Toku Pepeha

These are the first of our found poems based on the journal story Toku Pepeha.  One side has the poem situated within some of the text taken from the story.  We then decorated with some Maori designs.  On the other side we have placed the poem on a background.  To create this we have imported an image of a marae, overlaying it with the poem text.  We have put our photo on it as well. We had to take our photo of ourselves against a green screen, import the photo into Pages and use the instant alpha function to remove the background.  Once that was done, we could place our photo in the foreground of the marae image.  4 down, 22 to go!

Camp Speeches

Today, several of us presented our camp speeches to the class.  We had a great range of topics to listen to including whales, families, Dunedin to name a few.  As the audience, we were thoroughly informed and entertained.  Poor Mrs H, what a job to select the speeches that will go forward to be presented at camp.

Getting Reading for Camp

Yesterday, Room 22 and half of Room 18 worked together to complete our Getting Ready for Camp infographic.  We discussed each area and recorded our personal responses to each section.

Found Poetry - Pepeha

As part of our concept Turangawaewae we have been learning our pepeha.  We have used the text Toku Pepeha from a Junior Journal 53 to create a found poem.  It is going to take ages for all of us to get them finished so we will update this post as they are completed.  This is a two part process, with the first being to 'find' the poem within the text and the other is a different way of publishing the poem.  Here is one part of Grace's work.

To create this, Grace found an image of a marae, she then added her found poem.  Next, she took a photo of herself against a green screen and removed the background using the alpha feature in Pages.  She was then able to overlay her photo onto the page.  Grace is still working on her text, which she is decorating with Maori art and symbols.  

Preparing our camp speeches

One of our Camp Kawau traditions is the speech competition.  Everyone has to write and present a speech and the classroom winners present their speech again at camp.  We have been learning what types of speeches we could write and how to best deliver them.

We have talked about using the hamburger model and that writing a speech is like any other piece of writing.  It needs an introduction, a sequence of events or ideas and a conclusion.  We have to decide what our topic is and whether we are going to inform, persuade or entertain our audience.

Tabloid Sports - pre Gala

On the Friday before the gala day, the whanau leaders and deputy leaders organised a tabloid sports afternoon for the whole school.  This happened so any rooms that were needed the next day for the gala could be set up.

Lolly Leis - Gala

We made lolly leis with Rooms 1 and 15 to sell at the gala.  We made the leis with harakeke (flax) which is actually quite hard to do.   Mrs Adams from the gala committee showed us what to do and we had a production line going.   We made just under 300 leis in two afternoons.

Self Portraits

We learned to how to use pastels more effectively with Mrs Smith when we create our Picasso inspired self-portraits.

Swimming Goals

Each of us identified a goal that we need to work towards during our swimming lessons.  We recorded our goals on a PADLET.  At the end of our lessons, we will assess whether we achieved our goals or not.

Found Poetry

We have been creating poems out of an existing text.  It is not as easy as it looks.

Here are some examples of poems we have 'found from a chapter of the book The Switch by Anthony Horowitz.

Nightingale Square

A full moon

empty shadows raced ahead

a few minutes after midnight

the black night sky

had once brought tad discomfort.

Danica

Katherine’s Found Poem

Nightingale Square - taken from The Switch by Anthony Horowitz

There was a full moon.

As Finn and Tad crossed the empty square,

Their shadows raced ahead.

Everything was pale and grey.

Buildings like paper cut-outs

Against the black night sky.

Tad glanced at the house,

It was tall with classical

white pillars,

Three windows and a balcony.

Tad crossed another world

Everything was square

Tad had in mind

Number twenty nine

My lucky number

Tad glanced

It was tall and wide

Steps leading up to the front door

Next to it

At the black

Thick ivy followed

Past a balcony.

by Manny

 There was a full moon that night

The empty shadows

Searching

Somewhere to hide

A few minutes after midnight

The church bells toll

They seemed far away

Almost in another world

Everything was pale

Like paper cut outs against

The black night sky

In areas of London

Number twenty nine

That’s my lucky number, Bobby- boy

Tad glanced at the house

Narrow, white pillars

On the corner of the square.

By Matthew

Macey’s Nightingale Square Poem       

There was a full moon,

Empty square,

Shadows raced searching for somewhere to hide,

A few minutes after midnight,

The church bells toll the hour

They seemed far away,

in another world.

Everything was pale,

Buildings like paper cut-outs against the black night sky,

One of the smartest areas in London.

Once brought with growing discomfort.

Metal railing,

White pillars,

On the corner of the square,

Thick ivy grew past the windows.

Turangawaewae Art

We used pastels to create our Turangawaewae art which depicts our maunga (mountain) and our awa (river) or moana (sea) and represents the places that we each belong to.

The Game of Awesome

The Game of Awesome is a game that we can play to help us be more creative writers.  So far we have only played the game so check in later on as we publish some of our writing.

Ash Wednesday

The season of Lent begins on Ash Wednesday.  We went to Mass and were signed with ashes by the teachers.  In class, we reflected on what Lent means to us and wrote our lenten promises.

Swimming Sports @ Pompallier

Every year all the Senior School and a few Year Four students go up to Pompallier Catholic College to compete in the St. Francis Xavier Catholic School swimming champs.  Some of us were swimming to be selected to represent the school at the Whangarei champs and some of us just had a go.  It was a great day.

Rimu Whanau trip to Waitangi

On 21 February, Rimu Whanau went by bus to Waitangi to learn more about our history and the Treaty of Waitangi.

Some waka that were used on Waitangi day.

School Library Dashboard

Mrs Lewis has worked really hard to create our School Library Dashboard.  Take a look via this link or visit via our school website.  There are also links to both the library and the school website down the side of this blog.

Whanau Leader Speeches

Every year, each whanau elect two whanau leaders and two deputy leaders.  This year, Rimu Whanau had eight fantastic applicants who had to deliver a speech telling the rest of us what attributes they have that would make them a good leader.  Well, the speeches were fantastic and it was a really difficult job to make the appointments.  The results are as follows;

Rimu Whanau Leaders for 2017 - Kate and Nahuel
Rimu Deputy Leaders for 2017 -  Macey and Quin
Rimu Whanau Committee for 2017 - Hayley, Ella, Angel and Daniel

School Pepeha

We all are going to learn our own pepeha, but first we are learning our school pepeha.

Ko Parihaka te maunga

Ko Hatea te awa

Ko Ngatokimatawhaorua te waka

Ko Ngapuhi nui tonu te iwi

Ko Hato Werahiko Kawerio te whanau

Whaea Jacqui has put our school pepeha to music and Rimu Whanau are also learning it that way.

Habits of Mind and Learning in Room 22

Each term we will focus on four of the sixteen Habits of Mind (HOM).

This term our HOM are:

Work with Others

Listen

Ask Questions

Think about Thinking

We all set one learning goal related to each of these habits of mind.  We had to think about the actions we would need to take to achieve our goals.

We also discussed what it was it would take to be a successful learn.  Here are some of our ideas.

Fingerprint - All about me

We all created our Fingerprint writing as a way to tell each other about ourselves.

Meditation

Every Monday morning, Mrs Chapman and Mrs Provan come to our class to lead us in meditation.  It is a great time to become still and to reflect.  We can meditate for about 8 minutes now.

Immersion

At the beginning of every concept the whole school is involved in an immersion activity.  This time, to help us start thinking about turangawaewae, a map of the world was drawn on the courts.  Everybody then had to stand on the country that they connected to the most.  Then at the end, we all stood on New Zealand.

Rimu Whanau

Mary McKillop - Charism

The charism and values of St Mary of the Cross MacKillop are an important part of our school.  We worked in small groups to learn more about her and how we can put her values into practice.

Comic Art

Our first art project for the year was to create our comic faces.  If you visit our class you will see us 'greeting' you as you step into the locker bay.

Powhiri

At the beginning of the year and every term we have a powhiri to welcome all the new students and staff.  The whole school (tangata whenua) gathers on the courts and Whaea Jacqui welcomes the manuhiri (visitors).  Mr Werder spoke on behalf of the school - mihi.

Room 22 - 2017

Welcome to Room 22 - Class of 2017


We have had a busy start to the year, having already visited Waitangi, competed in our annual swimming sports, started our Lenten journey on Ash Wednesday and finishing our swimming lessons on Friday.  We are now getting ready for our Kawau Island Camp which is coming up in a couple of weeks.  Our concept this term is TURANGAWAEWAE and our enduring understandings are:

Turangawaewae is a place of belonging to which we are connected and empowered. 

Jesus shows love and respect for all people, from all places, always.