Science - Crest Investigations

The last few days of Crest have arrived! Everyone is stressing, trying to get everything on their presentation boards. There is a lot of buzz, excitement, many sighs of relief and a proud feeling of achievement.

In Year 7 Science everyone has to do a Crest Project over 7 weeks of Term 2. Our success criteria has been:

♦ Ask a testable question

♦ Research the topic

♦ Make a hypothesis about the outcome based on the research or their

own knowledge

♦ Design the investigation

♦ Conduct the investigation – hands on experiment

♦ Collect Data

♦ Make sense of the data and write a conclusion

♦ Present your findings to be judged

An example of a testable question is, ‘Which brand of dishwashing liquid makes the biggest yeast reaction?’

At Selwyn House Crest is very important and it builds up our skills for Year 8, which is the year that we have to do personal projects.

Newspapers

Newspapers

For Inquiry this term we have been studying  a certain event in history that we selected ourselves. One of our tasks that we had to complete was to make a newspaper report on our event. The whole class had done this previously in groups of about four about the Fire of London so we all knew what the newspaper needed to contain. Integrated with our writing we wrote a News Report and a Letter to the Editor. We enjoyed the challenge of taking ourselves back in history.

Click Here to see Ella’s newspaper!

Click Here to see Danielle’s newspaper!

Novel Study

Parvana by Deborah Ellis

For Reading this term we have been studying Parvana. Parvana is a Afghanistan girl who faces a lot of challenges including having to dress up like a boy to help her family survive under the Taliban rule.

After reading about Parvana and her life we had to do four activities relating to Parvana. First we had to create a timeline, then a concept map. After that we had to make a poem and then draw a portrait. Then we put all of our activities onto a google draw.

Here is an example of one of our Google Draws by Lucy and here is another Novel Study ‘The Secrets in the Fire’ Google Draw by Georgina.

Airport Visit

Sniff, Sniff, I smell kiwifruit! Time for my next treat!!

Our new inquiry is about Biosecurity. 'Biosecurity' is the protection of New Zealand's economy, environment and people's health and social and cultural wellbeing from pests and diseases. It includes trying to prevent new pests and diseases arriving, and eradicating or controlling those already present.

Yesterday we went to the airport to learn more about biosecurity. It was great to have a chance to watch the dogs smell and what their reaction is when finding a forbidden plant or food. We also learnt what type of things people bring in. Someone even tried to smuggle leaves in their underpants!!

Zane, the dog that smelt the fruit and vegetables in our pockets, was very enthusiastic for a treat. Wendy, the dog handler, hid some fruit and vegetables, including beef jerky, egg, kiwifruit, spring onion and garlic in our pockets and Zane had to find them. Zane was amazing he found everything and he even found a mandarin in Miss Glubb’s handbag! Every time that Zane found an item he would be stare adorably at Wendy for a treat.

Zane is a beagle who began this role when he was 2 years old. He is intelligent and his nose was really working overtime!!!! These dogs normally work for 7 – 9 years as long as their enthusiasm remains.

 sCHOOL Cross country

OUR YEARLY CHALLENGE. Our goal is our focus.

Do you run a cross country each year? How does it make you feel?

Jemma reporting:

I am running in Fendalton Park, onto my last lap, I have nearly run 3 kms and boy am I tired! I am feeling the pain as the stitch sets in and takes over. Now I am nearly there and people are cheering for me as they watch me. Coming up to the finish line all sweaty and thirsty, I have an extra surge of energy. ‘Vivid’ marks my skin as I am given my number, 105 as my placing.

Meg was kind and gave me some of her water to drink and I gulped it down like finding a hose in the dry desert. I feel that I did well because my goal was to get in the top ten for Year 7 and I think that I have achieved that successfully. Next year my goal will be to run the track without stopping and to bring a drink bottle. What a silly thing to forget!!!!

Today 70M have been learning about Claymation. We learnt that it is any animation done using a character, or characters, created out of clay.

Our Maker Space teacher showed us how to make clay move by taking a lot of photos and making them into a video using IMovie. It was lots of fun working together and building up a story in a creative way. It was amazing how many photos we had to take. We had a lot of laughs when we shared them with each other. We enjoyed being creative Our next aim is to build onto what we learnt today and create a Mathematics teaching video for our Multiplication and Division strategies.

Yesterday we had a newspaper treasure hunt with the aim to increase our knowledge about parts of the newspaper. We learnt to recognise different sections, e.g the editorial. Paper covered our classroom floors as we scavenged and hunted for information. 

Please enjoy our video about our learning.

Friendship isn’t a big thing — it’s a million little things. 
Our little things are our little Year 3 and Year 4 buddies. Our time with them is so special.

On Monday, the first day of term, we were shocked to walk into the classroom and discover it a jumble of mismatched desks and shelves. After assembly, Mrs O’Meara informed us that we were going to re-organise the layout of the classroom ourselves. We split into groups and began drawing, sketching and discussing various layouts, all with their pros and cons. Eventually, each group made a good copy of their best design, and we moved the furniture around to try each one out. We then had a hands-up vote with our eyes closed. The winning plan was a square shape of desks, with an entrance/exit in each end. Most of the girls were happy with this design, but we will try it out for two weeks to make sure it is an easy and efficient layout. We have had lots of fun trying out different designs and layouts, but we’re sure Mrs O’Meara is happy we’ve finally made a decision!

Hi this is Harriet, Georgina and Ella here. This term one of our inquiry projects is to make a keepsake that we will hopefully be able to keep forever. We are pretending to make prototypes for Google and Facebook incase the Internet crashes. Everyone is very thrilled about this project and we all have very unique ideas.
Please feel free to have a look at our Animoto.

Harvest Festival

On Friday, we had Harvest Festival, which was our first celebration of the new year.

We all brought in some food to give to the City Mission.

The senior chamber choir gave a wonderful first performance, singing the song All Good Gifts.

Afterwards, Reverend John and a man from the city mission talked to us.  

Finally, a girl from each year group said her prayer.

Lucy and Amy

School Fair

Our stupendous fair

Once again the Selwyn House fair was inconceivable, all the many aromas floated in the air. Vibrant colours sprinkled the fair. At this wonderful gathering rides were everywhere and all you could hear was the funky music booming away. As always the white elephant was a hit, crowds scrambled through the doors and found great treasures inside. All and all we had a jolly good fair we hope we see you next year.

Tessa and Ava

Top Tips - Is there a digital divide amongst the elderly?

In Inquiry we have been looking at Digital Divide and the question, ‘Is there a divide amongst the elderly? If so can we narrow the technology age gap?” We created a questionaire and interviewed our Grandparents. This was great fun spending special time with them. We asked them if there was a digital area they needed help with. From these results each us took action and created a ‘Top Tips’ video for them to use at home. We had a huge variety of requests for assistance with either laptop use or cell phones. We really enjoyed learning alongside our Grandparents. Lots of laughs and many funny stories. 

Maya and Maddie 

Enjoy Ella's 'Top Tips' video

Swimming Sports

Hi!

It’s the Funkiest Monkeys of the Funky Monkey reading group here!  For reading we have been looking at graphic novels!

So far we have read:

American Born Chinese

American born Chinese is about a Chinese-American boy struggling to fit in at an American high school. His story is linked with Danny, an all-American boy, whose cousin Chin-Kee’s annual visit is ruining his life, and the Monkey King, who just wants to join the ranks of the gods. We found this a really strong, interesting book and liked the way the ends tie up, just enough to let you decide the small details of the end of the story. 8/10

Anya’s Ghost

Anya’s ghost is a great novel about a not-so-popular teenage girl who’s life just gets worse when she falls down a deep hole to find it haunted with a ghost who died 93 years before. She seems friendly but is there more to her than meets the eye? This is a highly recommended graphic novel - you must read it! 9.5/10

Artemis Fowl

Artemis Fowl is a hard hitting Graphic Novel which is great for someone that likes a bit of complexity and a bit of fun. It is hard to read at first but don’t give up, It does get better. Some strong Sci - Fi action and some interesting characters. Artemis Fowl is a great Book/Graphic Novel.    7.5/10

Ella, Georgina, Reilly, Lucy

Father Daughter Breakfast

Hi Isabel and Zelle here!

Some of us in 7OM went to our school’s annual Father Daughter breakfast. This is a real popular date on our school calendar.

The reason we have the Father Daughter breakfast is to have a special time with our Dads.

If someone’s Dad is too busy, the girls invited their Grandads or Uncles instead.   

It is loads of fun. Our Atrium was full of noisy chatter, joking and laughter.

Coraline:

Coraline is a 12 - year old girl who shows a lot of courage trying to save her mum and dad. It is an adventurous and freaky story. We rate this book 8/10 because some of the parts were a bit disturbing and creepy. Not a bedtime read! 

  

Smile:

Smile is about an 11-year-old girl called Riana. Riana gets into a lot of trouble even though she doesn’t mean to.  There are lots of embarrassing and funny moments but all Riana wants, is to be normal. We think this is a 10/10 because there is lots of humour and drama. We didn't want to put it down.

                      







The Baby Sitters Club:
Kirsty Thomas is a quirky teenager. Kirsty has to cope with her mum’s boyfriend whilst she is trying to figure out plans with her new best friends about her new club idea. She and her friends struggle with the Babysitting Club but they perserve and their friendship survives. We rate this book 7/10 because we found after awhile it started to become predictable.

Have you got a great graphic novel you can recommend?