Awakeri School Room 12 2008

We are a beautiful bunch of 29 year seven and eight children. There are 16 boys and 13 girls. We work hard and do our best. Our wonderful teacher is Mrs. Merry. She does fun work and is a great teacher.

05.12.08 It is now the last few weeks of school! We have started a marble track competition. We have to create a track for a marble. It has to take 30 seconds to get from the start to the end. Some people have found that it is actually a long time. We also have to have a variety of different tracks it has to take it just can't be straight tracks leading from one to another down the wall! I will take some photos of the finished results when we are done.
We are also studying The Bermuda Triangle! We have looked at where it is and also have answered questions about a story we were read.
Five people from our school have got the chance to get taught by a mentor for two day's (yesterday and today). His name is Tama. Three of those people are from our class. They are Elaine Taylor, Rachael Griffen and (name withheld sorry)! They have enjoyed it. They will be performing in today's Assembly and at our Fancy Dress.
Well, better go now!

24.11.08 Last week on Thursday our room and Rooms 6 and 7 went to Wairaka Marae. We were greeted on by Room 13, who had stayed on Wednesday night. Room 6 and 7 stayed for the day and went back to school with Room 13. It was very enjoyable and we had a few laughs. In the afternoon, once the other classes had gone back to school and some teachers came to help, we went on a walk to Toi's Pa. It was a very tiring walk up but I'm sure lots of people enjoyed going down, seems we were allowed to run. At one point three people ran into the same tree after each other too! It was Nimai, Jasmine, and Alicia!! We showed our myths as well and for the people who didn't go to the Marae will be showing it to the class sometime this week. It was fun sleeping in the wharenui. Tessa and me (Emma) got in trouble during the night for talking. So did some other people too. The next day when the junior juniors came (Rooms 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5) for the calling on bit. When we shook hands Lily counted how many kids there were and altogether there were 105 of them!!! After their walk down by the river and to Muriwai's cave (which we went on the Thursday in the morning) we had to take a group of them and teach them how to do the rakau and tell them stories about the art work in the wharekai and more stuff. It was hard for people who went with others because basically all of us apart from the lucky few got 5 or 4 kids each! It was a fun but tiring time for all of us, especially Elaine and Rachael who stayed the whole week.

14.11.08 Yay! It's Friday, meaning no school tomorrow! Plus this afternoon after we have worked on our myths (for the marae) we are having a game of softball.
Before lunch we had a practice run through for the marae. We went out in groups for the days of who were going to be there when.
Also when we wrote our Marae Protocol Mrs. Merry went to write kai but instead she wrote kia. So now when ever I talk about food I always says kia (especially to Mrs. Merry).
We have all written up our review of the year to go on our reports too. It was easy because all we had to do was go back to our term reviews and take out what we wanted and put it into our review for our report.

10.11.08 We are nearly going to start our Marae timetable soon. Afterwards we are going to carry on with our myths. We were put into groups and we had to read out our myth and choose the best one to illustrate. We have to have Maori designs along with toko toko designs somewhere on our picture. We need to have the characters in it but make it relate to the story. All is going well.
We have finished our self assessment all we need to do is type it up (copy and paste from our term reviews and add the last bit for the part of this term so far)!!
We have started P.A.T tests again to see if we have improved over the year- today we started with comprehension and more to come.
We have finished our Athletics now but it was all great fun. We have inter-school athletics coming up bon Thursday for the year 7 and 8's. The sprints was fun and exciting and for two people it was more tiring than others because they had to run with a little kid.
Well better go now bye.

05.11.08 Last week on Friday afternoon we had our parachutes final. But here are some photos of us creating our parachutes:

We all had fun doing this challenge even though most people made their parachutes to break the egg.
Bye.

31.10.08 Last week on Friday we had our first maturation talk. We all had few laughs. Today we had our second talk. It was OK, and we laughed lots!
We have started learning how to play softball (Mrs. Merry's rules) which is fun to learn.
This morning after playlunch Mrs. Merry sent out two girls (who I can't name sorry) to measure the running track to make sure that it was 400 m. The first time the girls did it they mucked up the counting and ended up getting 783 m! They went round a second time and got 353 m which was more like it. So Mrs. Merry sent out two boys this time to check it, and they got 399m. Also right now another lot went out after and measured the track and got 400m which is good.
Well better go now bye.

22.10.08 We have now moved our P.E shed, so today we practiced the long jump and high jump today and will be starting on the shot-put and discus tomorrow hopefully.
We are starting to write our self evaluation of last term today as well.
For parachutes we are designing our very own and making it but it has to hold an egg and it can't let it crack or break either. It is a fun challenge.
We have moved onto our S.R.A already apart from the very few who have to finish their novel study.
Well got to go now bye.

15.10.08 This is our first week back at school and we are already underway with our practice for athletics back because we haven't moved into our new P.E shed yet so we are just practising on the track.
We have started our new topic for the first few weeks our this term on Parachutes on then we will be moving onto a study about Maori Culture because of our Marae stay closer to the end of the year.
We also have started on Maori myths and legends as well for our language. Soon we will be writing our own myth to say at the Marae at night time along with our Mihi's.
We are up to our last group for the filming of our Fairytales, which is good.
We are back to learning our Spanish for the first 3 weeks of this term again, which is cool fun.
We will be starting on SRA soon for reading and some people still need to finish off their novel study before they can move on which is OK.
For math's we will soon be starting on our new unit which is measurement.
For Te Reo we are moving on to Maori place names and we also will be practicing our Mihi's in class as well to help us remember it for our night at the Marae.

23.09.08 Tonight we have our first actual show for production. Everyone is excited and can't wait.
We are putting a rest on homework till next term because production goes all week and we won't have time to fit it in.
We are still carrying on with our weaving/knitting. Those who have gotten sick of normal knitting have been taught how to do finger knitting. It is going great. Nicholas Baker started and he finished it so it was big enough to make into a small beanie.
Well I have to go now, Bye.

15.09.08 This morning before interval we had the principal, deputy principal and two ex- students from this very class came from Edgecumbe Collage to talk to us about their school.
We are well under way with our production, and tomorrow we will be having a practice with props. On Wednesday we will be having a full dress- rehearsal!!!
We have nearly got all of our calendar art finished and they are looking great!!
We are still going on with our weaving and some of us have moved on to sewing as well.
We haven't done any more work with our visual language so far instead have been focusing on our novel study for reading!! So far they are going great and nearly everyone has nearly finished their first or second book apart from the few that have been going out for singing practices and for two others who having been working on a project that is nearly finished and you all will be able to see it on the website hopefully this week!!
Well got to go now I'll tell you more later!!

08.09.08 Last week on Monday and Wednesday all the Kapa Haka people had intensive which was cool fun but hard work!!!
We are doing a study on Fabrics and Fibres while we are doing our weaving.
We are having long practices for our production which is coming great! We are getting taken out for singing to learn our songs in our groups. So far it has been very good.
We have started our calendar art. This year we took a photo of all our friends in room 12 (our class only). In the photo we had to be doing a activity for example playing on the playground. We all have printed them off and are soon going to draw our border on the paper we are given to make it look cool.
Look further down the page as there is another teachers message!!!! We all can't wait!!!Well got to go tell you all next week!!

25.08.08 For fitness we have been doing skipping! Mrs. Merry took some photos of us so I went through them and picked the best ones to share with you!!!!!!! Here they are:

For art we have started weaving! It is going along great. We have two ways of doing it. One way is by a loom which, when Mrs. Merry showed us, looked quite cool. The other way is by a meat tray! They all are look great!
Well I'd better go and do my work! I'll tell you more hopefully later this week or next week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

18.08.08 This week on Wednesday we have Hockey/Soccer day which everyone is looking forward to. We have had only one practice seems we just haven't had the time. But, everyone is ok and we sorted out who would be doing what in our teams.
We are doing our Olympic sport mini unit. We have all chosen our sport to study. We have only this week to finish it off. We (as a school) have finished our school's olympics and have had our medal ceremony.
We have the results for the E.B.O.P science fair these are the results from the people from our class:Jasmine Hope got three awards (technology)- GOLD, Best Commercial and Best Technology Entry.Clive Mc Indoe (science) got a SILVER.Caleb Sheather (technology) got a Highly Commended. Brooke Theobald (science) got Best Recycling Entry. WELL DONE to all of them!!!
We would also like to welcome our new student Tessa Broomhall to our class. She came on Monday 11th August- last week.

08 08.08 Hey we have our school's Olympic Opening Ceremony starting this afternoon. Everyone is looking forward to it. A person from our classroom (name with held) will be singing a song at the opening ceremony. We all wish her good luck. We have finished making our flags and here is a picture of all 10 of them:

07.08.08 Hey, two days ago we finished our poetry reading and started on our novel studies. We all are excited to do this because the stories are so interesting and are great fun.
We have finished science fair and the people who got placings are going to E.B.O.P science fair.The people from our class that will be going there are:Clive Mc Indoe who got 2nd in Science, Brooke Theobald who got 3rd Equal in Science, Racheal Griffen who got Highly Commended in Science, Shane Gow, Nicholas Baker and Renko Barkema who got Commended in Science. Jasmine Hope who got 3rd in Technology, Caleb Sheather who got Highly Commended, Chris Walker and Joshua Ridley who got Commended. We all wish you well.
We have now finished our Spanish Unit which was great fun! And now are going back to our Te Reo topic which is Kai!
We have our Olympics starting soon which we all can't wait for. We have finished making our big flag that will be presented in front of our countries that we are in, in the Opening Ceremony tomorrow. We are going to do a min project on a sport of our choice except we can't do our projects on a sport we already know a lot about.
Well better go do my work tell you what happens next week! Bye!

01.08.08 Hey, today we have Miss Robb today which is great fun. First thing this morning we played a game of Indoor Soccer in the complex. It was great fun except no one scored a goal- well none that counted anyway!
We have the Olympics next week on Friday and everyone is looking forward to it! We have already started the preparation for it. So far we have painted our countries flag, decorated a sigh saying which country we were representing and we have done a little two sided flag for each of us seniors to hold during the opening ceremony!
We have nearly finished our Spanish unit which is so much fun!
Well better go and do my school work Bye!

28.07.08 Hola! we will start to study the Olympics this afternoon. We have talked about what the Olympics is for. We have the Olympics because it brings together all the countries to bring peace in the world and to see which countries are better at what sport!
We also have operetta this term which sounds like fun. We have already cast the main roles so far. We hope it will be fun!
We have started our new math's topic: Geometry.
For Skipping we are in groups of five or six and we have to create a routine showing what we have learnt. We had a play around to see what each other can do. We tried some other way's of skipping that we all knew before. Once we had finished practicing what we knew, we were allowed to have a go with the big ropes. Some of us did the figure of 8. It was fun because there were lots of us doing it and it was fun to watch people when they finally stopped the skipping rope after lots of of rounds.
Well got to go now i'll tell you more later in the week!

25.07.08 Hola (Hello) we have finished with Life Ed. We only had her for three sessions and our topic was on W.O.F. which is warrant of fitness (Water Oxygen Food).
We have nearly finished our Nursery Rhymes which are coming along great.
We have gotten up to greetings so far for Spanish. Such as Buenos Dias-meaning Good Morning and Senorita- meaning Miss. We also listened to two people saying words in Spanish that sounded like words in English-Cognates, for example Elefante which is Elephant!
We have now started Nga kai for our Te Reo Maori which makes some of us students pay lots of attention (like we always do) because it's about food!
Time to go now Bye!

21.07.08 Hey, we all are back to school and ready to work. Tomorrow our class will be going to Life Ed with Shirley- only the senior classes are going this year though! We are also starting our Spanish unit. We will be learning Spanish every afternoon for three weeks. Everyone is excited about it and can't wait to learn.
Also on the 8th of August we are starting our very own Olympics. We will have our own games which sound like fun. We all are looking forward to it.
We have started skipping now, for our fitness, which is so much fun. We learnt different ways of skipping with our normal rope and then we moved on to the big ropes!
Well, better go for lunch, bye.

04.07.08 Today is the last day of term 2. I would have told you earlier this week but I have been too busy to write anything on the website.
We had Manawahe cross-country on Tuesday this week and in our class they all did really well.
We are having reward day this after noon. Reward Day is for those who haven't been on detention. This is where we play different sorts of games the teachers wanted to take. A few of the games include Rulz, Soccer and more!!
This morning we have been typing up our favourite poem that we wanted to go into the school magazine that we get at the end of the year. Once we had finished we went onto Excel and experimented with the use of charts. After we had completed the work we were given to do on the computer, we were allowed to play games.
Well, better go now, Bye.

27.06.08 We have been very busy over the last few weeks. We have started putting our nursery rhymes into movies, two movies have been filmed so far, and so far they look great.
We have started a new social study- Rainforests- and we so far are doing a project on a question that Mrs. Merry had on the board. We got into a group of three or four and together choose a question. We have got our information and are now putting it all on a A4 piece of paper. We get to design our page ourselves which is good!
We are also writing poems. Mrs. Merry will tell us what we are writing about and will give us our starter then we carry it on with our imagination. We have so far written about four or five poems each. After we have finished writing all of our poems we will choose our best one to go in the magazine we get at the end of the year. Look down in Students Work to read some of them!
Look further down in 'Students Work' for some of our poems.

11.06.08 We are still finishing off our Nursery Rhymes and a part of that is making movies. We picked out 7 stories that we liked the best and Mrs. Merry got all the results and told us whose was in. We then told Mrs. Merry who's group we wanted to be in and there we go. We went into our groups yesterday and sorted out who was playing what character and started working out what we our props we are going to use in our movie.
Well got to go out for fitness now. I'll keep you updated later, Bye.

06.06.08 Today Mrs. Merry has gone to do a course to learn Spanish. Yes, that's right Spanish. She has gone to learn about Spanish because very soon she is going to teach us the exciting culture. Today we have a relief teacher called Miss Cotter who will be starting us off by teaching us the alphabet and possibly some of their numbers. We are all excited about it and especially because it will be a different experience.
But on to other news. We have finally started to complete our 'Family Portraits' that we started last term. We have been so busy with other stuff we just didn't have time to finish them off. Look further down for more information.
We have just done Cross Country which was a lot of fun (cough cough).
Well better go do my work now Bye.

05.06.08 We are well under way with our speeches. Yes we are doing our speeches now- BORING!!! But it's good to get it over and done with. We have started writing our term review which is just a paragraph or more about ourselves and what we did during last term. They are all going great. Well better go, I'll catch up with you later.

29.05.08 We are back from camp finally. I have to say that I'm glad to be back! The food was all right but I think most people were glad to go home and have some meat!!!!! Yes, it was a vegetarian camp. We took lots of photo's that I would love to share, but I'll have to make a page next week for you on Wednesday because we have Technology on Tuesdays this term.
On other news, Cross Country is next week on Wednesday. We have just gone for the walk so we know the track.
Also we have finally started finishing off our Nursery Rhymes that we started last term.
This week we didn't have Mrs. Maple because she couldn't come (we don't know why)!
Speeches are coming up and we are starting to say ours next week on Wednesday (because of Tech). Following that we will have semifinals and then finals. I hope it will be fun. Well got to go now, Bye.

19.05.08 With only hours to go we are all nearly prepared for the fantastic camp we are going to tomorrow. We hadMrs. Maple in today again and did fun experiments. I have taken some photos and will be putting them on next week!! Sorry for the delay. We have nearly finished our Family Portraits (see down further for some information) which we started on the first week of the school year. We are near Cross Country and camp will be great practice as it is all about the fitness.
Well unfortunately we have reached the end of the day so I'll catch up with you next week. Bye.

15.05.08 On Monday's we have a lady called Mrs. Maple come in to teach us about Energy. This week she came in to talk to us about generating power. For example we learnt about Rechargeable Batteries. We learnt how they work and bit of other stuff. She put us into groups of three and we were given a brain box and we had to figure out a way to make a circuit and make sure it works. We then had different materials that we could see if they worked the circuit where we took off a part of the circuit.
But that's not the only exciting thing happening!
Today after lunch we have something that we call a 'Reward Day' where children who haven't been on DETENTION last term! We would of had it last term except Room 14 was on camp.
Our class and Room 13 will be going on camp next week on Tuesday. We are all excited because Mrs. Merry has told us so much about it. I'll tell you more about it on Monday but for now I have to go and do work!
Bye

05.05.08 Great news for all of you! We are all back at school ready for the exciting weeks ahead of us. In week 3 rooms 12 and 13 are going on camp to Tui Ridge!!!!!! In week 6 we have speeches (just for the senior classes!).
We are starting our preparations for camp this afternoon. We have a total of 27 parents coming with us so that means we can enjoy the time away from school (except it's not a holiday we still have to do work!!). The class is very excited about going so we hope it will be great fun!
Now for other news! We are still carrying on with Disasters as our topics. WE have now finished Number as our Mathematics study and will be moving on to Statistics tomorrow! Today we have finished up with a post test!!!
After Interval a lady will be coming in to talk about energy a such. It will be great help for our science fair that is coming up later on in the year. The name of this lady is Mrs. Louise Maple. She will only be coming in on Mondays after interval and the class is excited that she is coming in.
On Wednesday some people from a Rugby team are coming in to teach us some skills!
Well have to go and do some more work tell you what's happening later on Bye!!

18.04.08 Today is the last of school this term. Everyone is excited!! In assembly today a group from the fun(d)raiser gave out their prize. The prize was to cream pie Mr. Fitz, some teachers won the prize to and they got to pull a name out of hat (the name of a teacher who said they will be happy to be cream pied) and that was the person they cream pied. The wonderful teachers who won this was : Mrs. Merry who cream pied Mr. Hawkes and Mrs. Cronin who cream pied Miss Taggart. Assembly was very fun!!!!
Well I'll keep you all in touch next term so for now good luck for the holiday's and stay safe!!!!!
Unfortunetly it is Jacob Wallace's last day here as he moving to somewhere down south. GOOD LUCK TO YOU Jacob!

17.04.08 We have just come back from a session with a guy called Nick. He taught us a few tricks on how to play badminton. Everyone enjoyed it especially the game we played at the end. The game was called Around the World. The is about running up to hit the Shuttle then run around the opposition (Nick) and join the line. It was so fun and it definitely got us out of work!!
Also yesterday we had our fun(d)raiser even though it was raining a lot. Instead of the activities outside we shifted them inside so the children buying stuff and participating in games would not get sick. All of the stalls did very well considering the weather.
With only today and tomorrow the holiday's are nearly here. Everyone is excited and is talking about what they are going to do during the holiday's.
They have joined bus routes together so no one will get left behind at school and have to stay late in the afternoon and be dropped off quite late. Except this will start next term and the routes are in the newsletter.
Well better go and do some work. Bye.

11.04.08 We are nearly ready for the fun(d)raiser next week. Today in assembly we acted out our skits that we made up.
We have nearly finished our art work (family portrait photos). We are all up to putting the bits of material on our painting. They are looking very good and hopefully I'll be able to put some photos on here for you all to see.
We also can't wait for the holidays which I might add are starting next week on Saturday. The only problem is that I won't be able to keep you all up to date on what is happening in school.
Well I have to go and finish up my picture! Bye!!

04.04.08 On Wednesday and Thursday (yesterday) a lady called Janie came in to talk to us about the environment. She talked to us about water and how we cope with it in our life and talked about what might happen to us if we were not careful with how we use our water. We found out some interesting facts and we prepared for what might happen in an earthquake. Especially if we have a Septic tank containing our dirty water. (Some of us didn't know this.)
I'll tell you more next week because I have to go!

02.04.08 For fitness we are doing a playground circuit and have chosen which group we would like to be in. We got to choose out of the advanced group or the ordinary group. It has been quite fun lately epecially yesterday as we had no fitness!!
For our language we are writing our very own nursery rhyme story using nursery rhymes that we knew well. We then added in characters from other nursery rhymes. Some people, like me, put in characters from fairy tales as well. Susannah has finished hers already. To read it, look down in students' work.

26.03.08 We are back after a nice long weekend. Everyone was excited to go home and enjoy Easter with their family. This morning we had fun doing fitness (NOT!!!!!). We had to run right around the edge of the field and then through the playground. Lucky for those people who made it in the Top School team they knew exactly what to do.
Mrs. Merry has put us into our groups for the Fun(d) Raiser. This afternoon we will be getting together in our groups and sorting out who will do what and then split up into the categories (finance, Advertisement and Manufacturing) and will be working with the teacher that is in the room we are to go to on Friday. We will then get to work with every thing that we need to sort out.
We are well underway with our reading and were put into groups according to our P.A.T test results. We are starting off with nonfiction and are well into the work. Well I better get to my work now I'll tell you all more later. Bye.

14.03.08 We have finished our swimming and it is not because of the lovely weather we are having. It is because of the amount of people that are going swimming, you would of thought that it would be the whole class but no, it is because there isn't many people. Well on to other news.
Last Friday, we had Mrs. Laurent and we of course we did art. This time we had to draw three faces. We had to draw in detail including hair, eyes, nose and a mouth. We had to have the right proportions and so we could try to get it right we copied some things form a old magazine that we choose.
We have now finished our reading and have started writing a critique about our story Once and it will include our opinions about it. We can use parts of the story as so we can describe some of the characters life. We also were left wondering what would happen to Felix because the story left of with Felix helping Zelda and saying exactly what Barney had said earlier on in the story, ' "Everyone deserves something good in their life, at least once!" '!! We have to include our emotions through the story and have give a reason why we felt like that!

11.03.08 Swimming is now non-compulsory. Meaning more time for updating my page!
For our new social studies we have learning the difference between Natural, Man Made and Personal disasters. This afternoon we are going to the computer suite and look up information on the disaster we want to study. Mrs. Merry said we had to look up information on two or three different disasters and pick the one that is most appealing to ourselves as it is best to do a study on the one we would like to study. We have a criteria list we have to follow for the information part we can also add anything we want to make it more appealing and to get extra credits!!! Well enough about our studies for social studies.
We are nearly at the end of our reading topic. For reading we have been listening to a story by Morris Gleitzman. The story is called Once. It is about a young boy that is round about twelve who was put into an orphanage. The reason being is because of Hitler It is all about Felix's (the young boy) trip to east Berlin and his struggles getting about. But it is very interesting because Felix writes stories about his parents and all about these amazing adventures they would go on. Then while trying to find his parents he finds this burning house. He goes to investigate and finds the two adults that live there have been shot and so have their chickens. Out of the corner of his eye he sees this girl. He goes over to check and see if she is dead and luckily she wasn't. Her name is Zelda. At this stage in the story he hasn't worked out what really is happening in the world that surrounds him. But he soon realizes what is happening when he gets to Germany...!
For language we are finishing off our second imaginary story. This time we have based it around the old tree being pulled out of the ground out in the teachers carpark. Mrs. Merry started us off with her sentence and the we transformed it into a complete imaginary story.
Well got to go tell you more later on Bye!!

10.03.08 We are well underway with our new social studies (Topic). We are now studying New Zealand Disasters and are looking back at our countries past. We are studying different types of Disasters such as the Edgecumbe Earthquake, the Ballantynes fire, the MT Tarawera Eruption, the Tangiwai Train Crash and many more. We have done a little description on what we think the whole Disaster thing is all about.
We also have been learning about something called a soundscape. It is where a group of people get together and make a chart using symbols to specify the sounds they heard in a specific spot. We are doing ours on the Rocky Shore. Mrs. Merry has put as into groups and we are making a soundscape. We can use our own vices but also instruments that are in the schools music room. We have made our soundscape chart draft copy and soon will be doing ours on a good piece of paper. We looked back as a group to see what sounds we heard while at Otarawairere bay (Rocky Shore). Because we heard lots of different sounds we picked the best. For example: Screaming when someone saw an Octopus shall I say Octopi, The waves crashing on the beach, The birds chirping, The sand crunching beneath our feet, Our voices calling to one another.
Unfortunately that's all for now but I'll catch up with you all later on.

06.03.08 We are ready to learn. Yesterday, middle school (B Block) and senior school (C Block) went to Edgecumbe College for one of their yearly events- Swimming Sports. The weather was absolutely wonderful for our lovely time away from school (yeah). We started off with the two lengths of freestyle which was open to anyone who thought they could make it and to any age group. There were only two boys who entered the competition and they were Ari and Caleb. Ari won so of course Caleb came second and never to mind that they were both in Rimu. Next up were the girls and Shannon Mower took 1st place and got house points for her house Rata. We got some great photos as the day grew on. Later on in the day we had our very own fun competitions such as the biggest bomb and the nicest dive. Our judges had a lot of trouble deciding who was going to be our winners that they just started handing out 1st equals. Sometimes they had no trouble deciding but with others they had some difficulty. We ended the day with the relays. For our house relays Mrs. Gordon's favourite house won! We then had our favourite the Parent-Teacher Student relay. Representing the wonderful students sitting in the nice sun watching every race was Shannon Mower, Jasmine Hope, Ari Wilson- Porter and Caleb Sheather. Representing the Teachers was Mr. Hawkes and his partner representing all of the parents Mr. Turpie. The students did one lap each where as Mr. Hawkes chickened out and did one lap and left Mr. Turpie having to do the other three laps. It was a great day and Mrs. Merry and Mr. Hawkes had great life savers (Jasmine Hope, Shannon Mower, Renko Barkema and Jacob Wallace). They also had a great help from Emma Bennett, Matthew Archer and Matthew Eveleens who helped with the false starting rope. Over all there were only two false starts. Interval now so got to go. Bye.

04.03.08 Finally we are back to working in our books (well not really). After the stress of P.A.T tests we are filling up our books. We have just finished our 'Rocky Shore' study and on Thursday we start our next study which is on New Zealand Disasters.
Top School is nearly here and we are well under way preparing our team. We have been working on accuracy and fitness. This includes our strength. We all can't wait for the big day and hope it turns out to be fine.
We are now starting our second imaginary story. Our first few lines our about the digger smashing down the old tree out in the teachers' car park out the back. First we are going to brain storm about it and put them in our story. We can turn it into a very creative one about an evil monster or one about a nice, kind monster. We can create imaginary creatures in our mind and put them in our story. We also can use people from the class and ask them for their permission to say mean stuff about them in our story. We also have to describe the characters when we introduce them in the story. Well interval now so tell you more later if I can.

29.02.08 After a long and stressing week, finally P.A.T tests are over. Poor Mr. Hawkes won't have this year's talented good looking year eight girls again for P.A.T testing and must be sad it's over! Except... we year eight girls are celebrating that the tests are over and don't have to waste our time with them. Instead we can relax and do cool work with our own teachers like art this afternoon!!
In class with Mrs. Merry we are nearly at the end of our 'Rocky Shore' study. We have drawn a life cycle of the Shore Crab. We had to write in our own words what each step of the life cycle is and glued pictures in of what the crab/crabs look like in that particular stage. We are also in the middle of doing 'Imaginative Stories'. Mrs. Merry starts our story off with one or two sentences and we have to create a story that has imaginary creatures in. We are allowed to use students from our class as long as we get their permission, especially if we want to insult them (in the story).

25.02.08 This week we are loooking forward to doing tests. Not ordinary tests but P.A.T tests. Every day this week except Tuesday, because of Manual, we are doing P.A.T tests. Today the year 8's did Comprehension and Maths. The year seven children did Listening Skills and Maths. We have got new working books that have been printed this year. After our first test the year eight girls played headbands with Mr. Hawkes. The results are better than last year's Renee Falwassser. Rachael Griffen was given Johnny Depp and was first to leave in the first round. Next was Brittany Harder and she was given Paris Hilton. Last down was Jaime Clarke who was given Britney Spears. Our second round include these results: 1st Emma Bennett whose name was David Beckham, 2nd was Shannon Mower whose name was Bob The Builder and last was Elaine whose name was the one and only Mr. Fitz. We also are nearly finshed with our 'Rocky Shore' study and will be moving on to New Zealand Disasters. I'll catch up with you later with more news.

19.02.08 Later Sorry I took so long. Yesterday was a fantastic day out. Our walk from West End to the Rocky Shore was tiring but fun. When we got there we settled in and relaxed for 10 minutes. After we were settled in to our amazing new area we had to go and do our activities. Our first activity was to find a rock pool in the low tide zone and with our group stay quiet for 5 minutes and find at least 6 interesting creatures. When our groups were done we started our second activity which was the same as the first activity but in the high tide zone. When we were done we went back to the beach and ate lunch and played on the nice soft sand. After 1 hour we got changed and believe this or not we had to get changed in THE BUSH!!!! We got in our togs and went for a swim in the cool water. The water was nice and refreshingly chilly (We had to say that last year at Blair Lodge Camp for the old room 12 classroom!!!). We all had a splendid day.

19.02.08 Last Friday we were drawing people. Not ordinary people. Mrs. Merry chose people to be room 12's models and we drew them by drawing ovals. We had to draw them as they posed. We started off having one model and then moved on to two models. After having a bit of practice we got three people up and had a go at drawing them. We then learnt how to draw clothes on them to make them look more like people. We didn't take too much attention the background or the equipment our models used for their pose. Unfortunately I have to go but I'll write more later today.

14.02.08 Next week on Monday 18th the senior syndicate is going on a field trip to Otarawairere. We are studying the 'Rocky Shore'. As part of our study we are going to be looking at the parts of creatures we might be able to see in the rock pools. We will be parking in the West End parking lot and will be walking from there. The walk from West End will take around 15 minutes. We then will be doing assigned activities and possibly ending with a swim. We have been assigned transport and groups within our own classes. We all can't wait to see how the day goes and all hope it will be fun and exciting. In class we are preparing ourselves by studying about the tides, rock pools and creatures. We are also studying the creatures habitat that live in the area we are studying.

13.02.08 We have written something called a 'Me Poem'. It tells others who don't know us that much some about ourselves. We got our photo taken in a way that we wanted it. We had to think original but creative. We all have our different views of creative and that is what makes our poem and photo special. We are in the middle of creating our frames. We use p.v.a glue to make designs and patterns. We are later on going to use metallic paint and it will make out our patterns.

12.02.08 Room 12 has finally got a new website monitor and its me Emma!
Last week on Monday the 4th our class was dreading to leave the holidays and come back to school, but our luck change when Mrs. Merry had a fun day planned for us. We had so much fun that afternoon with finger painting. We painted a clear blue vase that was full with flowers. The next day (Tuesday) when they were dry we got pastels and used them to mark out detail and to add a little bit of texture. We were told not to use to much pastel so we wouldn't wreck our picture.

27.06.08
Graceful Green, by Lily Vincent
I'm green like a vast open meadow
I sound like the wind whistling through the trees
I smell like sour limes
I am cool like a bundle of grapes coming out of a fridge
I feel free and confident no one can control me.

Bewildered Black Death, by Blake Cossey
I'm black like cold dark death
I'm black like the darkest of all night
I taste like the vomit of the one thousand poisoned devils
I'm trapped and alone
I sound like one thousand crying angels
I'm cold like frost on lush green grass
I feel like a boy in the unknown wilderness.

My Body, by Hannah Gooch
My hair is like caramelo chocolate waves
My eyes are like the ocean, crystal blue and green
My arms are long and lanky like seaweed on the beach
My feet are slime and hidden under the sand
My legs are long and tanned from the hot summer sun
I live in a frangipani and eat the morning dew.

My favourtie thing in the world, by Emma Bennett
The smallest, softest and furriest thing in the world is my older sister Kylie's baby kitten Meela.
She is a whitish grey like smoke
and feels like a puppy's ears.
She is playful like a little child with endless energy,
Under the house is her jungle
By midnight she finally crawls into bed to sleep.
When she sleeps she sounds like a baby bear humming.
In the morning she wakes you up to play all over again

If I were a rainforest, by Jasmine Hope
If I were a rainforest
I'd stand up tall
I'd twist and turn, in the days breeze
I'd make houses for those who live in me
I'd cry if all of me got cut down
I'd scream if I'd got touched by a chainsaw
And rot when I'm dead on the cold ground.

He reached into
his pocket
and his head fell
right out of its socket.

It falls down
rolls down the hill
rolls right into
Mary's school

The head hit lamby
on the leg
who was sitting
at the foot of a keg

The lamb was frightened
and started to bawl
and caught the attention
of Jill, thin and tall

They called in the duke
with his ten thousand men
The duke was smart
his name was Ken

They tried some glue
they tried some tape
they didn't work
because of the awkward shape

But then said Ken
I've had a thought
and called for Miss Muffet
and her curds and whey
came right over
that very day

Me Poems:
Susannah
Unique, Musical, Gifted and Enthusiastic.
Daughter of John and Teena.
Sibling of Andrew, Kyle, Wade, Lusia, Micaiah, Elisha, Asher, Amahlia, Ish-shah, Ezra and Cody.
Lover of Music, Reading and Longball.
Who feels bliss when with best friend Amanda, Delighted when playing with Amahlia and proud at piano competitions.
Who needs acceptance, happiness and family.
Who gives Love, Support and a shoulder to cry on.
Who fears death, losing family and moving.
Who would like to see peace, Spain and Antarctica.
Resident of Poroporo, New Zealand
Williams
Written by Susannah Williams!

Elaine
Cheeky, Talented, Unique and Energetic.
Daughter of Karen and Mangu.
Sibling of Trevor, Stanley, Dianne, Awhea, Robert and Shantii.
Lover of swimming, shopping and That's so Raven.
Who feels lonely when having no-one to talk to, happy when spending time with mum and dad and angry when seeing cruelty.
Who needs love, acceptance and encouragement.
Who gives love, support and help to everyone in need.
Who fears losing family and friends and suffering pain.
Who would like to see dad, happy friends, family and going to the beach.
Resident of Awakeri, New Zealand.
Taylor
Written by Elaine Taylor!

08.09.08
The end of term is fast approaching and along with it production. A lot of hard work is ahead of us but I'm sure all will work out well.
Our weaving and knitting is coming along well and the children are working hard at coming up with creative ideas. The looms take awhile to set up but are worth the effort it takes a little time to complete the actual weaving.
We are about to do our 3rd term 12 minute run and I am sure that the children have improved their fitness level with all the skipping we have been doing.
The year 8's are currently looking into what High School they will be attending next year and becoming excited about being year 9's!!

01.08.08
Well done to room 12, your Nursery Rhymes are awesome and i look forward to seeing the movie of some of them.
We started the 'Olympics' this week and are gathering some very interesting information. I look forward to the Awakeri Olympic Games.
Room 12 are skipping for fitness at the moment and are making up some great routine in small groups.
I look forward to seeing the science fair projects.
Keep up the good work!!

11.06.08
I would like to thank Room 12 and 13 for a fantastic camp. You all took a positive attitude to the challenges put to you, and so many overcame fears-WELL DONE!
We are currently giving speeches to the class. The speeches have been very well researched and we have had some good presentations where alot of us have learnt some health facts.
We begin our movie making shortly and I am looking forward to some creative ideas. Room 12 selected 7 fantastic Nurserey Ryhmes to make their movies of. Good Luck.
Well done to those children who have worked hard and made it into the Manawahe Cross- Country team. Keep up the good work.

14.03.08
We hope you enjoy the lovely art work from room 12. The children have worked hard at their presentation, and mixing colours.
We are currently working on a family portrait, where we have had to look at porportions. Room twelve are studing New Zealand disasters as our social studies. We found some very intersting pieces of information when we went to the computer suite with Mr. Sheather.
We have just finished the story 'Once' by Morris Gleitzman, it certanly made the class think about what it would be like to be a Jew in World War 2.
Good luck for Top School cheerleaders and Top School team.

13.02.08
Welcome to 2008. It's great to see the children all bright and eager to learn. We have written a lot of tests over the last week but have also completed some great work. The finger paintings are awesome and have brightened up the room beautifully. We have started top school trials today. Well done to everyone who are trying out.
We are looking forward to our 'Rocky Shore' field trip. Hopefully the weather will be good to us.
Well done to all the members of room 12. We have made a good start to the year and I am looking forward to getting to know you better.

Now we are Room 12. We used to be called Room 10. Room 10 had cool pages in 2007, 2006 and 2005 as well. Have a look!