Kachina (Year 7) and Jahna (Year 6) are two investigators who have made a movie to show what an evil epidemic like the Black Death could do if you are not ready. This movie will tell you how to be prepared. So listen and learn what they have to share.

Special thanks to Morgan P for being a great Filmer, actor and a wonderful editor. We couldn't have done it without you!

2:49 minutes, 7.4 MB, mpeg-4 movie

Jack (Year 7) made this slideshow about how to keep alive in the outdoors, for his inquiry.

0:50 seconds, 397 KB, .m4v file

Hello I am Milly and I am a Year 8 at Springston School. For my inquiry I had to answer the
question ‘Why do people smoke and what are the effects of smoking?’

I researched this and then made my podcast to try to convince people not to smoke. I hope you like my podcast!

3:56 minutes, 2.2MB, AAC file

Emily (Year 7) has put together a short slideshow of yesterday's Pet Day at Springston School. This is an annual event for the school and its community, and students proudly bring along their pets for judging. We hope you enjoy the photos and see the joy on the faces of the students as they show their pets.

1:46 minutes, 13 MB, mpeg-4 video file.

On Tuesday 27 October, a Civil Defence Exercise was held at the school. Izaac has used iPhoto to put together this slideshow showing some of the people 'injured' during the 'disaster', and how they were rescued and assisted by the Fire Brigade and the Red Cross.

1:42 minutes, 17MB, m4v file.

Students in Room 6 have started to learn Spanish. Morgan and Kachina (both Year 7 students) decided to record a podcast about some of the interesting things they have found out about Spanish, so far.

Other students have been working on Spanish podcasts too, so look back again soon to see what they can teach you!

Do let us know if you are learning a language at school (leave us a comment). Are you learning Spanish?

1:30 minutes, 4.5 MB, .m4v file.

Emma-Rose, Morgan and Kachina (all Year 7 students) interview students from around Springston School for their 'all new country news programme'. Go with them and find out what great things are being achieved at Springston School this year, and enjoy the unique humour they put into this news bulletin!

4:53 minutes, 5.5 MB, .mov file

Courtney and Sion (Year 6), from the Media Team, introduce us to the team of students who make up Springston School's Student Council. Find out about the projects the Council has been working on this year.

They'd love to hear back from other student councils and share ideas - please post them a comment. Perhaps they could Skype with you?

3:26 minutes, 3.9 MB, .mov file

Hannah (Year 6) and Emily (Year 7) interview students around Springston School about the inventions they have been working on. 'Let's Get Inventing' is our theme for the term - to make something which makes life easier for others.

2:11 minutes, 2.6 MB, mpeg-4 video file

Emma-Rose and Morgan (both Year 7 students) are your hosts as they discuss some of the changes that have happened around our school so far this year. Classes have been inquiring into how to bring about change at school - let's see how it's been going.

Look back again soon for an update from these girls!

4:18 minutes, 14.8 MB, .mov file

Room 3 recently held it's Barrow and Bark Day. This was the culminating activity for their Inquiry this term into what they could change at school for the better. The children decided to cover the gardens in the car park area with bark, to tidy up the area and look after the plants.

All around were children working cooperatively to fill barrows, problem-solving to work out how to push the barrows through the gravel and puddles, and encouraging others when it got a bit cold and damp.

They are just one of the classes at school working hard to make changes to the school environment. This slide show was put together by two members of the Media Team - Sion and Courtney (Year 6).

1:42 minutes, 2.5 MB, .mov file

Springston students enjoy a regular 'Wheels Day'. Taylor and Emily explain how this works. Do send them a comment if you have a Wheels Day at your school!

1:29 minutes, 740 KB, mp3

Ashley's fable shows how delaying tactics may be useful.

1:19 minutes, 1.3 MB, mp3

Hannah S. tells this interesting story, involving some puppies.

1:00 minutes, 940 KB, mp3

This fable is retold by Hannah B., age 13. This story is about how to overcome the problem of bullying.

1:47 minutes, 1.7 MB, mp3

Amy-Leigh, age 11, retells this fable. Listen to the story, and see if you can figure out the moral before you hear it at the end.

1:08 minutes, 1.1 MB, mp3

Year 7 and 8 students have been retelling Aesop's Fables into a modern context. For sharing, some students have recorded their stories into Garageband and added sound effects and music.

This first story is told by Henry, age 13.

0:55 minutes, 859.2 KB, mp3

Aimee and Georgia did the filming and photography for this movie. If you have a pet dog or a pet cat, you'll especially enjoy this episode. But also view the movie to see some of the other pets shown at Springston School's Pet Day this year.

8:46 minutes, 12.8 MB, Quicktime Movie file (.mov)

Each year, Springston School has its Pet Day. Students bring along animals for judging. There are many different categories. Pet Day is a much-loved event in many New Zealand country schools. This video is Part 1, showing several of the events, Part 2 is to follow.

We'd love to hear your comments about this video, made by Kayla and Hannah, and to find out whether you have Pet Day at your school!

2:52 minutes, 3.3 MB, Quicktime file (.mov)

Students have been learning about the animal world this term. Some senior students (Years 5-8) have chosen an animal, and used Kid Pix to draw it in its natural environment. Students were then photographed against a 'green' screen, and their photos put together with their drawing in Keynote. The alpha key tool was then used to merge them into the drawing with their animal. We hope you enjoy the result (apologies for the quality of the photos in this compressed file), and thanks to S. Taylor at Whakarongo School, New Zealand, for sharing the ideas on how to do this, at the recent ULearn08 Conference.

2:20 minutes, 2.7 MB, Quicktime Movie file (.mov)

Adam interviews his Nana, Pam Hall, about primary school in the late 1940s.

This episode is the last in our Oral History series – we hope you have enjoyed them all! What have you learned about primary school days in the past? Are things very different now?

7:19 minutes, 5.1 MB, mp3.

Zak interviews his Nana, Jocelyn Baird. Jocelyn went to primary school in the early 1950s.

10:11 minutes, 7 MB mp3.

Kachina interviews her Great-Grandmother, Gladys Morris, in another of our Oral Histories. This interview is another that investigates memories of primary school in the 1930s and early 1940s.

Listen to what happened one day when a boy got the strap!

5:08 minutes, 4.8 MB, mp3.

In this Oral History, Shania interviews her Grandfather, Bill Andrews, about his memories of primary school in the late 1930s and early 1940s in Christchurch, New Zealand.

6:32 minutes, 6 MB, mp3

Ms Singleton’s Room 5 students (Years 5 and 6, ages 9 and 10) have been learning about the past, and have discussed some of the ways in which we can preserve the past. Some of them have been able to look more closely at oral history, and have decided to record some of the stories of their own grandparents.

They were most interested to find out about life at primary school for their grandparents and as a group developed some questions, and put them into a logical sequence. They practised their interviewing skills and learnt how to use an mp3 recorder, and Garageband on the school’s Macbooks. Then away they went with the recorders to carry out their interviews with their grandparents.

Back at school they recorded their intros and outros, edited the recordings they had made, and chose some appropriate music to tie it all together.

As a result, they have five oral history interviews to share with you. These will be released here on Podomatic one at a time, over the next few weeks (and the grandparents interviewed will also receive a CD with their interview).

We’d love you to listen to these precious stories. The grandparents interviewed are a range of ages. How was school different for our grandparents, and how was it the same as it is today?

We are very grateful to the grandparents who allowed themselves to be interviewed – they have told some marvellous stories. And, didn’t the students do well too! This was their first opportunity to do real interviews with people, and here is their work, published online for everyone to share.

Our first interview is conducted by Lucy, who interviews her Grandpa, Harold Johnstone. This interview was conducted by telephone.

4:12 minutes, 4.1 MB, mp3.

Room 3 students have been studying insects and other bugs. They have had an ant farm in the classroom. This is a time lapse video made in iMovie. The Macbook was set up in front of the ant farm and video was captured every few seconds throughout a lunch hour. This video is the result.

What have the ants been up to?
Can you see a Queen ant?

It is interesting to follow some ants around, and watch them going backwards and forwards. The ants are very busy in the middle of the ant farm!

2:34 minutes, 6.4 MB, Quicktime movie.

Mrs Carter's 5 and 6 year olds are starting to learn about insects. Here are their Kid Pix drawings about their favourite insects (Alice's ladybug is an example, illustrated above).

This was some children's first experience of drawing on the computer, and using Kid Pix. All the children had fun recording some facts and interesting words to describe their insects - didn't they do well!

5:04 minutes, 4.8 MB, Quicktime Movie (.mov).

Room 6 students (Years 6-7, ages 10-11) used iMovie for the first time. They thought you'd like to see a snapshot of their school.

7.2MB, Quicktime Movie (.mov)

In this podcast Cameron and Wendy share the day that children went to the local domain for the annual Cross Country.
1:09 minutes, 1.1 MB AAC

Junior students have been learning about the harsh environment on other planets, and how difficult it is to live on these, compared to Earth.

The students were helped to independently gather facts about Mars and Venus, under the categories of landscape, weather, and other facts. Information was found in books and on the www, and each student noted the facts they found onto their own A3-sized cross-classification chart/grid. This was good practice at note-making (we pretended to write in Martian - did you know that Martians don't write in full sentences!). The information from each person's chart was then gathered onto one group chart and typed up by the teacher. Then facts about different planets were able to be compared. They were amazed with how much information they had gathered.

They did a great job of writing in Martian! It was also challenging for students to think about the categories where information fitted.

It was interesting to look at the age of some book resources, and see how our knowledge has changed even in the past 5 years. Students showed a lot of interest in the use of robotic rovers sent to Mars, and it was great to use the www and be able to see video and photographs from Mars itself.

Mars was chosen by the students as the planet where man is most likely to be able to survive, and indeed this is where NASA intends to focus, once they have put men on the moon again.

The students were asked to show their new learning about Mars by drawing pictures in Kid Pix. They then chose facts from the cross-classification chart to read/record with the pictures. This movie is the result.

5:24 minutes, 6.4MB, Quicktime.
(Originally uploaded 20 August 2007)

Here is Caitlin and Jose's version of the original myth, Elizabeth the Paua, presented with sound effects.

2:37 minutes, 2.7MB, AAC/m4a
(Originally uploaded 16 August 2007).

The students exploring podcasting this term, enjoyed a visit to The Radio Network in Christchurch to see a live radio studio. They had a great time being shown around the studios and meeting all the talented people there.

They were especially interested in how advertisements were created and recorded, and from the work they've been doing to extend their own oral language through podcasting, they could really appreciate what was involved!

Here is 10 year old Milly's report on this visit - this was done mostly off the cuff, with just a few notes and photos from the trip a month earlier to remind her about what she'd seen and heard. The first part was recorded in chunks, but then around halfway through she just started talking continuously and fluently as she glanced at the notes. Didn't she do an amazing job!

4MB, 5:41 minutes, AAC/m4a file
(Originally uploaded 9 August 2007)

Students have been comparing myths from New Zealand with those from other countries. Then they have written their own. Charlotte wrote this one, and Ashley has helped her to bring it alive in this podcast.

2:58 minutes, 1.6MB, AAc/m4a file.
(Originally uploaded 28 June 2007)

Ryan, Libby and Scott have made a report on the senior school's visit to hear the New Zealand Army Band.

1:57 minutes, 1.8MB, AAC/m4a
(Originally uploaded 18 June 2007

Tyler and Daniel tell us about Small Blacks TV when they visited Springston School recently.

1:13 minutes, 595kb, AAC/m4a
(Originally uploaded 18 June 2007)

Jack and Georgia have made a podcast about learning a Maori war dance called the haka. They also talk about Maori stick games.

2:04 minutes, 1.0MB, mp3 file.
(Originally uploaded 18 June 2007)

A PMI (de Bono's Plus, Minus and Interesting thinking tool) reflection about podcasting and how it helps develop oral language.

After participating in an online conference, Time4 Online, where educators in a workshop have been discussing how podcasting can help extend oral language, and considering whether there are different benefits between scripting or speaking ad lib in a podcast, I thought I'd ask my students what they thought. This podcast was created by a group who have created one podcast of their own already this term (see the 3 episodes prior to this one). I put them on the spot somewhat to create this one!

10:19 minutes, 9.7MB
(Originally uploaded 4 June 2007)

Milly and Libby want to tell you about the music lessons you can have at Springston School. They put their interviewing skills to work in this podcast.

5:11 minutes, 2.4MB.
(Originally uploaded 4 June 2007)

Jack and Tyler talk to Mrs Carter, the mother of Daniel Carter, a famous New Zealand All Black. Rugby is New Zealand's national sport. Mrs Carter is a teacher at Springston School.

1:16 minutes, 992 KB
(Originally uploaded 27 May 2007)

Springston School students Charlotte and Caitlin have put together a podcast featuring a QUIZ to test your knowledge on our school!

1:23 minutes, 1.2MB
(Originally uploaded 16 May 2007)

Junior students have enjoyed a final 10 Things Photo Scavenger Hunt. This time they were looking for images around the school to illustrate the following words: glass, alive, round, long, inside, new, down, smooth, hard, the back.

It was interesting to see how many students considered shiny objects were new!

Students have taken lots of photos and become quite skilled at creating slideshows and movies in iPhoto, making iPhoto books, and using Comic Life to publish photos and present information. They will teach these new skills to buddies back in their classrooms.

We'd love to receive your comments on what we have been doing. Have you tried a 10 things Photo Scavenger Hunt? Please tell us about it!

7.3 MB, 5:25 minutes.
(Originally uploaded 30 November 2007)

This is a little late being posted because I had to purchase the SnapzPro software to be able to record this Alice Animation. Late in 2006 some senior students were exploring Alice and figuring out, for themselves, how to use it. They were given a challenge to illustrate a proverb of their choice.

This is the first effort created by Sam (age 13) and Ryan (age 10). Don't you love how they illustrated this proverb!

Let us know if you've done something interesting with proverbs, or if you have enjoyed using Alice software (a free download from http://alice.org/).

5.9 MB, 22 seconds.
(Originally uploaded 13 March 2007)

This term, Junior students are having fun exploring photography. Here are some of their early efforts.

Inspired by a digital photo scavenger hunt for 26 Things, at http://www.sh1ft.org/26things/, we've had our own hunt for 10 Things! These are items found in our school. Students had 20 minutes to come up with these ideas and worked in pairs to find these photos. Their main focus was to take close-ups.

Here are some of the photos taken for each idea in the scavenger hunt.

What photos can you come up with for the same words? Let us know!

2.8MB, 3:12:01 minutes
(Originally uploaded 10 March 2007)

Hannah and Courtney have chosen the theme of Pet Day for this lego animation. Springston is in a rural community and the annual Pet Day is an opportunity to bring pets and other animals along for judging. It's an exciting community day for all.

2.4MB, 1:29 minutes.
(Originally uploaded 6 December 2006)

In this lego animation, find out what surprise Megan and Jahna have created if you don't have a parachute when you need it! The sound effects are quite surprising too.

1.4MB, 17 seconds.
(Originally uploaded 4 December 2006)

Isabelle and Josh (aged 6) used plasticine to create an animated surprise involving a cocoon. The caterpillar goes in, but what comes out?! They composed their own music for this animation, using Garageband.

688 KB, 17 seconds.
(Originally uploaded 24 November 2006)

Another episode in our series about surprises, Hannah and Courtney created this surprising animation about a sock! They composed the music themselves, using Garageband.

1.2MB, 17 seconds.
(Originally uploaded 24 November 2006)

A group of junior students has been exploring some aspects of animation - mainly lego and claymation. They had to learn how to use a digital camera, to storyboard, to plan their shots and how many photos would be needed. Photos were put into iPhoto, and then imported into iMovie where students had to decide how long to show each photo, and do other editing as required. They had to work cooperatively, and their animations had to be clear for others to understand.

Tessa and Scott made this lego animation on the theme of 'Surprise!'. Click the green Play button below, or subscribe to our podcast, and watch carefully to see the surprise!

We'd love to receive your comments on our podcasts!

1.3MB, 16 seconds
(Originally uploaded 23 November 2006)