Lip sync battle assembly

Today Room 7 hosted our school assembly. We have had a very busy two weeks with assessments and also the softball tournament which involved a lot of our class members therefore we did not have many opportunities to practice for a class item.

We first decided we will have a waiata assembly where Room 7 would lead the school in singing some cultural songs our school has learnt. However, on Tuesday afternoon while Mrs Tofa was speaking she mentioned Lip Sync Battle and everyone's eyes lit up with excitement. Lip Sync Battle Assembly it was decided then and there.

Today we had one hour to put our performances together. Our class was split into four groups and were given countries to represent - Hungary, Tokyo (Japan),  South Africa and England. Each country had an item and had to lip sync to a song. Here are the songs each country lip sung to.

Hungary - Hello by Adel
Tokyo - Kung Fu Fighting
South Africa - Hakuna matata
Englang - Best song ever by One direction

Everyone had fun putting the items together even making last minute changes just before entering the stage. A big congratulations to everyone especially the girls from England and they did a great finale for our class item.

Softball tournament and fun in the sun

Yesterday two teams from Glenbrae School entered the Tamaki Cluster Softball Day. It was a beautiful day with the sun in full swing. There were many schools from the area who entered teams. Our school teams were a mixed Year 7&8 team and a Year 6 team.

At the end of the day the Year 6 team did very well with winning 2 games and losing 3 while the Year 7&8 team came 3rd in their division.

Congratulations to all the team members who put in the effort at training as well as showing good sportsmanship on and off the field.

Practice makes perfect

This week Room 7 are hosting the school assembly.  We had a little trouble deciding what item to perform, but Mrs Tofa came up with the great idea of having a lip singing battle.

The children were all very excited about this performance and have been practicing their songs. At morning tea today, a group of girls were practicing their routine to "The Best Song Ever" by One Direction.

Their performance was so good that a group of students from other classes began to watch them from outside. Even Mr Nath came to watch them practice!

It is fabulous to see the students dedicating their own time to practicing.

Water safety is very important

Sadly New Zealand has a very high rate of drownings every year. The holiday toll from Christmas Eve 2015 to the 5th of January 2016 was 10. This is still a very high number of people drowning in our waters. 

At Glenbrae every year, students participate in swimming lessons. Instructors come in for years 3-5 and the rest of the students are taught by their classroom teachers.

Today at our swimming lesson we did some more work on our freestyle swimming and backstroke techniques. We have noticed a lot of improvement in the technique of all the students who participate in swimming lessons. Everyone is more conscious of taking in breaths and releasing their breath in the water. Kicking is with the whole leg and has to be consistent as well as the arm stroke.

Swimming is fun and also a good way to exercise. Its always great to have swimming in the afternoons because it is nice and cool in the swimming pool.

Having fun playing softball

We had a great time today playing softball as a class and then with the Year 6 students at lunchtime. The Tamaki Cluster Softball Tournament is next Wednesday and we are preparing two teams to enter.

Softball is an exciting sport. It requires 10 players on the field and each player has a responsibility. Here are the positions and their responsibilities. 

Pitcher	Throws the softball from the centre of the diamond (pitcher's mound) to the catcher.  The pitcher uses an underarm motion to pitch the ball toward the "strike zone".  After making a pitch, the pitcher gets ready to field balls hit up the middle.
Catcher	Plays in a semi-crouched position behind home plate and receives pitches thrown by the pitcher. Also receives throws from fielders attempting to make outs at home plate.
First Baseman	Positioned just to the left of the first base. Her main role is to make fielding plays on balls hit toward first base.
Second Baseman	Plays in the gap between the bag at second and the first baseman.  Receives throws from fielders attempting to make outs at 2nd base and fields “grounders” and “pop ups” hit to this side of the infield.
Shortstop	Fields the balls hit to the infield between second and third base.  She covers second base (along with the second baseman) and is often involved in force plays and “double plays” with the second baseman.
Third Baseman	Plays to the left of third base and covers any plays there. Receives throws from other fielders attempting to make outs at 3rd base.
Outfielders (Left, Right, and Center)	Positioned beyond the infield, they catch and field “fly balls,” line drives, and ground balls hit into the outfield.

Testing Tuesday!

The students in Room 7 are having a very busy morning today, completing tests.  All of the students who attend Glenbrae school will sit tests throughout the week. This is to ensure that the teachers know how best to support their learners.

This morning the students in Room 7 took a spelling, basic facts and PAT Maths test. This meant that they had to remain in test conditions (silence!) for most of the morning.  It was great to see so many children trying their best and responding to the tests with maturity. 

Swimming Lessons

We had a great swimming lesson today in Room 7, as the majority of the children had togs and were keen to dive in on such a muggy day.

We worked on front crawl or freestyle, and focussed on correct kicking, arms and breathing. At the start of the lesson we noticed that some of the swimmers needed to work on their kicking, as there was lots of splashing! However, the children did really well and there was far less splashing by the end of the lesson.

The second part of the lesson was spent working on our arms and breathing, and our aim was for the children to take a breath after three arm strokes. Dasharn and Alfred showed the other students how to correctly do this and with their help the other students got the hang of this too. 

It will be great to see how much progress can be made in our swimming lessons this term!

Classifying trees

Today we repeated the activity of classifying trees around the school. We took a stroll and took photos of plants and trees we wanted to research. 

Question - How do you know when something is a fruit or a vegetable?

When we returned to class this is the first plant we found in our research. It is called a Sweet Gum Tree. It has a very distinct leaf shape and a spiky seed. 

This tree is located next to our school hall. 

Busy mathematicians

Today in Mrs Tofa's Maths group we had a great time sharing our use of the strategies we learnt yesterday. Place value, rounding and compensating, using proportional adjustment and splitting factors multiplicatively. A few of us are still struggling with some of the strategies but we are practicing everyday to be confident. 

An interesting narrative from Melenaite. We wonder if the setting is at Te Tii Marae where we went on camp?

September 20 1995,

Teachers and students are walking into the school hall at night getting ready to watch a horror movie called The Amusement. They hop into their bed and the movie started, the popcorn was popping and the curtains are blowing.

Students were in bed getting scared while teachers were in the kitchen having a cup of tea, then suddenly !BANG !BANG !BANG everyone jumped out of bed with a fright and ran to the teachers and started screaming !SOMEONE BANGING ON THE DOOR! students were really scared and started crying so Mr Tofa gets up and opens the door really slowly with fear........ once he open the door Hemi shouted

Fusi??? but in a dark, cold voice Fusi answers back “No I am Fujii the clown“ then Mr Tofa grabs the closest stick and wacks Fusi on her head and she blanks out.

Fujii the clown then wakes up and notices that she has been wrapped in Rapunzel's (Chris) hair and as Fujii looks around everyone is standing around her but then MTV walks up to her and starts questioning her while the camera was running but suddenly Fujii jumps out and starts screaming really loud and everyone ducks down and covers their ears aaaaahhhhhhhhhh....................................

Once everyone got up teachers were still asking Fujii questions “ Who sent you???, Why are you here???” Fujii then faints but when MTV says hello??? Fujii then wakes up and starts singing “Hello is me, I was wondering how I got here in a million years... then suddenly Adele walks in and starts to sings one of her hit songs !!!So hello from the other side......once she was done singing everyone starts clapping.

Using different strategies in Mathematics

Mrs Tofa's maths group are focussing on learning these strategies. Today we had to solve problems using these strategies. We are getting confident with using rounding and compensating and place value. 

– using place value, e.g., 28 7 as (20 x 7) + (8 x 7)
– rounding and compensating from tidy numbers, e.g., 5 68 as (5X70 ) – (5X2) 
– using proportional adjustment, e.g., 3X27 as 9X9
– splitting factors multiplicatively, e.g., 12X48 = □ can be solved as 3 X 2 X 2 X 48 (note that 3 X 2 X 2 is a factorisation of 12)

Have a go at using these strategies and write your feedback in the comment box.

Samuel's verbal recount of his 4 month trip to Tanzania

Today we were so happy to welcome Samuel and his family back to Glenbrae School. They have just returned from Tanzania where they have spent time with family and friends for the last four months. 

Samuel told our class about the adventures he had with traveling in a bus from village to village for many hours and there were times when passengers had to unload luggage because the bus was too heavy. 

Samuel also told us about his family trip to a Serengeti where they saw a lot of animals we can only see at Auckland Zoo here. 

The boys in class were fascinated with Samuel's recount of his day stop at Dubai where he saw a lot of flash cars and houses. The boys spent a lot of time discussing what a rich country would look like and what they would have if they were to live in Dubai. 

Its fantastic to have Samuel and his family back at our school and we are glad they made is safe and sound to New Zealand.

Maara's narrative writing - A dragon's tale

As I was standing on a big rock, it started shaking!!! I was in shock wondering what is going to happening? The rock starts cracking open and I started running, then a spark of light shined in my eyes. When the light disappeared I turned to see what it was. Then I started walking to the rock very slowly then suddenly I heard noises coming from the rock, I stopped,then a big dragon came flying down. I was trembling with fear wondering what to do.

The massive dragon came down in a blink of an eye. I saw it’s huge wings, a big body and razor sharp teeth. It gave me an ice cold look, I was so scared wondering is the dragon going to eat me? It would gulp me in one go. Suddenly it came closer and I couldn't move. As the dragon came closer and closer it stopped right in front of me. The dragon touched my right hand then disappeared.

I look at my arm and it had a small dragon symbol on it. In my head I was thinking what is this for? Then I ran into the forest where I found a dragon's necklace with glowing ashes inside. I took the necklace with me. Once I got to the middle of the forest I saw the dragon flying down slower than before.

But this time the dragon wasn't alone, There was a smaller dragon flying right next to it.The dragon landed and I was surprised. Then the small dragon started flying towards me with it’s beautiful blue, black and red wings. Once the small dragon got to me it started sniffing all around me like a dog.

Then the small dragon jumped on me, I was surprised wondering what's going on? As the dragon was jumping on me, the symbol on my right arm started glowing, then I looked at the 2 dragons arms and they had the same symbol as me.Then when I looked really close to my symbol it said a bond of the dragons.

I started to think about the bond of the dragons. I started walking away very slowly from the dragons and the symbol started fading. When I walked back the symbol started glowing again. Once I went back to the dragon it started jumping on me again. As the dragon was jumping on me I dropped the dragons necklace and a blue mist of fog started appearing.

As the blue mist was surrounding us a shadow dragon started appearing. When the dragon saw it.The dragon jumped in front of the baby.The shadow dragon had a cold feeling when it started flying around us.The shadow dragon stood right in front of me and our eyes turned blue.

When our eyes turned blue,the shadow dragon blew fire and the necklace with the ashes started turning blue.On the necklace it said dragon's heart. So this necklace has the shadow dragons heart. The shadow dragon nodded.

The shadow dragon bowed to me. I jumped on and the shadow dragon blew fire and took off with me. We were flying in the beautiful night sky. As soon as we knew it was morning we had to leave the sky. I guess the shadow dragon can’t fly during the day. I then knew my shadow dragon can only fly from night until dawn.

The End

Water fun day 2016

Every year at Glenbrae School we have a Water Fun Day at the beginning of the year. It is a time for the houses to compete against each other and enjoy the nice warm weather. 

Today we had our annual event in the morning. The activities were - water slide, zig zag race, over and under, obstacle race, hula hoop race and walk the plank.

The objective of the activities is to fill the big house buckets to the top and that counts as one point. Today Kauri came first, Nikau second, Kowhai third and Rata came fourth.

A big thank you to all the teachers, teacher aides, Kiwi Can team and the parents for supporting this great event. 

Classifying plants and trees

Today our class had fun identifying different plants and trying to classify plants we did not know. From our research we learnt there are many different plants and trees in New Zealand. We also had a taste of some vegetables which we don't usually eat raw such as mushrooms and radish.

We tasted some mint leaves, mushrooms, radish, celery and carrots. They were a nice treat to the after noon.

Question: what are the differences between a Rata and a Pohutukawa? Leave your answers in the comment box.

Welcome to 2016

Kia ora and talofa lava. This year we are excited to be in Room 7 and we are also excited to introduce our new teacher who is co teaching with Mrs Tofa. Her name is Miss Stone and she is with the MDTA programme through Manaiakalani.

Our class have had a positive start to the year through hard work and sharing of our learning with each other.

Thank you for visiting our blog and we will be in touch soon.

Room 7
Year 7 & 8 Glenbrae School