Tweet of the Week!

Thanks everyone for a fantastic Kidsedchatnz today! MINECRAFT was such an engaging topic! Check out these amazing creations that you shared today!

So who won Tweet of the Week? Well here's the tweets that stood out for me!

And Tweet of the Week goes to.....

W5 - Minecraft

This week's Kidsedchatnz is all about MINECRAFT! Yes, you read correctly, Minecraft!



So before you take part in this week's Kidsedchatnz I want you to try and complete some of the following tasks prior to the chat. If you can't complete the tasks that's fine, you will still be able to take part in the chat.

CHALLENGES

1) Create a Pick a Path adventure using Minecraft.

2) Create your very own Restaurant using Minecraft. Make sure you create a name and theme for your new restaurant.

3) Get into the Christmas spirit and build something with a Christmas theme. How about a giant Santa, a nativity scene or a xmas tree.

4) Create the letters for a word in Minecraft. Mix up the letters and challenge someone to figure out the word. For example what is this word? N C I T A R F M E

5) Recreate your local shopping mall or centre in Minecraft. Try to make it as close as possible to the original.

6) Build a famous landmark using Minecraft.

7) Build a small village challenge!

QUESTIONS

Q1. Do you use Minecraft? How often do you use Minecraft and where and how do you use it? Home? iPad? Laptop?

Q2. What do you like about Minecraft? What makes it exciting to use?

Q3. Do you prefer to play in Survival Mode or Creative Mode? Why? What is the difference?

Q4. How did you learn to play Minecraft? What are some tips for new users?

Q5. Do you use Minecraft in your classroom? How do you use it? If you completed the challenges, please share.

Q6. Should you be able to use Minecraft in your School/classroom? Convince us! How can it help learning?

Q7. How would you like to use Minecraft in the classroom? What would you like to build?

Q8. What are the negatives about Minecraft? How can it be improved? What would you like to see in the next update?

Q9. In the video, it says, “The only limit is your imagination.” What does this mean?

Q10. Write a sentence, short story or poem using the following 3 words: Mineral, Mob and Survival.

I hope to see you all at 2pm on Thursday! I think this chat is going to be a ripper!

W4 - Snacks, Food and Vegetables

This week's Kidsedchatnz is all about Food!

CHALLENGE: Plan and make a fun and healthy snack before Thursday and take a photo of it to tweet to us. Here's an example:

QUESTIONS

Q1. What do you think makes a snack healthy? Tweet a photo of your fun and healthy snack if you made one. (You can go to 'Eat your colours every day' to find out about foods that make you fit and healthy)

Q2. What is your favourite food and why do you like it? What would be your favourite meal? (It could be meat, fruit, vegetables or chocolate. You decide)

Q3. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Is this true? Why?

Q4. Do you think it is important to learn how to cook food? Why? What food preparation jobs do you do?

Q5. Does your school provide any extra food for you? Milk in schools, fruits etc... Do you enjoy this?

Q6. What does 'You are what you eat' mean?

Q7. 5+ a day - what is this and do you eat 5+ a day? Do you think it is important?

Q8. Does your school have a garden? What's in it? How does it work?

Q9. Do you grow food at home? What do you grow? Do you enjoy homegrown food and why?

Q10. Make a short story, sentence or poem using the following 3 words: Chicken, Taste, Boiling.

How many vegetables can you name in English, Maori, Samoan and Tongan? Click here to find out.

Tweet of the week - Being a kiwi

Ka pai tamariki

Absolutely stunning effort this afternoon for our week 3 topic!

I was very proud to be associated with Kidsedchatnz this afternoon. Being able to watch & moderate as so many children sent out such quality tweets was a real honour and like all those tweeting, it made me proud to be a kiwi too. It was very special to see our visitors from Singapore join us today also, they have very multicultural class and it was a perfect topic for their debut.

It's very clear that lots of you are spending plenty of time with your teachers working on preparing answers and coming up with great tweets. You're making the learning far more meaningful for yourselves and your teachers. It's great to see.

Here are some photos of the redesigned NZ flags that came through today:

With so many tweets being sent it was difficult to pick one favourite, I know I favourited lots while I was moderating. Well done to all those people. The tweets I picked for the Storify slideshow represent lots of the other tweets sent today and I thought told a good story. Congratulations to all those who have a tweet included.

Thanks for a great Thursday afternoon

Reid
@Reidteachnz

Week 3 - Being a Kiwi

Hello, Kia ora, talofa lava, malo e lelei, ni hao, namaste & ohayo gozaimasu

This week it is all about celebrating being a New Zealander and all the beautiful cultures that we have here in NZ. I have set up some interesting challenges to help you along the way - it's a short week so don't try and do them all. To get you started check out the video.


Challenges:

• Redesign a piece of kiwiana using another culture as inspiration.
• Create a visual or digital mihi, pepeha or biopoem. A template for a biopoem is here.
• Design a new New Zealand flag.
• Write a poem about being a New Zealander.
• Write or draw to explain the whakatauki: "He aha te mea nui o te ao? He tangata! He tangata! He tangata!" which translates into "What is the most important thing in the world? It is people! It is people! It is people!"
• Plan a time capsule to showcase New Zealand - what would you put in this? Check out this blog for ideas Time Capsule Idea

The questions for this week are as follow:

1. Where were you born and how long have you lived in NZ?
2. What languages can you speak? or what language would you like to learn and why?
3. What are the best and worst things about living in NZ?
4. How many cultures/nationalities are there in your class or school? What are they?
5. What is something that you have learned about a different culture?
6. What would you put in a time capsule to celebrate NZ culture?
7. If you could make another NZ public holiday, what would it be and why? Eg Matariki, Diwali, Chinese New Years or something else.
8. Would you want to change the NZ flag? Why or why not? Don't forget to tweet a photo if you redesigned the flag.
9. What does being a New Zealander or Kiwi mean to you? How does it make you feel?

Hope to see you all on Thursday at 2pm, 

Reid
@reidteachnz

Tweet of the Week - Money

What a great session we all had this week. There were plenty of well thought-out tweets and I learnt that lots of our tweeters really think about what they do with their money when they have it.

There were a few new classes this week, but you need to make sure that you get onto the subscribed list, sending @kidsedchatnz a tweet to check whether you are on the list is a good idea. That way, all the other classes following the list will see your tweets. If you are new to Kidsedchatnz we'd love it if you could fill out the mapping form on the blog. That way we can show you where all our classes are tweeting from.

I was really impressed by the quality of tweets this week, some students must have spent some great learning time getting prepared. I tweeted with Pascal last night and we decided that the favourites this week were the following tweets:

 


 

It was fantastic to see that so many of you were thinking about using your money to help others and I think all 4 of these deserved Tweet of the Week - congratulations to all 4 tweeters.

I'm looking after Kidsedchatnz again next week and I'm planning an exciting and interesting session all about being a kiwi. There will be a couple of flipped tasks/challenges so make sure you check the blog early.

Thanks again

Reid 

@reidteachnz

W2 Topic - Money

This week's topic is MONEY and questions are provided by Pascal Dresse. Before you take part please watch the video below.




QUESTIONS

Q1. Why is it important to learn about money?

Q2. Should your parents give you money to buy things, or should you work to earn the money to buy what you want?

Q3. At school we learn about respecting equipment. How would you feel if somebody broken something that you had saved up and bought?

Q4. What jobs do you think you should do at home without expecting pocket money for?

Q5. What jobs do you think you should do that deserve earning some pocket money?

Q6. If money wasn't an issue, what would you buy? Why would you buy those things?

Q7. They say 'Money can't buy happiness' What do you think this means?

Q7b. Do you feel money can/can't buy happiness? Why?

Q8. What things would you do to improve your family/school/community/world if you had extra money?

Q9. What can you do to improve your family/school/community/world without needing money?

Your moderator for the chat is Reid @ReidTeachnz

Tweet of the Week

Thanks everyone for a great Kidsedchatnz today! We had a few new classes join us and we recorded over 700 tweets.

So who won Tweet of the Week? Here are some of the tweets that stood out for me!

TWEET OF THE WEEK GOES TO.....

Feedback Please!

The Kidsedchatnz team is always looking to improve and what's the best way to do that? FEEDBACK! 

We want to know what you think about Kidsedchatnz and how we can improve. If you are interested could you please fill out the form below! 

We look forward to your responses and look forward to making Kidsedchatnz even better than before!

T4, W1 - Goal Setting

This week's topic for Kidsedchatnz is GOAL SETTING! I thought this would be an appropriate topic as a lot of classes set goals to kick off the term!

So before you take part in this week's Kidsedchatnz I want you to try and complete the following tasks prior to the chat. If you can't complete the tasks that's fine, you will still be able to take part in the chat.

CHALLENGES

1) Design a life poster showing how you would like your life to look in 20 years! You could cut pictures out of magazines or find pictures on the internet.

2) Write some goals for this term. Make sure they are smart goals and make sure you share them! Watch the video below to help you!

3) Make a poster with an inspiration quote about Goal Setting. You can write your own or find one on the internet.

4) Read this poem in class. Discuss its meaning and if you get time maybe write a Goal Setting poem of your own!

"He's an overnight success."
"She's an instant star."
If that's what you are waiting for,
then you won't get very far.

Behind each truly famous person
lies work, for years not hours.
They've worked towards their goals
through thorns as well as flowers.

And every time they failed
they got up and tried once more, 
or found a different pathway
to reach that distant shore. 

So work out what your goals are, 
plan the steps you need to take. 
Feel proud of your achievements,
sacrifices that you make.

We cannot all be famous,
more successful than the rest.
But, we all can feel the joy
of having done our best.

BH

QUESTIONS

Q1. Do you think goal setting is important? Why?

Q2. What are the important things to remember when writing goals? What do you need to include?

Q3. Can you share with us any Life Posters or Goal Poems that you made? Leave a reply on someone else's tweet.

Q4. What are your goals for this term? Can you share them with us please?

Q5. How and what are you going to do to reach your goals this term? What sacrifices are you going to have to make?

Q6. Who are the people in your life that can help you reach your goals and how can they help you?

Q7. Why is sharing your goals important? How have you shared your goals this term? How else could you share your goals?

Q8. Positive thinking is important when setting goals. Can you share with us your goal poster or a motivation quote about goal setting?

Q9. Goals don't always go to plan. What are you going to do if you run into a problem?

Q10. What will it look like to reach your goals and how will it feel?

BONUS QUESTION. Make a short poem or sentence using the following 3 words: Future, Effort and Fail.

Your moderator/organiser for this week's chat is Stephen (@PalmyTeacher). I look forward to seeing you on Thursday at 2pm!

Life long learning - Tweet of the Week

Thanks to everyone who took part in our last chat for term 3. I was impressed by the quality of learning and thinking about the learning that was shown today. There was a student teacher taking part in one of the classes today, hopefully she'll go back and share Kidsedchatnz with all her friends studying to be teachers!

As usual some really good tweets were being sent, plus some of you were making a real effort to connect with other classes. Congratulations for making the most of Kidsedchatnz.

I loved the quotes and advice that were being sent today and because of this they feature strongly in the tweet of the week slideshow. Well done to all those who are mentioned.

Have a great holidays, stay safe and we'll see you all back here next term.

Term 3 - Being a life long learner

 


Term 3 is almost over, we've had 10 weeks of hard work and plenty of great fun with Kidsedchatnz. Our topics have included reading, gaming, science and family, I've learnt some amazing things from all of the children taking part and it is always proving to me how important it is to be a learner. In class, my children are teaching me how to build things on Minecraft and I'm always learning ways to be a better teacher or parent, but all of this requires hard work.

This week I have three challenges for you before taking part in Kidsedchatnz:
1 - Find or make up a great quote about learning, make it into a poster or meme and share it with us on Thursday.
2 - Talk to another child and identify what they want to be learning in 10 years? Why?
3 - Ask an adult about their learning, what are they learning and how does this make them feel.

Your questions for this week:

1. What have you learnt about in term 3? Has it been easy or difficult to learn? Why?
2. What is something (eg a sport, hobbies, cultural etc) that you have learnt outside of school? Why do you do take part in these activities?
3. What words would you use to describe term 3 for you and your class?
4. What praise has your teacher given you this term?
5. What has been one challenge that you have faced in term 3? How have you beaten this challenge?
6. Did you have any goals for term 3? How did you achieve them? 
7. What advice do your teachers, friends and families give you about learning? What does it mean? Share any posters or memes you have made.
8. What goals or aims do you have for term 4 and how do you plan to achieve them?
9. What do you think you will be doing in 10 years and what will you be learning?
10. What does it mean to be a life long learner and why is this important?

Your moderator this week will be @Reidteachnz. See you all at 2pm Thursday.

        

 

Week 9 - Tweets of the Week

What an awesome chat yesterday all about reading!! It was great to see so many kids from all over NZ buzzing about books and sharing their love of reading with each other. This week the tweets of the week go to the children who came up with creative places around the world that they would love to read! 

Looking for an exciting book to read over the school holidays? Check out these books that were suggested by other children on Kidsedchatnz yesterday. 

Awesome Holidays Reads!! - Video Maker

Thank you to those classes who shared books and book trailers they have been busy creating. Check them out below.

By Jonty @Palmysquad

By Finis @Palmysquad

A Minecraft book in the making by an awesome bunch of @Rm1HNS kids. 

Week 9 - Reading!!

Kia ora everyone! My name is Simone Gentil and I'm going to be moderating our Twitter chat this week. This week the topic is READING!! Make sure you check out the questions. There are also two reading challenges that you can complete before Thursday. 

1.    Why is reading important to you?

2.   If you could be any book character who would you choose to be and why?

3.   What are some good strategies to use when you are reading and get stuck on a tricky word?

4.   What is your favourite reading activity to do in your class?

5.   Did you create an eBook this week? Share a link to your ebook. We would love to read them!

6.   What book did your teacher share with you? What was your favourite part?

7.   Suggest a book that would be great holiday read. Tell us why it’s an awesome book.

8.   What things happen in your class or school that encourage or celebrate reading?

9.   If you could choose anywhere to read in the world, where would it be and why?

10.  If you could change a book, which book would you change and how would you change it?

This week there are also TWO READING CHALLENGES that you can complete before the Thursday Kidsedchatnz chat. 

CHALLENGE 1

Create your own ebook and upload it to your class blog. You will have the opportunity to share your book during the chat.  A list of all ebooks shared will be uploaded to the Kidsedchatnz blog after the Thursday chat!

Note: if you don’t have iPads or tablets in your class you could create a paper book and take some photos of your book to share. 

CHALLENGE 2

Ask your teacher to read his or her favourite book to you. One of my favourite books is Scaredy Squirrel at the beach. I will be sharing this with Room 8 this week. You may also like to share your favourite book with a buddy or your class. 

Tweet of the Week

Thank you everyone for a wonderful Kidsedchatnz about Science! It was great to see everyone sharing and talking about all the fantastic things you have been doing in Science this year!

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

Here are some tweets that stood out for me...

And Tweet of the Week goes to....

Week 8 - Science Superheroes

Nanogirl is New Zealand's own science superhero and she is working hard to encourage more children to learn about science. Recently she was the star of What Now, she has visited many schools and often talks to teachers about science in the classroom. Why does she think science is so important for us to learn about?

This week is all about Science and to get you excited about science here are 2 great videos from Nanogirl. You could also watch Nanogirl on What Now by clicking on this link Nanogirl on What Now The times she is on the show are minute 9:48, 18:10, 42:52, 1:10:33 and 1:40:47.



Nanogirl has also conducted a project where she did 100 experiments in 100 days with kids from around NZ, this can be seen here. I highly recommend having a go at some of these experiments this week, either at school or at home with your family. I can't wait to try the Super Taster experiment from Day 55 with my class at Henderson North School.



I hope you can all manage to do an experiment or two, make sure you take photos or videos, and watch the Nanogirl videos before Thursday.

Our questions will be as follows:

Q1. Why do you like learning about science and doing science experiments?

Q2.  What science problems/questions do you really want to solve or answer? Why?

Q3. Nanogirl likes taking natural objects (like the broccoli in the video) and copying their superpowers. What cool superpower would you like to copy from a natural object?

Q4. Nanogirl likes 'Fracture mechanics' or breaking something to see how it works. What would you like to break to see how it works?

Q5. What science have you done at school this week and what did you learn? Make sure you include photos or videos.

 Q6. What science topics have you done at school this year? What did it make you wonder about the world?

Q7. What is the most amazing thing you have learnt doing science at school or home?

Q8. Why do you think it is important to learn science at school? Do we do enough science at school?

Q9. What is the next science experiment you want to do at school? What do you think will happen and why?

Q10. Do you use any Apps, websites or books to help you learn about science?

I can't wait to talk to you all on Thursday. Now where did I put that dry ice...

Tweet of the Week!

Thank you everyone for another fantastic Kidsedchatnz yesterday! There were 550 tweets recorded and again we had a few new classes taking part. 

Anyway who won Tweet of the Week? It was a tough choice but Pascal decided to give it to....

Week 7 - Family

This weeks Kidsedchatnz is all about family. Our families play a huge part in who we are and who we will become. To prepare for this weeks chat, talk to mum, dad, uncles, aunties or grandparents to learn about your family, both past and present. Try to find some interesting stories or facts that you might be able to share.

Try to watch these videos before the session to understand more about how important families are. 


Please remember not to name family members during the chat. Refer to them as Mum, Dad, brother or sister etc.

1. Who makes up your immediate family? (No names, just people ie mum, dad, brother, 2 sisters etc)
2. What position were you born in your family? Oldest? Youngest? Middle? What's it like being that position?
3. What is special about your family? What do you love about your family?
4. Would you prefer to be in a big family or small family? Why?
5. Do you have any family traditions? (Holidays, fun activities etc)
6. How often do you spend time with your grandparents? Do you think it's important to spend time with them?
7. What's the best piece of advice a family member has given you?
8. Share a story about your family. What's something interesting or funny we can learn about them?
9) It's father's day on Sunday, can you send a special message to your dad?
10) Just for fun! Make a poem, sentence or story using these 3 words: Gathering, Proud, Cherish.

Throughout the whole chat, try to ask questions about others families. Maybe look for someone who is similar to you (youngest of 3 kids, only boy/girl in the family etc) and see if they feel the same way about their family as you do. Or ask questions of others who come from a larger/smaller family to try to find out what it is like for them.

Most importantly, talk to your parents/grandparents to find out as much as you can about your family.