Tinui School - Room 4 Class Blog

During our first week back at school we spent a lot of time discussing expectations - particularly around attitude and behavior - and what attributes are necessary for a successful team.

I was able to share my greatest expectation of the students in Room 4, which is that WE work as a team - students and teachers alike - to achieve success for EVERYONE.

The students also had  an opportunity to share their expectations of me, all of which - to my surprise - were very reasonable and sensible. One of their requests was that I find them a group of students from another country with whom they could begin a pen-pal correspondence. I have to say I was delighted with this request as it demonstrates their ability to take control of their learning and steer it in new and innovative directions. 

Fortunately I discovered the ePals Global Community - a must for teachers looking for a way to build connections with other schools, cultures, and classrooms. http://www.epals.com/ 

In less than 24 hours of creating a Tinui School profile and submitting it to the site we had received a request to correspond and collaborate with a group of Russian students who are learning English as a second language. The students are based in St. Petersburg, Russia - an absolutely stunning city - and are currently working on their introductory emails to the Room 4 students. 

This opportunity to collaborate with our Russian friends affords the children an authentic context in which to develop their reading and writing skills. We are all looking forward to this next exciting chapter in our literacy learning!

A snapshot of our first day back:
Opal - "It was a bright start to the year, but hard work...even though we didn't work that hard"

Some of our new additions to Room 4 (Year 6 students) - "Being in the senior class isn't that hard" - Mrs Bruere - "There's still plenty of hard work to come so I wouldn't get too complacent if I were you!"

Our Silhouette Self Portraits - a work in progress
1.We started off by using an OHP to project a shadow of our profile onto the white board
2. Next we asked one of our classmates to draw the outline of our head using a coloured piece of chalk

3. Then we used our coloured chalk to draw a pattern inside our silhouette outline
4. After that we used crayon to colour our pattern, being careful not to use the same colour in adjacent blocks


3. And finally, we brushed over our entire picture using a coloured dye wash

Welcome back everyone! I hope you had a fantastic summer break and are all geared up for another action packed year.

Your first assignment is to start thinking about what you would like to achieve this year...do you want to become a fantastic reader or mathematician? Are you fired up to become the next duathalon champion? Or are you determined to have a more positive attitude towards those subjects that you dislike most?

Get your thinking caps on as we will be setting our long term personal goals on Friday!