwise I am happy to catch up at school.

I have had a lovely week. I hope everyone else is feeling as comfortable and settled as I do. Have a nice weekend!