Final Day of Swimming

It was sad to think it was our last day of Water Safety and Swimming. We were remind that if we are going to jump into a body of water we need to check it first. Do you know how to check it?

1. Check how deep it is, ask an adult to walk in or use a stick to see if it is deep enough to jump.
2. Check is there is anything sharp under the water like coral, rocks, glass...
3. If it is a river or a lake check there are no logs floating by, even if you see a small stick it could be larger log under the water (like an iceberg).

H - Heat
E - Escape
L - Listening
P - Position

If a group of people fall in the water huddle together to help keep you bodies warm. It will also be easier to see a group from the sky (a helicopter), than one person.

When you see a helicopter coming roll onto your backs and hold hands (legs out this time) and kick for 3 seconds (prevent attracting sharks and to draw the attention of the searchers). They will see the big white circle of splashing water.

If you are by yourself cuddle up into the help position with you hands across your heart and hold onto the life jacket, curl your knees up to help keep your body warm. When you hear a helicopter wave an arm. Can you see us in this position?



If someone needs help in the water there are lots of ways to help but remember you need to survive too. So jumping in to help them isn't always best. Instead you should...

Find something that will float and throw it too them. Or even better find a rope or long stick (we used noodles) and hold one end and get them to reach for the other end. Brace yourself then pull you don't want to go into!

Special Assembly

Today we farewelled the Pacific Nation Netballers who have been a wonderful help to our school. As they leave a part of themselves with us they take a part of us with them.

Thank you ladies for you help with our trips, teaching us netball skills and playing games with us.

As a farewell today our Seniors did a little dance and taught them the milk shake. They also shared dances from their Islands with us.
 

The part they leave with us is the memory of their community work and a beautiful set of murals around the back fence. That previous looked boring. Not any more, We can mow remember which Island they are from and when they came to visit.

Poly Festival Thursday

Today we took a break from swimming and went o Manukau Veledrome to Polyfest. It was a hot day, but we found plenty of shade. The Maori Stage had performances we managed to watch and listen too. The big highlight was getting our ngā tāmoko. We had four groups with different teachers and we still managed to all do different things. Escape Room, Visual Reality, EAT KAI, sit in the shade, play frisbee... The list goes on.

The main thing was we had a lot of fun! Thank you Teachers!

My favourite part of polyfest was the escape room because we had really think hard. - Susana

I enjoyed getting a half face tamoko a polyfest. - Kingston

I like we could win prizes by talking about our future I was glad I won some sunglasses. - Mythiah

Polyfest was fun because there was a lot of cool things to do and a lot of them were free. - Dan

Cricket Skills Day 2

It is Wednesday again, and today is a busy one, we had Cricket skills, Kiwican and swimming later today.

In cricket this week we learnt how to bowl. It is tricky trying to keep our elbow straight. It was fun trying to aim and Lucas and Reid. But when we missed we had to run to the end of the rugby field and back.


 In todays game we had to hit the wickets again. As bowlers like to do this as it means the runner (bats man) is out. How's THAT!

Swimming Day 3 - Papakura Pools

Today we were learning about sculling. It was strange we had to clap our hands together then turn them over and clap our palm to the person next to us, to practise. If in a river we have to make sure we move feet first to protect our heads, sculling can help us steer away from danger.

Swimming Day 2 - Papakura Pools

Once again we had to parts to our lesson. Girls started in the shallow lesson pool and Boys in the deep end of the big pool. For some of us (who had never been in the deep end it was a bit scary), but they had these special platforms for us to stand on to help us.

Swimming Day 1 - Papakura Pools

We spend 30 minutes doing the two activities. Girls started with the instructors practising their floating and swimming skills and then moving into freestyle and backstroke.



The boys started with water safety. What can you see the boys using to help them float? They had to be able to float for 10 seconds on their front and backs.

Cricket Skills

Wednesday's we have Counties Manukau Sports coming in to help use learn Cricket Skills for the next 3 weeks. See how we progress and the skills we learn. This week our focus was on throwing and catching. We learn the difference between throwing over arm and under arm. Over arm makes the throw faster and we can aim better. We need to stand side on so we can use all our body to make the throw more powerful. When catching we remembered to use our nest with little fingers together when the ball is coming in low, but when it is higher we need to put our thumbs together. No crocodile catches we could break a finger. OUCH!
 

 

Thank you Lucas for coming to visit us.

Sharing with the Whanau 2019

I enjoyed eating and learning how to play non stop cricket. - Anahera

It was fun being out on the field with the whole school playing different games. - Janaya

Mum and Dad came to watch all of us playing different sports and they enjoyed the kai. They even had an ice cream helping to raise money for our Island Dancers. - Demitrious

Dealing with Feelings and Decision Making

WALHT share our feelings and why sometimes we don't make the best decisions. I learnt sometimes I can be a teddy bear wanting everyone to be happy, and sometimes I can be as sly as a fox to make sure I get things down the way I want. I really want to be wise like an owl!

Writing interesting Stories

WALHT use a range of interesting sentence starters.

We are looking at using different catchy sentence beginnings to start each paragraph.

I can't wait to see the next part to our stories.

Where is Waitangi?

WALHT find places in google maps. We did a quiz on Waitangi and found not many people knew where it was.

 
I learnt how to make my own map with places I added. I found it interesting importing information from sheets. Next time I would like to do a map about places I have been.

Hobby Graph for Whanākitanga

WALHT gather information and make a graph. I learnt how to make a graph using excel. It was easy to make pie graphs perfectly. Next time I would like to make a more detailed graph and write some sentences explaining what I found out.

About Us - Whanākitanga

We are learning how to share our learning through blog posts. It was tricky because some people knew more than others and wanted to race through the process. This caused some confusion to those new to posting.

 

This was  different way to do our rules, but we all agreed and had to sign copy that is on display in class.

Writing Blog Comments

We are getting ready to be part of Tuhi Mai Tuhi Atu.

We are trying to write positive, thoughtful and helpful comments. To us this means...

Start with a Greeting
                                   Hi Mrs Mundy, I am Fred from Red Hill School.
Or you could use Kia ora, Talofa, Hello... and their name.
Tell them who you are.

Positive
             I like the way you have included a picture with your story.
             I can see you have done a lot of research and found interesting facts.
Tell them what you like about their post, what made it interesting for you.

Thoughtful
                  I learnt what the word habitat means.
                  I enjoyed reading your slide (or post) about elephants I didn't know they had toe nails.
Tell them something you learnt. Or shared something that relates to the post.

Helpful
            Next time you might like to check your spelling.
            Remember i needs to be a capital I when talking about yourself.
            What did you learn.
Be kind, think about what you know or ask a question?

Welcome to 2019

Well, the time is coming when we all return refreshed, smiling and looking forward to the next year with a lovely new bundle of students eager and willing to learn. We have a new space this year upon the deck where our Year 5s were last year as Year 4s. Hopefully come Term 2 we will have our final home in the new school, which is moving along in leaps and bounds.

Here is a link to our Whanākitanga Website where we can find our learning. We have a new look this year which incorporates the Tui, who loves to mimic and learn dipping its beak all over the place.

Cleanest Class Term 4 2019

City Rail Link

Following the brief sent from the City Rail Link Project under the theme ‘Imagine where you’d like to go on a train’.  We could use any art medium (paint, felt-tips, etc) we wish but they wanted the artworks to be bright.

We have been working to create different destinations we would like to visit possibly by train.  we experimented with pastels and paint then water colour pencils which was the final medium we decided to go with.

Here is our mock up of the possible final piece...

 

School Trip to Miranda Hot Pools

It was amazing playing on the pillow and sitting in the nice and warm pool. - Hendrix
I jumped in the water once, but sitting in it was too much the heat was stifling. - Kingston



When I was on the pillow it was hard to get up to the top, the corners were muddy and making the Yesterday was fun as we all got wet and played with our friends. - Dayjarhn
The best part of the day was the pillow, you can see me running and jumping in the picture below (black shorts). It was hard work getting to the top of the pillow. - Justyce



I enjoyed the hot dog and chips from Kaiaua. I ate two hot dogs the swimming had made me hungry. We were lucky to even have tomato sauce. - Breeze
The day started with an ice block so they wouldn't melt. It was a brand new Kaipati flavour of kiwifruit and strawberry. They were very refreshing on such a hot day. - Mrs Mundy



I enjoyed being in the pools, it was lovely and warm but if you got to close to the spring it was way hot. - Tai



I enjoyed the day so much I fell asleep on the way home. - Susana
Thanks for a great day. I was absolutely exhausted and fell asleep on the way home. Krystal

Look at Me Now - Leadership Programme Graduation

The Leadership Programme runs for 15 weeks,  we covered Leadership, Integrity, Respect, Responsibility, Our Community, Recycling and Graffiti.

The LAMN programme is about leadership, loyalty, integrity and so much more! It's about being kind to everyone and earning people's trust, so when I grow up I would like to be a leader.

The part I enjoyed the most has to be spending time with my fellow classmates but also my friends. - Amelia

I enjoyed being at camp Adair doing fun activities such as the mudslide. - Mariah

My favourite trip was Totara park because we got to play games and eat lollies. - Shawn

When I grow up I want to be a responsible leader. My favourite trip was the pools because I liked the part when we fell backwards off the boat. - Dante

I enjoyed Totara park and Camp Adair. I would like to go there again with my mum and dad. - Krystal Leigh

Hockey Skills

Thank you Counties Manukau Hockey for sending Mark out to us to teach us hockey skills it was a great couple of days. We learnt how to hit the ball and how to pass to a team member. Our teacher even got involved and nearly forgot to take photos.


Thank you for coming, I liked learning about hockey because I got better at it. Breeze
Playing hockey was fun because we got to run around and whack the ball into the goal. Hendrix

I like playing hockey rounders, I didn't get hurt. I like hockey as a team sport. Amelia
I like learning about hockey because it was different. Mariah

It was fun because I like sports and I was good at hitting the ball. Kingston
I like learning new skills at hockey. I learnt how to hit the ball and to hold the stick with two hands. Les
 

A Whole School Fun day of Tabloids

In the middle of PATs we decided to have a break for the classes (all day long) how cool is that?

Rangatahi Coming Together

Art Alley Update for End of October

Originally the fence was green on one side and grey on the other and many of our students come through the alley to get to school. Once our new school build has been completed this alley will be close to the visitors car park and so we though we would brighten it up.

Blair - I like how we were able to make the fence more colourful.
Anjekoia - I enjoyed creating the designs for my panel of favourites.

Khan - Painting the fence has been fun because we didn't have to do mathematics and reading.
Xavier - I like being able to paint my own design all about me.

Dante - I like how everyone was able to use their own unique designs.
Steven - I like how it takes up lots of our learning time.



Dayjarhn - I like how we can see that some people like the same things and different ones as well.

Austin - I like how the fence now looks like it is decorated, like a Christmas tree.
Mariah - I like how we designed different pictures about ourselves.




Amelia - I enjoyed creating the Pasifika flower and having the chance to paint it.
Nathan - It was tricky trying to make such the four colours for the house colours were even and making sure the black was straight.

Chad - I like painting the Maori patterns and trying to stay in the lines.
Ja seng - I liked coming up with a design for the maori panel and seeing how it turned out larger and slightly differently.

Shawn - I enjoyed painting the school logo at the beginning of the fence, it show it is our school and people are welcome.
Valiant - I love how everyone put so much effort into making the fence look awesome.

Braedyn - I enjoyed painting the leaves and working with other children like Dayjarhn.
Zayden - I enjoyed painting the green on the school logo and trying to make it look like the real one.

Reciprocal Teaching in Reading

We are revisiting how to be an effective group leader or teacher and helping others and ourselves to learn in reading. Predicting can happen at the beginning before we read or before reading the next part. We are reading about Celebrations and have picked once we can investigate in a small group.

Herd are the two charts we are using to help us, one reminds us of the steps and what they mean. The other reminds us how we can do each step.

 

Mixing Substances

WALHT create a substance that is strong enough to make a structure. This could be to accommodate an animal or a group of people. Or even hold up a fence post.

I learnt how to make concrete, even when we added dirt it still set hard as rock

Next we are going to try and make a pencil holder using concrete. It will be interesting to see how it is different to the plate we made using clay.

Modifying Images

We are learning how to change an image so we can reuse it.
We are looking at celebrations this term. I learnt how to use the polyline tool to change part of the image for reuse. We also added a call out.

I changed the picture by making the mustache dark grey and added another grey patch to his beard.
I found using the polyline tool tricky if you click too close it thinks you have finished and you have to start over.

Next time I would try to find an easier picture.

Earthquake Roll Out 2018

Maori Language Week - Ta Moko

1. Looked at pictures ngā To Moko.

2. Looked at the possible meaning in the Ta Moko patterns. Such as knowledge, an expert in fishing, with crops, building...
3. Traditionally Ta Moko was made with a chisel.
4. Ta Moko starts out small and grows as the person grows in experience and knowledge. The females usually only have their chin done. But they all can add more to their bodies.
5. Painting a mask with skin colour, or close to it.

6. Designed our Ta Moko

7. Drew on our Ta Moko onto our mask with vivid.

Watch for our finished masks.

Art Class - Pinch Pots

The steps to making a pinch pot or finger pot, seem very simple but they are not always easy.

1. Remove air pockets by slamming you lump of clay on the table in different directions, don't let it end up flat.
2. Roll it into a ball.
3. Stick you thumb into the ball (almost like Jack in the corner who pulled out a plum on his thumb).
4. Carefully, slowly with fingers in the middle and thumb on the outside pinch them together. If your thumb is inside and fingers outside you can over stretch the clay and end up with a bowl shape more than a pot shape.
5. When happy with size stop!
6. Check for dry parts or cracks. Dip a finger into the water (with a sponge) don't get too much, then rub it over the dry or cracked part to smooth. Repeat if necessary.
7. Using the tools copy your design from your sheet of paper.



We had fun and some of our hands were rather messy, that might be because we forgot to use only a little water.

School Disco Term 3

What a fun night and great fundraiser.

Highwire - Netballers Tri Nations

At morning tea on Wednesday we march quickly down the road to Highwire Trust. Our Board Chairman had organised for us to play games with his Netballers. They are part of a Tri Nations Team here for a tournament a the end of the year.

Some of the ladies were from Samoa, Cook Island and New Zealand. We split into our two classes and one group started inside while the other group went outside.

Chad - It was a fun day playing games, one after another.
Cyclone - I like playing the multi-sports game. with dodge ball, one touch, 10 pass netball, frisbee. 

Stephanie - I enjoyed meeting people who spoke my language and came from the Samoa and playing lots of different games.
Tara - The challenge of the obstacle course where we had to turn 5 times then ran zigzag around the cones, jump over 4 more cones and run to sit down.

 
Brian - I liked seeing the Cook Island Netballers again, they are my favourite team, because I am from Cook Islands.
Zaleen - I enjoyed playing the different games my favourite was multi sports.

Mrs Mundy - We played rock paper scissors 2 ways one with our hands and the other using our bodies and Number Up.
Mrs Hiku - I like the pink netballs they were used for rob the nest/snatch.

Thank you so much we had a lot of fun practise the skills you taught us.

Community is Home - Art Alley

Phase one 

Started last year when we designed murals for four of the panels and column pictures for the individual boards on the wooden fence. This took a long time as the group wanted detailed pictures.

Phase two

We also did in 2017 undercoating the fence so we had a white platform to paint onto so our murals were the colours we wanted.

Phase three: 

We started this year painting the panels so we could display what we as an art group liked, favourite foods, places, patterns, labels, games, and even family. Unfortunately we then had a mishap with the fence and we had to redo some areas.

Phase Four: 

We wore our cool new uniforms to school but got changed into an old set of clothes, some of us brought our old uniform. No way did we want paint on our new uniforms.

Krystal Leigh  - My fingers ended up blue, and I seemed to have more paint on me that on the fence. Strangely my teacher wasn't too happy. But I had fun. When we added the dark blue around paint splashed it started to look much better.

Demetrius P - I thought it was cool painting the poles red, but we had to be careful not to get it on people or what they were painting and that was not easy.

Amelia - I was painting the background for the hibiscus flower in green. It was cool to see the flower take shape even through we weren't painting the flower yet. We took our time to make sure the paint was in the right place, the boys seemed to be in a hurry.

Steven - I enjoyed spending the whole day painting and not working. I painted the poles red there seemed to be a lot of them and we still have 3 more to do. It was even better when Auntie Jess came and helped us.

Shawn - Painting the fence was fun as we didn't have to do school work. When Auntie Jess helped us she thought it would be funny to paint her hand yellow and add it to my shirt. The worst part was when we painted and the drips went in the wrong place.

Black Jackets

Our Board Chair had a shipment of jackets that were to small for the purpose they were manufactured and so he donated them to our school. Thank you Highwire Trust.

Tongan Language Week

It is Tongan Language Week and we are investigating some common phrases that could be helpful. Thanks Randwick Park for your you-tube clips they were very helpful.