Vocation

Father Vince bought Ferdinand along to St Mary's today.  Ferdinand is from the Philippines and spent 10 years in the seminary over there.  He is now studying in Auckland and will be ordained in NZ and become part of the Palmerston North diocese.  Ferdinand spoke to us about a vocation being a call from God.  At the age of 16 he decided he wanted to be a priest but his parents and grandmother were not supportive.  They encouraged him to experience the world first.  As Ferdinand said, to have an appreciation of the world showed him how great God is.

Bronze Medal

We were treated to a visit from Westley Gough today.  He was one of the NZ track cycling team who won a bronze medal in the Teams Pursuit.  We were lucky enough to be able to touch the medal and it really is as heavy as it looks!  Westley spoke about how setting small achievable goals is the best way to work towards the bigger goals.  While he won his medal on the track, he is also a keen road cyclist and encouraged us to sign up for the Tour of the Bay later in the year.

Tech Arts Week 7

Knights of the Southern Cross

Last week, we had visitors from the Catholic Discipleship College in Auckland.  After teaching us a fun game, they acted out the story of the Good Samaritan.  We got into groups and discussed the message in the story.  Our challenge was to recreate the story in a modern way.  Some of us set our story at school so that it was relevant to us and how we live our lives.

Descriptive Language

The mouse ran quickly to the cheese like a torpedo.  Mum was trying to hit the mouse.  It was like a game of pac man.  I saw the mouse coming my way.  I jumped like a little girl.

Jacob

Complex Sentences

Mrs Jackson has been showing us different examples of complex sentences.

Here are some of the best ones we have written this week:

She sat down on the couch, with a glass of cold water, to read her book.  
Eden

The wind picked up, the sky turned dark and the temperature dropped.
Eden

The next morning, packed with lunches and covered in sunblock, the children set off down the cliff path to explore the cave.
Gloria

I reach the shallows, where the mothers and babies are playing, and stumble up the beach.
Blake

FutureInTech

Two fabulous FutureInTech Ambassadors, Rob and Hayley, visited our Senior school to tell us all about their jobs, and about their science journey towards where they are now. 

Rob is an Earth Scientist and studied the Sciences and Geography at High School. All of his interests involve being outside and exploring wild open spaces. He completed his Degree at Massey University and now works for the company Fulton Hogan. He has particular knowledge about volcanoes and earthquakes.

Hayley is from Waipawa and has a Zoology degree. She studied at Otago University. During High School Hayley found the Sciences particularly interesting. Hayley has always enjoyed being outdoors and she knew she never wanted a job that would involve sitting behind a desk. After leaving uni she travelled to Canada and worked in the mountains caring for a Grizzly Bear named Boo. Her job now is in Biosecurity and she is a Vector Controller, which involves eradicating possums. 

Possums can carry a nasty disease called TB, which is easily transferred to cows.

Thank you Rob and Hayley for telling us about your jobs.

News Report

We have been experimenting with report writing over the last few weeks and have had to write about current events or things that have been happening in our lives. Check out Kody's sport report...

“Everywhere the ball went there were blue shirts,” said the disappointed Southampton supoprter.  It was Saturday morning when Manchester City ventured onto the field to find the Southampton side ready to go.  The league leaders had a quick start and managed to steal a goal in the first 10 minutes of the match.  It seemed a fluke when Southampton scored the equaliser in the 23rd minute and that’s when the miracles began.  It was Manchester City’s corner and Rodwell made a sloppy pass.  Southampton was on the break.  The red shirts were everywhere, when suddenly, Davies smashed the ball into the top corner and Southampton had the lead.  Later on in the game Tevez equalised for Manchester City and then in the 90th minute, Nasri drilled the ball straight through Southampton’s defense, into the back of the net.  Manchester City finished the season as they started it in a 3 - 2 win.  Manchester City is now coming 5th with 3 points on the league table.

Cross Country Training

Our first day out training this week. There were some promising improvements on last week. It's going to be hard to pick the top runners for the school competition.

Netball Tournament

It was great to get out in the sunshine for our netball tournament this afternoon.

Tech Arts Week 5

Hard at work in Materials Technology, Electronics, Media Studies and Art.

Science Fair - Year 8 Boys

Here are the Science Investigations completed by the Year 8 boys.

Science Fair - Year 8 Girls

Check out the Science Investigations completed by the Year 8 girls

Science Fair - Year 7 Boys

Here are the Science Investigations completed by the Year 7 boys

Science Fair - Year 7 Girls

Check out the great investigations from the Year 7 girls

Science Fair

It's that time of year again and this afternoon we started to put our presentations together.  Considering there were 2 classes in our room busy cutting, arranging and glueing, it was relatively stress free.  We have left quite a mess though - we know what we'll be doing in the morning!

Monster on the Motorway

We read a journal story about a teacher, dressed as a lion, causing mayhem on the motorway!  We turned the story into an informative report for the newspaper.

Motorists are shocked after a horrific event on the Auckland motorway which seemed to include a school teacher dressed in a lion outfit.  The teacher, Mr Timms, was on his way to celebrate the first day of Book Week.  Dogs were rabid, truck drivers fainted and a baby was frightened.  A police officer was on duty but had a son in his class so was let off with a wave and a friendly warning.

Niamh

Motorists struggled to get anywhere yesterday morning due to an incident caused by what appeared to be a homemade lion.  Mr Timms, a local teacher at St Mary’s School, was wearing a lion costume for the annual Book Week, and was heading to work on the State A5 highway.  At first babies were howling, but then it led to dogs barking, people fainting and a heap of stress and commotion that caused the traffic to be delayed.  Fortunately for Mr Timms, the police let him off with a warning and traffic was back on the move.

Shea

Motorists on the Auckland highway spotted what appeared to be a homemade lion.  Upon closer inspection, it was revealed that it was a primary school teacher dressed up as a “monster” for his students’ Book Week.  The unusual apparel caused commotion involving dogs, trucks, and a baby that were frightened by the mask.  An officer was sent to investigate and came back laughing.

Kieran

Reach out in Kindness

Yesterday was the Feast Day of Mary MacKillop.  We shared a story that showed what a kind woman she was, putting the needs of others before her own.  We reflected on how we could "Reach out in Kindness" to those who are important in our lives and had to come up with our own way to visually show this.  Here are two excellent examples.

Olympic Gold

In response to Nathan Cohen and Joseph Sullivan winning our first gold medal, Mrs Jackson set us the challenge of "showing" not "telling" about the moment.

How well do you think these writers did?

We were extremely nervous.  A mixture of anxiety, tension, nervousness and adrenalin was coursing through our bodies.  We exchanged a glance.  The hopes of all New Zealand were riding on us.  That was at the start.  Now, we are whopping with elated glee as we celebrate our victory.  Yes, that’s right – GOLD MEDALS.  We had received an unusual burst of strength as we powered through the water towards the finishing line.  I’m not being vain or anything, but I knew we were going to win, because we are the champions, my friend ……

Kieran

Suspense filled my tangled emotions as if it was being eaten as I watched Nathan Cohen and Joseph Sullivan accelerate down the river.  It was heart breaking that they had 500m left and were so far behind Italy and Slovenia.  But all of a sudden, the intense waiting ended – they broke free from the chains that kept them behind, and surged past the rowers of Italy and Slovenia, to claim their gold medals.  It was nail biting to watch but it was a magnificent finish.

Sam

500m to go.  I was leaning into the TV.  Even though we were watching it from half way around the globe, it was still so intense.  We’re creeping up from 4^th place in the rowing.

The water rippled around the boats.  2^nd place.  1^st place.  They were in the lead.  It was so overwhelming when Nathan Cohen and Joseph Sullivan past the finish line and won gold for New Zealand.  Arms up, the crowd was going crazy and so were we.

Niamh

Poems

In response to our reading tasks this week, we had to write a poem to show our understanding.  Michael and Jayde each wrote and acrostic poem that clearly showed what their story was about.

Rushing through the water

Oars ripping through the sea

Wind rushing in my hair

Into the ocean

Nearing my destination, I’m

Going to make it.  Yes I’m here

Michael

Picturing himself at the finish line coming first

Over and over he could see himself winning

Ravenous for first place, Poros jogged over to the starting line

On Dikon’s back, Poros watched a bead of sweat dripping down

Scared and excited at the same time

Oh no, the race will start soon

False starts mean getting whipped!

Male athletes were naked

Adrenalin pumped through Poros’ body - literally

Losing was not an option for Poros

Imagining himself winning wasn’t enough; he had to win!

After all Poros won, because he was unbeatable of course!

Jayde

Tech Arts

Another busy week at Tech Arts.  This was our final session at Food Tech, Electronics and Materials Tech.  We are looking forward to our new challenge next session.

Balloon Rockets

Mrs Jackson posed the question  

"By adding rocket like features to a balloon, can we change the direction it flies?"

We had great fun experimenting.  Some of us were more successful than others!