Term 4

Welcome back to another term.  Term 4 is only 9 weeks but it will be a busy 9 weeks.  Mrs Hutchins is back.  We have our Feast Day in Week 2, Speech competition against St Joseph's in Week 3, our Wellington EOTC experience in Week 6 as well as continuing with all our classroom work.

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!

Science Investigation

Which parachute will float the longest???

We had to design a fair test to see which of our 3 parachutes would float the longest.

Some of us made 3 parachutes out of the same material (mainly plastic bags) but made them different sizes.

Others of us made 3 parachutes the same size but out of different materials.

We had great fun testing our parachutes from a great height in the playground.

Buddy Reading

Each day we buddy up with a child from Rm 10.  We listen to their reading and spelling and they share their story writing with us.

More Word Clouds

Ripper Rugby Tournament

Today the St Mary's students were involved in an interschool Ripper Rugby tournament.  The two Year 7/8 teams had a thoroughly enjoyable time even though they did not have great success on the field!!

Hockey

Our skills have certainly developed since we began our sessions with Matt.

Soccer Tournament

Last Thursday, our netball teams participated in a TACS Tournament which meant that our soccer teams for the lunch time game were seriously short.  However, with each team having 6 players each the boys were ready to take each other on.  Rm 3 Year 8s were victorious over Rm 1 Years 8s.  Confidence is growing - they believe they are going to take out the tournament!

Writing

To conclude our study on Spanish speaking countries, each student had to plan and write a response to all they had learnt.  Our focus was to organise our ideas into paragraphs.  Here are some more of the best pieces.  Can you work out what the main idea from each paragraph is?

Over Term 2, my class and I have been learning about Spanish speaking countries.  We have designed posters, completed reading tasks on different countries and found out what the countries sports are.

In Room 3, my class and I designed a poster each, of a country of our choice.  I choose to do mine on Argentina.  Argentina is an interesting country to research.  Did you know that Argentina’s capital city, Buenos Aires, has the largest avenue in the world?  It is so big, it has 21 lanes and you have to go underground to cross it.  Another tourist attraction is Iquazu Falls.  It is 80 metres high and is a fabulous place for a family photo.  It is also the home of the bot fly so make sure you have insect repellant!

About one week after we had completed our posters we got assigned some tasks to complete.  The task I chose was one where you had to find out how they celebrate special occasions.  I did mine on Puerto Rico.  The Puerto Ricans enjoy celebrations; in fact, nearly every day of the year is part of a special occasion.  The most important celebration in the Puerto Rican year is Christmas.  The Puerto Ricans love Christmas so much that they don’t want it to end.  Christmas in Puerto Rico goes from December 25^th to January 15^th.

Nearly every Spanish country I researched lately has had a main sport.  Most of them are soccer (that’s football to them).  The soccer we play here is a lot different than over there.  The crowd shout and scream, they have a variety of players to pick from and they play the game 90% mental and 10% physical.  Most of the Spanish speaking countries soccer teams have won FIFA World Cups.  If they haven’t, they have a least made the quarter finals.

I have enjoyed learning about the Spanish speaking countries and one day I hope to visit one.

Kody

Over the past weeks this term we have been studying Spanish speaking countries.  At first we were just learning about countries that just speak Spanish but then we were introduced to the language they speak today.

To be honest, I thought at first that it would be hard, but then when we were into it all, it didn’t have to take much skill.  Some of the words they use are the same as ours but they will only have one or two different letters.

Also for Theme we have been learning about famous people that were Spanish.  One of the most famous explorers of all time happened to be Spanish.  His name was Christopher Columbus and he was the first to discover South America.  He also persuaded the King and Queen of Spain five times but he was crueler than you think, he massacred an entire race of people he met.

We also did research for countries that spoke Spanish.  One of the countries I did was Mexico which has many different interesting facts.  One of them is that many Mexicans moved to America to work because 1 US dollar is equivalent to 11 pesos.  Also Mexico has many spicy mouth watery food that they eat every day.

Personally I reckon that it has been fun learning Spanish.  This has been one of the fun subjects for theme but I can’t wait to find out what our next subject is.  Hasta Luego.

Shea

This year my class has researched Spanish speaking countries.  We have learnt about Spanish food, celebrations, phrases, numbers and Spanish sports.  Spanish have different ways of living their lives than we do here in NZ.

The Spanish have a lot of tradition and celebration, a lot more than we do.  One celebration they have is called “La Tomatina”.  At this sticky celebration 30 000 Spanish flock to the Spanish town of Bunol to throw 240 000 pounds of tomatoes at each other.  One tradition the villagers of a country side town have is called “Castilla La Mancha”.  When the young boys of the village dress up as devils and dance around.  This is celebrated in February.

One Spanish country I researched is called Spain.  Spain has a variety of animals but only one is native to Spain and it is called the Liberian Lynx.  The Spanish play many sports like golf, soccer, football, water polo, tennis and cycling.  Rafael Nadal is considered the best tennis player of all time and he comes from Spain.

My class and I have learnt to speak Spanish as well as learning about Spanish countries.  We have learnt to count to 20.  We also learnt to ask “What’s your name?” in Spanish – “Coma te llamas”.  We can also say Hello and Goodbye – “Buenos dias” is good morning and goodbye is “Hasta luego”.

Sam

Word Clouds

The challenge for homework this week was to create a Word Cloud all about themselves.

Writing

To conclude our study on Spanish speaking countries, each student had to plan and write a response to all they had learnt.  Our focus was to organise our ideas into paragraphs.  Here are some of the best pieces.  Can you work out what the main idea from each paragraph is?

Celebrations.  What comes to mind when you hear that word?  Christmas, Easter, a birthday or Halloween.  Many cultures celebrate these events but in different ways.  In some Spanish speaking countries, they have Day of the Dead, which is kind of like Halloween.  They dress up in costumes, scare each other and go watch plays that make fun of the dead.  They also make and decorate sugar skulls, which are edible and sweet.

They also have Three Kings Day, which celebrates the three kings – Balthazar, Caspar and Mekhior.  The people (especially children) make paper crowns and dress up.  Adults make giant puppets.  There is also a parade that everyone can join in.

Columbus Day is celebrated every year on October 12.  Christopher Columbus founded the Americas in 1492 on October 12^th.  That is why it is celebrated.

Spanish speaking countries also have lots of different foods as well.  In Mexico a popular dessert is flan.  Flan is like custard jelly - custard stuck together but not frozen and usually served with berries.  Guacamole and salsa are Mexican.  Tacos are Mexican.  Tacos are baked shells that you put filling of your choice in.  Churos are very popular.  They are fluted strips of dough covered in sugar and cinnamon.

Spain has different food to Mexico.  The Spanish love prawns.  Most of their dishes are prawn dishes.  Even omelets.  A Spanish meal that is crunchy, tender and has the most delicious smell is roasted baby pig.  One very popular snack is wedges.  Wedges are spicy potato chips cut into crescent shapes.

Niamh

Researching about Spanish speaking countries has been really fun and I have learnt lots about different countries around the world.  There are just over 20 countries that speak Spanish around the world, like Chile, Peru, Spain, Argentina, Bolivia, Mexico, Venezuela and many more.  The countries I found facts about were Mexico, Chile, Spain, Colombia, Guatemala and Cuba.

My favourite country that I researched would have to be Mexico.  I liked researching Mexico because I found lots about it.  Some of the facts I found out about some countries are that in Mexico they have 31 states and each one has it’s own leader.  Also Mexico was its own country in 1821.  Another thing is that in 1492 Cuba was discovered and in Chile they celebrate by having festivals.  Also in Colombia, salsa is a traditional dance.  Guatemala is located in Central America and did you know that the population in Cuba is 11 241.

In Mexico they have a lot of different foods.  Some of their food we don’t have in New Zealand but some is the same but made differently.  Some different food from Mexico are churros which is a straight fried donut covered in cinnamon and sugar.  Also flan which is a dessert that is a vanilla or caramel custard dessert.  Some food that is made differently are salsa and nacho chips or tacos.

So as I finish my story on Spanish speaking countries, I would so love to visit one of these countries and see how life is different over there.  For me, I would love to go to Mexico.

Eden

Tech Arts Week 9

In Electronics, we were burning some wires together with a super hot iron .

Jacob learnt to be careful after finding how hot the iron really was.

In Food Technology today we learnt how to make wedges.  We could choose from cajan pepper, mixed herbs, mustard powder, curry powder, cumin and paprika to add flavour to our wedges.  Bennett and Matthew from Room 1 had the best presentation.

In Wood and Plastics, we started cutting the wood that we are going to use for the side of our boxes.

This post was created by Vince, Justin and Caleb

Cultural Day 2012

Today we celebrated the cultures that are represented at school.  We dressed up in something reflective of our culture.  After a parade of the classes, we shared a meal together.  There were A LOT of pavlovas!!!!  

Soccer Tournament

The Year 7s took on Rm 2 Year 8s and suffered a loss :(

Hockey Week 9

This week during our hockey session, we practised our juggling skills, learnt "HockeyRush" and went one on one with our classmates.

"HockeyRush"

Matt taught us how to play "HockeyRush" today.  It was great fun.

Following Instructions

Our literacy focus for the rest of the term is Procedures.  The challenge today was to read and follow instructions to make an origami bird.  Just as well we only practised with scrap paper first!!!  Some of us were more successful than others.

Soccer Tournament

After a loss against Rm 1 Yr 8s on Friday, Rm 3 Yr 7s were victorious against Rm 1 Yr 7s at lunchtime today.

Hockey Skills

Each Monday we have Matt from Hockey Hawkes Bay take us for hockey skills.  Today we learnt how to juggle the ball.  One of the games we played involved hitting someone else's ball out of the area while still staying in control of our own.

Spanish artworks

Mrs Hoogerbrug and Mrs Hawke set us up to create Spanish Artworks.  We painted Jean Miro and Pablo Picasso, used pastel for Pablo Picasso and searched magazines to create a Dada collage.  Rooms 1 and 2 also created Spanish Artworks.  All three cloakbays are looking amazing with the art.  Mrs Jackson took photos of all the artwork on display.