W4 - Maths

This week is New Zealand Maths Week so I thought it would be appropriate for Kidsedchatnz to be about Maths!

Below is a whole lot of different Maths tasks that you can get your class to complete during the week. You don't have to complete them all, just pick whichever ones that suit your kids level.

Then on Thursday we are going to discuss the tasks and Maths in general. Here are the challenges!

CHALLENGES

- Use chalk to write a variety of Maths questions on the concrete.

- Use Google Earth (the ruler tool) to find the perimeter of your school.

- Throw a pack of card out onto the concrete and them put them into order as fast as you can. They need to be placed in suits from 2 to Ace.



- Change the left picture into the right by moving only 3 counters!

- Create a Maths Week shape challenge! This can be for your class or even whole school. Details found here: Shape Challenge

- Design your own money!

- Create a basic facts cube! You will need to get your teacher to print off a cube net for you.

- Make 3D shapes using ice-block sticks/tooth picks and plasticine.

- Make a Maths trail!

- Use the app ScratchJr and make a short story or conversation. 

QUESTIONS

Q1. Tweet a picture or video of some of your challenges this week.

Q2. Leave a reply on someone's tweet. Remember to comment on their challenge.

Q3. Reflect on your challenges. How do you think you did? What was hard? Easy? Enjoyable? 

Q4. Write your own word problem for other people to answer.

Q5. Try and answer someone's word problem. Make sure you reply back saying whether they are right or wrong.

Q6. What have you been learning about in Maths? Tell/Explain a Maths strategy that you have learnt this year?

Q7. What are some of your favourite activities that you have done in Maths this year?

Q8. Why is it important to learn about Maths?

Q9. What are some of your favourite Maths Apps that you use in class? Why do you like them?

Q10. Write a short story or poem using these 4 words: Reflection, Triangle, Half and Money

Tweet of the Week

Thank you everyone for a wonderful Kidsedchatnz today! I was so impressed with all your creations and fantastic tweets! 

So who won Tweet of the Week.....

 

 

AND TWEET OF THE WEEK GOES TO.....

W3 - Creativity

This week's topic for Kidsedchatnz is Creativity! 

This is how it is going to work: 

Below is a whole lot of different creative tasks that you can get your class to complete during the week. You don't have to complete them all, just pick whichever ones that suit your kids.

Then on Thursday we are going to discuss the tasks and creativity in general. Sound like fun? You bet!

Tasks

- Turn as many of the blank circle as possible into recognisable objects in 15 minutes.

- How many uses can you think of for a chair in 5 minutes? 

- Print these 2 images and then complete the images. What can you come up with?

- Use these 4 elements and write a short story with them. A lost key, a secret cave, a party invitation and identical twins.

 

 

- Create an original structure using ice-block sticks. You could use glue or plasticine to join your sticks.

- Create a device to stop an egg breaking when dropped from 2 metres. You only have newspaper and selletape to work with.

- Make a 1 minute movie or Puppet Pal about a topic of your choice? Create and record your own song or rap? Make a music video? Come up with your own creative task!

Finally please watch this video before you complete any of the tasks. It will make sense after you watch it.



Questions

Q1. Please tweet a picture or answer to some of your creative challenges from this week.

Q2. Pick someone's Tweet and leave a reply. Make sure you comment on their creative task and design.

Q3. Reflect on your creative tasks, how do you think you did?

Q4. What was the best part about the challenges? What did you enjoy? Why?

Q5. What was the hardest part about the challenge? Where can you improve?

Q6. Do you think creativity is important? Should it be taught in school? Why?

Q7. What do you think are the key elements to building creativity?

Q8. Can you share with us something creative you have done at school this year?

Q9. Is there any creative tasks you would like to try?

Q10. Write a poem or story using these 3 things: A tooth, a broken watch and a good luck charm.

Tweet of the Week

Here's this week's Tweet of the Week! I wonder who will win? Enjoy!

Teamwork

Wow, what a great chat today! I was so impressed with all the fantastic towers and all the quality tweets! In all 22 classes took part recording 842 tweets.

Check out a few of the towers below!

W2 - Teamwork

This week's Kidsedchatnz is all about TEAMWORK! It is also a flipped chat where you need to complete a task and watch a video before you come to the chat.

This is how it is going to work...

Classes need to complete the following challenge in the week prior to the chat. It can be done on any day but sometime closer to Thursday's chat will work best.

The challenge is.......to build the TALLEST freestanding tower that you can!

The Rules: 

- You are only allowed to use the following materials: 1 newspaper, 10 ice-block sticks, 2 paper plates, sellotape and scissors.

- Groups of 3-5

- 30 minutes time limit

- Your tower needs to be free standing

When the time limit is up you will need to measure the height of your tower and take a photo.

Also could you please watch the video below.

Here are the questions!

Q1. Please Tweet a picture of your tower and its height.

Q2. Pick someone's Tweet and leave a reply. Make sure you comment on their tower and design.

Q3. Reflect on your tower, how do you think you did?

Q4. What was the best part about the challenge? Did you enjoy it? Why?

Q5. What was the hardest part about the challenge? What would you do differently next time?

Q6. What do you think is the key to building a tall tower?

Q7. What are the key elements of teamwork? Why are they important?

Q8. What can you do when someone is not pulling their weight in a team? What could you say?

Q9. If you had to make up some team rules, what would they be?

Q10. TEAM - Together Everyone Achieves More. What do you think this means?

Q11. Make a short story or poem using these four words: Players, Competition, Sweat and Cheering.

Week 1 (Term 3) Tweet of the Week

Thanks everyone for a great KidsedchatNZ today! There were many great tweets - over 700!

You guys are doing such an amazing job and it gets harder and harder to choose the Tweet of the Week!

Here are some of today's tweets:

The winner this week is....

Well done to everybody who participated today!

Kia kaha

‘Te Kupu o te Wiki’ (‘The Word of the week.’)

Maori Language Week is a week where New Zealanders both here and overseas are encouraged to recognise and practice the Maori language – Te Reo.

This year Maori Language Week runs from 21 - 27 July, with the theme 'Te Kupu o te Wiki' or 'Word of the Week'.  Under this theme, a new Māori word will be highlighted each week for fifty weeks.

The first kupu is āpōpō.  You can find all kupu here.  

Ka rite! - Get ready

This week’s questions

1.  What do you think is the purpose of Maori Language Week?

2.  Do you think it is important to have a Maori Language Week every year? Why?

3.  Do you celebrate Maori Language week? How are you planning to celebrate?

4.  What are some of your ideas on how to celebrate Maori Language week?
5.  Do you think it is important for New Zealanders to be able to speak Te Reo Maori? Why?
6.  What Maori words or phrases have you learnt this week?
7.  How is Maori Language incorporated into your school? i.e.. Kapa Haka, Matariki.
8.  Can you share any Maori Language resources, links, games or videos?
9.  What is the The Treaty of Waitangi and what does it mean to you?

Kia ora.

Term 2 Reflection

Wow!!! I can't believe it is the end of term 2, this term and the year has gone so fast!

This week we're going to take a look at the highlights of your term and what you're looking forward to over the holidays and into term 3.

I know that some of you will have been creating hard this term so watch out for the question where you might want to share some of your blog posts, movies, art work or other awesome pieces of work.

The questions for week 9 are as follows:

1. What was your highlight of term 2? How does this make you feel and why?
2. What was your least favourite thing in term 2? What did you learn from this experience?
3. What topic was your strongest one in term 2? Why?
4. What is the most interesting thing that you learned in term 2?
5. Did you go on any school trips/camps/sports exchanges in term 2? Tell us about them.
6. Have you got any photos/artwork/videos/blog posts that you want to share with Kidsedchatnz? Make sure you comment on other peoples work too.
7. What are you excited about in term 3? Do you have any goals for next term?
8. What are you planning to do for the school holidays?

Can't wait to talk to you all on Thursday at 2pm.

Tweet of the Week

Our Twitter chat about the Fifa World was very popular this week, with over 600 tweets!! It was great to see lots of the classes interacting and sending tweets to each other to carry on a conversation as well. That's what Kidsedchatnz is all about. 

It was a hard job picking the tweet of the week. You've all learnt a lot about the teams and Fifa World Cup. The tweet of the week this time goes to Henry from Mahora School, for his awesome advice he world give to all the World Cup teams. 

Check out the Puppet Pals show that the @Palmysquad have created about the Fifa World Cup! 

Football World Cup - Week 8 Questions

This week our Twitter chat is about the Football World Cup that is currently being held in Brazil!! 

Here are this week's questions. Please note the one in bold is a flipped chat question. 

1. Who is your favourite team and why?
2. Football is the most played sport in the world. Why do you think this is?
3. The Football World Cup costs billions of dollars. Do you think it's worth it or is there something else you think this money would be better spent on?
4. Where would you like to see the next world cup played and why?
5. What is your favourite game that you've watched so far this world cup? Can you share the YouTube highlights with us. 
6. Football players are under huge pressure to perform. What advice would you give them to help them succeed? 
7. What interesting information have you learned about the different countries that are participating in this year's Football World Cup?
8. Who do you think will win the world cup this year? Why? 

Week 7 - Tweet of the week

Amazing week everyone! We knew that everyone would have lots of ideas about the problems that children are having in New Zealand but you really impressed me with how much you are all doing to try and help people in your own community, region and all over the world.

It can be difficult to fix lots of the problems you talked about today, but if everyone was as helpful as the kids that take part in Kidsedchatnz we might fix some of them.

We had a few new classes join us today and this meant that we had a whopping 740 tweets approximately from 16 classes.

As always it was hard choosing the Tweet of the Week, but there was one that summed up all the empathy and care you show for the world. I hope you enjoy the Storify slideshow for Tweet of the Week.

After you have a look at that, have a go at trying to vote for the one issue you think we should try to solve for New Zealand kids. Remember that in a real election you are only allowed to vote once!

Enjoy the week everyone & I'll let you know the results before Kidsedchatnz next week.

Week 7 - Elections, change & kids issues

In November this year New Zealand will have an election to decide on who should run our country. Adults over the age of 18 get to have their say but children don't. But us teachers know that children have great ideas everyday.

In the United States of America, Robbie Novak (Kid President) is trying to get children to be positive, be awesome and to make changes in the world. Watch this video to get some ideas on how we can change the world.

1. Does your school have a student council? How does your student council work and what do they do for your school?
2. What type of things would you want to change at your school if you were on the student council?
3. Does your school take part in helping any fundraisers or charities? What are the fundraisers or charities and how does your school help them?
4. How does helping other people with fundraising help you with your learning at school?
5. What problems do you think New Zealand children are having? Why are they having these problems?
6. How could we help the children who are having these problems?
7. What skills/qualities does a person need to have for you to want to vote for them? Do you have these skills?
8. What is more important - helping yourself or helping others?
9. How does the government of New Zealand affect you? 
10. If you had to choose between two important things, how would you decide what to choose?

I look forward to seeing you there on Thursday.

Week 6 - Sport and Learning

This week there were 15 classes that took part in another busy chat session. Everyone was busy sending some great tweets and I was impressed that many of you are starting to communicate with other classes. I had my tweet count going but lost count at just under 300, it was definitely a crazy session once again.

I've really enjoyed the topics lately and all the children are doing some excellent thinking about the questions. It made choosing a Tweet of the Week a really interesting activity.

See you all next week, when we've got something interesting planned again...

Week 6: Sport and learning in NZ

Last week was a big week for New Zealand sport. Irene van Dyke retired, the All Blacks played their first international for 2014, a NZ Olympic rowing champion retired and Steven Adams finished his first season in the NBA. Later this week the Football World Cup will start in Brazil and there is still the Commonwealth Games to take place in Glasgow, Scotland.

Playing or learning a sport can teach us a lot of lessons for life and not just the skills involved in playing the game. Watch the video below to help you answer the questions for this weeks Kidsedchatnz topic.

1. Who are some of your favourite sports teams/people? Why do you like them?
2. Who do you think helped them become the great players/teams they are today.
3. What role does a coach play in a team?
4. What roles do the players have in a team?
5. What would happen if the team and coach didn't work together?
6. How does sport at school help you with your learning in other subjects?
7 Thinking about yourself at school, who are the key people in your learning team?
8 What role does your teacher/other staff play in your education?
9. What role do you play in your education?
10. Do mums and dads play a role in your education? If so, how?
11. What can you do next to help you improve in your schoolwork?

I hope you enjoy the topic and we'll see you all on Thursday at 2pm.

Week 5: Sharing our Learning

This week our kidsedchatnz is on ....

Sharing our learning

Here are the questions:

1. Do you enjoy sharing your learning with others? Why?

2. Who do you share your learning with? 

3. In what ways do you share your learning?

3a. Share some learning right now... on twitter! Add a link, photo, write about it, anything you like.  

4. Do you think it is important to share your learning with others? Why? Why not? 

5. What are the benefits for you, as the learner, when you share your learning? 

6. Share with us your most favourite app or online tool to share your learning. Why is it your favourite? 

To end with...

7. Go and find a tweet to reply to. :) Start a conversation with someone new. Say "Hello" and respond to their tweet!

We look forward to reading your tweets this Thursday from 2pm to 3pm! 

Our Inventions

Part of this week's chat was flipped. This meant that before we participated in Kidsedchatnz on Thursday afternoon we all watched a YouTube clip of the Kid President. He created a Catuum Cleaner. 

Then we drew pictures of inventions we would create to make the world more awesome. Here are some of our ideas. The Kid President YouTube clip is in the Week 4 questions post, if you would like to watch it. 

Tweet of the Week

Thank you to all the classes that joined in with our Twitter chat yesterday afternoon. You came up with some amazing ideas! 

Tweet of the week goes to @Room16Central

Here are eight more tweets from this week that were of a high quality too.

Week 4 - Passions, Talents and Lifelong Learning Skills

This week's topic is about your passions, talents and lifelong learning skills.

Part of the chat is flipped so make sure you watch the Kid President's

YouTube clip on how to be an inventor. You may also like to physically create or just draw a picture of something you would invent to make the world more awesome. There will be an opportunity for you to share your inventions during the chat. 

    Teachers, you may also like to watch the 'Creativity Takes Time' YouTube clip yourself and do this mini lesson with your class. 

1. What are your interests, talents or passions?
2. Do you get to learn about your interests in the classroom? Give us an example.
3. What do you have to do to become really good at something?
4. Do you think it's important for children to have some time each week to learn about something that they're interested in? Why?
5. The top 10 jobs in 2013 didn't exist in 2004. What jobs do you think there will be in 10 years time?
6. What skills do you think we will need for these jobs in the future?
7. The Kid President wanted to invent a Catuum Cleaner. What would you like to invent to make the world more awesome? *Opportunity to share a photo via a tweet here. 
8. Is creativity important? How can we encourage creativity in the classroom?
9. Sometimes we get stuck with our learning and have to problem solve. What does good problem solving look like?

Tweet of the Week

Wow, what a fantastic Kidsedchatnz! I have never seen so many quality tweets! 

Great work students, I was so impressed! Also please give a big Paki Paki to all the teachers who spent time preparing their classes for the flipped chat! Without these awesome teachers Kidsedchatnz wouldn't be possible!

In all we had 20 classes taking part (A couple of new classes) and we recorded over 800 tweets within the hour! Not bad going!

Anyway, who won Tweet of the Week? Watch the slideshow to find out!

Week 3 - A letter to my Grandchildren

This week's Kidsedchatnz is a flipped chat. This means you need to read the letter below before you take part in the chat. All questions are based on the following letter.

James K. Flanagan passed away on September 3, 2012. He left behind this powerful letter for his 5 grandchildren. In truth, this letter holds great advice for us all…

1. Each one of you is a wonderful gift to your family and to all the world. Remember it always, especially when the cold winds of doubt and discouragement fall upon your life. 

2. Be not afraid . . . of anyone or of anything when it comes to living your life most fully. Pursue your hopes and your dreams no matter how difficult or "different" they may seem to others. The worst thing in life is to look back and say: "I would have; I could have; I should have." Take risks, make mistakes. 

3. Everyone in the world is just an ordinary person. Some people may wear fancy hats or have big titles or have power and want you to think they are above the rest. Don't believe them. They have the same doubts, fears, and hopes; they eat, drink, sleep, and fart like everyone else. 

4. Make a Life List of all those things you want to do: travel to places; learn a skill; master a language; meet someone special. Make it long and do some things from it every year. Don't say "I'll do it tomorrow" (or next month or next year). That is the surest way to fail to do something. There is no tomorrow, and there is no "right" time to begin something except now. 

5. Be kind and go out of your way to help people -- especially the weak, the fearful, and children. Everyone is carrying a special sorrow, and they need our compassion. 

6. Read books, as many as you can. They are a wonderful source of delight, wisdom, and inspiration. They need no batteries or connections, and they can go anywhere. 

7. Travel: always but especially when you are young. Don't wait until you have "enough" money or until everything is "just right." That never happens. Get your passport today. 

8. Pick your job or profession because you love to do it. Sure, there will be some things hard about it, but a job must be a joy. Beware of taking a job for money alone -- it will cripple your soul. 

9. Don't yell. It never works, and it hurts both yourself and others. Every time I have yelled, I have failed. 

10. Live in harmony with Nature: go into the outdoors, woods, mountains, sea, desert. It's important for your soul. 

11. Hug people you love. Tell them how much they mean to you now; don't wait until it's too late. 

12. Be grateful. There is an Irish saying: "This is a day in our lives, and it will not come again." Live every day with this in mind. 

QUESTIONS

Q1. Do you think it was a good idea for the Granddad to write down his advice? Why?

Q2. Which piece of advice is your favourite and why?

Q3. Create your own piece of advice to add to the list. Why is it important?

Q4. Do you agree with the statement, "Everyone in the world is just an ordinary person." Why?

Q5. Read someone else's tweet and ask them a question! This is called starting a conversation!

Q6. What are 3 dreams/things that you would like to achieve in your life?

Q7. Advice number 11 says tell people how much they mean to you now. Have you got a message to someone special in your life?

Q8. Do you know any quotes that inspire you or you think are meaningful?

Q9. “This is a day in our lives, and it will not come again.” What does this mean?

Tweet of the Week! Hacking your Learning: What would make you happy?

What a fantastic afternoon of sharing! There were so many wonderful ideas from everyone. We were so inspired, and would love to learn with you in your incredible spaces. Here are a few of magnificent tweets that were shared.

Tweet of the Week goes to Caleb from Koraunui School

Simple, and we think it says it all Caleb! Congratulations.

Hacking your Learning: What would make you happy?

What if you could design your learning environment - both the physical space, and what you were learning, what would it look like? Imagine it! How would you design your space? What would you create?

What would make you happy?

This is Logan LaPlante. He is 13. His talk has had nearly 5 million views! He's a Hacker.

"Hackers are innovators. Hackers are people who challenge and change the systems to make them work differently, to make them work better. It's just how they think. It's a mindset."

Senior Primary/Intermediate classes might to watch his talk to help them think about the answers they contribute for the questions this week.



Junior and Middle Primary may like to watch Josh's Video about his perfect classroom.

What if learning looked like this?

Questions:

Q1. What would be your ultimate learning environment? Describe it.

Q2. What tools would be used in your environment for your learning?

Q3. What would you like to learn about?

Q4. How would you like to learn this?

Q5. Why would this learning be important to you?

Q6. How would your Dream Teacher help you?

Q7. What do you think is important to learn?

Please make sure that you have joined the Kidsedchatnz list, prior to Thursday if you are wanting to participate in this chat. More info can be found on the blog, including a step-by-step video. 

Tweet of the Week

I was really impressed with the engagement from all students who participated today.  There were many fantastic tweets and I have decided to choose more that 1 Tweet of the Week! Here are two winning tweets with their answers from Q4: Do you think going on a field trip is a good out of the classroom learning opportunity? Why?

And some more winning tweets:

Thanks for all the awesome ideas and tweets today everyone! 

Week 1 - Topic: Education outside the Classroom

1. Do you agree with the people in this video on what outdoor education is? Why?
2. What do you think are the benefits of learning outside the classroom?
3. Do you think learning outside the classroom should be part of all the 'normal' lessons? Why?
4. Do you think going on a field trip is a good out of the classroom learning opportunity? Why?
5. Where would you like to go for a learning outside your classroom experience? Why?
6. Would you rather use a Virtual Field Trip instead of physically going to or visiting a certain place? Why/ why not?
7. What does your school do for outdoor education?
8. Outdoor education is about outdoor activities, but it is also about learning about the environment. Why is this important?