Room 8's Real Live Pet!

Thanks to Emma, we have a real, live Room 8 pet mascot!  He pretty little and rather shy, unlike most other Room 8 residents, but he is really cute!

 Meet Buster Bunny! 

Hopefully he will grow and survive long enough to visit us every week!   Good luck, Buster.

LET'S GET WRITING!

Here is a link to some posters to help you get going with writing some short, but really top quality paragraphs!

http://www.teachingideas.co.uk/sites/default/files/englishwritinginspirations.pdf

You will know you are successful when your writing has:

1. a great interest level for a 12 year old reader
2. a range of different sentences and starters
3. one main idea in each paragraph and at least three paragraphs
4. two or three supporting sentences for the main idea
5. very few errors in spelling, punctuation and grammar

WRITE YOUR DRAFT IN ROOM 8 GOOGLE DRIVE DOCS AND THEN WE CAN PUBLISH IT HERE.

If you can't find any poster that interests you in the above link, here are some more images to motivate you:

If you still don't know what to write, just copy the following starter and WRITE on with your own ideas:

As I ran into the forest after the foxy puppy, I suddenly had the feeling that something was watching me.  I peered all around ...

We are looking forward to reading your great ideas.  Enjoy.  Mrs Dalley

The 2016 Room Eight Pix - And Some Families!

First up, we finally got a class photo with almost everybody facing forwards!  Bit of a trial, that was!

We have been using our creative skills to design family portraits.  We had to think like a photographer to pose our families with some background features, and initially drew in pencil.

Then, when we had the shape of the people and the backgrounds balanced, we coloured using pencils or jovi crayons using point and side of lead shading.  

We designed a frame and presented our work in a neat display on our walls.

Here are some photos of our family art work...

LATISHA'S FAMILY

HAANA'S FAMILY

ANNA'S FAMILY

JOSH H'S FAMILY

EDEN'S FAMILY

BEN B'S FAMILY

 There are lots more family portraits in Room 8, and you are all welcome to come and visit us!

Please leave a comment to support or guide us, too!

Perfect class photo- not!

We'll be doing this again tomorrow! It's like trying to get cats in a bath! Twenty shots and some one looking away in every one! Pretty good looking bunch, though!

Welcome to Room 8 for 2016

We have made a great start to the term, with all twenty eight year seven and eight students looking keen and enthusiastic!
Our swimming is underway, everyone is bringing their togs daily, and the pool is lovely and warm!  

We will post our class photo on Tuesday, so be on the look out for the best looking class in the region, and of course, the highest average of class intelligence level!!

Our class book this term is 'I Am David' by Anne Holm.  

It's a great book about a boy escaping from a prisoner of war camp, probably in Bulgaria, around the second world war time.  He is trying to get to Denmark, and we re-live his incredible journey of fear and hope. 

Our first piece of artwork is a family portrait hand drawn, with a personalised border on the backing card.  Next we are going to work on an ANZAC research, with a piece of artwork to be completed which will be sent away for the New Zealand Defence Force ANZAC Art Competition. 

Mock United Nations @ Nga Tawa

Caleb, Rohan and Bailey represented Greece at a mock UN assembly at Nga Tawa in November.  They debated international issues such as education for girls, caring for refugees, and improving access for all to education.  The other schools involved were Huntley,  Nga Tawa, and Carncot. It was really hard finding good arguments and rebuttals for all the points raised but all the boys presented their arguments very thoughtfully. They received a certificate for the best food representing their country.  They shared Greek honey pastries at the lunch which were much appreciated.   Hopefully we will have a debating group trained up to go to the Wanganui Youth UN Assembly next year. 

Below are pix of Caleb speaking and the other boys listening. 

Anti-Bully Visit

Bridgette Manunui and her three year ten classmates from Nga Tawa presented a mini show for us on Tuesday to help prevent or stop kids bullying or being mean to others.

Bridgette and her friend gave a short speech explaining the definition, types and results of bullying.  Then Bridgette introduced two girls who sang three awesome songs with the theme of anti-bullying or mean behaviour.  

The singers had excellent voices and were very confident performers.  All the children loved the singing and showed during the short question time afterwards that they understood the important messages.  

OTIWHITI FIELD TRIP PHOTOS

OTIWHITI SCIENCE FIELD TRIP 2015

Agricultural and Horticultural science and careers has been a major focus for us this year.

We have had very interesting practical and theory science lessons from Mrs Taylor, along with some great field trips which she has planned and led.  

Our latest trip was to Otiwhiti Station, where the farm cadets are trained.  What a great, fun, learning experience.

We heard from cadets about their studies, the papers they sit for credits, the lectures they have, and about all the practical side of learning to be sheep and beef farmers.

The farm manager and cadet managers led the practical learning sessions, from dog training, butchery, meat preparation, mustering, horse riding for farm work, shearing, drafting, identifying different quality of lambs, and working as a team.  

We also enjoyed a farm lunch, courtesy of Otiwhiti management and Sue, the station cook!

We learned so much and had such a great experience, almost all the class are keen to look at some kind of future studying the agricultural or horticultural sciences, and possibly careers in veterinary science, soil or cropping science, farming or horticulture.  At present, we are most keen on the outdoor and physical sides of all these subjects. 

Huge thanks go to the Duncan family and all the staff and cadets at Otiwhiti, we really appreciate all the time and effort put in to making our field trip such a success.

Mrs Taylor - you have really worked hard to give us great science learning experiences and this was one of the best!

Thanks also to Mr Black and Mrs Woolley for taking the whole day off to transport and help us out at Otiwhiti!  We really appreciate your help.

Year Eight Students of 2015

A great website for ag and hort science and careers is:  
http://www.getahead.co.nz/get-prepared/training-and-education-2/

Another site that is most useful for planning courses to take at college for particular careers is:      https://www.careers.govt.nz

PHOTOS TO FOLLOW!

WEEK 3 PLAN. JUST FOR FUN!

Possible Plan: Week 3, Term 4 2015

	Monday  27 OCT	Tuesday 28 OCT	Wednesday 29 OCT	Thursday   30 OCT	Friday    31 OCT
Notes	PROTOTEC X 1     MATHLETICS X 30 MINUTES      ENGLISH Booklets: 30 MINUTES
	LAMB & CALF ACTIVITIES TO BE WORKED ON:  AT SCHOOL:  ABORIGINAL ART, 3D RECYCLED CREATIONS, HOME OR SCHOOL: DECORATED CAKE
0900	LABOUR DAY.	ENGLISH: LETTERS TO OTIWHITI!! CO CONSTRUCT CRITERIA FOR QUALITY LETTERS! THE STOLEN GENERATION/RABBIT PROOF FENCE INQUIRY   -  INDIVIDUAL READING AND  PAIRED/GROUP THINKING ACTIVITIES THEN PRESENTATIONS TO SHARE		ENGLISH, CONT FROM WED. LOTS OF ONE TO ONE SUPPORT FOR TARGETS.	Bible in School Mrs Parkes Friday Programme
1040	Morning Tea Interval			1015 Morning Tea	Morning Tea
1110		MATHS VOLUME CAPACITY MASS - BOOKLETS THEN NULAKE L ¾ NULAKE  L4 ON TRACK  L4-5 12.15: XCOUNTRY TRAINING	MATHS VOLUME CAPACITY MASS - BOOKLETS THEN NULAKE L ¾ NULAKE  L4 ON TRACK  L4-5 12.15: XCOUNTRY TRAINING	Tech Bus @ 10.30	Current Events English Mathematics
1240	LUNCH				EARLY LUNCH
1325		ARB SCIENCE TRIALS TO BE COMPLETED ENGLISH BOOKLETS TO BE COMPLETED ART/CRAFT SPEECH FINALISTS	ARB SCIENCE TRIALS ART /CRAFT SPEECH FINALISTS ASSEMBLY PREP	ARB SCIENCE  ETC TRIALS 2PM REFLECT +	1PM: INTER SCHOOL XCOUNTRY
1420		SOFTBALL IF WORK IS FINISHED	SOFTBALL IF WORK IS FINISHED	2.10PM ASSEMBLY
1450		Reflect /Clean up	Reflect /Clean up		Reflect/Clean up
1500	Home/Bus!  Room 8 Teacher:  Supervise bus lines, check and tick off entries in Bus Book.

Otiwhiti Station Visit

Last Friday, all of our year eights went on an agricultural science visit out to Otiwhiti Station at Otairi.  It was planned by Mrs Taylor, our specialist science teacher, to give us an idea of what is involved in farming careers, and the school and tertiary subjects best for agriculture diplomas and degrees.

Mr and Mrs Duncan, the owners of Otiwhiti organised lots of really interesting, fun activities and we had an awesome day, with lots of great things to learn and great people teaching us. 

Jed McAlley is the farm manager and along with all the farm cadets who are in training, he taught us all about dog training, shearing, horse riding, and lots of farming skills.  The cadets told us about the subjects that they are studying and how they are going to get the credits they need.  

Highlights for us: definitely the shearing skills challenge, the horse activities, and of course, the great lunch shouted for us by the Duncan's and cooked for us by Sue.  

It was a really good field trip for all of us, and we thank the Duncan family, Jed and Sue, all the cadets and staff at Otiwhiti for their time and giving us a great farm experience.  Also, thanks to Mr Black and Mrs Woolley who drove us and stayed for the day with us.

We want to thank Mrs Taylor for all the science programmes and teaching this year.  We have learned so much and really enjoyed all the lessons, especially the field trips and the biology and dissection work with Mr Walshe, our vet.

Mrs Parkes has been teaching us on Fridays about the ocean, its habitats and the status of sea creatures.  We are each creating an imovie about one aspect of sea life.

Here is the first one, by Rohan Gower.