Critical thinking

In class we have just started spending some time debating some topics and developing the students ability to form and defend their opinions. We want students to think outside the box, think about causes and consequences of actions, and to develop an understanding of issues our society faces. We have looked at subjects such as; pay rates in jobs (Should professional athletes get paid the same as scientists? What should determine how much someone gets paid?), Do we need war to create peace? How would our world be different if all vehicles flew? What options are there for dealing with terrorists? We looked at the following video and discussed how food is processed and created and how our food might look like in the future.


Parents, if you have any issues you think would be good for us to explore, pop them in the comments section.

Makuhari Japanese visitors

It was great to have a cultural day on Monday with a visit from a group of 15 year old Japanese students. It was so good for the students to see that our 'normal' is not everyone's 'normal'.  It was great to see our students interact with them and realise what it means to not have English as a first language. They participated in a variety of cultural activities. The students made sushi, played Japanese games, made origami, dressed up in costumes, had their name written in Japanese, and learnt some Japanese greetings. Here are a few of the names in Japanese. 

Tumble turns

A number of you have been learning to do a tumble turn, and many of you will learn it in the future. I thought I would post a video of Hayze doing a couple of them for you to see how it looks underwater. Nice pose half way through too Hayze!

SWIMMING

Such a great day yesterday. Our school has some outstanding swimmers. We are sending a large portion of the class through to the Lower Waipa Swimming sports this Friday and then we are also sending 9 onto the Full Primary competition next Wednesday at St Peters in Cambridge.

It was great to see you pushing yourselves, going in races that you were nervous about, and also really encouraging each other. It was just such a great day to be a part of.

The lessons at Te Awamutu have been really beneficial and it was good to see some of those skills put to use in the races.

Well done Ruapane - you deserved the relay win in both the parents and student relay.

Preschool help

It was great to get down to the preschool this morning to help spread some bark on their playground. The school has a great relationship with the preschool and going down there is a great opportunity for the students to develop their relational and leadership skills with the younger children. It was a big pile of bark but we managed to get it all spread out. Well done guys!

More inspiring writing

We have been doing more writing with a focus on adding detail and descriptive language to create a clear picture in the readers heads.

The students have done some awesome descriptive writing in pairs. They write their own piece and then combined theirs with someone elses. This was a great exercise in sharing and negotiating ideas, playing with words, and constructing some powerful writing. Here are a few sentences I pulled out. Many of the will post the full pieces on their blogs so keep an eye out.

The crooked old bridge moaned under the weight of the Dark Lord's black stallion. (Lola and Ieuan)

I heard the rushing water as it fell off the mountains and into the mist. (Declan and Connor)

It invaded us and the bridge, surrounding us, cloaking us in fear.  (Bonnie and Finn)

Every step the horse took the more the boards creaked and the more my heart thumped. (Hayze and Cameron)

Fear surged through my body. The icy cold wind whistled though my ears. (Joseph and Dylan K)

I let out a shrill scream of fear but my cries were lost in the forest. (Madeline and Stephanie)

Two Point Perspective Drawing

Ruma Kokako has been learning to draw in 3D using two perspective points. This is a challenging skill to learn but the students picked up the techniques well and most of them are now applying their skills to drawing city-scapes using the 2 perspective points. The students have been learning about accuracy, layout balance and line quality when doing technical drawing. It was a challenge ensuring the lines were not too dark but everyone has made significant improvement in this. Well done guys!

Camp

Ruma Kokako had an awesome overnight camp last week in our local environment. They built and slept in bivouacs with all the bugs and possums for company. We walked most of the way to the tallest native tree in NZ. However, we unfortunately came across a wasp nest and the wasps were not very happy and stung our group 38 times. The students were amazing though and so supportive of each other. The next morning the students explored the depths of Karamu caves and the heights of cliffs while abseiling and rock climbing. It was so good to see the children face their fears and grow in courage. Ask them about their experiences as there were some significant moments for all of them.

Courage is not the absence of fear. It is inspiring others to move beyond it (Nelson Mandela).

You inspired us guys!

People savers - First aid course

The students had a great day today learning about first aid and how to deal with emergencies. They looked at all sorts of things, such as, dealing with poisons, burns, choking, broken bones, shock and dressing wounds.

They are going to be put through some scenarios on camp as well to help put their learning into practice.


PhotoPeach

I made tea

We have been learning to add detail to our writing so that the readers get a clear picture in their head and can imagine being there. We used an excellent website which shows it so well. Have a look at it here (I Made Tea). We have been trying a few sentences and it has been great seeing some of the detail students have added. This is one from Nicholas.

I made tea sentence:  The sun came up
Sentence with detail:  The morning mist hung low to the silent valley. Everything was a stone cold colour, robbed of its light by the night. Glowing shafts of gold could be seen piercing their way through the mist. Then as if someone had struck a match in the sky a golden fiery ball started to burn its way through the vale of mist. 

Leadership 2016

Great leaders change the world around them for the better. I think we have a great set of leaders this year who are going to make Te Pahu School a better place to be. Congratulations to everyone on their leadership positions. Although these are important positions it is important to remember that we are leaders all the time. You are constantly being watched by others.

New Year New Name

2016 is here and we have had a great start. It has been a busy start to the year. In starting the new year each class has been given a new name. Room 7 is now called Ruma (Room) Kokako. The school has selected birds from our local mountain. The Kokako is not on Mt Pirongia but there are plans to release some in the next while. Hopefully we will get to help with this project. Room 7 helped with the releasing of Robins back onto the mountain a few years ago which was a significant project for all involved. Our talented local artist Nicola Ahlers has done artworks of many of our class names and has given permission for the classrooms to use them. Here is her awesome picture of the Kokako.

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!