Passion Projects

Last term some Year 5 and 6 students had a go at investigating their passions. As a result a range of passion fascinating passion projects were developed.

Olivia had a passion for dogs and as a result of her findings she arranged for Heather and Django from BARK(Building Awareness aRound K9's) to talk to all the Year 5 and 6 students about how to stay safe around dogs.

Yonghua and Adam were inspired to design a tool that could be used for picking up objects. They made a very effective prototype using a simple hydraulic system. Pretty amazing?

Year 3 Artists

In Term Three a group of Year 3 artists studied the designs and patterns used on ancient Greek and Chinese vessels and vases and used this to create their own stunning designs.

3D Design

A number of students this term have had a go at being 3D designers.
Using 'Sketch Up' they have designed objects for printing on our new 3D printer.

The 3D Printer in action

A few creations

Science Discovery

This term groups of students in Years 3, 4 5 and 6 took part in a Science Discovery group.

To build on their class science programmes in Term Two they all attended two specially developed programmes at The Mind Lab. There they applied their scientific thinking to explore scientific processes in a range of scientific activities. They developed their understanding of fair testing when launching rockets, created batteries and explored electromagnetism.

Mathex Mathematicians Excel!!

This term two Year Five teams and two Year Six teams competed in the Remuera Zone Mathex competition and they all did us proud! All teams scored impressive results in answering a range of very challenging problems. The evening ended with great excitement and anticipation as our Year 6A team was in the tiebreaker for first place with a St Kentigerns team. We all held our breath as the teams had to answer 3 additional questions. It was extremely close but our incredible mathematicians just missed out on securing the cup. It was truly an in impressive effort by all involved.

The tiebreaker

Year One Robotics

Year One's can programme robots too! They kept our Beebots very busy as they programmed them to travel forwards and backwards. Some even turned corners.

Tournaments of Minds Competition Day

Congratulations to the Tournaments of Minds team who did us proud with their creative thinking, collaborative team work and confident presentation of their challenges.

On Saturday they presented their prepared language literature challenge based on the book 'The Dreadful Fluff' by Aaron Blabey. This was followed by a team spontaneous challenge in which they had only three minutes to create as many words (including their definitions) using all of the seven letters. The creative results were impressive.

they were provided with.

Tournament of Minds

This term a team of Year 5 and 6 students are gearing up to take part in the Tournament of Minds competition which is a problem solving competition held nationwide and in Australia. Working as a team the students have selected a challenge which they are preparing, under very strict guidelines, so they can be ready to present on Competition Day(August 29). We wish them well as our inaugural school TOM team. So far their creative ideas, collaboration and team work has been impressive. We look forward to the final results. Good luck team!

Year 3 Maths Extension Group - Term 3 2015

The Year 3 Maths group has been looking at 3D shapes and perspective; interpreting and constructing different things to learn about this aspect of Maths.

Here they are after having reconstructed a 'city' made of buildings they created, but which Ms Laxon had moved around and photographed from different angles in order for them to reconstruct it using their spatial skills.

The second time they practised this they did it in half the time!

Robotics 2015 Video

Many year groups have had fun exploring robotics this term. Some Year 5 students made and programmed some impressive robots as you can see in this clip. Lots of problem solving and collaborative thinking was required.

Y3 GATE Group

The Year 3 GATE group have been looking at the process for the Flag Referendum in New Zealand. They have looked at the history of the flag and taken a survey to see whether people want to change the flag.

"It interests me that the flag has been around for 100 years, so I think we should change it."

"I really like how in the GATE group when you have ideas and you share them they can take you into a discussion and you learn more about the idea that you had."

"I was interested to learn that the Queen had a flag and when the Queen was away there was another flag for the Governor General."

"I was interested to learn about the New Zealand Flag history."

"I've learnt that New Zealand has lots of different flags."

"One of the first flags New Zealand had was one with the Union Jack and three stars - Flag of the United Tribes of New Zealand."

"I'm wondering why the Governor General has their own flag."

"I've learnt about many different countries flags and what they look like."

"I learnt in the video that the Governor General has their own flag."

We selected 4 nominated flags and voted on our favourite and then voted whether to replace or keep the current flag.
Which would be your choice?

On September the 4th a reporter from the NZ Herald came to interview our Year 3 GATE group about what they thought about changing our flag - They share their opinions with great thought and the following article was in the Saturday paper...

Year 3 Robotics Group

This week a group of Year 3 students have been busy creating and programming robots....

"We learnt how to follow instructions and use our imagination to create wild things with MOSS blocks"

(Ishita & Yao)

"I built this robot, programmed it and put on sensors so if it comes to a wall it will stop, turn around and go in another direction."
(Richie)

"I learnt about how machines work and how things connect to make a working circuit."

(Finn)

Year Two Artists

This term a group of Year Two artists created some spectacular artworks with Ms Kelly. They used line and pattern to add detail when creating their favourite objects in a bottle.

Taniwha Sculpture

Earlier this year a talented group of Year 5 and 6 students worked tirelessly with Ms Kelly to create an incredible mosaic sculpture. You can see this taniwha sculpture proudly displayed at the entrance to the Hobson Bay Walkway on Shore Road. Venture through the walkway and you will find other sculptures from neighbouring schools.

Term 1 Music Extension Group

Last term a group of children created their own piece of music based on the 12 Bar Blues format and proudly performed it to their peers and parents at the end of the term. They also created an arrangement using the chord sequence: 1,5,6,4.

Year 2 and 3 Robotics

In the last two weeks year 2 and 3 students at VAS visited Mr Des Forges and learned to program Beebots and Wonder Workshop robots. They also were introduced to app programming with ScratchJr for iPad.