Family Fun Night

On Wednesday 15 February we had family fun night. This event was combined with a Meet the Teacher evening. There was a shared dinner of finger food at 6.30 and before and after that, parents visited teachers classrooms to talk about things like how to help your child at home. Meanwhile, there were some fun games happening outside. There were people playing basketball and others playing cricket. There were also moonhoppers to bounce around on, and the always popular sponge race and water balloon target throw. It was a fabulous evening of community fun and a great way to start the school year.

Swimming

We were all delighted to be able to get straight into swimming instruction right from the first day of the school year. We were also fortunate that the weather stayed fine for us so we haven’t missed any swimming days so far. In this block of swimming, we focus on practising the basic swimming strokes eg freestyle and backstroke. We use equipment such as floatboards to work on our leg action and once we have mastered that we go on to work on arm action and breathing. Many children have made tremendous progress and some of our best swimmers will compete in the South Otago champs later in the term. At the end of the year we will have another block of swimming when the focus will be on water safety.

2017

2017

It's great to be back for what promises to be another exciting year for the students in Room 8. The children have settled into their work very quickly and our classroom routines are already well established. There will be regular updates to our class blog throughout the year including samples of the children’s work and photos of the children participating in a variety of different activities. You are encouraged to make regular visits to the blog to check out any updates and leave a comment if you would like to.

Cricket Coaching

On Thursday 20 October Dion came from the Otago Cricket Association to teach us some cricket skills. First we warmed up by playing a game of ball tag. After that we did some catching practice. We had to be careful when catching the tennis ball to make sure we followed the ball with our eyes right into our hands. We practised with a partner and by throwing the ball up in the air and clapping while it was coming down. It taught us the importance of getting our hands in the right position and keeping our eyes on the ball. The next skill we practised was bowling. We learnt the correct technique and the importance of keeping our bowling arm straight. Dion explained that our front arm was like a pulling a chain except that we were actually pulling our bowling arm into position to bowl the ball. We spent a lot of time practising bowling at sets of wickets. It was fun and we will try to apply these skills the next time we play cricket.

Golf

When the sports activator last visited we had a session learning about the basic skills of golf. First we had to learn how to pick up the club and hold it correctly. We learnt about the importance of keeping our heads down and keeping our eyes on the ball. We started out using quite a large ball which was easy to hit but didn’t go very far. Next we moved onto the tennis ball which was a bit harder to hit but went much further and finally we got to use a soft golf ball. Some children had trouble hitting this small sized ball off the tee but others were able to hit it quite a long way. We enjoyed our first experience of playing golf.

School Concert

On Monday afternoon and Tuesday evening of the last week of the term, Milton Primary School students performed a concert at the Toko High School hall. The evening began with the whole school singing  two songs which were followed by several items by the kapa haka group.  The other items on the programme consisted of several high energy dance numbers, a performance of a maori legend by most of the junior classes, and three songs performed by MP3, the school’s band.

At the end of the night the seniors performed some entertaining syndicate singing for the audience.There was a raffle and many prizes were won. The hall was full to bursting on the Tuesday night and nearly as full on the Monday. The concert was enjoyed by everyone. It was a wonderful afternoon on Monday and an even better performance on Tuesday evening.

Technology Challenge

This term we have been learning about space. For our technology challenge we had to design and build something to do with space. Some of the ideas we came up with were a space vehicle, a costume, or a model of our solar system. We have been able to work on this project since the start of the term and we were allowed to get our parents to help us make them. There was a wide variety of creations produced and the standard was very high. Thanks to all the parents who assisted with this project.