Celebrating Success! - by Bella

Our inquiry related to celebrating success. We came up with the idea of successful role models. There were some challenges while we created our movie about role models but we got over them and had some fun at the same time.

Who did we notice in the local paper?

Retrieved from The Eastern Courier (Out and About), Digital Edition, 5th October 2016, page 6

Training with the Silver Ferns

Such excitement for Mary, Kuini, Bella, Shakaia, Leanah and Katrina today ... they were driven to St Kents for some netball coaching ... with some Silver Ferns ...

Leana de Bruin, Cat Tuivaiti, Maria Tutaia and Grace Rasmussen shared some of their amazing skills with these lucky netball players from Ruapotaka.  It was especially exciting for Mary who wants to be a superstar like Maria Tutaia one day.

Bouncing the ball everywhere!

Eight students from Room 10 represented Ruapotaka at the interschool netball tournament last week. Mary did an outstanding job as captain of the Year 5 and 6 team, making sure that everyone worked together while enjoying the day.

Leanah shares her writing about the day:
On Wednesday the 17th August Kuini, Tristan, Fakaola, Pupuke, Shakaia, Saluselo, Bella, Katrina, Mary and I went in a Tamaki College van to inter school netball and Mr. Reid was driving. When we got there Mary and I had to practice shooting because we were the shooters. We had to play 6 games in total. Our first game was against Pt. England. We lost to them. After that game we had other games and we won 4 of them and had a tie on one of them.

Kuini's shares her ideas about the day in an acrostic poem:

Frosted curls and a golden star

Despite today being the shortest day of 2016, we finally replanted our Room 10 garden! We read the information labels, planned our plot and measured the distance between each plant. Lots of digging, lots of earth and lots of smiles as we watched our garden take shape. We will water and watch to see how our native grasses and other plants grow. The coprosma, Golden Star, reminds us of Matariki.

What is the area of our garden?

We are learning about area. We are learning to measure the area of a rectangle. We started by working with a buddy to find out how many squares of paper it took to cover our paper "garden".  We all agreed that it took 18 squares.

Keep your eye on the ball!

Last week our Year 4, 5 and 6 students travelled by bus to St Kentigern College in Pakuranga for a PE session with some senior students from St Kents. As well as running, throwing and catching team games in the gym, a few students, including Bella, enjoyed learning some tennis skills.  Such concentration!

A colourful start

To begin our new year in Room 10, we are thinking about ourselves, our learning and our goals.  We are each creating bright and inventive self-portraits in the style of the Spanish artist, Pablo Picasso, as we make a colourful start to 2016.  What do you notice about our pictures?

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!

Who has the longest perimeter?

To check what we know about measuring length, we each measured our perimeter.  We agreed that we would use centimetres as our unit of measurement. Most of us predicted that Bella would have the longest perimeter in Room 10 as she is quite tall.

We worked with two buddies so we could help each other.  First of all, while one of us made the biggest shape we could, our buddies drew the shape.  Next it was time to measure the four sides of the shape accurately.  We worked out the perimeter by adding the length of the four sides together.

After finding the longest perimeter in each group, we compared measurements to decide the longest perimeter in Room 10.  Yes, our prediction was correct: it was Bella.  She made a shape with a perimeter of 584 cm.

Whakarongo mai!

On the last day of Term 3 we enjoyed listening to the different speakers at the Year 4-6 speech finals. As well as Zion speaking about crocodiles, Tupouseini shared her knowledge of moa and Bella spoke in her first language, Tongan.  Next we were part of the audience listening to the Year 7 & 8 speech finals about rugby, friendship and goals for the future.