Explorers Day

Yesterday we finished our Explorers unit off that we had been doing with Mrs Excell.  Our celebration included cooking Pompolona Scones, setting up tents, sack races and cooking our lunch and marshmallows on gas cookers.

Click on the link below to see our Smilebox presentation.
Smilebox Explorers

Southland Athletics

On Saturday the 22^nd of March five children represented our school at the Southland Athletics in Invercargill.  They were against the best of the best from around Southland.  The students who went were Jayden, Thomas, Mitchell, Caitlin and Cory.  To get to this event they had to come first or second at the Northern Southland Athletics.  They really deserved to be there.  All the competitors tried very hard.  The results were:

Thomas 2^nd High Jump, 9^th Discus

Jayden 11^th 1500m

Cory 17^th 800m

Caitlin 11^th 1500m

Mitchell 5^th Long Jump, 3^rd 200m Heat, 7^th Discus

Written By Jonty, Luke and Jayden

Takahe Visit

On Thursday the 13th of March Room12 walked down to the bird park to learn about and feed the Takahe.

As well as seeing the Takahe we went to see all the other birds like geese, ducks, morepork kaka and kea.

The class split up into 2 groups and hid the kea and kaka food half of us fed the kea and the rest of us fed the kaka.

On the 28th of March we found out that Te Anau School was adopting a Takahe.  Our school held a mufti day to raise money to feed the chick.  We got to choose a name for the Takahe.  We named him Murchison or Murchy for short. We named him this after the mountain range where the Takahe were rediscovered.

Fergus, Thomas and Asha

Real Art Roadshow

Yesterday our class went to visit the ‘Real Art Roadshow’, which is a travelling art show in the back of a large truck.  There were lots of amazing artworks along with some odd ones.  The art made us think about what we like and what we don’t.

One of the artworks that left an impression on us both positively and negatively was one titled ‘Wolfman’ by Seraphine Pic.  Below is the picture and some of our responses to this artwork.

I think that it is an OK, not the best painting though.  Some people might think it is a bunch of scribble but if you look closely it is interesting which is the annoying thing.  Somebody might think it is just a bunch of scribble and throw it out for good.  It is a puzzle to the mind and really blows people away when they see what is in it.

Tessa 

I think it is a cool puzzle.  To see what’s going on in the picture you have to look hard.  It has a ware wolf in it that is howling, there is a rainbow and the ware wolf is like a river that leads into a rainbow lake with trees surrounding it.  Just imagine a lake of rainbows, how cool would that be.

Destinee

I think it is very amazing. It has so many different ways.  It makes me feel like home because art is my home.  It makes you think about what there is and it looks like someone has tried to do something and had messed it up and then had noticed it was art.

Rosie

In this picture I see a wolf man, a dress, a pin cushion, a goblet, a man, a flying hand, a shoe, rain, a rainbow, mountains and a lake.  It makes me think of different creatures combining and of ware wolves.  It makes me think of Harry Potter because in it there are goblets and in one there is a man turning into a ware wolf.

What to look at?

I can see a wild dog with a face in it’s mouth.  I can see mountains and a hood, a dress and where you put some pins.  I can also see a rainbow.

Paige

How does that work?

I can see a fox, a person, an oil slip and more.  I love this picture.  I also see a goblin. It looks like a puzzled world to live in.  A rainbow, a normal dog too.  I also see a tiger scratch from the zoo.  There are mountains and a pin cushion and cape.

Jessica

“Ah my head!”  Oh hi, I bet you’re wondering why I’m a wolf man.  One day I was having an adventure and I saw a witch and I asked her a joke.  

I said, “Knock knock”

She said, “who’s there?”

I said, “Cow”

She said, “Cow who?” 

And I said, “no stupid cows go moo!”  ROTFL.  

Then she turned me into a wolf man!

Cory

In my opinion I think it’s a little strange because many different things are going on and the finished product is a bit busy.  It sort of scares me because the wolf has the person’s head in its jaws.  

The main things I can see are the wolf and person.  I don’t see the point of having the black scribbles in the background.  It sort of looks like a lake, but where is the shoreline?  Where is the picture set?  How long ago was it? What gave the artist the inspiration to make an artwork like this?  I don’t personally like it.

Samantha

I think that this piece of art is very cool because of all the pictures in one picture.  The wolf man, rainbow, pin cushion, goblet, the dead man with his head in the wolf man’s mouth, mountains, the dress and it looks like the wolf man has a road on his back.

Fergus

I think it is very creative because every picture tells a story and leaves you looking for more in the picture.  It’s cool that it’s an amazing picture with mystery and character.  

Luke

We want to say a big thank you to all involved in the ‘Real Art Roadshow’.  It was a great experience!

Northern Athletics

On the 12th of March some of the people in our school went to Northern Southland College in Lumsden. There  was lots of  events like high jump, long jump, discus, shot put, 60m, 100m, 200m sprints, 800m and 1500m. There was a BBQ for lunch. It was great to meet kids from other schools. After a long day it was finally over we were tired and exhausted. It was a fantastic experience and we would have never been able to do it with out Mrs Taylor. Here are some photos of Northern.   Written By Jessica, Ellie and Tessa

Our Team

Max Winning!

Boating, Orienteering, And Climbing Mt Prospect

On the 19^th to the 21^st of February Room 12 did boating, Orienteering, and climbing Mt Prospect.

On the 19^th of February Room 12 did boating, which meant a lot of packing.  Boating days included a long day to the beach but the walk was worth it when we reached Blue Gum Point.  There waiting for us were two boats and their drivers brad and Pete, a small swimming square and loads of steaming hot sun shimmering in the sun ready for 28 children to all over.  The day was hot and sunny as all of the children made their way to the water to have turns on the biscuits.  Later on a wind kicked in as child after child grabbed their lunch box.  Munch munch, yuck sand! 

Children gathered shouting, grabbing cones and rushing to the water, at the water the children made the cone squirt out water in a rush.  That started a water fight.  Near the end of the day Room 12, wet and cold was rounded up.  The piping hot sand glared at them as they made their way back to school.

On the 20^th February 2014 we did something called orienteering if you don’t know what orienteering is it’s when you go around ivon Wilson Park with a e stick on your finger [short for electrical stick] looking for control points it’s a bit of a challenge cause you need to get all of the control points in the right order or you’ll get a did not finish on the computer when you put your e stick in the finish control when you’ve done that you’ll check and clear with e stick in more controls and get ready for your next turn on the new course we had lots of fun doing orienteering we were tired at the end.

On the 21^st of February Room 12 got driven up to the starting point and walked up Mt Prospect it took a long time. But we did it and we bet the record. Our time is 47minutes to walk up. When we got to the top we were all tired and hungry. At the end of the day we went to a creek and make lots of dams. Then we went back to school and then we went home.

Posted by Esther Cole, Connor Moffat and Teagan Wilmshurst

Spudchef Preperation

Right now room 12 are organizing our spudchef (our version of master chef) using the potatoes from our garden.

We have found our parents to help and on Friday the 22nd of March we are getting with our groups to organize what we are going to make. We are having a spudchef because we didn’t know what to do with all of our potatoes.

Our real spudchef competition is on Thursday the 28th of March.

Swimming

Room 12 has been swimming on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. We are organized in to three groups: Octopuses, Lobsters and dolphins.

We practice: freestyle, backstroke, and sometimes breaststroke.

The other day we played pool netball girls v.s boys! And this is how you play: girls are on one side of the pool boys are on the other. The spikey ball is placed in the middle and when the whistle blows we start.  The aim of the game is to get the ball and pass it to the girls or girls team and throw the ball out of the school pool and then hit the back wall!
We do this swimming programme because the we can learn how to swim and not drown in deeper water.

From
Summer

Life Education

Life education
From the 25th-28th February Te Anau School did Life Education.

Life Education is when you learn about your body, Harold the giraffe talks to you.

The Life Education bus that visits us only travels around Southland, but there are other buses that travel around other parts of New Zealand.

The sponsors for life education are: ILT foundation, Rural Women, HWRichardson, AMI, Konica Minolta, The Batch, ILT, GWD and Community Trust of Southland .

Te Anau School is looking forward to have the life education bus visit us again.

Northern Athletics

On Friday 15th of March Te Anau Northern competitors went to Northern Southland College in Lumsden for the Northern Athletics.
Everyone had a great time. They did very well with lots placing 1st 2nd and 3rd. There were 35 people from Te Anau school going to Northern but only 8 or 9 are going on to Southland.
Placings in Room 12 were.

Reece:2nd in long jump -3rd in discus 1st in high jump-2nd in 1500m-1st in 800m.

Johsia: 2nd 800m-2nd 1500m.

Thomas:1st in high jump- 1st in discus. 

Lucy:3rd 1500m-2nd 800m.Emily mo 1st high jump. 

Olivia 2nd long jump.
The events were: High jump – Long jumps - Discus – Shot put - 100m - 200m - 1500m - 800m -Relay.
For me it was hard training for these events but I guess it makes a big difference the end.

Reece Rush

Class Hero

Room 12 have been deciding a class person/name for the past couple of weeks. All of the class split into groups of 3-4. Someone for each group went up to Mr Excell and picked a name out of a hat. That would be our subject person for our research.
A week later we started to eliminated people but our list was still long. Finally we did it we had our person Bear Grulys !!! We had some back up’s. They were Willie Apiata, Sir Edmund Hillary and Sir Peter Blake. I personally thought that Sir Edmund Hillary would of won.

Aisling

Brod Bay Camp

On the 26th of February Room 12 walked into Brod Bay to camp.  We tented in groups of 2 to 4.  We had to put up the tents and then set out our own equipment.

We did a range of activities including swimming, bivouac building, a burma trail and sandcastle making.  It was fantastic fun and a great way to get to know each other at the beginning of the year.

One of the reasons we were doing this trip was because our school is part of the Kids Restore the Kepler Project which aims to bring back birdlife to the Kepler area.  As part of this we set up some tracking tunnels to see what creatures were crawling around at night.  The good news is that there weren't too many pests.  Only two mice were tracked!  The bad news is that there weren't any good tracks such as wetas.
We also did a presents absence test for the birds we could here at seven o'clock in the morning.  Were heard a few tomtits, a robin and a parakeet but not as much as we had expected.  It's a good thing that we are part of this project!

The camp was great fun and we would recommend it for all!

Room 12