Week 9

What an amazing week 9 we have had! This is our last full week of the year and it has been filled with trips and fun activities.

On Monday, Room 4 Maths completed their business studies project by creating their products, selling them and identifying their profit. We wanted to donate this money and so we decided to give it to the school office, so that it could pay for some students to attend our school trips.

On Tuesday it was year 8 graduation, which was followed by a trip to the Panmure Lagoon on Wednesday. Below is a picture of Leonidas getting ready to go down the hydroslide!

On Thursday we headed to Pt England beach to do a clean up and we played on the playground before we went back to school. We needed to clean up so that it would be safe and ready for our school picnic on Friday.

We also were lucky enough to watch Room 9's plays in the hall and some of our students had the opportunity to perform a play in response.

Then we topped it all off with our school picnic. It was a beautiful full day at the beach on Friday - check out Hilary singing karaoke!

We can't believe it is almost the end of the year! We have had a fantastic 2019. We hope you have too!

Room 4 2019

As the year draws to a close, it is always good to reflect back on the times that we have had together as a class. For our final Pt England News video this year, Mrs Stone made a video to celebrate the good times that we have had. We hope you enjoy watching our highlights!

       

Who Dunnit? by Caleb and Hinerangi

In room 4, we have been investigating crime! Somebody was trying to steal something, and while they were leaving, they cut themselves while jumping through a window. We found some of their bloody clothing, and we started our work on the crime. Using CCTV footage, we narrowed it down to four people.  We still haven't found out what they stole, if anything, as there were so many priceless artefacts in the building. Then we started our detective work!

First off, we put some water on the bloody cloth. Then, we put that on the slide, and then put the slide under a microscope. On the first magnification (4x), we could see a pattern of red and a hairy substance. Then, when we tried the second (10x), we saw what we saw on the second scope, but bigger. On the third one (100x) we could see tiny blood cells. This confirmed that it was blood on the cloth.

Scientists at work

We then discovered that the blood was type A+. We also tested the victim, but found that their blood was O, so the blood definitely belonged to the criminal.

Putting anti RH into the blood to see if it will react

Next we took blood from our four suspects. We were looking to see which one of them was A+. To test the blood we put it in three punnets. In each punnet, we put three drops of anti-RH, anti-A and anti-B in three drops of the blood. If the blood reacted (agglutinated or got cloudy) we knew what it contained. For example, type A blood would react with anti-A.



Here are our results:

Suspect 1: AB + 
Suspect 2: B
Suspect 3: A+
Suspect 4: 0 -


Therefore, Suspect 3 is the robber!

Rainbows End!

On Wednesday 20th November, the year sevens were fortunate enough to visit Rainbows End. This is a trip that we hold every year, to celebrate the end of year seven, before we come back as the leaders of the school.

We spend the entire day there; we get into small groups with a parent helper and then get to explore the park with them. Here is a promo of the trip, we hope it will prepare next years year sevens for the amazing event!

Fair Trade by Marika

WALT: Analyse and interpret statistical data

This week we played a trade game. First we got into groups of four to six people . We each got 10 pieces of paper saying that they were either gold, coffee, lumber, electronics or oil. We each had different amounts of these resources. Mrs Stone wrote how valuable these items were on the board. The groups that had lots of oil were wealthy, but one group had lots of coffee which meant that they were less wealthy, because it was worth the least. In my group, we had trouble trading with people and in the end we decided not to trade at all. And we won! We won because we had lot of oil, lumber and gold, which we valuable items. We also had enough electronics and coffee for our country.

The group that were the poorest had the most had the least valuable items, but they were able to make some trades and in the ended the didn't lose. The group that lost made bad trade decisions, despite having good resources. They decided to trade all of their oil and electronics for coffee, which was a poor decision.

Overall I enjoyed the game because it used lots of thinking, literacy and statistics. Here is the work I did after we played!

                       

Love the Difference

This year, Room 4 have been discussing the topics such as acceptance and diversity, as part of School Kits 'Not Part of My World' kit.  We believe the world would be a better place if we could embrace the things that make us unique and accept them in others. So we decided to make this the theme of our movie.

Watch our movie below and then read the explanation

    

Whats really going on here? *spoilers*
 Jacob (the new boy) is worried about whether he will be accepted in his new school. There is something about him that makes him appear different, which we have represented through face paint. The face paint is just a symbol, it could represent culture or gender or any other quality that make us different from one another. The boy's classmates later paint their faces, which represents them embracing the things that make them unique and they celebrate the diversity in their classroom.
We got the idea from this short film as we thought it had a really lovely message and it was funny!

Museum Trip

Today Team 5 were fortunate enough to travel to the Auckland War Memorial Museum. This would not have been possible if it wasn't for support from our sponsor KPMG. Not only did they cover the cost of the trip and shout us a delicious morning tea, but over 30 of their staff volunteered to be our helpers on the trip itself!

Our fantastic volunteer Hamish sharing his expertise

We were able to split up into small groups of three or four and travel around the museum and winter gardens with our assigned volunteers. This was a fantastic opportunity for us and we found so many interesting artefacts to discuss throughout the day! See what some of our learners had to say about the day:

Makayla 

" I was in a group together with Amelia and Naomi, when we got to the museum we found out that we will be with a KPMG volunteer for the day. Me and my group were with a kind woman named Alex. She was very polite and fun to be around during the time we were with her.

She came all around the museum with us and spent a whole day with us. She took photos of us, looked after us and laughed with us. I along with my group were very happy to have her as our volunteer, we felt very comfortable with her and had many fun. My favorite part of the day was 'The Winter Garden'. I found it very beautiful and exotic, I liked all the different flowers and plants. Overall I had a really great day with my friends and Alex."

Josh

" My highlight of the trip was watching the video of the volcano (Rangitoto) erupt in Auckland. My team watched it in a 'house' and once the volcano exploded the house was shaking, it moved side to side fast as! There were heaps of equipment and instruction to survive natural disasters at the museum. "

Genomics Hui Day

Wow what an amazing day we have all had! Students from Glen Innes Primary and Glenbrae came to visit us this morning so we could share our Genomics learning with one another and compete for prizes!

We started with a mihi, karakia and waiata to set up the day, before we got split up into groups. There were students from each school in all of the groups.

After introducing ourselves it was time to start talking about Genomics! Every student presented one aspect of their learning to their group. We were really proud of our students as everyone had the courage to share.

Then finally we had a competition, similar to mathletics. We had to answer a science question and then run to the panel to check if it was correct before moving on to the next question. It was great seeing everyone working together to get the answers.

We would like to thank Jannie and Thierry for organising such a fantastic day!

K-Pop!

This term our main subjects for inquiry are the performing arts (Dance and Drama) as well as Genomics. In Room 4, Mrs Stone has been teaching students about K-pop. Check out these amazing slides by Inga, Jedida, Marie, Tha-zin and Zaeeda. The girls present a balanced view about the history of Kpop and its influences. Be sure to scroll to the last slide to watch their performance!

Cheek Cells by Tatia

Today in room 4 we got to look at cheek cells. We had to look at them through microscopes it was really cool looking at our own cells.During that time whenever my group (Me,Farah and Terapi) looked at the microscope we saw really weird designs like tiny circles and paint! When we looked at the highest setting we could see the cells.

What we needed:
1* Lolly pop stick
2*Slide
3*Sodium Chloride
4*Methylene Blue (stain)

What we needed to do:
1* Put a lolly pop stick inside our mouths and rub it on our cheeks but not too hard
2* Then we had to wipe the lolly pop stick on a slide.
3*Next we added a drop of sodium chloride on top of the slide
4*Finally we added a drop of methylene blue to stain the water and cells blue. This meant that our slides were ready to go under the microscopes

First it looked like this:


But under higher magnification (closer up) it looks like this:

How to be a good person

Are you contemplating whether or not you are a good person? Check out Bethan's essay below for some great advice for life!

Are you a good person? How can you tell? There’s got to be some things that make people good. So what are they. In this essay I will label key characteristics that create a good person.

Respect. Everyone likes someone who knows to be respectful to others. Respect is something everyone, no matter what gender race or upbringing, deserves. You’re ability to recognise that makes you a good person.

Humility. Being humble is something that people need to do more these days. Humility gives us the ability to share our help without showing disregard to another person’s needs. For example: if someone is good at math and they are helping other people they will help the person without saying how simple they think it is.

Compassion. If you sympathise with other people you’re more likely to help them and you’ll find yourself helping people more. Getting into the habit of it will create a new way for you to get a good attitude about the way you are impacting other people’s lives. Making your life live to its utmost potential.

If you take these qualities and put them into your daily life. You will mature as a person and find the ability to make better decisions. It won’t be easy but you will be a good person. If we gather these qualities as a species, we can make the world a better place

Room 4 Champions

At the end of last term many students in room 4 represented different sports teams in competitions around the country.

First, Jacob, Jayden and Caleb travelled to Taupo to represent Marist Rugby Club at the New Zealand Junior Rugby Festival. This was a great opportunity to compete against other rugby teams from around New Zealand.

   
Then Paikea travelled to Tauranga to represent our school at the AIMS tournament for swimming. She competed in the 100m freestyle, 100m backstroke, 50m freestyle, 50m backstroke, 50m butterfly. We were really proud of her, especially as she was the only person in our school to qualify!

In the holidays Makayla travelled to the sunshine coast to compete in a waka ama tournament. She participated in the under 12, 12 man 250m straights,  under 12s 6 man 500m turns, under 12s 6 man 250 straights,  under 14 6 man 4km and under 12s singles 250m straight. She placed several times, and she won the under 14 6 man 5km race!

We are really proud of all of our athletes and will keep track of their progress as they have more competitions coming up!

End of Term 3

This term has been jam packed with events, from cross country to our school production! Check out Hinerangi's reflection of the term:

What is inside of a cell?

This term we have been learning about genomics. In the last few weeks of the term, we learnt about the different organelle that are found inside animal cells. Cells are the building blocks of life. This means that all living things are made up of cells! Naomi worked really hard to create this video which will tell you more about the organelle!

Caleb's Animal Cell Animation

This term we have been learning about cells and the organelle inside them. This is Calebs animation!



Hello, my name is Caleb, and in this task, I created an animation about an animal cell. I had to explain what each of the organelle are called inside of an animal cell and what they do. This took all term, but in the end, I got this. I am very proud of what I did, and This is one of my favourite DLOs.

Laolao: Are Dogs Better Than Cats?

𝓐𝓻𝓮 𝓭𝓸𝓰𝓼 𝓫𝓮𝓽𝓽𝓮𝓻 𝓽𝓱𝓪𝓷 𝓬𝓪𝓽𝓼?

Are dogs better than cats? That's what people are talking about for the past  centuries. This essay will tell you all about why dogs are better. They could be your best friend (or your only friend ),  they are helpful and they could even save your life.

Why dogs are better than cats? 

Well people think dogs are better than cats because they're caring and they would always want to play and go out for walks but if they are a lazy dog they might not. Dogs are very talented and would do anything for you for a treat or a belly rub unlike cats they would just sit around and eat a lot of food.

Hero dogs!

Some dogs around the world are really talented and brave they could even save your life one day. Some dogs have very special jobs to help people like police dogs they help the cops chase down criminals and because they have a really good sense of smell they could find people that are missing from their families and bring them home. Other special dogs helps people that are in wheelchairs or people that were born with medical problems some dogs help blind people cross the road and take them back to their home happy and safe.

More about why dogs are better than cats

Dogs are better than cats because dogs are kind. Some dogs are aggressive but they're just trying to protect their owners. Unlike cats they just want the attention and people to give them food.

So are dogs better than cats? They're playful and they would be the perfect pet or friend. They could save your life one day and they're kind of better than cats.

🐙 Octopus Facts by Makayla & Amelia

               

This week Room 4 have been learning about Octopus! To start off, we all sat down on the mat and shared what we already knew or learned about the octopus. We then watched a video that showed us some key information about octopus, like how they camouflage. We definitely picked up a lot of facts and even though we knew some already the video allowed us to look into it in more depth.Amelia and Makayla then partnered up to make this presentation. They used all the facts that they learnt from the videos and from the web (see the links in their presentation).

Aqua Dragon Update

This morning we were excited to find several of our aqua dragons had fully hatched from their eggs. These hatchlings are extremely tiny as their eggs are as small as the head of a pin! Once your eyes have focussed on the tank it is possible to see them swimming around and coming up to the surface at times. They enjoy light so we have put them in front of the window in the middle of the day and we oxygenate the tank by squeezing air into it through a pipette.

As they are so tiny we only need to feed them once every few days, but we will keep checking in on them and providing them with light and oxygen

Class Pet

As we are studying living organisms for our inquiry, we decided to get some class pets: Aqua Dragons. This morning we learnt that their eggs were able to lie dormant (a bit like hibernating) in a state called diapose, until they come into contact with water. This means that are able to survive through hard times outside of their habitat!

This morning we hatched the eggs for the first time, so there is not much to see at the moment, but very soon we will have a full tank of Aqua Dragons! We are going to observe them at each stage of their life cycle.

How to be a Good Friend

In celebration of International Friendship Day, we wanted to create a video to show others some tips on being a good friend. We got these tips from Jana at Attitude, who gave us a talk about friendships last term. We hope this will encourage others particular younger students to form positive friendships!

             

Charles Darwin

In literacy, we have been looking at some famous scientists. Makayla investigated Charles Darwin, who wrote a book about natural selection. He discovered that animals evolve over time to suit their surroundings. Check out more about Darwin in Makayla's presentation below:

                      

Welcome to Term 3!

Check out Hinerangi's description of our immersion assembly:

Term 3 is here, I am really excited to be announcing what our school is going to be learning this term.
“Something in the water” this terms topic is really interesting as I am definitely looking forward to what
we will be learning. So far it’s been exciting to be back as we all received a huge warm welcome back
from these recent school holidays. I am super determined to be discovering more and unknown things
that live under water, continue reading for more information.

“Let’s welcome up, Team 1”. “Mr Burt said”. From what I’ve already heard, seen and been connected
with is that team 1 is learning a variety of sea animals along with sea creatures that live under the sea.
Watching their short video really hooked me in and was incredibly interesting. As most of you should
know last term team 1 was learning more about bee’s with a group called S.O.F.A. the meaning behind
this incredible group is Status Of Forces Agreement. There topic sounds really fun, interesting and is
definitely able to hook people in for more awesome information. I am really looking forward to what team
1 will be learning this term hoping to get a bit more information to know what there fully doing.

“It’s now time for team 2”, “Mr Burt said!”. Team 2 is learning a variety of different sized animals and
creatures which swim under water and of course on land. Team 2 is finding out some real cool and
describable information for everyone to know, I really enjoyed watching their mini film as I felt like I
wanted to watch incredibly more and to see what they are going to do with what they’re learning this
term. I am looking super forward to what they’re learning just hoping to see what type of information
they find out and how interested they’re going to be. 

“It’s time for team 3”! Team 3 this term is learning different sorts of oceans that is located all around the
world. To me their topic may include something to do with last term as we were to find out the longitude
and latitude of where everything lays. To be able to find out where your going around the world you are
to find out the longitude and latitude of your location. I can’t wait to see what team 3 get up to this term. 

“Team 4”! The movie that was recently presented to us by team 4 was incredible. I loved watching how
they introduced their film and described how and what they’re doing. I think team 4 will be learning the
different sorts that live on land and underwater with all the different locations of the world. I am really
excited to be reading and seeing what they get up to this term as I know I’ll be wanting to read loads
more on what their team is trying to find out.

 Overall my favourite team would have to be team 5 as our presentation and performance was different
from the other 4 teams, it was totally fun, super interesting and incredibly funny. I really enjoyed my
teams performance as it really hooked everyone in and definitely had an awesome song to go with it.
The song went in order from Mrs Ilaoa, Mrs Stone, Ms Tapuke, Mrs Moala and Whaea Kelly. I really
enjoyed the song which described what are in cells, it went like. Cells, nucleus, chromosome, DNA
and Gene. Team 5  will be learning the different things that are hidden or seen under water, I am super
excited for this terms theme and I can't wait to get into this terms work. 

This term would probably have to be my favourite theme as it’s really interesting and I know for sure I
would know more about underwater fish. I am definitely and extremely looking forward to this terms
topic, can’t wait to see what everyone does.   

Around the World!

This term we have been on a trip around the world! Along the way we have been learning new skills, such as salsa dancing and using chopsticks. We have also been tasting different food from different countries. Check out some of our highlights in this video:

             

Rotuma

This week we got a visit from Rako Pasefika, a dance company from Rotuma. It was amazing to get the chance to learn more about this Pacific country, to hear a little of their language, music and dance.

We had two sessions which were lead by Samuela AKA Skillz. He was an awesome tutor and we learnt so much in such a short time (less than 2 hours!). We really enjoyed the experience and are proud of what we accomplished. Check it out below:

Pizza!

This afternoon Room 4 compared one of Italy's most famous pizza's with the most popular pizza flavour sold in America - pepperoni. We have just completed an inquiry on Europe and now we have started to investigate North America.

We started by watching a video about Italian cuisine and then we did some googling to work out what America's favourite pizza flavour is. We found out a lot about pizza - it is a popular dish worldwide!

We then created the pizzas in both styles. The Italian pizza was a Margherita, which originated from Naples. The story behind is that it was made for Queen Margherita as it shows the colours of the Italian flag. It is made from tomatoes, basil and mozzarella cheese. We used a little bit of olive oil on the crust to make it nice and crispy.

The pepperoni pizza had tomato sauce (with sugar and herbs like oregano), pepperoni and mozzarella. We didn't put any oil on this pizza, but it was quite greasy due to the ingredients on it.

Some of the comments that the class made were:

Pepperoni is more greasy
The Italian pizza looks better
The Italian pizza has better texture.
Pepperoni pizza is really just meat and cheese
American Pizza is more popular because you can taste the fat and sugar.
The Italian Pizza Is very Flavourful and tasty. You can tell they used fresh ingredients.

Samoan Language Week

"Lalaga le si'osi'omaga mo se lumana'i manuia

Weave an environment for a better future."

This is our theme for Samoan Language Week 2019. In Team 5 we've enjoyed learning words and phrases we can use everyday like saying "tulou". Always excuse yourself if your movements are going to obstruct the view of others.

Check out some highlights from todays assembly.

Fa'afetai ma ia manuia tele le toe vaiaso.

Maths on Scratch!

Check out what Zaeeda got up to in maths this week!

Since this week is tech week we decided to take our maths into coding. We used scratch to show and teach our learning. The first thing we did was learn about different types of transformations, thanks to a video Mrs Stone found on youtube it wasn't a problem to remember these. Then we had to use coding to show different transformations. When we finished coding and testing it we screencastified and then put it on our blogs!
I hope you enjoyed this task. I definitely did, I am super excited about what we will be doing later on. We will be doing something like this for our animation so stay tuned during the ending of this term.

Year 8 Camp

Last week the year eights went to Kauaeranga Valley Christian Camp. The camp was focussed on leadership and helped us to step up and become more confident.

We had a mixture of camp activities like go karts and air rifles, as well as workshops around leadership values. We first practiced 'following the leader' and working as a team, before we learnt about becoming leaders ourselves. We considered the things that we say (first to ourselves, then towards others) and things that we do to lead effectively.

We used the metaphor of the awhi rito - when we are young we are the centre of the awhi rito, with our teachers, families and caregivers looking after us as the outer leaves. As we grow older, take more responsibility and lead we move further away from the centre. 

Throughout the week more and more students stepped up to show their leadership. It was amazing to see everyones confidence grow and we all learnt something new about each other.

Rotten Romans

This week room 4 have been learning about the different continents. We have started with a 'visit' to Rome 4, or ancient Rome. This gave us an example of how architecture, language and people moved around Europe. We learnt some interesting facts like:

• The Romans conquered many countries around the Mediterranean sea.
• The Romans kept dogs as pets
• They used to wash their clothes in urine,
• There are still Roman roads and architecture that we can see today!

We also learnt that Latin developed into the romance languages like French, Spanish and Italian! So we can still see some of the influences of the Romans 2000 years later - we thought this was pretty cool.
As there have been hundreds of wars in Europe, we looked at how different empires had conquered different places throughout history. We looked at how the Roman army were able to invade so many countries - they had a rigorous training scheme and some great formations. Check out our Testudo!

Navigating Narratives

We then had to find connections between these ideas by grouping them and justifying the links between the hexagons. This made the task much more challenging, but it reiterated the fact that good writing is good writing - some aspects of the text change across genre while others remain the same.

We are straight back into it in Room 4 literacy! This morning we discussed what we already know about narratives and their features. We had to sit with our reading groups and write hexagons to represent our prior knowledge.

Garage Sale

Last weekend we hosted the Pt England Garage Sale in order to raise money for year 8 camp. This was a really fun event and we had heaps of different stalls; from a sausage sizzle to a tech stand. Check out this video to learn more:

             
 We'd like to thank everyone who came to help out and bought our goods - we had a great turn out!

Haiku

Today in Writing we discussed Haiku's and syllables. We were then tasked with making our own Haiku, drawing upon rich vocabulary. Check out some of our poetry below:

As I swim alone

In a lake of great Silence

I’m feeling content

I'm a Gemini

That is a zodiac sign

what is yours reader?

How much can I fit

Into a Haiku format?

Oh no I ran out

Mindfulness

This afternoon we participated in some mindful colouring. We played soft, relaxing music quietly in the background as we coloured in our independent spots. This really helped us to relax and focus after a very busy lunchtime.

We got the idea from Rimu Class at Yaldhurst Model School and we realised that one of our teachers, Mrs Bush is an expert in mindfulness! Next we would like to try Mindful eating, it sounds like fun!

Identity Masks

This week in literacy we have been discussing our identity and how we express our identity to others. We realise that some aspects of our identity are more obvious than others. We also discussed how we show different parts of our identities in different situations to other people. In response we made masks - one side that illustrated how others perceive us and the other that represents the aspects of our identity that are more subtle, or lesser known.

Check out our progress so far! Some are from the front and others the back of our masks.


                 

April Fools!

Today was the first of April, or April Fools Day! Mrs Stone took the opportunity to play some pranks on her literacy class and they came up with their own as a prompt for writing!
First Mrs Stone gave the prank task to her literacy class. She had two word searches - one was real and one was a prank. Most of the class completed the real word search so the students with the prank one would feel especially confused!

At the end Mrs Stone asked the students to put their hands up to indicate how many words they had been able to find, again there were puzzled looks before Mrs Stone announced her mischievous trick. There was an uproar! The class thought it was very funny and a few hatched some plans to pull pranks on Mrs Stone in return (which she welcomed as a writing prompt).

King pranked Mr J by casting this image as Mr J turned the TV on

Now literacy time was over. It was morning tea. Mrs Stone had an idea to prank her maths class as well. She decided to look up questions that had the answer 4 and made a mini test. She had 15 questions down and ready for the 2019 April Fools Day Maths Test. 

As her class waits quietly at the door ready for the invite to enter, Mrs Stone got all the papers ready. She was ready to prank Room 4 Maths. Once Mrs Stone announced that we were doing a test, everybody was 'thrilled'. 

Nasibah and Maria pranked Mrs Stone with a fake paint spill

Firstly she explained to us how may feet were in a yard because she knew that none of us knew the answer. Next she set us in place to do the test and handed out the test sheets at the same time. Mrs Stone also told Chastyti to hand out the pencils. She gave us 10 minutes to complete the test. Mrs Stone had planned this prank really well.

10 minutes later...

The test had ended and everyone was desperate to know the answers. Mrs Stone ran through the answer with the help of Marika and Maanas. The answer to each question was the same: 4! At the ended you should have guessed what Mrs Stone said... April Fools! She also said it bang on 12 o'clock. It was too late for the class to respond - they applauded and laughed - she got us!

By Chastyti

Taste Poetry

This week room 4 literacy have been focussing on using effective vocabulary in our writing. After writing a poem about an object last week, we are writing taste poems about food - being able to experience the subject in this way has helped us heaps with our ideas!

To force us to use precise vocabulary our poems were very short; they only had four lines and each line either contained 3 or 5 words! For example:

Palms are sweating

apprehensive about the impending sourness

warhead in mouth

sourness dissolves and sweetness ensues 

Watch this video to see us recite some of our poems:

                      

Write your own story

We had a wonderful moment of success in Room 4 Literacy this morning as we completed our Get NZ Writing activities and put our post cards together. It had been quite a journey - the highs of writing our poem, the low of thinking we had misplaced some of the postcards and the high of finding them again and making the shared artwork!


These activities have really stretched us to consider the vocabulary we used. We needed to pick words precisely as we only had a few lines for our poetry (see an example below)

Each postcard had a picture on the back and when we put them all together it spelled out a message.

The power of words

Today in Room 4 Literacy we have been discussing the power of our words. We considered that words are the buiding blocks of language; we cannot write a thing without them! We know that we can make our writing more effective when we use our words precisely.

Then we made a word wall of our favourite words - we called them juicy or sticky words, because we like the way they look, sound and the meaning behind them.

After making a class poster that was filled with different sticky words (cheers school kit for this!), we were given objects and we had to think of words that went with them.

What words could you think of that relate to this tiny ship in a bottle?

What words could you think of that relate to this compass?

Kia Kaha

Today we had an assembly to honour those who lost their lives last Friday. We flew our flag at half mast and sang a longer version of the national anthem. We really enjoyed the second English verse of this anthem, as its message was very relevant to the event:

 Men of every creed and race,

Gather here before Thy face,

Asking Thee to bless this place,

God defend our free land.

From dissension, envy, hate,

And corruption guard our state,

Make our country good and great,

God defend New Zealand.

In our home class in the afternoon we discussed what we wanted to as a class. We decided to make a wall full of our hopes, thoughts and prayers out of post it notes. Everyone in the class created at least one and we will continue to add to it (this will improve the shape of our heart).

Our thoughts are with our Islamic community, the people of Christchurch (especially our friends at Yaldhurst Model School) and our country.  Kia Kaha New Zealand.