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.

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...

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!

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
Cameron: wedding, 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

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)

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

Board Mania

Board Mania from Kieren Moriarty on Vimeo.

Today we had a board games day. It was fun. The students really played well together. Saw some awesome maths skills in a couple of the games too! Charlotte created this trailer with assistance from Natasha to showcase the day. Enjoy the view and please comment :)

 Tomorrow is Wacky Sports Day!

Rock n' Roll Social 2012

Here is a glimpse of some of the fun had by our year sixes at the rock n' roll dance. They are a great bunch!



Rock n Roll 2012 from Kieren Moriarty on Vimeo.

Volleyball Champions!

The Parkvale Moriarty volleyball team won their final to come first in the Hastings Y5/6 competition. They won all their games this year through great teamwork which gave them an amazing number of bonus points. The final versus Mayfair was close, with Parkvale winning 265 - 255. Well done to Parris, Joshua, Stefan, Brody, Natasha and Amy!

Guest blogger Parris gives us this short report:

"Last Thursday Parkvale Moriarty competed in the finals for Volleyball they faced Mayfair. It was a really tough game and everyone used personal best. We were hoping to keep our undefeated title! When it was half time we drew and then we had to step up the game. The team was so nervous and Stefan was getting a bit fired up.

But then the hooter went we were very excited and then Mr. Severinson said 265 to Parkvale and 255 to Mayfair!"

The Champs!

Photos by Seth

Update: Check out Parris's Volleyball Interview video!

Triathlon!

Today we had the senior triathlon. It was amazing! I feel lucky to have witnessed such determination and effort in our students. Well done to Casey for winning the Year 6 girls competitive race and Parris for winning the Year 5 girls! What tough races! We quickly posted our feelings about the triathlon on the Wall above. Add to it if you like.