Welcome back!

A new year of new goals, new learning and new challenges.  Welcome back!

Happy Holidays!

Ngā mihi o te Kirihimete! Kilisimasi fiefie! Manuia le Kerisimasi!

Our first year of creating our learning in a 1:1 digital environment has come to an end. We have all learnt lots of new things in 2015: creating a capital letter on a keyboard; our Kawa of Care; being a Smart Learner. Other highlights? We walked to Point England Beach to welcome the Hokule'a. We made a movie. It was the 100th anniversary of Gallipoli. We launched our personal blogs. We learnt to play badminton.

Now we are excited about the holidays, but we are also looking forward to continuing our Cybersmart learning journey in 2016 in Year 6.

The year ends ...

Celebrating success at prize-giving:

Congratulations to Zion (Year 5 Academic Excellence), Jessie (Most Improved Year 5 Student) and Katrina (Most Helpful Student Years 4-6).

Celebrating our heritage at our cultural festival:

A string of pearls, a lion with curls ...

Look what we found Down the back of the chair!  As part of Book Week, we created a class display which shares some of the treasures that appear in Margaret Mahy's rhyming story. Today it was hung in the library, so if you are looking for one of the twins or a diamond ring you will know where to find them.

Let's work together!

Yesterday Room 9 and Room 10 worked together to learn how to create a screencast using Snagit. Every Room 9 learner buddied up with a Room 10 learner to talk about and reflect on the favourite movies (so far) from Film Festival 2015. This talking and thinking was to be shared as a screencast. Miss Ginders and Mrs Buchanan were so proud of everyone learning together so successfully at this even though there were some challenges with the internet. When the final versions are ready, students will share these screencasts on individual blogs.   

Film Festival Fever!

What an awesome day was had by all at the 8th Manaiakalani Film Festival.  Such excitement to be watching Kotahitanga on the big screen at Sylvia Park at our first film festival.  We were proud to share what we had created with our friends, family and whānau. Thank you to Katrina and Saluselo for presenting our movie during the day and at the evening showcase with such confidence.

Kau ma te wehi!

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!

5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Blast Off!

Today we each launched our personal blog. Mission accomplished!  We were excited and proud to publish our first post, a blog profile. This writing lets us share a little about ourselves and our goals. It also makes us think about how much we have learnt about the Chromebook and being Cybersmart with Mrs Grant so far this year. 

Sadly, Mrs Krausse spent her final session with Mrs Grant in Room 10 today, although she will be able to check in with us digitally in future.  Our next step on our Cybersmart journey is learning how to make quality blog comments.  We look forward to sharing this learning here and in our personal blogs during Term 4.

K is for ...

Manaiakalani Film Festival 2015

Co-operation + Effort + Fun = Our class movie

   Filming ✔ Music ✔ Editing ✔ Release date: 11th November 2015

Golden moments

 Room 10 created a host of golden daffodils on Friday using paper of different colours and textures. Congratulations to Alexandra whose daffodil has been "planted" in a display in our school library.

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.

To share or not to share?

The Return of The Mad Messenger

The MAD Messenger visited Rooms 9 & 10 at Ruapotaka on Friday 31st July 2015.  Through music, art and drama, he came to share his wisdom about making wise choices in life and being the superhero that you can be.

Just keep skipping ...

Sharing our Term 2 Learning

Thank you, Danny

It was our final session of badminton with Danny from Kiwisport on Thursday:

MAD Messenger

How do we see ourselves?  How do we feel about ourselves?  A special visitor, the MAD Messenger, came to talk to Rooms 9 and 10 today to share some stories and personal experiences.  We read some quotes to inspire us.  We shared positive words to support each other.  We watched this talented artist create an incredible superhero drawing.

We are unique.  We are great.  We can be successful.

Skipping begins ...

Successful Landings (2)

By using our cybersmart skills, being patient and helping each other, we have all reached our destination! 

Digital Dig

Here we are at the beginning of our digital Manaiakalani journey.  We are learning our way around the Chromebook keyboard and Google drive.  It's a digital dig!