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.