Dancing with the (Saint Paul's) stars!

Dean came to school to show us how to do a Hip Hop dance and a Pasodoble! The Pasodoble is a Spanish dance. We had to work with a partner to learn the different moves and then put it all together into one dance. He came everyday for a week and then we did a performance so that everyone could enjoy our dance routine.

A visit to the Brook Waimarama Sanctuary in Nelson

We have been studying our class bird the Kea. We have found out that the Kea is an endangered New Zealand Native bird. We went to the Brook Waimarama Sanctuary to see all the different things that we can do to help rid the New Zealand bush of pests like rats, stoats, possums and weasels that are killing our native birds, their babies and eating the food that the birds need. We are looking forward to seeing kiwi and tuatara being able to live in the bush once again as well as seeing and hearing increasing numbers of tui, piwakawaka and kereru once the pests have gone.

We looked at all the information in the visitor centre before we walked through the bush.

We collected insects to feed the native gecko. The number of insects collected tells us if the bush is a healthy place for birds to live.

We looked at the trees that native birds like to feed on.

We sat in silence for five minutes in order to listen to all the different sounds of the bush. After that Rick showed us some of the tracking and trapping devices used to get rid of pests.

We ended the day by crossing the bridge at the top of the valley and when we got to the bottom of the valley we crossed the stream by going across the stepping stones. Nobody fell in! We had a great day and we learned heaps about conservation.

Cross Country Fun!

We all had a great day out at Rabbit Island for our annual cross country races. We enjoyed a day of fun games like rob the nest ,dragon's tail and dodge ball while waiting for our turn to run the race. Once we had run around the cross country circuit we enjoyed hot sausages and yummy baking. Check out the photos of all the students in Year three and four who got a top three placing in the race.

Community Mass and Family Picnic

On Thursday evening we celebrated mass in the courtyard at school with our families,Fr.Seph, Fr.Andrew and our teachers. After mass we had a picnic tea and played until the sun went down.

Water Safety

On Wednesday morning we went to the Aquatic Centre to do some water safety drills. When we got there we put some life jackets on and they split us up into two groups. First we jumped off the end of the wave pool. When we had all jumped off we huddled together in the water like in the start of a rugby match. If someone is injured or is a child they get put in the middle of the group to support and protect them. Then we formed into a long snake to swim back to the side of the pool. After all the water safety drills I felt like a water expert. That was the end of a wonderful day. By Logan

Ash Wednesday 1 March 2017

On Ash Wednesday Fr. Seph joined us at school for our Ash Wednesday Liturgy.

Caring for our common home - our school

We are proud of Shiloh, Charlotte, Casey and Ciara for taking the initiative to sweep around the Earth Bench in our Sacred Space. When they had finished sweeping and tidying they were surprised to find that there was a star under the bench! Good work girls!

A busy week in Kea class!

This week we have enjoyed improving our swimming skills everyday. On the last day we practiced our survival skills by putting on lifejackets and falling out of boats!

We also went to the Suter Art Gallery to make Christmas decorations from clay.

The Middle Syndicate Celebrate Celebrations

Celebrations and Festivals are an ongoing part of life, where we say "thanks" for what we have or the milestones that have been passed. Each country, group and family have different celebrations but the connecting threads in these are: fun, sense of thankfulness and appreciation, connection with the traditions of past (in family, group, country), moments of reflection and importance. As part of our Celebrations and Festivals topic, the Middle Syndicate students have been rotating around Kereru, Kotuku and Kea classrooms each Thursday afternoon to learn about a new celebration. The students have decorated Calavera (sugar skulls) which are used in the Mexican celebration of the Day of the Dead (Día de Muertos) and the Catholic holy day All Souls day. Students celebrated Guy Fawkes day by creating 'Fireworks in a Jar' and firework art. Candle holders called diva were made (yet to be decorated) to celebrate Diwali, the Hindu 'Festival of Lights'. The students really enjoyed spending time in other classrooms with a mix of children from across the syndicate. A big thank you to parents and grandparents who helped out in the classrooms!

Checking out the new Suter Art Gallery

We went to visit the new Suter Art Gallery. We saw the building where the original gallery was. We found out about Bishop Suter and his wife who built the original gallery so that all the people of Nelson could enjoy the paintings. We listened to the story about Nelson heroine Huria Matenga who helped save people who were shipwrecked at Whakapuaka while we were looking at a painting of Huria Matenga. We finished our visit by going on a scavenger hunt to look for paintings in all the different galleries.

New classroom!

During the holidays we took delivery of some bright and colourful furniture and got rid of our desks! We have created a spacious "modern learning environment". Call in and check it out!

A visit from Andrew Chinn

At the end of term three we enjoyed a visit from Australian singer /song writer Andrew Chinn. Andrew writes music especially for use with Children's Liturgy as well as some fun songs to sing any time! Andrew is a fun and enthusiastic performer who always inspires our children to sing and dance!

CONGRATULATIONS - FAMILY MATHS CHALLENGE !

Families took up the maths challenges about Eggs and Rabbits.

Here are the problems:

RABBITS

Mr Greenwill looked out on his Otago farm and saw rabbits everywhere.

“Why”, he said , “I reckon there are about 1280 rabbits in that paddock.

They’ve been doubling in number for the last 7 years.” So how many rabbits were in the paddock 7 years ago?

1280

640 after 1 yr

320 after 2 yr

160 after 3 yr

80 after 4 yr

40 after 5 yr

20 after 6 yr

10 after 7 yr

EGGING ON

Henrietta Fowler sells fresh organic eggs every

Saturday morning at the market.

One Saturday morning, she has only 1 egg left,

after serving 8 customers.

Her first customer buys half her eggs

Her second customer buys half the remaining eggs.

Her third customer buys half of what is left.

Her egg sales continue in this way until Egbert, her ninth customer, buys the last egg. No eggs are broken.

1. How many eggs did each customer buy?

2.     How many eggs did Henrietta start with? Show your working out.

1. Working Backwards.

9th customer 1

8th customer 2

7th customer 4

6th customer 8

5th customer 16

4th customer 32

3rd customer 64

2th customer 128

1st customer 256

2. Since the first customer bought half the original amount then we need to double 256 so it would be 512.

Congratulations to the McDonnell family for

getting both the questions correct and

showing how they solved it!

More Book Week Fun!

Hannah had the smallest book! 

and Bruno (180 years)and Alice (297 years)had the oldest books,

 





and Elijah, Bruno, Scarlet and Ben had the biggest books!