TE PAHU CHALLENGE COMPLETE!

Well guys, YOU DID IT! The 2014 Te Pahu Challenge is complete! It has been so good watching you guys take this on. There were some big fears overcome, some real growth is positive attitudes and some great learning in all sorts of areas. You can be proud of yourselves. Attitude does really determine your altitude. With each challenge you face in life you grow and you have grown a lot this year. Well done. Here is a video of the challenges.

Extension - Mt Pirongia

Because of the weather we changed our extension from Mt Tongariro to Mt Pirongia. What an awesome effort guys. You had to fight mud, tiredness, steep rock with chains, as well as rough and rooty terrain. I was so impressed with your positive attitude and determination. Some of you had to really dig deep. You can all be proud, and I am sure you slept well that night!

Debating

We have had a couple of awesome debates in class. The topics were:

NASA's budget of 17 billion could be better spent on earth.
The positives of technology outweigh the negatives.

The students researched the position they were given and then we had an animated debate. There were fingers pointing, animated gestures, strong tones, counter arguments, and thoughtful ideas - all the good elements of a debate. It was so great to see them critiquing each other and really thinking about both sides of the issue. On both debates we kept discussing it long after the debate was closed. The debates were very even and I think a number of people changed or at least modified their personal opinions.

Gravity and stars

We have taken a fascinating look into gravity and how it influences life here on earth and the universe. It was great to look at some common assumptions we have that are wrong, such as, the heavier things are the faster they fall. We tried an experiment with water and a cup with a hole in it (ask the children) and dropping different weighted objects together. Weight is not the issue when it comes to the gravitational pull. We looked at how gravity is what forms stars, and what holds galaxies, our solar system, earth and us in place. We cause a slight gravitational pull on things too. Anything with mass does. Another wrong assumption is that astronauts float in space because there is no gravity. They experience almost the same amount of gravity as us and are falling, but because of sideways motion around the earth they never reach earth and float instead. A bit confusing at first but we watched some interesting videos to help us understand it.


We also looked at the life cycle of stars and explored nebula, supernova, white dwarfs, neutron stars and lot of other fascinating things in our universe.

Te Pahu Challenge - Wharauroa peak

Well done guys! Challenge complete. It was great to see you all up there on the Wharauroa and Mahaukura peak. Great to see your perseverance and team work. Only two more challenges to finish off - your new hobby presentation and signing off your community service. Some extension for some of you coming up too!

 

Tree Art

The students have been working on some tree art. We spent a number of weeks learning to draw organic looking trees. It was great to see the improvement over the weeks. The students then chose a style of tree and canvas they wanted to create and then completed their final pieces. Well done guys. You have produced some stunning art.

Lower Waipa Athletics

Awesome work on Friday Te Pahu School. There were some excellent attitudes and skills shown on the track and field. Excellent results too - well done!

Wrap Free Wednesday

Our Environmental Leaders, Bradley and Thomas, have set up a school wide Wrap Free Wednesday to try and reduce the amount of daily rubbish the school is producing. It has been running for two weeks now and is a real success so far.

Week 1 - 221 wrappers. 9 wrap free lunches.
Week 2 - 66 wrappers! 59 wrap free lunches!

Well done to our leaders for setting this up and well done to everyone for going wrap free!! Lets keep it up! Two more weeks to go for the school wide challenge, but lets go wrap free daily and forever.

Athletics - Room 7 Flying

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The Moon

It has been fascinating getting into our inquiry into space. We have been learning just how lucky we are to be alive. There are a lot of factors that go into making our earth habitable. This includes our perfect distance from the sun, our atmosphere, the slight tilt of the earth, the length of our days, and the distance and size of the moon. We have explored the Moon in depth and learnt just how crucial it has been to the earths development and our existence today. Some fascinating facts:

• The Moon is slowly getting further from earth - 3.8 cm a year (they measure this by reflecting lazers off mirrors the astronauts left)
• We only ever see one side of the moon
• The moon slows the earths spin down.
• You weigh less on the moon. There is less gravity.
• The moon has no atmosphere which means no protection from meteors. It also causes it to have extreme temperatures - 110 degrees to 130 degrees. There is no wind or sound up there too.
• They are planning to go back to the moon to create a space station. They have found water on the moon which means they could create fuel on the moon and rockets could refuel and go much further into space if they launch from the Moon
• One man is wanting to put lots of solar panels on the moon as they would be much more effective up there. They would then transport the energy created back to the earth through mirowaves. He thinks there would be enough to power the whole earth!
• The moon has quakes.
• They think a moon was created by an object the size of Mars crashing into the earth and the debri formed the moon. Many in the class thought going back to the moon is a bad idea as humans have messed up Earth and we shouldn't do the same to the moon.

TPC - 7km Challenge

Room 7 had their 7 km challenge this morning. A 5 km bike and a 2 km run starting at the Kaniwhaniwha reserve. It was awesome to see the students pushing themselves and giving their all. There will be a few sore legs tomorrow. Well done guys - challenge completed! Part of the challenge was knowing what pace to start with so that they had enough energy to finish well. Thank you so much to our parents who helped marshal and encourage the students along the way. Great attitudes by all!

The Nukes

It was great to have The Nukes take a music workshop with us yesterday. The students loved it! They learnt some of The Nukes songs which they then got up and performed on stage with them at the evening concert. We were all amazed at the range of sounds they could get from ukuleles and a banjo and also their voices. It was a great privilege to learn from such talented musicians.

Post GREENLAND - Josh and Zac

Room 7 was privileged to have Zac and Josh Lyon come back and share about their 27 day trip across Greenland. Zac and Josh were really inspiring and had many stories of the hardships and strategies they used to get past them. From peeing into a bottle, to ripped tents, to crossing crevasses, to running out of food; we were inspired by their courage and attitude towards challenge. A major challenge was dealing with the cold. Working out how to stop things freezing - water, sweat, etc. They bought along one of the sleds and some of the gear that they used which was really interesting and made it more real for us to understand. Their next challenge is to walk across Antarctica to the South Pole this time next year.

Our Awesome School!

As part of our inquiry into significance and Te Pahu a group of students created this video to promote our school. Well done guys, it looks awesome!

Beyond Earth inquiry

Our inquiry this term is into the universe beyond earth. One of the first things you begin to discover about space is the sheer size of it. We did some exploring today and went out side to measured some distances. If the sun was 1.4 cm wide the planets would stretch over a 60 meter distance. If the sun was the size of a basketball the planets would stretch over a distance from our school to the end of Corcoran road. Earth is tiny compared to the sun as can be seen in the picture. Our sun is tiny compared to other stars. Our galaxy, the milky way, is just one galaxy among millions of others. They think that if a galaxy was the size of a pea, you could fill the Royal Albert Hall with the galaxies in the universe. It has been fascinating and we had some great discussion around questions it raised for the students.

Fill this with peas and that is the number of galaxies in our universe!

Te Pahu Website

As part of our inquiry into SIGNIFICANCE last term a group did a project on improving the schools website and its significance. Here is a powerpoint which shows their ideas. Great work guys. You put lots of thought into this and produced a great website. Hopefully we will see your proposal become a reality.

Beyond Earth

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Te Pahu Challenge 9 - Polar Bear Dip

This morning Room 7 managed to put mind over matter and take a mid winter plunge. The Kaniwhaniwha River was 15 degrees but it didn't stop them. They said 'No' to comfort and 'Yes' to challenge. That doesn't mean there were no squeals and screams from the cold though! Well done guys!

Stop Motion Animations

For visual arts we have been creating some stop motion animations. A stop motion animation is a movie made from lots of photos. We explored a variety of types of stop motion animation and as a class explored how to create one. Then in groups the students planned, photographed and put together their movie. The students came up with all sorts of creative ideas which were tried, evaluated and adjusted as they worked out what was possible with stop motion. The putting together of the sound effects photos and music required a lot of patience as the computers and software struggled to keep up with the students pace! Here are some of the finished ones.

THE GRADUATE

At the end of the day, what is school really about. It is about the GRADUATE! Everything we do at Te Pahu School is about becoming the GRADUATE. Over the last while we have taken a fresh look at what it means to be someone living the GRADUATE. It is helping us think about what our strengths and weaknesses are. Here is a summary of our ideas.

TP Challenge 8 - Skiing or snowboarding

What an awesome day guys. So great to see you take on this challenge. I was really impressed with how quickly the first timers picked it up. You can be very proud. The positive attitudes, perseverance and the encouragement of each other all helped everyone succeed and have a great day. Memories that will remain with you for a long time. Great to see you more experienced ones pushing yourselves to improve your skills too. Thank you to the parents who were willing to take some falls and the odd snowball in support of the kids. It would not have worked how it did without all your support.

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Nutrition

Over the last few weeks we have begun exploring what we eat and how good it is for us. We have had two Project Energizer sessions and we have also watched the Nigel Latta episode on sugar. It has created some great discussions and has got the students really thinking about what they eat. It is so easy to just eat without thinking about what is going into our body and how it affects the short and long term. So parents don't be surprised if your child is reading labels and talking about sugar, food groups, etc. We have 6 sessions with our Project Energizers so there will be some excellent learning around nutrition.

PRODUCTION

What an awesome production! I have had so many awesome comments about the shadow art and skit guys. Well done - all the hard work paid off. The band was awesome, the dance was really powerful and the efforts of our sound and vision guys held it all together. It was great to bring it all together with the rest of the school. It was great to see you really giving your best to improve your skills as well as some of you constantly offering to help to ensure the show ran smoothly. Well done.

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TA Courier Articles

Great to see Te Pahu featured in the TA courier this week. Looking good guys!

Recent maths learning

Band quest full videos

BAND QUEST

We are all very proud in room 7 at the moment with our two awesome bands - Summer Souls and Wha Out. They both performed at the Band Quest against 14 other bands. The stage was big, the crowd was big, the sound was big - it was such an awesome night and both bands played so well. Their music was tight and they had great stage presence. Well done guys! We are all very proud of you. Not only did our small school have two bands in the competition but we took home two awards too. BEST ORIGINAL SONG went to Summer Souls and BEST MALE VOCALIST went to Finn Hamill. A massive thank you to Bevan for inspiring them and helping them find their feet. What a great experience to be playing in a concert of that size. I'm looking forward to your future in this guys.

Te Pahu - shaped by the past

TP History on PhotoPeach

As part of our exploring SIGNIFICANCE we have been looking at the significant things in Te Pahu's history that have shaped what Te Pahu is today. It has been great for the students to make connections with what they know and extending their knowledge about the ground under their feet. It has included the naming of Mt Pirongia, wars, settlements and schools that no longer exist, horses and wagons, how isolated it was, creameries, the transformation of our school, and many other things. It has been so interesting to discover the hardships early settlers faced and all the events that led to what we know today. The students are preparing to write some short histories including the things they have found interesting. These will be on their blogs later so I encourage you to view them.

Magnetic or true north?

As part of our Geometry studies we are looking at mapping and compasses. Earlier this week we explored compasses and how they work. This included identifying true north, magnetic north, discovering how these move (Magnetic north is moving about 55km per year!!) and that the magnetic south and north poles have even flipped in the past. We learnt how to orientate a topographical map to north. There are still many questions. Some good questions to ponder are - Why is Zac (who visited us) mostly going to use a compass on their adventure and only use their GPS when needed? Why does the magnetic poles move? How important is it to be accurate when using a compass? We need a bit more practice on orientating our map and following compass directions. After that we will move on to giving our location using 6 figure grid references on a topographical map. Here is an interesting video about magnetism, compasses and the poles.

Te Pahu's Resources

Te Pahu has so many resources - some we make the most of, some not. Here is a list of the places and some of the groups. We also talked about the people and business resources in the area.

Zac and Josh Lyon - 4Caps Adventure

We had Zac Lyon come and talk to us about the adventure he is doing with his twin brother. They leave next week to walk across Greenland, later they walk to the South Pole and kite board back, they then walk to the North Pole and then through the Patagonian mountains. Some truly inspiring guys. It was great to see Zac's determination and aspiration to push the limits. We will keep up with them on their blog. Here is a link to their website and blog. 4CAPS Website and Blog

What Te Pahu should be known for...

We asked the question... What would we want people to find when they Google Te Pahu. Here are some of things Room 7 thought.

GOOGLE US!

This term we are looking into the concept of SIGNIFICANCE. How are places and people significant? What makes them significant? How is Te Pahu significant? What do people find out about Te Pahu when they Google us? What would we like them to find when they Google us? What is significant in Te Pahu's history? What are our resources - places and people? How do people make decisions in our community about resources? How can we enhance the significance of Te Pahu? How can we make an impact, a change, a difference in Te Pahu?

We will look at these questions and then the the students will look at something they can do to enhance the significance of Te Pahu and their participation in it.

Mapping

As part of our Geometry learning this term we are looking at mapping. We will learn about the purpose and features of maps, how to read them and how to identify Polar coordinates and Cartesian coordinates. We will learn about different types of maps such as topographical maps, weather maps and street maps. We firstly explored a variety of maps, including the oldest known maps and many antique maps. It was fascinating seeing how people historically understood the world. We also looked at how it is impossible to exactly represent the globe on flat paper. We looked at how the common Mercator map distorts the size of countries towards the poles. China, Europe, USA, India and Australia can all fit into the size of Africa!  We will explore the Te Pahu area using maps and use these as a basis to create our own maps. Here are a few maps we explored. 

   

Here are some links to some interesting websites and videos on maps.

Map Projection Transitions

World mapper - interesting animated maps

Writing - Character development

In writing we have been looking at developing our characters - creating a vivid character in our heads and transferring that character to our readers mind. We looked at describing what stands out about them when you first see them (such as this woman's wrinkled abundance of skin). We then looked at creating a backstory for the character - imagining the life events and people that have influenced them. We then looked at their personality and what makes them, them! The students have chosen a character from below and have developed them. They have then developed a second character, chose a setting and are currently writing a story about their character. I can already see some great characters coming to life. It just shows the importance of planning and getting our heads into characters and settings before writing.

INQUIRY into the LIVING WORLD

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Our inquiry into the living world is coming to an end. It has been really interesting and the students have had their minds stretched, their vocabulary grown and their understanding of the some of the issues facing our planet has been deepened. The slide show above includes some of the information we looked at and your child will be able to explain them to you. Also quiz them on some words like biotic, abiotic, arthropod, exoskelton, deforestation, and ecosystems. We discovered why apparently annoying insects like ants, bees or flies play all sorts of important roles in our world. It was fascinating to discover how a little change to an environment can make such a change to the living things within it. You change one factor and it can muck up the whole system. It was also surprising to discover how New Zealand is a completely different ecosystem to when humans made their entrance - the only land mammals back then were bats! It has helped us see why native species are struggling to survive here in NZ.

WINTER SPORT

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We have come to the end of our awesome winter sport focus. There has been some excellent development in ball skills, team work skills and strategy knowledge. We had a great day at the tournament with some great results. Well done guys, you can all be proud. Some of our girls did an amazing job at taking on some coaching and refereeing of netball too. A massive learning curve for you and it was so awesome to see you in that role. A massive thank you to the parents that coached and also supported at the tournament.

Speeches

We have just finished our speeches. Everyone in room 7 did an awesome job. They gave great messages and used interesting stories to tell their messages. There was lots of learning around hooking people in, engaging the audience and speaking in a way that keeps people interested. Well done guys, I was proud of how you all presented them. The above video are some snippets of Room 7's finalists presenting at the school speeches. They were awesome and gave important messages clearly and in a way that everyone understood. Well done guys.  Their placings were:
Year 8: 1st Taylor, 2nd Finn, 3rd Graham.
Year 7: 1st Bradley, 2nd Ellen, 3rd Logan
The top boy and girl from each age group will now go on to the Lower Waipa competition.

HORSE RIDING and KAYAKING

Well done Room 7. Challenge 6 completed! I know a number of you were nervous about this challenge but you all took it on and realised that often things are not as scary as you anticipate them to be. You found the courage in yourself to get on and it wasn't long until everyone was relaxed and loving it!

Stop Motion Animation

For our visual arts this term we are going to create stop motion animations. At the moment we are exploring what they are and learning te basic process. Above are some we created as a class to learn the process. We also viewed a number of stop motion animations to identify different ways of creating them. Below are some video links to a few of these. Our animations will be based around our inquiry into the living world - primarily insects. I am really looking forward to what you will create room 7. I know you are creative and will think of some really imaginative ideas to turn into movies.

Living World Inquiry

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Those small creatures, that can be annoying and gross, but are crucial to this world and are often incredible and fascinating are what we are making an inquiry into this term. Insects, spiders, slugs, beetles, bees and other small life make the world go around and we are going to find out why! 

We have started looking at how we can tell what is living and what is non-living. This video which talks about Mrs Nerg has helped us with this. 



Yesterday we got out our magnifiers and microscopes and viewed the wings, legs, hair, etc up close and began to see the similarities and patterns between them. 

Volleyball and ultimate frisbee

This term we have spent some time learning the skills needed in playing volleyball and ultimate frisbee. Both sports use quite difficult skills but there was great perseverance. We have learnt the basics of a dig, set and spike in volleyball. In ultimate Frisbee we have learnt the correct technique for holding a frisbee and then the basic backhand and forehand throw. The forehand throw was particulary difficult but everyone made great improvement and we are starting to get a good game going. Well done guys, I have really enjoyed these sessions with you.

Learning words - SURVEY

Te Pahu School Culture

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Tessellations

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We have explored what a tessellating shape is (a repeated pattern made by a single shape). We then created our own tessellation pattern. This proved to be more challenging than it first appeared. There was lots of learning around the need for accuracy, because if drawing and cutting are not accurate then the shape will not tessellate. The students created a tessellating shape and then identified what 'picture' the y could identify it to finish the art piece. Well done guys you came up with some creative patterns.

Challenge 3,4 and 5

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Well done room 7! Challenge 3, 4 and 5 achieved! You can be proud of yourselves. Some of you conquered some really big fears. It was so good to see everyone giving their best, supporting each other and taking on the challenges. You also managed to gain lots of knowledge about survival, the bush, edible plants, and caves. It was great to see most of you up for an early morning run too - I like that attitude! It was such an awesome thing for me to watch you guys in these challenges. I'm looking forward to your personal reflections on your owns blogs.

A massive thanks to the parents who supported us in this. You were so helpful and made it all run smoothly. Hope you enjoyed your time too!

Leadership day

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We are focusing on leadership in room 7 this year. We went to Albert Park in Te Awamutu with lots of other schools leaders for a day designed to develop leadership qualities in us. It was a great day which challenged us to display the values of the Commonwealth games - respect, perseverance, support, cooperation, and patience. There were some challenging activities requiring lots of team work.

Kindy Bark Spreading

Room 7 got their 20 hours of community service for the Te Pahu challenge kicked off by helping the Te Pahu Kindy spread some new bark. It was a hot day to work in but the class managed to get it spread and ready for the Kindy kids. Well done room 7. I know the Kindy really appreciated your help.

Leadership discussion

When I put the word  Leadership into Google images, these are some of the pictures that came up. We had a great discussion in class as to why the images relate to leadership. It helped us see that leaders inspire others to be better and to grow. Leaders also lead their followers not by bossing them but by encouraging them and getting in there and setting an example. I'm looking forward to you guys learning what this looks like in your own leadership positions.

2014 LEADERSHIP APPOINTMENTS

TE PAHU CHALLENGE

"The tough challenges we encounter, make us stronger, and wiser. With each victory we gain something of value, our character is strengthened." Ellen J Barrier

Challenges are great opportunities to grow and that is why we have set up the Te Pahu Challenge. We want you to be risk takers in life and develop the character needed to push yourself through challenges. I am really looking forward to seeing you take on the challenges this year - let's face the fear, develop endurance and display the attitudes needed to conquer these challenges. 

THE CHALLENGES: Learn a new hobby, 20 hours community service, sleep the night in a bivouac, caving, rock climbing, horse riding, climb Mt Pirongia, skiing or snowboarding, polar bear dip, 7 km run/bike challenge and an extension group will get to climb Mt Tongariro.

New Year - turning a new leaf!

Welcome to a new year room 7! This is the start of a new chapter in the book of your life. I'm really looking forward to getting to know all of you and seeing you change, learn and grow into leaders! Come into this year expecting to learn and expecting to do things you thought you couldn't. If you come with this attitude I am sure you will grow and succeed. As our school motto says ATTITUDE DETERMINES ALTITUDE. It is true.