Thursday, February 28, 2013

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Interschool Swimmers!

Our second Student Work of the Week for 2013 goes to...


Our proud athletes! Photo by Joshua.

This week it's awarded to Room 16's amazing group of swimmers who represented Parkvale School with PRIDE today. They were part of the interschool swim team and have been training hard with Mrs Roil and Miss Hill.

Well done Olivia, Hannah, Bree, Henry, Liam and Cameron! We are all proud of your achievements.

Monday, February 25, 2013

Top House 2013



Great fun had by all. PRIDE displayed throughout the games. Participation, contribution, thinking, teamwork and enjoyment.

I also believe that Kea house came out on top!

Extra! Check out these blog posts on Top House:

Sunday, February 24, 2013

Legend of Te Mata, The Sleeping Giant

On Friday Room 16 were lucky to perform an item for the school at our PRIDE Assembly. We decided to retell the Legend of Te Mata. I was very proud of how Room 16 performed on stage and especially how everyone contributed and enjoyed themselves.

The video below captured most of their performance. Thank you Daniel for your excellent filming and funny feedback for Crighton. Look out for the Harlem Shake!

 
Legend of Te Mata from Kieren Moriarty on Vimeo.

Extra! Check out these student reflections on our performance:

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Tyrone's Summarising of Earthquake




This is Tyrone's summarising comic strip of the story Earthquake by Lynn Davis. The story is based on true events in the Christchurch Earthquake, 4 September 2010. I really like how Tyrone summarised the story and his amazing detailed sketches.

It is our first Student Work of the Week for 2013. This is a new feature / label on The Tree of PRIDE. What do you think?

Saturday, February 16, 2013

Meteors Over Russia

Photo from National Geographic
A meteor hit Russia yesterday, becoming a meteorite and causing injury to hundreds and lots of damage. Meteors come from outer space.


Click on this link to understand more about the difference between meteors and meteorites.

Watch the video below and leave a comment about meteors and meteorites.





Friday, February 15, 2013

Swimming with the Room 5 Kidd-li-winks


Buddy Swimming from Kieren Moriarty on Vimeo.

Room 16 have been very lucky! On Wednesday and Thursday afternoon we had the chance to help Room 5 Kidd-li-winks with their swimming goals. I am so proud to see the different ways Room 16 children help the Room 5 children learn to swim. You can see that we learn so much about participating and contributing and relating to others through the experience of teaching younger children.

Here is a post that Mrs Hill created about us helping Room 5 on Wednesday.

Monday, February 11, 2013

Cyber Safety

Today Constable Wong spoke to Room 16 and Room 17 about cyber safety. We are learning to be digital citizens and his messages were very helpful.

If something goes wrong it is so important you tell a parent or teacher. We will help you and we can learn from what happened.

Here is a short animated video I created using Go Animate. It is one of the sites on the Writing Symbaloo at the bottom of the blog.

Cyber Safety with Bob and Brigid by moriarty_ok on GoAnimate

Video Maker - Powered by GoAnimate.

Here are my notes:

Cyber Safety with Mr Wong

  • Try to be safe and sensible
  • Rules are to keep us safe
  • You are meant to be at least 13 to be on Facebook
  • Lots of things on the internet can be inappropriate
  • Supervision of parents at home
  • iPods, cellphones, netbooks... (we have a lot of digital tools to communicate in different ways)
  • Hurt feelings (instead of being a laugh it becomes bullying)
  • If you don’t know who they are, you can’t trust them
  • Anything you put online, look at or send is always going to be there (even if you delete it, it can be found)
  • People don’t give you free stuff, if you click on it you could get a virus or get ripped off
  • If you get the wrong emails, you need to show your teacher
  • If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is...

Sunday, February 10, 2013

Swimming Tips



On Friday we were lucky to get swimming tips from Fiona at Swimming New Zealand. (If you click on the link you can go explore what their programme is all about).

I have been really impressed with the skills and most importantly the effort of the students in Room 16 and 17 in the first week of our swimming time. Fiona showed us how important it is to get our floating and gliding positions right so that we swim efficiently. It all takes a lot of practise even when you are a good swimmer!

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Key Words: Moments in the Holidays


Mr Moriarty: baby, son, Leo
Ben: Coromandel, Waitomo Caves, Hahei
Marcus: Wii, iPad, Clifton
Zeb: bleeding, teeth, three weeks
Teva: Samsung, tablet, Thursday
Joshua: Hamilton, crashes, drifts
Henry: Taupo, splashes, one-ski
Liam: Mahia, climbing, Grandparents
Ellis: Sweden, cousin, happy
Inderpreet: phone, cousin, Auckland
Shivom: medicine, tummy, school
Ollie: Mangakino, fishing, Subway
Hemani: Sky Tower, travelling, 2 o'clock in the morning
Hannah: jumped, waterfall, exciting
Bree: Christmas, sick, annoyed
Tracey: Porangahau, steep hill, motorbikes
Olivia: Havelock Pools, guinea pigs, movie
Emma: wheelchair, Auckland, plane
Zach: dairy, bike, bought
Tyrone: cousins, outside, came over
Nakita:  hospital, baby, dog park
Nikitah: windy, climbing, holiday
Lily: died, dog, holiday
Dylan: sister, 24 years old, played
Crighton: Rainbow's End, Auckland, Fearfall
Elijah: cousin, Auckland, holiday
Jessica: shopping, Wellington, Te Papa

Cameronwedding, ring~bearers, ushers
Imaan: major surgery, baby

We are learning to summarise using key words. They are often nouns. Here is a video with students from Room 16 acting out the key words of one of the group members. Can you guess their key words? Enjoy!



Key Words from the Holidays from Kieren Moriarty on Vimeo.
Music: Where I'm From by the Digable Planets

Monday, February 4, 2013

Day 1 Reflections


We liked...

  • installing Google Chrome
  • getting our own Google account
  • creating with Comic Life
  • Gmail
  • learning everyone's names
  • how everyone was kind to each other
  • emailing each other
  • sharing and helping
  • helping people
  • finding out the most valuable name in the class
  • having the most valuable name
  • the book we read (Eric by Shaun Tan)

Sunday, February 3, 2013

Welcome to Room 16!

Monday is our first day in Room 16! We have four returning students from Room 20, 2012 and twenty-four new students. I am very excited and looking forward to the best year yet!

I created this video from a folder of captured learning images in 2012 and included one nephew, two nieces and my eldest daughter Estelle meeting the pet lamb Melissa when she was little (Melissa is now a fat pet sheep). These images all capture the theme of learning through exploring and having fun.

It was inspired by this video from the teacher Stephanie Thompson. I follow her teaching blog and on Twitter. We share many similar teaching philosophies. Teachers are always learning. A lot of the words in my video are similar because I believe in them strongly too. I hope you enjoy it...


2013 Begins from Kieren Moriarty on Vimeo.
Music: Splat by Bailter Space