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