What an exciting day for Science and Space!

Fireworks Night - Fifth of November, A Day To Remember

Happy Diwali

Today is a special day in the calendar of our Hindus, Sikhs and Jains in our community and across the world. Diwali is the five-day festival of lights. The festival, that coincides with the Hindu New Year, celebrates new beginnings and the triumph of good over evil and light over darkness. It is celebrated with music, lights, fireworks and sharing traditional sweets with friends and family.

Neil and his family shared their culture with Sunnyhills by decorating the entrance way of our school office with rangoli patterns. These colourful dye and rice flour patterns are a welcoming gesture. He has decorated his home with rangoli and diyas (candles or oil in clay lamps).

Happy Diwali Sunnyhills!

Neil using rice flour to create a rangoli pattern.

A welcoming pattern to celebrate Diwali.

Leora joined in the fun.

Using colourful dye, Neil uses his stencils to create a pattern.

Lunchtime fun

Beautiful rotational symmetry

Rangoli Stencils

Number Talks in Mathematics with Mrs Madden

Today, we had the privilege of having Mrs Madden come to Room 3 during our Mathematics time to share a pedagogical strategy called Number Talks. This is a series of stages we can employ during our Mathematics lessons to make sure we understand what each person is sharing about their strategies and approaches to problem-solving. We learned how important it is to 'revoice' what someone has said so that we hear their communication clearly. Then give everyone an opportunity to 'wait' and process what is being asked. We shared our ideas of how to solve the problem and explored if there were alternative approaches. The variety of ways to solve one multiplication problems was AMAZING! There is no 'one way' - rather a number of ways, so that we can select the one that works best for us.

Today, Mrs Madden asked us to solve:      19  X  5 =?

• without using paper
• without using an algorithm
• then show us your method

What ways can you think of?

"The heart of number talks is classroom conversations focused on making sense of mathematics."

"Mental computation is a key component of number talks because it encourages students to build on number relationships to solve problems instead of relying on memorized procedures. One purpose of a number talk is for students to focus on number relationships and use these relationships to develop efficient, flexible strategies with accuracy."
(From 'Number Talks Build Numerical Reasoning', Sherry Parrish, 2011)

Number Talks is used by Professor Jo Boaler, a renown Mathematics expert from Stanford University, who believes everyone is capable of doing Mathematics to the highest level with the right mindset and number sense.

Here is a link to Jo Boaler's concept of Number Sense where she explains a few ways that you can solve a similar equation: 18 X 5=?

youcubed - What is Number Sense?

Mindfulness for Kids in Room 3

Mrs Venville introduced Room 3 to Mindfulness today. While many in our class are familiar with the concepts from last year, we were able to revisit this important concept of hauora - well-being. The key to mindfulness is to pause and breathe. If there is a sense of being overwhelmed or stressed - taking time to pause, breathe and smile can make all the difference in calming us down. It is good for the body and mind. If you want to know more, check out the video link below on Mindfulness for Kids.

Mindfulness for Kids Explained

We also took time to eat mindfully. The deliberate choice to pause, study and appreciate the texture, appearance, aroma and flavour of food creates a new sense of well-being. Concentrating on what we are doing and experiencing 'in the moment', instead of being distracted by our environment or our thoughts. We can appreciate every mouthful more - even with a small raisin!