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.

I'm in a rotten mood!

Kuini was feeling in a much better mood after she had recited her poem, I'm in a rotten mood!, by Jack Prelutsky. Kuini was selected as one of the students in Room 10 to perform her poem at our whole school poetry assembly yesterday. Having practised and practised, she was able to remember all of the words with confidence, although the trickiest word ended up being the name of the poet - Prelutsky (say "Prayer-loot-ski"). Well done, Kuini!

Finding more fun down the back of the chair!

For the first time Ruapotaka School held a poetry recital yesterday.  Three students from each class each shared a poem with the whole school and parents. Saluselo and Zion so enjoyed reading Margaret Mahy's "Down the back of the chair" that they both learnt it off-by-heart. What effort and commitment!  It was a pleasure to watch their shared recital of this amusing poem.

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!

Lazy Boy!

This week we have watched some movies from the Manaiakalani Film Festival 2014 to find out what kinds of films other schools and classes have created.  We are also learning about the techniques that were used to create the movies.  We thought The Last Apple and Lazy Boy were hilarious.

After watching the movies, we wrote our ideas about what we had learnt.  Here is an example:

Stop, look and listen!

Ronald McDonald visited Ruapotaka this morning to share his messages about keeping safe around roads.  We were reminded about crossing the road safely at a crossing, taking care crossing "sneaky" driveways and being safe in the car by going "click, click, click".  We all have certificates to show that we learnt these important safety messages.

What is our spelling focus this week?

SOLDIER

We are learning to write different kinds of poems.  Last week Saluselo created an acrostic SOLDIER poem which he read at our special ANZAC assembly last Friday.

Heading to see Hokule'a

This morning we walked to Point England because the canoe was landing.  I was so excited when it started.  We had to sing He Honore, Nga Waka and E Oho.

I went to Point England Beach to greet the people that came from Hawai'i to the Pacific Islands to New Zealand. We waited and waited until we stood up. We heard the sound of the conch shell.  My best part was taking photos of the crew and the two waka.

When we sat down a conch shell started to play and then after that a man and the other people on the sand were talking in Maori.

We saw lots of schools like Tamaki, Glenbrae, Point England and some other schools.  I enjoyed high-fiving the waka crew and some of the Point England people as well.

This morning we went to a special ceremony at Point England beach.  There was a waka (Maori for boat) and there was another waka coming too.  All of our schools were Manaiakalani schools. Some of the other schools were different.  I also saw some of my old friends from Point England.

At Point England I liked seeing the waka but the thing I liked most was hearing the chant.

The old lady and the apples

Duffy kids will read around the world ...

Duffy visited and shared his library adventure today.  It was hilarious!  The whole school learnt how much Duffy loves being at the library because he can borrow free books that take him on imaginative adventures. Gonna read it, read about it ... 

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:

Today's free-choice writing from Jack Daniel

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!

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.   

My Rugby Game

An example of today's free-choice writing.

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