Show and Disco

During Term 3 all the Year 3 and 4 students have been working hard on their performance skills. On 27 September we all got to show what we had learnt to a huge crowd of family and friends. There were lots of different items including Jump Jam, Poi, Recorder, Rakau, String Activities, Waiata and Tira.

 

The supporters loved the Show and while they popped out for a coffee everyone had great fun at the Disco. we were really worn out by the time we got picked up at 7 o'clock!

Write and Read

This term we have all been writing Narrative Stories. each story had to have a Setting, Characters, a Problem and Solution. We worked very hard writing and editing our stories and then we read them aloud to the class. We marked our classmates on both Writing and reading criteria and decided on four people to represent the class. Our finalists were Mary, Tessa, Sam and Adam. On the day the Room 9 finalists did very well with Adam winning the Boys final, Tessa coming second and Mary third in the Girls Final. Room 9 has some awesome writers!!!!

Go For Gold!

At School Assembly on Friday 14 September, Mrs Osborne presented Room 9 with the set of Olympic Medals. - The medals are given to a deserving  class each week, to hand out to special people the following week who are demonstrating the Olympic values, in their participation and contribution to class activities. By the end of the week all of the Room 9 students had worked hard and proved why they had been awarded to our class. 

Te Whare Taonga o Waikato

On Tuesday 21 August, Room 9 visited the Waikato Museum, The Museum is called Te Whare Taonga o Waikato, the Treasure House of the Waikato, and we certainly saw some amazing treasures.

We took part in two educational programmes.The first programme was called Nga Pou Whenua, We found out about local iwi and had a hands-on experience with local taonga, learning about the special connection between the treasures and the local people.

 

The second programme, was all about traditional Maori games and pastimes. We all tried out rakau (stick games) porotaka (spinning tops) and stilts poutoti (stilts). We learnt the significance of the mental and physical skills formed while playing these games; skills which were essential for Maori in everyday life.

We also got to find out all about the history of the special waka on display inside the Museum.

Olympic Experience

On Friday 20 July. All the students in the Middle School, went to Pohlen Park to participate in a Mini-Olympics organised by Sports Waikato. As well as taking part in a number of modified Olympic and Paralympic Sports the students got the opportunity to see inside the Samsung Truck,  which featured a number of interactive activities on the Olympic Games. The students used the technology to send a special message to the New Zealand Olympic athletes.

Inquiry Share

On Wednesday 27 June, Room 9 had the opportunity to share some of the activities they did for this Terms focus on "Living Gems" . Each person had a part in the sharing. We felt a little bit nervous but it all went very well. We shared the mural that showed the process of making compost on a commercial scale.

At the end of the Term we gave our Mural to Dalton's and it is now hanging up in their reception area.

Poetry Share

On Monday 25 June, all the Middle School students met in the Hall to share all the Poetry they had written during Term 3. Each person buddied up with a person from another class. There was a great variety of Poems shared and it was great fun seeing the different ways the Poems had been published.

Book Week

Monday 18 June - Friday 22 June it is Book Week. Every day there will be lots of things happening around BOOKS!!!

First up will be a visit from Australian author Roslyn Motter, who comes from Sydney. She writes about the adventures of the Doofuzz Dudes.  

http://www.doofuzzdudes.com/Author/

One of her books, The Doofuzz Dudes and the Fearless Forest Fighters , has a link to Matamata Primary.

Last year some students from our school gave the author some feedback about the story before it was published and their contribution is recognised in the book.


This weeks Homework Family Website of the Week is full of interactive and animated stories for you to enjoy. http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/interactive/onlinestory.htm

New Zealand has many world famous Children's Authors. Check out this website to hear interviews about them and their writing. http://christchurchcitylibraries.com/Kids/ChildrensAuthors/ 


The final Schoolwide activity for Bookweek was to dress up as your Favourite Book Character. Here is a 5W Poem and a photo of our class characters.

Matamata Primary students
Dressed up for Book Character Day,
At school,
On Friday 22 June,
To celebrate Book Week.

Daltons

On Wednesday 30 May, Room 9 went out to Daltons to see how Compost was made on a commercial scale. We have been turning the compost in our school bins and we wanted to see how a big company like Daltons made compost for gardeners all over New Zealand. Mr Parker and all the staff at Daltons were really helpful and answered all our questions. It was amazing to see the huge machinery and the robots in the packing shed. We got to feel how hot it was inside a pile of compost, as all the mirco-organisms worked hard to break down the bark.

Visits by Mrs Allison

On the 9 May, Mrs Allison (Stanley's Gran) came to show us how to work with clay. We all made a clay animal. Two weeks later she came back to school to show us how the dried clay creations, could be fired in an outdoor kiln. On the 25 May, the class had another chance to work with some clay, kindly provided by Mrs Allison. This time we all made a tile.