Our Pow Toon For Te Reo Maori

An icosahedron has 20 faces 

Room 13 have been very busy bees making 3D shapes out of brightly coloured paper and attaching thread to put on the class Christmas tree. The official name of a 3D shape is polyhedron which means a shape with many faces - and the diamonds we've been creating have 8 faces - an octahedron is the correct name.

We've also been making 3D shapes out of play dough and toothpicks. We counted the edges, vertices and faces of each of the shapes we made and recorded our results in a chart in our maths book. Someone in our class figured out that the vertices are the number of play dough blobs in your shape and the edges are the number of toothpicks in your shape (but you still have to count out your shape's faces). It was really fun to make the shapes, especially an icosahedron (picture on left).

Here's what some students thought bout making the shapes:

"I liked making the play dough creations because you could make up your own shapes and be inventive" - Max

"Making the shapes was quite fun" - Sasha

Our Christmas tree isn't completely decorated but some of our diamonds are on the tree (as pictured). Everyone loves the bright colours on the tree and hope to make more decorations so our tree looks great. Do you have any ideas for decorations?

By Georgie

Pet Day with Room 13

Pet Day with Room 13

Dance, dance, dance!

Dean with the Junior Syndicate
teaching them the "DJ" dance move.

Who doesn't like to "Shake it off" after a big day of working? Room 13 do, and that's why we loved it when Dean and Ezra from "Stepping Out" dance troupe came to give the students a 40 minute hip-hop lesson. Dance isn't something we usually do at school so it was also a great opportunity to learn something new that we could carry on with later on as a career. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves and were proud of what they achieved.

We learnt a routine to the song "Treasure" by Bruno Mars (the music video is below) and if there were some moves that were difficult, we went over them a bit with Dean and Ezra before trying it to the music.

The boys hope to come back, have another 40 minute lesson with us and then do a show with us to showcase our hip hop skills. I think this is a great idea because not only will it be super fun; it also boosts confidence and self esteem for those who don't like being in front of a big audience.

"It was so enjoyable; I still remember all of the moves. It was great fun," said Zak of Room 13, who was resting from practising the moves on the court when I interviewed him. "This is the first time I've done proper dancing, and it was really cool to try something new." 

After the class, it was lunchtime and everyone was chattering excitedly to their friends about the workshop. Once we had eaten we practiced the dance moves, humming the music and making our moves precise and strong. What an exciting afternoon!

By Georgie