CHALLENGE COMPLETED!

Well done guys! You have completed this years ten challenges. It was so good to see your hobbies over the last few days. Some of you really put a lot of work in. Hopefully some of them become long term hobbies for you. It has also been great to see many of you overcome fears in some of the challenges. Attitude definitely determines altitude. The ability to feel the fear and then do it anyway is such an important thing in life. Here is a video summary of the challenge.

EXAMS - parent tips wanted!

It is not long before the Year 8's go to high school, which also means they will face exams. To learn study and exam skills we are having our own hour long exam on this terms inquiry (this Friday). We have discussed study skills such as,

• Creating summaries of your notes.
• Grouping of information.
• Highlighting, underlining and reading the information over and over again.
• Discussing the learning with someone.
• Identifying possible or probable questions.
• Memory techniques, such as, using colour, pictures, acronyms, and stories. 

We have also discussed exam techniques. This has included:

• Scanning through the exam carefully at the start and seeing where the most marks are weighted. 
• Jotting down acronyms and picture prompts at the beginning.
• Carefully reading questions to ensure you understand what is being asked. 
• The first 80% of the marks are the easiest to get so the importance of answering all the questions. 
• Setting up a time table to ensure you have time to complete the questions is also important.  
• Don't leave early but use every moment to check and improve your answers.

Parents: It would be great to hear any other techniques you have for studying or sitting an exam. Just pop them in the comments section below.

Writing concisely

We are learning to write concisely. Removing boring and unnecessary words makes writing easier and more interesting to read. We discussed common words like 'that' which are often not needed. We have practiced removing unnecessary words from sentences and rearranging and rewriting sentences concisely. Here are a few examples.

 

TPC - 7km challenge

Well done guys! It was great to see you take on this challenge - sweat and all. Everyone pushed themselves and had a great attitude. There is a high level of determination needed in race events like this so well done for displaying so much of it. Good to see most of the year 8's beat last years time too. A big thank you to the parents that helped. We couldn't have done it without you!

Only the hobby presentations to go on this years challenge!

Melted crayon art

The students have just finished their stunning melted crayon art. The students have had to think carefully about layout balance, colour choice, and how to make their silhouette link in with the melted crayons. It was great to see the care the students took with the detail. Well done guys. They will be available to view at the Te Pahu flower show/fete on Saturday.
Melted crayon art on PhotoPeach

Purekireki Marae visit

All of Te Pahu School had an awesome trip to Purekireki Marae just outside Pirongia today. It was such a new experience for many students and so much was learnt about Maori culture, the Marae, Mt Pirongia and the surrounding areas. Students got to give their first hongi, experience a Powhiri, learn how Mt Pirongia got its name, how to weave harakeke (Flax) and all sorts of other things. It was such a valuable experience for the children. Well done guys, you showed respect and a positive attitude throughout the whole day. It was great to see you guys looking out for the younger ones. This was definitely noticed by the parents as well as myself. Well done.

PhotoPeach

Golf

Today we had a golf taster session with Jason from Sport Waikato. Lots of learning and lots of fun!

Back in my day...

Inspired by a Monthy Python skit the students had some fun imagining they were grumpy old men or women talking about life back in their day. Here are a few excerpts from their writing. It makes for entertaining reading.

Back in my day, we didn't have those fancy clippers for our hair, no we had a match and a bucket of water. Ya light your hair on fire to singe it to the right height, then take a plunge in the water to cool off, and that’s the way we liked it.

If we didn’t listen to Mum, she would cut off our ears plant them in the ground in hope of growing us some good ones.

I had to bike 30 miles on a three wheeled trike which only had two wheels, to school.

I had to do my homework with a feather and a dollop of warm, gooey, cow manure.

I used to have to walk without shoes every day across melting tar roads, leaving my feet so black afterwards, that I couldn't get it off even if I scrubbed it off with a steel tooth brush.

We had to walk 5km to just milk the cow for breakfast. For dinner we would spend all afternoon catching flies with our tongues.

Back in my day, we didn’t have any fancy whiz bang gizmos to help us, Ya no what we had… Bricks!!! Brick phones as big as 5 cassette tapes! Although I suppose you don’t know what they are, with all your new fancy wireless CD’S, and CD players. We didn’t have those fancy vacuum cleaners, No no no, we had to wipe our feet before we went outside, that’s how dirty it got.

Back in my day if we wanted to watch a show we would stick a piece of glass in front of us, have someone dancing behind it and Bing Bong Bangliboo, you had a TV. 

Back in my day when we went to war there was none of these bang bang things, all we had was a rotten old bone and some sunflower seeds.

For games, we had a thing called a cucumber, you plant it in the ground and watch it grow.

Back in my day all we had for television was to go out into the field and watch the planes get shot down during World War 1.

TPC SAIL

We had an awesome day sailing today. A first for everyone! Half the class attempted to go yesterday but we didn't get on the water as the wind was too strong. Today's wind was perfect. Today did help us realise how difficult it would have been if we had gone yesterday because the wind we had today was plenty enough to get some speed up and learn the basic skills. The students learnt lots of new sailing language, gained knowledge of reading and using the wind and they also had loads of fun along the way. Well done guys. You can be proud of your effort and attitude towards something completely new. I hope some of you take up the cheap Learn to Sail programme the Ngaroto Sailing Club is offering. Check out links for more information Website,   Information on Facebook.
Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.
When you want something you have never had, you need to try something you have never done.

TPC - SELL Market day

At the end of last term we had a market day to raise money for those in Nepal still recovering from the earthquake. It was such an awesome night with an amazing turn out of people. Room 7 was responsible for food and entertainment which kept them very busy. It was great to see the students having to be organised and thinking carefully about everything that needed to be done. They looked for all sorts of ways to maximize profit and had many things donated. We did make a massive profit of $915. The school made a profit of about $2400. All this money will be going to people desperate need of help. Here are a few photos.

Ag day

We had an awesome Ag day today. A great effort from all of Room 7. Most students had either a goat, lamb or calf this year which was awesome and the rest were the runners for the event. It was great to see how much work some of you had put in over the last few weeks and months with your animal. It will be the last Ag day for some of you so it was great to go out with a bang. Well done!

 

 

Te Pahu Challenge TREE - update

Today Nardene and Liz helped us prick out our seedlings into bigger pots. It was great to see the growth but it was a reminder about how slow natives grow and how when we walk through bush the things we step on could have been growing for months or years! Here are a few photos of today's work.

Outdoor classroom opening

Te Pahu School has been involved in the developing of the Pirongia Lodge Outdoor Classroom. Previous students helped source native plants and then helped plant the area around the classroom. Earlier this week the Outdoor classroom was offically opened by the Mayor. This years student council attended as representatives from Te Pahu School. It was great to see how much the plants haven grown already. Here are some of the photos.

Talented writers

We have lots of talented writers in room 7. We did some more creative writing this last week and here are a few excerpts from some of them.

The cold, still war hospital was silent. Not a sound filled the room. Pain filled my throat like broken glass. The red spots kept creeping up my body. They gradually filled my face. I looked down to see half my leg had turned purple from the wound. I felt myself breathing heavily trying to keep myself alive. I heard the squeak of the metal trolley scrape against the cold floor. The metal spoon touched my lips cold. But the sweetness trickled down my throat like honey and cleared the broken glass quickly. Laura Tosse

This thing had yellow skin, green blood, red eyes, and fangs two inches long! It collapsed with the gleaming twelve inch machete still embedded in his or her scaly back. Then it slowly started to crawl away, it’s menacing red eyes piercing the darkness as it faded into the shadows, still clutching its latest victim. Thomas Edger

It was the middle of the night. An uneasy darkness filled the room. All was quiet apart from the soft snores from patients down below. I looked down at my mattress to see an intense yellow pool circling my waist. The smell of urine filled my nostrils. I needed to wash myself and the sheets before everyone woke up. I tried to sit up but pain surged through my body. I lifted my sheets to see an awkward tangle of legs and toes. My emotions quickly turned from depression to anger. I was stuck here in a hospital bed not able to move, lying in my own pee. "I can't do this anymore," I thought to myself, "I have to get our of here." Logan Burgess

Overpopulation

We are having a fascinating inquiry into our world's population. We are looking at a number of graphs, videos, and articles to help us get our heads around this issue.

There are lots of surprising things being learnt such as the average family size dropping world wide from 7 - 2.5 in 50 years. That it took thousands of years for the worlds population to get to 1 billion, but then only another 200 years to get to our current 7 billion (as a result of the industrial revolution). By the end of this century it will peak at 11 billion. However, the population of children has already peaked at 2 billion.

We are looking at what the effects will be and what needs to change in order for us to survive the increase. Some information shows some people are really worried about the earths future where as others are more positive about our ability to cope. The students are writing articles about what will need to change for our earth to survive overpopulation.

Here are some interesting sites and videos:

World-o-meters - Live world statistics
Gap Minder - amazing statistical website

Maths - compasses, protractors, angles!

We have been exploring shapes and angles. The students constructed triangles using protractors and compasses and we discussed the different types of triangles and angles. We explored how the interior angles of triangles always add up to 180 and exterior angles add up to 900.

Square challenge for parents
We had a challenge of drawing an accurate square only using a ruler, pencil and compass. This was challenging (for me too) but we had a few clever thinkers who managed it. Talk to Sophie if you can't work it out. There was some great learning around accuracy of angles and intersecting compass points.

Clothing Industry Inquiry

For literacy over the last couple of weeks Room 7 has explored the clothing industry and how we can get clothes so cheap in our shops. It was a surprising and hard hitting inquiry into something most of us knew hardly anything about. The students got a glimpse of the human cost to our cheap clothes. However, we explored both sides and realized how it is such a tricky issue as the alternatives to the factories are often worse.

Over the next while we will be exploring a number of world and social issues with a focus on:

• Research skills - Note taking, compiling information, and appropriately selecting content.
• Persuasive writing structure
• Forming an opinion and backing up arguments with rational, moral and emotional arguments

The students are in the process of transferring their written pieces to their blogs so look out for them. A key video we watched was The True Cost, available for rent online or it is on Netflix too if you want to see it.

Our next issue is overpopulation so look out for some convincing articles on this too.

Speeches

A massive congratulations to Sophie, Nicholas, Ellen and Bradley for getting through to the Lower Waipa Speeches. You spoke so well and we were all very proud of you. A special congratulations to Bradley who not only won the Year 8 boys division but also became the overall Year 8 winner. A powerful and inspiring speech. Great to get Te Pahu on the Hall of Fame again!

TPC - SNOW

What a stunning day we had - perfect skies, no wind, warm, good snow. It was so good to see you guys challenge yourselves and progress in your skills. For some of you it was your first time on the snow and you did so well. You can be all proud - a big tick for that challenge.

Science fair

Well done Room 7! Your first science fair project completed! So much learning around the scientific process, time management, presentation skills and all sorts of interesting topics. We had our challenges and stressful times but everyone managed to get them ready for the Science fair yesterday. Well done. I have heard so many good comments about the projects from parents and teachers. I am looking forward to seeing your blog posts reflecting on how you found the process, the challenges and successes, as well as what you would do differently next time.
Here were our topics:

• What wood is the densest?
• Which flour makes the best cake?
• Which non-commercial water filter works the best?
• Do people work better in groups or independently?
• Does deep water cause bigger waves than shallow water?
• Does listening ti music improve test results?
• Which goes off quicker - raw or pasteurized milk?
• Does age affect the pitch we hear?
• Can you change the colour of a flower using food colouring in water?
• Does smell affect taste?
• Do video games affect heart rate?
• Do people get better test results on coloured paper?
• What shape and weight position creates the best wake for wakeboarding?
• What size battery creates the best electromagnet?

 PhotoPeach

Speeches

We are heading into writing speeches. Our speech focus is persuasion and we have been looking at how writers persuade people. We have looked at TV ads, articles, spoken word, and a variety of speeches to help us identify persuasion techniques. There are three main techniques writers use to persuade - EMOTIONAL (get you feeling things) RATIONAL (Convince you with facts and research) and MORAL (make you think it is the 'right' thing to do). We are going to try and get these 3 things into our speeches. Here are some links to some of the videos we are using to help us. There are also a few that we haven't used so have a look through guys. There are some great speeches here.

Winter Tournament

What an awesome day guys. Such good effort from everyone and some great results too. For those of you who took up a new sport in this tournament I want to say a massive well done to you. It is quite scary getting out of your comfort zone and some of you really shone and showed some real natural talent. I hope you feel like you have improved with this years winter sport. Make sure you say a big thanks to your coaches the next time you see them.

PhotoPeach

TPC MUD Completed!

Well done guys. What an awesome day. A big tick to you all. 1300 runners, lots of mud, lots of fun. Loads of schools and we got the brightest and loudest school. AWESOME! Here is the video.



Here is the video the event put together.

The digestive and skeletal system

We have had an interesting inquiry into the digestive and skeletal system. It has created some fascinating discussion and the systems are more amazing than we imagined. The students have written explanations on the digestive system and information reports on the skeletal system, so look out for them on their individual blogs. They have also created a skeleton picture using the correct bone names as the visuals instead of bones. Here are a few of the pictures and videos that we used to help learn about these systems. The first one is real camera footage inside the digestive system - a little gross, but amazing.

Weight and temperature

This morning we looked into measuring weight and temperature. Some of the things we focused on were Net weight, Gross weight, Fahrenheit compared to Celsius, estimation, conversion between grams and kilograms, and how to use thermometers. Estimation was especially interesting. Unless you have used measured weight a lot, it is hard to estimate. The students estimated how many pens would weigh the same as a stapler, as well as how heavy a feather or a Boeing 747 (333 - 440 tonne) would be. Here are a few pictures of our learning.

The house full of secrets

As part of learning about personification and editing we have been doing some collaborative writing. The students wrote a section in pairs, then in groups of four they combined pieces together. Then a group of students edited the pieces so they would flow together. Excellent work guys, you can be proud. 

Well done Ellen, your title was selected as the best one for our writing.

As I walked through the lush green grass I saw the old house standing all alone on top of a hill. An elegant oak stood tall and quiet, swallowing part of the house. The scene around me was airy and silent. So quiet, I could hear the earth breathing. My emotions ran away on me and I started to feel sad as I trudged on towards the house.

When I arrived at the house I took a detour to the lonely tree. The monstrous drunken branches of the ragged tree drooped to the ground as if asleep. I started to make my way towards the house. I glanced back at the old leafy tree. I wondered what it had been through, what it had seen.

As I looked up at the old broken gate it towered over me. I opened the gate and it fell off its rotten hinges.

I stumbled past the rustic windows that looked like they had been abandoned for decades. It was like the house was alive and was peering through her smashed glasses. Ivy dressed her cracked body. A bad feeling began to rush through my spine.

Then I noticed the old, rusty door and wondered what it would lead me to if I opened it. I opened the creaky door and she screamed in agony as she swung open on her hinges. Brittle timber carelessly dropped to the ground as she took her last gasp of air.

I crept into the room. My eyes squinted from the broken light. A chair stood in the corner of the crumbling room. A shiver ran down my spine. The smell was musty and looked like someone had perished in that room. I then turned and walked away leaving the house’s secrets for ever.

The Circulatory System

Today we looked at this quote:

Men go abroad to wonder at the height of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars; and they pass by themselves without wondering.  

Many of us don't know how complex the workings of our body are and yet we walk around in it every day of our lives. The body is amazing and today we started to look at just why it is so amazing. In our inquiry we are going to look at the different systems of the body and how they work perfectly together to help us exist and operate. We started looking at the Circulatory System. We learnt about how much blood we have in our body and how fast the heart pumps it around the body.

Here is a video where Evaan tries to compete with a heart.


It was so great to see you asking such inquisitive questions guys. I think this is going to be a great inquiry.

A few amazing facts:

• It takes 20 - 60 seconds for a blood cell to leave the heart, travel around the body again, and make it back to the heart.
• The heart pumps 5 liters around the body in 1 minute, with each beat pumping about a third of a cup. Check out the video attached to see just how fast this is.
• The circulatory system is basically the transport system of the body. The blood transports the nutrients, oxygen, CO2 and lots of other things around the body. 
• Arteries carry oxygenated blood from the heart and veins carry deoxygenated blood back to the heart and then on to the lungs to be reoxygenated.

Here are a couple of pictures we used to discuss the heart.

Inquiry - The Human Body

Created with Padlet

TPC 2015 - RAFT

Another Te Pahu Challenge completed! Well done guys. It was so good to see your attitudes and enthusiasm towards the rafting. You took it on, played your part as a team to manoeuvre the rafts in different directions, and had loads of fun along the way. We had great guides who helped us learn about safety on the river as well as the techniques of rafting. Rafting rivers is such a great way to experience beautiful New Zealand, with their crystal clear and icy cold water meandering through the wild landscape. Now you all just need to convince your parents to take you on the Grade 3! We were privileged to see 3 Whio (Blue duck) on the river too. This native duck is much rarer than the kiwi with only 2000 - 3000 left in the world!

A few other highlights:

• The Disguised Dinner - everyone went all out and we had all sorts of costumes, from synchronized swimmers, to Darth Vader and a fairy! 
• The Ultimate Mint Imperial Battle - A hilarious series of challenges from Irish dancing and accents, to the best cat walk, moon walk and robot, to the best best cheer leading routine, to the most post-it notes on someones face. It was great to see the adults involved and taking out some of the challenges too, such as the splits and accent challenges.
• Taranaki Falls - We got to walk in and out of the treeline on the track to Taranki falls in the Tongariro National Park. It was great to have discussions along the way about the landscape and the volcanic nature of the park. 

PhotoPeach

Cyber safety

So much is done on the internet these days and it is just going to keep increasing. It has so many advantages and uses in life, however, it can be a dangerous thing and we need to learn to be safe and wise in how we use it. We have started to look at being safe with digital technology (Phones, computers, iPads, etc). This is especially important as the students head to high school and reach the age where they may possibly get a Facebook account.

We have started looking at protecting your personal information. Thinking carefully about posting details such as your location, name, contact details, age, etc on the internet. We looked at a mock 'Friendbook' page and identified all the good strategies and as well as the careless information on it. There was some really good discussions we had guys and I hope you take the safety tips on board.

We will continue to look at it throughout the year, especially in relation to our use of it at school in research and our blogs. There is a little bit of information and some videos that relate to this topic in the Cyber Safety tab at the top of the blog.

Pencil Portraits

Here they are! Room 7's awesome pencil portraits. Well done guys. You can be all proud of what you have done. You worked hard and it has paid off.

PhotoPeach

Kindy reading

We went down to the local kindy today to do some reading and spend some time with the preschoolers. I was so impressed by the way you cared for and  interacted with the children guys. You were awesome leaders. Well done. You probably don't comprehend what that would have meant to some of those children. I am sure they will tell their parents all about it tonight.

Swimming

It has been a great year of swimming so far. The school swimming sports went really well with everyone giving their best. All the best to the group that is off to Lower Waipa this Thursday.

We have started to look more at survival skills in the water. We have learnt to do side stroke which is a great survival stroke that keeps your head above the water. The students picked this up really quickly. Well done guys. The trickiest part was doing a scissor kick, and not the breaststroke kick.

We have also spent some time exploring how clothes affect our swimming and learnt how to take jeans and heavy sweatshirts off in the water. Quite a challenge and really important things to think about.