Swimming sports!

The clod splashes on my face, the cold breeze go's right to my spine as I hop in the pool shove on my goggles  and get in my starting position.

''On three Mr Clearwater says''

" We all shout YES'

" Right then you will hear a loud bang like this and he banged his starting gun and the sound of a loud bang filled our ears''

'' ok then o three ONE,TWO,THREE BANG!!!  

Everyone pushed off and in a short time later... we suddenly thump our hands on the side of the pool. Yay, we reached the end of the pool! Some people got a little piece of wood with the numbers saying 1st, 2nd or 3rd. At the end of the pool there are these ladies sitting in chairs and asking what colour house we are in, then we each get 1 point for giving it a great try, and then the people with 1st, 2nd or 3rd places get… 1st place gets 5 points, 2nd place gets 4 points, 3rd place gets 3 points. Then we go and dry off and cheer all the other people on for their races and at very end of the day we see some of the teachers race in chairs while some of the year 8 students have to carry them to the end of the pool, that sounds like hard work. And towards the end of the day we find out who has won and of all the houses blue, yellow, green and the best house yet RED!!!  And from judging from the race I think yellow house won. Then we all go home and then chill out until the next day on school comes around again. But the really awesome thing is that the same thing happens every  year and you can do it all again and try and win those points for your house, and some day you might be able to carry the teacher on the chair and be the loud and proud people for your house.

 
BY TYLER

TOP TEAM!

On the 25Th February 2014 Sport Tasman came to Mapua school, to have a day of fun with the intermediate team ( years 5, 6, 7 and 8, ) with wet games, dry games and much more. Throughout the day rotations of about 7-8 games to play with your groups that you have been given at the start of the day.

 THE CHALLENGES!                                      

All day for everyone, 
               
                                    Buckets of water and fun! 
                       
                                                        shout outs to super hero's, countdowns on 3 2 1! 

 *The slippery slide! 
 *The water castle!                           
*the water tubes!                             
*the wheel burrow races!
*jack pot!
*Bridge building!
*Hula Hooper's!
*waka waka row row! 
 Bombs away!

From 10:40-2:20 a whole day of fun for everyone to enjoy.

Week Three

What a week it was!

First of all I want to say a big thank you to everyone that came in for our 'Meet the Teacher' evenings. It was an absolute pleasure meeting you all! I know that this year is going to be a great year.

At the end of week two we had our senior school Swimming Sports which went off with a bang. We have incredibly impressive swimmers in our class and every single one of you impressed me with not only your swimming but with your supportive encouragement on the side of the pool. It showed how well all of you can get along and look after one another.
It was a great day and we even have some of our swimmers going off to the Motueka Swimming sports on Monday which will be great fun! I thoroughly enjoyed helping yellow house complete a well earned victory in the teacher race! We did NOT cheat! :D

This week at school we have had a few more interruptions to our weekly schedule, but this also gave the students opportunities to try some new games and sports in the afternoon blocks. On Tuesday we had Top Team, where we all got to go out and try some new sports. I am looking forward to Tyler and Izaak's blog posts on these later in the week. We also were able to have some Year 8 lead sports on the Thursday afternoon which was a wonderful time to see the leaders of the school step up and show how responsible they can be. I cannot wait to see you all doing things like that!

This week we have the Tryathlon on Friday which will be a wonderful whole school sporting event. Please make sure you bring your togs/towel, bike and running gear for this event. Also remember to smother yourselves in sunblock and bring plenty of food and water! It will be a long day!

We will be slowly getting a normal routine this week of classroom activities so be prepared to wear your learning caps all week long!

I cannot wait to read all of your ideas in your homework tomorrow. Keep up the amazing work team!!

Miss McKenzie

Week Two

Kia Ora everyone.

We have had a lot going on in Room 12 already this week with a lot more to come which is very exciting.

This week we have been starting our 'Learning about Learning' topic which has been very interesting. There has been a lot of active discussions and challenging of ideas happening within our class which has been excellent to see, especially for those who sometimes find it hard to share their ideas.
Here is one example of an exercise we did yesterday when the children had to define what they thought 'intelligence' was and if these examples showed intelligence or not. A very interesting discussion followed.

This week will be the second week of MOTEC for most of you. From the feedback that I heard from last week you all really enjoyed yourselves, so I look forward to hearing about all the cool things you did this week. Also this week we have started our Financial Literacy concept within the classroom which creates the idea of our classroom being an economic system, one where the children are all allocated jobs and they earn a certain amount of 'money' every week for their jobs. This is only in the beginning stages but it will be a great tool to use when it is all up and running. The children are really excited about starting their jobs and getting 'paid' for the first time!

We have swimming sports coming up on Friday this week. This will be the whole day over at the Riwaka Pools. Thank you to everyone for bringing your permission slips back so promptly. It was very helpful. We will be leaving by 9.15am and back by 1pm. It will be a great day and by the sounds of things the weather will be amazing for us too. Remember to dress up in house colours, especially if you are in YELLOW house! Please can we avoid using paint on our skin and having glittery wigs as the run offs from these clog up the pool.

Next week we have our Meet the Teacher evening which gives you all the opportunity to come in and meet with me to share your thoughts and goals for your child's learning this year in Room 12. I welcome all of you to come and meet with me as I would love the opportunity to talk with you all and to hear your ideas. There was a notice that was sent home regarding this evening. If you didn't get one, please let me know and I can email it through to you. There is a sign up system online to book in for interview times found at: http://www.schoolinterviews.co.nz/?z=1A3Ulj
Our event code is: FWR5J

I have been really impressed with our students commitment to their learning over these past few weeks and it shows in the work that they are producing. I have attached a picture of our weekly schedule for you to look at to get a feel for what we do in our day to day routine.


Good luck to everyone for Swimming Sports! It will be a great day!

Miss McKenzie

Week one!

Hey everyone!

A great week had by all! I feel incredibly lucky to have you all in my class. It has been such an awesome first week with you all!

We have been doing a whole bunch of different things. From our reflection today it was great to hear that you all enjoyed your first week. MOTEC sounded like it is going to really enjoyable for you all, I am looking forward to what you will bring back with you this week!

You have all worked as such a strong united class during all of our activities it is really nice to be a part of you all getting to know each other and building friendships with one another.

Today we all celebrated Valentine's Day together and got out of comfort zones a little bit which you all dealt with very well. It is lovely to see all of your personalities come out more and more.

I thought that I would share our class photo that we took this afternoon with us all. What a loveable class we are!! Our class activity involved the kids choosing a name from a hat and on their balloons that they had they to had to write on what they like about that person. Everyone did so well! I was really proud to see them all stepping up and being grown up about our awkward activity!


I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! Remember, your weekly challenge is due on MONDAY! I am looking forward to what you all come up with.

Miss McKenzie

Riddle of the week!

Hey all,

I thought  I would put the riddle online so that you all have an extra chance to figure it out. Best of luck!

You need to figure out what my Aunty likes and why.

My Aunty likes trees but she doesn't like plants.
My Aunty likes yellow and green but she doesn't like black, blue, pink or red.
My Aunty likes swimming and running but doesn't like walking.
My Aunty like tennis and soccer and football but doesn't like hockey or cricket.
My Aunty likes summer but not winter, autumn or spring.

What on earth does she like?? Good luck!

Miss McKenzie

Best first day imaginable!

Kia Ora everyone!

What an amazing way to start off the year! We had such an awesome first day in Room 12 today, well I did that's for sure! How cool does our classroom look?!
We did a lot of getting to know you activities, a few mind boggling riddles and a great class game which got highly competitive!

I just want to say thank you to everyone for your positivity and patience with me today as I was too excited for words. I cannot wait to get into next week and have a full week of learning with all of you.

What to look forward to next week:
- We have class photos on Tuesday, so please make sure you are looking sharp and bring your beautiful smiles along with you to school that day!
- We will possibly be swimming everyday next week to practise for swimming sports which will be held the following Friday, so please bring your togs and towel ready for this just in case.
- We will be doing lots of hands on sewing every afternoon, so parents, if you are free after 1.25pm to lend a helping hand that would be much appreciated.
- There will be a permission and information notice coming home on Monday regarding MOTEC (Technology learning at Motueka High). Please can you make sure that this comes back to school signed before Thursday to ensure that you can all go!

Good luck with your weekend challenge and with trying to figure out our puzzling riddle! I look forward to seeing all of your treats that you bring with you on Monday.

Have a lovely weekend everyone! See you next week, willing and ready to learn :)

Miss McKenzie