We had a fantastic time at camp. The children learned heaps of interesting information about gold mining in Waihi, both past and present. We also enjoyed exploring the beach and Karangahake Gorge. A huge THANK YOU to all the camp parents who did a terrific job.

This photo slideshow made with Smilebox

We had a wonderful time at the Mount beach last week. We learned about how to be Sunsmart. We need to SLIP,SLOP,SLAP,WRAP, SLURP and SLIDE! After that we learned about rips and how to keep ourselves safe at the beach. We have to make sure we have an adult watching us all the time, know our limits, and not swim alone. We know how to raise our hand straight up (and not wave !) if we are in difficulty and also to swim between the flags.

After lots of learning we had a look around the surf club, played some beach games and then had a swim. It was a great day. Thanks to the Surf Lifesavers and the teachers and parents who took us.

Wow, we had an amazing time learning songs, actions and lines for our concert items. Have a look and see what you think of the middle school items representing New Zealand, Canada and Australia. Well done everyone!
Room 9, 10, 11 Concert Items 2011 on PhotoPeach

Well the year has begun and we have a great group of Number 1 Learners “up the hill” in Room 10.

Wow! Room 10 did an amazing job at Pet Day. We made some fantastic “creations”, and shared our lovely pets. As if that wasn’t enough we also had winners in the “larger animals” section. Well done everyone!!

We had a great time performing at school recently. Thanks to all our parents who found the clothes we needed and to those parents who helped us to gert ready on the day. Thank you also to Mrs Radford and Mrs McRoberts who taught us our dance and helped us to sing so well. We practised really hard, but we were still nervous on the day. Our teacher said we were fantastic!

Some children were involved in the Claymation elective. They made plasticine models over wire frames, which were then filmed one digital still shot at a time. The movie was edited in Windows Movie Maker. Mrs McRoberts and Mr Barthow showed us how to make Claymation movies. We had a lot of fun and learned a lot about stop-motion animation.

We have been learning to write different forms of poetry. Have you ever heard of a Bio Poem, a Triolet, 5Ws Poem, Haiku or Diamante? We have now and are really enjoying publishing and sharing them. Here are a few examples of a Seasonal Haiku. It is a 3 lined, unrhymed Japanese poem with lines of five, seven and five syllables, respectively. Poems of this nature are usually light and delicate in feeling and are often written about nature.

Eden writes…
beautiful blossoms
blooming quickly in springtime
so glamourously

Jack writes….
snow and rain dancing
winter rains rain heavily
snow caps rolling loud

Stella writes…
spring time is pretty
covered with coloured flowers
pretty pretty spring

Nicola writes…
winter snow falling
down from above bit by bit
covering the trees

Room 10 is having a great term. Mrs Pahl is loving being the teacher while Mrs McRoberts is away. We have studied about the Anzacs. Did you know that Mrs Pahl’s grandfather fought at Gallopoli? He was very badly gased but he survived and lived til he was 101 years old!!!! We have been learning about Road Safety and being a responsible passenger when travelling in cars and on buses. We loved making Choc Chip cookies for our mums for Mothers Day. This week we are practising for Choir and looking forward to using the new laptops in the Computer Suite.

On Wednesday 3rd March we went to Mount Maunganui Surf Club. The lifesavers there taught us about the ten Surf Safety rules and also how to be “Sun Smart”.
Have a look at what we learned!
6 sunsmart rules
The 10 Surf Safety Rules