Merry Xmas and Happy New Year

I hope everyone has had a great xmas and you are all looking forward to 2015. Good luck to those of you beginning High School next year. I look forward to seeing everyone back and RBS next year in my new role. Have a great holiday and be safe.

Two Weeks to go.

A busy two weeks ahead. Tomorrow is supposed to be skate school, but weather not looking too great so probably unihoc in the hall instead.

Week Eight

Monday - Skate Skool

Tuesday - river challenge to Ashley River so hoping the weather improves.

Wednesday - technology (last time for the year 8 pupils). 

Friday - shared lunch and fun activities including making christmas cards with our buddy class J8.

Week Nine

Monday - Funday with a swim at Dudley pool followed by a shared lunch and hopefully some fun at the park - although again long range forecast not the best.

Wednesday - Year 8 big day out at Jellie Park 

Thursday - Year 8 Formal.

Friday - 

Week Ten

Monday - Final Assembly 1.30pm

Tuesday - Final Day 12.30 finish.

And to top it all off we are frantically packing up classrooms ready for the big move. Thankfully I have a classroom full of willing and able helpers who are only too keen to help.

Skate School

Today we had a go at Skate School. Unfortunately the weather was against us so we will try again next Monday. Children have the option to try both skateboarding and roller blading. Looking forward to next week.

Beach Art

This week's challenge was all about being creative with what can be found at the beach. Check out what some clever young people have created. Great effort!!!

This is an exciting piece simply called 'The Playground'.

A simple but lovely piece using shells and driftwood.

A merry, happy wee bunch of shells.

A creative and clever piece inspired by the Trojan Horse of Troy.

This piece represents life at sea.

Swings swinging in the sea breeze.

Make-Up Challenge 2014: Week Two

Each group of four had to create an underwater sea creature. WOW what an awesome effort. Along with their make-up, groups had to write and perform a jingle to 'sell' their creature to the 'movie-makers'. This was a great challenge, with some real talent showing through from these young people, in their artistic creations and their writing skills.

More Amazing Artwork

Everyone had a go at completing silhouette pictures which has created some real colour in our classroom. Check out Briar's very carefully painted picture with great detail.

S7's ChampionGoalkeeper

So proud of Bailey who was named MVP at the South Island Football Tournament and Goalie of the Tournament. We'll done young man.

Team Challenges Week One

At the start of the week we began setting up teams for our team challenge activities. Groups of four students worked together to complete various challenges, some better than others, but all agreed that it was great fun and many learnt some important skills about working together in a team.

Fishing has never been so much fun. The challenge was to catch three mouse-traps after making your fishing rod.
All concentration for this activity.

No they haven't seen a mouse. This challenge, called 'overcrowded island', required
the team to balance together on a small 'island' (square of paper).

Lots of fun and love the big smiles. But showed real team work.

'Blind tent pitching' one team member was sighted with all others blindfolded. Lots of laughs.

I know you are there somewhere!!!

Is this the right way up??

The great ballon challenge, using 20 balloons and sellotape, the race is on to
complete the tallest balloon tower.

Not sure that this will be self-supporting.

It will work if I stand here and hide behind the balloons.

TERM FOUR

Welcome to the last and often busiest term of the year. This term our focus is to:

• Build team skills by participating and contributing; relating to others to complete team challenges.
• Use digital technology to record and present information.
• Record, document and present information/learning using a variety of written, visual and oral language.

Students will be sharing their results and challenges on their own blogs, so look out for these.

This week we will be focusing on building teams and working together. We have some really fun activities to kick off the week.

On Thursday and Friday we will be having swimming lessons for the next four weeks. On Monday afternoons the year 8 pupils will be learning to dance with Mrs Hill so that they are ready for their Year 8 formal in Week Nine. While our year 8 students are learning the finer points of dancing the year 7 will be working on technology challenges and activities.

Some of those challenges will include
such things as making towers and bridges
from newspaper etc.

Remember to pack togs for Thursday and Friday.

Measurement S7 style.

Today we did something a little different and designed our own small apartment of 40 square metres. While this was challenging and fun, it was also a great way to learn about area and how to make the most of small places. Each apartment had to have a bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, dining area and a lounge.

Hmmm!! Maybe the bedroom should be bigger than the bathroom.

Lets measure that again.

I'm not sure boys, but this looks twice the size of everyone else's apartment.

All concentration. 

Attention to detail and very thoroughly though out.

I think the kitchen should go there.

Plenty of room!!!

Ski Day Collage

What a great day at Mt Hutt. An activity enjoyed by all with lots of challenges throughout the day.

Getting Started - Community Garden

"As the weather finally begins to warm up it is a good time to get your garden ready for spring. 
To make spring easier, begin preparing your garden beds now. Add compost and sheep pellets to help improve your soil structure, encourage worms, and add nutrients."

Next Wednesday we will attempt to get our plot of dirt ready for planting. A small but keen group are going to help out at lunchtime and hopefully we will soon see some progress in the garden. 

Watch this space as we put up pictures of the garden progress.

Ski Day 2014

Check out just some of the photos from our awesome day in the snow. The bus left school with 118 excited, sleepy and impatient young people ready to ski. It was a blustery day with winds getting up to 98km an hour later in the day. This didn't stop most from enjoying their time in the snow. Almost 70 children had never skied before so it was quite an experience for many.

Unfortunately one pupil and one teacher suffered from a broken arm each which definitely put a dampener on things, but this is one of the risks of the sport.

We arrived up the mountain about 9.35am and the first groups began their lessons at about 10.45am after taking over an hour to get everyone in their boots and skis fitted. A big thanks goes to the parents who were there to support the students. We have had some excellent feedback from both students and parents and hope to make this a two yearly event for future students.

At Mt Hutt

Lunch-time.

Ready for more action.

View from the bus.

Out over the Plains.

Excitement as snow spotted.

Inquiry Time in S7

All very quiet and focused on their tasks. Creating a poster about their favourite artist. This could be a musician, photographer, singer or a visual artist. Many children have chosen Banksy as an artist, while others are researching bands or singers. We have looked at the 1930's, 1960's and 1990's and now the class get to study their own era.

Many students enjoy listening to music while they are researching.
Nice to see the collaborative work going on in S7.

IPads and chrome books are popular research tools for students and
they are currently working on improving their referencing.
Thomas is looking at Graffiti Art.

Haydn has chosen Bob Marley as the person he wants to study and has found some interesting facts. 

Noah has studied Picasso, Michael is studying Ariana Grande and Missy is studying Banksy.

Isaiah is looking at a less well known group called Spiderbait,
although many of you will know the song 'Black Betty'
which was a chart topping
cover version of a 1930's song by a group called Lead Belly.

Bailey deep in thought.

Some of our earlier work in the term.

The 1930's was a popular era with the class and they really enjoyed the music of this time.

Traveling the World with Music

One of my proud Mum moments. Jessica is about to leave for China for 18 days where she will play with The National Band. Read the story in the latest Northern Outlook.

Jess plays in the NZ Navy Band full time and has travelled around the world to play at events including Gallipoli earlier this year.

Amazing Artwork