Busy Friday in Mr Grundy's workshop.

Our Year 8 students are busy at work and well on their way to completing their projects. The designs have been done, the materials have been collected and everyone is working on their own project. Every project has to have a joint where two pieces of wood are joined together. We have cars, trucks, helicopters and tow trucks in the making. Watch this space.

Alisi busy concentrating

Master Builder Mangila

Aarmione and Baden working hard

Perfectionist Erina

Manuae troubleshooting

Expert Keti busy at work

James and Brandon adding more details

Here is another word problem for us to solve together. Let the comments begin.

Its 7km from Tim's house to where his Grandma lives. Its uphill on the way there so he can only cycle at 14kph but he can do 21kph on the way back. 
Tim leaves his house at 6pm. 

How long can he stop at his Grandma's house if he wants to be back home for his favourite TV programme at 7pm?

This is a problem the Triangles group could not solve on Tuesday and the students who did not go to cricket are so close to solving.

I have 3 dogs, if I add their ages together I get 15. If I multiply their ages I get 45. How old are my dogs? 

Aarmione reflects about what she learnt in the MADD anti bullying workshop

Proud we solved the nail challenge

Today we went back to Petia and Caroline for the MADD workshop. This week the theme was about being Intelligent and having these 7 different smarts. The seven smarts were Self smart, Body smart, Word smart, Music smart, Number smart, Picture smart and People smart. 

Caroline laid these on the floor in a circle, and she talked to us about these different smarts. Then she split us up into groups - A boys group and a girls group, and gave us a piece of wood with a nail in it, and some other nails. Then she explained the activity. She said that we have to try and balance some nails on that one nail. Then we got into our groups. When we couldn’t do it, Caroline came back and helped us. She said to lie one nail down flat on the table and keep adding one to each side until there was no space. Then you put one nail on top then transfer that to the single nail. When it worked, we were very amazed that it worked. 

Petia working on the Flash

Then Mrs tofa came and took a picture of us with it. Then we went back into the circle. Petia asked for 6 volunteers, and Fraser went into the middle of the circle, while the other 6 stood around him to compliment him.

Soon after that, Petia started his drawing of the Flash. When he finished, we clapped - it was really good.

After we stopped clapping, we stood around the picture, and then we took a picture of it. Then we lined up, said thank you to Petia and Caroline, and went to class. 

Going to Petia and Caroline is always fun, because we know we will have a good time and learn something from them. We are very lucky to have them at our school.

Danny-Joe's reflection from the MADD antibullying session

Today we had Petia and Caroline we learnt about the seven smarts of our brain.

The first smart she talked about was number smart she told us that her daughter had a disability and she could only count in order from 1t1 onwards. Her daughter might not be fast at Maths but she is still able to do Maths.

Next Caroline talked about body smart she told that she was going to go around the and we had to talk about what body smarts were good at. Everyone got to say what body smart they were good at.

Next she told us to go to a table it was girls vs boys we had to make all the nails balance on the nail on the wood and the girls won.

Then Petia picked someone to go in the middle while Erina went and got the speakers. The person that he picked was Fraser from Room 9 then he chose 6 people to stand and say good things about him. After Fraser was Mrs Tofa then everyone had to say something good about Mrs Tofa. 

When Erina got back they hooked the speakers up to the phone and played music while Peita worked on drawing Flash with chalk. The Flash drawing was taken by Mrs Tofa. She will display the art work by Petia somewhere in the school.

Samuel's reflection of the MADD anti bullying workshop

Today I learnt that everybody is intelligent and has the seven smarts which are picture smart, word smart, body smart, number smart, people smart, music smart and self smart. 

We also did some problem solving. We had some nails and then a nail was stuck on a piece of wood and we had to try and put all the nails on the middle nail and then who ever figured it will get a prize from Caroline.

We also did this cool activity where one person stands in the middle of a circle of six people. The six people have to say something nice about the person in the middle. Today was Fraser and the six people were Fusi, Dasharn, Chris, Aarmione, Fineasi and Dora. They all said something positive about Fraser which was great. Last week I was in the middle and I felt really good when people were saying nice things about me.

Petia drew Flash for us and we really like his art work. Mrs
Tofa is keeping the art work safe so we can display it around the school. 

MADD Messenger Antibullying session 18/03/15. Today the session was about intelligences. Everyone had the opportunity to share who they think is a smart person and for different reasons too. Great to see we value each other and our different intelligences and talents. Our chalk art gift from Petia and Caroline was Fash.

Group photo

Petia working on his Chalk Art

Group photo

Chalk Art

Boys problem solving

Problem solving girls figured it out first. All nails had to be stuck to each other and on the piece of wood. Good leadership Fusi. 

Different SMARTS

MADD workshop reflection by Jayden

Today we saw Leah and Petia because Caroline wasn’t there. There we learnt about being proud of our culture. Petia told us a little story about his father. He said that in the 60’s his father came to New Zealand to get some money and said it back home to his family. He didn’t know how to speak English.

People used to ask him "What is your name?" and he didn’t know what they were saying so finally it clicked. He realised they wanted to know his name and the only English name he knew was Peter. However, he did not know how to spell Peter so he spelt it as PETIA. I think that is why Petia is named Petia and not Peter.

After that he put us into Groups. Samoan, South African, Tongan, Niuean and Cook Island. When he was telling us this I asked him "What if we have more than one ethnicity?" He said whichever you associate with more then that is it. So I chose Samoa because I am three quarters Samoan and one quarter Maori.

In my group we got given a piece of paper. On that paper it had three questions. The first one was Where is your country or island found? The next was What are the traditional things that you do in your culture? The third question was something I can’t remember that one.

The people in my group were: Brandon, Fraser, Tauola, Dora, Levi, Me, Jayden and Moses.

Petia told us that all the groups had to do an act from their culture. We had no idea what we were going to do so he said if we knew the Manu Samoa dance we could do it. But no one knew it but Moses and Brandon knew a little bit. Moses told us what to do. We all got up and started to follow his lead.

When all the groups knew what they were doing and had filled out the paper we sat down on the chairs and waited for Petia and Leah. We now had to share our information from our sheet and also our little dance or haka from our cultures. Samuel went first because he was the only one representing his culture. He said that in his culture when you give someone a present you are to kneel down and give them the present. I thought that is cool.

Next to present was Niue. In the Niuean group was Bono, Justin, Erina, Joseph, Aarmione and Dallas. They read out their paper and then they did this small dance. After them was us the Samoan group. We read out what we wrote down then we did a small dance which was led by Moses.

After us was the Tongan group a lot of people were in the Tongan group because a lot of people are Tongan.

Today was great. We worked together and put our ideas together. We also listened to each other and were proud to present our cultures.

Mrs Tofa's observations and reflection from today's MADD workshop

Today in the MADD workshop the theme was Being Proud of our Cultures. As the students listened to Petia tell about his father's journey to NZ on a ship and the obstacles he had to go through as a non English speaker I thought about my journey of moving to NZ when I was 12. Fortunately for me I was able to speak English and communicate with my new friends in NZ.

The students were asked to go into their ethnic or cultural groups. Some had the privilege of choosing which cultural group to go to as they had more than one. When the students were working together I was able to see those who are confident within their own cultures. I was also able to see those with leadership potential stepping up and taking charge. 

I felt proud watching the Tongan, Cook Island, Niue, Samoan and Samuel representing Africa (Botswana). Some of these students are 3rd generations in NZ and yet they are very proud of their cultures.

Highlight today was when five students stood around Samuel in a circle and told Samuel something positive they know about him. The comments given were genuine and I could see Samuel was humbled by the comments being said. 

At the end of the session I felt Petia and Leah had reinforced pride within the students for their cultures. 

Being proud of who I am and where I come from

Today I learnt that even if we come from different cultures, and different places in the world, you should always be proud of who you are.

We got into groups. The group we went into were our cultural or ethnic groups, for example if you were Niuean, you went into that group.

I felt that presenting about your culture brought everyone together. We also showed respect to other cultures when they were teaching us about their traditions.

Learning to be proud of our cultures with the MADD team

Mata and I the only Cook Islanders today

Today I learnt about a lot of things but mainly about other peoples cultures such as -Tonga, Samoa, Maori, Niuean and Africa. Petia and Leah asked everyone to split up into our cultural or ethnic groups and we had to write down some of the things we do in our culture.

After that we had to stand up with our groups but there was only two Cook Islanders which was me and Mata. The first group to go up was Africa which was only represented by Samuel. It was fun learning about his country and his greeting. Next up was the Niueans and they had a big group and Aarmione was reading what they wrote and then the three boys did a haka lead by Bono. Next was the Samoans which was awesome because after they finished talking they did a dance which was really cool.

Mata and I were after them and it was fun. Mata was a little shy but for once I actually wasn’t but we didnt do a dance. The Tongans were next and it was fun learning about their culture. Last but not least were the Maori group. We learnt about what is special in the Maori culture. They also showed a hongi and pukana which was awesome.

I feel that going to MADD Messenger is helping me to be more confident because for the first time in forever I was actually not shy to stand up and talk to a big group. I also had fun learning new things about others.

Our Master Builder in the making. Bono introduces himself and shares his goals for the year and his future.

Butterfly Creek trip 9/3/2015. Our trip to Butterfly Creek was amazing. We learnt about dinosaurs, butterflies, farm animals and also crocodiles. All students had a great time and learnt a lot. We will now put our learning to action by thinking about LEARN, CREATE AND SHARE activities.

Train ride toot toot

Voni has found his favourite cuddly animal

We need a selfie stick

James enjoying the free ride from one of the dinosaurs 

Crocodile show - fun, excitement, suspense and scary

Swimming

Every day we go to our school swimming pool for our swimming lesson. We started off the year with individual swimming styles and as the weeks progressed we have been able to work on our arm strokes, breathing, kicking and posture in the water. It has been fun and it is also a great escape from the summer heat. This week will be the last week for swimming but we are glad we have been able to improve on our swimming and survival skills in the water.

First day of technology with Mr Grundy for Year 8 students

Looking at past student's work

Time to plan our own - what vehicle are we going to make?

Mr Grundy's rule - KISS (keep it simple stupid)

Eager learners sat in Mr Grundy's classroom ready to tackle the task for the term. Making wooden vehicles. Only 4 wheels and can only have one carriage due to time restrictions. It will be interesting to see what great thinking and creating will come from our Year 8 students. 

All about Manuae

Manuae went all out decorating her poster with pictures from her childhood. This is fantastic Manuae it really shows your progression and growth. Your goal to be a lawyer is such a fantastic and with a can do attitude you will able to achieve all you set your mind to.

All about Mrs Tofa

Room 10 had fun creating posters to introduce ourselves to our class and also our school through our foyer display. This is Mrs Tofa's poster about herself.