Basic Facts Practice

From the Maths Coach's Corner 

The debate rages over whether or not students should "memorize" their facts. 
We should really be discussing automaticity or fluency, not memorization. 

It is important that there is an understanding of the concepts behind math facts, rather than rote memorization. 

The fact is that students who are not fluent with the basic math facts are at a huge disadvantage with most other aspects of math.

So, LEARN the basic facts first. 

Then here are some practice websites to develop fluency.

Word Clouds

Use this Word Cloud website to create your own list of memories from camp.
Tips: if you want to join two words together, use the ~ symbol next to the 1. 
Eg. Bridge~Valley
If you want a word to be bigger than others, write it several times.
Eg. I typed sunshine three times in the example below.

Tutu with the options at the top of the screen to change colour, font, shape, layout. 
Upload it to your blog by using the 'File' button to save it as a jpeg.

Genius Hour in Kōtuku

Some of our class in action for Genius Hour today.

Making Music with Paul and Paul

Here is our audio clip of 'Animal Raucous' created by all the students of our class during a fabulous musical day with Paul and Paul.

Click here to listen to it.

Using QuickTime to Make a Screencast

Using Quicktime or Screencastify (on Chromebooks) is a way you can show your learning. Check out the example here.

REPORT WRITING

We've been learning how to write reports to INFORM people about our topic. We were allowed to choose our own topic about something we were interested in.

Each paragraph had to begin with a TOPIC SENTENCE.

TOPIC SENTENCE = TOPIC + MAIN POINT
Each paragraph had to have at least 3 sentences that added detail about the MAIN POINT. These could include explanations and examples.

Have a look at some of our work on our individual blogs. Please leave a comment too!

Planting Natives

Yesterday, 12 Kōtukuians helped Jan Heine from Upper Moutere plant natives along a creek on her property. She's doing this planting to beautify the area and to try to stop erosion along its banks. 

Jan also shared a bit of information about the history of the creek and its connection with Lake Rotoiti and the glaciers from thousands of years ago.

We got involved with this project as a fundraiser for Wellington Camp.