Ngā mihi o te Kirihimete

H is also for hard work!

Drum roll please ...

What an amazing achievement Athens and Meana!  You both earned an A grade for homework every week during the whole of 2014!

A proud moment for you both.

H is for homework!

Congratulations to those hard-working students who received

A-grade homework certificates for Term 4:

Timote Junior, Suliasi, Athens, Alicia, Meana, Sione and Jack Daniel (not pictured).

Our Cultural Festival

We have been practising and rehearsing and today is the day we showcase our cultural dances and celebrate our cultural heritage.

Prize-giving 2014

Congratulations to everyone on their achievements this year!   Year 5 Academic Excellence: Athens
Year 4-6 Principal's Trophy: Meana
Year 4-6 Most Helpful Student: Suliasi
Year 4-6 Sports Award (1): Sione
Room 10 Best All Round Student: Athens
Room 10 Most Improved Student: Jack Daniel
Room 10 Best Work Presentation: Athens

Timote Junior's story of tapa

This is what James has learnt about tapa

At the desk wash ...

We had some good clean fun

since our work has been done.

It is now our turn

to move on as we learn.

What an inspiring year, everyone!

Five things

Today was our final day in 2014 for Chromebook training
with Mrs Grant.  Here are some examples of what we're
able to create.

Learn, create, share!

We have been thinking, talking and writing about what we have been learning on the Chromebooks.  This is the writing that Isabell has shared:

Out of this world!

These are some of the places we would like to visit, or some of the sports stars we think we shall be ...

Everybody was surfing ...

To start building up our skills so we're ready to make a movie for next year's film festival, it was time to practise using the "freehand" lasso tool in Pixlr.  To make this task more challenging, we had to lasso our whole body and transport it to an image of a sporting stadium or event.

  Athens was surfing.  Aloha!

We hope to have some more sporting events to share next week.

Where in the world?

We learnt some new skills from Mrs Grant when it was our turn for Manaiakalani training on the Chromebooks this week.

First of all, we each had to think of a place we would like to visit one day.  Next, we searched for an image of our special place that was "labelled for reuse". That means we are allowed to copy or download that image from Google images.  After that, we took a "selfie" using the Chromebook's camera.  Then came the difficult bit ... using Pixlr, we had to lasso our head and shoulders from our selfie ... copy and paste them ... so we could be seen at our chosen destination ... no travel required!

Where do you think Maia would like to visit?

Don't drop the baton!

Samuel concentrates as he waits to take the baton during yesterday's relay running at fitness.  He also showed great speed and style winning the Year 6 Boys 75m and 100m events at our annual athletics afternoon on Wednesday.  Sione was the winner of the Year 5 Boys 75m.  Congratulations to you both and the best of luck when you run at next week's interschool athletics meeting.

Learn the words ... let them know it's Christmas time ...

A festival of film

Such excitement attending our first ever Manaiakalani Film Festival at Sylvia Park this morning!  Sitting in our luxurious "Extreme" seats, we watched films about the last apple, learning at school, a lonely dragon, battling penguins and GoPro sporting action.  Check out all of the movies at: https://sites.google.com/a/ptengland.school.nz/film-festival-2011/view-films/2014.

We wish you ... to share our culture ...

Thank you Matali, Gloria and Sylvia (and your backing singers) for sharing a Christmas song in your own languages.  



 Lyric version to follow ...

Sylvia's Special Clothes

Sylvia, whose family is originally from Tonga, brought in her traditional clothes to show Room 10.  She wears these to church and at other special occasions, such as a wedding. Sylvia usually wears a woven kiekie (belted skirt) over her kofu and tupenu.

What can you learn about Tongan culture and history from looking at the tapa designs on the back of Sylvia's kofu?

Our tapa treasures

Using what we know about patterns and colours of traditional tapa, we have created some of our own tapa artwork using crayon and dye.

Tapa

We have been learning about traditional methods of making tapa from the mulberry tree. Isabell brought a piece of traditional Tongan tapa so that we could look at the patterns created using different stencils and dyes.  She also showed us her woven kiekie that she wears on special occasions.

Today's free-choice writing from Jack Daniel

Our Pasifika Images

Check out our slideshow of Pixlr images about Pasifika culture.  We have learnt about the different drawing tools in Pixlr and how to save and share our images.

Digital Art

Today we were learning how to create some digital art using Pixlr on the Chromebooks.

Today we shared our big ideas about culture.

Term 4 - a new focus

After our two week holiday, some quiet thinking time while sketching our classroom globe during SSD to start off our term.  What will we be learning about this term?  Where in the world is our focus?  Well, our big inquiry question is "How have the people of the Pacific passed on their cultural traditions over time?

Tomorrow we will begin finding out what we already know and what else we would like to find out about.  Ka kite apopo!

Back from Bailey Road

It was a tough and muddy morning at Bailey Road for our cross-country runners last Wednesday.  Was there anyone who didn't fall over?

Smiles of success

The smiles say it all!  This term's A-grade homework certificates.

Congratulations Athens, Meana and Sione.

Talking the talk!

Some pictures sharing the achievements of all the speakers at yesterday's speech finals.  You can all be very proud of yourselves!

Valerie Adams by Meana

Meana, you did so much research about Valerie Adams that you could have written a book like Tony Baloney. You put a lot of effort into organising your information, so that you could shrink your speech to around 3 minutes. Everyone loved how you presented your ideas today.  Outstanding!

Azonto, Azonto

Skipping, stepping, slapping, clapping ... we danced our way very quickly around the Commonwealth showing our moves and skills to family and whanau visitors this afternoon. If you'd like to see the video, please come and watch in our classroom ... Now watch me do my Azonto, Azonto, Azonto ...

Waving the Commonwealth flags ...

Building on the skills we learnt yesterday, we each created the flag of a Commonwealth country in a Google drawing by inserting shapes and changing the colours.  Which countries are represented here?

Manaiakalani training

And the certificate goes to ...

Congratulations to our outstanding Room 10 runners as they were presented with their school cross-country certificates by Mr Reid today.  They will all be picking up the pace again at an inter-schools competition on Wednesday. Run, run ...

Cross-country 2014

Thank you, Nelly, for creating our audio.

Cross-country 2014

We watched the juniors run around the school field with so much energy ... and 

then it was our turn to show our speed as we ran around the road course.

Sione and Sebastian showed their amazing pace from start to finish.

Running shoulder to shoulder, Sione was the first Year 5 boy,

while Sebastian was the first Year 6 boy home.

Check out our video tomorrow ...

More photographs

Today some more students took photographs while they listened to each other read.  Mrs Buchanan has learnt how to share this from the class tablet straight to our blog!

Some tense moments...

We have been so busy learning in Room 10 this week that we forgot to take any photographs.  Mrs Grant has started teaching us how to use the chromebooks to support our learning.  We listened to some interesting speeches, enjoyed buddy reading with Room 5, and spent some time learning a few dance moves for our display.

Oh! What has our spelling focus been this week?

Reading about photographs

The blue reading group experimented taking photographs and filming with our tablet after they had discussed a School Journal article about Kiwi photographer, Adrian Heke. Adrian taught himself how to use his first camera and has since taken photographs in war zones, as well as capturing sporting action shots for some School Journal articles.  There must have been a lot of photographers at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow to capture all of that sporting action.   

A whale of a journey!

You have only been with us in Room 10 for a few months, Tia, but we are sad that you are leaving.  We will miss your enthusiasm during all our sporting activities.  How exciting for you to be returning to Australia!

Crouch, touch, set ...

The Year 5/6 under 50kg rugby team enjoyed running, passing, tackling and scoring a few tries at today's interschools rugby tournament.  Mr Reid was very proud of your efforts and your positive attitude.  We enjoyed hearing your stories about the games in class this afternoon.  Well done!

Getting ready for cross-country

Our fitness is improving as we practise for cross-country by running every day. 

Another farewell

Good luck, Tom, as you move to your new school.  We will miss you in Room 10.  Haere ra!

My Rugby Game

An example of today's free-choice writing.

Our class photographers

Such excitement!  Room 10 now has its own tablet.  Saane and Meana did a fabulous job testing out the tablet's camera while we finished off our writing.

Aye, aye, aye ... no, it's "ai", "ay", "a_e"

Writing about Kahurangi

After watching the Kahurangi Maori Dance Theatre, we chose how we wanted to write about this experience.  Here are some examples of our work.

Aloha!

Orana! Aloha! Talofa lava!  Kia orana!  Kia ora!

The Kahurangi Maori Dance Theatre visited Ruapotaka this afternoon.  The performers sang and danced their way from Tahiti to Aotearoa via Hawaii, Samoa and Rarotonga, sharing something of these cultures with us.  

Everything is awesome!

Yesterday we hosted senior syndicate assembly, sharing some of the things we have learnt and created that relate to the XX Commonwealth Games.  As well as sharing our medal artwork and mascot designs, we all performed a mime of some of the Commonwealth sports ... lawn bowls, boxing, rugby, badminton, swimming, cycling, running ...  We all looked like champions and everything was awesome!  Thank you, Isabell, for taking our photographs.

Haere rā!

Farewell, Paulo!  Room 10 wishes you the best of luck as you embark on your journey to a new school in Wellington.  Keep working hard.  We will miss you in Room 10.  Ka kite anō!

Mates Way!

Thank you, Mr Calver, for spending time talking with some Room 10 students about friendship and role models.  They really enjoyed their sessions with you and are proud of their certificates. 

The next Valerie Adams?

Yesterday we practised throwing the shot putt before the opening of the Room 9 and 10 team games next week.  How far did they go?

Fanboy without Chum chum

What should the medals look like?

 

Let our games begin ...

We have been selected for a team ... we are going to compete in our own Commonwealth Games.  Go Rooms 9 and 10!

Ka kite āpōpō

Look who Miss Ginders and I caught up with at the Matariki Light Trail at Maybury Reserve last night!

And, as Matariki and Māori Language Week come to an end, our new Te kupu o te wiki (Word of the Week) is heihei.

Ka kite āpōpō!

Bonnie Clyde

The games have begun!  Clyde is the games mascot and we enjoyed finding out his story at: http://www.glasgow2014.com/celebrate/mascot/clydes-story

You can keep track of who is winning the medals in Glasgow at: http://results.glasgow2014.com/medals.html

How many times has our National Anthem been sung so far?