Impact Documentaries

Room 8 Catch Up

It's been a busy few weeks in Room 8! Mr Walden has been teaching, we've been working hard on our speeches, Impact documentaries and plenty more. 
A huge congrats to Anna and Sophie for both making the Year 8 speech final! Room 8 was very proud of you both, especially Sophie who was the overall Year 8 winner! 
Jojo, Minjae, Caitlin, Johnny and Anna went to the Moon Festival at Columba College last Friday. We are looking forward to learning Mandarin next term.
There will be a Term 3 Review by Room 8 posted on here soon :) 

Another Super Room 8 Achievement!

 

Congratulations to Nikita who was awarded the Navigators Challenge Cup, for being the youngest co driver EVER in the Otago Rally round. Great work Nikita :)

Well Done Sophie!

Scrabble for Fun was held on Thursday the 29th August in the Dunnington Suite at the Dunedin Public Library.
The Balmacewen Team made up of Lucy, Tyler, Sam and Sophie had a convincing win with a spread of 1467. 

Congratulations Shade!

A huge well done to Shade for his Player of the Year Award for his Alhambra team!  Also Shade and Taine were selected for the Otago Under 65kg Team...awesome work :)

Homework - Week 5

- Spelling: List 15. Make sure your notebook is signed off!
- Impact: Thinkers Keys - Saving the World. You need to complete any 3 activities. These should be in your homework book. I am expecting a very high standard of presentation with these! You will need to do some research for some of them.
- Reading Challenge: Keep working hard with this! I will be checking where you are at this Friday. Make sure you are writing the title and author, and getting each one signed off.
- Assembly reminder! Make sure you are getting all of your materials together, Wednesday is the  "creating day" :)

Another busy week in Room 8! Southland exchange on Tuesday too. Let me know if you have any questions about homework. Keep that chocolate money rolling in - brownie point if you get it in by Friday! 

Room 8 Eco Trip

Room 8 had a great trip out on Monday.  We visited the tropical rainforest at the Museum in the morning, then headed out to the Orakanui Eco-Sanctuary in the afternoon. Comparing the two environments was really interesting and relates to our Impact topic perfectly!

B E R W I C K C A M P ! ! !

Room 8 and 9 had a fantastic week at Berwick Camp! A huge thank you to all of the brilliant parents who helped us for all or some of the week...we couldn't do it without you :)
Here is a shot of Room 8 and 9 on the Friday just before we left...click on the link to see a whole lot more photos!  Thanks to Miss Dick for putting these slideshows together.  Remember Room 8 part of your homework this week is to leave a comment on this post with one of your favourite camp memories....look forward to reading these!!

Camp Photos Link

And the winner is...

Well done to the Ahhbras who were our winning desk group for Term 2! Here they are enjoying their fish and chip lunch :) 

Room 8 have been lucky enough to have a fantastic student teacher this term.  Thanks for all of your work Miss Cameron! 

Science Fair Winners

A huge congratulations to the following people who were prize winners in our recent science fair! Room 8 is very proud to have 6 representatives going through to Otago Science Fair.  Well done Christian, Sophie, Nikita, Gabby, Kiriana and Jamie.  Also well done to Thomas who was awarded a Highly Commended, and Caitlin and Hannah who received Teacher's Awards.

Blood Splatters

As part of our Forensics topic today we looked at blood splatters. We dropped blood from different heights to see what different blood splatters would appear.  They look great! (And quite realistic!)

Science Fair - Putting It All Together

In class today we discussed the last aspect of our science fair inquiry - putting it all together!  It is very important that you take the time to think about the design and layout of your board.  Remember these simple rules which we discussed in class today:

- Keep it simple: no more than 4 colours
- Be neat and tidy with your presentation - it matters!
- Everything must be typed up - nothing handwritten 
- Think of scale - the size of everything on your board.  Remember you don't want your board to be too cluttered.

Here are a couple of links to some great font websites too if you want some fancy lettering:
http://www.dafont.com/   
http://www.urbanfonts.com/ 

Good luck - Miss Cameron and I can't wait to see everyone's finished inquiries next Monday :)  

Snow....Yes or No????

Room 8 had a "Snow Stake" this afternoon....I wonder who will be the closest :)
I put 1.30am but I'm not sure if the snow is actually going to make it to us.  Either way, it is freezing!! Keep warm everyone! 

Crazy Girls...

Yesterday Nikita and Hannah took part in the Polar Plunge....brrr!! Great work girls :) 

F O R E N S I C S C I E N C E

We are well into our Forensic Science topic now and Room 8 are loving it!  We have had some great class discussions and are looking forward to the rest of the topic.  

On Thursday we were lucky enough to have Jamie's Dad, Andy Ferguson, come in and do fingerprinting with us.  Andy is the deputy proctor at the University but previously was a policeman for 18 years.  It is great having experts come into the classroom, thanks very much Andy :) 

Some snow pics of Balmac yesterday...(thanks to Ms Brady!)

Room 8 Update

It has been another busy couple of weeks in Room 8! We are well underway with our Science Fair inquiries and Mega Math Month is going well. At the moment our class average is 81% which is a great effort :) 
Winter sports have begun and there are Room 8 students involved in basketball, hockey, golf, netball and girls football.  It is great to see some Room 8 girls learning how to be a netball umpire too - you have been doing a great job!
Here are a couple of pics - one from our technology challenge last week which was won by Kiriana, Flynn, Alex, Mia and Brayden. And Sophie, Gabby and Jamie with their umpiring tshirts they had just screen printed in the art room. 

Mia and her sister in the snow

Another goodie....Thomas's snowman

S N O W D A Y ! !

I hope you are all keeping warm Room 8... This is looking down my street this morning...brrrr! Email me any of your snow pics :) 

Soph's snow pic...

A D V E N T U R E C H A L L E N G E

It was great to hear about Josh's experiences with adventure racing today.  You asked him some great questions Room 8 - well done!!  Remember if you are keen to enter a team you must have someone 18 or over in your team.  Have a talk with your family if you are interested - here is the link to Josh's website:
http://adventurechallenge.co.nz/ 

Class Photo

Here is our lovely class photo Room 8 for those wanting to show people at home :)  Forms need to be dropped to the office if you want to buy one.  Have a great weekend!

Hi Room 8!  I hope your initial brainstorm of ideas and questions for your science fair is going well.  I am looking forward to our conferences tomorrow to hear about your final choice and big question.  I know that a lot of you have already finalised your idea, but if you still need some inspiration here is a fantastic website that Kiriana found.  
http://www.sciencebuddies.org/ 

New Zealand Music Month

May is NZ Music Month! Leave a comment with your favourite NZ band or song.  

This song below is one of my NZ faves :) 

http://youtu.be/SdQ_kvEuV1s

Welcome Back!

Hi Room 8! Welcome back to Term 2 :) It sounds like you all had a great holiday and managed to recharge your batteries ready for another busy term.
As you know our theme for the term is WONDERMENT...with a big science focus - Science Fair and Forensics.
I have emailed you all your homework for the week...please ask if you have any questions! 
Have a look through the useful websites listed on the right of the blog, if you find any other good ones for Mega Maths Month practice or science fair research let me know :) 

Room 8 Aspire

Room 8 has been working really hard on their Aspire - Creating our Balmac Zoo.  We have been creating animals from our own chosen environments - everything from rainforests, the ocean, a sock drawer, a star, swamps, rivers....even a human brain!  I'm really looking forward to hearing our presentations on Wednesday, as well as our sharing night next Thursday - there will be a notice coming home about that soon.