Skoolbo

Hi Parents and Caregivers,

I have talked to some of you about Skoolbo. As part of a future-focused classroom this year, one thing we are trialling is whether or not online educational games can help children learn. This particular game is free and, in my opinion, looks promising. The children will be playing this game as part of their reading and maths activities during learning time and will have access before school as well. I am encouraging them by offering to buy them all lunch if they collectively get 1 million answers. Though this number may seem daunting, it only requires students to answer around 1000 questions a week, which several students have been able to do so far (one student was able to answer over 4000 in one week). To do this, though, they will most likely have to play the game at home. If you have Internet access it is really easy. The following letter from Skoolbo may help to explain things a bit better.

The following links will be helpful to you:

To sign in online: http://dashboard.skoolbo.co.nz/

To download the app on your computer: http://skoolbo.co.nz/downloads

If you require their login details, you can ask me in a comment on here (I have some of your emails) and I can send you that info. But ask your child first as they may know their login already.

I currently give 1 house point for every 100 questions children answer, and I may start posting the Skoolbo Rankings on the blog as well.

Please leave a comment on here if you have any questions.

I am also in the process of setting up some sort of email list so that you have a further avenue for communication with me.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Michael Davidson

Weekly Certificates and Assembly

This week, William received a certificate for bringing his book bag to school every day this year, including the first day of school. Well done William!

Once again, one of our students was chosen from the "Caught Being Awesome" box. Paris got to choose a book from Duffy Books. Well done Paris! I hope you enjoy reading your new book!

Floating in the Pool

Today the Marvellous Meerkats and the Super Star Heroes learned how to float on our backs and our fronts.

First we went on our backs carefully. You have to spread your arms and legs out wide.

Next we floated on our tummies

Then Mr Davidson gave us a challenge. He asked us to try floating on our backs and then on our fronts without touching the bottom.

Finally we had time to play a game. We played ring-a-ring a rosy.

It was fun because it was a hot day (Dakshesh). It was warm because outside was sunny (Mu). The water was cold, but if we went in quickly it wasn't bad, it was nice (Danielle).

Making a Cat and a Mouse

Today, Azlyn read the book: "Making a Cat and a Mouse." Afterwards, he followed the instructions in the book, got all the materials he needed and made the cat and a green mouse. Darlene helped him a little bit.  Amazing work Azlyn!

Great Writing!

Yesterday, when Mr Davidson was at a meeting with other teachers, the Meerkats did some wonderful writing about the beach. Here are some of the wonderful things we wrote:

By Natalia

By Paris

By Mu

By Dizaliyah

Putting Pictures in our Publishing

This week, Mr Davidson showed us how to put pictures into our documents on Google Drive. It was pretty easy. We even learned how to change the size of the picture.  Have a look at some of our work. Now we know how to:

- make a new document
- change the name of our document
- change the font, the colour and size of our words
- put a picture in our document and change the size

Wednesday Morning Bar Graph

Most people like doing Maths more than anything (Ryley). Almost as many people like reading (Danielle). No one chose Writing or Phonics (Mu). That's sad. No one likes Phonics or Writing (Danielle).  (Note from Mr Davidson: We had a good talk about how we like these the most but we still like Writing and Phonics).

We Went to the Beach!

Today we went to Maraetai Beach! As you can see from the pictures we had lots of fun and did lots of things. Thank you to all the adults who came with us and helped us be safe and enjoy the day! Check back here this week to see some of the writing we're going to do about our trip today...

Our New Friends

Today Mr Davidson introduced all of us to two new friends: Ngeru and Puihi. Both of them are meerkats. They like to watch out for us (because Meerkats Look Out For Each Other!). We have to take care of them and they will take care of us. Here they are looking out for danger from our classroom:

Ngeru

Puihi