Enjoyment of the Race

The 5 senses

I was fluctuating between total calm anticipation and that physical impulse for a nervous toilet stop. Everywhere around me were confident cyclists wearing helmets, lycra and coloured tags. Most of the green tags were disappearing. I was green. The commentator kept announcing new numbers and the colour they belonged to. Not my colour, not my number. The chatter merged into one continuous sound and then she appeared... Nicky, running strong and upright. I cheered her on and smiled at the echoing support from my colleagues to the left. 

Quickly, I carried the bike forward and rammed my left leg up against the gates. I called Nicky's name and she ran towards me. In a brief panic, she transferred the electronic bracelet to my ankle. I would find out later that Nicky attached my leg to the metal post at first and that my hairy ankle had almost made her vomit!

With urgency, I ran my bike towards the marshals and got on my seat as soon as I could. My legs eased into the rotations as I breathed in the sea air. Faint smells of barbecue dissipated into the distance. My bike cut through the bumpy road, propelled by those racing wheels Stephen had added and my newly discovered enjoyment of the race. I was free. Completely alive in the moment.

The Parkvale crew. Where's Nicky?

Wonder: Ordinary?

Wonder by R.J. Palacio is not an ordinary book. I love it. I am looking forward to reading it as a shared reading with Room 6. We have twenty copies of the book from the library. The book trailer above does a good job of advertising the book. It is persuading the viewer to read it. We discovered that the words come from the first chapter, Ordinary.

Ordinary

I know I'm not an ordinary ten-year old kid. I mean, sure, I do ordinary things. I eat ice cream. I ride my bike. I play ball. I have an XBox. Stuff like that makes me ordinary. I guess. And I feel ordinary. Inside. But I know ordinary kids don't make other ordinary kids run away screaming in playgrounds. I know ordinary kids don't get stared at wherever they go.

(Taken from Wonder, by R.J. Palacio)

Learning Buddy Panda

Here is the Room 6 Learning Buddy Panda. I created it using the Loupe app. It has all the learning buddy animals created by Room 6. Hover over the pictures to enlarge them. We had fun creating them. So far, we are being pretty good learning buddies and we will only get better.

Tōtara Hub Logo

Congratulations to Cameron, Room 6 winner of the Nga Rakau Nui Tōtara Hub logo competition. His design is clear and precise, with well-drawn symbols of meaning which represent our hub. To quote his Mum, we "love the bright blue yellow and red combo!" A big thank you to Mr Cottrell, who designed half the totara tree logo. His design was inspirational and our Tōtara Hub classrooms contain many wonderful examples of creative student artworks, which effectively complete the design. Well done to all the students for putting PRIDE into their art!

A PRIDE Animation

Pride Animation by Elijah Casson on GoAnimate


Elijah and Maia have created this fun animation, which shows ways to action Parkvale PRIDE. They used the website Go Animate which is on our Writing Symbaloo. They showed a lot of Parkvale PRIDE working and learning together to create this.

Buddy Swimming 2014

Matilda and her buddy are ready for action!

Room 3 are our buddy class this year. We are so excited to learn with them! On Friday we met each other and then went swimming together. I was so proud of what wonderful teachers Room 6 were. They really helped Room 3 in the water.

 
Buddy Swimming 2014 from Kieren Moriarty on Vimeo.

Like a movie inside your head!

Maia's visualising sketches of Cry Baby

We have been reading the wonderful short stories of Paul Jennings. They are so enjoyable. We have also been learning about the reading comprehension strategy of visualising. As I read aloud Cry Baby, the students drew pictures of what was happening in the story. They also labelled their sketches. I was very impressed with their sketches and labels, which show their understanding of the story.

Sharing Money

Our maths topic is all about money. We will be using money as a context to learn how to use lots of different number strategies and build our number knowledge. It will be lots of fun!

We have started off with some sharing problems. It is has been great to see the students work out how to share the dollars and then break it down into sharing cents when it is needed to make the equal shares.

Kyra shows how to solve problem one!

Problem two

Zach has problem two sorted with the money equipment

Move Your Body

Move Your Body from Kieren Moriarty on Vimeo.

On Friday, we had a surprise at assembly. The teachers did a flashmob dance to Move Your Body by Beyoncé. You can watch it at the bottom of this post. The teachers had a special guest from Rezpect Dance Academy who taught us the dance. It is all about getting fit and giving it a go.

Afterwards, we have been learning the dance with our Totara Hub buddies, Room 7. Mr Cottrell knows the dance much better than me and has been a great teacher for all of us. The video above shows how well Room 6 and 7 did. This was their first time learning the dance. Everyone participated and contributed, showing real Parkvale PRIDE!

Don't just stand there on the wall, Mr Cottrell.

Thank you, Rezpect Dance Academy!

Close to 100, Close to 1000

The boys are focused!

On Friday for maths we applied our place value knowledge by playing the game Close to 100. We played as a class and then with our learning buddies. Then we changed the game to closest to 1000. The slideshow below captures some of the Parkvale PRIDE we were putting into action. Especially E for Enjoyment!

Note: PRIDE stands for Personal Best, Respect and Responsibility, Integrity, Determination, Enjoyment.

Who won?

Mary vs. Jaidyn

Close to 100, Close to 1000 from Kieren Moriarty on Vimeo.