Christmas - Our Saviour is Born

Christmas is one of the most important times of the year on the Liturgical Calendar as it means the birth of our Saviour was born. Our task this week is to research some versions of the Christmas Story, compare theme with stories from the bible. We had to look at the ways in which illustrations / photo plates were used to help portray the stories and what impact they had. We then had to produce a video using either iMovie, Powtoon or slides that re-told the story of Christmas. Here are a couple of examples that show the true meaning of Christmas.

We will be sharing them with the younger classes later on this week ;)

Advent

Advent is an important time of the year for Catholics and we have had a major focus over the last couple of weeks. We have been exploring the history behind advent, what the symbols are and what it means to us today.

We have done some brief slide shows that explains what we have learnt...

Camp fun....

Archery and Air Rifle fun...

Banana Boat action...death defying at some points

Rock Wall / High Ropes and Crate Climb

Go-Karting fun....

Melbourne Cup Room 1 Style

Yesterday we had a bit of fun based around the Melbourne Cup as Miss Maguire is crazy about it.
We started by drawing a horses number out of the box and then we had to find out some information about our horses, jockeys and trainers. We looked at the statistics of previous races and general history of the cup.

We then made our own strips with our horses numbers on them ready for the fun galloping race in the afternoon.  Great fun was had by all and rooms 8 and 2 came out to join.

 (sorry about the yelling in the background :) )

#blackout

#BLACKTOBLACK

Tennis Lessons

Yahoo...off we went to the local tennis courts.








Tara's tennis coach (Mark) was waiting for us to arrive, so we could begin. We learnt about some of the etiquette involved as there were other club memebers playing on the courts too, and about respecting the equipment and court area.

Firstly, we were split into two groups and one group played a version of King of the court, which Tara organised and ran while the other group did some basic hitting skills with Mark.

We can't wait for next Thursday's lesson so we can actually have a real go at playing using full courts.

#Gotheallblacks

This week we have been learning about the current All Black team members and preparing our classroom for the all important RWC finals coming up on Sunday morning.

  

  These are a few of the profiles we have now hung in our classroom. 

Tomorrow we will be having a black out, which means everyone in school wears black clothing to show their support for our national team...

Other displays that are being developed.

Thanks from Room 1 and 2

A huge thank you must go out to our fantastic parents for all the support, encouragement and aroha you showed us all on camp. Stay tuned for our personal narratives to come.

News from Finlay Park

Well we are having a ball, feeling rather jaded but having loads of fun. Day One and Two in short were...Mud island, target shooting, archery, kayaking, water slide, blob and more.

Rosie taking a shot at the ducks...(they were of course metal ones

 Games night tonight after dinner...

Relaxing in the spa after spending time in the freezing lake or pool

Bulls Eye

Scotty showing us how to do it :)

Chum concentrating hard

Wow ... Term 4 already

So what will we be up too?

We are preparing for camp at Finlay Park next week, then preparation will continue for social dance then end of year mass. Bust times ahead. Keep an eye out for camp news next week 😀

Whirlwind

Wow, can't believe how fast the last few weeks of term went, and no posts :(

What did we get up too you might ask...

- We have been busy with using persuasive langauge to debate real life topics that will have an effect on our future;

- Continuing to work on geometry concepts in math ranging from working with area and perimeter, chordes to find the center points of a circle, finding degrees using protractors, through to being able to tell the difference between different types of angles including acute, obtuse, right etc;

- Continuing with social dance in preparation for next term;

- Beginning our study based around the Rugby World Cup, an

- Beginning to look at transitioning through to high school for our year 8's, and visiting our local high school open days to see what each one has to offer. (lots of choices to be made)

We are looking forward to next term also with camp coming up in week 2...yay!

See you all next term :)

World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation

Today we took part in the first "World day of Prayer for the Care of Creation" which is to become an annual tradition. This day is to help us remember our promise to God to care for his creations as its custodians and to help us give thanks for the marvellous works that He has entrusted us with.

Prior to our prayer session we looked at a video that took us on a journey from the beauty of our world as God had made it to the destruction of our world through human hands.

Following watching this video we discussed why these changes had occurred and what our role as believers of God and guardians of all that is his world is...no matter how small every little thing counts.

Some of the things we thought of were; picking up rubbish, encouraging others not to litter, promote replanting of trees, dune plants etc, looking after what already exists in our own environments at home, school and our school community.

Following our prayer session we watched a second video that once again reminded us of the glory of God's Creation. 

Jump Off

This Friday we have our Jump off happening. We are raising funds for the National Heart Foundation, which is an organisation that helps people affected by Heart Disease, fund research, help people make healthy living choices & run programmes for heart.

Our challenge is to skip in a variety of challenges for periods of 5 mins for each challenge. Here are a couple of video's of us trying some of the challenges that we are going to be participating in.

Double skip

Double over

Twin and Twist

Single skip in big rope

Thinking in action

This morning we are continuing on our perimeter and area tasks, as I was observing the classroom I heard some good discussion around possible ways of completing the next part of the task.

I have managed to get a snap shot of some of this thinking...

Not the best bit unfortunately but a good start...:)

Bay Steamers came to St Joseph's

A loud murmur rumbled through the hall this morning, some of the the Bay Steamers were coming to our school.

Sitting there patiently and they finally arrived, Joseph Royal,  Zak Hohneck and Papa Wharewera.


They came in with balls to give away and a clear message to share about anti-bullying.



The message was STEPUP

They had a 3 step guide to being an up-stander in bullying.

Step 1 stand up (do something don't just watch)

Step 2 team up (work together and support the people who are getting bullied)

Step 3 speak up (say something, tell an adult about it) (Thanks Liam)

Check out our video as we learnt a chant that helps us remember this....

We also got to meet Steamy again (as some of us met him at the game), he gave out more balls for prizes and said hello to some of our juniors.

Lastly we were lucky enough to have a senior syndicate photo with them.

Check out or stories on our blogs :)

Introduction to Poi

This week during kapahaka we were introduced to Poi. Whaea Chanelle showed us how to twirl them in small steps. Here we are in action.

Senior Social

The day had finally arrived, we started preparation for our Senior Social. This event is the biggest event on our calendar. It is a very formal affair, with dances that include the Maxina, Monte Carlo, Achey Breaky heart, 3 step waltz, quick step waltz and for a bit of fun the Chicken Dance.

Maori Rhythm Game

During Kapahaka we have been learning a game to help us to keep in time. Here is a snippet :)

Gospel Value Presentation

This week our Gospel Value is Joy. Here is the presentation we did for the rest of the school.

Math tasks

Currently we are working on Perimeter and Area, Radius, Circumference and Diameter.
We are linking our math programme with our IT learning tools in a collaborative way while having the opportunity to lead the learning. Here are some of us in action.

Keep an eye on our blogs later in the week to see how we are going....

Yixuan's new toy

Today in Chinese, Yixuan used a new gadget to help us remember our colours and introduce us to new colours. When it is touched against a chart it will say the colour in English and Manderin. It is way cool, very creative... :)

Here is how it works...

Jesus as a Teacher

This week we have been developing an understanding of the characteristics of Jesus as a teacher. We had to incorporate our reading skills using inferencing, while finding information in the bible to help us identify what these characteristics were.

We are now making advertisements that promote Jesus as a teacher.
Here is an example by Maia and Suzannah:

Please keep an eye out on our learning blogs to see more fabulous examples.

The NED Show

This afternoon we are listening the NED show. The key message us

-Never give up

-Encourage others 

-Do your best and never give up...

She used YoYos to help tell stories and share her ideas about how to encourage us never give up.

Steamers pre-season game

Yesterday we were lucky enough to be offered free tickets to see the Bay of Plenty Steamers play their pre-season rugby game at Rugby Park, Whakatane. 

The Steamers took on Auckland in their first pre-season match at Whakatane's Rugby Park, which was proudly sponsored by PGG Wrightson. The team displayed some positive running rugby against a strong Auckland team.

We were lucky enough o see our very own up and coming All Black (Sam Cane) play for his old team for the first time in a couple of seasons.

There was plenty of entertainment for the kids with the Steamers mascot, free give aways and of course the game...

Unfortunately it wasn't our day with Auckland Rugby winning the match 37 - 29.

Maia, Paige, Ciara and Stefan using their creative talents

This week a few little jobs were done and some of our class got to show how creative they are...


Firstly Paige and Ciara had a special task to do and they were able to use their own ideas and creativity to produce a very important wall display...check it out.

We decided it was time for a new cross for our classroom and had a specific place for it in mind so it needed to be a good size. Miss M said we could use decoupage so she collected a range of pictures and Maia used her decorative skills to put it all together. It is beautiful and takes pride of place in our classroom.

Stefan's love of photography had him in the right place at the right time. He was taking photo's for Mr Phil (our caretaker) and on the way back to the classroom saw smoke above one of our blocks, he took a photo of it then got Chum in the right position to take a snap of smoke coming out of his hand. (unfortunately the smoke was from a house fire, but we understand all occupants were safe)

Meditation

Since the beginning of term we have been learning about meditation and how it helps us build stronger relationships with God. We are exploring how using our senses as Hildegrad of Bingen did as a spiritual writer.

As part of the meditation process we have a prayer journal that we use to draw pictures or write about our experiences including the images we see and the senses we use.
Check out our blogs to see our reflection after doing this daily for  a week. Some children have shared a personal experience during this reflection time.

Here is a copy of us meditating with Miss Maguire's guidance.

Thor's cooking day

Today we were spoilt as Thor cooked us Chilli Bean Pizza and it was delicious.
Thor told us how he made it and what ingredients he used before we were allowed to eat...nom nom.
THANK YOU Thor....

Keep an eye out for Thor's recipe on his blog over the next couple of weeks.

Final Week of Term

Wow, what a busy week we have had.
The main event being Student Led Conferences. This is where our students get to share their successful learning.

Each student shows examples of their work, assessment examples both formal and informal, their mid-year reports and their blogs with their parents. They go into great detail talking about where they are at.

Each conference takes about 20 mins, then the parents have a chance to have a brief discussion and are able to ask any questions.

Check out the students blogs to see how things went :)

Have a safe and happy holidays!

SLC

We are all ready for SLC's this afternoon 😃

John the Baptist

On Wednesday we had our whole school mass. The importance of this mass was that it celebrated the life of John the Baptist.

In our RE groups we
- identified who he was,
- how he was linked to Jesus,
- what he actually did,
- what challenges he faced in his life, and
- why it was important for us to remember him and celebrate his life.

We then put our information into a slide show and have attached them to our blogs. Click on our links to see what we learnt.

Blogging with Room 2

We have been teaching Room 2 how to publish work to their blogs, ready for Student Led Conferences next week.

We have been enjoying being able to show our buddy class what we have been learning to do and sharing our experiences with them. Good luck Room 2 with your Student Led Conferences next week.

Pentecost

Pentecost is an important celebration in our church. It is when the Holy Spirit first made itself known to people.

It is through the Holy Spirit that we learn to uphold the Gospel Values (love, be caring, respect others etc.) 

Our task was to identify what the values were then look at ways we show the Holy Spirit living in us today.
We then put them together ready to display in the office foyer.

Solar Energy with Mr Maple

In our last session with Mr Maple we were continuing looking at Solar. We learnt how powerful the sun is even on a partially cloudy and cooler day.

We then got to make circuits using solar panels in groups.

Respect and how we talk to each other...

During the week we have had some very grown up discussions about how we talk to each other, they type of language we use and how it has an impact on what we do, how we are perceived and how we and those around us react as a consequence.

We talked about how the types of words we use and hear on a daily basis can have a negative impact or a positive impact. Using slang, street talk or words out of context can harm others.

We have been practising talking nicely to others so it becomes natural.

Fruits of the Holy Spirit

We have been learning about the Holy Spirit

OZ/NZ Blogging

This week we were excited to see that we were beginning to receive feedback on our blogs.
One of the things we had to learn was how to respond to the comments that were made.These comments needed to be thoughtful and not just thanks in most cases.

We then went and looked at the contributions from the students that had commented on our posts. We looked at what they had written, how they had written it and how they engaged us. We then posted comments on their posts.

We have also divided our class into 3 groups, one for each school so we will have a focus school timetabled to check and communication with regularly.

Exciting stuff. :)

Energy Options

Today we are looking at Electricity.

Electricity is a flow of electrons

 that go around a circuit. (a closed loop)

We know if there is a gap in the circuit the flow of electricity. 

We used an old light switch to see if we could see where the circuit flow opens and closes.

We then went on to make 3 different types of closed circuits with two batteries and two lamps with attached  wires. 

Leading the Learning with Room 2

This afternoon we became the teachers....

Our task was to use the tech skills we have been learning during term 1 and teach our buddy class room 2. We have become a GAFE (Google Apps for Education) school in our syndicate and Miss Maguire has been teaching us how to use google in our daily classroom programme. Through this we have extended our learning from the class to outside the class.

Our job today was to teach room 2 using the steps we went through with Miss Maguire. Our first session saw us buddy up with a student from room 2, give them their school domain email address, show them how to use it and send emails from their gmail to Mr Atkins (their teacher), then gave them a quick tour around Google Drive.

We then shared with room 2 some of the things that we really like about using digital technology in our classroom...
- it is setting us up for success at high school
- we can do our learning at home
- we even do our learning when sick at home
- it is a fun way to learn
- we get to share with a real audience.

We gave room 2 homework for tonight, they have to go home and show their parents how to log into their emails to help them practise ready for tomorrow.

Tomorrow our next step is to get them writing a reflection using Google Doc's then sharing it with Mr Atkins.