The Challenges -
Last year we introduced a new concept of HomeStudy that many of you had great success in doing when in Year 7. This term there are many new activities and some from last year that all Year 7-8 students can participate in. We encourage you to and focus on areas of interest and/or those which will develop further, your core knowledge and skills. Involve your parents when making your choices and ask for their support to help you complete them.
Your challenge is to complete as many activities as you wish to the best of your ability. It is suggested that six would be a good minimum number to aim for, but there is no limit. You should plan time to work on some HomeStudy activity most days.
Time will be allocated in class (usually on a Friday) for you to share your progress with your teacher and class members. Feedback will be provided at this time as well. Some of the completed work will be displayed in our library.
Practice your core maths knowledge:
Basic Facts Wall
Cover a wall with tiles as you master each challenge. Your teacher will give you the challenge tiles and the wall card. You could keep it in your portfolio.
I Must Improve My Spelling
Can you spell all the word lists on the ladder? Using the Spell-Write lists. Climb your 10 step spelling ladder.
Lists and instructions are available from your teacher. Have your parents help you learn the words to climb to the top of the ladder.
The Life Of An Author:
Find out about your favourite author’s life and present it on a cube shape. You can hang these in your class library. Take a class vote on the best one, which can be hung in our school library.
Some ideas on what to put on each side of the cube. Name, birthdate, death-date, what the person was famous for, a picture of the author and some interesting facts.
Mapping Skills:
It wont be long before our next school holidays! If you had your choice where would you take your family in New Zealand? Imagine you have 7 days to tour around New Zealand. Use a road map to see where you would drive each day. Where will you start and where you will end up? Research New Zealand to find out places that would suit your family and their interests. Remember you are staying in New Zealand, and include details on the places that you stop at. Include your map and journey for each day you travel, where you stop for lunch, and dinner as well. Remember you have 7 days on the road.
Where do you come from?
New Zealand has a population of approximately 4 and a half million people.
All of these people traveled to our country from other places around the world at one time or another to settle here.
Where does your family originate from?
Interview some family members to find out why they migrated to New Zealand.
Present your research in the form of a timeline, with added facts. It would be excellent if you could find some photos of the people in your family and their country of origin.You could track their journey on a world map. Make sure you include excerpts from interviews with your family.
Name That Number - a maths challenge:
Jose is playing the “Name That Number” game. His five cards and the target number are shown below.
5 cards-10, 5, 3,16, 2
Target Number-16
Write down different mathematical expressions(mathematical sentence) Jose could use to make 16 using any of the five cards he has e.g. 10+(3*2).
Draw and complete the table by listing the cards used and mathematical expressions, use the following heading for your table:
Cards Used Mathematical Expression
Fun For Free- Great Mathematics website!! Full of fun games and tasks:
http://www.learn-with-math-games.com/printable-math-games.html
Register for free 3 days spelling, maths and Science challenge- http://www.worldeducationgames.com
Design For Future Fun:
Describe and illustrate the sport of the future in as much detail as possible. Include
rules, playing areas, uniforms, and anything else that might help the reader understand the sport
Dream Room
Design and draw your perfect room. What kind of things would be in it? How would the room be arranged? What would the view from window be? How would the room be shaped? Be as detailed as possible with your answers.
Healthy Eating Choices
Plan meals for a whole day for your family that promotes healthy eating choices. Design a menu for this day that includes breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner and dessert. Ensure that each meal includes either fresh fruit or vegetables that are in season now.
Draw a Time Machine:
Imagine you are a scientist. You have just invented a time machine – Now draw a diagram of your time machine. Use labels to show the details. Draw a diagram of the inside and the outside. Make it as colourful as you can. What types of noises do the buttons make when you press them? Are there any flashing lights? Do you need to write some instructions on how to use the time machine?
What will you call your time machine? I might call mine “Miss Mills’ Machine of Mystery”
Are there any special features of your time machine?
The Weather:
Living in Auckland we get to experience all sorts of weather and all in one day! Predict how many fine days we will have in the next month, how many cloudy days there will be and how many rainy days. Then record what the weather is like each day for the month and at the end, complete a bar graph of the results. Were your predictions correct? Write a conclusion of your findings.
Memorable Moments:
You are going to design your own museum brochure to tell visitors to the Museum about
the memorable moments of New Zealand.
Things you need to include – A brief story of the chosen events – this can be a mixture of words and pictures. Fact boxes of the main characters. Some information about the causes and effects of these events. Remember that museum labels need to catch peoples’ attention quickly. You need to make your brochure easy to read and to the point.
Different Peoples:
Choose a culture that is not your own to research the following information about: What is the country and culture? What language do they speak? What is their currency? What are two of their traditions and how are they celebrated? What is the population of that country? Include some pictures of their cultural dress.
Create A Slogan:
Our school value this term is RESPECT. Make posters and bumper stickers that could be used in the classroom, school, on parents cars etc to advertise the value "Respect" Good 'slogans and quotes' would also make great posters to display!
“Try and fail, but don’t fail to try.”
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| Spelling Ladder.pdf | 149.9 KB |
| ESSENTIAL SPELLING LIST .pdf | 53.21 KB |
Tuesday 21 February 6.00 – 7.30 pm
We really do encourage all our parents and caregivers to come to this evening. We all meet together at 6.00 in the hall for a short presentation and then parents move to classrooms to meet teachers and have a chat. This is a great opportunity to ask questions and find out how you can work with the teachers to support your child in their 2012 learning journey. We look forward to seeing you.
A copy of this can be seen under the Links tab.
