Tuesday 31 May 2016

Turn Up The Bass


When on a speaker, the sound waves provide the forces to solidify the cornflour/water mix – but only at certain places due to the wave nature of sound. Interference causes solidification and can cause the fluid to erupt into tentacle shapes. A strong enough speaker can bounce the entire mass of cornflour, but as soon as it leaves the surface it becomes a liquid again. Songs with a lot of bass are best!

Eruptions




Financial Literacy

Monday 30 May 2016

Back in my Day!

The X-Men compared life 'Back in the Day' and today. Who had it worse our parents and grandparents or us?

Have you ever heard “back in my day we didn’t have technology to keep ourselves entertained!”? Parents are always saying ridiculous things like this. We are comparing whether back in  the day was actually better for kids than it is today.

Chores -  Kalani and Gabby -
Back in the day, children woke up before the sun rose to do chores such as milking cows, feeding animals, collecting eggs and cutting wood for fire. Nowadays we have simpler chores like making our beds, cleaning our rooms, hanging up the washing, and cleaning dishes. In our opinion we think nowadays is better than olden days because the chores aren’t as hard as it was back then.

Charlotte toilets and Bathrooms -
In the olden days, people didn’t have flushing toilets and showers, instead they had a long drop. Long drops are big holes in the ground outside, usually covered with a wooden shack. However nowadays we have flushing toilets inside. Back then they didn’t have any showers, when it was cold they would have a hot bath in the lounge, and when it was warm they would wash themselves in the river. Today we have showers inside and can change the setting whether we want a hot or a cold shower.

Come to school - Krish and Hemish
In the olden days children use to ride to school on a horse and the horse was so big that the children could play cards on its body. If it was raining you would have to walk to school in bare feet and if your feet were cold you would have to stand in cow patties to warm them up. Today we get driven short distances in comfortable vehicles and walk with friends and family. We also have shoes to keep our feet warm.
 
Entertainment - Dev and Shreyas
In the olden days children used to make guns out of sticks. They had to chase chickens and ride on sheep. Children also made huts in the trees and built sandcastles. Inside the house they would listen to the radio and draw on old newspaper. Nowadays kids are totally different they play on their consoles, phone, Ipads and tablet. They also watch TV and channels like Youtube, Netflix and Quickflix.

Overall we believe that the children back in the day had it much harder than we have it now. They would have to do hard chores, wash in a river, and have to draw on old newspaper to keep entertained. So when your parents say “back in my day we had it hard” you should really believe them.

Wednesday 25 May 2016

Starman Music Video

The X-Men used their reading skill of visualising to create a music video to Starman by David Bowie. Enjoy


Tuesday 24 May 2016

Bubble Bomb


What's Happening?

The bubbles in the Bubble Bomb are filled with carbon dioxide, a gas that forms when the vinegar (an acid) reacts with the baking soda (a base).
If you've ever made a cake, you've already done some experimenting with the bubbles that come from an acid-base reaction. Most cakes rise because of bubbles in their batter. Those bubbles, like the ones in the Bubble Bomb, are created by the chemical reaction of an acid and a base.

Monday 23 May 2016

Marvelous Mentos


What's Happening?

Although there are a few different theories around about how this experiment works, the most favoured reason is because of the combination of carbon dioxide in the Diet Coke and the little dimples found on Mentos.

The thing that makes soda drinks bubbly is the carbon dioxide that is pumped in when they bottle the drink at the factory. It doesn't get released from the liquid until you pour it into a glass and drink it, some also gets released when you open the lid (more if you shake it up beforehand). This means that there is a whole lot of carbon dioxide gas just waiting to escape the liquid in the form of bubbles.
Dropping something into the Diet Coke speeds up this process by both breaking the surface tension of the liquid and also allowing bubbles to form on the surface area of the Mentos. Mentos are covered in tiny dimples (a bit like a golf ball), which dramatically increases the surface area and allows a huge amount of bubbles to form.

Starman

The X-Men have been reading the lyrics to David Bowie's Starman. They wrote a description of the Starman himself and then created a radio broadcast like the one that might have been heard in the song.




The Starman is high above us waiting. He has a crimson lightning bolt covering his snow white tanned face. Red fiery hair stands high above his thin features. He moves like a cobra ready to strike. His body is covered in multi coloured scales. His piercing eyes are different colours to help him see far down to Earth. He makes cosmic sounds with his guitar.

Radio Broadcast

Speech Idol

It's that time of year again as we begin preparing speeches. This is your Room 3 Speech Idol!

Sunday 22 May 2016

Procedural Writing Task 2

For Task 2 of procedural writing Room 3 created their own procedural texts. Here are some examples

How to Handstand Walk by Caleb



How to post to a blog by Kaelem




Thursday 19 May 2016

Read and Ride

After reading 'Read And Ride' on DOGONews Heila decided this would be a great initiative for Halsey Drive School. She created this proposal for Mrs Ritchie - do you think HDS should adopt a 'Read and Ride' program?



Monday 16 May 2016

How to be the worst teacher

For Task 1 of procedural writing Room 3 had to create a guide on ‘How to be a teacher’. First we had to imagine what type of teacher they could be, secondly create a list of characteristics and finally describe the steps of a school day.

How to be the Worst teacher by Charlotte

Characteristics:

* Have a loud voice
* Spit when talking
* Always be in a bad mood
* Be Rude and Lazy
* Have no patience
* Smelly breath
* Dislike children

 Steps:

  1. Get up in a bad mood and drive to school an hour late
  2. Grab a coffee and rush to class
  3. Do the roll pronouncing everyone's name wrong
  4. Yell at smallest child while spitting everywhere
  5. Tell everyone to do boring homework about school values
  6. When the principal comes in act like you're the best teacher
  7. Go to the staff room and eat everything without sharing
  8. Go back to class and make the children run 10 laps around whole school
  9. Get annoyed about nothing at all and spill coffee all over kids
  10. When the bell goes for lunch make children do maths for 50 year olds
  11. Then go to staff room yelling at everyone for no reason
  12. Once you are done yelling - eat gross tuna sandwich
  13. When the bell goes go back to class and make everyone do handwriting until their hands get numb
  14. If you don’t like their handwriting make kids eat worms
  15. Once all the children are gone trash classroom for kids to clean the next day

How to be the Worst teacher by Hemish

Characteristics
  • Smelly coffee breath
  • Spit while talking
  • No patience
  • Bad mood
  • Make children do lots of work


Step 1:  Arrive late in the wrong class while spilling coffee on children.

Step 2: Scream at children and make them cry before going into your own class.

Step 3: Go to your desk and ready 15 extremely difficult worksheets for maths, reading and writing

Step 4: After that take the roll and mispronounce names. Hand out worksheets and have children work in silence.

Step 5: At morning tea keep the children in the classroom doing work while other kids play.

Step 6: When morning tea is over make the children run around the school 10 times.

Step 7: When the children come back don’t let them have a drink of water.

Step 8: Make the children do more work. At lunch time make them clean up the classroom while you spill things 

Step 9: When lunch finishes make them do more work in silence and make them miss out on sport or games.

Step 10: When the day is over make them stay in for 10 minutes and then let them go.

Sunday 15 May 2016

Soundscape

In Music we created a soundscape to represent a chemical change.


Should People Eat Worms?

The Guardians of the Galaxy read 'Worms for Dinner?' they then evaluated the claim 'People should eat worms'.

Procedural Writing

Tuesday 10 May 2016

Billowing Balloons


What was happening?

When you mix a substance that contains an acid (vinegar) with a carbonate (baking soda), the two react in a chemical reaction to form carbon dioxide gas. It was this gas that blew up the balloons. 

Edible Cutlery

The Avengers read an article on Dogo News about edible cutlery being produced in India. They used the information in the article to create advertisements for edible cutlery with a Kiwi twist.




Stick Infomercial

Rhea and Kristy created an infomercial as a way to persuade people to buy a stick. Would you buy it?

Radio Advertisement

In writing we used our persuasive techniques to create a radio advertisement for 'stick'. We discussed how our writing style needs to change whether we are writing for the ear or for the eye'

Monday 9 May 2016

The Super Stick

WALT - Identify features of persuasive writing

In writing we discussed features of persuasive writing in advertisements. We then used some out of the box thinking to create our own adverts for a 'stick'.

Sunday 8 May 2016

Milk and Food Colouring Experiment

What was happening?
Milk is mostly water, but it also contains vitamins, minerals, proteins, and tiny droplets of fat suspended in solution. Fats and proteins are sensitive to changes in the surrounding solution (the milk). When dish soap is added it mixes with the fats and proteins.
The molecules of fat bend, roll, and twist in all directions as the soap molecules race around to join up with the fat molecules. During this reaction the food colouring molecules are bumped and shoved everywhere, causing the colours to mix up.
As the soap becomes evenly mixed with the milk, the action slows down and eventually stops. This is why milk with a higher fat content produces a better explosion of colour — there’s just more fat to combine with all of those soap molecules.
We believe this is a chemical reaction because the reaction cannot be reversed and the chemical makeup of the milk has changed.

Should under 13's have their own Facebook accounts?

WALT - Write an Exposition

facebook like button | by
dislike button | by Sean
Great way to communicate with friends and family overseas

Free, easy to setup and manage (puresight.com)

Educational - you can discuss school work and share resources, set up a study group (puresight.com)

Enhances social skills - 88% of teens value social media because it increases self esteem and helps them communicate with friends (puresight.com)
Greater chance of being cyber bullied. 51% of children have been bullied online (relevantchildrensministry.org)

Antisocial behaviour - 25% of teens log into social media 10+ times a day

Addictive - time guzzler, can get hooked on games (puresight.com)

Exposed to inappropriate/offensive content (puresight.com)

Privacy - Under 13’s not mature enough to keep important information private

Should children under the age of 13 have their own Facebook account? by Kristy

Social media is a good way for people from around the world to communicate and connect with each other digitally.  There are many different social media platforms you can use like Twitter, Instagram, Viber and Snapchat.  The most widely used social media platform is Facebook.  In 2004 Mark Zuckerberg launched Facebook and now there are 1.4 billion Facebook users.  5 million users are under the age of 13 which is the minimum age that you should be to have an account.  In New Zealand 23% of primary school kids are on Facebook (stuff.co.nz).  Is it a good idea that kids under 13 should be allowed to have their own Facebook account?

Many people agree that children under 13’s should have a Facebook account  because it enhances social skills and self esteem.  This is because it helps children communicate well with friends.  Also if you get lots of friend requests you might feel better because you might think you are more popular.  Whereas other people think that children will display antisocial behaviour if they have a Facebook account. 25% of children log onto social media 10 plus times a day, this causes children to interact with others less face to face and waste time.  In my opinion I think that kids shouldn’t have a Facebook account because their social skills will become better if they weren’t on social media.  They will be able to participate in activities more and will be able to interact with friends in the real world.

Another reason why people think under 13’s should have a Facebook account is because it is a great way to communicate, and connect with friends and family overseas.  This is because Facebook is a worldwide platform that people use to chat with.  Children under the age of 13 can talk to their extended family members and friends overseas.  On the other hand people disagree because children under the age of 13 are not mature enough and might give away their personal information such as their address, phone number, age, full name and many more.  One other reason is that they might get exposed to inappropriate and offensive content (puresight.com).

Some people think that it is good for under 13’s to be on Facebook because it’s easy to set up and is free (puresight.com).  Facebook accounts are also very easy to manage which means parents don’t need to check and help their children on Facebook.  However children might make an account without their parents knowledge.  Children under age also have a greater chance of being cyber bullied.  According to relevantchildrensministry.org  51% of kids have been bullied online.  This is bad because it can affect and change how the child reacts/acts to things in the real world.  This can also affect the child’s learning in school.

Overall my opinion is that under 13’s shouldn’t have their own Facebook account because the child has a higher chance of being bullied, they might display antisocial behaviour and may also give away private information.  Therefore I recommend that if you are under 13 before signing up to Facebook think about the consequences and what might happen online.