Another Week Gets Away on Me!

Finally feel as though I am getting on top of things, it has been hectic, but fun, trying to get everything done. Cupcake day was a success, we raised $522 for the Whangarei S.P.C.A, pretty good considering our school is only little.

 And a couple of photos of their gorgeous masks...

And I have my Art Extension Group on Thursdays from now until the end of the term, yay, but that means our Mantle has not been happening as well as it should. However, I have used some of the things we have learnt to make other areas more exciting and it is working well, for example...
Our shared novel that we are currently reading, Hunter, by Joy Cowley, has heaps of cool things in it, and it is very easy to make up reading response activities to match each chapter. We had finished a chapter which included the medicinal properties of kawakawa, and I decided we should go into role as an advertising agency, promoting a product that is made from the kawakawa plant. The children had to be as they would be in "Whatif" world, but beforehand had to research kawakawa plants and then create a product. They could choose their method of presentation and I was pleasantly surprised by the variety of ideas they came up with. I was also surprised at the range of products, from toothache curing toothpaste through to kawakawa berry jam. They all behaved exactly as they do when in role, and even though this was not Mantle of the Expert (we didn't even build belief) it was seriously so easy to do and the end results were of such a high quality, I was pretty impressed.
They voted on their favourite which they will post on the class blog - it just so happened to be video, although we did have a very cool radio ad, and some carefully thought out posters. One team even shared theirs as they would at a show, with the product created by using a container of textile ink, and relabeled as kawakawa cream. They got up on the imaginary stage and did their sales pitch. Treating the children as adults sure does improve their behaviour and the quality of their work.

 

Mantle and Other Stuff

I can't wait until Monday. Cupcake Day for the S.P.C.A. We have supported this day every year for the last few years and the class have been making decorations for their cupcakes today. We will have over 200 cupcakes to sell. It is always a success, it is so much fun and is a very worthy cause!
Last night was the Bernina Fashion Awards night, so we were all a little tired today. It is a late night for the children, but yay, the masks they made - which took many lunchtimes to complete - looked awesome on stage and I am so proud of them! And the prizes they received were worth all the hard work, plus the winners remembered to buy me chocolates :)
I feel as though we have had so many other things to do as well as Mantle, but this week we decided to do something for another class. Well actually I decided we would do something for another class. It was a last minute decision to help get Room 9 into their Paua investigation for their Mantle.
I wrote a note as an urgent phone message from Mr Newsworthy, dropped it in a puddle (lucky it was raining) and made it a bit disintegrated. Then I took it into the room, and as Mildred I told them I was sorry for being so clumsy and what were we to do?
They managed to put it back together, and found the missing bit I had "accidentally" placed on my desk. And then they called Mr Newsworthy on the cup phone. Yes, I made a cup phone with string and we talked across the classroom, and Mr Newsworthy asked if they could possibly get out to cover a breaking news story since we were film makers. An oil spill had occurred at Imaginary Bay, and the shellfish were dying. All the other camera crew and reporters were out on assignment. Fairytale Films accepted the job and off they went.
They scribbled out a script for the reporters, decided on who they were going to be in the news report, and we did one take of each segment, so what was recorded was their first attempt. We used imovie, garageband and hyperstudio, filmed with a flip camera, and managed to put it all together in 2 hours.

It is not perfect, but it was good to let them try out some of the programmes I want them to learn how to use. The only issue was that there were quite a few kids out at writing extension group, so they missed out. But at least now some of the others can show them what they have learnt so that is a good thing. I hope Room 9 enjoy it, and I hope it helps. They can call the 0800 number on the cup phone. It actually works quite well!

A Slow Process

Things are moving along extremely slowly. Since I last updated we have done a few building belief activities and that is about it. We have designed the premises, this time a lot more thought has gone into our building, we only have 1 swimming pool, and we have a car park which is handy. The car park has a security system where you have to have your eyeball scanned, and then you have to be fingerprinted before you can enter the building. We have a few rooms for relaxation, a meeting room, and a sound/recording studio. Then we have the actual film production studios. There are 3. That is handy too, it means several groups can work without getting in each others way... hahaha.
Room 10 is crowded and small, I can't really see us getting a whole lot of film making done up there in real life, but I hope the children can gain some experience with animation at least.
I am thinking of showing Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas, 'cos all of his movies are amazing, and because it shows the process of animation at the end of the DVD. I want them to see how much work goes into stop motion filming, and consider all of the things that this kind of movie will involve. Maybe, I'm probably not meant to show the DVD, but surely I can show the end bit that explains how it is made?
We created our ID cards which will be worn around our necks while in role. They have been designed to include everyone's ideas and the whole team were happy with the final product. ID cards include name, fictional website address, photo (made fancy on photo booth of course, why would anyone want just a normal photo when they can look entirely different) and our logo. On the back we have a barcode, I just found a pretend one online, and I am not sure what the barcode does but they voted for it, and our QR code, which is real because I had to get the QR code app and load it and link it to our class blog (which isn't even up to date but at least the QR code really does work).

Not so much time has been spent on Mantle of the Expert, but we have been doing other stuff, like crafts for the school gala, and that is way fun and it doesn't matter if not all of the class are there. I should have been super clever and linked my Mantle with crafts - but that wouldn't have worked because crafts doesn't link with the living world in Science. Oh well.

Final logo design

Groups brainstorming ideas for our mission statement.

Words and ideas they believe should be included in our mission statement.

 

Excuses!

I am not really going to make a thousand excuses for not updating this. People only remember your actions, not your intentions. But with good intentions I did begin this term, yes two and a half weeks ago, golly, and no one really cares that I intended to do a whole bunch of stuff, mainly because I've not yet done it.
Room 7 have finally settled into their temporary classroom, and it is a bit weird actually. Their behaviour is not bad, but it's not great either. Today, at lunchtime, I decided it was time to get back into Mantle of the Expert, mostly just to get them focused and back on track.
At the end of Term 2 a decision was made, and after numerous meetings and discussion, the class decided to go ahead with demolition of their premises (due to the book bug invasion) and use the money from Gianni Amarmy to purchase a film studio. This fitted well since in real life our classroom is being completely renovated right now.
We are the same people, but with a new business venture. We have gotten as far as a company name and logo. That's it so far.

Voting for the company name. The "kiwi eggs" show the votes. Goodness knows what the soccer one is all about!

This was the winner by 1 egg.

Sophie had some really neat ideas. The acronyms need a little looking at though!

A very close second!

Friday will be the new beginning, and I will update properly after that. One thing I will say, thank goodness for all the drama games I have up my sleeve now. They are little sanity savers, the children are always keen to play a quick drama game, they all participate enthusiastically, and with the weather being so stinky, it's nice that we can play them indoors easy peasy.