School Concert

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 of several 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.

Art Gallery and Museum Trip

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.

Technology Challenge

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.

Cross Country

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.

Clutha Clued Up Kids

On 1 August the Year 6 students from Milton Primary joined students from all over the Clutha district at the recreation centre in Balclutha for the Clutha Clued Up Kids workshop. There were 10 different stations for the small groups of children to rotate around. One activity was to ride a bike around a course. It had stop signs, some cones and even a ramp. In another activity we learnt about survival in the bush and how to build a bivouac. The other activities we did during the morning were dog safety, firearms safety, beach safety, fire safety, what to do in an earthquake, how to check a helmet, and we even did one about how your brain works and how to relax. Most people don’t realise how important these keeping ourselves safe tips are but if we remember what we did here it could truly save a life one day.

Hockey Tournament

A cool morning greeted all of the brave students who were participating in the annual hockey tournament on 5 July. It was held on the second last day of term two. Teams from St Mary’s, Tokoiti, Waihola, the Catlins and Clutha Valley came over to challenge Milton Primary School. M.P.S had six teams entered but none of them made the finals. Some children got hurt in the games but they kept playing and we all had to work together to get goals and try to stop the other team from scoring. In the end the teams from the Catlins and Clutha Valley were in the final for first and second place and the team from the Catlins won. We loved having the students from the high school reffing us. It was a long and hard day but we all thought it was definitely a lot of fun!

Life Education

The Life Education bus came to Milton Primary school recently. In the senior classes, Pip and Harold, the puppet giraffe, were teaching us about cyber safety. We learnt about the importance of keeping our personal information safe and private and remembering that once we post something on the internet we have lost ownership of it. We discussed the importance of friends and that, not only is it important to have good friends, it is important for us to be a good friend to others and protect their privacy online as well as our own. We were reminded of what we learnt last year about keeping our behaviour “above the line” because the things that we say and do have a large impact on our personal reputation.

We all had fun in the Life Education bus and we look forward to it returning again next year!!! J