Global connections - why are we here?

Today with James (our cybersmart teacher), we continued our work with google maps.  Below you will see an embedded map that shows where each of the students (and teachers) in our senior syndicate were born.  This was our starting point for some discussion questions and some of the tools in Google Maps.




You will find the discussion questions here on our class cybersmart page.  We then discussed our thoughts and feelings about these on our individual blogs (see the sidebar for more).

Following this James really challenged our thinking with the following video.
The Lie from Untitled Productions on Vimeo.

We watched, we absorbed, then we posted our thoughts about this.  Be sure to check these on our individual blogs.  We would love it if you posted a positive, thoughtful and helpful comment below.  How does this make you feel?  Is your class or workplace similar to our classroom?

Week 8 - Chinese Language Week

Ni Hao,

As well as our usual learning we have acknowledged Chinese language week this week.  We have had a go at some different greetings and words that we could use each day.  There are six posters that have words we can used and you will see these displayed below with our Chinese Lanterns.

For reading, we followed a procedural text to create these Chinese Lantern with Miss McGrath.  You can find the instructions here if you would like to have a go at these too.

Week 7 - Tongan Language Week

Malo e lelei,

Week 7 was Tongan Language week and we celebrated this in a number of ways at school.  As part of our oral language work we got together in buddies and had a go at using some of the following phrases.

Ko hai ho Hingoa? What is your name?

Ko hoku hingoa ko...  My name is...

Fefe hake? How are you?

E meiaki au.. I am fine, thank you...

We also developed some tapa cloth designs to hang in our class using symbols, patterns and some aspects of Math and symmetry.

Finally, we had a small celebration on Friday afternoon before lunch where some boys from the senior syndicate joined in with dance and also shared a special song with us.  It was great to see the teachers dressed by some of our Tongan Mums on this day too.