Week 6 - everything just clicks!

In this post you will read about us sharing our learning, improving an elephants smile, art, cricket and UV wristbands. Another full week of learning and what makes us smile in Room 17!

Shine and Share

Hi! My name is Emily, and I will be telling you about Te Manawa’s Shine and Share.

Yesterday on Thursday the 12th of March, all of the Te Manawa classes had a Shine and Share afternoon where they had to show what they have been learning about during their conflict inquiry and specifically World War One.

Classes all over Te Manawa had to split into groups and research their questions that they were wondering about. For example Who started WWI and who involved NZ? Then they had to work as a team and research together all the while thinking about how good the sources were that they were getting their information from. When they did all the research they wrote the answers in their own words and decided on a way to make a presentation to other Te Manawa students. I hope you liked it Te Manawa!

By Emily

Do elephants get toothache?

Hello my name is Cassidy I am here to tell you about when we made Elephant toothpaste as part of our Fun Friday reading activity. The ingredients were water, food colouring, dishwashing liquid, yeast and warm water plus the amazing and flammable hydrogen peroxide. Make sure you are wearing gloves. The first step is to pour the hydrogen peroxide into the drink bottle. Step two is to add the food colouring into the bottle. Then you separately add to a small cup the yeast and the warm water. Tip the cup of dissolved yeast and warm water in the water bottle and it will eventually have chemical reaction and fizz up. We think it might have been faster if the water had been warmer. In our ‘connected’ science journal we read about making a powerful toothpaste for elephant’s to use at the zoo, so we made some. It WAS a powerful cleaner but we didn’t try it out on any elephants! Here are some photos.

By Cassidy

Arty Smarty

Hey guys,

I’m Adi (Maedana has also helped write this) and I am going to be one of your blogging stars for this post. Did you know that every Wednesday morning we go to Whaea Dagma’s class to learn about art and to do some art? We had to copy an

image onto a Landscape piece of black paper - we also had to talk about hot and cold colours. Black and white were in the middle. When we used the colours to draw the picture we had to look at it from a Bug’s eye view and we had a little bit of help from Cortez’s Mum, Pops (Whaea Emma’s Dad) and Odette (Whaea Emma’s 3 year old daughter) this week.

Thanks -  Adi & Maedana

Our First Cricket Training

On Thursday, in the morning I felt like we were just going to be doing the normal routine. But during Te Manawa Assembly I saw a coach with cricket equipment heading up to the field. I said in my head ‘OK’! We had to get our hats, and that’s when I asked Sione ‘Are we doing cricket?’  and Sione said ‘yeah’. Yay, that is AWESOME. We headed up to the field and said Hi to the coach. After that we played a game called bowling soccer. It was girls vs boys. We practised how to hold the bat after our coach demonstrated it. We had a go at hitting the ball - I thought it was hard, but I tried my best and then I hit it and scored!

by Kevin  

! UV wristbands !

Hi my name is Levi. I am going to tell you about our brand new…

UV wristbands! On the first day of week six at Te Manawa Assembly Whaea Emma announced that her Dad had donated some UV changing wristbands. The wristbands change colour from white to dark purple depanding on how much UV light there is coming from the sun, and of course how much protection you need to safe from the damaging sun.  Every lunchtime teachers will be handing out 10 UV wristbands to students who earned it by being sun safe like by wearing their school hats and playing actively and without conflict. So every lunch time teachers will come around and give out the wristbands. Good luck!

by Levi     

WW1 inspired Moment in Time Writing

Doosh doosh boom boom BLAST!

As I get out of the ship I hear swoosh swoosh swoosh and as I look up it looks like guy fawkes - a celebration but really I’m in this war. Bullets fly past me trying to strike me. My friends lay not getting up in pain. It has already started. I feel angry this is happening. Inside I’m afraid, terrified and in shock. I might just fall on the muddy sloppy ground and say goodbye.

By Nia

Peuw peuw, fear strikes deep. I am frightened. As I hop on our boats, the turks run after us. I am scared of planes and submarines full of Turks over  and under us. I then see more than 2,000 NZ soldiers dead and wounded in the boats around me. Please just let us leave, sorry we ever came. I make it out safely and happy to begin the journey home.

By Opeti

I see bullets whizzing past my face. I see my mates dead or alive - I'm not sure. I can see a submarine in the distance. Hopefully when I come back the war is over for good.

By Cassidy

Principal's award

Term One Week 6

Nia Fepuleai

For helping others to prepare for 'Shine and Share' so that we could ALL be successful and not expecting anything in return.

  

Week 5 and we are starting to thrive!

In this post you will read about team building and the first post by a new student in Room 17.

Learning to work as part of a team has been loads of fun!

My name is Cassidy and I have the job of telling you all about the start to our inquiry groups.

Leaders were chosen because of their skills of working hard, being a good role model and their honesty.

Some team names that we came up with were 17th battalion and 5th battalion, Dawn and The Soldiers.

My favourite team building activity was crab soccer it helps you use teamwork and figure out how to make the right decision.

We learned that

1. working together doesn’t necessarily mean everyone doing the same thing. We all have to contribute different things to make it run smoothly.
2. We are one - don’t blame OR congratulate one person for a win or a loss - it was the whole team.
3. Someone has to lead. We need to listen and carry out the instructions of the leader knowing that at some time we will all have a turn at being the leader.
4. Sometimes it is really hard but persistence pays off.

Here are some photos of us using teamwork and having fun. 

By the amazing Cassidy

My first blog post by Alio

My name is Alio and I am in Room 17 my teacher is Whaea Emma. I am a girl and I came from Tonga.  I like the softball training. I have a lot of friends in Room 17. My Mum is Tongan - she makes the best pork buns and otai. Yum yum!

Principal's award

Term One Week 5

Nesi Moala

For her fantastic GRUFFALO descriptive writing including words like gullible, disgusting and sarcastic.

Week 4 - what's the score?

In this blog you will read about the softball tournament, a lock down drill and Art with Whaea Dagmar.

Week 4 - What's the score?

Year 5 & 6 Softball Tournament
My name is Chiko and I was chosen to represent Sylvia Park School and Room 17 at the Softball tournament. It was fun because all of us were good team mates and good sportsmen, even though some of the pitches made us frustrated. Moe was cheering us on and being a good role model and when he turned on his music everyone was singing. In each game I got 1 or 2 home runs and on my last home run I hit the home base and I bowled the backstop over and he went rolling.
By Chiko Pitman Edwards

A Day at the Year 5 & 6 Softball Tamaki cluster Tournament.
On Wednesday the 25th of February some of the year 5 & 6's went to Room 22 to get their uniform on.   It looked like it was pink at the top and maroon at the bottom. We popped the softball gear in Whaea Dagmar's car, we tried to fit it many ways until we got it all in. The year 6s went in a taxi van and the year 5s went with Mr C and Moe. When we got there we saw all of the school's tents set up so we set up ours - it was hot already. After about ten minutes we got ready for our first game. We played really well. We swung the bat as hard as we could until we got to the end it was a draw and the score was 5 to 5. I thought we had won until Mr C told us the score. That was a pretty good score for our first game.
By Maedana Langi

A Day at Dunkirk playing Softball

The tournament was at Dunkirk Park & we set up the tent, then we went straight towards our first game.

We were ready to start the tournament as the best school in the whole entire world Sylvia Park School vs the school called Saint Patricks.

First up from Sylvia Park School to hit the ball miles away was Malachai, when the pitcher pitches the ball BANG! It was a home run.

The year 6’s came 3rd and lost two games but won three. The year 5’s came second - awesome stuff. At one point the year 6s were watching the year 5s playing their game, all of a sudden I saw Cassidy make a homerun - it was spectacular!

Everybody was cheering on everybody at the tournament.

After we all finished our last game we all took our bags and waited up on the hill some of us helped pack up the gear.

Now that’s my story for today guys.

By Richie Robinson

Week 4 - on the floor.

A Lock Down Drill

We had a lock down emergency drill at school on Thursday morning. Some of us felt inspired and wrote about the experience.

It was a lovely morning but as soon as the bell went…

“ring”...”ring”...”ring”... we all started to run around. Whaea Emma said “it’s just a drill” but I wasn't sure as I fell to the floor. PANICKING! I went “BANG!!” on the floor as hard as a rock while trying to crawl to the door.

By Levi Maiava

When it was my turn to talk about softball - it happened! Suddenly the bell went off and on over and over. A Lock Down! I saw a shadow reach and open the door. It was Whaea Barb - she said the drill was over.

By Cassidy McMaster

Suddenly the bell rang it went on and off. Everybody got down - we were so cramped. Finally the bell stopped ringing we lay there afraid, scared.

Our teacher Whaea  Emma did the roll Kevin, J.T and so forth, everyone was safe.

A shadow peered through the window and my heart beat faster. It only slowed when I realized that I recognized her towering face.

By Nia Fepuleai

As soon as that bell rang I became so paranoid we all ran in fear to the middle of the room,and lay on our tummies. Whaea Emma started a roll call to see if we were safe. Suddenly a terrifying shadow appeared through our windows, glad we knew who it was. Glad we were safe and now prepared for anything.

By Nesi Moala

Week 4 - watch us draw!

Hi my name is Opeti and I get to tell you about art with Whaea Dagmar.

On Wednesday 25th  February, we did art with Whaea Dagmar. We had a flower each (A sketch). We looked at it as a birds eye view (stood up on stools) and our flowers looked kind of smaller. We then sketched the flower lightly as a bugs eye view. After that we were given another sheet and we had to swap flowers with our friend next to us. With our other sheet we had to sketch our friends flower and we had to sketch what it looks like, not how we think it looks. It was easiar to sketch the flower the second time than the first because we became a little more used to sketching.

By ‘Opeti Vaihola

Principal's award

Term One Week Four

Chiko Pitman Edwards

For representing us in style at an interschool softball tournament, writing about it for the blog and great confident contributions to inquiry discussions.

Chiko also received the Senior Sports Award this week for his sportsmanship at softball.

Week 3 in Gallipoli

 In this post you will see;

Making Hard Tack, An Afternoon at Gallipoli and An assembly to remember.

Making Hard Tack 

Hi, my name is Cortez and I'm going to tell you what the soldiers in World War One ate to survive. They ate Hard Tack. Hard Tack was basically a dry bread that looks a bit like biscuits and has six holes in each piece.
We in Room 17 at Sylvia Park School made our own hard tack. The soldiers in the war thought that it was boring, I guess because they had to eat it all the time. But when we ate our own hard tack we thought it was very interesting. Room 17 doesn't know why the soldiers didn't think much of it. I think they didn't enjoy it much because they might have had not much to look forward to. Well, that's all from me - but if you want you can talk to some of our Room 17 students about their experience.
Cortez
 P.S. Check out our special hard tack recipe.

HARD TACK RECIPE

Ingredients

Makes six biscuits.

1½ cups self-raising white flour

3 cups self-raising wholemeal flour

5 tablespoons sugar

3 tablespoons milk powder

pinch salt

1 cup water

Equipment

Large mixing bowl

Mixing spoon

Board and rolling pin

Baking tray

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Place dry ingredients in a large bowl and mix together.

Make a well in the centre and add the water. Mix together until an even dough is formed.

Turn the dough onto a floured board and knead for a few minutes. Shape the dough into a ball and let rest for half an hour.

Divide the dough into three and then roll each ball into thick 1cm sheets.

Cut the rolled sheet of dough into 9 cm squares, using the edge of a steel ruler, rather than a knife. This pressing action helps to join the top and bottom surfaces of the biscuit and will improve the "lift" in baking.

Now make a regular pattern of holes in each biscuit, five holes across by five holes down (25 holes in all). The ideal tool to use to make these holes is a cotton bud with the cotton wool cut off or the thick end of a bamboo skewer. Push it through to the bench, twist slightly and withdraw. (Some historians claim that each biscuit had 49 holes.)

Place on a slightly greased baking tray, being careful that the biscuits are not touching. Form a wall around the outside edge with scrap dough. This will stop the outside edges of the biscuits from burning.

Bake on the centre shelf for 30-40 minutes or until golden brown. Be careful not to burn them!

Leave the biscuits on a cooling rack until they harden. Or switch off the oven and return the biscuits to the oven until it becomes cool.

Gallipoli, 1915 Soldiers in the trenches

enjoying a light meal.

An Afternoon at Gallipoli

It was really fun when we were in the trenches as the 17th Company of Te Manawa Battalion. We all had to crawl to our trench inside the classroom that Whaea Emma had secretly set up at lunchtime. As we crawled we had to look for the place in the trench with a letter addressed to us. We could hear the sounds of war (Whaea Emma played them though a YouTube Clip https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baIFIKtQDxw ). We waited for our General (Whaea Emma) to give us the signal to open and read our letters from home back in New Zealand - because we were silent and pretending we were actually a WW1 ANZAC soldier at Gallipoli in April 1915.
We then all silently wrote back, while we wrote we were given hard tack to eat - even though it was a bit plain it was quite delicious for food from the past. We finished writing our letters and then watched an announcement from General Alexander Godley telling us that we are to retreat. That this part of the war is over.
You can watch it here

https://vimeo.com/112973136

By Gigi Young

An assembly to remember.

Room 17 had the pleasure of presenting what they have experienced so far in their inquiry to the whole school at assembly. We are particularly proud of Adi, Tevita, Richie and Cassidy who stood in front of the school and read their letters from the trenches to everyone. They captivated the audience with their ability to read with the emotions we think the soldiers would have felt. We are also proud of Sienna-Rose who was the narrator and Nia who wore full army uniform and led the Te Manawa Chant. What a week we have had!

Principal's Award

Term One Week Three

Sienna-Rose Tawera

For Stepping up and not being afraid to share her work with Peter Hughes the Secretary of Education when he visited our classroom. You are a true Ambassador of S.P.S.

A Room 17 student also received the Senior Sports Award this week.

Congratulations

Danina Pahulu

I also choose my STARS of the week on a Friday afternoon who get to write a blog post the following week. So you can look forward to blogging from Chiko, Opeti, Richie and Maedana in the coming week!

This is how we do Week 2

In this post;

Te Manawa - a special Whanau, Meet the teacher night and a start to softball!

Te Manawa - a special whanau!

Welcome to Week 2 in Room 17.
I am Sione and I get to tell you all about why Te Manawa is so special. We meet every morning to talk about important things like sports tournaments and remembering to wear our hats. Whaea Emma usually starts the Te Manawa Assembly but all the teachers are allowed to talk and some students get chosen to do different things - especially if they have done great learning. Te Manawa has all of the Year four, five and six students in it and we have 6 classrooms. They are Room 9, 12, 14, 15, 16 and 17.
We are learning about about World War One and so we have an Army Major called Major McGarry. She is actually the new teacher in Room 16 and she is just acting like an army person (but we pretend we don't know). She orders us to do our training like push ups and start jumps. I really like being part of Te Manawa because we are like a family.
Thanks for reading my post.
Sione

Meet the teacher night

Hi everybody! My name is Adi Mafi and I went to the Whanau Evening! Did you?
How about that invisible sausage sizzle? Whaea Emma is sticking to her story that Whaea Barb told her there would be one... but I'm not sure. I think she just wanted the most parents and kids to come to room 17.
So instead of sausages we got ice blocks, but that wasn't the highlight. The Whanau Evening was MAGNIFICENT! Parents were shown around by their sons or daughters and got to ask all sorts of questions about what happens everyday at school. Also us students got to have fun in and outside the classroom.
That is your update from me.
See you later
Adi Mafi

A start to softball

Hi my name is Tevita and I get to tell you all about our term one sport! This term we are starting with softball training. Our coaches names are Tash and Mel. We train by doing relays with the different skills that we've learned on the field by the diamond. My favourite one was when the coach got us to get down low and become MONKEDILES which is a low down swinging snapping shape with our hands to catch the ball. If we could catch he ball we had to move further apart. In one of the games my partner was Richie and we were the winners and had to verse Tash and Mel.   

Thanks for reading my post 

Tevita

The Week 2 Principal's Award!

Term One Week Two

Tevita Kaufusi

For listening to and carrying out all instructions, showing his passion for inquiry and writing his first blog with enthusiasm.

I also choose my STARS of the week on a Friday afternoon who get to write a blog post the following week. So you can look forward to blogging from Cortez, Kevin, and Gigi in the coming week!

Just the beginning!

Kia ora whanau!

Welcome to 2015 in

Room 17

in our year 4-6 whanau

Te Manawa

(the heart)

Our mantra for 2015 is

Learning from our past to lead the future

E puta ki Taiātea

Room 17 Day One 2015

Term One Inquiry

Keep Calm and Carry On

How can we deal with Conflict?

Inquiry this term will weave into the 100 year anniversary of World War One

We have started out by talking about CONFLICT and what this looks like in the playground, with our siblings, community groups and even countries.

Here is Major McGarry leading our morning drills!

Te Manawa Chant

I don’t know but I’ve been told

I don’t know but I’ve been told

Listen up, I’m gonna be bold

Listen up, I’m gonna be bold

Te Manawa teachers are really nice

Te Manawa teachers are really nice

but only if you take my advice

but only if you take my advice

Work hard

Work hard

Play hard

Play hard

Solve Conflict

Solve Conflict

that’s about it!

(all students stand to attention)

We have also had great fun creating and sharing role plays about conflict situations we have been in or could imagine being in (including a pretend conflict between Whaea Barb (Adi) and the principal of Bailey Road School (Levi) about which school is better).

Whaea Barb and the Principal of Bailey Road School
having a Conflict phone call.

Mum and Dad won't let Chiko go to the movies with his
friends because his homework is not finished.

A lamp is broken and Mum accuses the older brother while the younger  brother
sits back and says nothing (but it was him that did it).

Each week I have the honour of choosing a student to receive the Room 17 Principal's Award. Here is this weeks recipient.

Term One Week One

Cassidy McMaster

For stepping up, presenting and taking a leadership role in helping new students. What a fantastic start to 2015.

I also choose my STARS of the week on a Friday afternoon who get to write a blog post the following week. So you can look forward to blogging from Adi, Tevita and Sione in the coming week!

Have a safe and happy long weekend!