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 events and 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.
On
19 November the Year 6’s went off to Camp Tirohanga which is near Mosgiel.We
arrived at camp and got our stuff unpacked then we set off to Dive Otago. The
scuba diving and snorkeling was lots offun.The scuba divers enjoyed diving down to the bottom of the pool. Then
we made our way to the Portobello Aqauriam where we went on a tour around the
place looking at the different types of sea creatures. On Tuesday it was beach
day.We went to the St Kilda Life Saving Club to learn about water safety and
sun safety but unfortunately it was too cold and wet to have a swim in the sea.
On Wednesday we did some activites around camp like rifle shooting, archery and
orienteering and we also had a man from the Red Cross do a first aid course
with us.The next day we built bivouacs which was hard work.We went on a bush
walk and compared the pine forest to the native bush. You can really see the
contrast.We did an obstacle course, a blindfolded activity called Nightline,
some old fashioned indoor games, and bounced on the camp’s new trampolines. After
that we had a go at the water slide. It was probably one of the most fun
activities. On Thursday night we had camp graduation and we each stood up and
talked about our achievements at camp. On Friday the man from Red Cross came
back to do the second half of the first aid course and present us with
certificates. We did some sketching of the camp, played a couple of final
games, and then it was time to go home. We all had a great week at camp despite
the atrocious weather.
On 14 November the Year 5 and 6 children held a Christmas Market
in and around the school hall. They were selling a wide variety of Christmas
themed goods such as Christmas decorations, ornaments and many different types
of Christmas sweet treats.
The purpose of this exercise was to explore with the children the
concept of “Enterprise”. They had to do the maths to find out the actual cost
of making their items and determine a reasonable selling price so that they
could make the maximum amount of profit. Their incentive was that they got to
keep whatever profit they made. There were some very high quality goods for
sale and some children displayed considerable entrepreneurial skills.
It really was a very interesting and worthwhile project and we would
like to thank all the parents who contributed to making the market such a
successful venture for our students.
On Wednesday afternoon and Thursday
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 several items by
the kapa haka group. This year the items
were performed in whanau groups rather than individual classes. The items on
the programme consisted ofseveral
high energy dance numbers, an action song, some short plays and two songs
performed by MP3, the school’s band. This was enhanced by some wonderful
lighting, sound effects and digital displays organised by our amazing tech
crew.
At the end of the night the
seniors performed some entertaining syndicate singing for the audience.There
was a raffle and several prizes were won. The hall was full to bursting on the
Thursday night and nearly as full on the Wednesday. The concert was enjoyed by everyone.
It was a wonderful afternoon on Wednesday and an even better performance on Thursday
evening.
On 12 September we visited the Otago Museum and the Dunedin Art Gallery. The purpose of these visits was to support our conceptual focus for this term which is "Past, Present and Future." Our first stop was at the museum where we enjoyed our three quarter hour visit to the planetarium. We learnt many interesting facts about our solar system and about how to identify various constellations. Another context we have been studying is "Ancient Civilisations" and we were fascinated to learn about the Egyptian tradition of mummification.
At the art gallery we discussed many aspects of life in Space. John told us stories about Matariki, taught us an action song, and how to play the theme to "Star Wars" on bells. We looked through some 3D glasses to see the world as an alien would see it and we listened to some "alien" communications. We then returned to the classroom to complete a stunning mural depicting assorted spacecraft and creatures.
It really was a very interesting and worthwhile trip and we look forward to continuing our studies on these topics back at school.
The topic we are studying at the moment is
Space. Our homework challenge for the last month has been to work with our
parents to make either a spacecraft, a space station, a satellite, or a model
of our solar system. The children did an amazing job and have produced some fantastic creations as can be seen in the photos below.
On 23 August, the Milton Area Schools Cross
Country was held at Tokoiti School. The track was a 2km course around their
school field and some neighbouring paddocks. The junior children had a much
smaller track of about half a kilometre. It was a nice sunny day and the
grounds weren’t muddy at all. The Years 3, 4, 5, and 6’s who finished in the
first five of their races got to go down to the South Otago champs in Clinton
on 23 August. After their race, the children were very puffed and hot with all
the effort they put in. There were heaps of parents and family members there to
watch their children. Every child should be very proud of themselves for
competing so well and congratulations to those who qualified for the South Otago champs.
