Mālō e lelei!

As  manuhiri at Tamaki Primary School, it was a privilege to watch a special assembly this morning to celebrate Tongan Language Week.  Beautiful costumes, beautiful speeches and beautiful singing and dancing! Thank you for letting us share this wonderful event with you.

A challenging assembly!

Room 10 learners were proud to share their latest Cybersmart learning at our senior syndicate assembly yesterday. With little practice and without scripts, everyone did an amazing job improvising as they introduced their screencasts and videos ... and performed The Running Man Challenge! Will Room 9 respond to the challenge in two weeks' time?

Food for thought

On Thursday, we were privileged to hear Fay's real life experience about how the food and exercise choices we make affect our everyday lives.  She shared her challenging journey of change from a teenager who struggled at sport because it was too hard to move around to an athlete who finished 6th at her college cross-country in her final year at school.  Thank you for sharing your inspirational and moving story with us, Fay.

Sharing at our ANZAC Assembly

A selection of student and well-known ANZAC poems shared at our special ANZAC assembly held at the end of Term 1.

Remembering at Ruapotaka

As ANZAC Day falls during the school holidays, Ruapotaka held a special assembly on Friday to remember all the soldiers and nurses who travelled to foreign lands to serve New Zealand during World War I. We remembered by wearing our poppies and by listening to students read poems. Prudence read her ANZAC poem on behalf of Room 10.

3, 2, 1 ... Welcome to our Duffy Role Model!

We welcomed a Duffy role model to a special assembly yesterday afternoon. Ravinder works as a researcher at Maori TV, a sports writer and has presented a boxing event on Sky TV. She is also a netball coach and a mum. It was inspiring when she told us about all the reading and learning she loves to do as part of her work.  As she presented some learners with Duffy books, she mentioned that she still has all the Duffy books she was given at school!  Ka mau te wehi!

Buzzers at the ready!

Room 10 were excited to host Senior Syndicate Assembly on Monday 21st March 2016. Everyone had a part to play or a job to do! Katrina and Saluselo organised a Spelling Bee for contestants from Rooms 9, 10, 11 and 12.



Congratulations to Room 12, the winners of the 2016 Spelling Bee!

Music used under Ruapotaka School's OneMusic copyright licence.

I'm in a rotten mood!

Kuini was feeling in a much better mood after she had recited her poem, I'm in a rotten mood!, by Jack Prelutsky. Kuini was selected as one of the students in Room 10 to perform her poem at our whole school poetry assembly yesterday. Having practised and practised, she was able to remember all of the words with confidence, although the trickiest word ended up being the name of the poet - Prelutsky (say "Prayer-loot-ski"). Well done, Kuini!

Finding more fun down the back of the chair!

For the first time Ruapotaka School held a poetry recital yesterday.  Three students from each class each shared a poem with the whole school and parents. Saluselo and Zion so enjoyed reading Margaret Mahy's "Down the back of the chair" that they both learnt it off-by-heart. What effort and commitment!  It was a pleasure to watch their shared recital of this amusing poem.

Down the back of the chair!

This afternoon Room 10 were excited to host senior syndicate assembly to share what we learnt and created during our Book Week.  Did you know that the New Zealand author, Margaret Mahy, had over 200 books published for children and young adults?  As well as sharing this and other interesting facts in a quiz, we read her hilarious poem, Down The Back Of The Chair.  Our artwork will be displayed in the library once we have pulled out everything that hides down the back of the chair!

Homai Te Pakipaki

Yesterday we were really excited when Tyrone Toka, a Year 10 student at Tamaki College, visited to share his amazing singing and ukelele skills at our school assembly. Tyrone has appeared on Homai Te Pakipaki and will be performing again in a semi-final. He has immense talent and big dreams. Tune in to Maori TV to support our local talent at 8:30pm this Friday evening. Kau ma te wehi!

Sailor the Puffer Fish

Asthma is a problem for a lot of people in New Zealand.  Last week Chris and Sailor the Puffer Fish visited to teach us all they know about asthma.  Some of us already know a fair bit, but now we all know why it can be difficult to breathe with asthma; how to use a puffer properly to help treat asthma; and how we can help and what to do if someone has an asthma attack. Saluselo did a great job helping Chris with the show too.

A flash of light

Some of Room 10 put on a fantastic performance singing at Room 12's syndicate assembly this afternoon.   Although the road was long, they weren't afraid!  They sang along and were placed second in Room 12's talent quest.  Ka pai!

Watch us! .... at our syndicate assembly

Yesterday we hosted senior syndicate assembly.  We gained confidence and overcame some challenges as we prepared and practised for our assembly.  We laughed a lot too!

Many thanks to our special guests who performed such stylish moves.

Stop, look and listen!

Ronald McDonald visited Ruapotaka this morning to share his messages about keeping safe around roads.  We were reminded about crossing the road safely at a crossing, taking care crossing "sneaky" driveways and being safe in the car by going "click, click, click".  We all have certificates to show that we learnt these important safety messages.

Fit to dance and read ...

We have been busy having fun as we prepare to host our syndicate assembly.  Our Nae Nae crew shared why we like dance to practise speaking in front of a camera.

As two special visitors from Tamaki College came to Ruapotaka this afternoon, we will now host our syndicate assembly in two weeks' time. Our visitors told us how much they love reading and how much reading they need to do at college.  This means that they will be ready to go to university next year! Duffy will be very proud.

Sharing our achievements

Talk about trash!

Matt and Andy visited Ruapotaka yesterday afternoon.  They shared their ideas about how we can make less food waste to help look after our yummy land. They made us laugh as they sang and danced about all that rubbish!

Performing our poems

Room 10 took a turn to host Syndicate Assembly this afternoon.  Ka pai to those who read their ANZAC poems.

SOLDIER

We are learning to write different kinds of poems.  Last week Saluselo created an acrostic SOLDIER poem which he read at our special ANZAC assembly last Friday.