Welcome Back!

I'm looking forward to seeing all of you on Monday.  I hope you have had a wonderful break and are excited about returning to school.

As usual, we have a busy term planned.  There will be some changes to our morning fitness, this term.  Initially we will be training for the School Cross Country, so please make sure you have good running shoes at school.

Just a little request to help our learning … if you have a pair of headphones or ear buds that you are happy to bring to school and use when you are working on a device, this would be great.  

A couple of reminders:

• We have the first bring and buy at the end of week two.  We will have a syndicate meeting about this on Tuesday 21st.
• Hutt Library visits will be Thursday 14th May and Tuesday 16th June.  Could you please ask your parents / caregivers if they can spare the time to join us as parent help.

Challenge Time!

Now just for fun, try out this maths problem.  Share your answers and how you got them, with me.  I'll put all the correct answers in a hat and draw out one lucky person's name who will win a lollypop!

Wednesday, Hangi Night!

What a great night we had.  The weather was beautiful and the food was delicious.

During the school day, Room 9 visited the Hangi.  

The first step in laying a Hangi is to
set the fire.

The hot embers and rocks are levelled so
the food can sit snugly into the hole.

Then the food is put into the ground.

The food is covered with wet cloth and
sacking. Then the soil covers the hole
so steam doesn't escapes.

Try out this great site that takes you through the process of laying a hangi.

http://www.wicked.org.nz/Interactives/Maori-themed-interactives-in-English/Hangi

Multi Coloured Mayhem Day

On the last day of term, our whole school celebrated our differences by dressing up in bright colours as well as having a fun morning exploring lots of different activities.  There were woodworking tables, gloop, bubbles, arts and crafts and much more.  

Mrs Holmes organised a demolition activity.  She had an old laptop, microwave and a couple of DVD players that no longer worked.

"Let's find out how they work," she said.  So with screwdrivers in hand, we started exploring what was inside the casings of the machines.

There were memory boards and electrical boards, fans and motors as well as cogs and bands.  We were amazed at what was under a computer keyboard key and found the DVD drawer mechanism fascinating.

We had a huge amount of fun!

It's always fun taking stuff apart!
It's amazing how quickly demolition happens.

We had to work together and take turns
Great work guys

This is the top of the microwave. We weren't sure
what these tubes did.  Do you know?

Hunter is working out how the cog system
inside the DVD player moves the DVD Disk Drawer.

Room 9's Class Parliament

Room 9 headed off to Parliament in Week 8 but before we went we had some fun…

Our topic this term has been Responsibility.  We have discovered that responsibilities change and can differ from person to person, family to family. In class, we have discussed the role that rules have in making us responsible, as well as laws.  We discovered that laws start off being bills and then go through a process of debated.  The debating process may result in the bill being re-written and debated again.  The members of parliament then vote on the bill.

We decided to form our own Parliament.

This is the Labour Party

This is the Greens Party 

This is the New Zealand First Party 

This is the National Party

The Bill we were debating was; Every New Zealand household must plant a vegetable garden to feed all inhabitants
We discussed and decided on our Party's viewpoint.  Then we voted …


There was a clear majority!



What do you say … Mr Speaker?

The Dowse - Alphabet

Featuring artwork for each letter of the alphabet.

Alphabet Street is a curious neighbourhood where you'll find an acrobatic trickster, red roofs and hidden neighbours. With only a letter as your clue, you will need to work together to solve the puzzle of all 26 artworks!

Room 9 visited this exhibition in Week 8.

These boys are in the artwork for the letter F

Lots of discussion, can we figure out the clues? 

Some time spent exploring in our groups

Our gathering place.  What a happy bunch we are!

Our Awesome Portrait Art

Sharing our art at Assembly

We have worked sooooo hard this term on our portraits.  We are very proud of all our hard work.  They look amazing!  We shared them at Assembly in Week 8 and explained how we went about creating them.  We hope you liked them. 

Moving March Wheels Day

For three weeks in a row, the Senior Syndicate finished the week with some fun around the school. Each Friday, students bought their bikes, skateboards, roller blades and scooters to school.  A great way to get us all moving and having fun together.

It was wonderful to see the syndicate working together to make sure everyone enjoyed themselves and kept safe.

Great work Room 9!