Tuesday 6 May 2014

Land Pollution Group

Heres a few pics of the land pollution group working on their 'litter' mural with our Food Tech Teacher. They picked up a range of litter found at the school, then cleaned the rubbish. They will be using this mural for their final presentation to let students know how land pollution is a serious issue.



Monday 14 April 2014

Spongebob group- Science Experiment

The Water pollution group, aka Spongebob's, conducted their science experiment using pH strips and 4 samples of beach water from the Auckland region in order to find out how polluted they were.

A couple of members from the group gathered samples from Howick beach, Eastern beach, Mission bay and Bucklands Beach. A big thank-you to Ritisha and Steven! :)

After learning about pH strips, acids, alkali's, the periodic table of elements, acid rain and the pollutants that effect the sea water and marine life, we were able to successfully write-up the experiment and conduct it as well. We also went through an example of how to identify variables as that was quite tough to figure out.
The students had to follow the science fair steps, which were:
aim, hypothesis, variables, equipment, method, results, conclusion and application.

We all went up to the science room and had turns to dip in the pH strips to find out the pH level and colour. Students were aware what pH ocean water must be and were suprised by the data they collected while conducting the experiment. It looks like our waters are polluted!

Now the spongebobs have an idea of how a science experiment should be conducted, as they will be conducting their own in Term 2 for our annual Science Fair.

Whirlpool!!

Here's my lovely class doing the Whirlpool game!



Science- Anonymous Trees

Learning Goal 5- Science

The Anonymous Trees conducted a science experiment which involved them using a range of pollutants on lettuce plants to see which pollutant had the greatest effect.
Students used diesel, detergent, dishwashing liquid and plain water (as the constant).

All students should now have an idea of how a science experiment should be conducted. This learning goal will be beneficial for them when they need to conduct their own indivdual experiment in Term 2- Science Fair. :)

A big thankyou to Mr Wu (Rachel's dad) and Mr Craig (Grounds and Maintenance for HIS) for providing us with most of the equipment. We really appreciated it :)








Thursday 27 March 2014

Mini teachers for the Orcas Group

Fraser and Nicola helped teach swimming skills to a few students in the Orcas swimming group.
They were very helpful :)

However Sloane, Rachel and Puna also helped Miss Rajenthiram teach the Minnows and Sharks groups by taking on a few students, getting in the pool and being awesome mini teachers!
Good Job! :)

Friday 21 March 2014

Air Cons

The Air Con's group are learning about the respiratory system and how air pollutants has a negative affect on our breathing system.

We looked at YouTube clips and kidshealth.org to help us understand the respiratory system in detail.

The students from this group were actively involved during these workshops where they were able to identify the main parts of the repiratory system and their function!

Well Done Group!

Below is the clip we used to help us understand the repiratory system in detail. http://kidshealth.org/kid/closet/movies/RSmovie.html?tracking=59983_C

Thursday 6 March 2014

Our Classroom Treaty

In room 8 we have created a class treaty to display our class values and expectations. All students know what is expected from them and together we have come up with the points displayed below:

Tuesday 4 March 2014

Anonymous Trees

The land pollution group, aka the Anonymous Trees, are investigating the amount of litter increasing at Howick Intermediate School and what they should do about it.
The first step that the students needed to do was to find out what area in the school was most littered.
So for 5 days, the group allocated areas for each student and they were very dedicated to picking up litter during peak times of the school day (after morning tea and after lunch). The students were able to manage themselves and collect the litter in a responsible manner.
After the 5 days, we had to find out which area had the most amount of litter.
The results showed that the field had the majority of litter. You can see the pictures below.
Now the Anonymous trees will use the statistical enquiry cycle to plan, collect, record, graph and analyse their findings of how litter is increasing in one focused area and what they could do about that.




School Guidelines

Uniform- it is important that all students and parents/ guardians have read the expectations of the school in regards to uniform. Students are well aware of when they have P.E/ fitness/ swimming and should learn to manage themselves.

Diary- Each day, your child writes down the timetable for the day which includes when they must bring their swimming gear/ sports gear. You are more than welcome to look through their diary and help time manage your child in order for them to make sure they have their gear ready everyday.

Green Cards/ Gold Cards/ Red Cards:
Red Cards = positive action your child has performed. This can be linked with their management/ virtues/ class work.

Gold Cards= Privilege. Each child has the privilege of using the tuck shop at morning tea/ lunch, mufti day, outside school trips. If the student looses a green card, a gold card for the following week is taken off them, thereby loosing the privileges given from the school.
(however, student can still order lunch before school)

Green Cards= negative. If a student does not abide by the school rules such as forgetting their P.E gear/ Swimming gear/ uniform does not match the expectations of the school/ inappropriate language/ chewing gum/ sweets etc., a green card from will be taken off them. If 2 green cards are taken off in one week, the student will be put on blue brigade, where they will have to pick up rubbish during their own time for 1 week.

Please help your child ensure they are able to manage themselves in order to avoid loosing green cards :)

Inquiry Focus for Cycle 1

Our inquiry focus for cycle 1 is Pollution.
We have 3 groups: water pollution, air pollution and land pollution.

We are now well into the inquiry where each group is researching and applying their knowledge in all learning areas of the curriculum.

Miss R's Kids Got SWAG!


Of course Miss Rajenthiram's kids have SWAG!

Below is our classroom treaty that we came up with together. Each member of the classroom is fully aware of what the classroom expectations are and will do their best to be SWAG-alious students.

Monday 3 March 2014

Reach for the Stars!

On the very first day of school, each student present created an "about me" hand that showed what their interests, hobbies and future plans were. They also traced around their hand and added in decorations to individualise themselves.

Yummy Tasters' Programme

Our Year 7's enjoyed cooking up some yummy recipes with Mrs Watson, our food tech teacher.
Here are some pics that were taken during the session...





Welcome to Room 8's Class Blog! :)

A bit about myself:


My name is Vilashini Rajenthiram. I was born in Auckland, New Zealand. I come from the small country underneath India..a.k.a Sri Lanka. I have an older brother, 2 lovely parents and a cute little dog called Teddy who is going to be 1 years old on the 28th of March! He is literally the cutest pup ever! I love anything to do with Disney, and so I would love to go to Disney World one day.

What a great start to 2014!

Room 8 is full of enthusiastic, well mannered children. This year is sure to be full of lots of fun and learning.


Feel free to contact me at vilashinir@howickint.school.nz if you have any quaries :)