twitter

Rob’s Way Round-Challenge

0 comments
Posted in Labels:


Rob Booth, Miss Wesley's friend, is taking on a ‘round the world challenge’ on his motorbike from Bridport, United Kingdom to Wellington, New Zealand. He departed from Bridport on Wednesday 8th February. His first stop was Spain, he will ride through Europe, India, Tibet, attempt riding to base camp on mount Everest, down through southeast Asia. He will then freight his bike to western Australia and ride back home to New Zealand. He estimates that he will be home in June sometime. Rob is raising money for dyslexia. He’s been skyping us in school time. A few days ago we spoke to him in France. More information about what inspired this adventure can be read here. To read more about Rob’s Way Round-Challenge visit the sidebar to read and follow his blog. There is a link on the sidebar also to his Spot Connect GPS tracker for an up to date view of where he is in the world.

By Jamie


Term 1 Focus 2012

0 comments
Posted in Labels:



This term for our focus is Challenge and Super heroes.

CHALLENGE
On our camp to Waiwera the theme is challenge, we have also done challenge quotes like ‘Nothing Great Was Ever Achieved Without Enthusiasm’ By Emerson or ‘Life Is A Challenge-Meet It. Life Is A Dream-Realize It’ By Sai Baba. On camp we know we are making rafts, canoeing and maybe even having a pool movie at the Waiwera Hot Pools.

SUPERHEROES
So far we have done multiple silent card shuffles about Superman, Spiderman and Batman. We have also made some of our own Superheroes and put them in stories for our writing samples. Later on in the term we are going to be looking at what a real superhero is and creating our own superhero movies with background sounds and pop-ups.

Charles

Making Mothers Day Cards

0 comments
Posted in Labels: , , ,


Last week, Room 3 made beautiful Mothers Day Cards. We all got four bits of paper and followed Miss Wesley's instructions until we came up with seven flowers glued together in a 3D pop up. We then glued them into a card so that when you opened the card they popped out at you. Most of us used too much glue to put our flowers together, luckily this was just a test run. When we were confident enough to start our real copy, we chose which colour paper we wanted and got to work. In the end they turned out great. All the mum's loved them and wanted to know how we made them. Check out our blog to see a powerpoint of how to make them.


By Anna and Kayla

Our rugby day

1 comments
Posted in Labels: , , , ,





On Friday 9th September,the day of the rugby world cup 2011 opening, we had a BIG school rugby day. The first thing we did was made huge corrugated iron rugby balls which read ALL BLACKS it is visible on both sides, school and road. We painted the letters white and the background black. Everyone wore black and white, some people even painted their face. Then we played a variety of rugby tabloids, they were ripper rugby, netball with a rugby ball and rugby relays. We also fundraised money by having a sausage sizzle for lunch at the cost of $2 each. With the money we raised we put aside for our school council to put to good use on the school. It was a great day for everyone. We also song the national anthem, done the Haka and raised the New Zealand flag. A couple of days later when the paint had dried, we hung the balls up on our school fence.

Our New Stillts

2 comments
Posted in Labels: , , ,





Mr Booth made us some new stilts because our old ones were worn out and they could not hold us. The ones we have now are better stilts because they are stronger. Thank you Mr Booth from Flint, Caitlin and Bradlee.

Mangapuhoe Stream Visit

4 comments
Posted in Labels: , ,



Our river study culminated in a visit down to the Mangapuhoe stream that runs alongside the road that disects our school. We were trying to catch critters to assess the water quality in the stream. We learnt how to do this when we went to the National Trout Centre on our class trip. While we were there we searched for critters in the Tongariro River. This video also shows how we were able to use green screen techniques for a bit of fun.

Watermelon Art - Scaling Up

2 comments
Posted in Labels: , ,


Camp, 2011, Taupo

0 comments
Posted in Labels:




Our focus for camp this year was a continuation of our 'Rivers and Us' study. We visited the Huka Prawn farm and learnt how they harness waste hot water to heat their ponds. Action world gave the kids a chance to push themselves outside their comfort zones, though some have very large comfort zones it would seem. AC baths was a hit with the hill slide and a BBQ dinner. We visited the Tongariro National Trout Centre where Ranger Anna had the children totally wrapped up in learning about water care, trout, and using critters to assess the state of our rivers. On our last day Simon was our very knowledgable (and entertaining) skipper on board the Ernest Kemp, taking us out to the rock carvings on Lake Taupo. A huge thanks to the parents that came on camp. Your help was very much appreciated and we can't do these activities without your assistance.  Thanks for the great photos Rob, though animotos don't do them justice.

I'd advise starting this then pausing it to allow it to load.

Making a catchment in the sand. By Anna.

1 comments
Posted in Labels:


Today Miss Wesley said we would be doing an experiment. She was going to show us what a catchment area was. First we all got a container each because we didn't have a hose. We walked down to the sandpit and made hills and mountains in the sand. (Just so it looked all bumpy.) We laid a plastic sheet over the sand. We sprinkled some sand on the edges of the plastic so it keeps it flat down. Then we raced up to the tap and filled our containers with water. When we were all back in the sandpit we tipped the water slowly onto the sheet. You could see all the water was running down the hills to the lowest point. Some of the water formed lakes. The water flows off the plastic sheet into the sand and forms a river. If we had of kept putting water on it would have flowed to the sea (eventually).

Making Catchment Areas. By Kayla

0 comments
Posted in Labels: , ,


Miss Wesley told us we were going outside to do an experiment. Everyone had to get a small container of water then listen to Miss
Wesley . . .

We put some plastic on a hilly bit just out of the sandpit and put a cup down at the bottom of the hill. We put a bit of turf (grass) at the top of the hill. Miss Wesley poured water on the grass. The water flowed down into the cup, when it was full Miss Wesley picked it up. The glass had a few stray pieces of grass in it along with the water.

Miss Wesley turned the turf over so that it was dirt side up. When we poured water on to the dirt it stayed where it was but we could see that some dirt was running off down in to the cup. Miss Wesley picked up the glass; it had some dirt floating around. After a while the dirt sunk to the bottom of the glass and some grass made its way to the top.

We went back to the sandpit; Miss Wesley put sand at the highest point then sprinkled water on it. The sand washed down with the water. Miss Wesley picked up the glass. It had HEAPS of sand in it. While we went back to class, the sand was slowly making its way down to the bottom of the glass. The water seems to get lighter the higher up it is.

Our experiment told us that because grass has roots it all held in well. The sand didn’t have anything to cling on to so it slid down the hill. What happened to the sand is called ‘erosion.’ Out of the three glasses the grass side up one was the cleanest.

Who knew school could be so much fun? !!!

Catchments and Erosion by Lucy

0 comments
Posted in Labels: ,




2011 And A Bit Of Maths

1 comments
Posted in Labels: ,


2011 is a prime number year, the first one since 2003.

2011 is also the sum of 11 CONSECUTIVE prime numbers: 2011=157+163+167+173+179+181+191+193+197+199+211

2011 is also the sum of 3 CONSECUTIVE primes 2011 = 661+673+677

Two prime numbers are “consecutive” if they follow one upon the other, in the collection of prime numbers. So, for example, 3 and 5 are consecutive prime numbers, as are 7 and 11.

2011 is ALSO the sum of a 2 prime numbers (11 and 3) of consecutive prime numbers.

The next year after 2010 that is a prime number and a sum of consecutive prime numbers is 2027 = 29+31+37+41+43+47+53+59+61+67+71+73+

79+83+89+97+101+103+107+109+113+127+131+137+139

but that year is not a sum of a prime number of consecutive prime numbers.

However, 2027 does have the curious and interesting property that it is prime and the sum of its digits 2+0+2+7=11 is also a prime number. It is the first year after 2003 that has this property.

The next year that is a prime number and a sum of a prime number of consecutive prime numbers is 2081 =401+409+419+421+431.

Happy New Year

Summer Holidays

4 comments
Posted in


Hi to all my students. I hope you are having a great break from school and enjoying our very hot summer. Some exciting things are happening in your classroom while you are away. We have had a permanent data projector installed in class, which is great and will make learning more fun in class. Also I am in the middle of planning the best ever class camp for term 1, so be very excited. I have had a great Christmas in Wellington and New Year in Taupo (checking out camp activities while I was there). Also I got my adrenalin fix by doing the Flying Fox at gravity canyon again...hmmm what next? I will put some photos up soon.

Year 8's doing Weird Al's E-Bay song

1 comments
Posted in Labels: ,


Chris's Stellar Performance.

0 comments
Posted in Labels:


Chris is one of our 7 year 8 students leaving for college. This is his performance of Mambo #5 at our end of year production, "Stars in Your Eyes". My apologies for the poor video recording at the start.



12 Pains of Christmas.

0 comments
Posted in Labels:


My year 5, 6, and 7 students did a brilliant and very funny version of the twelve pains of Christmas for our end of year production. This take off of the well known Christmas song looks at the things that stress us most at Christmas time. You may need to leave this to load as it's quite a large file. Also best viewed on full screen.

School Outing

0 comments
Posted in Labels: ,


Our end of the year school trip this year was to the Te Awamutu Events Centre for a swim and lunch. Rooms 1 and 3 also used the hydroslide. I'm not sure who was the fastest to get on there for a turn, parents or kids.





Year 8's Big Day Out

2 comments
Posted in Labels: ,


We have a tradition at Otewa School where the Year 8 students who will be leaving for college at the end of this year have a day out with their teacher. This year we went bowling and played laser tag. Grayson's dad came with us. Turns out he is a superb bowler but he hasn't quite got Jamie's skills. The rest of us just use luck and hope that our fingers come out of the bowling ball as it heads for the lane. We will miss these 7 fine students next year.


 



Weekly Challenge

10 comments
Posted in Labels:



My apologies to my class. I got this clue completely muddled with another picture for the term. Thank you Kayla for making me come back and re check my work.

Here is the correct clue.

Gladiatori combattevano qui

Wednesday Afternoon Options

3 comments
Posted in Labels:


This term we are doing options on Wednesday afternoons for the first 4 weeks of the term. Here are the Otewa Students that chose to do cooking with Miss Wesley. This week we made lolly cake. Simple to make a favourite of kiwi kids. For an interesting read about LOLLY CAKE check out Isaac Freeman's blog.