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

Hockey Skills at RBS

Year 2-6 students have been learning hockey skills from Canterbury Hockey reps. Some budding black sticks in the making??

Crusaders in the school

Larger than life size Crusaders arrived on our red and black day to show their support for the finals against the Waratahs. GO the CRUSADERS. .

Using devices to read and work on comprehension skills

Kayla reading a piece of text then answering questions related to the text, using an iPad app.

Silent Reading in the Library

Welcome Back to Term 3

Well it's official, we are now half way through the year, time seems to be flying past to fast. This term we are looking at what an artist is and focusing on art, music, dance and events from the 1930s, 1960s and 1990s. Using some of the new technology we are lucky to now have at school we hope to create some informative posters and newspapers about these eras which we hope to share with you at the end of the term.

Sport is still happening over the next six weeks weather permitting although not looking good for this week. Ski trip in week 4 on the 11th of August so look out for notices in bags.

Lastly homework is now all online and needs to be in by Friday - if your child is unable to access internet at home then I am in my class form 8am in the morning, or in class at lunch-time for them to be able to complete their homework requirements.

I will be sharing this blog entry from Karen Boyes with my students. Really interesting life lessons.

Gratitude and Abundance - 5 life lessons

Matariki  Celebration

Thanks to the generosity of our parent community we had so much kai for our hangi. We also had many helpers on the day who dug holes, organised the food, made up platters for classrooms, distributed food (thanks students from S7 for all your help with this) and then parents who cleaned up afterwards. A real team effort which took several days and lots of organisation.

Most importantly the kids loved it and it provided some real learning opportunities throughout the school. Here are just a few of the photos that were taken throughout the day.

Pouring with rain, but fire lit and burning well at about 5.30am.
Time for breakfast.

Burning hot, rain eased and pit almost ready.

It's a dirty job but someone has to do it.

A lot of meat, lining baskets with cabbage leaves, then covered with vegetables.

Food in the hangi just before 9am now needs to cook for 4 hours.
Mark, one our hardworking parents, keeping warm by the fire made from logs scraped out of the pit.

The great unveiling, lots of interest in this part of the process. Good timing too, as this was during lunchtime.

The smell was amazing and the parents worked like trojans to plate up food as quickly as possible.

A great big thanks to a lot of people who helped make this event successful, absolutely so many people who gave their time it is hard to name them all individually but special shout out to Matua Mark for organising the event Henie, Uncle Eddie and Mark who organised the hangi pit etc. and all those people who gave up their time to prepare, cook, plate up or clean. Kia Ora.