Class learning Mandarin. Today was about asking for a drink.

Tech Challenge- tower structures

Each group's aim was to build a structure as tall as possible able to support a marble strung from the top of the structure for a minimum of 30 seconds.  They were allowed 30 A4 size pages, 1m of sticky tape, and 3 satay sticks.  Excellent thinking and execution from Bayedan, Hugh, Jeremy and Ghaarieth.  Here is their wnning tower- over 1m in height:

Video of the class learning percussion with James from STRIKE percussion group

STRIKE percussion group at school on Friday

The STRIKE percussion group from Wellington comprised three members who entertained the school for an hour before taking Year 8 class workshops.  Here are a few photos and film from the day, including some of the class activities..

A keen teacher on stage

Annabel's camp recount.

Last week room 5 went to Weka Point for our year 8 camp. My favorite part of camp was hanging out with my friends and getting to do all kinds of fun activities. On the first day of camp we went to Pandora Pond there we did 3 activities, one of them was a 5km walk around the pond. My first activity was abseiling, it was really scary but fun at the same time. The last activity I did was fun yaking, I didn't enjoy it that much because by the time my group did it it was getting quite cold and windy. After that we headed to Weka Point.  The walk into camp had great scenery, but the swing bridge was really hard to walk across because Mrs K.J was jumping. We setup our tents and got settled in, and we had sausages and buns for dinner. After dinner we played a game of spotlight, but the game went flying to a halt after a girl face planted off a fence.

The next morning we woke up and got breakfast, and I had spaghetti on toast. After we had all dressed we went and sat in the dining room to be told what our activities for the day were.  Our first activity was archery soft. My group was called district 12, and wewon our first and second game but lost our third and fourth. Our next activity was the mudslide, I went down three times but I decided to stop after I got a big cut. My last and favorite thing was rafting. We had to make our own rafts with a tube and some rope. We had a race down the river and Anja and I came 2nd.  After rafting we had a go with a rope bag. Basically a rope bag is a bag with rope in and if someone is drowning you hold the rope and throw the bag to the person and pull them into shore. About 20 minutes before dinner me and a few friends went to the river for a swim, it was really fun. That night we had to make our own dinners. My cooking group made nachos and they were really good. Also that night we did a burma trail and roasted marshmallows. I did the burma trail with Riley.  It was really scary because it was on a hillside. I didnt roast any marshmallows because I had a sore stomach so I went and got ready for bed instead.

The last day we didn't do much, other than pack up our stuff and clean our tents. We didn't have to put our tents down because the next three groups were using. them. For breakfast I had vegemite toast. After breakfast we packed up all our gear and put it in a big pile next to the gondola. Then we did this trust game type thing.  We pretty much got blindfolded and our buddy would lead us around. After that we had to walk back across the swing bridge and up the hill and back again then we had to do that again because we were leaving for real this time. The drive back to school was really windy and long but really funny. When we got back to school they unpacked the trailer and we all grabbed our stuff and went home.

Here's some photos:

A summary of the start of "A Series of Unfortunate Events" (with some changes), by Annabel

It is my duty to inform you of the Smith children's terrible and unfortunate childhood. If you would like to read something more “happy” then I would suggest that you stop reading and put this book down. The Smith children consist of three children. Victoria who was 14, the oldest, had a love for reading. Fortunate enough for her, her parents had a big library so she could read whenever she felt like. Kaleb who was 12 was the middle child and he had a love for inventing- he could invent anything. And little Samantha; at the age of two Samantha had the jaw of a whale and the teeth of a shark. Her passion was biting things, she would bite the scrabble letters, the edge of the table and even the plates her food was severed on.

One day the Smith children went on a tram to the sea side. It was a very gloomy day so the beach was very empty, so empty that there wasn't a single soul in sight. Whenever Victoria was focused she would always tie her hair up with a blue ribbon and that's exactly what she did. So there they were sitting on the beach, Kaleb inventing, Victoria reading and Samantha biting. Until, suddenly, a figure appeared from the fog.
“Eb ma jik” Samantha said. Samantha, being two, could only speak in grunts or words that didn't make sense. What Samantha was probably trying to say was “Who is the strange figure appearing from the fog?”. It was Mr Poe from Mulctuary Money Management.
"Ahh the Smith children. I'm afraid I have to inform you of some terrible news… your parents have perished in a fire”.

The Smith children couldn't believe the words coming out of Mr Poe's mouth. They got in the car and drove back to to what was left of their house. The children recovered some of their parents things and returned to the car in dismay.
“You will come live with me until I find you another home, your parents have left very strict instructions for where you are to go” Mr Poe said. Victoria untied her hair and slouched back into the seat.
“I can't believe it” she said. When they arrived Mr Poe's wife was preparing dinner.
"Oh hello Smiths, this will make a great headline”.
"Headline?” Kaleb asked.
“Oh yes of course this is the biggest news this town has heard in years” she replied.
After dinner the Smiths went up to their room which had the world's ugliest wallpaper to go with the world's ugliest carpet that went with the ugliest curtains.
“Mr Poe, where's the bed?” Victoria asked.
“Oh it's right here,” he replied as he entered the room with an air bed. “We don't have a pump so you will have to use your breath". The Smiths eventually finished blowing up the air bed, got into bed and fell asleep, dreaming of their house and parents.

Photos from camp

Our Turangawaewae homework- making Snakes and Ladders using kiwiana.

This was done by Henry using Google Drawings.  Unfortunately, the snakes and ladders have disappeared during blogging!

Pointilism self-portrait art