Life Education

The Life Education bus came to Milton Primary school recently. Pip and Harold, the puppet giraffe, were teaching us about peer pressure. We learnt about the tricks that other people might use to try to get us to do things that we know are wrong.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. 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

School Concert

On the 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. This year's theme was "Bedtime Stories" and each class based their item around a different story 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 the amazing tech crew.

At the end of the night the whole school performed two songs accompanied by the band. 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.

Technology Challenge

This term we are exploring the concept of change. One if the concepts we have chosen to investigate is "Disasters". The children were presented with the challenge of creating a diorama depicting the scene of a disaster, creating a model of an active volcano, or making a survival kit. They had six weeks to complete this homework task and were encouraged to enlist the support of their parents to help them. They presented their creations to the class on Friday and explained what they had made, how they had made them, and what they had learnt about the disaster they have been researching. As is always the case with these sorts of challenges, the standard of work that the children produced was extremely high. Well done everyone!

Cross Country

On 13 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 wintry day and the grounds were muddy but that’s all part of a cross country event. The Years 3, 4, 5, and 6’s who finished in the first five of their races get to go down to the South Otago champs. After their race, the children were very puffed and hot with all the effort they put in. By the time the older children finished their races they were very cold and wet! There were lots 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 31 July 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 mild, sunny morning greeted all of the enthusiastic students who were participating in the annual hockey tournament that was held at Milton Primary School on Wednesday 3 July. A large number of teams from St Mary’s, Waiwera South, Waitahuna, Catlins, Lawrence, Waihola, Kaitangita, and Clutha Valley came over to challenge Milton Primary School.  M.P.S had seven teams entered but unfortunately none of them made it into the semis. Some children got hurt in the games (mostly from being accidentally hit by an opponent’s stick), 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 Clutha Valley beat St Mary’s in a thrilling final that went into overtime. 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!

Visiting Author

Last week a visiting author named Raymond Huber came to the school to talk to the senior classes. He has had over twenty books published and he showed some of these to the students. After that, he led a workshop with the children in which he explained how he goes about writing a story and introduced the children to some new planning techniques. He was impressed with some of the students' writing and gave them some feedback about what they had done well and some suggestions about other ways of improving their writing. He showed us how he goes about editing his work and explained the importance of writing a good introduction which sets the scene for the story. It was a very interesting session and the children were enthusiastic about trying to use what they had learnt in their own writing.