Week nine - 11 December

In our last week of learning we are trying a different type of lolly lei.  This lei is a little more difficult but I am enjoying watching the children persist.  

Week 8 - 04 December

Nau mai haere mai.  This week is prize giving week and in room 17 we made lolly leis for our prize winners.  For most of the class they had seen leis before and have even watched them being made but have never made them, themselves.  It was a thoroughly awesome experience.  As prize winners from our class were called a member of our class went to present the winner with a lei.

Week seven - 27 November

Here are some highlights from our week.  From getting new sand, to prize giving practise, waiata in our class and our school assembly.

Week six - 20 November 2017

Camp Carey

Day one highlights

week five - 13 November

Tennis Tournament

For the past five weeks we have been learning how to play Tennis with Coach Chris Brown.  He has taught us the overhead smash, back hand, forehand, to volley.  Today we were having a tournament with room 18.

Swimming

In week three we started swimming.  We are learning to be confident in the water.  To also use a streamline position to kick through the water. 

week three - 30 October

We are very lucky in our class to now hold a National Champion in Cheerleading and her name is Calais Ikitule.  On Friday the 27 October Calais and her brother Cullen both had the day off school.  They were travelling down to Wellington for the National Championships for Cheerleading.  All year they have both put a lot of effort and commitment into training!  Here are a few photos of Calais with her medals.  You never know what you can accomplish until you try.  

Week two - 23 October 2017

This term we are really putting our best foot forward to speak Te Reo Maori.  Everyday we always start with a whole class karakia but this term everyone is going to get the chance to say the karakia by themselves.  Next we will sing a himene together.  We are also trying something new which is learning to say the pepeha for this area.  By the end of the term we will be able to recite it and hopefully have more confidence in speaking Maori.  I look forward to the United Pumas giving this a go!  Here are Angel and Robyn starting our day off.

Week one - 16 October 2017

Nau mai haere mai!  Welcome to term four.  I am super happy to be back.  I look forward to the next nine weeks.  We have a jam packed term filled with EOTC activities, camp, prize giving, graduation just to name a few.

This week we will be celebrating Niuean language week and Diwali.  Come along to our celebration assembly on Friday at 1.30pm.

What better way to start our first day back at school but with a karakia.

Tennis

We are very lucky this term to have the opportunity to get taught Tennis for four weeks.  The kids were very excited to have a go.  They learnt about a forehand and a backhand.  We were even one short so I got to get in and have a game too.  You never know we could have the next champ in our midst.

Speech competition

We were lucky enough to have Calais and Sofiama make it to the final for the speech competition.  They did a great job standing in front of the school and parents.  Here are the videos of their speeches.

Beep test

In term three our class has been trying to increase our fitness by doing a beep test.  A beep test is when you jog/run 20m.  When the whistle blows you have to make it to the other end before the whistle blows again.  You run continuously about six times in the beginning and then you get a short rest.  As you run longer the time speeds up so you have to get to the end faster.  We really tried to get out two or three times a week if we could.

I feel the fitness of the students definitely got better over time.  On their first beep test the children were lucky to do 880m.  The children managed to get over the 1000m mark and then there was no looking back.  Over the term the highest point reached was 3120m.  

I am super proud of everyone who participated and gave it their best!  Special shout out to Jayven who literally won every time.  Children kept him on his toes and really pushed him to give up but he always just had that little bit more.

Kia tau

Here is a video of a waiata that we learnt in week 8.  It still needs some finesse but overall I'm super duper proud of my kids for giving it a go!  Ka mau te wehi!!  I think I love this song more now..lol

Hangi

I would just like to thank all those that helped our syndicate fundraise for the year 6 camp by purchasing tickets or coming in to give a hand.  Your help is much appreciated and we are very grateful.  It was a great success!

Maori Language week

Feeling really blessed to be a part of Rowandale School.  To see all the faces of our kids so happy and excited to be learning Maori does my heart good.  Here are snippets of our week.

                                                                                                      Challenge 1

                                                                                               Challenge 2

Challenge 4

Challenge 4

Challenge 5

Challenge 3

Our lovely reception area

toku, tou, tona

Ko wai to ingoa?  Ko ____ toku ingoa, ko ____ tou ingoa, ko _____ tona ingoa.

Ko wai to ingoa? Ko _______ toku ingoa.  Ko ______ ia.

No hea koe?  No _______ ahau.  No ________ ia.

Nothing beats this..students just doing the haka out on the deck or just in class..absolutely love it!

Tongan Language week

Week 7

Wow, we are so lucky to be such a diverse school!  Our head girl Sofiama did an amazing job this week.  She was helping all over the school and she did it with a smile!  We are so blessed to have Sofiama as a part of our class as she is a great role model who always works hard and she is so proud of her culture.

In our class this week we tried to introduce ourselves in Tongan.  I love how our class just takes these challenges on board.  Hopefully by the end of the term we will be even better at introducing ourselves.  Here are Angel, Caitlin, Calais, Cassius and Jimmy.

We were lucky to have visitors from Mercer School who put on a great performance!

Sofiama performs

                                                            Heaven and Sofiama.

Whaea Lois

                                                                        Sofiama

                                                                      The boys

Week 7 antics

Fun at lunch time when the sun is out.  We have introduced a new system at lunch time with the children being able to hire out gear.  Here are a few videos of the children having heaps of fun with old school games like gutter board and the good old moon hopper.

Week 6

In our class we have started using Matific.  It is a cool Maths site that helps us get better at doing Maths.  It has videos that help us to understand different things and then we play different games to help us practise and to get better.  Matific will help us to learn and to move up levels.  You can also win prizes for our school, class and individual prizes.  Matific asked how I felt about Maths and I said I like it and I enjoy using the site because it made Maths fun.

By Simona, Ngarima, Robyn and Cara.

Maths

In class we are learning about Multiplication and Division.  Here is a short clip on what we worked on in our lesson which was identifying a factor and also that if we switch the order of factors we still get the same answer.  So 5x3=3x5.  We also learnt a new word which was commutative.  We then took it a step more and used family of facts to help us understand that division is multiplication in reverse.

Week 5 - Fun run

On the 23 August the High Flyers team did a fun run to fundraise for the year 6 camp and the year 5 EOTC activities.  We had been practising for the past few weeks so it wouldn't be so hard.  The goal was to run 5km which was five times around the whole block around our school.  Parents came along to support their children and also participated in the fun run.  As the run progressed everyone was getting tired and very hot.  We were very lucky to receive ice blocks from Angelina's mum after the fun run.  Other than that everyone found the fun run challenging but helpful as we all got fitter.  Hopefully we raise heaps of money to go towards our end of year activities.  Here a few photos and videos from the day.

By Heaven, Cassius, Robyn and Sofiama.

Fraction 21

This term our class has been playing Fraction 21 as a warm up in Maths.  Fraction 21 is similar to normal 21 but instead of counting from 1 to 21 we count in halves from half to seven.   So when you start the game you start at half and you are out if you say seven.  You can say one, two or three numbers only at a time and if you say four you are out.  At the moment we are even trying to count backwards to make it more challenging for us.  Our class really finds it fun and we just love playing it.

By Sofiama, Lucas, Danny and Caitlin.

Video to come......

Week four

Kia ora

Today we decided to rewrite our class treaty.  I am really proud of the kids for putting all their ideas down on how we can have a more productive and effective learning environment.

Symmetry art

Kia ora

This week we were learning about symmetry.  So I thought we would mesh Art and Maths together.  Everybody had a great time.  We still need to finish them but already I think they will brighten up our class.  They will look totally awesome once completed.  Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Week three

Kia ora

This week in class we were using our whiteboards in Maths to help us to solve problems.  All the students were engaged and could explain their answer.

Last post for week 2

Kia orana

Last post for week two.  We are super lucky at our school to have such a great staff and community that come and really put their hands up to put it on for Cook Island language week.  Here is a snippet of our celebration assembly.  I felt so blessed to watch the Cook Island group welcome our new teachers and students for term three.

Saturday Netball

Kia ora

Well to end the week Sofiama and Daeshantae always represent Rowandale School at Netball down at Browns Road courts.  This was their second to last game and the whole team was just so happy to be there.  Big ups to the kids for taking on this commitment.  You should all be so proud of yourselves.

Counties Steelers

Kia ora

We were so lucky to have some boys from the Counties Steelers come and talk to our students.  They answered all the questions the students were so inquisitive about.  It is so good when we have these opportunities and our kids really get to see great role models living their dream and working hard and reminding our kids to never give up!  Here are a couple of videos.  One is of Dion giving the old one, two step and the other is of a tackling steam roller.

Week two

Kia ora

This week was Cook Island language week and we were very lucky to have students participating all week in different cultural activities.  One of the activities we did in class was a Maths activity where we had to work out how many squares it would take to make a Tivaevae.  After we did that we decided to make our own but we did it with shapes.

Term 3 - Week one

Kia ora

Fun run

This week  we have been practising  for our fun run which will take place on the 23rd of August 2017.  We have started everyday in room 20 singing some songs and then going to run five times around the school.  We practise with room 18, 19 and 20.  We are all trying to increase our fitness so we will be ready for the fun run.  As the week progressed we were taking less time to finish.  We are fundraising for our year 6 camp and our year 5 activity.  The students who raise the most money will get to win some cool prizes.  We can't wait!

Written by Paea and Cassius.

ILE Sports

Every Wednesday afternoon this term we will be having a High Flyers Sport afternoon.  Students will get to try Basketball, Handball, Turbo Touch, Hockey, Volleyball, Checkers, Dodge Ball, and Tapuwae.  Each teacher is taking a different Sport.  Everyone was asked to just give each sport a go and to try their best.  For the United Pumas 17A played Basketball against room 21A.  The game was a draw.  Paea won the Sportsmanship award and Jayden felt exhilarated that he scored the first basket for the team.  17B played Handball and won against 21B.  Calais and Cara were awarded the Sportsmanship award for this team.  Simona liked to bounce the ball and do tricks to try and get the other person out.  All and all everybody enjoyed learning a new skill and mixing with the other classes.  There was a lot of excitement in who they played and how everybody did.

Homework

In room 17 we have homework every week.  Everyone needs to take responsibility for their own learning and try to complete these tasks.  We will be having a leaderboard to show who is on task with their homework.  We are also starting to track who is moving up levels in Skoolbo and Reading eggs.  Remember learning is fun!

1. 15 - Cassius, Calais, Heaven
2. 13 - Angel, Sofiama
3. 12 - Jimmy, Grete
4. 11 - Caitlin, Simona
5. 10 - Daeshantae, Jayven

We have also started our inquiry on Amazing Animals too.  

Hockey

Hockey

This morning we had our first session on how to play Hockey.  Our coaches names were Lulu and Roseanne.  We first went over the rules of how to hold a hockey stick and how it's important to be safe when holding the stick.  Next Roseanne said the girls could go get a hockey stick and then the boys came and got there hockey stick too.  After that we learnt two drills.  The first one was an open hand dribble which is when the ball does not leave the stick and you connect the ball with the hockey stick.  The second drill was learning how to pass the ball to one of your team mates from the other side of the court.  We had a few turns also practising how to do an open hand double dribble.  It was super cool and a really nice way to start the new term.  We all had lots of fun.  We can't wait until our next time!

By:Angel, Cassius, Dayton, Dion and Heaven.

Week 5 - Samoan Language week

Kia ora whanau and friends

Well this week I felt truly blessed by the community spirit that is thriving in our piece of the world.  A big thank you to those that put your hand up and made Samoan Language week at Rowandale School a week to remember.  From the flag raising ceremony on Monday to the celebration Assembly on Friday it was a truly special week.  Always be proud of who you are!

 Our class got to practice using Samoan language every day.

We even learnt how to introduce ourselves in Samoan.  It was only suppose to be a few but I'm really happy that everybody in our class decided to give it a go.  It wasn't easy but we did it!

Also a big thanks to Counties for coming out to teach us how to play Turbo Touch.  

Week 4

Kia ora whanau and friends

Well week four was jam packed.  It started with me going to watch Ofeira, Sofiama and Daeshantae represent Rowandale School at Saturday Netball down at Browns Road netball courts.  It was cold, it was wet, it was super windy but it was super cool to watch the girls love every minute of playing in freezing cold conditions.  To see a smile on their face was priceless.  If you are ever bored on a Saturday morning go down and support our girls and the other children that are giving it a go in Netball.

In our class we have been learning what the numerator and denominator are in Maths.

 We are also working on the strategy of place value partitioning which is just splitting our numbers into tens and ones to make it easier for ourselves to add together.

We also had a cake stall, disco and mufti day to fundraise for Niue Primary School.  Our school managed to raise $1748.20.  Super proud of everyone that made a cake, brought a cake, dressed in mufti and also danced their lunch time away.

We were also very lucky to have our three girls from Saturday netball go to a school netball competition.  Very proud of the girls for representing our school to the best of their ability and just giving it a go!  Those smiles, totally awesome!  It's all about participating.

Last but not least we ended our learning week with a game of Kahoot.  We did a quiz on simple machines which is our focus for Inquiry this term.  Everyone was so engaged!  If you ever feel like you want to have a cool time with whanau or friends I would highly recommend finding a cool quiz on Kahoot.  Friendly competitiveness and just a whole lot of fun.  I shouldn't forgot but our winner was Dayton.  I was so happy for him, everybody was trying to overtake him.  Congrats Dayton!!