My imaginary creature - by Saluselo

I was chosen to represent Room 10 at Ruapotaka's Poetry Recital last Friday.  After reading the nonsense poem, Scroobious Pip, by Edward Lear, I created my own imaginary creature and here is my poem about him.

The Ning Nang Nong - by Leanah

I was chosen to represent Room 10 at Ruapotaka's Poetry Recital on Friday. After reading some nonsense poems by Edward Lear and Spike Milligan, I decided to learn The Ning Nang Nong by Spike Milligan for the poetry recital. It is a bit of a tongue-twister!

Poetry recital

Congratulations to Room 10's poetry recitalists at the whole school poetry recital yesterday.

Kuini and Katrina worked together to write a poem about bullying not long after we had our session on learning to play chess. They both recited the poem in front of the class and decided to do a combined presentation for the whole school poetry recital.

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.

Sustained Silent Drawing 2016!

How silent and sustained the sketching when learners can choose their own drawing lessons from Youtube! Room 10 students are loving sketching various animals in different styles this week.  I think there is even more focus than at SSR time!

Working together to face our challenges

We are back at Ruapotaka School but learning in the library instead of Room 10 at the moment. To help us think about working together as we face our latest challenges, we completed a teamwork challenge. Each team was given 25 straws, one strip of Blutak and five minutes to see who could build the tallest tower.



It wasn't really about the tallest tower, it was about taking turns to talk, listening to others, co-operating and collaborating as each team came up with a plan. It was wonderful to see three-quarters of the teams face this challenge successfully!

How will reading change your life?

Henry entertained us at our Duffy role model assembly at Tamaki Primary School this afternoon with his hilarious stories about reading at the library when he was a kid. The first book that he can remember reading at the library was Where the wild things are and by the time he was a teenager he was reading Shakespeare - which led him to drama school.  Henry says that reading changed his life!

Robati was excited to receive a Goosebumps book from Henry. It'll be hard for Robati to put that down until he's finished!

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 warm welcome at Tamaki Primary School!

School and learning were a little different today ...  We are learning in the library at Tamaki Primary School with Room 9 for the rest of this week while our rooms at Ruapotaka are cleaned.  It was pretty cool running around the bike track for fitness too.  Thank you, Tamaki Primary School, for such a warm welcome and sharing your space with us.

Just like Steven Adams!

Last week Coach Marco from Kiwisport came to Ruapotaka to begin teaching us how to play basketball like Steven Adams!  We had loads of fun dribbling the ball with our finger tips and practising our triple threat stance.  What will we learn next?