Most problems are easy to solve

The Masked Parade

With thanks to Mr Marston's GoPro.

Genius Hour Sharing

Here are some photos from our second Genius Hour sharing session from Charlotte's Grandma. It was a great success and it was amazing to have all of our wonderful parents come in and ask the tough questions of the presenters. Thanks!

New toys.

In  the holidays, I was lucky enough to attend ULearn 2015 in Auckland with a small group of HSS teachers. One highlight for me was geeking out on some new technologies like mbots, 3D printers, Occulus and makey makey. It was fun trying these out and thinking of applications for the classroom that are authentic and engaging that steer away from the 'toy' style of learning.  Watch this space.

Some Genius Hour videos

More to come....

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Reading for the 40 book challenge

We are reading up a storm at the moment in order to try and 40 chapter books for the year- or at least get as close as we can to this grand sum. If the class average of books read is higher than mine then the class can have a wee party on me. It is neck and neck at the moment! Please keep pushing your child to read chapter books they enjoy at home.

An invitation

We have our second Genius Hour sharing for the year on Thursday @ 1.30pm in the Senior Syndicate. Come one and all to be amazed at the true potential of student lead projects.

Enviro schools making a difference

A group of fantastic HSS kids are passionate about the environment and are keen to make a difference to our school and local community. We've had a few projects on the go recently. The first has been to expand the school orchard. We've planted another 8 fruit trees to add to last years. The trees have all had a good mulch and compost and last years have been pruned by Nancy our KEGS gardener with some of the KEGS kids.

The second has been the designing, building, painting and now placing of weta hotels around the school. These have been nailed to trees around the school in secret and public spots to engage the rest the of the school. So far no Weta have moved in to the Hotels-so our next steps is to research how to attract Weta into our safe and predator free environments.

Finally, we recently had 14 native trees donated to the school by Dean's Nursery as part of our Paper 4 Trees scheme-wherby the school recycles paper and 'earns' trees. We decided to restore an area of planting in the far left hand corner of the school where Waimea Road intersects with Van Dieman Street. We've planted Houheria (Lacebarks),  Ti Kouka (Cabbage Trees), Lancewoods, Manuka and Red Harekeke (Flax) while leaving pathways for the children to play and explore-without standing on the trees (we hope).

Worth a watch

This chicken can dance!