Robert Rakete is the Duffy role model this term.

Many children recognised  Robert as the "Brown Wiggle". Everyone had lots of fun and the Asterix books are now in hot demand.

Water Safety

Room 21 learned how to take care of themselves and others if they were in a boating accident.

Swimming is fun.

It's great fun learning to swim.

Certificates for hard workers.

Tino pai. Effort does bring reward.

Whanau support at the pools.

Thank you to the family members who were able to watch and support their children. Isn't it great to see the improvement in your child's confidence and swimming ability after the 7 swimming lessons?

Look at these swingers!!

Look at the great agility and upper-body strength of these children.

Mid winter swimming - day 1

Swimming at the Manurewa Aquatic Centre.

Darius and Manaaki                                                                                  

                             

Find Your Field of Dreams Foundation.

The Foundation was set up by John Walker to encourage children to follow their sporting dreams.  For our Manurewa Central children this means 7 swimming lessons over the next 7 weeks.  They're thrilled!
The children are assessed by the  instructors and put into 3 ability groups. The groups are small and the children progress rapidly under the guidance and expertise of the swim instructors.

Writing - adding detail

The children are encouraged to proof-read and re-craft their writing after they've finished getting their ideas down. Re-crafting is all about the children improving audience interest in their work. They choose at least 2 sentences (depending on the writers ability) to improve. Today they practised adding detail or changing bland words with exciting synonyms (words with a similar meaning) from the thesaurus. Here are some of their little gems.

The chilly pools were freezing ice.   by Darius
While I was playing the delicious smell of a pie wafted past my  hungry nose.  by Guvind
When it was bed time I snuggled into my soft blanket. by Josiah
The crocodile had a scaly, bumpy back.  by Jackson-Lee
The exploding bomb was screamingly deafening. by Michaela Spyve.
My sister's breath is like squashed, pitch-black, burned bananas.  by Tea
The wood is very hard like a stale muffin.  by Nicholas
The horse rapidly leaped over the brushy fence. by Harley
My dad dropped a really outrageous fart which I heard from outside the house.  by Israel.
Wow! This colourful, rainbow flower is beautiful. by Darcy
The snake was slimy and slippery in my hands.  by Rosa
All of a sudden a slimy gooey slug slithered across my head.   by Danny
When I was walking along a large dog came and bit me like a big juicy bone.  by Abby
At my grandma's country house there was an old, broken barn and I over heard the cows saying Moo Moo Moo. Yes,really!  by Kingston.
I heard a noisy lightning storm.  by Cruz
There were seven delicious chocolate chip pancakes with whipped cream, on the bench waiting for me.  by Preceyis
The lime coloured frog munched up the fly in one gulp.  by Ataahua
Once the cake was soft as fudge but NOT anymore. by Jayda.
The ice cream was squashy in my mouth like marshmellow.   by Manaaki
Quickly an ambulance came roaring down the street with a loud furious noisy siren. by Sebastian.
The popcorn felt buttery and greasy.  by Elle
I fiddled with my soft and smooth hair 'cause I was bored.  By Ayveah

Adventure playground - you don't have to be rough to be tough

The adventure playground

An excellent way to keep fit and build upper body strength.  The adventure playground is part of our fitness programme, however, in the shots below, Room 21 are having their Golden Time. (A reward system). The pictures are of the boys today but don't be deceived the girls are equally enthusiastic about using the equipment and frequently outstrip the boys in upper body strength and agility at this age. Generally in Room 21 all groupings are mixed gender. However, a bit of healthy gender competition really encourages the children to work harder on playground equipment. They are all increasing their strength while having a lot of fun. Stay posted to see what the girls can do.

Duffy books.

It is always very exciting when we receive our Duffy books. School is great anyway but the Duffy books are like a cherry on the top.

Kingston was so thrilled with his Duffy book that he spent his Golden time doing this   è



We got together with Room 17 and enjoyed sharing our new books.

Science - A visit from Watercare Auckland

Hmmm! Would you drink this water?  Room 21 experimented with finding the best filtering system to clean filthy water.

Poems - By Tavita, Israel, Guvind and Cruz

Each year the Middle School children learn a poem and recite it to the class. The Finalists present their poems to the Middle School in the Auditorium.  This is very exciting but it can nerve wracking. Everyone worked hard and made choosing the finalists very difficult. Very well done Room 21.
The finalists this year were Cruz, Israel, Tavita and Guvind.  The boys took it out! Congratulations. 

Making a Purerehua by Tavita

Purerehua
A purerehua is a traditional Maori musical
instrument, It can also be called a bull roarer.
Children make simple purerehua to use 
as a spinning toy to watch the colours change.

Equipment:
Scissors
Colouring pencils or highlighters
Wool or string
Cardboard
Pencil
Cup to trace around 

Instructions:

1 First get your card board and cup.
2 Trace around the cup on the cardboard.
3 Cut with scissors around the circle.
4 Decorate the circle with patterns from your culture
5 Get your scissors and put crosses about 2cm apart 
in the middle.
6 Once you have finished your crosses use the scissors
to cut holes in the middle.
7 After that get the string and put it through the holes.
8 When you have put both ends of the string through 
the holes tie a knot.

Now your Purerehua is ready to use. Hold one end in
each hand and rotate the string until it is twisted up.
Now pull the ends out away from each other.
The Patterns are great.

Matariki at the Manurewa Library by Preceyis

Yesterday at 1.30 Room 21 went to the library. Whaea Eunice told us all about Matariki and the seven stars and about the sisters.  At the library we did lots of fun things like singing waiata, dancing, reading two pukapuka and crafting. 
We sang a waiata about the body to the hoky poky song. It was funny. For crafting we got a piece of raffia and put it through holes from 1 to 10. We were lucky because the holes were done for us.  When we were done Whaea Eunice told us it was the Matariki stars. Room 21 sang a Maori song called Tehei Mauri Ora.  The two puka puka  Whaea Eunice read were called Tane and the stars and A family celebrating Matariki.
At the end Tavita thanked Whaea Eunice for teaching us. We had a fun day and I have learnt heaps of interesting things about Matariki.

Asthma - Our visit from Chris by Manaaki

Guess what we learnt about last week.  At 9.25 we learnt about Asthma in the auditorium. The person who told us Chris. He was wearing a blue tuxedo with an orange tie. He has long busy hair and nice black glasses.  We did this to learn how to keep safe with Asthma and how to help others with it. Let's get it on.

Chris has lots of facts about Asthma and I'm going to tell you some things. There are lots of different inhalers, but the two main ones are the blue and orange inhalers. The orange one you use to prevent getting Asthma. The blue one you use when you have an attack of Asthma.

Now onto the triggers. Triggers are the things that make you get Ashthma.  The triggers are: pollen, smoke, animal fur, cold and viruses. Those are really dangerous thing to be around if you have Asthma.

After a while Chris brought his friend Sailer the Puffer fish and he was fat, really fat. He told us how to use an inhaler.  You get your inhaler, take the lid off, put it in your mouth and do two pumps and six breaths. Wait for five minutes and if it doesn't work do it again. If it still doesn't work you have to call 111 and ask for an ambulance. 
It wa really cool that Chris and Sailer the puffer fish told us about Asthma. Now we can help someone if they're having an Asthma attack.

Hockey coaching with Counties Manukau Sport.

A procedural/ recount  text by Darius Bell

Over the last four weeks the whole Middle School played Hockey with Coach Lulu and Coach Rochell from Counties Manukau Sport. We learned Hockey skills like dribbling and pushing so we can get better at playing games. One of the skills we learnt was a 'right side step pass'. This is how you do it.
1 Dribble to the cone.
2 Turn the stick.
3 Take a step to the right and pull the ball along.
4 Turn the stick back the right way.
5 Dribble forward and take a shot at goal.
Josiah said he really liked going to play hockey each week.  When I started playing hockey I felt excited. When I was playing hockey I learned some new skills called Indian dribble and the right side step pass also the push pass. It was quite fun because I felt excited and I was ready to play.

Haiku Poems

A Haiku poem has 3 lines. The first line is made up of 5 syllables, the second line is 7 and the third is 5.  The Haiku is difficult to write as the children have to count the syllables before they start writing. Some words are made of only 1 syllable while others have multiple sounds. The children can only use a minimal number of words to create their poem.

Their Autumn Haiku poems are very creative. Enjoy.

Blowing, windswept leaves
fiery red, yellow, gold 
dance and swirl and glide
by Kingston

Fire red, crimson, leaves
crunching, crinkling, under feet
Autumn leaves are great
by Sebastian

Amber orange leaves
swirling in the Autumn wind
soon they'll fly away
by Israel

Sunset orange trees
vibrant twirling, swirling leaves
falling like gold snow.
by Tea

Parachuting leaves
fiery, crimson, gold, red leaves
glide and sky dive down.
by Josiah

The Ngarara

The children listened to a journal story called the Ngarara twice and then had to retell the story. This is Israel's story.
                               The Ngarara
One day in the school holidays Molly and her sister were really bored. Molly's mum said, "do you want to help me take the paper off the wall?" 
Molly said, "na!" 
Then mum said, "you can find lots of history here."
After that mum said, "let's draw a Ngarara on the wall!"
So they did and when they finished the ground started tumbling like an earth quake. Suddenly they freaked out because the ngarara came to  life and he shoooook their house and it crashed and banged until they shouted out for help!
But nobody was there to help them and the Ngarara said, "who drew me?" in a growly voice.
Molly said, "we did."
After that the Ngarara said, "who painted my teeth?"
Then Molly said, "we did," again.
Next the Ngarara said, "Is my tummy big enough to fit you in?"
The girls screamed and covered the walls with wallpaper.
Soon mum came in and saw the lumpy walls and said, "shall we do the wallpaper again?"
The girls both quickly said, "NO!"

Dancing with Mythology at the Vodofone Event Centre

This workshop is a favourite outing...

Dancing with Mythology introduces the students to basic choreographic processes that explore telling a story through dance and movement. It derives inspiration from Pou Kapua or Cloud Pillar, the centre’s stunning 21 metre carving. It narrates the Maori myth of the chieftain Kupe, the creation stories of Ranginui and Papatuanuku and the legend of Maui.

Inquiry Maths - "Bobby Maths"

       The children collaboratively solve maths problems.

Treaty of Waitangi and Class treaty

Room 21 collaboratively worked on their class treaty. They used 'Protection, Participation and Partnership' headings from the Treaty of Waitangi as the main areas to be covered in their treaty.

From Bubbles to Buoyancy

The children enjoyed the refreshing water in the hot summer and all improved their swimming skills.

Descriptive writing that will make your mouth water.

My favourite delicious desert is chocolate cake with strawberry ice-cream and wobbly lime jelly and mini chocolate eclairs. It tastes so yum ! The cake melts in my mouth and so do the creamy chocolate eclairs. There are scrumptious white lumps of creamy cream that disappear in my mouth and make me so happy.      Preceyis

The dessert I love is waffles, cream and dark chocolate sauce.  My chocolate sauce is slippery and slimy. As I start to eat my chocolate sauce I fell it dribbling down my face like a snail trail.  The cream is soft and thick like clouds. I love it when we have waffles for dessert.  Jayda.

There is no dessert better than banana cake with creamy berry toppings. Ms Turner may not believe me because she has not tasted it. This recipe is the best number one dessert ever!
My number one pudding comes with a huge chocolate crunchy bar in the middle. It is like a round hill that is the colour bright yellow. When the cream falls down off the cake, I put my finger into it.  It feels like I am in a velvet world with soft and smooth things. Tavita

Qualities of a good friend - Take note adults, these children know best.

Room 21 considered the type of attributes or qualities which make them good friends. Here are some of the words and phrases they thought of:  
Kind, caring, sharing, helpful, supportive, funny, playful, a fair player, cuddly, brave, good at talking  ... (and then) good at listening, someone who likes to join in, someone who stands up for their friends in the playground, good friends can argue sometimes but they say sorry and make up, a good friend doesn't ditch their friend, and finally, a good team mate/friend passes the ball in sport.   

Who am I?

I am an 8 year old female. My hair colour is brown with gold stripes. I have brown eyes like a kiwis. My nose looks like a tunnel that never ends. I have mountain shaped lips. I am wearing a dress that looks like the sea, with black shorts underneath. My jandals are soft blue.    

The first thing you need to know is I am an animal lover. I love to go swimming at Papakura pool. I can swim like a mermaid. 

I am the oldest and have a brother's name is Findlay and I call him Fin for short.  He is 6 years old. 

I love to eat chocolate while I am watching my favourite movie, Pixels.  My favourite colour is blue. My favourite sport is hockey.  I especially like pizza. Meat lovers, Hawaiian and peppercorn are the best.    Who am I ?             
Abby.       

I have a round nose and my nose has holes in it.  My eyes are black and white. My mouth is pink.  I'm seven years old.  My skin colour is bright brown. My clothes are black, green and blue.  My socks are grey, blue, and black stripes.  My shoes are blue and green. I have pockets in my pants. I like homework. I like chocolate cake. My favourite pie is apple pie. Me and my sister watch Goosebumps. My favourite colour is grey. My favourite friend is Manaaki.  I like little lizard gaming. I like being Stampy and I especially like planting saplings. Guess who I am?    Nicholas.

Hi . I am a tall and handsome boy who covers my hair because I belong to the Sihk people but my hair colour is black. I wear rainbow coloured t-shirts and I sometimes wear shorts. My face is shaped like a box. I have a tannish skin colour.  I have brown coloured eyes and I have short nails.  My chin is short.
My life is about spending time with my family and my cousin sister.  I am the youngest family member.  I am an avid soccer player and I  one vs one people in soccer.  My favourite thing to do is play on my laptop and my ipad.  I like to go to paradise ice-skating, and I especially like to learn how to skate.
My favourite colour is red.  My best friend is Gavy. My favourite food is sushi, burgers and butter chicken.  Who am I?
Jashandeep.