Technology Challenge - Build a Roller Coaster

The Challenge

Using just a piece of cardboard, some straws, scissors and tape design and engineer a roller coaster for a ping pong ball to navigate. 

You must have 

• a beginning and an end 

• a track that is continuous

• at least 1 turn

You have 5 mins to plan, and 30-40 mins to make.  You may test throughout.

Odd One Out

 Today with Belinda, our MiondPlus teacher, we played a game of Odd One Out.

The children were given four images to look at and then choose which one was the odd one out. No answer was better than others.

They were learning that everyone has different ideas and we can broaden our views by listening to others.

Some children chose the notepad - it was not as 3D as the others, it was not a toy, it only had one colour

Some chose the shaker - it made noise, not as common in a household

Biscuit - colourful, flat

Brownie - square, no added sprinkles or lines

What do you think?

The children had to share their ideas and give a reason for their choice.

Gifted Abilities

 We looked at a variety of sentences and had to decide if they were like us or not like us.

There were also pictures we looked at and we had to stand if we were like them or not.

Week 2 Game This or That

 The children were given two options to choose from.

For example

• teddy bear or pillow
• Jack or the giant
• meeting a troll or a taniwha

They had to choose this (hands on head) or that (folded arms) and then explain why they choose the way they did.

Exploring Talents

 Our last activity involved exploring the talent groups. The children were given talent cards and had to match them up with the Talent groups. This gave them a chance to see what skills, activities and talents each group might involve.

They are very excited to explore their talent groups more next week.

Discovery - What Can You See Hidden?

 Discovery is our theme for the year.

Some of our ideas:

Discovery is finding out something that no-one has ever found before, learning new things, 

Discovery can make history.

Discovery invloves curiosity, exploring and fearlessness

We then did an activity which involved looking at pictures and looking for hidden items, images, words etc.

They recorded their ideas in pairs or by themselves.

Our First Day warm Up

What a wonderful group of children. We met Belinda our MindPlus teacher today. After introducing herself we started with a warm up activity - a statement was put on the TV and the children had to decide if it was a good idea or a bad idea and move to different sides of the classroom to indicate their thoughts. We then shared our ideas. You will see the statements on the TV screen in the photos.

Sheep can talk