Swimming started last Wednesday and runs for 4 weeks. Our first lesson was cut short because of a power cut so only lasted 15 minutes. Thankfully we got a full lesson this week. It is great to see the ākonga/students enjoying this opportunity.
This year Aronui (Room 4) has been fourtunate enough to have this talented group of gymnasts in our class. It is great walking around the field with the girls tumbling alongside and other students trying to copy them. They certainly bring lots of good energy into the class.
Wow! it is hard to believe that tomorrow students start returning to class.
I look forward to welcoming the Year 8’s back and reconnecting with them. Finding out what they have done over the holidays and how much they have grown!
Our new cohort of Year 7’s start on Friday, after being welcomed we will have a chance to connect in the class. A new school is always a new adventure and a chance to make some new friends.
I welcome all the students and their whanau to our school and I look forward to working alongside you.
This is a write up by one of Room 4 talented students.
On the day of Max Brown’s visit he talked about a lot of things that tie into the olympics. Max Brown also known as New Zealand athlete #1398 (he is the 1398th kiwi to participate in the olympics) among the many things Max talked about was how to have a good team and the main thing he said about it was that you need to connect with your team and another thing he said was put in the mahi which means . Do you want to know something crazy about Max’s training; he kayaks around 150 kms a week that is further than going to Palmy. So that is the definition of putting in the mahi. It would be safe to assume that he was always good at kayaking but he only started when he was 14. He is only 29 at the time I am writing this. One of the things he said was that when he was younger he said yes to everything and that gave him so many opportunities which eventually got him to the olympics. A funny story he told was when he was at the olympic house thingy where all the olympians live but while he was there on the day of his race he got so nervous that after he had eaten he ran to the center of the room and puked. Max Brown’s visit was one of the best moments in my life and I even got to meet him personally. I hope that one day I would be able to have an opportunity like that again
By Braedyn Baillie 2024
Having Max visit was really uplifting for the students.
Today for Smart Media we created our own media. Students were supposed to create two word clouds, one when they are out with friends or fsamily and one where they are at school. We are looking at how media is created for particular purposes.
Have you tried using word cloud? It is quite fun.
Today we touched on the Paralympics. This was introduced through a short video clip this morning and then a game of Chair Football. Two teams were trying to score goals however the students had to remain sitting on their chairs. They were only allowed to use their feet and could swivel on their chairs so long as their backsides remained firmly in the seat. The game started slow as they tried out what worked and what didn’t. This version of football lead to some great communication between the students as they needed to work together in new ways in order to score goals. There were chances to change the position of their seats during the game and some really strategic choices were made. I think this game helped students to experience sport in a different way. This was followed up by a module about the paralympic games.
Finishing the term with a Shared Kai time was fantastic. The students were really happy and once they had finished eating it was time for Blooket fun. The students and my eldest daughter, Tiana who came in to help were all very competitive. There was loads of trash talk and fun had by those who joined in.
During week 10 of Term 2, we created some Matariki Art work.
This was a relaxed way to reconnect as I had just returned from 6 weeks of medical leave. I was very proud of the work the students finished. 
First the students had to do a paint/water wash over our page.
Next they drew a star (or a picture) on paper and coloured it in.
The star or stars (picture) were added to our background and they added the name of their chosen star to the page.
They we allowed to add up to three stickers to their artwork.
This morning we were visited by the SUPP team who talked about Vapes.
We started by looking at advertisements for smoking and then vapes and who the advertisements were aimed at.
The purpose of vapes was discussed, as a tool to help people to give up smoking.
It was mentioned how they are tested as a food product but not tested fro us to breathe in. It contains sweetener which is a laxitive and how vapes contain solvents (like anti-feeze).
34 countries in the world have banned vapes.
Vape juice is poisonous for under 2’s and can kill them. The importance of keeping them out of reach was discussed.
Vapes can harm lungs and negatively affect sports people.
Then there was a talk about ways to say no to vapes.
Some lucky students got a water bottle for helping out.
During the school holidays I have been attending some learning about how to improve our class site and the blogs we are doing as a class. Next term I would like for us to explore this set of slides and look at how we can improve the blogs that we are sharing.
I am looking forward to including some blogs about events or things that are happening that you are interested in. Then we can explore other classroom members blogs to learn more about them and the things they like.