Year 7s at Camp

What an amazing week long camp the year 7-8s went on.  The destination was beautiful Stewart Island.  The campers visited Invercargill museum, travelled by ferry, visited Ulva Island, went on a fishing charter (and caught blue cod!), camped overnight in tents - cooking a one pot meal, hiked for hours, travelled by water taxi, went for a swim, watched a local movie....sounds like loads of fun!!!!

A BIG thank you to Mr Meads for organising, Ms Blackwood and all the parents who accompanied the students.

Welcome to Term 4!

Wow the holidays whizzed by!  Looking forward to a busy term with loads of things going on.....athletic sports, year 7-8 camp, sports activator, swimming for all, loads of learning, end of year celebrations.........and fabulous weather!!

All things in moderation!

It's (nearly) the holidays!

Have fun, stock on your school stationery, keep revising your times tables and get ready for the summer term....don't forget your sunhat and swimming things for the first Monday back!

Art Auction

What a fantastic evening with so many of the school community coming along to look at and bid for some great pieces of art.
Thanks to all those who made a bid (and won!) in the Silent Auction.
Check out the photos from the evening.

ART AUCTION

Don't forget our ART AUCTION on the 22nd September 5:30-7:30pm in the school hall.  Loads of art to be auctioned for our school EOTC programmes.

Science Observation - observing like a scientist!

In class we spent time looking at a candle.......very relaxing and there's alot going on!
We noted down what we saw, some observed at least 25 things.

Hidato

In maths we have been looking Hidato puzzles(Hebrew: חידאתו‎‎, originating Hebrew Hida = Riddle). These are logic puzzles game invented by Dr. Gyora M. Benedek, an Israeli mathematician.

STEM

A busy week looking at STEM challenges.....with a focus on working as a group, all contributing, problem and thinking outside the square!
We also had a giggle at Beaker and Dr Bunsen Honeydew - pros and cons of such things as 'Banana Sharpeners' and 'Edible Paperclips'.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mggl7cC8iys

Rotation/Symmetry/Tessellations.....and the cross country!

Super effort from all the runners in the school cross country!  Perfect weather, loads of enthusiasm...everyone giving it their best.

Over the past week we have been looking at symmetry, rotation and tessellations.  Shapes really are fascinating!  The work of M.C Escher is especially interesting, a very clever chap.

It's Term 3!!

Welcome to Term 3....brrr usually quite a chilly term!! Loads of things happening......cross country, Clubs, Art Auction, Quiz Afternoon plus all the great things going on in technology, languages, science, the Arts.

Is it alive?!

Room 8 have been investigating the importance of yeast in the food chain.  What an amazing thing it is!
We used yeast to produce baguettes (a bit of a Tour de France theme going on too!), each group made 2 baguettes and they weren't too bad at all.  The thing we decided was most important was to be PATIENT yeast needs time to do its thing......warmth, a food source and water, it can't be hurried!

Area and Volume

Have a go at these questions:

On our way!!

It's great to see the enthusiasm and interest in our 'Suitcase Reading'.  

'Suitcase Reading'

Reading takes you places! We have been working on our 'Suitcase Reading' with reading groups finding out about environmental issues such as the millions of pieces of plastic that have washed up on Henderson Island, famine in Africa and the importance of water.

Suitcases ready to go!

Writing workshops continue this week with poetry and using fabulous descriptive language on offer.
It's great to see students producing writing that is entertaining, full of suspense and containing dollops of humour!

S.T.E.M - Science Technology Engineering Maths

Today the year 6s worked together to make a MANGONEL (that's a mediaeval machine that was used in warfare).
Each group was given a bag with materials to use (eg. skewers, cardboard, a spoon, newspapers, tape, paperclips, x 10 rubber bands) and a laptop (we needed to see what a mangonel actually looks like).
The end products varied in their 'completedness'!!
Unfortunately none of the machines were able to fire a tennis ball!  Back to the drawing board.

'The Hunger Games' Test your knowledge!

1) Katniss is named after?

2) Which District do Katniss, Peeta, and Gale live in?

3) What does the contest known as the Hunger Games commemorate?

4) Which poisonous berries result in a tribute's death?

5) What is District 13?

Writing Task

https://youtu.be/8jjtaS80Dz4 ‘ Boxing Makes You Bigger’ (a good tie-in with Pink shirt Day/anti bullying message)

• Plan a piece of writing using a suitable text structure.
• Provide a backstory for one or more of the characters.
• Recognise that a story can have alternative endings depending on interpretation.

Remember this is due on Monday 9am!

Writing Workshop

The writing task for this week is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auSo1MyWf8g - David Attenborough, what a wonderful world.

Task: You are a tour guide, taking a group of tourists to view wildlife at place of your choice. Descriptively write about the animals that you see, what they are doing, how your tourists are reacting and provide some extra information about these animals to show that you are an expert. (This could be more of an informational piece, or a narrative depending on the direction students take).

Use your time wisely.....remember it is due on Monday 9am.

Book Week

Can you answer these literacy questions?

'Wind in the Willows' is another classic piece of literature.

1.  When was the story first published?

2.  What has Mole never seen before that fascinates him?

What do Badger, Toad, Rat and Mole do about Toad Hall?

Don't forget that next week is BOOK WEEK!

Dress up as your favourite book character, or just dress up on Friday.

Book Week

Scholastic Book Week

A chance to dress as your favourite book character, read loads of books, purchase reasonably priced books on a whole lot of different subjects and have fun!!

It's happening in week 3!

Be the first to answer these questions.........

'Alice in Wonderland' by Lewis Carroll is considered a classic piece of literature.

1.  When was it published?

2. What did Alice fall down?

3.  What game does Alice and the Queen play?

4.  What is the caterpillar sitting on? 

Welcome to term 2!

Welcome back to school and to term 2.  Brrrrr..... the weather sure has changed, although it is great to see the beautiful Autumn colours in the neighbouring Town Belt.
Some of the happenings in room 8 include:

• Goal setting for the term, goals set after a review of term 1's goals (keep revising your times tables!)
• Volleyball in PE
• CORE fitness circuits
• Winter sports rotations at Robin Hood Park on Wednesdays
• Writing Workshops have started
• Fractions/Measurement in Maths
• Book Week in week 3 (come dressed as your favourite book character)

Excellent!!

The holidays!!

Hope your holidays are going well........keep reading and revising your basic facts!

(Although the weather probably won't be this fabulous!)

Although the weather probably won't be this fabulous!

ANZAC Assembly

Don't forget it's our ANZAC Assembly at 12pm on Thursday.

Keep learning your lines!

Swimming Sports

What a fantastic effort swimmers!  Well done Laing for winning the House Competition.
Cargill 2nd, Wickliffe 3rd and Larnach 4th.
It was excellent to see how some of you have improved your strokes and your endurance.
Thanks to all the teachers, supporters, teachers' aides and parents who came along to watch.
We take a break from swimming, get set to go in term 4!

Swimming Sports!

Get your togs and towel sorted....it's the swimming sports!!

Go LARNACH, WICKLIFFE, CARGILL and LAING!

..........house points up for grabs, who will be the winner on the day??

(Go Larnach!) 

PS.......cape and flippers not required!

Camp!

What a great 4 days we had at Camp Iona, thankfully the weather played ball (it didn't pour down!).
The year 5-6s participated in abseiling, kayaking, yachting, search and rescue, the confidence course, bush survival, tramping, archery and tenting.  Wow!
It was great to see students challenging themselves in situations they may have perceived as being outside their comfort zone.....well done!
A big thank you to Mr Keen and the parents who accompanied us to the camp.

First Aid

In preparation for the year 6 camp at Camp Iona at Herbert.  We have been up-skilling our first aid knowledge.  Today we had a visit from Neville from the Red Cross.  We covered such things as:

• D.R.S.A.B.C 

Danger
Response
Airway
Breathing
Circulation

• Shock
• Broken bones
• Burns and scalds
• Poisons
• Applying bandages and slings
• Choking
• Recovery position 

The recovery position

Using the knee and the shoulder as pivot points rescuers are able to rotate patients even heavier and larger than themselves.