Achi & Two Stones

This week during maths room 4 learnt how to play two maths games from around the world. The first game we learnt to play was 'Two Stones' in China this game is known as Pon hau k'i and in Korea it is called Ou-moul-ko-no.

To play the game you need a game board like the one above and each player (2 people) needs two distinctive counters. To begin you place two counters at the top and two at the bottom as shown below.

You then take turns to slide one counter along a line to an empty spot. The first move is to the middle. To win the game you must block your opponent so that they cannot move.

Some people played each other using a game board and counters while others played against the computer at the web address below.

TWO STONES

The other game we learnt to play was called 'Achi', which is a game that originates from Ghana. To play this game you need four counters each and a copy of the game board below.

To start the game you and your partner take turns to place a counter on an empty circle. You keep going until all the counters are on the board. Then you take turns to slide one of your counters along a line to an empty circle.

The winner is the first person to get three counters in a straight line. Room 4 had a Achi Championship and the winner on the day was Vincent!

Both games were sourced from nrich.com

ASB Get Wise 

Hello my name is Violet I am going to tell you what I got taught on Tuesday. It is about money. It is about saving money too.

Gary from ASB bank told room 4 about a saying it goes 'spend some on you but save some too'. He taught us about money problems the first problem was in the caveman age they didn't have money. Then he taught us about pirates and how they couldn't lift their money back to their ships. He then told us about a disco man and his problem was that he kept dropping his money and there was no place to put it or his brother would steal it.

Now we have eftpos cards and we can keep our money safe in the bank and it is hard for people to access our money.

By Violet

'Four in a Row'

Recently Mr McMillan taught room 4 how to play 'Four in a Row'. To play you have a 10 X 10 grid like the one below.

You and your partner take turns drawing a circle where the lines meet. When you get 4 in a row you draw a line through the circles and you score 1 point. You cannot use those circles again. You can have a line of circles in a vertical, horizontal and diagonal line.   

Have fun playing.

By Violet

Same and Different

This week during our inquiring into sessions we explored the question 'What makes me ME?'

We began by answering 9 different questions about ourselves and our families to give us a better understanding of who we are.

After answering all the questions we created a piece of artwork to represent the answers we had written. We started by looking at mendhi designs and how and why people decorate their hands using henna.

Afterwards we traced our hands and drew images within our hands that were representative of the answers we had given for the questions about 'What makes me Me?' and painted a border. 

This week room 4 have been writing stories using Storybird. Storybird is a cool website that you can use to create picture books and poetry using artwork created by artists from all over the world. It's lots of fun!

On Monday we all buddied up and began writing different kinds of stories. We had fun but it was loud so it made it a little hard to write sometimes.

'The Angry Mouse lost his Cheese'

'The little boy and the creepy witch'

'Bunny to the Rescue'

It is a cool website to use and you should try it at home. It is the best writing activity that we have done in room 4.

By Ania & Hailey

Same and Different

This week room 4 started its new major inquiry about cultural differences and practices. We began our inquiry by finding out where our different ancestors originated from. We used this information to gauge the different cultures that could be represented in the year 3 & 4 syndicate.

Afterwards room 4 watched a short video clip about a group of teenagers from Sudan who learn first hand about the cultural practices that exist in America that are vastly different from their own country.

Cultural Differences

After viewing the video clip and discussing what the Sudanese boys had experienced the students worked in pairs to record their ideas about what they thought culture was. Below is a collection of all the ideas.

We also watched a video clip about what it is like to go to school in Japan. We used the information to create a compare & contrast chart that compared New Zealand schools to Japanese schools.

Nelson Provincial Museum Trip

On Wednesday room 4 went to the Nelson museum to learn more about Gallipoli.

First we had a look at some paintings, photographs, and diary entries of a Gallipoli soldier called Jack Dunn. We talked about the soldier's experiences and feelings.

Next we made a banner based on what we think about as 'home'. Some students painted the banner with a landscape on it and the rest of us painted words on strips of material about our ideas of home.

Afterwards we got to look at the exhibition and then we went back to school.

Thank you to all the mums that helped out.

By Tristan. 

Gallipoli Groems

Our inquiry has been about the Gallipoli campaign. We have written groems, which are a cross between a poem and a grizzle (a grizzle is a sort of complaint). 

We have written groems about what daily life was like for a solider at Gallipoli. In the groem we included what it looks like, sounds like, tastes like, smells like and feels like.  

We published our groems using a website called Festisite where we were able to choose a font and the way our words would be printed out. There were different ways to print (spiral, waves and valentine).

Thanks for reading.

By Tara & Violet.