Wednesday 13 December 2017

Room 10 and The Box

This is a narrative of the recent learning that has been happening in Room 10, Year 1.
It involves imagination, collaboration, decision making, maths, drama, art, problem solving, working together, critical thinking, debating, brainstorming and cooperation all while having fun!
Thanks for sharing it Room 10.

One day Room 10 arrived at school to find their classroom had been taken over by a box.  It was purple and sparkly with blue stripes. It was as big as an elephant.
“Woah!” exclaimed the children when they saw it.
“Who brought the box in?” asked Elsie. “Where did it come from from?” Dexter asked. “Santa left it for you” answered Mrs Clubley.
Ryan asked “Can we measure it? I want to know how many centimetres it is”.  “What can we do with it?” wondered Taylor. “I don’t know. Who’s got a good idea?” responded Mrs Clubley.
Lincoln suggested making it into a giant robot.  Leah thought it would make a good fridge for the home area. “That would make an awesome TV” said Ruby.  “We could fill it with presents for our friends” Ya Fei suggested.  “I know” said Elsie. “We could pretend it’s a tent for camping in”.
Lincoln had another idea. “Let’s make it into a truck. A truck that carries animals to the zoo”.  Lots of children agreed so they started to make a truck.  First they had to decide how many wheels it needed. They debated for a while but couldn’t agree.  Luckily Lincoln noticed that Azriel had a truck on his top so the children counted the wheels on one side and then used skip-counting in twos to count how many altogether on both sides.  They discovered there were 14 wheels!! “That’s a lot of wheels” commented Lucy.  “Let’s make wheels out of paper” said Matisse.  “Cardboard would be better because it’s thicker” said Devon.  Ryan didn’t agree, neither did Kaia.  “I’ve seen some tyres in the garden” she said. “Maybe we could use them”. “Great idea, Kaia” said the children and they went to get the wheels. Unfortunately there weren’t enough and some were full of plants and soil and they didn’t have any middles.
They brainstormed some ideas then Leah reminded everyone they needed to use their imagination. So they decided to go back to using cardboard. The children worked together to create circles of cardboard and stick them onto the sides of the giant box. They had a few problems getting them to stick and ended up using a mixture of cellotape and glue. Ashley, Hikurangi and Oscar decorated the wheels and the sides of the truck. When it was finished they moved onto the animals.
“We could be the animals” suggested Ryan. So the children thought about the animals they liked the most and started to act like them. “I want to be a kitten” said Natasha, curling up and purring. Elsie became a giraffe with a long, long neck.  Kaia was one too, reaching up high to munch on plants.  Ryan was a panda, rolling around, chomping on bamboo. Leah was a kangaroo, hopping all over the place.
In the end there were zebras, crocodiles, penguins, cheetahs and monkeys.  Devon couldn’t decide what she wanted to be so the children helped her to think and decided she would make a good bear. Devon thought this was an awesome idea because it meant she could hibernate in winter.
All the animals got on board the truck and went off on an adventure to the zoo where the box changed into a tent for the animals to sleep in.
The next day it was sunny so Room 10 used it as a sun shade and then an ice-cream shop - selling lovely cold ice-creams and ice-blocks and fresh lemonade to all the hot children and people passing by.
The weather changed the day after that and became cold. “We could open a hot chocolate shop” suggested Kaia and that’s exactly what they did. The box had many adventures it was an oven for baking giant cakes; a theatre with lots of chairs to watch the show; a time machine to take the children forwards and backwards in time; a photo booth where people could take selfies; an aeroplane taking them all over the world; and a giant bed for them to snuggle into when they got tired from learning.  It even became a mailbox for all the Christmas mail.
Finally, Devon suggested they turn the box into a giant Christmas tree.  The class worked together once more to cover it in green paper and hang decorations all over it.  Taylor suggested making ornaments by making paper balls, covering them with glue and sprinkling glitter all over them. Devon made a huge star to go on top. Vanessa and Sophie brought in a box of candy canes which they stuck to the tree for the children to eat when they were hungry. Some children added flowers and others used the pictures they had taken in the photo booth to make ornaments. Finally Mrs Clubley added tinsel and lights and the children all sat around the tree singing Christmas songs.
What a wonderful use of an empty box. It’s amazing what you can do when you work together and use your imagination. “Remember kids, keep creating and exercising your brains!” said Kaia.


Our story was inspired by “Our Big Box” written by Gemma Lovewell and illustrated by Amber Edwards.

Thursday 7 December 2017

Epro8 Champions

Congratulations to Calla, Lachie, Logan and Hamish for being the winners of the Wellington Grand Finals of the Epro8 competitions.

We are very proud of you.

 




 







Congratulations Toby Tomkies

Toby Tomkies was the recipient of the Redwood School 
Tawa Primary Schools Citizenship Award for 2017.

Congratulations Toby, you have shown great qualities while at Redwood School and we know you will continue to be a good role model to your peers in the future.

Wednesday 6 December 2017

Elf on the Shelf

What a surprise awaiting us this morning at playtime.

I wonder what mischief he will get up to tonight when we are all asleep.