Our Pow Toon For Te Reo Maori

An icosahedron has 20 faces 

Room 13 have been very busy bees making 3D shapes out of brightly coloured paper and attaching thread to put on the class Christmas tree. The official name of a 3D shape is polyhedron which means a shape with many faces - and the diamonds we've been creating have 8 faces - an octahedron is the correct name.

We've also been making 3D shapes out of play dough and toothpicks. We counted the edges, vertices and faces of each of the shapes we made and recorded our results in a chart in our maths book. Someone in our class figured out that the vertices are the number of play dough blobs in your shape and the edges are the number of toothpicks in your shape (but you still have to count out your shape's faces). It was really fun to make the shapes, especially an icosahedron (picture on left).

Here's what some students thought bout making the shapes:

"I liked making the play dough creations because you could make up your own shapes and be inventive" - Max

"Making the shapes was quite fun" - Sasha

Our Christmas tree isn't completely decorated but some of our diamonds are on the tree (as pictured). Everyone loves the bright colours on the tree and hope to make more decorations so our tree looks great. Do you have any ideas for decorations?

By Georgie

Pet Day with Room 13

Pet Day with Room 13

Dance, dance, dance!

Dean with the Junior Syndicate
teaching them the "DJ" dance move.

Who doesn't like to "Shake it off" after a big day of working? Room 13 do, and that's why we loved it when Dean and Ezra from "Stepping Out" dance troupe came to give the students a 40 minute hip-hop lesson. Dance isn't something we usually do at school so it was also a great opportunity to learn something new that we could carry on with later on as a career. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves and were proud of what they achieved.

We learnt a routine to the song "Treasure" by Bruno Mars (the music video is below) and if there were some moves that were difficult, we went over them a bit with Dean and Ezra before trying it to the music.

The boys hope to come back, have another 40 minute lesson with us and then do a show with us to showcase our hip hop skills. I think this is a great idea because not only will it be super fun; it also boosts confidence and self esteem for those who don't like being in front of a big audience.

"It was so enjoyable; I still remember all of the moves. It was great fun," said Zak of Room 13, who was resting from practising the moves on the court when I interviewed him. "This is the first time I've done proper dancing, and it was really cool to try something new." 

After the class, it was lunchtime and everyone was chattering excitedly to their friends about the workshop. Once we had eaten we practiced the dance moves, humming the music and making our moves precise and strong. What an exciting afternoon!

By Georgie 

  

Safety tips

The following tips are provided to help people have a safe an enjoyable Halloween.

·         Stay in areas that are lit with streetlights.
·         Although Halloween is supposed to be spooky, be careful not to frighten elderly people.
·         Don't enter any house, stay on the doorstep.
·         Only go to where you or your friends know the residents.
·         Always go trick or treating with an adult.
·         Be visible.
·         Stay with your friends. Don't split into smaller groups unless an adult goes with you.
·         Don't knock on doors where there is a sign saying 'No trick or treat here'.
·         Don't talk to strangers on the street.
·         Understand what a prank is. Don't' commit a crime thinking you will get away with it because it is Halloween.


Senior Constable Gerry Tonkin
School Community Officer
Motueka  Police
Phb 03 528 1220

A vote of thanks to our parents

From left - Brydie (Rm 13), Ms Mckenzie,
Amelia and Milly (both of Rm 12) jump off a wall
at Kaiteriteri beach.  

Hello everyone! You may have noticed we haven't published anything on the blog for a while - that's because we have been very busy preparing for camp. We went on camp with Room 12, meaning there were 36 students on camp - that required a lot of organising!

We went on camp last week - and it went on for 5 days and 4 nights (two spent at Whenua Iti Outdoors, one night at Appletree Bay on the Abel Tasman Coastal Track, and one night up Takaka Hill at the Caving Club Hut). During the week many of us faced our fears, achieved life long goals and made stronger relationships with the members of our group - including the  Whenua Iti Outdoors instructors.

We owe a big vote of thanks to the instructors but also to our parents for their amazing support. Without our parents, we wouldn't have been able to pay for our camp, and we wouldn't have had all the right gear either. They also made sure that we were happy, healthy and feeling ok about camp before we left.

The beautiful Appletree Bay, where each of the 3 camp
groups spent a night after a 2 hour hike.

This year's camp was different to other camps in that there were no parent helpers needed apart from Alfie's mother - a BIG thank you to Jane for staying on the whole time and supporting Alfie and the other students when they needed it. Some students were a little nervous about going away for 5 days without their parents. This was a big ask - but again, no one worried about this factor of the camp, so thank you parents for going over this with us
and telling us to chill - which everyone (especially Sean of Rm 13) managed to do.

Everyone in Room 12 and 13 enjoyed themselves immensely, and a lot of the students not only did things they never thought they could do, but actually liked it:

"My biggest challenge was sleeping under a fly at Appletree Bay, but in the end I actually found it really fun and it was my favourite part of camp" - Johanna, age 11

"Coasteering was pretty scary (especially jumping from rock to rock) but it was really fun as well" - Jade, age 11

The parents must've been supportive when reading the programme and realising that their child(ren) might struggle with some activities on it. So thanks again parents for being really supportive and encouraging when reading the programme with us. As you can see readers, the Room 12 and 13 students' parents were amazing and us kids wouldn't have gone on camp without them. So, for the third and final time:

From the very appreciative Year 7 students and Room 13 blog team

Putting FUN into fundraising

Room 13 students and parents have been very lucky to have Trish, Palepa and Deb organising fundraising events for the our class camp.  They organised school lunches on the last three Fridays of Term 3 and set up a cafe outside the polling booth on Election Day.  All of these events have raised a lot of money and as a result our camp fees will be lower.

Check out the ladies and their helpers having fun with fundraising!

 Long lines of hungry children!!

Happy customers told us that they tasted as delicious as they looked.