Katrina and Shakaia sing at prize-giving

Katrina and Shakaia performed this waiata as the first item at our annual prize-giving and culture festival held at Tamaki College on Thursday.

The kapa haka group, Tongan, Samoan and Cook Island cultural groups also performed for family and whānau to acknowledge and celebrate our successes this year.

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

Working as a team - by Solomone

I loved the movie because Julianne, Tyron, Pupuke, Katrina and I made a cake! Mrs Buchanan was recording us. When we started we put the cake on the table and Pupuke put the icing on the sides to stick the Kit Kat on. After that we stuck the Kit Kat on and Katrina and I put the M&Ms on top. Then Julianne,Tyron and Pupuke helped us. When we were done we finished recording.  I felt great because we got to make a cake! When it was lunch time, Julianne cut the cake and we got 1 piece of cake and 1 Kit Kat each.

We worked well together to make our movie. I used Panzoid to make the introduction about teamwork. Katrina used button base to make the beat for the background.

And That's What We Did For Our Movie! It was fun!

The right attitude pays off!

Congratulations to Katrina and Saluselo who were chosen this week to become school prefects. Ka mau te wehi! They have shown responsibility and leadership throughout the year and thoroughly deserve this recognition.

Who did we notice in the local paper?

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

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.

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.

My Speech! - by Katrina

Let's talk!

Term 2 ended today with whole school speech finals at which Zion, Katrina and Saluselo represented Room 10. Zion loves learning about space and the planets and shared some amazing facts, while Saluselo told us all about the WWE wrestler, Joseph Ano'ai aka Roman Reigns. Congratulations to Katrina who came second in the Year 4-6 category with her information-packed speech about Steven Adams. Fantastic!

When it was time for first-language speeches, Julianne, Kuini and Tupouseini looked and sounded so proud to share some personal and family history with the audience.

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.

Thank you!

Thank you, Katrina and Shakaia, for creating a card on behalf of Room 10 to thank our special visitors for sharing their time and wisdom about healthy food choices with us last week.

An invitation to whānau

Parents, family and whānau, we would love to welcome you into Room 10 on Thursday afternoon as we prepare to bring our Chromebooks home.

An energetic afternoon!

Yesterday, Vector, the energy company, brought one of its school programmes, Be Sustainable with Energy, to Ruapotaka for Years 6, 7 and 8. We learnt about the different sources of energy that Vector uses to make electricity in New Zealand. Prudence, Saluselo, Zion, Katrina and Tyron created electricity using mechanical energy as they turned mini-turbines, while Pupuke and Azahar demonstrated how solar power can be used to turn the rotors on a model helicopter. What an energetic afternoon!

Poppies from different perspectives

Buzzers at the ready!

Room 10 were excited to host Senior Syndicate Assembly on Monday 21st March 2016. Everyone had a part to play or a job to do! Katrina and Saluselo organised a Spelling Bee for contestants from Rooms 9, 10, 11 and 12.



Congratulations to Room 12, the winners of the 2016 Spelling Bee!

Music used under Ruapotaka School's OneMusic copyright licence.

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!

Time for T-ball

This morning was a different kind of Monday morning. Some students from St Kents came to Ruapotaka to teach all of the Year 4, 5 and 6 students how to play some team games. There was lots of running and passing playing end ball (which is a little like capture the flag) and then students were able to show off their striking and catching skills playing T-ball.