Mt+Biggs

[|School blog]

[|Room2 blog]

Room 1 wiki


 * Example 1**

**MOUNT BIGGS ROOM 2, ZIMBABWE INQUIRY:**

 * In Term 1, Pam Cresswell, originally from Zimbabwe, came to talk to us about life in her country.** She talked about how her and her family set up a school for the special needs children who were left out of the Zimbabwean Education System. When the school, Silver Linings, opened, 20 children came, with more on a waiting list. The children stayed at the school for a fortnight then went home to see their families for the weekend.

She said, “One day, when all the children had gone home, Robert Mugabe’s so called ‘War Veterans’ came and circled the house.” She told us about how her and her family had to flee Zimbabwe when things became dangerous. Pam said, “When they arrived, they circled the house and built a fire on our veranda. They had guns and axes and said they would kill us if we didn’t get out. We managed to gather some belongings and escape.”

Pam spoke about how many children in Zimbabwe have very little. There are many rural schools in Zimbabwe that do not have basic resources for learning such as books, pencils/pens, black boards and chalk. Some don’t even have chairs so children have to carry a log or rock to school to sit on. A lot of the schools in Zimbabwe don’t have any furniture.

Pam said, ‘Having been in NZ for years now, there are so many resources here. I've seen so many thrown out that could be put to good use.”


 * So this gave us an idea….to send school resources to children who need it and could really use it. **


 * We thought we could send new and used resources to schools in Zimbabwe so children can learn better and have an opportunity to shape their countries future in a positive way.**

But we wanted to learn more about Zimbabwe first so, early in Term 2, during our Reading/Inquiry time, we worked in groups of 3 and compared our lives with children in Zimbabwe and one other country of our choice. We found out things like what they wear (traditional and modern clothing), where they live (housing conditions), what they eat and then we compared it to our life here in Mount Biggs, New Zealand.

We found that our lives were very different to many other countries. We were VERY LUCKY!!

We thought long and hard about how to make our 'class idea' work...This is what we came up with...


 * __OUR BIG BOOKS__**



We organised an 'Information Afternoon' and invited the loval community, local business and even the Mayor of Feilding. This was a great way to share our idea.



We visited lots of local schools in the Manawatu and did presentations at assemblies, sharing our goal with them - most schools were fantastic and gave us lots and lots of things. It was also great experience for us to prepare powerpoint presentations, write speeches and speak in front of so many people.



During our written language time, we learnt how to write formal letters and we wrote letters to businesses, schools, television stations, radio stations and newspapers, telling them about our project. We got great responses. We were in the local Feilding Herald, the Manawatu Evening Standard and on TV one Breakfast show.

add link to breakfast...

Now our container is full and we are looking into the best and cheapest way to get it to Zimbabwe...



We have regular Skype and email contact with Clive Wakefield, the Director of Silver Linings in Zimbabwe. He will meet the container at the dock to ensure the contents arrive safely at there destination. He sent us a 'thankyou' video from some of the children at Silver Linings. We think its great that they are so excited about the container we have put together for them.

__**Other exciting things happening at Mount Biggs:**__

 * Example 2**
 * (Room 3) Using flip video in reading groups...**

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 * Example 3****(Room 2) We had fun doing a creative PopArt assignment based around exploring our environment while learning how to take great digital photos, upload them and manipulate them using GIMP - Free to download**






 * Example 4**
 * (Room 2) Teaching other classes how to use easi-speak, flip video, digital camera and blogs...**

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