Anti Bullying Week

This week we have been doing a series of activities to help us gain a greater understanding of what bullying is, how to deal with it, and how to prevent it from happening. In one activity we traced around one of our hands and then wrote on each finger the name of someone who could help us if we were being bullied. In another activity we drew a picture of ourselves, swapped it with a partner who then screwed it up. When we were told to try to flatten out the creases we realised that no matter how hard we tried, the creases could still be seen. This reminded us that the effects of bullying cannot be removed just by saying you are sorry. Finally, we sat in a circle and tossed a ball of string to someone else in the class while paying them a compliment. We ended up with an interconnected web of string to remind us that we all have a support network to help us whenever we need someone to talk to or help us.

Pitcher Plants

Last week Mrs Kaye brought along a pitcher plant for us to investigate. Pitcher plants are several different carnivorous plants which have special types of leaves which trap the insects that these plants feed on. After close observation and a class discussion about them, we carried out some research to find out more about pitcher plants and recorded our findings on an observation worksheet.

Art Gallery/Toitu Trip

On Wednesday 10 April Rooms 7 and 8 went to the Art Gallery and Toitu on a bus trip. Room 7 went to the art gallery first and Room 8 went to Toitu. At Toitu we discussed what life was like in early New Zealand and what it was like to travel on a boat for four months from the other side of the world. We watched a slideshow about what Dunedin looked like when it was first settled and then we went on a treasure hunt to find out interesting facts about the gold rush days. At the Art Gallery we watched a movie about life for the Chinese settlers in the gold rush days and we discussed some of the art works in the gallery about gold. Finally we created a wonderful mural about the gold rush for our classroom wall. Some examples of our work have been posted on the Art Gallery’s website. It was a very enjoyable day!

Year 6 Camp Stall Fundraiser

On Thursday 4 April, the Year 6 children had their camp stall. It was held in the school hall at lunchtime. There was a huge crowd of people buying all sorts of things. It was amazing looking at all the different things people were selling. They were selling things like baking, toys, lollies, drinks, popcorn etc. They had to make posters saying what they were selling at their stall, as well as the price. Most things were either $1.00 or 50c. The Year 6’s made $470.50 from the camp stall which was a huge success and we really appreciate all the parent help we received to prepare our goods for sale. Now we can’t wait until we head off to camp in November!

Edison Robots

Last Friday a teacher from another school came to teach us about how to program an Edison robot. First we learnt how to connect the robot to a laptop so that it could receive instructions. We learnt what the various buttons on the robot did. From a website we were able to pick the commands we wanted to give to the robot. With our instructions selected, we were ready to start. If our instructions didn’t work we had to try again. Sometimes it was hard to find what our mistake was. We could get them to move but not always where we wanted them to go. So it was back to the drawing board. The visiting teacher said she was impressed with our perseverance. Our challenge was to program the robot to move around in the shape of a square. We had a lot of fun playing with the robots and trying to complete the challenges.

School Fair

On Saturday 16th March, Milton Primary School had its school fair. This year’s fair had a circus theme and there were a lot of activities based around this theme. There were a lot of fun things to do including sponge throw, a bouncy castle, paintball, horse riding, gumboot throw, zorbs, and many other interesting activities. Lots of people also contributed to the raffles. Thank you to those who donated the wonderful prizes for these. The sponge throw was really fun and the willing victims got thoroughly soaked. In the paintball you had to shoot the paintballs and try to hit the targets. Also there was a baking sale and there were a lot of sweet treats to buy. Thanks to all the people who contributed to help set everything up. It was a massive fundraiser for the school. 

The Wax Museum

In Room 8 we have been exploring the concept of “Success” by researching the achievements of famous New Zealanders. Each child was asked to  select a different person to study and create a display about them. They also created a  backdrop, gathered together appropriate clothing and props, and on Thursday 14 March they dressed up and posed as their famous New Zealander in our version of a wax museum.  This project was done in conjunction with our buddy class in California whose wax museum on Famous Americans was on display at exactly the same time! Afterwards, the children created short videos of themselves posing as their famous New Zealander and explaining why they are famous. These videos have been shared with their American penpals.