Prize-giving 2016 - a celebration of culture and achievements

What a wonderful celebration of our cultures, achievements and success at Ruapotaka's annual year-end prize-giving which was held at Tamaki College.



Congratulations to our Room 10 prize-winners:

  *  Duffy Award for Attitude of Excellence - Shakaia
  *  Years 4-6 Sporting Ability - Mary
  *  Academic Excellence Year 6 - Katrina
  *  Academic Excellence Year 5 - Riiana
  *  Most Improved Student Year 6 - Pupuke
  *  Most Improved Student Year 5 - Jessica

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

Goodbye, Kuini!

Many tears were shed today as Room 10 farewelled Kuini who is moving to another area of Auckland. Julianne, Mary and Tupouseini managed to sing a farewell through their tears. Kuini's kind and friendly nature, confident speaking and amazing athletic skills will be missed very much. We all wish you the best of luck at your new school next term, Kuini.

Over the moon!

Yesterday Ruapotaka held its annual skipping display for family and whānau. Mary, Kuini and Pupuke jumped and jumped and jumped when they represented Room 10 at the senior endurance event. Everyone was then able to show off their individual skills with short ropes, in groups using a long rope and, lastly, double-dutch. It was good to be able to relax and watch Room 9 display their skills and tricks while we caught our breath!

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:

Tāne me te whānau marama

The Gruffalo reading group enjoyed reading this play by Moira Wairama during Matariki. It tells the story of how there came to be light in our sky. We decided to record the play to add to our Listening Post resources and here we share our video version.



Thank you, Katrina and Tyron, for joining the group to take on the extra roles.

The Vector Trip - by Saluselo

Following Vector's visit to Ruapotaka earlier in Term 2, a group of students from Ruapotaka, including ten from Room 10, visited Vector Arena in the city on Tuesday. They were lucky enough to look behind the scenes at the events centre.  They even checked out the chill-out zone where the stars hang out. They also explored how Vector, the energy company, is investigating new technologies to charge electric cars.

Thank you, Saluselo, for creating this video at home to share some of the photos from your visit.

Weather wins 1-0

Although the sun was shining, the Year 5/6 soccer team were feeling a little sad this morning because the interschool tournament was cancelled for the second time due to the weather.  The weather forecast was spot on, though, as the wind and rain did arrive in the middle of the morning.

How cool is our haiku?

Duffy, our reading hero, is holding a competition for a new T-shirt design. This new design is going to include a haiku on the back of the T-shirt - so we have been reminding ourselves about the structure and pattern of a haiku.  This is an example that Kuini, Tupouseini and Mary created.

Mary's six-word holiday

We are learning to search Creative Commons to find images to support our learning. If we use an image that someone else has created, we have to show that we are allowed to use the image and where it has come from (attribute the image). It is quite tricky!

Mary remixed a Google drawing to share an event that she enjoyed in the holidays.

The Times They Are A-Changin'

What excitement! Mary, Kuini, Henry and Saluselo rolled out their new Chromebooks today while the rest of Room 10 used more traditional ways to record their learning.  Henry was amazed by the number of emails that had arrived in his inbox since December.  Kuini enjoyed browsing through our blog at her own pace, thinking about some of the things we experienced last year.

Duffy kids are reading round the world!

You can do it ...  Nothing to it ...

Duffy brought his friend Ruby to Ruapotaka yesterday to share his love for reading.  He took us back in time in his home-made Tardis time machine because he wanted to change what had happened in the past.  He thought Ruby should have the chance to go to school and learn to read.

Katrina's favourite part was when Duffy was supposed to go to Greece but he actually went to Japan in the time machine.  When he was in Japan he saw a ninja. The part where Tevita pretended to be a baby was Julianne's favourite bit. The baby turned out to be Duffy because he went back in time. Mary thought the characters were so creative. Saluselo enjoyed when the actors were falling down in slow-motion, even the nurse.

Of course, we were all reminded that our imaginations can take us to all sorts of places and on all sorts of adventures when we are reading.

Awesome athletes!

Our awesome athletes showed their speed over 75 metres, 100 metres and 400 metres on a very warm afternoon last Wednesday in front of family and whānau.  Certificates were presented to our winners and runners-up today.  We wish Jessie, Kuini, Saluselo and Elisha the best of luck at inter-schools athletics at Lloyd Elsmore this Wednesday.

Notice Anything Suspicious? by Mary

We are learning to create strong, unique passwords and make sure our Google account is secure.

I want to be a superstar like Maria Tutaia

Kia ora! My name is Mary. I am nine years old and my culture is Cook Island.  I go to Ruapotaka School and I am in Room 10.  I am a Year 5 student and my class teacher is Mrs Buchanan.

I am learning some Cybersmart stuff in Room 10, like creating some Google drawings. My favourite subjects are reading and maths. I like maths because we do other things like problem solving.  My goal is to learn my 8 and 9 times tables. I like reading because we get to read different stories. My favourite thing to do is sports.

I admire my family because they take care of me. When I grow up, I want to be a superstar like Maria Tutaia.

Just keep running!

Netball News

Just keep skipping ...