Our first week swimming spree at SPS's portable heated pool

Guess where we have just come from? Yep! that's right, fresh from our very own portable heated pool located on the netball court near the flagpole beside the staffroom. We are geared for a swim safe programme and with the right attitude too.

To kick off we played a cool warm-up game of monkey crawl and 'Salmon says'  to  develop our confidence in the water. "Gee! I never realised that I could stay that long under the water and pick up objects and touch my buddy's toe."

 

" It's awesome fun playing tag with a buddy across the pool," exclaimed Kilipati. We were allowed to splash around BUT we had to do that quietly. Guess why? We are told that our voices echoes in the pool arena. Mrs reminds us to manage ourselves-now that is a real challenge for us. Come on, how do you expect us to have fun without expressing our emotions? I guess I might  use personal voice ah!

 

To end our 20 minute session we play a cool down game called jiggy to the left and jiggy to the right, turn around and reach for the stars. Yay! Then we are instructed to head for the steps, one at a time. Exiting the water is something  we hate the most, but  when we see the next class waiting eagerly to jump in - we give in. It's called considering others or I guess relating to others. We guess we've learnt that well by now or should have by now.

Ah well, we like to see our glass half filled, instead of half empty - there'll always be another time to have tons of fun.

Our Niuean performance in Week 1

Margaret and Zhara took part in the Nuiean Dance Performance in Sylvia Park School hall on Friday 18 October 2013. The wore their traditional cultural outfits which were predominately yellow as well as bright floral island colours to celebrate the special occasion with others.

Parents, students and teachers cheered for the host of dancers who performed gracefully for the audience.

 

The performers were a little shy yet brave enough to give off their best. Way to go guys!

 

 

 

Speech Finals and Exploring roles for our storyboard in Rm 15

The Senior school speech finals was held on the 19 th of August in our school hall. It was attended by middle and senior students, teachers and a few parents.There were 18 speakers in total and the audience were highly captivated by the humour and stamina of some of the of the speakers. What bold and courageous leaders for the future!

 

Brainstorming and Planning film scenes 

Darsha and Alexis's group were writing the scripts with dialogue for the boys' roles in the scene. 

 

Tanya and Margaret's group were discussing which problems to select to illustrate change in their group.

 

Nelson and Kilipati's group were deciding on the storyline or theme for their scene.

 

 

          Now what is Virgil and Armand plotting? From the looks of it, it's obvious that  they have their members well roped  into their story of change.

 

"I like it when our plan comes together," says Darryn.

"Yay! I  guess this makes us 'The A -Team', " adds Trey.

 

Next week's plan is storyboard-ing and exploring  roles of characters within their group.

Our water pledge in a little Raindrop

 

These are some of our water cycle drawings which were have done with chalk and dye.

 

These drawings are annotated to give information as well as a visual picture or image of the water cycle in nature.

 

The upward arrows show the process of evaporation in which water vapour in the form of gas, rises to higher levels in the atmosphere when the sun shines brightly in the sky. When the air becomes too cold the water vapour then changes its phase back into liquid water. But the water in the cloud stay up floating around because it is still very fluffy and light.  

 

When we look up, what do we see?  We see all the clouds gather together to become a dark mass of floating water in the sky. But then the clouds get really dark and heavy, and they fall as rain or snow. 

 

The sun causes the sea water and water from te rivers and lakes to change their phase/ form from liquid to gas or water vapour which is carried upwards in the air.

 

Forms of precipitation are rain, hail, snow, mist, dew and sleet.

 

Zoofari Triapse T3 Wk 1

News Bulletin - On Monday 5th August 2013 room 15 students, parents and teachers went on a Zoofari triapse to study how the water from Western Springs Creek is used and re-used for the specific purpose of sustaining the lives of zoo animals. Guess what? They got more than that!

 

Of course, the kids were delighted to see their primate relatives in their comfy enclosures of which they incidentently found out, were 97% like themselves. Now isn't this a small world we live in!

Its pointless walking around aimlessly without the use of a map to guide you.

"But we need some mapskills to orientate ourselves to find the orungatangs," cried Margaret, the brainy one. Luckily for us, we had Mrs Singh-Ali at hand who practically lives on site, seeing that her two young kids adore zoofari-ing and the adventure playground.

 

Now who can that zoofari guide be? Gee! that career suits you perfectly. All you need now is the khaki safari outfit, Zhara.

What a splendid outdoor experience this has turned out to be!  And see how well we managed to carry ourselves. "Can we do this again sometimes in the near future Mrs?" 

Well Maybe! 

 

Now what's that furryball of striped fur doing flat on its back under those overhanging branches of native bush?  Oh no! I don't think its your ordinary tabby ginger cat, Paisley, Mrs Naidoo.

Look! what's happened to its scratching post I wonder...

 

How Terrariums work like the water Cycle in Nature

 

This is a diagram of how the main processes in the Water Cycle works in Nature. Our class had decided to show this complicated phenomena by creating a miniature water cycle process in a simple terrarium.

To kick off our class terrarium, we first did some research on google in our inquiry groups to find out how terrariums work. Then we drew a plan and labelled the things we would need to make the experiment. Thereafter we discussed the different steps involved in the method. 

 

 

The next day we went on a tikkie-tour or nature walk to collect small plants from our school gardens for our terrarium,

 

"Will this plant do?" asked Virgil. "No! a terrarium should have small plants," replied Margaret. The students used their research inquiry to make informed decisions. Great choice guys! 

 

Awesome nature walk! We love this kind of learning Mrs Naidoo.

Back to the schoolroom to put all our research into action.

First take a clear or transparent container and cover the glass bottom with little pebbles to drain the extra water from the plant roots."This is to ensure that the roots don't rot in the container."

 

Now add some charcoal or dried twigs to keep the soil moist enough but not soggy. Next put in the loamy soil and add a half a cup of water to the soil. 

After that make little holes to plant the little plants by pressing their roots in firmly.

Make sure you do not put too many plants inside the container as the  plants will need space as well as air to grow and transpire.

 

And all this can be done in the classroom for us to participate and observe.

 

All you need to do now is to seal the cap with masking tape and place the terrarium on a window sill where it will get indirect sunlight.

 

Write the date on the seal of the container to find out how long it can survive without adding anymore water to it.

 

 

 Observe the natural processes of evaporation (water vapour), condensation (droplets of water on the glass) and how this water drips down again (like precipitation) into the soil (through infiltration)and gets absorbed by the roots of the plants and is given off by the leaves (during transpiration) to be recycled and re-used several times over like the Water Cycle in nature.

 

 

Wow! like an amazing Water Cycle genie in the bottle- and to think all this can be observed on a small scale - as a simple glass container.

What a way to bring learning of difficult concepts like evaporation and condensation alive in the classroom. Thanks to Science. 

 

 

 

 

 

Yolanda, a Face painting Artist

Guess who came to our class on Friday the 7 of June 2013. That's right, Yolanda.

who is a parent of one of our classmates,Layla.She is 34 years old with a Dutch background and she loves to do face and body painting and share her artwork with everybody in the universe. (Kilipati, Trey)

 

Yolanda is an artist who is as tall as the traffic light. She has short reddish blond hair that makes heads turn as she's one that stands out in the crowd. Everybody goes "Wow, she's looks like shes on FIRE!" (Levi, Virgil)

  

She is a fabulous "show and tell" artist and she loves to share her body painting artwork with others, be they young kids or adults. She has something to entertain and capture everybody. What an awesome talented artist! (Sylas, Nelson)

 

Yolanda is a responsible artist who never walks into a room without a bag full of surprising stuff to inspire the children. She can manage a class all by her self by saying" Class can you move back a little please, so that the others  can also see the fake zombie skin?" They looked really freakie. (Alexis, Sione )

Yolanda is an absolutely famous and special artist who has heaps of fans throughout the world. She travels around the world and does TV shows and interviews with people from different countries. She also participates in body painting art competitions. We hope she wins and becomes world famous. (Terrie, Tanya)

 

Finally Yolanda is a unique artist who has been selected as a judge for a world famous body art competition. For a wonder people want to be like her- creative, generous, graceful and sensational. Rrrh! (Margaret, Nia)