New furniture!

As you may have read in the newsletter sent home last night, we have new classroom furniture! The children are very excited about the new layout.

Come in and check it out! 

Science Experiment

Science Experiment 

The Year 6 team have been looking at forces that shape our Earth over the last few weeks. We have been learning about physical differences and impacts plate margins make. On Monday we experimented with Oreo cookies, yogurt and crackers to show the 3 different plate boundaries - Divergent, convergent and transform. We had a lot of fun with this experiment and yes, we ate the Oreo at the end!

Inquiry for Term 2

Our Inquiry for Term 2 is based around our Central Idea "Creativity is the way in which we discover and express ideas, feelings, nature, culture, beliefs and values".

This term the whole school concept is Creativity. The key understanding that we would expect the students to gain is that, ‘Original ideas have value’. We will be exploring this concept through music dance and drama with our context being “Forces that shape our earth”. This includes exploring plate tectonics and the creation of physical features in Aotearoa and the impact of recent earth movements in the South Island, in particular the 7.8 earthquake in Kaikoura. We will be linking this to the humanitarian responses from different communities and the creative problem solving that took place during and after this disaster.
We are very lucky to have had the opportunity to take part in some dance workshops with someone from the Royal Ballet Dance Academy. Some videos will be posted soon.
We have also been doing some science research to help us with the planning of our production.
In the photos below, we worked in groups of 4 or 5 to find out about Plate Tectonics and some famous world landmarks.

Water Wise

Water Wise

Our sailing adventure begins.

On Friday, Year 6 commenced their Waterwise programme. This involves learning how to sail an optimist, how to kayak and being safe on and around the water. 

The group kayaking learn how to grip the paddle correctly and the paddling motion. 

Here we are learning how to sit in the boat and follow a few instructions that will enable us to steer the boat and maximise the wind in our sails.

We're ready to go (not a lot of wind)

Wind? ... What wind?

Although there wasn't a lot of wind we managed to get moving and made it back safely to shore. 

Sea Week - Cup Cake Challenge

Sea week 2017

"Tiora Te Moana, Tiora te Tangata"

Cup cake competition 

During Sea Week, we decided to have a cup cake making competition to celebrate our connections with the ocean. 

We invited an expert in to school to show us the many ways in which we could decorate a cup cake using a variety of themes. Thank you Rachel. This inspired all of us to get into action.

Collaborative Art workshops

During Sea Week we attended an art workshop of our choice to create a piece of art that celebrated the diversity of life in the ocean and our connections with the ocean.

 A Parrot Fish - collaborative art using pastels.

 Sketching fish - using pencil

 Waves - using charcoal and chalk

 Reef Fish - collaborative art using pastels

Photographic Competition

Three year 6 students promoted the theme of Sea Week

"Tiora te Moana, Tiora te Tangata" 

 Through a photographic competition, Students chose a photograph and beneath it explained how this image reflected our connections with the ocean. 

Thank you everyone for your contributions to the competition!

Swimming Sports

On the 7th March all of Year 5 and 6 headed to the Glen Innis Pools for a great day of racing. The children did themselves proud with some amazing races and awesome results that followed.

Meet the Teacher night