Super Hero Teachers

Today was our chance to dress up and show our students how easy it is to dress up as a super hero. We are doing a literacy unit based around super hero's and encouraging the kids to dress-up in Week 7. Can't wait!!!
Needless to say the kids have been looking at us sideways all day. Great fun.

Rubbish pick up at Dudley Park

This great bunch spent an hour cleaning up Dudley Park today. Awesome effort everyone.

Koru Games success

This week we have had 37 children competing in four different sporting codes at the Koru Games. I was very impressed with the way in which our children conducted themselves throughout the three days. Feedback from parents and teachers was all extremely positive and it was again an absolute pleasure to watch these young people give their best.

Sports we competed in were table-tennis, basketball, netball and football. Many of the competitors were focussed on their sporting achievements but found it a great social event as well, networking with other schools, and making new friends. Overall it was a great experience which was enjoyed by all.

All of our teams got good placings with netball and basketball both getting middle of their prospective fields and boys and junior girls table tennis competing well in a hard fought competition. Table tennis girls won the gold medal following on from their silver medal last year, awesome effort. The football team won a silver medal, in a competition with 32 teams this was also awesome. So proud of all our teams.

Special mention also to the younger girls  table tennis team, who took out the sportsmanship award for their sport (we have won this two years in a row). Well done.

GOLD Medal Table Tennis Team

SILVER Medal Football Team and Roger Kay their awesome coach.

Creative Makerspace

We are in the process of putting together a 'MakerSpace" and yes it is exactly what you think - a space for making things. In our space we need lots of things and stuff. We already have miscellaneous bits and bobs but we are now looking for anything really that kids can use to make 'anything' with.

Some children are currently working on dioramas and we would love some more shoe boxes. Others need felt and material for puppets, and another group need card etc to make board games. We also need a few tools for our new workbench - so if you have anything sitting around gathering dust that needs a new home, then let us know.

The list is endless, with one man's junk being another man's treasure.

                                        

Goal setting.

Working hard on writing our goals and next steps learning.

JUMP JAM

Our Year 8 Leaders are doing a fantastic job of running Jump Jam at F.F.W time and this week many classes joined in - with enthusiasm I might add. Great to see so many of the teacher's and teacher aides joining in, and the youngsters in the front row trying really hard to learn the moves.

International Teams in North Canterbury a First

Blacksticks beaten 6-2 by USA
Unfortunately our hockey girls couldn't pull off a win today but they have another chance tomorrow against a well drilled American team. Both girls who visited our school yesterday played well and Kirsten scored one of the two goals for NZ.

This is the first time ever that North Canterbury has hosted an international team in any sport apparently. Story in the Press today.

Black Sticks Visit

Kirsten Pearce and Kelsey Smith Visit.

In between trainings two of the black sticks visited us for a short time at school today. Both girls were delightful and happily answered all the children's questions. We wish them luck in their two games against USA this weekend at the new Rangiora hockey turf.

TAGUL

My new favourite classroom web tool.

Tagul allows you to create amazing pictures using words. Similar to wordle but it puts the words into creative little pictures. This word cloud was created by Lily

Our new learning hub name, Kōtare or the Kingfisher. A great tool, even managed to create a really cool card for my soon to be 80 year old Mum. The class have been creating word clouds about Rangiora and the many things this area has to offer.

Guess what Harry likes most about Rangiora???

Kōtare Learning Hub

Kōtare - the Kingfisher

It has taken a few weeks but we have finally come up with our new team name before moving into our new flexible learning space. This beautiful little blue bird is to be our symbol and team name for the next few years. You will see why we have chosen this little, vibrantly coloured, bird, when you first visit our very 'blue' new space. 

Everyone is getting a little excited now about the move as it seems to have taken so long to actually happen. Teachers are busily planning how the new space will work most effectively and what type of furniture we may need.

Camp is just around the corner for our team of 74 children and we just hope for a bit warmer weather that week.

As part of our writing program we have shared postcards with a class in the North Isalnd. We received our postcards from St Joseph's School in Pukekohe today and the kids had a great time putting together the puzzle these created. Need to do this type of activity more often. Our next correspondence will be letters to the children at the orphanage in Pokhara in Nepal - kids seem excited to be writing to Nepal again as many of them did this last year as well.

When we put the postcards together this was the message. Loved the colour the Pukekohe students  added to their work.

All very focussed on piecing the puzzle together.

Litter Patrol

After the big wind last night we thought there wouldn't be too much rubbish around. Sadly we were mistaken. With a choice of seven (yes 7) rubbish bins in this small but lovely park we still managed to find a few bags worth of rubbish, from empty glass bottles, cans, milkshake cups, coffee cups and general waste, we were a bit appalled and very disappointed about people not respecting there environment. Or as the kids said "our" environment.

Job well done S4 children and one that we will continue to do over the weeks.

Slack-lining

What a great way to improve your balance and motivate you to try something different. I am looking for places around the school to set this up. Harry and I went for a look around the playground but didn't find many suitable places. We thought maybe we could set it up at the park, using some of the trees close to the AstroTurf. Will have a go on Friday and then maybe continue to use on fine days over the winter.

Dan at home having a go. His cousin who travels to Nepal to do trekking showed the kids how to do this a few weeks ago and they are now hooked, going out most evenings to try and improve their skills.

Bec showing that it can be a great fun activity - she fell off straight after this, but is determined to master the skills before her cousin comes home so she can show her how much she has improved.

Taking Risks and Sailing

An interesting few days with the opportunity to attend two days of sailing with Wha Team classes. Great to see so many children trying something new for the first time. Some nervous groups who very quickly came to grips with the difficulties of sailing a small dinghy and their enthusiasm to just keep trying. A great time had by almost all.

It was interesting to note however a small group - predominately boys - who did not or would not participate. Was this because they had a fear of failure in front of their peers, or were they genuinely afraid of the water? Observation showed that while one or two may have be more afraid of the water others simply were more afraid to fail and therefore missed out on an amazing learning opportunity and a chance to have fun with their peers. Next question - how do we fix this and change their mindset about failure and success?