End of the Year

Dear blog readers,

It is the end of a really busy year. The students of room five have consistently worked to achieve learning goals. We shared a wonderful lunch on Tuesday out under the elm tree. One of the highlights for me in the last term was the teacher vs student touch game.
Sadly we can't share any of our trip photographs because Mrs Heaps' computer died. :-(

I really hope you all enjoy your break, spending time with your families and enjoying the great Dannevirke weather!                      
From Mrs Gibbs

P.S. One last teacher tip- find some games that involve maths and words so you keep practicing and learning in a fun way.

Making Faces

Children who had completed their homework were given the chance to make icing faces. With Coral-Mae they made coloured icing and used lollies to make faces. These are our creations! Yummmmmmmm!

Paint a Visual Picture with Words

Broken window by Josh

On one hot summer day Jarvis was kicking his black and white rugby ball around his backyard. "Yaa," he said.
Jarvis wanted to have one last gigantic kick. Up went the ball, up, up UP! and the ball went so high that Jarvis said, "that ball will have snow on it when it comes down."
Down came the ball. Down, down, down... SMASH!!! just as Mum was peeking out the door beside the window. Mum came stomping out the door and yelled, "Jarvis, you naughty little boy." Jarvis had his hands on his ears because of the loud shattering noise that came from the window and because of the shock he was in.
He was crying so hard that  there was a huge puddle around his feet.
"Jarvis, you're grounded for a whole two months and you'll be paying for that window," said Mum.
"I'm so, so sorry Mum. I didn't mean to break the window."
If I was Jarvis I would be kicking the ball at the rugby park.

Athletics by Renee

I find athletics quite interesting but there's one thing I dislike, and that thing I dislike is high-jump.
Now you're probably thinking, "why doesn't she like high-jump?"
Well I'm not actually as tall as a nine year old is supposed to be, I'm only 1 metre 36 centimtetres. So, of course it's going to be hard if the pole's taller than you.
Back to the subject. The thing I dislike is high-jump but now I'm going to tell you the thing I cherish the most. It's long jump, because I'm small I have an advantage! I can run quite fast and jump quite long.
"Now you're probably thinking that, if she's fast them why doesn't she like sprints?"
...well, sprints take all your energy.

Visiting Storyteller

Term 4

Room 5

Huia Range School

23 October 2012-10-23

Dear Parents/ Caregivers,

Our last homework for the year lasts for two weeks and is due in on Friday 2 November. Each child has to plan 5 school lunches, which in total cost no more than $20. Each lunch must be healthy and does not include canteen orders. It would be helpful to go to the supermarket to find actual prices for particular products. For example one loaf of bread for $2:00 would be enough bread for the whole week. Each day you would list bread as $0: 40.

Make a menu or table for your lunches and present it in an interesting way, perhaps use pictures from pamphlets or magazines. This is just budgeting practice and is not real, some children were worried they couldn’t have canteen this week!

Reminder: frequent athletics practices- bring shorts, drink and a sunhat.

Kind regards

Lee Gibbs                                                                        

Examples of healthy lunches.

There are websites that will help you plan for the week such as

http://www.3news.co.nz/What-lunch-can-you-make-for-3/tabid/817/articleID/270752/Default.aspx

Swim to Survive

Treading water

Non contact rescue 

Swim to survive aims to  reduce the number of drownings in New Zealand. Room five has walked to and from the pools each afternoon. After just 5 days there has been a noticeable increase in skills. Our 3 instructors work on fitness and stamina, concentrating on kicking effectively, breaststroke, floating, treading water and sculling. Each student has practiced contact and non-contact towing, taking turns to rescue and be rescued.

Above: Contact towing requires a steady breaststroke kick. Below: Learning how to kick  effectively.

Spider Poetry

Our writing this week has followed the adventures of a spider. Today's writing follows firstly the beauty of the web, the spider that created it and then its' destruction. The children have written both in narrative and poetic styles.

In the early morning light a carefully balanced web lay in the corner of the barn-yard with its' delicate threads glistening in the sun-light. It sparkles like diamonds with dew-drops among the shining lines of thread. 
Hiding beneath the leaf on a branch on a tree lay a big black tarantula ready for tea. It's as still as ice waiting for its prey to come along BUT...
...he does not see something yummy, he sees a big bluebird who wants a big tarantula for supper and tea! The big bluebird grins with delight but is soon is blinded for the spider has covered her eyes. Spider thinks he is safe and sound again but as he turns around he sees his wonderful web has been destroyed.
The spider cried out, "why? Oh!, why?"

I see a wonderful web destroyed.
I hear the threads ripping.
I taste despair within.
I feel broken, thin thread.
I smell the stench of a ripped web.
I feel melancholy.
By Renee

Hanging high up in the tree is a delicately balanced web. This web is covered in dew drops in the early morning light. These dewdrops sparkle like diamonds and glimmer like a rainbow.
Hiding in between two leaves waits Dog Spider. As he waits he becomes hungrier and thirstier, then all of a sudden... "DINNER!" cries Dog Spider happily. As he eats his prey he becomes hungrier. He licks his lips and hides between two leaves...
The victorious spider turned to look at his web BUT!!! it was torn to pieces and not lovely and shining like a diamond. It was dull and colourless.
Dog Spider cried, "My wonderful web, it's tattered and looks old and ugly."
As true as this may be  Dog Spider could not believe it.
Dog Spider was heartbroken.

I see my torn web.
I hear nothing but my cries.
I taste salt water tears.
I feel nothing but tatters.
I smell no more dew.
I am heartbroken.
By Leah

Some of the children imagined that webs had been destroyed by careless humans breaking them.

I hear the footsteps coming.
I taste death coming to me.
I smell revenge coming.
I touch my web
before it dies.
By Titan

A spider web
hangs
sparkling like diamonds
swaying
in the wind.

Fangpire Spider waits, stuck to a leaf, searching the horizon for prey.
"Where be a juicy fly," he whispers to himself, then he spots a fly and he is lured easily to his sparkling web. Now spider prepares to kill... and eat blood.

Spider
waits standing still
focussed on its' target
he moves with cunning skill and gets
his prey.

The victorious spider turned to look at his web. But... it was a hideous mess. the silk was ripped and the once silver web was a dusty grey. Spider howled, " my web. My beautiful web is gone. My kingdom." Now the web is just a ruin.

I see a lost kingdom.
I feel the silk and despair.
I hear my screams.
I taste tears.
I smell the bitter air.
I am heartbroken.
By Dylan

Making Worms Work

Today Room 5 made mini composts using milk containers and carbon/ nitrogen waste. Students layered up waste on base of compost like a sandwich, worms included. The final step was adding lime to activate the compost and a little water. Now the worms will set to work and change scraps into new soil. Go worms!

Choir Visits

On Tuesday 24th of July 2012 the Huia Range School choir walked down to Central Kindergarten in the rain. It didn’t bother us because we had collected every umbrella in the school!

We sang the National Anthem, E te iwi e, Snakes and ladders, Sing the world around and a partner song, She’ll be coming around the mountain. The kindy audience enjoyed the performance and clapped loudly.  

Next their Kapa Haka group performed for us. The poi dance and haka was spectacular and we look forward to seeing them at the kapa haka festival. Finally we sung the action song, Mahunga pakihiwi, together with the kindy group. 

It was a really good experience singing and sharing our music together.

Written by Memphis Beale-Morgan, Emily Thomson and Sarah Smith.

We also went to Appleton kindergarten. There we sang, listened to their songs and then read beginner readers to them. We thoroughly enjoyed reading with the children. After a while the children showed us all their toys and activities, soon the Huia children were painting, playing kitchen and touching their turtle!
The children waved us goodbye through the fence, it was a delightful experience.

Winter Warmers

Wow! Thank-you so much to Nikki from the town library and the sponsors of the Winter Warmers Programme. Rooms 1, 5 and 7 received their book prize at assembly on Monday. Every single child in the programme completed their book reviews and won a book and a certificate.
Leniqua and Leah were lucky draw winners of rubik cubes.

Look out for the next library programme, held over the summer holidays.

Term 3 newsletter

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

Term 3 looks to be jam packed with activities. Parents are asked to be really vigilant about reading the newsletter, especially the coming events calendar.

# Production Practice begins on Wednesday 18 July. All students in Tuakana Syndicate are involved in preparation of scenery, costumes, programmes or performance. Production week is Week 7. 

# National Maori Language Week begins  Monday the 23rd of July.

# The highly successful library “Winter Warmers” programme concludes in week 2.

# Parent Interviews are held in Week 3.

# Aerobics training begins for the Interschool Competition in Week 6.

# Kapa haka students are practicing for their Festival at the end of term 3.

# Reduce, reuse, recycle unit; specialist teacher visits in Week 8.

# Swim to Survive course begins, running for 10 afternoons in weeks 9, 10 and 11, held at the town swimming pool.  

In addition to this our normal learning programme continues with major emphasis on improving spelling, times tables and maths, reading and written language. The major topic studies are based around the Treasure Island Production and the Olympics.

There is homework, due on each Friday. I cannot emphasis enough how critical it is that parents and caregivers support their students in their learning. Make sure your children have a quiet time set aside for homework and that they read every day. Many pupils need new exercise books. The WBS is available at the school office for $1:50.

To promote pride in our school parents and caregivers are asked to make sure pupils wear the correct uniform. A black thermal underneath the school t-shirt is a good way to keep warm during winter. 

I look forward to seeing you at Parent Interviews. If you are unable to attend you can ring and make an alternative time with Suzie. 

Kind Regards

Lee Gibbs

Rugby Training

Mr Stone went to rugby practice and sent us these pictures of practice. A big thank you to our coaches who give their time to our students....good luck with the big game on Thursday.

Hi. Let me tell you about snakes. A snake slithered by my leg and I froze.
"Oh no! There is a snake."

I was scared. My legs were shaking badly. The snake was hisssssssing loudly. My Mum was scared like a monkey!
By Leniqua

Today we wrote using a picture as a prompt and I was really pleased with the strong visual images created.

My heart sank as I saw my beloved home ablaze. I stood for a while as the fire leapt violently to other houses. Flames ran furiously from the window and quietly, lightly, the smoke crept into the air.

It was pitch black. My house was crackling and the fire was the only light I could see.

It was terrible.

Josh

Xia wrote-

My heart sank as I saw my beloved home ablaze. I dropped to my knees. The fire blazed from each wall. It hissed and danced like it wanted me to die.

I tried to look for a way out but it was so scorching.

The walls screamed. 

Well done room 5.

Sometimes to generate wonderful writing we all do an activity first. This day we did bubbles. Zane writes...     I wish I was a bubble.
                 I would glimmer like a rainbow
                 as I meet up with my floating friends.
                 But the next minute                   POP!!!
                                         
                 That's the end of me, lucky I'm not a bubble.


I wish I was a bubble.
Floating up     UP          UP!!
'til I reach the sun.
Shimmering.
Light as a feather.
Sparkling like a rainbow.

Flying. FLYING.FLYING...      POP!!!


by Stacey

Each week one reading group is able to complete a chemisty activity. Most of these are cooking, thanks Mrs Setford, but this group tackled slime making.

Our class, along with Rooms 1 and 7 were lucky enough to participate in the Library programme "Winter Warmers." As well as reading great books Nikki came to look at our reviews and award prizes. It has been terrific!

Our wonderful students are practicing for the choir festival on May 10. We will perform at the Town Hall with Dannevirke Schools.