Minecraft: 3D Modelling of Classrooms.

Stage Two: Minecraft Modelling in the Classroom.

We've contacted, or been contacted by schools in Christchurch, New Zealand, the West Coast of the South Island.   We had classes in the USA contact us and have a look at this fantastic post which is a collaboration with Mrs Essenburgs Class from Michigan, USA.    As a result of this Brylee and Heavenlee created this grid map of the classroom.  Tomorrow we're going to start investigating how accurate it is and which refinements need to be made.

We Skyped in two classes today with more to come.  Previously each of our groups had recorded information that we needed and details that would allow us to ultimately build a three dimensional model of another classroom around the world using Minecraft.

Were our questions and our preparation correct? We are going to be reflecting on this during Mathematics tomorrow.  What information didn't we receive from the classrooms? How accurate are the maps that we have created? What needs to be refined?

This is the map that Brylee and Heavenlee created as a result of the fantastic information that was provided from Mrs Essenburg and her students.  How accurate is this?

The other classrooms that we have spoken to are our #QuadbloggingAotearoa buddies: Selwyn House and Awahono School.  We spoke to Selwyn House first and we hadn't even thought about a point of orientation! When the students started to talking to us and mentioned the compass points its threw us a little, however our groups continued to gain information and two were produced that are possible grid maps of the Selwyn House Classroom, by Kaiah and Tahana.  There work is here - again we are going to be contacting these schools and classrooms and checking our information and details.

 We believe that this, on the information supplied is a two dimensional model  of 8c, Selwyn House from Christchurch - but we also believe that this is correct.  The problem is there is already some significant variation starting to appear and we've only just started the process.  Stay tuned.

Cluster Swimming Relay

Today we had the (Matapu, Opunake, St Josephs Opukane,  Kaponga, Auroa, Manaia) Cluster Swimming Sports. The main event for this competition was the Swimming Sports relay. This footage is of that race. Auroa are in the orange swimming caps, in lane two, second from the top.
MT SPA Swimming Relay 2014 from Myles Webb on Vimeo.

Auroa Primary School Our Best Comments

We've just past the 14,000 page view mark which we are really pleased to do given that our page has been running for eight weeks.   We've been looking at our data over the past eight weeks and seeing who has been the best comments source in New Zealand and overseas.  The best New Zealand source of comments has been Selwyn House, 8C our friends from Christchurch.  Their fantastic site is located here.

The second site is the one that's left the most comments from overseas on our page.  We've been lucky to have plenty of comments from different classrooms and different students but one of our collaborations has produced more fantastic comments than anywhere else - thats come from 6RC in Autstralia.  Both these sites are fantastic examples.

Auroa Primary School: Modelling in Minecraft

This week we've started a new unit of work on Geometry.  As part of this unit and also a tie in with our Unit Studies 'Relating to Others.
We're looking at creating two dimensional models of classrooms and then a three dimensional model.

The purpose of the two dimensional model is to create a model to scale, for the three dimensional model we're using Minecraft.

Were going to post the results here on our blogs so you can see if they're correct, or need to be refined.   We started the process today by contacting schools and people that we've been networking with, and asking questions about your classrooms.   The first part of the process is the questioning.  Once we start getting some answers we can start the mapping process.   Thank you so much to those of you who have already indicated that you would take part in this process.

Auroa Primary School Recounts about Swimming

This week for writing our students have been focussing on completing reports about the event that took place on Monday, our 2014 Auroa School Swimming Sports from Stratford.  

Students have spent the week working on a piece of writing about the event.  They planned, edited, reworked and finally published their writing.

We also focussed this week on writing an introduction or a hook that got the attention of the audience.  This came in two ways.  The first as you can see from our student blogs on the right hand side was the fact that we have 30 individual blogs.

We posed the questions to students - what is a title that they could include for their blog that would gain peoples attention.    

Some of the students work you can view from the students of Room One about the invent include:

• Swimmers Luck by Kaiah
• Swim it to win it! by Alice
• In the Water by Luke
• Every Stroke Counts by Tahana
• Under the Water by Lucas
• Fast and Past by Riley M.

Which of these titles to you think are the most effective? Which titles make you want to click on the link to the students work? Which of these are an effective 'hook?'

Auroa School Swimming 2014

Footage of the 2014 Auroa School Swimming Sports at Stratford Swimming Pools. Filmed by Harley from Room One and edited by Lucas from Room One. Recorded from Stratford on Monday 24th March 2014.


Whanau Relays Swimming 2014 from Myles Webb on Vimeo.

Auroa Primary School - Swimming Relays

Exclusive footage from the 2014 Auroa School Swimming Sports of the Teachers Vs. Parents Vs. Students Relays. Filmed by Harley from Room One and edited by Lucas from Room One.

Swimming: Parents Vs. Teachers Vs. Pupils from Myles Webb on Vimeo.

School Swimming Sports 24/3/14

Today at Stratford Pools, Stratford, Auroa Primary School held their 2014 School Swimming Sports.  It was a huge school wide event involving the entire school from Y1 to Y8.   Reports about this event will be coming in detail tomorrow.

Swimming 24/3/14 - Video Maker

If you can't wait until tomorrow to read about our Swimming Sports - you don't have too, although the event was this afternoon we had a host of students who went home from Swimming Sports and posted about them on their blogs!

You can read recounts about the event from Alice, Emily, Isabelle and Gemma.  You can view media created in the form of slideshows from Emily and Isabelle.   There's more to come!

Auroa Primary School 3D Printer Project

Our first project with Auroa Primary Schools 3D printer is going to be completed this week. We've had a group of students working on a practical problem in the classroom that they felt needed to be solved. The cupboards that are under the sink don't have working hinges for the door and as a result the doors dont shut properly. (We will be inserting a photograph of the door and the hinge here so you can see what we are trying to achieve in more detail).

The boys have been through the entire process by themselves. They have identified the problem, they've drawn plans up about what they want to create, this is Michaels original diagram. The next step for the students was to use Tinkercad to create prototypes

for the hinge.

You can see from the diagrams that there are three distinct versions, thats because Michael, James and Logan have all had differing ideas about whats going to work best. James has three entirely separate designs, so there are five in total. This week were going to 3D print all five and see which of the designs works best and which need to be refined. If none of the designs work, its back to the drawing board until we can get a solution. You can click on all of the links to the individual blogs of the students involved in the process.

Auroa Primary School: 30/45 Second Movies

Last week in class we had a day to create plan and put together a film about Auroa Primary School. The film had to be thirty to forty five seconds in length and featured a unique aspect of us. The inspiration for this came from Mrs Crains Global Blogging Challenge, #2014gbc. This film created by Meg from Room One and featured some of the technology that is available to students of our school.
Auroa Plugged In Meg from Myles Webb on Vimeo.

Bare feet at Auroa Primary School 2 #2014GBC

This is another 30 to 45 second film from students from Room One, Auroa Primary School on a topic that is unique to our school or our area. Its a film about students at our school having bare feet during most activities! It was planned, scripted, storyboarded and put together by Izzy and Gemma from Room One, with actors provided from Room Four (don't worry none of whom were injured during the filming of this movie). This was created as a piece of visual language as one of the tasks for the #2014GBC. Filmed at Auroa Primary School on Thursday 21st March 2014.
Izzy and Gemma Bare Feet Film from Myles Webb on Vimeo.

Auroa Primary School Values

This is another film from our #2014GBC Global Blogging Challenge series. In it Alice from Room One describes the values of Auroa Primary School. Students had to create a film that was between thirty and forty five seconds in length and covered something that was unique to Auroa Primary School. Filmed at Auroa Primary on Thursday 20th March 2014.
School Values #2014gbc from Myles Webb on Vimeo.

Auroa Primary School More 'Explanation Films!'

This week one of our literacy challenge for students was to produce a thirty to forty five second movie of an explanation about something unique to ourselves at Auroa Primary School for the Global Blogging Challenge. This first video was created by Kaiah from Room One and focuses on the different technology available to students at APS! Did you know that we have nearly 140 Apple devices for 190 students here at our school? What technology does your school have? Do you have computers in every classroom? Have you heard of a three dimensional printer?
Auroa School's Technolgy from Myles Webb on Vimeo.

One of the subjects that has been mentioned several times by students from other countries about us is Cricket. We've had mention of some knowledge to people not knowing anything at all about the game, which a lot of the boys in our school play. Three of our cricket team, Riley M, Riley P and Fletcher came together to put together this film:


Cricket Lessons #2014GBC from Myles Webb on Vimeo.
Have you ever played cricket? Do you know anything about it? Are there famous cricketers that you have heard of?

Auroa Primary parcel from Russia

We've had some amazing collaborations so far this year with some wonderful classrooms around the world.  On Wednesday afternoon we were excited to see that a package had arrived for our class all the way from Russia, from the students from 'Learning Fun in the Classroom' and their wonderful teacher Lyudmila Golubeva

Earlier in the year we'd sent a package to the students from Auroa, Taranaki, New Zealand to Siberia, Russia.  Just last week we received a package from our friends at 'If Only the Best Birds Sang in Ireland'.  Our students didn't know much about Siberia but there was so much wonderful gifts and information in there that we feel that we have learnt more already.  An amazing gift from a fantastic educator and a great school.  Many, many thanks.

FromRussia2014 - Video Maker

#2014gbc 1-2-3 Home!

This video is another video from our students for the #2014gbc. As part of the learning behind this our students had to create, design and plan a fim, 30 to 45 seconds in length, that could be used to teach others something. Lucas, Tom and Harley choose '3-2-1 Home' which is a game they have played. This was filmed at Auroa Primary School on Wednesday 19th March 2014.


123 Home for #2014gbc from Myles Webb on Vimeo.

Auroa Primary School: World Famous in USA and Ireland.

Today in class we were talking about our learning network and some of the collaborations that we've been involved in this year.   One of the fantastic example came to our attention from the Third Grade Thinkers in Michigan, USA.  They researched our country and learnt all about us.   This is a link to their fantastic blog.

 Our second feature in as many days came from our friends 'If Only the Best Birds Sang in Ireland'.  We've recently been in contact with them to thank them for an amazing gift they was sent to us for St Patricks Day.  Two of our students, Tahana and Will left detailed comments on the site and they responded with two fantastic posts about food and sport in their country.

Then only today we received an amazing gift in the mail - a package all the way from our friends all the way from Siberia, Russia.  We've got a very special post about this coming tomorrow.

Barefoot at School In Auroa, New Zealand

As part of the #2014gbc (Global Blogging Challenge) we've been asked to create a lesson this week for our global audience.   Yesterday in class the students had to plan a film which was targeted at being between thirty and forty five seconds in length, taught a lesson and reflected something that was unique to New Zealand.   The video was created by Emily, Izzy and Gemma and came about from a comment we've had about our students in New Zealand having bare feet at school.   Planning and storyboarding took place yesterday afternoon and this morning.  The students also fully edited the project and produced it themselves.

Bare Feet #gbc from Myles Webb on Vimeo.

#2014gbc Task: About Auroa/Taranaki

As part of our 'About Auroa School (and Taranaki) for the 2014 Global Blogging Challenge our students constructed Haiku Decks about our School, local community and our region. We were inspired by Mrs Kriese Classroom and their Haiku Deck about Austin, Texas. You can click on that link here. This Haiku Deck was created by Fletcher, Riley and Thomas from Room One.
Created with Haiku Deck, the free presentation app

This Haiku Deck was created by Harley from Room One.

 
Created with Haiku Deck, the free presentation app

Auroa Primary School@Inter School Athletics 6/3/14

This video is the final video highlights from Inter School Athletics at Kaponga on 6/3/14.  Auroa Primary School (in their traditional orange uniform competed against six other local schools.

Interschool Kaponga Athletics 6/3/14 from Myles Webb on Vimeo.

Haiku Deck about Auroa Primary School

Today in class we looked at using 'Haiku Deck' as a way of displaying information. As part of the Global Blogging Challenge we made a connection from Austin Texas with Mrs Kriese's Classroom. They created a Haikau Deck about their home town and state of Austin, Texas - which inspired us to do the same. Most of our class were unfamiliar with Haiku Deck but we had a tight deadline, which was to plan, complete from scratch and publish a Haiku Deck about our area. These are two examples from the students of Auroa Primary School about our School and area:

This was produced by Tahana from our class:

 
Created with Haiku Deck, the free presentation app

This Haiku Deck about our area was created by Kaiah, Meg and Heavenlee
Created with Haiku Deck, the free presentation app

Auroa Primary School Connecting with Opunake and Australia

This week in class we're going to be connecting with two schools in quite different locations.

Firstly on  Friday afternoon we held our first ever Mystery Skype Call for Room One.  We had assembly but Meg and Aylssa did a fantastic job and it turned out we were talking to our new friends from Mrs T. and 6RC.  They're based in Sydney, Australia.  After our chat we received comments from most of the class so we were thrilled to make the connection.  Their fantastic blog is linked here.

Secondly we were very excited on Friday to find there are some other local schools that are also blogging and producing wonderful work.   Our friends at Opunake Primary School are blogging online throughout their school.  We're particularly liking the work from Room One (Y7/8 class), Room 14 and  Room 15 you can click on all the wonderful blogs here.

Discovery Time 14/3/14 @ Auroa Primary School

Today as every Friday the students of Rooms Six, Seven and Eight were involved in their Discovery Time in the junior school.  Students from Room One were present on hand to assist the students.   What activities can you see in progress? What do you think the theme was? What other suggestions for similar activities have you been involved in or do you have?


DiscoveryTime14314 - Video Maker

Auroa Primary Milo Shield Vs. Highlands Intermediate

Today we host Highlands Intermediate in a knock out game of cricket for the Milo Shield   Auroa Primary School had a combined team with players from St Joseph Opunake and St Joseph Hawera. We won the toss and choose to bat.

We got off to a great start with Ambrose and Ben opening, unfortunately Ambrose got bowled for 2 runs. Coming in at 3 was Fletcher, Ben got out for 26 and he got the team of to a great start. Then Jack came in and Fletcher and Jack made a awesome partnership with Fletcher making 63 not out, and Jack making 33 not out, our final score was 144 with 2 wickets down.

Ambrose got us of to a great start with opening the bowling with Jack also, meanwhile Ambrose and Jack taking wickets, and Fletcher comes on to bowl with Nial grabbing a couple of wickets.
The next wicket was a run out by Riley P this left the pressure on Highlands Intermediate with a 5 more overs to go Riley P and Riley M taking two great catches.

Shaun was bowling the last over of the game but not taking a wicket with the last ball bowled the Auroa team have taking the big team down with one game left to go with is the big final of the competition, against Francis Douglas MC if Auroa win we go to nationals in Auckland.

This slideshow about the days game was created by Luke from Room One.

lukes slideshow - Video Maker

Package from Ireland to Auroa Primary School

Earlier this year to start off the school year Mr Webb, Room Ones teacher sent some packages to different countries around the world.   One of which was sent to our friends at "If Only the Best Birds Sang' in County Wicklow, Ireland.   Yesterday much excitement was had in class when students discovered that we'd received a package back! 

We brainstormed about Ireland and found out that some of our students knew a little about the country. We have about ten students in the class out of thirty who have Irish ancestors   We knew that Brian O'Driscoll was about to play his last test match for Ireland.   We weren't sure about the size of Ireland compared to New Zealand but we did some investigations and found that they are quite similar.

We also opened the package and loved what we found inside.  Part of our classroom is having a display about Ireland built by the students, and we will post about that when we finish it, which will be in time for St Patricks day here in New Zealand.

We'd like to thank the teachers and students from our very favourite Irish blog, If Only the Best Birds Sang for their incredible gift and if you've not visited their site we strongly suggest that you do.


Ireland2014 - Video Maker

Auroa Primary School - Relay Races

On Thursday 6th March Auroa Primary School competed in the local Schools Athletics competition against other local schools.  This video shows some of the highlights from the relay running, featuring some of the students from Auroa Primary.    Auroa students are in the bright orange uniforms.



InterSchool Athletics 2014 from Myles Webb on Vimeo.

Auroa Primary School - Barefeet

We are very excited with how well some of our individual students have achieved in a short space of time with their student blogs.   Michael from Room One is currently leading the way and is soon to have over 1,200 page views.  Recently he posted videos about the student council elections.  He received this comment from Jose in Mr Millers Classroom in California, USA.

We've seen this comment before on Mr Webbs previous blogs.  Students in New Zealand don't wear shoes too often during Summer.  It varies from School to School but at Auroa Primary School the students have black shoes which they wear, which may include jandals (flip flops) but they need to be removed by the students prior to entering the classroom and placed outside, so students in the classroom are in barefoot inside, and a significant number of students go barefoot during the day at school.

Auroa Primary School Collaborating Worldwide

We've been very excited by the collaboration that we've been developing with Mrs Kriese's Class from Austin Texas. This has come as part of our involvement in the Global Blogging Challenge which was from Mrs Crain in the USA.

 This term we are looking at 'Relating to Others' and its been fantastic to receive feedback and network with students from other countries. Our students have only recently started their individual pages but already three have past the 1,000 page views mark.

One of the best parts of the collaboration has been for our students from rural New Zealand to expand their knowledge as digital global citizens.  Prior to our collaboration with Mrs Kriese class our knowledge about Texas was very limited.  Some of our students even thought that New Zealand (as a country) was bigger than Texas (as a state) in terms of population and size, we now know that this is not the case!   This coming week we're going to be completing our investigation into Texas, continue to participate in the Global Blogging Challenge and look forward to continue our networking.

Auroa Primary School: Inter School Athletics 6/3/14

Inter School Athletics 6/3/14 on PhotoPeach

Interschool Athletics 6/3/14 @ Kaponga

Kizoa slideshow: Athletics 2014 - Slideshow

Today Auroa Primary School competed in the local Schools Athletic Competition. Although the event ended at 2:30pm a number of students from APS went home and independently wrote or produced material about this event. Want to see footage from the event, look at the slideshow above that was created by Emily. Want to know what it was like at the event you can read recounts from those students involved from Gemma, Alice or Emily on their blogs. We have hyperlinked them for you to have a look at the students awesome work.

Howdy, Texas to Auroa Primary School

Today we received a message from class and students from Mrs Kriese's Class Blog in Texas, USA. We've connected with them as part of the Global Blogging Challenge run by Janine Crain.   Its the first time we've had a class from the USA comment to us this year and as a result we had a discussion in class about Texas and what we knew about Texas.

Riley P was able to discuss information about Texas from watching Hana Montana, the movie, that people in Texas wear Cowboy hats.   There was also a discussion about Spongebob Squarepants and a character who was from Texas who rode Bulls.   Unfortunatley for our students thats where the brainstorming end.  We couldn't really recall anyone from Texas or where it was in the United States of America (North, South or East) and we shall start an investigation shortly.  In the meantime this is some of our knowledge...

Howdy, Texas - slideshow

Take Auroa Primary Schools: Selwyn House Quiz

As part of our work with our buddies from Quadblogging Aotearoa were looking at relating to others. Today in class we looked at putting together our Quiz Revoultion Quiz about our buddy schools.

Students spent time on the class pages or websites for the three other schools in our quad - Selwyn House from Christchurch, Awahono School from Grey Valley and Balmacewen Intermediate from Dunedin.    We were looking for information that we could use from these class pages about their own school, and looked on their websites for further information.

We then looked at created a series of questions based around this information with four multiple answers that could be or were nearly correct.  We then created the quiz in Quiz Revolution.

Auroa Primary School Discovery Time 28/2/14

Discovery Time 28/2/14 - slideshow

Discovery Time has been continuing in the junior school at Auroa Primary School, with it taking place every Friday in Room Eight, with the assistance of Room One students. The theme last week was 'Baby Animals'. What activities can you see the students involved in?

Matapu School: Visiting our nearest neighbours.

One of the closet schools to Auroa School here in Taranaki is our neighbours at Matapu School.  They will be present later this week when we both travel to Kaponga for Inter School Athletics.   They've got class blogs set up school wide.  Our class commenting task this week is to visit our friends at Matapu School and comment on one of their class pages.

Although we may know some of the students through sports or other activities the commenting rules for  students of Auroa Primary School still apply and are more important than ever.   You can find the blogs of the classrooms hyperlinked below.  The choice of the post is up to you.

Room One: Y7/8
Room Two: Y5/6
Room Three Y3/4

You can also visit the Matapu School Blog by clicking on the link here, some of the junior school pages are listed at the bottom of the class page list.