Inter-School Sports Gala

On the 25^th of February Year 6 students from Milton Primary, Tokoiti School and St Mary’s went to the High School for the sports gala.The activities were split up into two rooms because of the weather.The two rooms were the hall and the gym. The most popular activity was the hockey and also the game called Batman Splat which was when you have to run up, jump onto a gym mat and then it would slide across the court and you would have to keep doing it and the first one to get across the other side wins. In the hall there was this very complicated game where you hold hands in a circle but you can’t hold hands with the person beside you and you have to try and get out without letting the other person’s hand go. Halfway through the day there was a morning tea break where all the children could play with whatever they wanted and the most popular thing would have had to be the ropes which everybody swung on and some people even climbed to the top. At the end of the day there was a BBQ lunch when all the kids got a sausage and a fizzy drink. Apart from a few minor injuries everybody had a good, fun time. 

Athletic Sports

On Thursday the 18^th of February it was the Milton Schools Athletics day. St Marys and Tokoiti came to participate with us. All of the events started at 9.30am and went to around 2.00pm. Lots of parents and caregivers came to cheer their children along as well as their school. These were all of the events: high jump, long jump, mini hurdles, 100 metre sprints, 200 metres, 800 metres, shot put and discus. Each child put in a one hundred and one percent effort. At the end of the day children went home with a red face and a smile with tomato sauce over it from the delicious sausage sizzle at lunchtime provided by Home and School helpers. The 800 metre run was the longest and made us puff and slow down a little bit more at the end of the race. Everyone tried their hardest and our best wishes go to the children who qualified for the South Otago sports in Balclutha. It was a great day but everyone’s bones would have been very stiff and sore the next day!!

Mandarin

Our new mandarin teacher, Ceci, took her first lesson with the class on Tuesday. She started off by going over some of the simple greetings we had learnt previously but in a fun way. She introduced a glove puppet and whoever caught it had to come up the front, put the glove puppet on, and say simple greetings in mandarin. She also taught us a catchy song which we all enjoyed singing. It is fun to learn a different language and we are looking forward to many more interesting mandarin lessons throughout the year.

2016

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.
 

Sports Activator Visit

On Monday 2 November, Rory, the sports activator came to our school. Each time he visits we work on a different set of skills. This time, the sport that he wanted us to learn to play was softball so we began our lesson with a small ball skills session. First we buddied up with a partner and practised catching. Next, we practised pitching the ball underarm. We learnt that the pitch has to pass the batter between the shoulders and the knees to be a fair pitch. Finally we learnt some of the rules for softball and then put them into practice during a game. It was a lot of fun and quite a few runs were scored.

Cricket Coaching

On Wednesday 21 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 fielding  practice. We had to be careful when picking the tennis ball up and placing it on a cone or else it would fall off  and roll away. It taught us the importance of getting down low and keeping our eyes over 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.

Emergency Drills

On Thursday 15 October, the school participated in the nationwide "Shake Out" event which is about raising awareness of what to do if an earthquake strikes. At 9.15 we practised our earthquake drill inside our classroom. We had to duck, cover and hold which means we had to get under our desks, cover our heads and hold onto the leg of our desk in case it moved. We also watched a series of videos made by famous New Zealanders which all had the same message about what to do in an earthquake. Later in the morning, the whole school practised our emergency evacuation procedure or fire drill. Finally we practised what to do in case we are caught outside when an earthquake strikes. We all thought it was a good opportunity for us to learn about what to do in case we are involved in a real emergency.